Bye bye jetlag: hello London Life!

After a few days functioning on no sleep I've adjusted to the time difference and have had the energy to experience this culture. As a group we've gone bowling and had our first British Experience Seminar (BES) class at Birkbeck College. Yesterday we put our three-days worth of London city knowledge to the test when we were set loose in the city on a scavenger hunt. I was paired with a girl named Nichole. After three hours of tube stations, thousands of people, and a handful of stops throughout the entire city we attempted to return to St. James Park station. Of course it had just stopped working so we had to find alternate transportation home. We waited for a bus but after a while we found two Welsh girls who needed to go to Victoria Station as well so we split a cab with them to get back. Overall, we lost the scavenger hunt but now we know where everything is.

On Wednesday me and another girl who is doing the same internship as me went to see what we will be doing this semester. We will be interning for the magazine "It's London," an event magazine for tourists and those looking for current things to do in London. It's run by a mother and a daughter (Julie & Beth) who really do everything, which is quite incredible. It looks like we will be doing different things from week to week, from running errands to going to major events and writing articles about them. Another awesome thing is its location, the main "office" is in Olympic Park, where the 2012 Olympics are going to take place. Everything is coming along quite nicely and it looks really cool. I am really looking forward to this opportunity!

I've only been here a week but have used the saying "You're only here once," many times, trying to take advantage of all of the things there are to do here. A large group of us went to the famous 'Absolut Ice Bar' earlier in the week (a bar where it's -5 degrees and everyone wears parkas) which was a ton of fun. I also experienced Primark, a giant store with contemporary clothing for a lot cheaper than the designer stores...I found a pair of boots and a shirt for 14 pounds. But it's madness-I'm sure there were thousands of people in the store.

Although I am having the time of my life, I'm not so thrilled about the extreme costs of everything. I didn't realize until I got here just how expensive most things are. For example, going out to eat. Take McDonalds, a sandwich+fries+drink meal is 4.72 pounds, which equals about $7.33...that's a lot for a Big Mac! I think I'll be sticking to homemade pasta and sauce!

I think I've walked more in the past few days than I ever have in my entire life combined! But I am having so many adventures and seeing so much culture that it's easy to forget about :)