Fish, Chips and Tower Bridge- Day 2

My day today began with Cameron asking me what time it was. I responded "9:45". We both jumped out of bed cursing because we thought we were late and shortly realized that we had until 10:00 to get to our first meeting of the day. An adrenaline rush is always a good way to start the day.

Our first meeting was an orientation meeting about living in London. Jet lag, a stiff neck and an empty stomach combined and created the only outcome such a situation could; I fell asleep briefly during the meeting. After finishing with the meeting Leanne, Rachel Jobes and I went to eat at a cafe. I had a sandwich and forgot that people in Europe tend to put butter on their sandwiches. The result of this is a fantastic sandwich. Following lunch we took the tube to High Street Kensington and went to Mark and Spencer's to take care of the errands we did not complete yesterday. The prices there were very cheap and made things seem reasonable, even with the conversion rate as bad as it is. I also came home with a new pillow for 2.5 GBP to combat the neckache from last night with the run down pillow. We then proceded to TK Maxx to try and find the girls a hair straightener. After asking for help, we found the girls a straightener for very cheap and I ended going home with a pair of Burberry socks. This was a reactionary purchase to my fear of immediately being spotted as an American. Don't worry, they only cost me five dollars.

We then ran back to Foundation house (where we study, have meetings, etc.) and ordered our tickets to a cricket match before our general meeting about internships. After the meeting, we ran home to drop off our purchases and Leanne and I headed back to Foundation house again for a 4 o'clock small group meeting about our specific placements. Mine actually seems that it will turn out to be better than I initially expected. I will be the assistant to the acting manager of the Croydon Savers Credit Union (http://www.croydonsavers.co.uk/). My responsibilities there may include reviewing accounts and business plans, helping on relevant projects, helping with loan applications, and doing office administation work/ database work and learning how to use a specific set of software for credit unions. These are much more than I initially expected to be doing, and for that I am quite happy.

Leanne and I then headed to the grocery store that is "just next door" from Foundation house (turned out to be a 10-15 minute walk) and spent the next hour or so trying to figure out what to buy to cook, and what we needed to buy that we didn't have around the dorms (coffee press, glasses, etc.). Then, we attempted to walk home from there with our nine bags of groceries and case of water. This did not work out very well, and we ended up hailing a cab to get us back to our flat.

After cleaning up a bit, we then headed out to dinner at Glouchester Arms, which is a pub just up the road. There I had fish and chips (which was delicious), and watched a cricket game on the television. This is where my fear to be detected as an American in Europe come back to play. Shortly after explaining the rules of cricket to Leanne, while glued to the television, a man walked over to me and asked me a question about the numbers on the screen, which I answered. Turned out he was from Colorado, but he thought I was British, to which I laughed. He didn't believe I was from Texas either though, due to the lack of an accent.

This would seem like the end of a great day right? Wrong. The evening was only starting. Leanne and I took the train straight after dinner to the Tower Hill station, where we saw the Tower Bridge, London Bridge (which has NOT fallen down), and of course the Tower of London. We then asked a security guard at the Tower where Big Ben was. He told us it was about 4 miles down the river and I decided it would be a fun place to walk to, which it was. We passed St. Paul's Cathedral , the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern before we headed to the London Eye, which was disappointingly closed. From there, we crossed the Westminster Bridge where the street vendors were cooking sausages and onions and headed to the Westminster tube station to catch our train home.

My day would have ended much better than it had started had I not tried to order the tickets for the Polo World Series, but I tried to order them, and my credit card would not work. I then spend about 45 minutes chasing and answer from Bank of America before pawning off my problem on my father. Eventually it got handled, but I will be without a credit card for the next 24 to 48 hours. Now, I am in my room and ready to catch some Zs on my new pillow. So cheers for now!