Walking, Walking, and More Walking

The school set up a walking tour for the study abroad students so that we could see some of the main tourist attractions.  To my dismay we woke up early and were on the tube by 9 am and first went to see St. Pauls.  It is so beautiful and I plan on going to a service there sometime to see the inside.  We walked over to Borough Market and on the way got a glimpse of Tower Bridge.

After the first hour of walking we took the tube to Westminster and saw the London attractions that everyone thinks of such as Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye.  To keep the walking going a group of us spent the afternoon seeing Buckingham Palace and the London Art Gallery.  The good news is I don't need to join a gym because I'm already getting my cardio in!

Unpacking

Unpacking was a real pain but I am finally done.  Luckily there is ton of storage space and the rooms are really nice.  We each have our own room with a desk and our own bathroom.  Much better than I expected!  Seven of us share a common area with a kitchen and couch.  I'm so glad I brought pictures from home since we have a large bulletin board in our room but I wish I brought more!

Going Over

My flight to London got delayed a little but I didn't care.  I waited months so an extra hour was nothing!  British Air was very nice and gave us everything including dinner, drinks, snacks, movies, socks, sleeping mask, headphones, toothbrush, and breakfast.  I did my best to sleep and I think I got a solid four or five hours of sleep out of seven.   I arrived in London 11 am London time (5 hours ahead) and stayed up the whole day exploring.  I was so exhausted but so excited to be here that I stayed awake!

Night Before

It feels like Christmas Eve!  After months and months of planning, I am finally going to London tomorrow.  When I first decided to study abroad I had no idea how much preparation it would take.  Thankfully my study abroad advisor has been so helpful.  All of the paperwork and application processes would definitely be a detergent to someone who didn't really want to go abroad.  Even getting the right documents printed, copied and scanned has been a real task.  I think at this point I have everything ready to go.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me in my decision to take on London...stay tuned for what happens in Europe!

Packing

Three nights left in the US and I am almost finished packing!   It is not an easy task to pack for 10 weeks, especially when you want to bring everything in your closet.   They say to only "bring what you can carry" but that will not be the case for my luggage.   What can I say?  I like my shoes!

My new travel obsession is space bags, which I have never used before.  These are just large plastic bags that you vacuum the air out of.  I used these for the majority of my clothes and two large coats.   I even managed to fit my entire comforter and a pillow in one  (see below).

Now that my bags are pretty much full I hope I don't think of much more I need to bring.  I don't think they can handle much more without going over the 50 pound limit.

I'll make it work somehow...where there's a will, there's a way!

Intro

I am a USC fashion merchandising student about to go abroad for a semester in London.  My blog will include travel notes, trench coats and everything in between.  This is a chance for me to write about my love for travel, new adventures, and fashion.