A very overdue update on week 3, but all week it was crazy to think that after this week I’m already half way through my time here!

On Saturday June 29th the social program took us on a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath! Stonehenge was great and lucky for us we got to visit on a beautiful day! There were lots

of people but we were able to make it through the queue pretty quickly and then we were given free time to make our way around! Next we went to visit Bath which was this gorgeous little town about an hour away from Stonehenge. Here we had lunch, got to visit the Roman Baths and then were given a chance to explore the city. Baths was full of people and things going on, it was a great place to visit. After getting lunch at a little place called la baguette a group of us went to walk around and we came across a market. We got to tour the Roman baths

and at the end you were able to try the water which is suppose to be full of healthy minerals but the water was warm and tasted really gross. After the tour, Chelsea and I went to find ice cream and then walked down to the river where we found a park to relax for awhile. While sitting there, some British guys came up and chatted with us for awhile. It was funny because we were teaching them things about America, and they were from London so we asked them what was something we had to do their before we left from a locals point of view. They called themselves “horrible Londoners” because they didn’t know about any of the things to do there. We ended up teaching them about the Tower of London because we had went there last week so it was a funny to be able to have a conversation with people from here since we don’t get to very often.

Sunday Chelsea and I went to the Sea Life Aquarium in South bank! It’s a close walk away from where we are staying so it was a good day! After we treated ourself to a nice dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant and because it is starting to finally get nice here we were able to sit outside! Lastly, I went with a group of people to an arcade that is also in South Bank where we rode bumper cars, played games, and bowled! There bowling here is a little different then back at home because you play like you do other arcade games in a sense. You have to put a certain amount of pound coins in to play, there are no bowling shoes, and the lanes are a shorter than ours. It was a lot of fun though!

I have approached the last week of my session 1 course, online entertainment management, and overall I have enjoyed it. I created an idea for a mobile application and created a presentation for it, and wrote an academic report on back channeling using microblogging.  Although it was a challenge learning the structure for which they do things here I got to look deeper into our social media and why we do the things we do so I look back on it being a positive learning experience.

We end session 1 with a boat party along the Thames river that was put on by the school Thursday night and it was our last time to spend time and say goodbye to those who were only here for session 1. This also happened to be fourth of July for us Americans! So after a group of us went to this diner for milkshakes and it was decorated with american flags and red white and blue balloons with stars on them. I found it interesting how you could find places around London that celebrate fourth of July but it was a cool experience!

The top left picture are the group of girls that I’ve connected with and the top right picture i most everybody in our big group that live! Obviously this isn’t everybody in the International Summer school program but it’s our little family here that we formed in the beginning because we all live in International house! But Chelsea, the bottom picture, has by far been the girl I have grown closest with over these past 3 weeks and now she is gone because she was only here for session 1. I miss her so much, we had so much in common and made so many great memories together that it was hard to see her leave. Until next time though, she is from Pittsburgh but we plan on meeting up with each other within the next year!

 Hello Wales! We started our bus tour at this outdoor Roman amphitheatre which is the only fully excavated amphitheatre in Britain. It was amazing to begin seeing the country side of the UK and to explore throughout this very large ruin. Also at this stop we got to see the Roman Barracks ancient monument and stop at a Roman Legionary Museum. The museum was very interesting and because our group was only able to stay for a short period of time the owner allowed all of us to go into the outside part of the museum where they had people re-enacting what it was like back in the time of the Romans. Our next stop was to Caerphilly Castle, this is considered to be one of the

greatest medieval castles of Western Europe. This castle had not one but two motes and we got a chance to explore all of inside. We even got to witness the start of wedding occurring there! We stayed the night in Swansea and began day two at the Big Pit Mining Museum. This was an amazing experience, I got a tour of an actual mine 300 hundred feet underground. We put our hard hats on with our head lights attached to them and we were ready to go! Our tour guide was funny too which made the tour that much more enjoyable. I learned how they ventilate fresh air down in the mine, and how they used to have boys as young as six years old working down in the mines. At one part of the tour, our tour guide had us all of our lights off to experience true darkness as the little boys would when their candle got blown out. We got to see where they kept all of the horses and learned the origin of the word S.H.I.T.! It meant sit high in transit when lifting all of the horses manure out of the mine. Near the end our tour guide asked where we were visiting from and we told him London and he said, “London’s a dumb. The best part about London is the M4 on its way to Wales!” Our last stop was to Tintern Abbey which was a gorgeous ruin. We were able to explore around the abbey for awhile and before headed back our tour guide bought us all the best welsh cakes to try which were actually pretty good! I was thrown off by it looking like a pancake but tasting like a scone. Overall I had a great time in Wales, the welsh were very friendly but now it is time to say goodbye and head back to London.

Amongst this trip I have began adventuring around in London with a few friends I’ve made here! We found this amazing street food festival that is near the London eye on the weekends so that is something we look forward to now for their great authentic food! Also, I have began visiting some of the great royal parks here in London. I have been to the

Queen’s Rose garden and part of Kensington Gardens. Kensington Gardens is so big but I was able to see the peter pan statue and the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial which is where we are on the left! I plan to go back there again though to see Kensington Palace.

Other than that I have been doing well and my time here is going by much faster! I have made a list of places I still want to go and I look forward to being able to check some of them off this next week!

I have to say my first week here was an overwhelming and emotional one. I have my good days and my bad ones but my experience here has been far from what I expected it to be like.  The picture below is the very first picture I took since I landed in London. Trying to adapt to the city and new culture with people you do not know was a lot for me

to take in which caused me to miss home a lot and not want to be here.  The hardest part for me is feeling like I’m alone even though I have a ton of support, walking to and from class in this huge city makes me feel like I’m alone. The dorm living here is also a lot different then how I imagined it being like from the information I received about it. All of the students who came here through CISabroad were randomly placed in the hall I am in and so it isn’t as community based as I thought it would be. Also, I found on University of Westminster’s website that they rent their rooms commercially during the summer months.  I’ve met two girls who only stayed here for ten days, a girl who will be here for two years, and I’ve seen people of all ages which was all unexpected.  My hall is located outside of central London but is close to the London eye! There is also this authentic street food festival near the eye on the weekends which is absolutely delicious!

My main form of transportation that I have had to learn would be what they call the tube!

The tube is an underground train system and is the second largest in the world! Learning about this the first day was very intimidating and I was terrified of it because I was not used to using public transportation much at home. I had to get my oyster card which is what they use here to easily use the tube and buses but there are several ways to load money onto them. Everybody has to scan their card in order to get in and out of all train stations. After a week of practice I have become much more comfortable with it now and can even blend in with the locals by having to cram myself on when it’s busy! An interesting thing I’ve observed that has really stuck out is how few trash cans they have around the city but yet it’s pretty clean everywhere!  Every time I find myself with garbage because I had to eat to eat on the go or something I always find myself holding on to it for awhile before I come across a trash can.

Lastly, this week I had orientation at University of Westminster and began my class! This session I am taking Online Entertainment Management and I like my professor, she is pretty relaxed and understands that we stay busy outside of class exploring around! My class has 11 student in it including two local students surprisingly.

University of Westminster has four separate campuses divided by areas of study. Regent campus is the photo to the left and that is where we had orientation.  My class is at Cavendish campus this session which is a little bit of a walk from here but I will have my session 2 class at Regent campus. It has been interesting to learn about their how they do things because it is so different compared to how things are done in the states. Our entire grade in the class is made up of two modules, a in-module assessment and end-of-module assessment. Our assessments are graded by receiving marks and each gets marked three times. At the start I was very nervous for my class because I heard how many Americans will fail their classes here because of how different it is and not being disciplined enough but I feel much better now that my class has begun and I know my professor. I think I will enjoy it and do just fine! Everybody has class Monday-Thursday from 10:0am-1:00pm and on Thursdays my class gets to go on visits, which is what they call field trips. This Thursday we went to the Science Museum to see Google’s web lab exhibit which I actually really enjoyed. We got to participate in and observe four different experiments and a learned a lot from it as well.

Although this first week was extremely long and rough for me I have tried hard to stay strong and keep positive. I have been keeping in touch with my family which is nice because I miss them a lot but I have also gotten to know quite a bit of people here so far which keeps me distracted most of the time. I’m going on a trip to Wales this weekend through the social program at University of Westminster which should be fun so although rough, I still am trying to make the most of my time here!