That’s exactly what it felt like yesterday. After arriving in London at 7 a.m. (2 a.m. our time) we proceded to our hotel around 10 a.m. Upon unpacking and getting situated, we then left for a five hour walk around the our area of the city where we will be living the next three weeks.

So we divided into our three groups (music, theater, art) and began our tour. I am in the music group, so our tour looked like this:

1. interesting lunch at a corner sandwhich stop where you never knew exactly what you were ordering

2. finally full and with a little more energy, we headed to the British Library, where we found a painting entitled “Paradoxymoron”. This was a painting of several bookcases, but as we moved from side to side, the bookcases moved with us. Interesting, to say the least. Definitely had us students entertained!

3. Next we headed to find “the park with a statue of Gandhi” . Unfortunately, we never found it! =)

4. We walked to the British Museum and had nearly an hour to look around inside. I would say the original Rosetta Stone received the most attention at least from the GC students. Chelsea Kaufman’s favorite piece in the museum was the Elgin marbles. These marbles came from the top of the Pantheon in Greece. Lord Elgin of England took them and used his own money to bring them over to London, but eventually he went broke because of the cost. Overall, we really enjoyed the museum.

5. Finally, we headed over to Florida State University (FSU) – London where we will be studying the next three weeks.  We had a quick orientation to the building and then recieved our ID cards for our time here. After a final few words from our leaders, we were on our own for the rest of the evening.

Some chose to explore the city via buses, some headed to the a play “Parlor Song”, and some returned to the museum for an Iran Hip Hop perfromer.

Day one was full, fun but definitely exhausting. Many of us were in bed by 7:30 p.m. last night!

Now on to day two! We were given our first taste of an English breakfast this morning. Eggs, sausage, bacon, tomato, baked beans & toast. Absolutely wonderful!

Today we get oriented to the Tube, the buses and the rest of the city! And probably a lot more walking!