LONDON DAY!!! We woke up at about 6:45 and got ready and packed a breakfast/lunch and packed the rest of our bags and then left at promptly 7:30. All 28 of us packed down with our huge backpacks made our way to the train station. We rode the train from Verviers to Brussels with no transfers so that was a nice ride. So some of the trains there are double deckers and when you enter, you are on the middle level. You can either go up or down. There is one little room right when you get on though that can sit 8 people. Well 5 of us squeezed in there with our 5 huge backpacks and put most of the bags on the extra seats. At one of the stops an older lady gets on with a young man who has a large suitcase. He looks at our room and they are speaking in French so I can only assume what they were saying. It seemed like he was telling her there is no room for her in the room. Well with our bags on the seats there wasn’t. She looks in and I think she said that we could move our bags so she could sit. So we cleared a seat for her and the young man left her with her suitcase to sit by us. Well usually when people speak French to us we just sit and wait until they stop and don’t bother mentioning to them that we don’t understand because they usually do stop talking. Well this lady kept going man. Rambling and hand motions and the works in French. Eventually we had to be like, look lady, we don’t speak French so you are just talking to yourself. Well when we told her, she laughed and said, “well I speak English!” We were actually relieved because it is rare to find that in Belgium. She told us how we probably thought she was so silly for just going off in French and us not knowing what she was saying. She was pretty embarrassed. It was funny and she was cute about it. She then continued to apologize for her garlic smell (which I didn’t smell). That got me pretty curious. Like are you afraid of vampires or something lady? Well then she explained that she and her husband cook and bake and pick things from their garden and she packs it all up in a bag and takes it to her sons. She has a grandson that she likes to go see once a week so she takes the train every week loaded with her heavy bag of food that she can’t lift and thats why she sits in that little middle room. She pretty much told us her life story which was nice. We hadn’t conversed with many outsiders yet. She said she married an Italian man so she speaks French, Dutch, English, and Italian. Pretty impressive. Also explains the pesto, bread, garlic, tomatoes, and the other amazing foods she was taking to her sons. She was very curious about what we were doing and confused about why we would be staying in Verviers. Me too lady. She said, “Sightseeing in Verviers? Hmmm….” it made me laugh. She was also shocked that we were spending three months in Europe without speaking French. We are too, don’t worry. Somehow we make it work. Anyway we explained we were studying abroad and that we were going to London to visit. She then thought we were from the U.K. for a good bit of the conversation because she was talking about us being isolated on an island and we were like uhhh most people don’t really reference America as an island. We corrected her and told her we were from America and you could kind of tell she was a little disappointed. She then continued to talk about how Trump is a clown and how “Mrs. Trump wore this high of heels to the victims of the flood!” (using her fingers to show us lol) we weren’t really sure what to do because I think she was expecting us to care and we didn’t. So I wonder if she likes America’s president? (lololol) She was really sweet though and continued to just make conversation with us even though we were all super tired and probably weren’t the best of conversationalists. When we got off the train she tried to show us the coffee shop she had previously recommended to us on the train and then wished us luck on our trip. How sweet. We then went through airport like security and customs to get to the terminal for the train that goes through the Chunnel. We were riding from Brussels to London and under the English Channel! How cool! We were all pretty hyped about it. Unfortunately the conductor said it’d be 20 minutes until we entered at one point and so I wasn’t paying attention and 5 minutes later we entered, so I missed the cool moment. But I’ll try to see it on the way home. I watched a movie I downloaded on Netflix to pass the time. When we made it to London we exited the terminal and walked all over that train station looking for our bus. Eventually we found it and he drove us to the place we check in for our apartment flats that we were staying in. After check in, we walked to the flats. We dropped our stuff off and then met back up. There are 6 or 7 people in each flat. Ours has three bedrooms. Two rooms with 3 beds and 1 room with 1 bed. Somehow I ended up with the single room but its kind of lonely all secluded. It is nice to spread out though. The flats aren’t fancy or anything. They are older I think and have just been redone a little. Just white walls with blue carpet and white bedding and not much extra furniture. It does the job. We will be here three nights. We met back up with the whole group and walked to the tube station. Hannah and Brandon were getting our Oyster cards so we could ride the tube as much as we needed. We were told to go find lunch. We found a place called “The Fence.” It was adorbs. They had like whitewash brick and cute couches to sit on for tables and marble tables and an outdoor patio and cute robin egg booths in a corner. It was just eclectic and fun! Also the accents, sigh. British people are the bomb. I ordered lamb shoulder and some salad. The meals come out in small bowls so you can dip it out and share with others. We weren’t really aware of that when we ordered but I liked the idea. 2 of us got the lamb and 2 got the chicken so we shared. The lamb was seriously the best thing I’ve ever eaten. It had flavors that have never touched my tongue before. Whoever made up that recipe was a genius. The meat was so tender and perfect! Honestly, I don’t know how we got so lucky. It also wasn’t that expensive! The chicken was also unique as well. Their spices and combinations of food they chose to bake their meat with were incredible. After fawning over the food for like ever, we paid and headed back to the station to get our tube passes. I just like saying the tube a lot. I heard a lady say it in her accent and it cracks me up. We learned how to work the tube and then rode it to the Tower of London. We stopped and took a lot of pictures and then walked over to it and took a lot more. Our group loves pictures, including me. Everything just makes you stop and stare. Awe. Beauty. Wonder. Respect. It is just unreal to see it with your own eyes. To touch the stones that centuries of historical figures touched and see what they saw. Crazy. We toured the Tower of London for a few hours. There are a lot of buildings on the grounds with different museums. The crown jewels are kept there as well. That was the coolest part obviously. And the guards on the outside with the tall fuzzy hats. There was just so much gold and so many jewels in that exhibit. There is this conveyer belt you stand on to see the crown jewels so the group keeps moving and everyone can see it. No pictures though so I didn’t get to capture the beauty but my mouth was just open the whole time. Literally. I caught myself and had to close it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many jewels in one place. And the size of those diamonds. like come on. How in the world. The sparkle though was intense. The pearls were so beautiful too. If anyone wants to just go break in and borrow those jewels for me, I wouldn’t complain. After we had seen enough armor, guns, cannons, and torture devices, we left. Our next picture stop was the Tower Bridge. (See Facebook/instagram for my first Europe picture debut) It is so incredible. The architecture, the carvings, the colors. It was also a beautiful sunny day and it was not cold at all so we were a little warm with our boots and sweaters. But the blue sky made the bridge pop even more. We then jumped on the tube to get near the theatre that we were seeing a play at in the evening. We then walked past a bridge where you could see Big Ben, London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. We found the theater and then walked around to find dinner. It was Italian and we were going to share to make it cheap. We were proud until we got the food. It was good, just didn’t compare to lunch. I got a salmon pasta thing. Then we walked around the block a little and just wandered. We got our tickets and found out we were upgraded from the very back row of the very top balcony to the ground floor and the second to back row. Which were really good seats because it was a very small theatre. The play was “The Woman in Black.” I knew nothing about it except that it was scary. It started off pretty funny. Had us all chuckling. The dialogue was incredibly descriptive and complicated, yet executed perfectly. It was just two characters the whole time that were talking. They had some serious talent. I loved it the whole time, only I was exhausted so I was fighting sleep the whole time which was sad. It was definitely scary. Made me jump a lot. But it was a good first play in London. Again, the accents just made it even better. After that we walked back to the tube and rode it back to our flats. I called Ben for a little and caught him up on my day. We are excited for football starting tomorrow! Roll Tide!! Also excited about my first day in London! It was a long first day but loved every minute. I love London. I love England. I love the U.K. Also America. But this trip is off to a great start so far. YAY!

Shoutout: goes to Abby Besson for giving me fun tips while I’m here! Thanks girl!
Love getting texts from home!

Fun fact: if you are in the crosswalk when you are not supposed to, you will get ran over. They will not slow down. In fact, may speed up and aim for you. Annah Smith had to run across a road to avoid death by taxi and I had to step back onto the sidewalk to avoid losing half my body. He was out for blood. Also, only the green man means walk, not the confusing green arrows pointing the way you want to go. Just to clarify. And look right before crossing the road. Not left. That doesn’t matter here.