High Tea, Carnaby Street, Trafalgar Square, The Strand, Covent Garden, Heavy Metal Pete, Charing Cross Station, Pub Hopping, and Regent's Park

I had quite a whirlwind yesterday and today thus far! Yesterday morning at 11am (4am for you) I had my CEA orientation. I met the other 49 students in the program who are doing programs at The University of Westminster (where I am) and Goldsmith's College. Everyone lives either in Marylebone Hall (my accommodation) or in a hall 5 miles outside the center of London or 40 minutes outside the city, so my hall is certainly the best location wise. The majority of the students study at DePaul University in Chicago and there are a few from Arizona, but there is another Clemson girl! You would have thought they would have told us about each other, but no. Anyway after a brief session, we embarked on a walking tour of the city!

Carnaby Street- home of 60's flower power Trafalgar Square! a landmark in itself

Then we arrived at our high tea. The English take their tea time very seriously, so were were served hot Twinnings tea with sugar and creme and loads of raisin scones, pastries, tea sandwiches and other munchies. I opted for a raisin scone in true British fashion and spread strawberry jam on one side and cream on the other- as we were instructed that this is theproper way to eat a scone. It was great! I wasn't the biggest fan of the tea though, I guess next time I'll try to ask if they have sweet tea. If that wouldn't be a big enough give away that I was American.

Next we were off on our own! I went off with a bunch of girls, mainly from Chicago, and we did our own little tour of the city. We walked up and down The Strand, which is where a lot the high end shops were and lots of pubs. So we immediately headed for this one.

I was thinking beer at 2:30 on a Sunday?? But it was actually really crowded. After that, we went to Convent Garden, which isn't really a garden at all, but a big cut off area with shops and restaurants. When I have a bit more pounds in my pocket I will certainly come back. But this is where we met our friend, Heavy Metal Pete.

Heavy Metal Pete put on a street show of contortion and tricks which involved himself dislocating his shoulders to fit his whole body through a tennis racket as seen here. He was really funny and I loved his accent, but it was a little creepy. Then he had this adorable little girl named Florence help him in a trick where he laid down on a bed of nails and the girl put another board of nails on top of him and stand on the whole thing. It was incredible and creepy at the same time.

After that we headed for Charing Cross Station where I took my first tube ride this trip! The public transportation system in London is fantastic, very easy and cheap! When we got back to Marylebone, we changed and went out to a pub for dinner and drinks. After that, we went across the street to the Globe pub for another drink, then went to another pub for another drink. We felt like true Londoners. It is very casual, just buy a beer and sit and talk. We met some other American students studying abroad who were very intoxicated, so that was pretty amusing.

Today I had Westminster orientation where I got a lot of info. Afterwards, we ate at this Italian pizza shop and did some errands at Marks & Spencer which is kind of like a large department store and Primark which is like Forever 21 on crack. I will definitely be going back to buy some shirts for 10 pounds! Now I have everything I need pretty much, just have to do a bit more unpacking. After this shopping trip, one of the Chicago girls, Rachel, and I headed for a stroll in Regent's Park. It was great! So beautiful and close to our hall. Unfortunately I did not have my camera, but I will go back and take some pictures when it is brighter out. The English Gardens were lovely, I'm sure my mom would have been flipping out.

So that is all for now. The plan for tonight is to go out to a club called Tiger, Tiger (Go Clemson!)