On Tuesday, we went to our Geography class which is the last required course have to fulfill to graduate on time at Gustavus. When we got there we noticed that we were the only associate students aka study abroad students. We sat down in the lecture hall and prepared ourselves for what we assumed would be a standard geography course. We were sadly mistaken. The professor began on lecture 3 and would constantly make references to the past semester course. Halfway through the two hour course we had a break and I went up to ask the professor how to find the first two lectures. She wasn't really sure how to find them but she said she would try to figure it out. After the class Hanna and I left the lecture hall with eyes as big as saucers FREAKING out because the class was so difficult. That night we did research and tried to find other courses to switch into. We ran to the geography department the next morning to try to figure out other possible options. While talking to the head of the geography department we found out that the course we were enrolled in was a full year course and she wasn't sure how we had managed to get placed there. We dropped the geography course and went on to the english department to sign up for a Narrative class. Our plan C was to take a summer course to complete our NWEST credit so that night we spent three hours searching online for a geography course that would satisfy Gustavus requirements in any of the colleges around the Twin Cities. After hours of searching we found an online course at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. We applied for acceptance to the summer program and are currently waiting to hear back. Fingers crossed we get in so we can graduate on time!!
On Wednesday a group of friends went to Covent Gardens in London. It's a neighborhood that has a ton of shops. We were looking for Ben's Cookies -- a cookie shop recommended to me. We had fun riding the double decker buses to Covent Garden and wandering around. We successfully found the cookie shop and it was delicious! They had big fluffy warm cookies in a variety of flavors. YUMMY.
Ben's Cookies!
Covent Garden Square
YUM. I'm going back ASAP,
Yesterday, we met up with a friend from Gustavus who lives in London. He showed us around the West side of London. We went to Camden Loch which is a really fun market area for people our age and we went to Primrose Hill. From the hill you can see the entire London skyline which was so cool, however, my pictures didn't turn out because it was so dark. After our adventures we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant that was SO DELICIOUS (probably because we didn't have to cook) and the restaurants building was established in the 1100's. It's so crazy how old the buildings are here!! It makes all the buildings founded in America in the 1700's seem really new.
Attack of the birds -- they are literally everywhere...
A Marble Arch! (Probably historical...)
A lot of the streets in London have directions on which way to look when crossing the street for tourists -- pretty sure it's already saved my life multiple times!
Today, we went to the Windsor castle and Eton College. Windsor is the Queen's favorite castle and it is massive. Eton college is a school for boys ages 13-18 and it is very prestigious. Prince William and Henry both went there! It was a fun field trip except it was freezing. I feel like a lame Minnesotan because I'm always cold here when it's only 40ish degrees. I think the cold here is more wet than Minnesota and it gets into your bones. BRRR, I'm cold just thinking about it. We are actually supposed to get snow soon which will be really interesting to see! After we got a tour of the castle, we were free to roam the city and get lunch. I had a Pasty which is a classic food here in England. It is basically a chicken pot pie in a calzone. It was SUPER good and helped me warm up.
The modern part of Windsor castle where the Queen stays when she comes to visit
Cutest little town ever
Tomorrow we go on a bus tour of London which will hopefully help our understanding of where things are in London. The city is so large that I'm not sure I will ever have a handle on all the different places here. We also have a ton of reading to do for homework so I'll have to fit that in soon...Its hard to do homework when I have a bustling city right outside my room.
So, we have been here about a week and a half and I'm already craving food from home! OOPZIEZ. Right now all I want is a doughnut or pancakes. I've decided that I'm heading straight from the airport to Original Pancake House when I get home. We also got some tips from our Gustavus friend of where to go if we need to buy some American food in London because apparently here they don't sell goldfish and pop tarts...good to know for when March rolls around.
I finally have found my address! I know some people have asked for it so here it is :
Kelsey Raasch
Flat 11D
Maynard House
Westfield Way
London
E1 4PD
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