I AM HERE but first London pics.

goodness.

Somerset

LONDON

No time to chat much... internet cafe runs 1.8 pounds per hour. Not bad, actually, but meh.

Places I went to see today:
1. tower of London (drive by)
2. London Bridge
3. Kensington Gardens (park where J.M. Barrie wrote Peter Pan etc...)
4. Kensington palace (memorial place for Princess Di)
5. Buckingham palace
6. Westminster Abbey
7. St. Paul's Cathedral
8. Big Ben
9. Somerset (really pretty prob. my fav. place. I'll post pictures later.)
10. That bridge in the Harry Potter movie which was destroyed by death eaters

11. Kings Cross Station (Including the elusive platform 9 and 3/4. I told my group I was with
that it really existed and they didn't believe me. we went on a 20 min. tube ride so that i could prove myself correct and lo and behold it was there. )

12. Notting Hill
13. Kevin Spacey's house
14. Modern Art Museum
15. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

and more, I'm sure.

Tired. wake up quite early tomorrow... have to leave the hotel at 5:45. Flying to Madrid, and from there am taking a bus to Salamanca where I will meet my host family.

I am a little nervous about the fact that I don't have a visa, and was made more nervous by talking to others. oh dear.

I'll post London pictures tomorrow, I hope. If not then, then on Tuesday.

-Katherine

In Airport

...So now that i had my first breakdown -glad that's over with- am am so......... happy?

I'm waiting for my airplane- 40 min. dleayed... we are about to board it. But i am going to be quick. THe point is, I'm listening to the chatter around me. British man on my right is speaking in Broken French to the woman on his right, just being friendly. it's not very good. there are other languages too... lots of people. I met two boys from Chico who are also going to london- then to prague. I think i'll be fine.

Sorry this is rushed. I want to make sure I only have to use the airplane bathrooms once in the 10 hour flight to london, so I'm going to work on that presently.

I'm getting excited. Mostly about the Tea.

People from England who I've admittedly spent too much attention obsessing over:

John Cleese

Douglas Adams

JK Rowling (ok, scotland..)

Jane Austen

Harry Potter..

Mr Bean

Bronte

That guy who plays mr darcy

hugh Grant

(and more, of course...)

3 more days in Chico.,

And I have not even begun to pack. Scratch that- I packed 50 days ago for that other thing I almost did, and there is some residual packaging from that. Also, I... have only just started to begin thinking about everything. eek!

To Do List:

1. Pack Clothing for 4 months in just-above-freezing-weather. brr.

2. Decide what laptops I want to bring with me. I'm thinking I"ll just bring this notebook.

3. Hopefully get some more music on my ipod- provided i figure out how to not erase what's on there.

4. Finish reviewing old Spanish book. 5/15 reviewed thus far.

5. Hopefully get through the 1000 flashcards i made for myself over the last year

6. Call BoA and inform them that I am not in fact in Argentina, but actually in Spain

7. Inquire the Zs about cell phone

8. Get adaptor for computer plug

9. Chilllllaxxxxxxxx

Itinerary soon to come

I guess I gave up on this, but I'm bringing it back.

So. I think it was made mostly clear... but Argentina was completely cancelled. Due to Swine flu. The evil swine. It was awful. I was not happy. I found a week after I found out it was postponed. The school cancelled enrollment for the summer, and may have further cancelled it for the first semester and the AIFS group which organized my trip decided they didn't want to risk losing out completely. They offered their participipants and option instead. They said we could do the Salamanca or Granada option ofr the same price, and I opted for Salamanca.

Why did I opt for Salamanca?

It was fairly arbitrary. I had looked into the option before, and decided it was a pretty good program. I chose it over Granada mostly because it looked more my style. The university was founded in 1200s and Christopher Columbus taught there and it's very pretty looking. If I feel like it, I'll post some pictures perhaps. Unviersity of Salamanca. Um. The city is known for its unique culture of being a university town. They rarely speak anything other than Spanish in the town because they are in agreement with the language school. There should be a lot of students at the University who are from all over Europe, which will be very exciting.

I don't know much about Granada, however. I know that it is a big city and I have been warned that it is good to visit but not to live in.

Anyway. I leave for Salamanca later this month. I have about 3 weeks of mental preparation left. I'm just kicking back into "I'm going abroad" gear.

That's all for now.