I live in London!

Before anything else, I want to say that I officially have the most precious newborn nephew in the world! Congrats to Ryan and Tiffany, and welcome to the family baby Richard! I already love/adore you so much and I can’t wait to meet you at Christmas.

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In other news, I've arrived!

27 Palace Court. I HAVE A PERMANENT ADDRESS IN ENGLAND. and the BYU London Centre is beautiful!

Today {or yesterday? it's a blur} my parents took me to the airport in Montrose. After some less-than-great quality pictures, I said goodbye and went through security. 35 minute plane ride, 2 ½ hour layover in Denver, 2 hour plane ride to Chicago {see pictures below for proof of the lack of leg room I had. And I’m not even tall}, another 2 hour layover at O’Hare. The lady sitting next to me from Denver asked if I was going to London for business. Yes, she asked if I was going on a business trip {maybe because I was reading a Michael Lewis book?} It was a highlight of the entire flight process.

Luckily {or unluckily?} Ellen’s flight was delayed so she missed a connecting flight and got put on the same plane as me out of Chicago! We met up and then boarded for the last leg of the journey {7 ½ hours of flight time}! On the flight from Chicago to London I was lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me… a luxury most people didn’t get. Ha. Too bad for them. The flight was beautiful and I spent the beginning of it reading and eating yogurt covered raisins {thanks mom!} then sleeping for the last few hours. On another note, United could really work on their meals. I understand that it’s a bit rough to feed a lot of people while thousands of feet in the air… but guys… plane tickets are not cheap and I don't exactly consider 6 small pieces of fruit and a stale roll a "continental breakfast", am I right?? {I would also like to throw out that my final purchase in the USA was a Diet Coke. Not ashamed one bit.} 

shout out to Kels for saving me and basically packing all my stuff while I threw it out of drawers!

and yes, at this point I was reading a book called "How the Stock Market Works". It was quite informative and everyone should read it.

We got to Heathrow and met up with Hannah and headed to the center with a hired driver. Guys. They drive on the wrong side of the road, but more on that later!

all of our adorable study abroad backpacks (:

Once we got here we unpacked and then headed on our first assignment for our "London Walks" class! Yes, we did get lost. But did we eat our first fish and chips in a little cafe dedicated to Princess Diana? Yep, sure did. And I took pictures just incase everyone around us couldn't tell we were tourists/americans {by our awful accents, loudness, confused looks, cameras, maps, etc}.

Things I've learned in my first {half} day here:

>>>I LOVE THE LONDON CENTRE

It is so nice. If it weren't for sharing a room with 13 other girls {it's a huge room though, so it's ok}, I'm pretty sure I would be convinced that I was staying in a really nice, restored hotel with super modern bathrooms. I'll post more pictures when I'm not tired and lazy, but here's just a couple...

back porch!

THE NEIGHBORHOOD! 

>>>I am 100% already in love with this city and I adore the girls that are here too!

>>>I may die in London. If I do, there is a 99.9% chance that it will be because:

             1) I look the wrong way for cars because they drive crazy + on the wrong side of the road

             2) 2nd hand smoke. Holy camoli, everyone smokes here.

>>>Everyone has good style. No t-shirts or jeans on the streets of London.

>>>I thoroughly plan on taking more fun pictures than serious. Sorry Mom. I LOVE YOU!

That's about it for now. Sorry you guys aren't here with me! I love it so much already.

-Erica