English children ride scooters predominantly, like Razor scooters that were popular when I was in elementary (pardon me, primary) school. Just something I noticed today as I walked around.

I slept in because I have a feeling I’m going to be a bit nervous and excited tonight before my first day so I wanted to get a lot of sleep. Once I woke up my first task was finding a place to buy a top-up voucher for my SIM card. So I wandered around, going in lots of places, until I finally found a store that sold it. I basically made a big loop of the neighborhood which was annoying at first but I’m really glad I did it because I now know my way around quite well. I walked through a lot of very residential areas which was nice. The houses are ridiculously lovely. At one point I was the only person on a street full of pristine houses and I passed the local church. The organ started playing as I walked by. It couldn’t have been planned better… After I bought my phone voucher, I paused to get some coffee and a sandwich, then came home. Now my phone is all set up and it is glorious. Oh unlimited data! How I have missed you old friend!

Then I set off for Kensington Palace. The palace is quite beautiful but a MASSIVE tourist trap. The whole thing is laid out with text on the wall and contrived “mysteries” of the castle. There’s even a room where if you sit on the window seats you can hear “the walls whisper” court gossip. A little corny but I still enjoyed. What I like about places like that is thinking of all the people who have walked the halls before me. Queen Mary II, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II, Will and Kate, and many others. Buildings like that just hold so much history and, if the walls really could whisper, think of what they would say!

I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to meet Kate while I was there and no one came up and offered to make me a princess but… you win some, you lose some.

It was getting chilly but I wandered around the gardens a bit before asking an American tourist to snap this picture:

Dear American tourists, Please improve your photo taking abilities. But thank you all the same for understanding why I want one.

After Kensington Gardens I came home and shortly after my roommate arrived! She’s quite nice and I think we will share the shoebox nicely.

Now I’m just relaxing until it’s time to go to dinner with Lisa!

Tomorrow school starts and I’m extremely excited. I’ll finally get to meet everyone else in the program and get started with everything. I. Can’t. Wait.

Until tomorrow!

Cheers!