bloome: First stop, London!

Hello friends and family! First off, I'm sorry its taken me so long to finally put up photos and blog about my trip! The schedule has been jam packed full of amazing adventures. This experience so far has been unreal. I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but this is the first time I've really been out of the country so everything seems so different. I have been loving every minute I've been here and I can't wait to see where I go next!

For our first stop was London. I have to admit, when we first landed in London I was a little disappointed. As we traveled to our hotel, the area of town just looked a lot like the ghetto area of New York. Uhhh excuse me, I want to be out of the US! Hahah but I needed to give London a chance. The more I saw, the more I was amazed. This city is gorgeous. Although everyone still speaks English and you can get around the city pretty easily, there is still so much that is foreign to me. I found it especially interesting how London was able to mix so well old architecture with new modern buildings. You'd be walking down the street and see a building that was built in the 1800s and right next to it be a modern building. Although they are so different, they surprisingly blend beautifully together!

Well, I would honestly love to tell you more and go on for hours about London, but it is currently 2 AM and our briefings begun early tomorrow, so I promise to write more about Paris!

To make up for the lack of writing, ill leave you a few extra pictures ;) I love you all and thanks for reading!

Our first briefing was at Somerset House with a law professor of Kings College London.

(Ignore all of the annoying camera dates in the first few pictures, I couldn't figure out the right settings till the 2nd day haha)

Me and the girls in business attire, don't we look so professional? :)

At borough market as suggested by my amazing sister in law rachelle. Absolutely loved this farmers market!

The tower bridge and the dirty dirty Thames

My gurlssss (me, heather in the back, Hillary the front and Skjelse)

This is St. Paul's church! Absolutely gorgeous inside but no photos were allowed :(

This is the view from the top of St. Paul's. we climbed 527 steps to the top! Supposedly it's the best view in London.

We visited the original Abby road which apparently is a super busy street that doesn't have a cross walk signal! You'd think something as famous as Abby road would be blocked for pictures? Ya me too. Nope! This was the best we could do after plenty of attempts results in horns honking and people walking in our space. I think we did pretty good hahah

We had to support our homeland on Independence Day!

We decided we should be a little American on Fourth of July and get London's version of McFlurry!

(R-L Tyler, Hillary, Skjelse, heather and Jordan. I'm taking the picture!)

I had my first pub experience on the fourth! We went to see some jazz in a pub called the blues house. With everyone decked out in American flags singing Michael Jackson oldies, it felt just like home. My favorite was their encore, the national anthem with all the Americans singing at the top of their lungs!

Our entire study abroad group!

Outside the U.S. Embassy in London. We had the best briefing with two foreign service officers. It was a great experience. See, I'm learning on this trip too ;)