175 Stairs

Hello! So today was very exciting as I got to take my very first tube ride! This morning, my homestay mom had to leave early for work so she dropped me off at another homestay nearby that 2 girls from my trip, Kayla and Sam, live at.  Their homestay mom walked us to where we can catch the bus to get to the tube station closest to our houses.  It was very helpful to have someone show us where to go so we can take the tube to school.  The school gave us oyster cards which allow us to travel in London by tube or bus for free.  Kayla, Sam, and I went into the tube station and found which way we were supposed to go to get to our school.  It was a little crowded and we had to stand for most of the way.  It took about 20 minutes to get from the stop by our house to the one by our school.  Once we got off the tube, we had two options.  Take the elevator or the stairs.  There were so many people waiting for elevators and we figured there wouldn't be that many stairs to take so we chose to walk.  WORST DECISION EVER.  We realized why Americans are so overweight and Europeans are so thin.  It was 175 stairs.  We were all breathing super hard after that and decided to never do that again.  We found our way to our school after getting turned around a few times.  Then, we had orientation for about 3 hours.  After that we were free to go get some lunch before a coach bus tour of London.  The tour was amazing!  It lasted about 3 hours and we had a wonderful British tour guide named Nigel.  Some of the places we got to see include: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, and tons of other really cool stuff in the heart of London.  After the tour ended at about 5pm, Patrick, Joe (Patrick's roommate), Kari (my roommate), and me went to get some groceries! Then we went back on the tube back to our houses.  After Kari got unpacked we went to the church pub in Muswell Hill.  It's a really cool pub that looks like a church (go figure) and about 25 or so of us met up there.  So much fun! It's such an adventure trying to find your way back home on the buses but it's getting easier as we do it more often.  Tomorrow we have meetings about our volunteer work placements and then a few of us are going to explore London some more.  That's all for now! :)