Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Touring Around

Kari and I did quite a bit of touring and shopping while she was here for the past week and a half. We both had a ton of fun but, are looking forward to our studies! Kari left this morning to go to her school, University of Hertfordshire. A bus took her from Heathrow Airport to her university so we went together and had lunch and said our farewells. She seems to be getting settled in and having a lot of fun so I am happy for her!


This past weekend, Kari and I went on a Bus Tour which was a lot of fun! We saw many of London’s top tourist attractions and took lots of pictures. Kari thought I was overly obsessive about it, as I got in the way of some of her pictures. We had a good laugh. My favorite building so far is Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, it is beautiful! We also went to one of London’s most famous markets on Saturday called Borough Market. Kari was really looking forward to it and I was looking forward to the food! It was a cool place to see and the food was good! On Sunday, we went to Trafalgar Square, we saw street performers and people dressed up in costumes like the Queen of England to take pictures with. It was a lot of fun and just a cool place to be at, there were a ton of people and we got some good pictures.

I started school on Monday and it is going good so far, I think I will enjoy all of my classes. I am especially excited about The Business of Sport class I am taking, I think it will be extremely interesting and is right up my alley! Kari and I just enjoyed our last few nights together in London. We did some shopping at IKEA for kitchen supplies so we can cook! That was an adventure!  I went to my first American Football practice over here today. I think it will be a very good learning experience and I am really looking forward to that, I am still unsure if I will be able to play or not though, might just help with the coaching.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Getting Settled In!

On Monday, I had my first day of orientation at my campus, Kari came with me and sat through the whole thing, it lasted about 3 hours. After my orientation Kari and I went to the accommodation office for the University and I got the best news possible. They had a room open in one of the residence halls! So things started looking up for us...we were finally able to get out of the hotels! Kari has been an amazing help to me during our trip thus far, without her I might be on a plane back to the U.S. She is an amazing girlfriend! Kari and I moved into my new room late Monday night and found it very nice. It is a fairly good sized room with my own bathroom and shower so I only have to worry about myself, I do share a kitchen with five other people.

Tuesday, I had another orientation where I got my University ID card, the campus is lockdown. The only way you are able to enter campus is if you swipe your id card. I also met the person within my program that is in charge of dealing with international students and she seemed very nice and helpful. I met a kid from Australia named Thomas, he lives with some relatives near Kari’s school and knows a much faster route there than what the internet tells me. He will show me the way when I make a journey to Kari’s university! On Tuesday night, Kari and I made our first little adventure around the town, we went shopping on Oxford Street, it was amazing. The buildings were beautiful and there were tons of people and shops everywhere. Our main purpose was to get sheets and other essentials for my room. That was the first time that it felt more like home! Here are some pictures of my room!




Wednesday, We had a pretty exciting evening planned by the university, we were able to go on a river boat tour on the River Thames and see many of London’s major attractions. It was a lot of fun and we met many other people from my university and got to know them, to my surprise though there were a lot more people from Minnesota and Wisconsin then I expected.

Later this week we plan to do more touring and go on The London Eye and a Bus tour. We have already been gone a week now! It is crazy; this time is going to fly so we are both going to make the best of it!

Friday, January 6, 2012

We're Here

Kari and I have arrived in London finally, it is crazy to think about! We landed in London around 6:15 AM there time so about 12:15 AM Central time. When we got off the plane we had no idea where to go or what to do since many of the places were not open and it was still dark out. We decided to just hangout in the airport and relax for a few hours before leaving and getting ahold of the landlord that I will hopefully be renting from. We could not get a hold of him because we planned to talk at 11:30 and we I tried calling around 9, he never picked up. Kari and I decided to get a hotel so we could just relax and not have to carry our bags around any longer. We will be meeting with the landlord later this evening to find a place.









Monday, January 2, 2012

Getting Ready to Leave

Hello all,
I am very excited to be leaving to London soon! Preparing for this trip happened very fast but it will be a great experience for me. I will try to update this blog at least once a week to keep all of you informed of what is happening with me while I am in England. Kari and I will be leaving this Thursday, January 5th. We will be arriving in London on the 6th of January at 6:35 AM London time. This will give us three days to explore and get everything figured out before I begin my school activities. We are both very excited to be going together. I know five months seems like quite a long time, but it will go extremely fast and I want to capture as many memories as I can.

I want to take a moment and thank a few people. Mom, I recognize it probably was not the easiest thing for you to see me go to London but I know you understand that it will be a great experience for me. You are always behind me in whatever I do and I greatly appreciate it. I love you mom! I would also like to thank all my family members who are excited for me to take this once in a lifetime opportunity. It makes me feel so grateful that you guys are excited for me and are supporting me. I love all you guys. I will keep you updated and if anyone wants to Skype let me know! My Skype name is burtona67.

Love,
Andy