London, Part I

So let me try to fill you guys in with what I've been up to the past couple of months. Sorry for not being consistent. Especially to those of you I met this summer. I hope you're still reading my site. Let's do this week by week.

AUGUST 27 TO SEPT. 2
I flew back from China to LA. On the morning that I left, I started feeling a bit sick...on the flight back, it turned into a full-blown cold. So I get back home to just end up spending a week in bed. Although it did give me an opportunity to catch up on my TV. (Yay for TiVo.)
Last picture of me, Cai and John (aka TingTong) in Beijing. I totally miss these guys.

SEPT. 3 TO SEPT. 9
Hmm...Actually don't remember what I did this week, but I'm sure it was a lot of preparing for London, shopping, hanging out with friends, etc. OH...and I spent like 3 days at my cousin Julie's new place in Redlands. YEP...REDLANDS. My cousin Julie got married and her husband dragged my city girl cousin to the country! Of course being Julie, she has figured out where all the best shops are and all that. We spent the days sitting by the pool and at night, we drank soju. Haha. I really miss my cousin. She's my favorite drinking buddy and one of my best friends. AND, she's my personal shopper. She's sending me things from LA right now because I don't know how to shop for myself anymore.

SEPT. 10 TO SEPT. 16
My last week in America, which also happened to coincide with the 5th anniversary of 9/11. It really made me think about the past five years and how much the world has changed and how much I have changed. I went from a naive 18-year-old to...well, I have no clue what I am anymore. But yeah, a lot has changed. ALSO this week was my Goodbye Party. Yay! We went to the Spider Club in Hollywood. Got really trashed and had a great old time. Thanks to everyone who came out.

SEPT. 17 TO SEPT. 23
TADA! I leave for London and I get here Sept. 18th morning. I hired a car service to come pick me up and they send this strange Portuguese woman wearing high heels. UHM...OK. Well, checked into the Strand Palace Hotel and then ran down the Strand to King's College London to start orientation. For 3 days, I just pretty much ran all over town going to Ikea, opening a bank account (Barclay's), TRYING to get a cellphone, etc. I'm REALLY good at settling into a new city. I amazed myself at how resourceful I am. I managed to pretty much get everything down in three days! Impressive, huh?
So this is what my new room looks like:


It's not great. I don't like the idea of living in a dorm again, especially after the nightmare of living in Deutsch Hall my freshman year! But at least I have my own room. Thinking about getting a flat in the city with my friend Magda, but don't really know since I don't know how long I plan to stay in London.
My first weekend in London, I decided to do the whole sightseeing thing. The weather was fantastic my first week in London. It hasn't been like that since, so I'm glad I got all the sightseeing out of the way. Also, I just knew if I didn't do it now, I'd get comfortable and never do it. I mean, I lived in Hollywood for 2 years without ever seeing a film at the Chinese Mann and I lived in San Francisco and never went to Golden Gate Park, Alcatraz or any of that...so figured, let's sightsee.
I rode the red double-decker bus that goes around the city. Anyone who comes to London, I really recommend it because you get to see so much of the city. It's 20 pounds, but I think it was worth it. On the bus, I met this Australian girl who happened to be traveling alone, as well. We hit it off so we spent the weekend sightseeing together. Her name's Lorenne, she's from Tasmania. She's really cool.

Me and Lorenne on the bus.

The bus tour guide.

Crossing Tower Bridge. Contrary to popular belief, this is actually not London Bridge. The original London Bridge is in Arizona and the current London Bridge isn't all that impressive.

Okay...my blog program won't upload any more pictures, so I'll put up the rest later...but just to summarize all the sightseeing I have done:
Tower of London - It's not that great, but it's just really interesting knowing that you're standing where Anne Boelyn and so many others were before they got their heads chopped off. Morbid, yes, but fascinating.
Thames River Cruise - Part of the bus ticket. Went from Tower Bridge to Westminister.
London Eye - Great views. I went on one of the few clear days in London! Someone in our capsule proposed when we got to the top. A bit tacky. Also, damn kid in our capsule wouldn't stop crying...so it wasn't all that romantic.
London Dungeon - Loved this. It was hilarious.
London Aquarium - Bleh.

Honestly, London is a GORGEOUS city. Pictures don't really do it justice. There are some cities that just look better on TV (like LA), but London, you really have to be here to see how beautiful it is. Like Big Ben looks so different in real life. You just don't get the color properly on camera. It's really magestic.

SEPT. 24 TO SEPT. 30
School started. The program isn't what I thought it would be, but whatever. I mean, it's an experience. The strangest thing about my program is that there's about 50 people, but only 6 of them are guys! Very different from business school.

OK...so that brings us up to October, but I'm getting sick of this, so I'll finish up later.

Love you guys!