My First Day

I am not going to count yesterday as my first day in London just because everyone was walking around like a bunch of zombies so we didn't really get to do a whole lot. Last night before a meeting we all went out to a pub called The Goat. It was a good time. We got a chance to talk and get to know everyone's names. We were all so out of it last night that everyone had forgotten by today anyway so we got to do that again.

Woke up at 9ish today and we had a walking tour of my borough and the neighboring Chelsea borough. The tour guide was great and really knowledgeable. I got the chance to learn some pretty cool things from the tour. A couple of the exciting points were that, as I told you all yesterday, My flat is surrounded by two embassies. But right next to one of the embassies was the house that Winston Churchill...yes, Winston Churchill was born and raised in. We got a chance to walk through the park. Kensington and Hyde Park are attached to each other so we got to see all these famous statues. We also learned that the side street a couple blocks down from us is called Millionaire's row. The guide explained though that that could be renamed to be Billionaire's row for the present day. The cheapest 2 bedroom apartment that you could buy on that street is close to 500,000 pounds. We also saw the house where Queen Victoria lived, as well as a bunch of Queens, Princes, Princesses and Kings that I can't remember anymore grew up.

One place we couldn't see was the house where Princess Diana lived. It was blocked off because it was next door to the Israeli embassy. And with everything that is going on right now....that wasn't exactly the safest place to be. There are demonstrators and protesters out there all the time and the entire street is blocked up for safety purposes. Needless to say, the sentiment over here is VERY anti-Israel.

We walked to this really cool Thai food place and ate there today. It was delicious but after we all ordered, we found out that there was a 10 pound minimum on all orders so I spent more money there than I had really hoped.

But in all, life is good. I'm still alive and in one piece so I can't complain. We are doing a tour of all the royal palaces and buildings tomorrow, so I'll do my best to get pictures up for you ASAP.