Movin' Out

This weekend has been jam packed, as does every day we are in London. Saturday we said goodbye to the dorm we were living in and moved in to our flat in Knightsbridge. Joel and I and our roomies had a luggage caravan going through the streets of London, we were quite a site! We made it to the flat all in one piece and finally got to unpack. It was so nice to not have to live in a suitcase anymore. We have very nice accommodations here, and are getting used to living in London. Last night we decided to treat ourselves to a bit of luxury starting with a walk through Harrods. We only made it to the "Luxury Rooms" of the first floor, where Fendi, Gucci, Prada and Pucci were flying off the shelves as if they were being given away. Having left Harrods feeling a bit like a kid in a candy store we decided to have a bite to eat at, get this, an Italian Hookah Bar sidewalk cafe. We sat back and enjoyed the city and people watching over wine, Italian garlic bread and Hookah which they call "She-shah." It was a great first night. Today we finally got to see some of the site of London. After a week of running errands and finding a place to live we got to act like tourists. There are ton of amazing museums in London, and I hope we get to explore them all. We started with The Victoria and Albert Musuem today, looking through the history of fashion, as well as some "cartoons" of Raphael paintings. Then a group of us met in Hyde Park for a picnic in front of the serpentine lake. The weather was in the 80s with a light breeze so it was just perfect. After walking the park we headed to Buchingham Palace, the Queen was in but did not see fit to invite us in for tea. When going to Buckingham palace the flag is raised when the Queen is there. We saw the guards patrolling the gates and are looking forward to seeing a changing of the guards ceremony. From Buckingham palace we headed over to Westminster Abbey, Joel's and my favorite Abbey!! It was absolutely beautiful, but as it was Sunday we were not allowed to go in as there were services in progress. There was also a church just outside of the abbey, which had a window made for Catherine of Aragon-as a Phillipa Greggory reader I was super excited! As we came to the abbey we were able to get our first glimpses of Big Ben. Now we really felt like we were in London!!! Walking through London led us to the London Eye, which we hope to get to ride soon and a view of Thames River. There were many more museums and an installation of Dali-so many things to see, so little time. Most of us were getting a bit tired after a long day of walking so we made one more stop to Picadilli Circuis. We took the tube there and popped out in what looked like Times Square. It was amazing, theatres, stores and of course more museums. We called it a night and headed back to our flat where we made our first London dinner. I cant wait to get really set up for cooking here, and buying fresh produce for our meals.
Tomorrow is back to school. Joel has orientation-which I have been invited to and then classes begin Tuesday. We will post pictures in the next day or so but wanted to share the fun with all of you!