Weekend in London!

Hello everyone!

So last weekend our program took a group trip to London. It was organized through our school, and 11 out of the 14 of us decided to go! It was nice to go on a trip organized by our school because everything was well organized and we had an itinerary planned out for us before we even arrived. We met for the train early on Friday morning, all a bit sleepy but excited for the weekend. The train ride from Paris to London is only a quick 2 1/2 hour ride, so it went by very fast. What made it quicker is that every single one of us passed out the moment we got on the train and didn't wake up until we were in London! We all wished someone captured a picture of the 11 of us fast asleep on the train. Once we got to London we were welcomed by Tony Skitt who works for AIU London and had organized the trip for us. He was basically our tour guide for the weekend, and it was great because he was full of information about the whole city of London. It was my first time in London, so I was very excited to see the city that I had heard such amazing things about! Tony led us to our dorms, and we were very surprised by how much nicer the accommodations were than our dorms in Paris. The rooms were spacious and came with a full kitchen in the rooms and the building had a game room, computer room, and TV room! It's okay I still love Paris, but I'm very jealous of students who get to stay in those dorms! Later that day we had a walking tour around Dover street, Bond Street, and South Moulton Street where Tony introduced us to an area  of "high-end" London fashion. We then traveled to the AIU London campus and were met by the Fashion Dean there who gave us a presentation on contemporary London fashion. Later that night, we got all dressed up and went and saw the show "Blood Brothers"! Tony told us he picked it because it was his favorite show, and it is definitely one of my favorite now too.  I absolutely loved it. After the show, all of the girls and I headed out to explore as Tony called it: "The thumpin' London night life" haha. We somehow ended up at two different Irish pubs that night and had a lot of fun! 9:30 am was an early morning for all of us the next day, but we somehow managed to get through the full day walking tour. On this tour, Tony took us to many of the monumental sites of London including the Buckingham Palace,  Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Nelson's Column, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, and ended at the beautiful Westminster Abbey. It was a very long, jam packed day but I was so glad we got to see so much in such a short visit in London. That night we had free and it was a friend, Erin's birthday, so we all headed to a restaurant bar called the Brewmaster. It was a very fun place, the food was delicious, and the people who worked there were very nice! After a nice dinner, we headed over the this bar/club called Penthouse and it was absolutely AMAZING. It had three different levels with different djs on each floor. We headed to the top floor where there was the coolest view of the city. 

We had a great time there, exploring each floor and dancing. My friend Elyse and I ventured over to another bar. We ended up spending all the pounds we had getting into that last bar except I had 10 pounds to get us home. We got some free pizza, and then somehow convinced a pedicab driver to take us to our dorms. It was about a 30 minute ride, and I felt bad for the guy because he was out of breath by the end. It was hilarious though, and definitely a highlight to the weekend. On Sunday, we had another quick walking tour, and then headed to the train back to Paris. 

I had a great time in London, but felt anxious to get back to Paris! It has felt more like a home to us lately as we have gotten into our little routines here. I was mostly craving my favorite crepe: nutella et banane! 

For some reason the pictures will not load right now. I will try to add them to the post at a later date!