Study Abroad in Paris!: LONDON (finally)

I finally have time to update this (and I added pictures to the Barcelona post too) haha. London was AMAZINGGG! It was so nice to be able to leave from downtown Paris, take the Chunnel, and arrive in downtown London, instead of our usual which is taking shuttles to airports in the middle of nowhere to land in the middle of nowhere and have to take another shuttle to get where we want to go. Talk about exhausting. Since half of our group missed our train haha (typical) we waited at the station for their train to arrive and then went out to find Harry Potter! The first thing we did was go to King's Cross and go to platform 9 and 3/4! If ISA did one thing right, it was accepting a bunch of kids with a Harry Potter obsession into their Paris program. After that we went to find our hostel, which was basically in the London countryside...notttt very close to the downtown area, but whatever it was only 11 euros a night! It was okay, but there was no way those bunkbeds were legal, I'm pretty sure stacking three beds on top of one another doesn't meet firecodes, but oh well, they were an experience. We ended up walking around the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament areas that afternoon. Even though it was raining (typical) everything was really cool to see. For dinner we had our first English Pub/fish and chips experience, we were all so excited for fish and chips, I'm pretty sure I ate it three times while I was there. At least there was no gelatto haha. That night we met up with Chelsea and Sarah, I was so excited! We went to this three story pub which was really cool. On the top floor they had a live band and it was good to hear American songs, sung by people who actually speak English. On saturday (our second day), I ended up getting really homesick, London reminded me a lot of home. Add that to being stressed out about watching my bank account dwindle down to almost nothing and Betsy leaving the next day, yeah needless to say I wasn't in the best shape. I ended up leaving the group for the day and just walking around alone. It definitely made me feel better to not have to deal with 8 people wanting to go in 12 different directions. I ended up getting off the tube (the subway) at Covenant Gardens and just walking. It reminded me of Faneuil Hall because there were a ton of little stores and little places to eat. Then I went to the Tower of London and ended up meeting up with Chelsea and Sarah and we got fish and chips again, of course. Then we went to Hamleys, which is a 5 story toy store! It was so cool! If I were 5 years old I'd still be there. Since Sarah wasn't in the best shape from the night before so we just ended up splitting up and heading home. That night we went out for Steph's 21st. One of her friends was DJing at a club and he told us he could get us in. Little did we know it was some super super upscale club and everyone was dressed up like they were going to some black tie affair. But it was fine, it's what she wanted to do. I'll never be able to afford going to a club like that again as long as I live haha, but it was an experience. Betsy, Mike, and I were all so broke from the club that we couldn't afford a cab so we had to figure out the night bus. Easier said than done. But after asking a few police officers and random people we met and meeting some guy in a silver space suit, we got home okay. On sunday, Bay, Betsy, and I met up with Chels and saw her school. It is BEAUTIFUL! I'm so jealous. It's an actual campus (which I don't have here), with actual dorms (which I don't have here), and free tennis courts (which I ALSO don't have here), and a meal plan...well you get the picture...she had pretty much everything I don't have here in Paris. Oh well though, Paris is still better. I can totally see myself living in London one day. Paris, not so much...I've learned that if it's efficient, the french don't like it...and I'm also recently learning that somehow (I haven't figured out exactly how yet) but somehow, the french internet is connected to the weather. It works great when its sunny and it works HORRIBLY when it rains. It must have something to do with their dislike for efficiency. Someone must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed one day and gone "I think our internet is too fast, since it rains here all the time, I'm going to make it not work when it rains...and voila...horrible internet" I have a bone to pick with that man, since it took me 4 hours to upload 300 pictures. Not a fan. Anyways, back to London. After getting lunch (fish and chips again) Chels and I put Betsy on the train to go to the airport :( . After that we all went to Abbey Road and took the generic tourist picture...oh well, it had to be done. We were so exhausted from our travels that we just went out to dinner for Steph's birthday on Sunday night and went home. We were all so happy to get on the Chunnel on monday to get back to Paris.