End of first day/Monday

St. Paul's

So after flying into a foreign country overnight, riding the underground, walking around with all my luggage, walking around without my luggage but getting lost and walking further than anticipated and then eating dinner, I went to a pub (I know! Crazy, right?) with the program administrators and about 15 other students. It was nice cultural experience and it was strange not being carded at the entrance. I also got to be there for Rachel's first legal drink (the poor girl is 20), but I could not finish my own beer. I was definitely buzzing about halfway through my drink and decided to stop because I did not know these people very well. Jet lag's a bitch. *edit* So they use pints and half-pints to serve you beer here. 1 pint=16 oz.=more than one beer. I feel better now.

At the top of St. Paul's with the Millennium Bridge in the background

I went to bed around 9PM. I woke up around 3-4 AM or something. Not cool. I fell back asleep soon enough though and got up for my 10AM class. We were given a tour of the grounds, introductions blah blah blah but then we left for the city. I walked to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral! So beautiful. The inside was the biggest open interior space I've ever experienced and the ceiling was all gilded-mosaics that reminded me of the Library of Congress/Byzantine mosaics kinda thing. Because the City's ordained that you can't build anything higher than St. Paul's dome, you could see all of London from the top. Unfortunately, you have to scale 300+ stairs to get there. And they're all spiral staircases that make you dizzy. I couldn't stop thinking of Mary Poppins and that song about the bag lady feeding the birds.

Group shot with the Parliament building in the background

We walked around London afterwards and went past Parliament and 10 Downing Street. Then we went to Leicester Square to the Queen's Theater to get tickets for Les Miserables. MY FAVORITE MUSICAL! I'd seen it once before so I bought an "obstructed view" ticket for 15 pounds  (the cheapest available). Apparently we were in for a huge treat. The guy playing Jean Valjean was the same dude who did the 25th anniversary recording (Alfred Boe). I laughed. I cried. I still love the musical. I would go see it again tomorrow night and every night after if I could. The only downside was because I had bought the obstructed view ticket, everything that was super stage left wasn't visible. I couldn't see Fantine's solo, Eponine's death, or when Jean Valjean sings "Bring Him Home" about Marius. Oh well, musicals are more about hearing anyway. And "Bring Him Home" still brought me to tears. Whatever, I'm cool. The orchestra/pit was top notch. No midi/keyboard BS at all. A real harp, cello, violin, and viola! So good!

Interesting fact I've learned: there aren't many trashcans around London and there aren't any in the Tube. This is very inconvenient if you're carrying around an empty apple juice bottle. I learned that there are few trashcans because the IRA used to blow them up in terrorist acts during the 80s and 90s so they just never put them back.