Mind the gap!

Today began with orientation stuff which was not as boring as expected. I learned that the only house in England that the Queen cannot enter is the House of Commons because she is not a commoner. After eating lunch with a few friends in Hyde Park, I took my first ride on the Tube as Nicky brought us all to the Tower of London. We were then left to our own devices and spent the afternoon exploring the Tower of London and taking a million pictures of the Tower Bridge from various angles. Apparently, the Tower of London must keep a certain number of ravens on its grounds at all times or, according to legend, the kingdom and the fortress will fall. I really enjoyed seeing the giant royal punch bowl which was about 4 feet in diameter and 2 feet deep. After walking around the Tower for a couple of hours in unexpectedly hot weather, we went to a pub and had a fantastic dinner (I had Bacon carbonara pasta…I’m sure Nick and Sarah will appreciate that) and watched some tennis. Then we walked around Oxford Street for a bit and I came back to the hotel to find out that Italy is out of the world cup and that I missed seeing the longest tennis match in history. I decided against spending the night camping out for Wimbledon tickets, but I am still going tomorrow and I could not be more excited. Rafa is playing tomorrow so I’m hoping to sit on Henman Hill and watch his match.

On another note, I have been having a lot of random reactions to being here. It still hasn’t really hit me that I’m in London. Today I almost felt like I was in England at EPCOT. I think it will sink in more once we get to Cambridge and start taking our classes. Also, I think London is very unique. On one hand it is a bustling city like New York or Boston, but on the other hand it doesn’t really resemble either of those cities in any way. The juxtaposition of medieval and modern is fascinating. You can be inside a building that is centuries older than the United States and look out the window to see a large, modern building that sort of resembles an egg (it’s apparently called the egg building but I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I think I knew at one point and just can’t remember). I am also a bit surprised at how different in is from southern Europe. I can’t really describe what’s different about it, but there is just a different feeling than there was when I went on my P2P trip. Oh, I saw a P2P group today at the Tower of London! It was quite exciting. I really need to go to bed now since I need to be out of the hotel by 6:30 in order to get to Wimbledon early enough to get tickets.

Cheers!
-Nicole