My home for 2 months

Greetings from Foggy London town (except it's not foggy right now),

We had such an easy trip out of Paris yesterday morning b/c we decided to go for a taxi and avoid the metro. This was the best money we've spent by far b/c we had no problems with luggage and made it very quickly to the station. This train was very different b/c in order to get into London, you had to have your passport checked, baggage scanned, and check in. I was interrogated by the passport control b/c I was staying in London for so long but didn't not have an address to give them. This made me quite nervous, but they finally let me through. Our seats were in 1st class and we got a big breakfast once we got on (despite us already eating breakfast at the hotel). The train ride was very smooth and going through the Chunnel was nothing but going through a very dark tunnel for about 40 minutes. I did meet a very nice lady on the train that gave me here number here in London and told me I should ring her sometime and she would take Jenna and I around to some neat areas. She also gave me a list of some local things I must do while here. It was really nice.

Once off the train, the station we arrived at was very nice with no graffiti, but was very busy. Dad and I waited in line to get my Oyster (subway pass) card b/c I will need that for the next 2 months to travel around. We all got our tickets and easily rode one line to our stop in Earl's Court. Today was really a breeze! Our room was not ready so we headed down our street and found a local pub and had some beers while waiting. Mom was in heaven while drinking in a real English pub! We went back to the room, changed our clothes for the evening, and headed out to do some sightseeing before dinner and Wicked. We were able to see The Houses of Parliament/Big Ben, ride the London eye (big ferris wheel thing), and walk and see Buckingham Palace. It was great how much we could knock out in one day. We went to our dinner (which had the worst/slowest service so far) and then to Wicked. The show was awesome...a little technical glitch caused the show to stop for about 15 minutes, but who cares! We also saw Jenna and her friend b/c they got tickets to the same show. It was great to see other people we knew. We planned on getting a drink after, but it was getting late and they had to try and figure out which tube was still running to their stop. We called it a night and hit the sack.

This morning we are planning on going to a local market, see London Bridge, and possibly some other sites before heading to Putney to move me into the dorm. I don't know about internet access at the dorms, so I don't know how frewquently I will blog after today. I will come back and post some pictures hopefully before I head out.

Melissa