It’s now been a little over a week since I have arrived in London. So far my experiences have been nothing but extraordinary. The most challenging part so far about living in London has been navigating the tubes, but with a little bit of experience over a couple of days I realized how simple the layout really is. When I first arrived at Gatwick Airport I had no idea that I would be taking multiple trains to get where my residence is on Goldhawk Road. Some stations you even have to walk out of the underground, requiring you to go up many flights of stairs, and proceed to walk across a busy intersection of a street for a few hundred meters just to get to the next station. My first time navigating the tubes was an experience for sure, especially with two big suitcases that would always get stuck in the payment gate of the tube stations because they would close too fast. I would then have to reach back over and lift my 50 lb suitcase over the divider. With the help of some good citizens pointing me in the right direction I eventually made it safely to my flat. The flat itself has a nice layout as I live with five other people. Two of us have single bedrooms while the four others have to share two bedrooms. Luckily I am one of the few in the whole program to have a single bedroom.

One of the most memorable experiences so far has been purposely getting lost one afternoon with the flat mates and ending up at Chelsea Stadium. I really enjoyed this because I am a huge soccer fan and Chelsea just won the English Premier League. The flat mates and I didn’t tour the stadium, but still got the opportunity to walk around the outside of the stadium and go in the gift shop where the trophy cases were the main attraction. I’ve seen some of these cup trophies on TV but in real life they are something spectacular to admire. Most of them are also pretty big, I would say about three feet tall. If it just so happens I get lost again and end up here I will be sure to take the tour to get the full experience and actually get to step foot on this notorious pitch.