Football...with your feet!!

So its the end of a long, but fun day here in lovely London. It's raining, yet again, and here I sit sipping an Americano in a tiny net cafe in Muswell Hill (bout 5 mins. North of Crouch End where I live).

As I wrote earlier, today began with my first navigation of the London Underground. Thanfully, one of my wonderful roomies lives in DC and her expertise with the Metro translated easily to navigating the Tube.

After an hour or so of being oriented with the AIFS staff, we were off on a guided siteseeing tour of London by coach (bus). We went everywhere -- Buckinham Palace, Old London, Soho, Covent Garden...all over the place! We learned the history of everything thanks to our very competent tour guide, Bob. We then visited the incredible Westminster Abbey.

Westminster was even more beautiful and fantastic than I'd ever imagined. The superb gothic architecture made for an incredible picture. One thing I didn't know, the abbey is still a working church! In addition seeing all sorts of graves and effigies, we occasionally saw a robed priest appear to light candles and at three o'clock, we were privileged to be present for a prayer. We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the tomb of Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, and the famed "Poets Corner."

After that breathtaking experience, we got back on the coach and toured a few more parts of London. When that was over, my roomies and I got back on the tube to head home. After getting off at our stop, we had our first troubles navigating the transit system. We weren't lost really, but we did walk around in circles a few times before we figured out where our bus stop was -- after that, we were good.

When we got to street level, we saw the full effect of what football (soccer) has on the English. The air was electric. Arsenal, our home team, is playing Barcelona in a championship match. Hours before the game began, people were everywhere -- drinking, yelling, and selling Arsenal merchandise. Part of the reason I'm here writing right now is that my friends and I waited too long before we headed out to the Pub, and it was full due to the game. There's a pub in Muswell hill called O'Neils that's actually a converted church (now that's MY kind of religion) that we tried to get into, but despite its ENORMOUS size, it was full beyond capacity and the landlord was turning people away at the door. So now, we decided to get out of the rain in this little cafe and may end up heading back home if we can't find anywhere else to go.

Tomorrow begins our actual classes at the University, and since they start at 9 am, we'll get our first experience with riding the tube during rush hour. We've been warned that its a very crowded place and that we'll likely be packed in like sardines -- so that will be fun. Well, I think I'll head off now, but as always...more to come!

=-)
Cheers!