This is my travel journal from my study abroad trip to the UK and France. The names of my teachers and classmates have been changed for privacy reasons.

DAY 16- June 4
               So I should probably mention somewhere in here that although we've taken our final exam for Dr. Owen's class, we haven't yet taken our final for Dr. Thompson's class. We've managed to persuade her to put it off until we leave London. And once again, I feel like the odd woman out. I'd much rather have done that final yesterday, when everything I'd learned was fresh in my mind, but oh well...

               Got up at 6:30 this morning to catch a taxi at eight in order to catch a train that left sometime after that. The train was pretty cool. I ended up falling asleep sporadically throughout.

               Brianne randomly yelled "Harry Potter!" as the snack trolly came by. Donna told her to turn her music down, because I'm pretty sure the whole car heard her.


               The train had to slow down and eventually stop for a bit. I'd seen reports on BBC News about metal thieves who'd been stealing tracks and copper wiring from the trains, and I became instantly paranoid. "Oh my god! It's the metal thieves! They've taken up the wiring and communication's down and now we're about to get hit by another train!" My friends managed to convince me that that wasn't the case, and that I should really get back in my seat.

               Arrived in London at about 1:15. (Or 13:15. I'm getting better at reading a 24-hour clock.) Although we were at King's Cross Station and I asked if we could, we never went to see Platform 9 3/4. We did get to carry all of our luggage several block over to the university we'll be staying at. I felt sorry for everyone who brought a suitcase you could smuggle a lawn mower in.

               Instead of getting our own bathrooms, we are sharing one with a suitemate. We still get our own rooms, though. And instead of us all having our rooms in a cluster, we're scattered throughout the building. My suitemate is a student whom I've not yet met, but at the time of writing this I heard her going into her own room.

               At least she's a girl. Some people got paired with opposite-sex partners. I wouldn't mind sharing with a guy, but I'd prefer it to be a guy I'm already friends with.

               The new room is nice. It's squarer than the last one, but probably about the same in square footage. I get a bed, a wardrobe, a table, and a little shelf. There is no television, which doesn't affect me much. I can always watch something on my laptop. (Probably something on the BBC iPlayer, seeing as it will work for me as long as I'm in the UK!)

               Anyway, there's nothing much to do. We wandered around town a bit. Our teachers gave us our passes and showed us how to get around on the Underground. They showed us what I figured was the theatre district, and said that we'd be coming back again to buy tickets for shows.

               Okay, so as I go up the steps out of the tube station, the first thing I see is the Wyndham's Theatre. And whose faces are plastered all over it? David Tennant and Catherine Tate. And they're performing in Much Ado About Nothing.

               I swore right then and there that I am going to see this show, no matter what the ticket price and whether or not anyone's going with me. (Likely nobody. I asked around.)

               Then our teachers took us out to eat at this incredibly fancy Chinese restaurant. Like, the kind with all the fancy artwork and carpets and paneling. The kind where you feel woefully under-dressed if you've just gotten off of a train. The food was delicious, and that's coming from a person who doesn't normally like Chinese food!

               And now it's time to sleep. I'm exhausted.