The French Riviera

         This weekend Shayna and I went to visit our AKPsi friends Alexa, Marissa and Jesse in Southern France on the Cote d’Azur (Blue Coast).  Meagan and Chelsea went to Germany for the weekend, but we all had flights out of Gatwick Airport at 7am on Thursday morning.  Instead of going to sleep early we decided to just go out to Imperial College and then pulled an all nighter.  Although we had fun, it was a bad decision overall as we were all miserable in the airport as well as the plane.  Once we arrived in Nice airport, Shayna and I took a bus and a train to Antibes, the town in which Marissa and Alexa live.  To get to their apartment, it is quite a trek since it is about a mile walk, completely uphill.  Although it is a long walk to get anywhere, it is absolutely beautiful where they live.  They have a 2 bedroom apartment on the first floor of a house where their landlord lives.  However the landlord was not there for the weekend since he was in Paris, so we had everything to ourselves.  We also took care of the landlords dog Oliver which is a tiny white dog.  There are palm trees and orange tile roofs everywhere.  Since the house is on the top of a hill, you can see the ocean and mountains easily. 

            After taking a nap for a while, we met up with Alexa and Marissa’s friend Max who goes to their school and also conveniently also has a car.  We all drove with Max to Cannes (Yep, the place they have the film festival) on Friday night and saw the city and went to a club for about an hour or two. 

            We spent the entire day on Saturday in the city of Nice, which is absolutely beautiful.  The beach has clear blue water, there are mountains and cliffs as far as the eye can see and the weather was perfect.  It was great to walk around with a t-shirt in 60-degree weather when I haven’t seen the sunshine in London for weeks and there is 18 inches of snow in NYC.   It was also fun to see Alexa get soaked by a wave, which I happened to catch on video.  We spent about an hour on the beach enjoying the weather and we climbed up to the top of a fort like structure to get a great view of the city and to watch the sun set.  We then walked around, went to dinner and took the train back to Antibes.  Nice is an absolutely beautiful city and I guess that’s why it is named “nice”. 

            On Saturday the weather did no cooperate as well as it did on Friday.  I think I brought the London weather as it was in the 40’s and it down-poured almost all day.   We ate lunch at the most American place you can possibly go on the French Riviera, a restaurant named “Buffalo Grill”.  Because my friends and I are very immature we all decided to wear the chief paper hats that children at the restaurant wear.   We later ended up going to Monte Carlo in Monaco where it was raining way to hard to do much.  On arrival in Monaco we decided to jump on a bus and see where it took us, which happened to be an oceanography museum.  We took the train back to Nice and we missed out on seeing a lot of Monaco because of the terrible weather.  I also didn’t take any photos except in the museum because I did not want to ruin my camera.  If you want to see what Monaco looks like, google it.  After the train got back to Nice we had to walk about a half hour to get to the bus while it was raining really hard and we got completely soaked. 

            While we were on the bus we decided that we were going to stay in on Saturday night because it was raining way too hard to do anything else.  We then came up with the brilliant idea to have a house party since the landlord was in Paris.  After getting off the bus we had to walk really fast to get to the supermarket as fast as possible since it was 8:20pm and it closed at 8:30pm.  We arrived there with about three minutes to spare and we ran through the supermarket grabbing everything we needed for a house party including pizza, chips, and drinks.  Saturday night was one of the most fun nights I had in a long time which ended with everyone jumping into the freezing cold pool at 3am….and we didn’t get sick or come down with hyperthermia (yet). 

            This morning we headed to the airport by bus to catch our flight back to London.  Apparently my backpack counted as a bag for easyJet and I had to pay 35 euros to check in my very small duffel bag.  I didn’t have to pay for the flight over so I questioned the ticket lady about the easyJet policy, and she refused to answer my question.  I tried to fit everything in my one bag to avoid the charge, but it was impossible and she didn’t give me the chance to try.  The ticket agent was the rudest, bitchiest woman I have ever met in my life and I was trying to keep my cool.  Anyone who is friends with me knows that I am one of the nicest guys you can meet, I rarely get mad at people and I never get pissed off….today it happened though.  Once I finally decided to pay the ridiculous charge I gave the woman my British passport and she commented, “Oh the British are almost as bad as the Americans these days”.  That was one of the rudest things that someone has ever said to me and it took everything for me not to just smack her and get arrested.  Throughout the trip I realized that the stereotype is pretty true, French people are very rude to tourists. 

            Despite how the trip ended, France is a beautiful country and it was great to see my friends and enjoy the nice weather on Friday. 

            Interesting things about France:

            1) They don’t pick up after their dogs, gross. 

            2) The word for shredded is “rápé"….yep I want some rape cheese

            3)  Wine is cheaper than both water and Coke, not kidding. 

            4)  Their bread really is the best bread in the world.

            5)  Yep, they are very rude to tourists.

Anyway current country count is at 6, putting me closer to my goal of 10. 

            ---Current Country Count---

            1) England

            2) Wales

            3) Belgium

            4) Netherlands

            5) France

            6) Monaco

PS- If they are unfortunate enough to read this, special thanks to Marissa and Alexa for having us over this weekend.  Also if you are a guy with the initials of MC, screw you. 

PPS- I don't know why this blog always changes the font size...It automatically does it. 

-Rees

House we stayed at.

Pool we jumped in at 3am.

Nice

Our Group!

We climbed to the top.

View of Nice

Sunset

Want some rape cheese?

Chelsea FC, Brick Lane and Imperial War Museum.

            For the first time ever, Im about to have a short post.  Monday afternoon I went on a class trip with my Global Marketing class to Stamford Bridge, which is the home stadium of Chelsea Football club.  Class trips mean that I don’t have to sit through a three hour long lecture and I get to do something cool for free!  Our guided tour of the stadium was pretty cool and we got to see the lockerrooms, press room and all of the trophies that Chelsea FC have earned.   It was a pretty awesome class. 

Yep, we are important

Shiny

Shayna and I at the stadium.

            On Tuesday afternoon I had a class trip with my British Life and Culture class to Brick Lane.  Brick Lane is a street in the East End of London, which is the heart of where all the immigrants from India and Bangladesh live.   Our professor walked us around the neighborhood for about an hour before he took us all to an Indian restaurant.  Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t do spicy food such as Indian food, but I enjoyed the restaurant.  I ordered Chicken Tikka as my starter and Chicken Tandorri Masala as my main dish.  In addition I had a pint of Cobra beer (the Indian specialty) and garlic Nan bread.  Once again I did not have to sit through a three-hour lecture and I got a free restaurant visit paid by FIE.

            Today I had a third class trip of the week for my Economic Integration of the European Union class to the Imperial War Museum (Yes a third trip, my program is a joke).  I had to walk around the museum to different exhibits and fill in a bunch of information.  The museum is very good and had tons of cool things such as war planes, atomic bombs, submarines and tons of weapons.  The museum has a great exhibit on WWI and WWII.  When I was inside one of the bomber planes I was a typical klutz and hit my head on the ceiling (I always forget how tall I am).  It was a hard hit and I got dizzy, but I was the only person inside so I just sat down for a few minutes until my head wasn't spinning.  As a result I have a big bump on my head, which the hairdresser even noticed when I got a haircut on the way back to Metrogate.  Oops.

Imperial War Museum

            Tomorrow I am going to be waking up super early to get on a flight to Nice, France at 7am.  Shayna and I are going there to meet up with out other AKPsi friends Alexa, Marissa and Jesse.  It should be a good time and Ill update everyone on Sunday night.  

Amsterdam and Bruges

          Meagan, Shayna, Chelsea and I went to Amsterdam, Netherlands and Bruges, Belgium this past weekend.  We went with a tour company called “International Friends” which specializes in tours for international students.  Our tour guide was probably the nicest guy you can meet and he was also funny and very helpful.  It was a great weekend and we were able to see so much in just a few days.  Amsterdam and Bruges are both fantastic and beautiful cities to visit. 

            It all started at 5am on Friday morning when a cab came to pick us up at Metrogate House.  We then waited by the Hammersmith tube station where the coach picked us up at about 5:45am.  The coach went to a few other locations in London to pick up additional travelers (all college aged American students like us).  We then arrived at the English port of Dover at about 8am where we then boarded the ferry to Calais, France.  In Dover we were able to see the famous white cliffs of Dover with Dover castle sitting on the top.  After arriving in France we began the long drive through France, Belgium and the Netherlands.  The trip took a very long time and we eventually made it to Amsterdam at about 5:30pm.  However it was pretty cool to say that I have been to 4 different countries in one day. 

            When we arrived in Amsterdam we immediately boarded a boat for a canal tour of the city.  Although the sites were pretty, we would have preferred to do it before it was dark and when we weren’t exhausted.  After the boat ride we checked into our hotel.  The Winston is a bar, club and a hotel all in one, with the bar serving as the lobby of the hotel.  The Winston was in a great location and was pretty nice but it was loud pretty much all night because of the club and bar, but it didn’t matter too much because we were only in our room to sleep.   After check-in we went to a “coffeeshop” (aka pot selling place), which was only a few blocks from the hotel.  We went just to see what it is all about, but it’s not really my thing since I don’t smoke, have zero desire to smoke and hate the smell of pot.  Either way it was pretty cool to see what the Dutch culture is all about.  We then met up with out tour guide Rob outside of The Winston for a guided tour of the world famous Red Light District which is pretty much the most ridiculous and obscene place you can ever go and it was pretty awkward to walk through.  The rest of the night was free and we walked around the city and visited a few different places before heading to bed. 

            On Saturday morning we had to be on the coach at 8:45am to go to Zaanse Schans which is the Dutch living heritage center, 20 minutes outside of Amsterdam city center.  Our tour group was able to explore windmills, see cheese and wooden clogs being made and do everything that is part of Dutch culture.  The site was very nice to walk around, with the exception that it was absolutely freezing outside.  Either way I think it was a great addition to the trip and it was something that my friends and I would have never done if we went to Amsterdam without a tour group.   After the Zaanse Schans visit the coach dropped us off at the Anne Frank house, which is an incredible museum and a great experience.  The rest of the day was spent walking around the city and exploring different museums such as the Rijksmuseum.  Amsterdam is such an incredible city filled with friendly people, tons of bikes and tolerant laws.  It is among one of the most unique and beautiful cities that I have been too.   My only complaints about the city are that I thought it was a bit dirty and a bike almost hit me every five minutes. 

Our group after the canal boat ride. 

Oldest Church in Amsterdam.

Zaanse Schans

Giant Clogs

            On Sunday morning the coach left Amsterdam at about 9am headed for the Belgium city of Bruges.  Some of you may have heard about/ seen Bruges in the Colin Farrell film “In Bruges”.  If you have not seen the movie, I would definitely recommend it.  Anyway we got to Bruges on Sunday afternoon and our tour guide walked us through the city showing us all the different churches and towers.  Bruges has easily become one of my favorite cities in the world and it is truly a very beautiful city.  The architecture is very unique as Bruges is a medieval city, with all of the buildings from the period still in perfect shape.  Without question, Bruges is the most beautiful city that I have ever been to and it is a city that everyone should visit in their lifetime.  The towers, churches, cobblestone streets and canals can make any other city in the world seen a bit ugly.  After walking around for a while, we eventually ate at a restaurant that had over 400 different kinds of beers.  I tried the local brew,” Brugge Zot”.   Bruges has numerous different chocolate shops in which I ate the most delicious (and expensive) chocolates that I have ever eaten.  With Belgium beer, waffles and chocolates, Bruges is definitely a city that I want to return to at some point in my life. 

            After leaving Bruges we stopped at a chocolate factory near the Belgium/ France border where I bought a few things.  We then trekked through France eventually making it to the ferry in Calais.  On the way over to France we did not need to go to immigration, but unfortunately the British don’t have open borders like the other EU countries so we had to get our passports checked.  The British government is very stubborn and does not have the same open border policy and currency as everyone else (Im saying that even though I have a British passport).  The ferry ride across the English Channel was extremely rough and it was hard to even walk on the boat in a straight life, although it was a massive boat.   We arrived back into London at about 10pm, and I was a bit sad that this wonderful trip was over. 

Bruges

Isn't it pretty?

Clock Tower

            This morning I went on a class field trip to see the Chelsea Football Club stadium, but I will talk about that on my next update and you are probably bored by now (if you are somehow still reading).  I also haven't opened a book since I have gotten to London and have never done any work.  I am beginning to question why AU is currently allowing this.    

            I forgot to mention that I have a goal of going to ten different countries while I am abroad.  Although I have technically been to France I am not counting it until I go to Nice this upcoming weekend since I don’t think you have “been” to a country unless you actually visited something or experienced another culture.  Current country count is at 4. 

           

               -- Current Country Count--

                         1) England

                         2) Wales

                         3) Belgium

                         4) Netherlands

-Rees

Afternoon Tea/ Visiting Marry Poppins

            On Friday afternoon I went back to Harrods with all of my friends for afternoon tea.  Many of the best restaurants and hotels in London have afternoon tea daily, with Harrods being a top choice by many people.  After the fifteen-minute walk to Harrods we took the elevator up to the top floor where the famous Gregorian restaurant is located.  Afternoon tea at Harrods is expensive (26 pounds) but you can sit there for as long as you want and you get unlimited scones, pastries and sandwiches. 

            After I ordered the peppermint tea, the waiter came over with a huge three-tiered centerpiece filled with huge scones, many different kinds of sandwiches and different kinds of pastries.  Homemade jam, clotted cream and rose petal jelly helped to make the scones even more delicious.  After eating the best scones I ever had in my life, I tried out all the other foods that were brought out.   The waiter kept bringing out more scones for us, since everyone at the table couldn’t get enough of them.  The restaurant was very fancy and there was a grand piano in the middle playing background music.  I felt like a high class British person for a few hours and going to afternoon tea at Harrods was definitely worth the price for the experience (and the scones).  

Gregorian Restaurant Harrods

Pastries, Scones and Sandwhiches

             On Saturday morning I woke up early to catch a Megabus coach from central London to Cardiff, Wales so I could visit my grandmother.  Megabus actually started in the UK and is very similar to the service they offer in the US.  However leaving on the bus is way more organized in London than in New York.  In London there is a coach terminal where each bus is assigned a gate just like an airplane, resulting in a very organized system.  In New York everyone crowds in the street near Penn Station trying to hear about which bus is which from someone screaming into a megaphone.  The drive over to Cardiff is actually a very nice drive as you go through the English and Welsh countrysides.  When looking out of my window there were lush rolling green hills, sheep, cows and horses as far as the eye could see.  

Sheep everywhere.

            My grandmother was very excited to see me as I haven’t seen her in about two years.  I felt good that I was able to bring a smile to her face as she is very old and lives a pretty lonely life since everyone else in the family passed away in the last few years.  The best way to describe my grandmother is that she is a combination of Queen Elizabeth II and Marry Poppins.  She is a traditional old Welsh lady and she loves cooking for other people and drinking tea every 30 seconds.  The best thing about going there was the homemade apple pie that she made.  It was also nice to have someone cook a bunch of free food for an entire weekend.  While I was there I realized how addicted to email and facebook I am as I did not have an Internet connection and it was driving me crazy.  After dinner on Friday night I showed my grandmother a bunch of photos on my computer and then we watched “March of the Penguins” on her TV (her favorite movie apparently, random I know).  After she went to sleep at like 9pm I went to the pub around the corner from her house and I had a really good time. 

            Sunday morning I went to church with her since that is basically her favorite thing in the world.  Did I want to go? Of course not, but the entire weekend was about doing what she wanted to do and trying my best to make her happy for two days.  It was good to see her and I was glad to know she was a bit less lonely for a few days.  She is excited that I am in London and the fact that I will probably be back once or twice before I go back to the US. 

            Sunday night when I got back to London (after sitting in gridlock traffic) a bunch of us went out to a pub so we could watch the Jets and Patriots game.  It ended up being a really fun night, especially since I went with a bunch of friends from the Boston area that all basically hated me on the walk home.   Today I survived my 6 hours of class and its more of the same for tomorrow and Wednesday.  Thursday will be spent sitting around, maybe doing some homework and relaxing since I am leaving for Amsterdam/ Bruges with Meagan, Chelsea and Shayna VERY early on Friday morning!  You will hear all about that trip in a week from now. 

- Rees

FIE Party, Harrods and Blood Brothers

           Once I was finished with classes for the week on Wednesday evening, I walked over to Imperial college for my school FIE’s welcome reception/party.  My friends and I were somehow the first ones there so we just stood around awkwardly for a few minutes until everyone else got there.  The party had free food and drinks (alcoholic included) for all the students.  It was pretty cool and weird to be at a party hosted by your school that includes free beer and wine (take notes from FIE, American).  

            On Thursday afternoon everyone was either in class or taking a nap so I decided to take a walk around the area by myself for a while.  I ended up at the worlds famous Harrods, which is about a 15-20 minute walk from Metrogate House.  For my entire life I always pictured Harrods to be just like Macys in Herald Square in New York City and I could have not been more wrong.  Macys is just a very large store taking up an entire block, but everything is at prices that the average New Yorker can afford.  Harrods, which also takes up an entire block, is a massive LUXURY store.  The interior of the store was basically like the interior of a palace complete with large paintings, crystal chandeliers and stained glass ceilings in the food courts.  I don’t think I could have afforded anything in Harrods, except a few chocolate bars, which I bought just to say I purchased something there.  The most impressive part of the store was the food hall, which contains some of the most colorful and decadent displays of food I have ever seen.  Each room of the hall was a different food category such as the meat room, the bakery and the confectionary.  I think I died and went to heaven in both the confectionary and bakery sections. 

Harrods!

Egyptian Themed Interior

Harrods Confectionery 

             Thursday night everyone had tickets (provided for free by FIE) to see a show on London’s West End, which is basically equivalent to Broadway in New York.  I had a ticket to see “Blood Brothers” a show that I have never heard of before but happens to be one of London’s longest running shows.  Although I am not much of a theatre fan, I did enjoy the show for what it was.  The show tells the story about two fraternal twins who are separated at birth and one grows up in a struggling home when the other is brought up by a wealthy family.  Eventually they become friends and fall in love with the same girl, resulting in their death.  The music had a cheesy 80’s feel to it and my only complaint was that the music was too loud which made the actors a bit hard to hear.  Overall, it was a good experience. 

Pheonix Theatre- Blood Brothers

Anyway in other news, my shower's water likes to be either very cold or absolutely freezing lately which is starting to get on my nerves.  Tomorrow morning through Sunday evening I will be traveling to Cardiff, Wales to visit my grandmother.  Talk to everyone soon!

-Rees

Beginning of Classes

            Since the last update I have been relaxing a bit after the first few crazy days after arrival.  Most of Sunday I spent getting organized and staying in the Kensington area.  Although my first few days were a blast, I realized that I am unfortunately on a “study” abroad program so classes started on Monday.  I am taking three classes this semester: Global Marketing, Economic Integration of the European Union (EI of EU) and British Life and Cultures.   Classes here are long, at three hours each.  Global Marketing and EI of EU both meet twice a week (that’s six hours per class per week!) and my British Life and Cultures class meets once a week.  Marketing and EI of EU meet twice a week because they only last for 7 weeks as they stop when my internship begins.  Although I am in class for a long time on both Monday and Tuesday, it is worth it to have four day weekends. 

            Classes are held at my school building, The Foundation House, which is just a few minutes walk from where I live at Metrogate.  For the most part I am very happy with my three classes.  My Marketing and EI of EU professors were both really experienced and somehow kept me interested for the entire 3 hour class periods.  They also do not seem like very hard classes.  My British Life and Cultures class wasn’t terrible but I definitely found myself getting very bored after about two hours. 

Foundation House- my school building. 

            In other news my friends and I booked three different trips since Sunday night.  On January 21-23 we will be going on a guided tour of Amsterdam, Netherlands and Bruges, Belgium.  On January 27-30 we will be going to Nice France and staying with our AKPsi friends Alexa and Marissa and finally on February 10-12 we will be spending a weekend in Madrid, Spain.  I am very excited for the trips and am glad that we are taking advantage of our 4 day weekends, which we will no longer have after Spring break when our internships start. 

            Although I have only wrote about how much I love London such as how I can legally drink, there are definitely a few things that annoy me about the city/ British culture:            

            1) Everything is expensive, EVERYTHING.

            2) The pound currencyà the Queen is on every single piece of currency, every coin and every bill.  Cant they change it up a bit, Im sick of seeing Queen Elizabeth II.  Also it annoys me to no end that the bills are all different sizes and that there are no 1 pound bills.  Whenever I need less than 5 pounds change, I get handed tons of coins.  I hate carrying around change, so I usually empty it out of my pockets as soon as I get home.  As a result I currently have an entire Ziploc bag just filled with coins.

            3) Food does not contain preservatives or anything artificial.  This is actually a good thing since food here is definitely healthier for you than in the US, but because there are no preservatives everything goes bad really fast.  Bread, Fruit and Milk all goes bad in less than three days in the fridge, resulting in much more frequent grocery shopping.  Since food contains nothing artificial, it is also way more expensive. 

            4) They drive on the wrong side of the road.  As a result I always look the wrong way when crossing the street and I almost get hit by a car everyday. 

            5)  My umbrella is my best friend here.  Even when you look out your window and there is a clear blue sky, bring your umbrella because chances are that it will rain anyway (this has happened to me). 

            Anyway that’s enough of my ranting for now, i'll update next when something interesting happens. 

-Rees

            

Welcome to London!

            The last few days have definitely been very busy and crazy.   Since so much has happened during the past few days I will break down what I have done by day.  I wont do this with every blog post, but it seems necessary this time. 

            Wednesday night my parents drove me to Newark airport to begin my London adventure.  It was a bit sad saying goodbye, especially as my Mom looked like she was about to loose it when I was getting out of the car.  While taking off, there were a million thoughts going through my mind such as excitement but also nervousness.  The entire moment was so surreal as I realized I was off to a different country by myself and there was no turning back.   The flight was really smooth and everything about British Airways was great.

            Thursday morning I arrived into London Heathrow at about 9:30am.  I then made my way through customs, which took like 2 minutes because I have British Citizenship.  British Airways Terminal 5 is gigantic, the worlds largest passanger terminal and the UK’s largest freestanding structure.  There were literally hundreds of British Airways planes everywhere I looked.  After getting to the lobby of the airport I met up with my AKPsi friend Shayna to head over to our residence Metrogate in Kensington.  To get there we took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington station and then a taxi the rest of the way.  London black cabs are great since they are pretty reasonably priced and the cab drivers know literally every block and location in the city as they have to pass a test to get a license. 

           When we got to Metrogate Shayna and I found our other AKPsi friends Meagan and Chelsea who are my twin and little in the fraternity.  It is great to have a few goods friends with me in London. After checking in we visited our first pub down the block for our first British meal and drink.  Our residence in located in the heart of Kensington, which is the most affluent part of London.  Every car parked outside is either a Astro Martin, Masarati, Bentley, BMW, Mercedes, Audi or Range Rover.  The world’s most expensive apartment building is only a few blocks away where the average apartment costs about 20 million pounds (about $36 million dollars).   There are tons of pubs and restaurants on Gloucester road around the corner from Metrogate.  Kensington gardens and High Street are only a few minutes away.  The area that we are living cannot possibly be any better.  The rest of Thursday was spent walking around the area to get an idea of where everything is and getting acquainted with Kensington.  We also had to walk to Foundation House (our school building where we have classes) to pick up all of our orientation materials, which is about a 10 minute walk from Metrogate.  I am in a large room with three other roommates who all also go to AU.  The room has a bathroom, four closets and two sets of bunk beds.  Its not the best room ever, but it could be much worse.  All of my roommates seem to be pretty normal and we havent had any issues yet so thats a positive.  

My block- Queens Gate Terrace

Metrogate House, where I live. 

Gloucester Road, around the corner. 

             Friday morning and afternoon we were all exhausted from the night before and we had to sit through hours of orientation meetings for FIE which were held at Imperial College.  All of the info was basic stuff that I have sat through at every other orientation in my life.  Some parts were interesting such as the school administration encouraging us to go drinking and to try as many beers as possible.  During most of the orientation meetings I read the British slang book we received which has over 100 phrases for saying that you are drunk…most were hilarious and Im sure they will come in handy.  After the meetings we all went back to Metrogate to relax and nap.  Friday night was out first real night out in London and it was pretty much pure craziness.  We went out bar hopping in Oxford Circus and during the process we seemed to make many friends and enemies and also happened to accidently crash a party held by CNN.  It was a great first night out. 

            Saturday morning we had a 2 hour bus tour of London led by a blue badge guide.  We pretty much drove all over London and we got a great overview of the city.  After the bus tour I went on a 2 hour walking tour of the Kensington area, which included stops at Kensington palace and Hyde Park.  After the tour I went to buy a British cellphone and we later went to the movies where I slept through 20 minutes of the movie since I was so exhausted from all the touring of the day. 

            So far London has been absolutely great and the city has been so much nicer than I ever expected.  I have had tons of fun in my first few days and I cannot wait for what is in store for the next few months.  Also I  get unlimited incoming texts on my US iPhone.  Feel free to text me at my usual US number.  I have limited outgoing text messages, but I might respond!  

-Rees

Predeparture

Hello Everyone,

            So, today is January 1st 2011 and this should be a very exciting year for me.  Creating a blog is one of the stereotypical things that people do when they go abroad, so I will be jumping right onto the bandwagon.   The reason that I have created this blog is to keep in touch with all my friends and family back at home in the States.  Since everyone I talk to will be asking me what I have been up to, making a blog will save me from emailing and facebooking the same stories over and over to my friends at home (although you all know I’m an expert at repeating stories).   My goal of this blog is to give you detailed information about my travels, updates on what I have learned through the experience and many photographs. 

            For those of you who do not know my plan for the upcoming semester, it goes something like this… I board a plane for London Heathrow on Wednesday January 5th, I will be living in London for four months, I will be taking three classes and will complete an internship and I return home to New York the last week in April.  I am staying in Central London in the Kensington area (one of the most expensive and sought-after locations in Europe) and will be in a program with FIE (Foundation for International Education).  FIE is an organization that works with American University’s Kogod School of Business to design a study abroad program for AU students. 

            It is hard to believe that in just a few days I will be boarding a plane by myself to live in a foreign country.  This is something that is radically different for me as I am completely stepping out of my comfort zone.  Although I was a bit nervous when I first went to college and left my family and best friends at home, things worked out great and AU is a second home for me.  When I am home in New York I am happy because I get to hang out with all of my lifelong best friends from high school.  When I am in Washington I get to hang out with all my best friends that I have met in the past three years and all of my AKPsi friends.  However when I am in London, I wont have either groups with me and that will probably be the hardest part of leaving.  With the exception of my good Alpha Kappa Psi friends Meagan, Chelsea and Shayna, I will be leaving behind all of my favorite people behind.   

            During the next few days I will be trying hard to fit my entire life into two suitcases. I will miss everyone, but I hope you all keep in touch.  My skype and AIM names are both mrees1428.  My email address is mrees1428@aol.com , also use facebook to keep in touch. Feel free to comment on my blog and feel free to ask anything you want about my experience.  Next time I update this blog, it will be about my first few days experience in London!

-Rees

P.S.- The blog is in London time, 5 hours ahead of the East coast US.