The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

My first two weeks in this city have flown by. There's so much to say. I guess I'm still in the honeymoon phase here, but I'm in love so far. Can a place give you butterflies and make you smile for no particular reason? (Answer: of course it can, hello Disney World.)

As well as my blog, I'm also documenting this journey via a twitter, tumblr, instagram and YouTube channel. Feel free to follow/subscribe/like/reblog/retweet/thumbs up/favorite/comment on all of those things if you'd like. Or don't. My friendship and love is not dependent on it.

My first London adventure vlog was also about my first "project" as a grad student:

Our quote for the day. Man, was it a good one.

Scenes from the Tate Modern.

My lovely group representing the UK, USA, Spain, Italy, and Taiwan!

After our great day in the city, JoJo, Katie, and I bought some last minute tickets to see The Light Princess at the National. Tori Amos wrote the music and lyrics for this new work which is still in previews. It has its problems, but was a visually stunning show with some seriously fantastic melodies.

A few days later, some of us ventured to the Churchill War Rooms which were unreal. I can't recommend the place enough. In case you're unfamiliar, the secret headquarters of the British war effort during WWII was basically a small community built totally underground. Men and women lived, worked, and survived down there.

Further photographic highlights (you can click on pictures to make them bigger if need be):

In case you were wondering, it's extremely difficult to be named an Honorary US Citizen. On the right is a casual letter from Dwight Eisenhower basically saying how much he misses his British friend.

Did you know Churchill was a legit painter? I sure as heck didn't.

The main map from the map room. This thing was punctured with thousands of tiny holes that denoted every friendly and enemy ship, battle, station, etc there was.

The man is responsible for enough quotes to fill a dozen coffee table books.

On the left is the flag that was draped across Churchill's casket which over 300,000 people filed past. His was the first "commoner" funeral attended by any ruler of England (in this case Queen Elizabeth).

Long story short- if you get the chance to go- GO! As an American, it will widen your view of WWII in really good and important ways.

All of these above things happened before my first day of classes. Since then I've completed my first week of grad school, seen two more West End shows, found a church, and slept far too little. But these events deserve their own post, don't you think?

To the city that gives me goosebumps,