Minutes before my first (attempt) at a skype conference with my parents back home, I will update you all (hopefully more than just Grace) on London life:

On Saturday, my flatmates and I were on a team for a scavenger hunt...we ran around London trying to get brochures and pictures. The six of us (three girls from Missouri, Hannah, Julie, and Elizabeth and Jade, Natalie, and I) did a pretty good job at keeping up with the uber competitive drama kids. We only ended up losing by 9 points :( But, we definitely got a better idea of the city. My night was pretty boring...I stayed in and worked on my Model UN stuff.

On Sunday, we woke up early to go a bus tour of London. I thought that I would sleepily walk out of the study center that morning to meet one of the infamous red double decker buses...but sadly, it was just a normal coach (the funny thing is...we had to buckle up...let me tell you, it was a weird experience to constantly wear a full seat belt on a charter bus). Our tour guide, Sean, was a witty Brit who kept us all surprisingly awake. I definitely want to set aside some days to walk my way through London...or maybe even get off of random (maybe not totally random...I don't want to end up in a sketchy part of town) tube stop and explore!

Later that night, Aaron, our friend, Ashley, and I went to Notting Hill. Once a year, in the last week in August, there is a street carnival held there. Its the second largest street carnival in the world apparently. It was really really really crowded and there was a bunch of trash and drunk people everywhere, but we still had a good time. Reggae and hip-hop music played as the mouth-watering smells of Caribbean food wafted by. There were floats filled with sequins, brights colors, and even more music. We escaped the mayhem after an hour or so...

Yesterday, I slept in (I couldn't sleep until about 3 the night before) and worked a while on school work and my paper. My flatmates and I had a family dinner (grilled cheese and tomato soup, almost fool-proof dinner)...and I joined the YMCA down the street!!! Its really really really nice...I don't have a lot to compare it to, considering I have been going to the dingy Leach center for two years now. And I learned that this Y is actually the first YMCA. EVER. In a weird, nerdy way, I find that really cool.

Today was the first day of classes. I had Terror and Politics in the morning, then Ethnic Conflict, and then we have a third class in which we will be doing presentations on materials discusses in the first two classes. Juliana Fugezi, a firece Hungarian LSE graduate, our teacher for Tuesday/Thursday classes is pretty intimidating. I'm not sure if its her odd intonation (developed from speaking five languages fluently) or her personality, but she is a little frightening in class....I really like her. I know that she will not let our class slack off...and I have been able to get by in my classes back in Tallahassee. I'm glad that I will have her to teach me this semester. As we went over our syllabi today...my thoughts were confirmed. This is going to be tough semester; Juliana is going to kick it into high gear.

We talked about who a terrorist was this morning...it was sooo interesting. We discussed the saying "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". Juliana brought up the example of Nelson Mandela, who apparently was a leader of a African Nationalist group that endorsed acts of terror before he helped develop the new democratic South Africa. This is definitely going to be a different semester than any others before.

Sorry for the laziness, but I figured that I didn't really have a lot to write about (except class...). I will try to keep up. Here is a picture for the carnival (sooooo crowded!!):