The Week In Review

This past week has been pretty busy. We started classes, so for at least 2.5 hours a day, Monday through Thursday, I'm learning at the IES Center in the Bloomsbury district. Our schedules keep us pretty busy, but we did manage to have some fun this week. Wednesday was not only my 21st birthday, but Kyle's (another girl in the program) as well. To celebrate, the girls and I went out to dinner at Made in Italy, a restaurant just down the street, where I had my first glass of wine. We then walked back to the residence hall, but as soon as we set foot in the lobby, the fire alarm sounded. The pictures below are of the girls with the fire truck behind us (the reflectors). The photographer for the bottom picture told us to look scared...



While waiting for the fire alarm to clear, Traci and I finally got to take the roommate picture.



IES doesn't schedule any classes for Fridays, so on our first Friday we decided to visit the Tower of London. We arrived a little early to take a tour, so we took pictures of the Tower Bridge while we waited. The girls (L-R) in the picture below are as follows: Kaitlin, Me, Kristen, Katie, Kyle, and Katelyn.



After taking a tour with a Beefeater (one of the tower guards), we saw the Crown Jewels and had lunch. The girls weren't interested in seeing anything else, so I stayed for a couple more hours by myself to see the White Tower(below), the Bloody Tower, and the torture room.


Below are Gin(left) and Beer(right). They were part of the museum inside the White Tower. They are supposed to have hung over the food storage room.




Katelyn's mom has some friends here, and one of them has a son in university. He invited us out to the suburbs to meet his "mates" and get a taste of the London night life. So Friday we met them at a pub/club (a "plub" as Katie called it). They considered it a continuation of the birthday celebration, and at one point, I even heard the dj say, "Here's a birthday shoutout to a Stephanie, here all the way from Oregon."



That is the week in review. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!