London Week 1: am I doing this right?

I've officially lived across the pond for 1 week and let me tell you - moving across the globe is hard. For real y'all! From the moment I got to the Chicago airport, anything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

My flight left ORD 3 hours late, meaning I got to London way later than I had planned. As soon as we touched down at Heathrow, everything was moving at 100 mph (or should I say kilometers/hour?) I tried to gain some sense of normalcy, so I stopped to grab coffee on the way out of the airport. I quickly learned that anyone who told me that there wasn't going to be a language barrier here was totally lying to me. Coffee is my love language and the barista had no idea what I was saying! (For future reference: they don't have Half & Half here, "cream" means whipped cream, and all lattes are made with skim milk *cue my tears*) From that point forward, I decided to just embrace the discomfort of my new surroundings and learn to like the bland coffee I was drinking.

Nothing has slowed down since my first day here. I've gone to too many pubs, gotten lost in London in the wee hours of the morning, drank too many ciders, bought too many subpar lattes, and laughed more than I thought possible. The people I've surrounded myself with come from all walks of life, but we all crave that same sense of adventure - even if they have no clue where Iowa is (I'm looking at you, Jackie!)

My roommate, Jackie, and I fulfilling our London dreams!

Here's the condensed version of what I've done this week:

1. Explored my neighborhood of Kensington - I literally live 3 blocks from Prince William and Duchess Kate!

2. Took a river cruise down the Thames with my new classmates

3. Got lost trying to get back to the university with my friends - we vlogged this! Check it out!

4. Discovered a new found love of Primark - think Forever 21 & Target combined

5. Visited Buckingham Palace - I WALKED DOWN THE GRAND STAIRCASE (honestly living my Princess Diary dreams)

It's crazy to think that this season of life that I've dreamt of for so long is finally upon me. I already have quite a few trips lined up for the coming month and I can't wait to see more of this corner of the world. This weekend I'll be visiting Stonehenge and then I'll be visiting Wales, France, and Ireland in the following weeks. If you want to hear more about my crazy adventures - check out this week's vlog! Cheers! xx