Day 2

Hello!
Today has been pretty busy. We started with class at 9 am in the Hyde Park chapel. I'm taking three class here: a British geography class, an English literature class, and a class called London walks where you, get this, walk in London. Since the London Center isn't finished and we have to fend for ourselves food-wise until it is, we were supposed to get some money to help pay for our food after our classes. The guy bringing the money was late, so we took a walk in Hyde Park, where we saw this thing:

The Prince Albert Memorial! Yay! I hope someday my spouse loves me enough to build a giant gilded statue of me in Hyde Park after I die. And also an opera house. Because apparently that's how Queen Victoria rolls. It was very impressive in person. Each of the statues around the main pavillion thing represent different parts of the British Empire, and they're just enormous. Once we'd looked our fill we went back to the church, got our money and a couple of girls and I left to go on a bus tour of the city.
Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard and by the time we found our bus stop, we were all soaked through. Traffic was pretty bad, so the bus didn't come for a long time and once it did come, progress was slow. I'm still pretty jet lagged, so I kept dozing off, but I did see most of the cool stuff, like the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square (fun fact: the lions were modeled on the sculptor's labrador retriever, and thus have dog rather than cat feet), Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London. I'm excited to actually go see these places rather than just looking at them in a bus, but it was still a pretty enjoyable activity.
After our bus tour, we were all starving so we went to find some dinner. One of our assignments for our geography class is to try different local foods, so we decided to try out some fish and chips. We ended up at a tavern where we were served our meal by an Irish barman. It was quite the experience. The chips were pretty good, once you added a bit of salt, but I've never really been a fish person. I did my level best, but I did not finish my fish. In fact, it nearly finished me. Here's a pic of my meal in all its Instagrammed filtered glory since I can't get it to upload directly from my phone:

Once we were fortified by food in our bellies and dry jackets, we once again braved the rain. We walked to Victoria Station, which was enormous and crowded as all get out. We went to a grocery store, then made our way back to the apartments.
I guess that's about it for today!
Next time on Kate Goes to London: The Tower of London
Stay tuned.