London, United Kingdom

I am settling in nicely in a 4 bed house in Tooting Broadway. Although it is farther out from the centre (I am in zone 3), I am very well connected. The tube station is at most 5 mins away, with several buses running on the High Street (a block and a half away). On the High street (for those not familiar with the London way of doing things) I have 3 supermarkets, several pound stores (aka dollar stores) and restaurants and pubs. I am conveniently located near Primark too!

One of the advantages of living a little further out, is that I have a large double room (I could fit a double air mattress easily (in addition to my double bed, wardrobe etc, which means that you can come visit me!) We also have a good sized kitchen, lounge and garden (although it has now started to rain, so the BBQs will have to be held later!) I also have 2 lovely flatmates (we are searching for a 4th). Chekufeh is British, studying/working for her accounting qualifications at PWC. Katie is American, and has just moved here to do consulting work with Accenture. She went to LSE (same place that Rachel went).

Unfortunately, after paying my rent and deposit, I am left with very little in my account (just started to get paid this week). I have always been in a very fortunate position to maintain a certain balance in my bank account, and being very close to 0£ is scary! I really don’t know how the government can allow us (youth) to come over with a measly 1800£ and expect us to survive! And I am making more than min wage!

Anyways, onto the things I have been up to on my days off/weekends. First off, I went down to London bridge (nothing spectacular) and walked over to the Monument. Very tall, and very gold! Then I walked to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is quite spectacular from the outside (didn’t go in, as you have to pay. I might just go to a service there, when I can go inside for free. Anglican is close to Catholic, right?)

The river Thames, being an artery through the city, offers a nice walkway, and I continued my tour of Central London with a trip past the Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, towards the Tower Bridge and Tower Hill. I ended up going past some ruins, and a dungeon tour, and saw the bridge in action! The sites in London are very expensive, so I have not actually gone into many of them. Free is what I am all about! Anyways, this post is getting quite long, so I will write another this week on the free things you can do in London!