Day 3 - The First Day of Class

Today was our first day of actual classes.  I am taking two classes here, both of which are taught by ASU professors that will be traveling with us for the entire program.  The first class studies the cultural development of England, Scotland, and Ireland and their relationships with each other through the use of various texts and sites throughout the cities that we will be visiting.  The second class is studying the development and impact of literature and art in England, Scotland, and Ireland from the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern periods.  While these classes do not apply to my major, they are the only classes associated with this particular program, as they are obviously easily integrated with the cities we are visiting and I think they will both turn out to be quite interesting.  Both of our classes are held in the mornings, which leaves the afternoons open for us to go on various field trips or to see some of the many sites throughout the city.

Kensington Gardens

Today's afternoon field trip was a tour of the four main parks in London by one of our professors.  We started in Kensington Park which is not very far from where we are living, then proceeded through Hyde Park, Green Park, and finally St. James Park until we once again ended up in Trafalgar Square, in the center of London.  From Trafalgar Square, I took the Tube back to near where we are staying and went to Whole Foods to get ingredients to make our first home cooked meal.  The Whole Foods here in Kensington is a truly incredible place and was unlike any grocery store I had ever been in before.  The store itself covers three floors and carries everything you can imagine and more, there is even a cheese vault on the bottom floor.  After seeing everything that they have, we are really looking forward to the rest of our home cooked meals.  Today's dinner was a vegetable stir-fry accompanied by several different types of fresh fruit and continued our streak of great meals here in London.

Tomorrow we have class again in the morning followed by a tour of the British Museum.