I can’t believe I’m finally here. I took my first look at the London Eye and Big Ben as I got off the underground, which is also known as the tube, in central London. The underground is basically the same thing as the subway in NYC, with only a few minor differences. We learned that we were going to be taking the underground the entire time we were in London and also learned that it runs through all six zones in London. Zones in London are very similar to the five boroughs we have in NYC. Our hotel, was in zone three. Central London is in zone one.

It was only about 7am and I was jetlagged and exhausted. I had just gotten off a six and a half hour flight from NYC, feeling like a zombie who was definitely not prepared for a walking tour. Never being someone who could sleep on the entirety of a flight I only slept maybe 2-3 hours here and there. My eyes felt heavy and my body felt like a mass of weight that needed to be put somewhere to sleep for a few dozen hours. Due to my mental and physical exhaustion, I still had not come to the realization that I was no longer in America and was already halfway across the world after a long year of planning full of anticipation and undeniable excitement.

My excessively large school group of about seventy girls was most definitely not alone during that Wednesday morning rush hour on that small and narrow street corner in the biggest tourist spot in all of London. It was so hectic and overwhelming that I felt my head would spin off at any second; only adding to my exhaustion. However, my biggest concern was to get a quality picture for instagram to use as bragging rights and to make all of my followers jealous; which I succeeded at. I realized that I was being a total tourist standing there taking tons of pictures, with my iPhone nonetheless, amongst the busy crowd full of well dressed locals and students just trying to get to where they needed to be. After I got my pictures, I looked next to me on either side and didn’t see any familiar faces, which led me straight into panic mode. I can most definitely be alone in NYC but London was a different story. I’ve always struggled with anxiety and a hint of claustrophobia so not having someone by my side was a bit frightening. Eventually, I found my friend and ran to her so I could relax again.

Tourists are probably my biggest pet peeve. Coming from New York and experiencing Times Square far too many times, I promised myself to never be one of those people walking around with a backpack, a camera and a map of the city. Thankfully, a map was not required because our tour guide Richard did all of the navigating for us. Richard was quite an interesting man who had great fun in making fun of our accents and constantly reiterated how we say, “baaaaaathroom” instead of toilet. However, my phone never left my hand and I even took an oh-so-typical picture inside a red phone booth.

There was a little souvenir stand also placed on the corner; smartly placed by the owner, I must say. I didn’t buy anything because I knew I’d have plenty of other opportunities to buy things for my friends and family but apparently, not many others had the same mindset as me because they caused the entire group to wait for them to finish their shopping; which I didn’t mind. It bought me a little more time to take in the sights and maybe finally wrap my head around the fact that I was FINALLY in London, England! Seeing the London Eye and Big Ben was definitely only something I thought I’d only be able to dream about.