Living in London

As many of you know, while I am abroad I am living with a host family just off campus. It has definitely given me a true dose of what life is truly like while living in London and I am a littled shocked by how many differences there are. I decided I would share some of the differences between my living arrangement here and back at home with all of you!

Walk-In

As you can tell, the entrance isn't very big. Underneath the staircase is a little rack for coats and 'about it. The front door also has a little slip in it where the mailman can push the mail through because there are no mailboxes. As well as no mailboxes, some houses don't have doorknobs, such as this house. Instead it just has a little lever that you grab on to pull close or you just push the door open. Its quite annoying really. 

Kitchen

the kitchen is very tiny (as you can see in the picture) and it consist of just a narrow hall. There are no pantries or walk in closets full of groceries. The lady I am living with goes to the store quite frequently (every 2 or 3 days) because there is little storage area in the kitchen for large quantities of food. The ovens they use are also very different then the ones I see at home. As shown in the picture, it has multiple compartments but no windows to look through. The dishwasher is also very very tiny. Probably about half the size of the ones we have in the states. There is no trash can in the kitchen because basically everything is recycled. Food scraps, plastics, glass, paper, EVERYTHING. even the clipping from cutting your grass gets recycled. Its crazy. In the kitchen is also the washer. notice that I did not say dryer. This is because majority of homes in London don't have dryers. Which means all my wet clothes get hung and take at least a day to dry. 

Living Room

The living room is pretty much the same as the ones back home. So nothing much to note about.

Bathroom

typically in most households here there is only 1 bathroom, maybe a 2nd with just a toilet & sink. However my household only has 1. Everyone takes there showers/baths in this bathroom and other bathroom needs. Thankfully the house I am in only consist of a mom and her son, so there isn't too many battles for the bathroom.

Upstairs

the upstairs is fairly simple. It consist of the single bathroom, my room, the Mom's room and the office. The ladder that you see at the end of the hall leads to the attic where the son's room is. As you can see there is no real "extra space" in the house here, which is how most houses here are.

My Bedroom

My bedroom is very nice and simple. I have one armor type thing (the open one) and the other one in the corner holds seasonal stuff of the family. I also have a dresser drawer off to the side. Guess it was a good thing that I could only bring one suitcase and a carry on over here. I am very fortunate enough to have a nice full size bed (Kevin has a tiny twin bed haha). The Master bedroom is about the same size as my room, and as mentioned before there is no master bathroom.