0...Goodbye London

After very little, if any, sleep I began my final hours in London. We woke up at 5:30 a.m. to be ready for our bus to pick us up at 6:00 a.m. When we woke up, we looked out our window to see the first snow fall of the year.

After scurrying about to throw our final things in our bag it was finally time to say goodbye. At the time it really didn’t even feel like we were leaving. The whole London experience was surreal. The fact that I had been dreaming about studying abroad my whole life had finally become a reality and that reality was about to come to a close. It is really impossible to put into words how I was feeling. The only people who can truly grasp how it felt to leave were those surrounding me. We had shared in an incredible three months together and made our stay in London an experience that none of us will soon forget.

After packing up the bus and having a mini snowball fight, we took one last view of our flat and headed onto the bus. Jeana was staying in London with her family, so she tearfully hugged everyone goodbye before heading to the tube. During all of these moments I thought I would be bawling my head off, but surprisingly it felt like it wasn’t even happening. I don’t think I came to terms with the fact that we were actually leaving until we finally landed in Indy.

Our bus shuttled us to the airport for our last drive through the city of London. It was about a 45 minute ride, and being as it was 6:00 a.m. you would think we would all want to sleep but we were pretty alert the entire way. Denise went with us to the airport and informed us on the way that Nathan had lost his very first tooth the night before!

When we arrived at the airport, we took one last look back at London, even though we were away from the city, and said our final goodbye. After checking all of our bags in (and I was lucky because mine was overweight but they let it slide) we went to sit and wait for our plane to board. When we were able, we boarded the plane and Ashlin and I did some seat trading so we could sulk next to each other for the long ride home.

During the flight we watched movies and napped on and off before landing in Chicago. Everyone was ecstatic to be back on U.S. soil. I’m not sure I was ecstatic as the rest of the group, but it was good to be close to home after a long day of travel. Unfortunately we still had lots of waiting to do before we would make it home.

Our flight to Indy was delayed and then delayed again. Finally we were able to board to plane, only to wait for about an hour before we were cleared to take off. This put us way behind schedule and everyone was getting pretty antsy to just get home, me included. I did nap a bit on this plane, hoping to pass the time quicker, but it didn’t do much good. Eventually we were cleared for takeoff and off we went.

We landed in Indy and met up with Ashlin and her family and friends as they said their hellos. Once we grabbed our luggage and all said our final goodbyes, it was time to make the drive to Indy, where I would finally get to see my sister after three long months. When we landed in Indy, the reality of being home had finally hit and I was ready to just be with my sister. The drive home felt like forever, even though it helped listening to glee on the way home :)

After 9:00 I was dropped off at my sister’s apartment and able to finally give her the big hug I had been waiting for. We grabbed my luggage out of the van and headed inside to eat the mac & cheese she had made me for dinner :)

Since I had seen my parents in London just the week before, I was spending the rest of the week in Muncie with my sister and catching up with friends. I couldn’t think of any easier way to transition than by surrounding myself with people I loved :) I was home sweet home!

1....

There would be no better way to spend our last day in London than all together, so thats what we did. Everyone finished packing our bags and weighing and reweighing them. Then it was time to scour the flats and make sure they were as clean as we got them.

We had a bit of fun when we cleaned the kitchen and literally cooked everything that was in our cabints that we were going to have to throw out. It was quite the combo of things, but at least it didn't all end up going to waste!

After all the packing and cleaning was done it was finally time for one last night of fun in London. We were all headed to Hyde Park for the Winter Wonderland Festival. Since the tube was on strike (we began and ended with a strike..sort of fitting because we didn't want to leave either!) we all piled on a bus to get there. At the festival our first activity was ice skating. The Bailey boys had never been before so it was fun to help them learn. Nathan was so proud he never fell...what he doesn't know is my arm almost fell off by preventing him from falling so many times :) It was completely worth it though :)

The ice skating took place in one hour increments sow e had an hour on the ice. It flew by as we were having so much fun. When our time was up we explored the festival for a while before it was time to heavd to the circus! I had never been to a circus before and this wasn't exactly a normal curcus but it was fun nonetheless. When the circus ended it was off to the flat as we had a very early morning and long day ahead of us as we would leave the city of London behind.

Of course as soon as we got back none of us were in any mood to go to sleep. Jeana and Ashlin and I hung out and reminisced over all the great times we had throughout this entire experience. Then we were being silly and took some pictures of our room/bathroom/hallway so we would always remember where this incredible journey took place.

Around 2:00 am we decided we ought to try to get some sleep. Even though Jeana and I got in bed, we ended up talking for a long time. I'm not even sure when we decided we should try to sleep but I don't think I ended up sleeping much at all as my brain would not shut down. I don't know how it could. I wasn't ready to go home. In my heart I knew it was time though. Without everyone else there with me the experience would not have been the same. I also knew that it was going to be better to leave before I was ready than to wait until I wanted to go home. I'd always rather look back somewhere where I have only good memories :)

Countdown...2...

Sunday pretty much consisted of the same type of day as Saturday...lots of packing/cleaning/lounging. Jeana was gone the majority of the day to get get her family from the airport.

In the afternoon, Dalton, Brandon, and I headed downtown to do some last minute shopping. Our tube line was down the whole weekend so getting around wasn't as easy as normal and made leaving the flat a hassle which is why none of us ended up doing much over the weekend.

After we got back it wasn't long before Jeana arrived with her mom and aunt and I got to meet them before they headed to where they were staying. It was a pretty calm day but a good one nonetheless. I can hardly believe tomorrow is our last full day in London but its going to be a great one!

Packing & Countdown begins...3....

After a late out last night, we decided to spend the day just packing. You would think packing would be a pretty simple process since we just had to take it all home, but it was sort of a challenge!

Jeana and I were going to go to Kensington Palace in the afternoon but after hearing most of it was under construction from my parents we decided to stick around the flat so we could all hang out together.

At night all of us hung out together and played some games to wrap up our last Saturday night in London.

Cupcakes!

To fully catch up on that sleep that I was in need of, I spent the morning sleeping in while my parents went to Kensington Palace. In the afternoon, Jeana, Ashlin and I met up with my parents in Covent Garden. We walked around and explored the shops and the market.

To take a break from our shopping, we sat down and got some delicious cupcakes from an adorable cupcake store. They were probably the best we had in London, so yummmy :) Definitely something I am going to miss!

My parents were pretty much done in for after their extremely busy week in London so we all headed back to the flats. I packed up some things for them to take home and then we said our goodbyes as they were headed out extremely early to catch their flight back home.

As it was our last weekend in London, we decided to spend our last Friday out on the town so we got dressed and went out for an evening of fun!

Thanksgiving - Lots to be Thankful For

Back in the states, most families gathered to celebrate all we are thankful for. Here in London it was just another day for almost everyone, except for us few Americans. Even though we weren't in the states, we decided to get together for a thanksgiving feast. (We couldn't miss one of the best holidays of the year afterall!)

Before we gathered to celebrate everything we were thankful for my parents and I went to the Tower of London. The beginning of the morning was a bit rought as we were up most of the night but I managed to meet up with my parents around 9:30. After a few glitches on the tube we made it to the Tower.

Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side again and we froze most of the morning, but we managed to survive :) I had already been to the Tower with Jeana but we didn't get to go on a Yoeman tour so thats the first thing my parents and I did. It was really entertaining though by the end I was just ready to get to some heat! We warmed up by exploring the crown jewels and other indoor exhibits before calling it a day.

My dad wanted to see Tower Bridge so we took a look at it from a distance. Since we were pretty cold we decided not to walk all the way to the bridge so we headed back to the flat to get the food ready for our thanksgiving pitch in. Once we were ready we headed to Denise's flat for our thanksgiving feast to begin.

We had a great time celebrating the holiday together. When we were done eating, as per Matt's family tradition, we all wrote what we were thankful for and put it in a tin. Matt then proceeded to read them and we all guessed who wrote them. It was a really great way to share all the things we have been blessed with.

With everyone full and happy, it was time to wrap up the evening with a trip to the West End to see one final show: The Lion King. My parents went to see a concent at Royal Albert Hall while we went so I said good night to them before we headed out.

The last time I saw the Lion King I slept through the whole thing, so I told Jeana no matter what she had to keep me awake for the entire show! It shouldn't have been a problem because it was such an awesome show but I was extremely tired from lack of sleep the night before. Although I managed to remain awake, I can't say it wasn't a struggle! I'm so happy I was able tos ee the show all the way through this time!

When the show was over it was back to the flats we went to get some much needed sleep!

Final Wednesday Outing

For our final Wednesday outing we headed to St. Paul's to start our day. After going on a tour of the church with Phillipa as our guide, we began the climb up the stairs for an incredible view of the city. This is one of the thigns I was really looking forward to doing in London so I was happy we all got to do it together!

There were three different levels you could climb. The first level was inside and gave you a great view of the church. On this level you could actually speak into the wall and people on the other side could hear you. It didn't work perfectly, but we got it to work a few times!

On our way to the next level there is a little glass box where you can look down and see how high up you are which was really neat! The next two level were outside where we got really great views of the city. It was a beautiful day which made the views even better.

After we all had our fair share of views of the city we ended our tour of St. Paul's and took a break for lunch. Pretty much all of us headed next door to grab some pizza and finally got to use our taste cards :)

We met back up in front of St. Paul's to begin our afternoon tour of "American's in London." Phillipa took us around the city showing us America's impact on the city. It was a fun way to wrap up our Wednesday outings.

When we finished the tour we headed back to the flats where my parnets met up with us and I cooked them some dinner before they headed out on their own for the evening. After they left we began to get ready for our final party which was taking place at the pub next door, The Queen's Arms. It couldn't have been more fitting as it was our first meal in London and now one of our last :( It is seriously unbelievable that it is almost over. No doubt it has been the greatest three months of my life and it was a once in a lifetime experience that I am so blessed to have participated in!

Our final party was lots of fun. All of our professors were there. We all ate dinner and Philipa's husband put on a little magic show for us. Then the hard part began as we passed out the gifts we made for our professors and began our goodbyes. To lighten the mood we began to give each other our certificates (we each drew out a name and had to come up with an award for them). It was hysterical listening to everyones awards and definitely a great way to recap some of the trips best memories.

The party was an excellent way to wrap up our experience together. Even though it was bittersweet, these people will always hold a special place in my heart as we head back home and go back to life as we've always known it. I know life will never be the same for me after this experience and althought its sad to leave, I'm excited for what else is ahead!

A Day in London with my Parents

I started out the day by meeting up with my parents at 9:30 so we could go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. They only have the ceremony on certain days, so today was the day to go. The actual ceremony didn't start until 11:00, but to get a decent view you have to get there early. It was a pretty chilly day so by the time they ceremony began we were a bit numb. Lots of people still showed up to watch the spectacle.

The ceremoney itself was longer than expected. The neatest part was when they had a little band play a couple of songs. I don't know the names but they weren't just traditional songs...I actually recgonized most of them. Overall getting to see the changing of the guard was a neat experience and one I'm glad I got to do even if I did almost freeze to death!

Before it was completely over I had to leave to go to my final Brit Pop music class. I left my parents to tour Buckingham Palace while I was gone. When I got on the tube I had never appreciated how hot it was more. Even though it was warm, I still didn't completely thaw out before I made it to class.

Our last Brit Pop class was lots of fun, as expected. And as usual, not too much learning took place. We spend the majority of the time talking about our final party which is tomorrow, and we are all excited for!

When class ended I hopped back on the tube to meet back up with my parents so we could go to the Churchill War Museum. They went through Buckingham Palace quickly so they were already there once I arrived. I caught up with them and we went through the war rooms together which were really neat. After we finished exploring the museum it was time to head to meet up with teh girls to see Wicked!

We got there pretty early so I decided to take my parents to Westminster Cathedral to look around for a bit. A service began to start around 6:00 so we headed out to grab some dinner at a little cafe before going to the theatre to pick up our tickets for Wicked.

We waited for the girls to arrive and then we went to go take our seats. We were supposed to be seated in the very back of the theatre (and they would have been nosebleed seats) but luckily the show wasn't sold out so we were able to move up to the very frong of the balcony for first come first serve seating! Our new seats were fabulous compared to the other ones so that was a great treat!

This was the second time my family had seen Wicked, but it was even better the second time! As it was our very last week in London we were all pretty emotional and Ashlin and I ended up crying when they sang "For Good." My dad thought we were crazy but it has pretty much been our theme song for the trip! Wicked was absolutely incredible and I'm so glad we got to see it!

Once it was over we all hopped on the tube to head home. My parents went to their hotel while we headed back to our flats to crash after a long but wonderful day!

The Goodbyes Begin As Classes End

Today was our very last British Life and Culture class. After having spent the night on the couch with Ashlin I was a still pretty tired since its not exactly easy to sleep on the couch. But we got up nice and early to get ready for our very last class. We had spent the majority of last week writing our final assignments and today was the big day where we had to present them. We of course were freaking out about it, but were put to ease as soon as we entered class. Lyndon had heard we were all really stressed about them so he told us not to worry and that if we were completely off then he'd let us redo them...not that I wanted to put that much effort into it again!

To start class off we went over a few bits of business and Denise passed our our final week schedule. Its hard to believe this is really coming to a close and not something I particularly like thinking about just yet! I'm just trying to enjoy the moments while they are here and not dwell on the fact that it will be over soon! Our next task was to split up into groups and come up with do's/don'ts for the following semesters. It was kind of neat looking back on all the things we have learned and not even really realized! I just hope the other groups take our advice because I know we didn't take some of the past groups advice and looking back definitely should have. Following that activity Lyndon gave us a little talk about our experiences and whatnot and then it was time for us to take the stage and present our papers.

We just picked random numbers from a class list and that person had to read a section from their paper. Everyone wrote a paper on something that they had learned about British Life and Culture and their personal experience with it. It was neat getting to hear what everyone else wrote about and made me think of things I hadn't thought of yet which is always good! It didn't take us long to go through all of our papers and once we were done Lyndon wrapped it up asking us to think about what others had said and to reflect on our own personal experience. It is definitely something I am going to be reflecting on for a very long time I believe, if not for the rest of my life.

When class was over it was time for our fitness walk. Denise wanted us to go on one of our past favorite walks so that we ended on a high note. So we headed through Regent's Park, up Primrose Hill and then to Abbey Road. My parents met up with us at a tube stop and then we made our way to Abbey Road to take our fun photos and check it out. From there we caught a bus back to the flat where we proceeded to cook some lunch. Then it was time to get my parents checked into their hotel and out of our flat. It was actually quite convenient having them here so it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the week turns out with them so far away...although they are only a few tube stops from me which is nice!

After going through a bit of a hassle to find their hotel we did. We were a bit stressed while trying to find it because we had a bit of a time schedule to go off of. We had to be at the Odeon theatre to see Harry Potter at 5:00. Luckily you get reserved seats so we didn't have to get there early to make sure we got a seat or anything. We ended up getting there in plenty of time because we simply dropped their bags and headed right back out the door. We made it before most of the group did actually but it was nice because my parents got to meet Denise and Matt.

We then got some popcorn and went and found our seats. The ushers actually walked us straight to our seats since they were reserved which was sort of fun. They had cute little leopard print seats and a huge curtain covering the screen. When the movie started the screen parted and it was like the opening of a theater show. We all enjoyed the movie and it really didn't even feel like it was two hours and forty minutes long! When it got over a group of us planned to go out to a pub for dinner but we were all really tired. My parents decided to go back to the flat and us girls were still going to grab dinner but we decided we were to tired.

As we were about to leave to go back to our flat my parents reappeared and said they changed their mind and wanted to go out to dinner. So then we decided instead of going to a sit down since none of us wanted to we would just grab some sandwiches for the road. We stopped in a deli and grabbed some sandwiches and then headed for the tube. We then stopped in a souvenir shop because my parents wanted to before finally getting on the tube for our journey home. We then parted and my parents went to their hotel while we came back to our flat. I spent the rest of the evening hanging out with friends and getting some things put together to pack to send home with my parents! Now its time for bed since I have another big day planned for my parents as well as my last Brit Pop class and then Wicked in the evening! Another fun filled day I can't wait to begin! :)

Scotland - Day 4 (Sunday)

Today was the day: I was going to get to see my parents after almost 3 months apart! This made me quite antsy and I was probably not fun to travel home with since I just wanted to get there, but Jeana and Rebecca graciously put up with me :) We decided to take a cab to the airport because we did not want to deal with the 25 minute walk downtown and then catch the bus since it would be nearly the same amount. We ended up getting super lucky and as soon as we left Sara's flat we ran into a cab that was willing to take us to the airport! The day was starting off well!

Once we got to the airport we got through security really easily and had plenty of time to spare. We sat around until our gate was called and then we were finally able to board our plane. Our luck continued as our plane landed early. We rushed to the easybus to try and catch the early one...we made it and were able to get on! I was super happy about this as it got me home over a half hour earlier than I expected.

After our hour and twenty minute easy bus back to London I hopped on the tube and headed back to my flat to drop off my stuff and go meet up with my parents. We decided to meet at Paddington station as they were already out and about. As luck has it just as I was walking up the stairs I spotted them and ran (and might have cut a few people off in the process, but I hadn't seen my parents in 3 months, they can forgive me :)) through the gates to them! It was great to see them and also so weird that they were actually in London! I was so happy they were going to get to experience the place I had come to absolutely love!

Our first mission was to find a place to eat. We were going to head to Covent Garden but I forgot my map and was struggling with my sense of direction. We did eventually get there but not before we were starved and had to just stop and eat. We ate a nice little pub and my parents got to experience bangers and mash (sausage and potatoes). After dinner we walked around a bit but they were absolutely exhausted so we headed back to the flat where they were staying for the night. As I hadn't seen everyone all weekend we had a nice little reunion. The girls on the fourth floor all did face masks while my parents took our pictures as we did silly poses. It was a perfect way to end a great weekend with only more fun in store for our final week in London with my parents nonetheless!

Scotland - Day 3 (Saturday)

Our plan for the day was to head to Edinburgh. We had been told sooo many great things about it...especially that it was really beautiful, unless it rained. Well it rained, but we still had a decent time! We boarded our train at 7:00 and it was only an hour trip, which was actually unfortunate since we all took naps on the train that we wished had lasted just a little bit longer!

Once we got there we really had no idea what we planned to do. We were pretty cold when we got there and hungry. We stopped in a little cafe at the train station and grabbed some coffee and muffins. While we were eating our muffins I got a call from my parents! They had arrived in London!!!!! It was so exciting to actually answer a phone call from my parnets. Hard to believe we were finally only one country away!

After finishing up eating we headed out to explore Edinburgh. It was only sprinkling at that point so it wasn't quite miserable yet. We ended up just starting to walk and actually walked right to the castle which was convenient! The castle and the park surrounding it was really beautiful and we spent a lot of time walking around the park and enjoying the sights. From there we just continued to wander about Edinburgh before getting hungry and stopping at a pub to eat lunch.

Jeana and Rebecca were brave enough to try a specialty of Scotland...haggis. You probably don't want to know what it is but its cow (or maybe pig, now I can't remember) intestines on top of a potato type thing. Absolutely disgusting. The waiter kept telling me I needed to try it but I don't even eat beef...there is no way that was going anywhere near my mouth!!!! As we were wrapping up lunch the pub got really crowded because there was a rugby match on so we headed out to continue exploring Edinburgh.

For the rest of the afternoon we just walked around and went into shops we found cute. We accidentally ran into "the elephant house" which is where J.K. Rowling began writing the HP series so that was a neat find! To finish our day we walked along the main road. When we had finally had it with the weather we decided we wanted to head home, warm up and dry off. We headed back to the train station and didn't have to wait more than 15 minutes before our train arrived and we got to head home. We went straight back to Sara's flat when we got home, minus one pit stop at Tesco to get some more dinner. Once we got back we made dinner and settled in for the night. We again worked on our homework and packed to head home in the morning.

Usually I was sad to leave a country but this time I was quite excited knowing my parents would be there upon my return!!!

Scotland - Day 2 (Friday)

We ended up not going to bed until 5:00 am so although we completely planned to get up and going early in the morning that did not quite work out. We set our alarms for 9:30 and did actually get up but none of us wanted to so we just stayed in bed. Rebecca fell back asleep and although Jeana and I rested we never did fall back asleep. After a while we decided it was probably time to get up and moving since we were in Scotland and had some country to see!

After taking our showers and munching on some snacks we headed downtown Glasgow. Our fist mission was to find somewhere to grab some lunch because we were starving. We ended up in the mall and just ate sandwiches at one of the cafes. After filling ourselves up our shopping adventure began. The mall was decent sized so we spent a few hours shopping until we were ready to drop. I got myself a new pair of boots that I absolutely love! From there we grabbed some milkshakes and began the 25 minute walk back to Sara's flat. On the way we stopped at Tesco and got some food for dinner...spaghetti and sauce :)

We struggled to cook our dinner but eventually figured out how to work things only not to cook enough pasta! We were all still hungry so we made some more and ended up having two meals. By then we were finally full and ready to get cracking on our homework again. We really didn't want to be spending our time in Scotland working on our papers but we didn't have much of a choice since they were due nice and early Monday morning. We all sat down and focused and chugged out our papers. I practically got mine done and was feeling great about it...somehow the writers block disappeared and I was actually liking where my paper was going! It was such a huge relief and I felt like I was really going to be able to enjoy the rest of my time in Scotland a whole lot more! It was off to bed around 12 since we had to be up at 6:00 in order to get ready and catch our train to Edinburgh!

Scotland - Day 1 (Thursday)

The morning started off a bit rocky as we had gotten little to no sleep the night before from working hard on our final projects. When I went to bed I was completely stressed because I had about half of my paper written and was at a total writers block. I had no idea how I was supposed to write 500 more words! We made ourselves get up and go to class trying to focus on the fact that we were going to be in Scotland later that night! Lyndon was at our class in the morning so we were able to ask him a few questions about our assignment but honestly it only made us all the more stressed because we began to think we were doing the entire assignment wrong.

After some destressing by talking to Denise we started to feel a little better. We did a short fitness walk after class since we ended up getting a bit lost. We never did make it to our correct destination but no one was really upset about it! We grabbed some McDonald's to munch on as we headed home on the tube so we didn't have to waste time cooking lunch once we got back! Our first day in Scotland proved to be a lot of fun even though we were all completely drained from yet another busy busy week. There was lots of preparing to do before my parents were set to finally arrive on Saturday!

We started off our Scotland adventure by running a bit behind schedule and cutting it close on making it to our easybus stop on time. Luckily we did make it with just a few minutes to spare and the bus was on time!! From there our travels were pretty easy...napped on the easybus so it felt like we got to the airport in no time! :) The brief nap really helped! Once we landed in Scotland we hopped on the bus Sara told us to grab and made our way downtown. From there we walked to her uni to meet her after her frisbe practice got over with. We only had to wait a few minutes before they were done with practice so the timing ended up working out really well!

From there we headed to a pub to eat dinner with the frisbe team and Sara even managed to get us a free meal which was excellent! We had a good time getting to know the team and ended up all going out to a club later that night to make for a great first evening in Scotland!

Windsor and Eton

It was yet again that time of the week...Wednesday, which meant another group outing. Today's outing meant we were headed to Windsor Castle. We had to get up early in order to make it to Paddington station by 9:00 to catch the Heathrow Express. We ended up having to take two trains to get there but as promised the Heathrow Express was super fast and it only took us about 25 minutes to reach our first destination: Windsor Castle.

Phillipa took us on a tour of the outside first and told us some cool facts. The queen was actually in residence so we were not able to see the state rooms...but there was a chance of getting to see her which was exciting! Sadly we never did, nor did we actually expect to, but it was still fun knowing she was so close! A neat fact is that you know the queen is in residence or not based on the flag that is flying, so its not like they keep it a secret where she is staying.

About the time we were all freezing we headed to go see the dollhouse which is actually 1/12th the size of the house! The details were amazing on this thing. At one point it apparently had water that worked in it and everything...this would be a little girls dream...okay maybe a big girls dream too! Sadly we could not take any pictures of it which was rather disappointing because I really wish I could show people how incredible it really was!

From there we had more of a tour of the outside and then since we quickly got cold again got a 15 minute break to go warm up or go to the bathroom. We spent our time warming up in the gift shop and being silly trying on the kids guard hat. Our last stop at Windsor was to visit the cathedral. This had to be one of my highlights because they had huge vents on the floor that were blowing out heat!!! We stood there for quite a while trying to warm up...something that seemed impossible to accomplish the entire day. In the cathedral there were some neat pieces of art work as well as the tomb of George V...my character wayyy back in our very first week in London.

After finishing up looking around the church we broke up to have our lunch break. Originally Jeana and I had packed our lunch but it was just way to cold to sit on a bench and eat it outside so we headed to a pub with a few of the girls to have a nice hot meal. It again felt so nice to sit in some heat...well worth paying for a meal!! After lunch we ran into Phillipa who took us to what is called the long road. Its the road that stretches over 3 miles that the queen rides to enter the castle. It was really neat to be able to look down the road and just see it go and go and go. It was a neat little bonus to our trip! While walking to and from the road Phillipa quizzed us on what we had remembered and I luckily guessed the correct king for my question...though I did admit it was a complete guess :)

Our final stop was to head to Eton college, one of the most prestigious boy schools in London. It was just a short walk to get to Eton and we had fun on the way. Nathan had me tell him different animals while he made their sounds :)

This was one of the neatest things we got to do because we actually got to go on a private tour with one of the professors who actually taught Prince William!!! He took us to the original schoolroom, another larger instructional room and finally the cathedral. In these classrooms the boys would etch their names in the wood which made for such a cool look. Their names were in the walls, as well as on the desks, benches and even supports. One neat one that he pointed out was the author Shelley. There were also carvings of Prince William, but they were not done by William himself...still neat nonetheless. The cathedral was absolutely beautiful and I wish I could remember more of the things he told us about it but I'm afraid to many other facts are crowding my brain! There was a neat story about how the paintings were washed away and were slowly uncovered over the years though.

Once our tour was done it was time to head home. We had to catch the Heathrow Express yet again and were home in no time. Everyone was sort of out of sorts because we were all hitting the exhaustion stage and stressed from the amount of work piling up. Once we got back us girls locked ourselves in Jeana and I's room and got busy working on our homework. We actually never even went downstairs except to grab some snacks to get ourselves through the night. The hard work paid off though as we all made progress on our homework...though it wasn't quite as much as any of us wanted. But some was better than none. At 2 am we decided it was time to call it quits and get some rest!

Getting Things Done

Today I woke up early with the intention of getting my Brit Pop paper done before class. I didn’t get it done but I got a bunch of other stuff done that needed to get done so it was still a productive morning. Jeana, Rebecca and I were all really cold so before heading to campus we decided to make a Starbuck’s pit stop and grab some coffee. I tried the new Toffee nut latte and may have found a new favorite! Between the three of us we tried all the new holiday specials :) We then grabbed a bus and made our way to campus. We left early so that we could print off all of our information for our trip to Scotland this weekend!!!!!! We are getting very excited about going. It will be my last adventure in the UK before heading home. Sad to think about but also awesome to reflect on all of the places I have gotten to go!!

After printing off all of our boarding passes we headed up to Brit Pop. Today was another exceptionally fun class. I absolutely love the things Rob says so today Ashlin and I decided to write down all of his famous quotes for the day so we can always remember them! It kept us even more entertained throughout class. We are just sad we never thought to do it before today. I guess I’ll just have to rely on my good old memory for those other good times!

When class was over Ashlin and I went and got some stamps for Jeana at the post office, then headed to Superdrug to pick up some things we needed and finally went to the Carphone Warehouse to get a phone for my parents. As we were walking home it wasn’t even 4:30 and it was already getting dark out! Its crazy how early it gets dark here now…makes me want to go to bed at 6:00! When we got home we got cracking on our homework straight away. My goal for the day was to finish my Brit Pop paper and then start on m Brit Life and Culture paper. After lots of hard work Rebecca asked if the girls wanted to make fajitas for dinner. We cooked them up and enjoyed one fantastic dinner together. We had some good girl bonding time…much needed :)

After dinner we got cracking on our assignments again. I finished my Brit Pop paper at 9:00 and submitted it so it is officially done and turned in! Such a great feeling! After that I had really planned on continuing the productiveness but it didn’t happen. Although I should probably be stressed at this point I’m not at all. The rest of the evening was so much fun and a much needed break from the grind of homework. The girls and I ordered Wicked tickets for Jeana, Ashlin, ReBecca, Dana, my parents and I for next Tuesday!! This is the thing Ashlin has wanted to do the most so we were super excited to finally find some reasonably priced tickets!!!! The rest of the night we celebrated our success with some chocolate mousse cake ReBecca got for the flat and some singing to Wicked and Glee! There is really no better way to spend a Tuesday night in with the girls :) I sure am going to miss this a whole lot in a few weeks but that’s why I’m cherishing it now! Have to soak it in as much as I can in the next few weeks :)

Crunch Time

Like always we had class first thing in the morning. We all ended up being a little bit late due to all of the buses being full but since we were all together we didn’t get in trouble! The first thing we did was talk about our schedule of events for the week and the breakdown of the rest of our time in London as it is quickly drawing to a close :( Next we had our discussion about the news like always. Then Lyndon broke us up into groups to start our debate on the British versus American health care, welfare, and education systems. He gave each group a statement and then we had to agree or disagree with it and argue our opinion. After having twenty minutes to work out our arguments we headed back into the class for the fun to begin.

The debate got quite heated as you would expect, but especially so because Lyndon played Devil’s advocate. I thought it was interesting to hear what everyone had to stay though I stayed out of it for the most part. The thing about our group is we are all pretty set in our ways and that’s fine as long as we know that about each other, but when it comes to a debate it can get ugly pretty fast. The rest of the day people continued to share their opinions on what they thought other people said during the debate. So class stirred things up that’s for sure but I thought it was fun. When the debate was over class was over for the day. We have lots of homework to do so Lyndon gave us the rest of the afternoon off so we had some time to work on it.

Straight after class we began our fitness walk. We went to Notting Hill tube station and walked through Kensington Gardens where Kensington Palace is located. We walked through the park to meet up with Matt and the boys. Once we met up with the boys we walked to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. You can only go in the park if you have children with you so we got the opportunity to go in! I was really excited because I had wanted to see it but knew there was no way for me to do this without some kids! The park was pretty cool. Denise let us play for just a few minutes and then made us continue our walk. We then walked to the Peter Pan memorial at the other end of the park. Along the way Nathan and I had some fun walking along. He showed me how he could run to the park and back super fast. Then we had to run to catch up with the rest of the group because they had gotten ahead. After we saw the memorial the boys begged us to go play with them at the park. We all had lots of homework to do but I love playing in parks so I couldn’t refuse. So Jeana, Ashlin, and I went to play with the boys in the park close by. They wanted to go back to the other playground but it was too far away.

After playing for a little while we had to head home to get started on our homework. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting our work done. I worked on Rob’s paper and got about half of it done before it was time to head to the theatre for an evening show of 39 Steps. The show was really interesting because there were only four actors for the entire show who played all the parts. It was set up how they used to perform productions back in the day. It was a comedy based on a guy who was accused of murder. You wouldn’t expect that should be funny but the way the four of them changed characters was what made it highly entertaining. The props they used were really creative and only added to the humor. The show wasn’t like anything I have ever seen before and probably wouldn’t have decided to see on my own so I loved it.

Once it was over Denise wanted some of us to go out to the pub for a drink with her but we were really tired so half of us headed home while the other half went out with her. We stopped in one of the touristy stores on the way home to pick up some gifts before heading back to our flat. I then tried to focus and get more of my paper done before crashing from exhaustion.

Paris - The Adventure Ends...but not without a bang!

After one of the most eventful and best weekends of my life, it was time to leave Paris and head home. Jeana and I both set our alarms bright and early to ensure we made it to the train station in plenty of time. As this was our last opportunity to use the Euros we had, we were going to stop and get some bread from a bakery but it was close when we got there sadly.

We ended up getting to the train station about an hour early, so we looked around for a bakery. Our tickets said it was only necessary to allow for a half an hour so we had time to spare. We kept checking the board for our train’s arrival but it didn’t have anything listed. We assumed this was because our departure time was still a while away. Since we had plenty of time to wait we searched for some seats but found none. Instead, we decided to sit down next to a large brick column in the middle of the station where we had a good view of the board.

Time slowly clicked by and we were getting more and more confused as to why our train was not showing up. Mostly we did not know why they wanted us there 30 minutes early when the train hadn’t even showed up and it was 20 minutes before it was supposed to depart.

I had been holding onto our tickets the whole time we were sitting there, which were simply printed on two pieces of paper. How the next few minutes played out can only be credited to the fact that someone up above was watching out for us. While sitting there folding and unfolding the pieces of paper, a man came up to us and asked if we were waiting for the Eurostar. We said yes, our train was set to depart in 15 minutes. At first I was leery of this gentleman because I thought he was thinking we were bums and going to kick us out of the station (my brain was all over the place after the weekend we had).

Instead, he told us we had better run because the Eurostar was located upstairs and we still had customs and security to get through. Jeana and I never went into “we’re on a mission” mode faster. We scrambled up the stairs we had never even seen before with a clear Eurostar signed in front of them. I think we filled out our boarding cards in less than a minute (good thing by now we were used to doing this and had our address memorized) and rushed to get in the baggage line. We knew if we waited in the line we weren’t going to make our train, so while Jeana jumped in the back of the line, I approached these two middle aged men who seemed nice and explained our train was leaving in less than 15 minutes. They were so helpful and said it was no problem we jumped ahead. They said they had been in similar situations and calmed us down convincing us we would make it as long as we got through quickly.

Luckily we ran into no baggage issues. We grabbed our bags and speed walked to the man who took our tickets. When he saw them he told us which way to go and to run. The Eurostar does not wait for anyone. We took his advice and took off. Of course I book us in the family section which was the last coach on the train. The good news was there were clocks all along the platform so we k new the minutes were ticking down. We could have gotten on any coach and walked through all the doors, but it would have taken us half the trip home to go through them all before making it to our coach so we simply booked it.

We made it to our coach, sat down and the train departed. At that point we could finally digest the whole situation. Those were definitely some of the fastest 15 minutes of my life. I really feel there was no more fitting way to end our Paris adventure. It was a weekend I will not soon forget! It’s funny, most people say the French are rude and hate Americans but overall they were extremely helpful and without them we might not have made it home!

We spent the Eurostar ride napping for the most part; having the past few days catch up on us. The adventure didn’t quite end once we got back to London though. As usually on the weekend, half of the tube lines were down so we had to figure out an alternate route. We made it halfway home, only to find out our line was part way shut down. That meant it was time to find a bus. A station worker helped us locate on and we went in search of the bus stop. We were not on our best game as we just really wanted to be back at our flat and were tired of traveling.

We searched everywhere and found at least five wrong bus stops before figuring out where we needed to go. We crossed the street and saw the bus we needed pull up to the stop about 200 yards away. I wanted to be on that bus. I was in no mood to wait fifteen minutes for the next one so I took off in a dead run and desperately tried to flag it down. I was positive it was going to leave without us but I think the bus driver saw the desperation and waited for us.

The bus took us most of the way home. When we got off we had a bit less than a mile to get home. I welcomed the walk knowing we were now so close to home and wouldn’t run into any more bumps along the way :) It probably comes as no surprise that after our crazy day we simply spent the rest of the day unwinding, sharing our adventure, and hearing about everyone else’s weekend!

Paris - Notre Dame

We started the day around 8:00 so we would have plenty of time to see everything we wanted to for our last full day in Paris. To start the day we jumped on the metro to St. Michael’s. When we got off we quickly spotted the beautiful fountain. After we got our pictures we saw a few souvenir shops we wanted to check out. Once we were done looking we made our way to Notre Dame.

The church was beautiful and we got there just in time as it had begun sprinkling! We were even more excited to discover admission was free! My camera decided to die at this point, but luckily Jeana’s was still charged and she took pictures for me :) The inside of the church was beautiful. After we finished exploring we made our way outside. It was still sprinkling, but nothing we hadn’t dealt with before!

After seeing Notre Dame, we didn’t really have any set plans. We decided to go inside a few more shops and decide along the way what to do next. We just wanted to get out of the rain before we were completely drenched! Since we didn’t know what to do next, I pulled out my Rick Steves book to discover we had missed so much! He had a guided walk around Notre Dame so we headed back that way to follow his guide. From the book we found out that right in front of Notre Dame is a mark on the ground showing the center of Paris. The book them told us neat elements to look for on the church. These are things we definitely would not have noticed before!

After admiring the detailed sculpture work of the church we continued the walk in the book. It led us to a memorial for soldiers w ho had died in the war. It was a really neat place that we easily would have missed without the book. Next it led us to Saint Chapelle. The church holds the crown of thorns but was not currently there. We decided not to go in because that was really the only thing we were interested in seeing and there was a long wait in the rain to get in.

From there that pretty much ended the walk we were following. We were both free3zing so we decided to search for a place to have a cappuccino and warm up. It took us a while to find one, so we were extremely happy once we did. Our server wasn’t the most helpful or friendly guy but we got our cappuccino!

When we were done we headed back to the main road as we were quite a ways off. From there we decided to go to the Rodin museum. It was a bit of a walk but we made it. The museum has a garden with statues outside, plus a gallery inside. What we were really interested in seeing was the “Thinker” which is in the gardens. Unfortunately it was still raining out, but we were toughing it out. After all, how often are you in Paris!

We took our time walking around the garden (again guided by Rick Steves book). It was getting late so we decided to start heading to the Eifel Tower for one last look before making our way to our hostel for the night. The rain picked up as we walked to the Eifel Tower so by the time we got there we were nice and soaked. We walked up the opposite side of the Eifel Tower this time and took some fun pictures. Before leaving we got some Eifel Tower souvenirs from the people selling them everywhere. I even ended up bargaining a really good deal thinking we had less money left over than we did :) These people who sell all the Eifel Towers are not legally allowed to and on our walk to our hostel we saw the cops catch one of them. It made our long walk back to our hostel a bit more interesting!

We had a long ways to go to get to our hostel and I was more than ready to be there. I was exhausted, hungry and ready to be dry. Since we had a few Euros left to spend, we stopped in a bakery and got a loaf of break. I didn’t really feel like stopping but when I took a bite of that bread boy was I glad we did. Without realizing it we were only about a block from our hostel. We were relieved to be back!

It wasn’t until we got back that we tired out break and discovered it was warm! We at the whole baguette as well as our random collection of food we had for dinner. Being able to sit and relax after a long, great day felt wonderful. We had to leave in the morning though so we packed up our bags and turned in early!

Paris - Eiffel Tower/Arch/Louvre

Paris - The Adventure Begins

The day started out pretty much like any other. We took our fitness walk at 9:00 instead of 11:00 because the Consumer Health class was going to a museum that didn’t open until 10:00. For our walk we went along the canal in Little Venice. It was misting the entire time but it wasn’t cold out so the walk wasn’t bad. To end our walk we went through a new area of Regent’s Park we had yet to explore before hopping on the tube to get back home.

Jeana and I stopped in the library to print our Eurostar tickets and then headed home to get all our last minute things done. We packed up and ate our lunch. Then we worked on our task from Janet and before we knew it it was time to head out. Since we were taking the Eurostar we left from one of the tube stations which was quite convenient. We got there in plenty of time. There was some minor security and customs but it took no time at all to get through. After waiting in the lobby for a little while our train was called to board. We had seats in coach one, the family area so we had a little table and both had window seats. The train departed right on time. On the journey there I didn’t really expect to fall asleep but I did for a little while. I just remember it being light outside and then when I woke up it was dark out. The train only takes a little over two hours but we lost an hour since Paris is ahead of London. We departed at 3:04 and arrived in Paris at 6:22. I was a little worried because I had told the hostel we would arrive around 5:00 after reading our arrival time wrong. That’s not the only thing I would soon find out I read wrong.

When we got to Paris we had no problem finding our hostel. It was only about a 20 minute walk from the station where we arrived so we were happy about that. The excitement quickly faded though. When we checked in the girl told me our name wasn’t in the computer. We weren’t worried because we had printed off our confirmation. She took it (it was her first night) to her boss for some help. After a while they came back only to bring the bad news that we did in fact have a reservation…for the previous weekend! I couldn’t believe it and panic began to take over. I felt absolutely terrible because although Jeana and I had worked together ot find the hostel, I was the one who made the reservation and put in the wrong dates. Jeana on the other hand didn’t care at all and was excited we now had one unique trip ahead of ourselves.

A little bit of relief settled in when the owner told us two people had canceled so we at least had a place to stay for the night. She told us she would check in the morning for other cancelations as well. The other good news was she changed us the normal rate. I was afraid it was going to be super expensive since we really had nowhere else to go and they knew that. For the first night everything was under control.

We decided we didn’t need to dwell on the situation since we had a place to stay for the night. Even though we decided this I was freaking out a little on the inside. I knew I couldn’t let it ruin our time in Paris but I just felt really bad since it was my mistake. Overall I stayed pretty calm but there were a few times Jeana had to reassure me.

We simply put our bags in our room and headed out. Being the first night what else was there to do but go to the Eiffel Tower. We jumped on the metro, which at first was really confusing. We figured it out though and on our journey got our very first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. Once we got off we didn’t even need a map to find out way because we just walked towards it. Then one of my favorite things happened. We ran into Tyra, her mom and her mom’s friend! What are the odds of this happening again! Just seeing Trya and knowing she was in this foreign city as well provided me with so much relief. I now knew we had someone to turn to in need. We knew she was in Paris but didn’t know if she had her phone or anything. It was not only a big relief but a great surprise. We all three got our picture together in front of the Eiffel Tower. The three of them were headed home for the evening and Jeana and I were in search for some food. Tyra recommended the Tracadero area so that’s the way we headed. On our way there was a great viewing area of the Eiffel Tower so we stopped to admire it and take our pictures. It really is an incredible sight!

When we were done taking pictures we went in search of a good restaurant. We passed a bunch that looked alright but overpriced. We then decided to veer off the main road to try to locate a less expensive location. That worked really well for us. We had to walk quite a ways before finding one but we eventually found a cute restaurant that was semi crowded so we knew it had to be good. None of the other ones we passed had really been crowded. Our senses were right because dinner was one of the best we have had yet. Originally they only gave us menus in French but we could pretty much decipher the stuff so we were going to order. When our waiter realized we were American he brought us two new menus in English which was really nice. I’m grateful that he did because I was going to get four cheese pasta and instead got to be a little more adventurous with my Tagolini with artichoke and pigolini nuts. Jeana ordered the same thing. We both had loved it in Italy so we wanted to try it again.

As we waited for our food they brought us the most delicious olive bread and a bowl of lives. It was so good and even better was the fact that it came with the meal…in Italy we always had to pay about two euros per person every time we got bread with our meal! We were both starving so it only made it better that they brought us more bread when the first basket was gone! After we ordered our food we waited less than five minutes before they brought it out to us! Obviously they used some fresh pasta. The meal was wonderful. About halfway through I had a mini panic attack (not a real one though it probably almost was) and my stomach then did not feel well. I’m not really sure what happened but I think the reality of our situation just hit me. I just drank some water and Jeana reassured me that it was going to be fine. It helped but I couldn’t eat much more. I was full already anyway so it wasn’t a big deal. Though I think the waiter thought I didn’t like my meal since my plate wasn’t scraped clean but I told him I thought it was very good.

When we were done we decided to head home. It was late so there wasn’t much else we could do plus we were pretty tired. We made a game plan for the next day to ensure that we would get everything sorted out and still have a fun filled day ahead of us. We had planned to go right to bed when we got back. Instead, we ended up chatting with our roommates for a few hours. There were fourteen of us in the room but we met three girls from Britain, one boy from China and another from Seattle. For all our hostel experiences, that was my favorite because it was neat getting to meet everyone. As it got later they continued to talk but I curled up in bed and went to asleep as I was thoroughly exhausted. There talking didn’t even bother me and I fell asleep quickly and slept soundly.

Stonehenge and Bath

For our weekly outing we headed to Stonehenge and Bath. I have been looking forward to this outing since we got our schedule at the beginning of the semester. Stonehenge has always fascinated me and I finally got to see it today! We had to leave the flats at 8:00. On the way to Stonehenge each one of us had to tell a favorite memory of the trip that we plan to tell our grandkids one day. It was fun hearing what everyone had to say though it took me forever to actually come up with something! There really are too many memories to just select one. I ended up talking about how we got to go to the Charlie St. Cloud premiere. The reason I picked it as a great memory was because it just shows how when you’re in a big city like London you can do so many amazing things as they are just part of everyday life here.

For the rest of our journey we watched Harry Potter. We were supposed to watch the sixth one but it didn’t work so we ended up starting the fifth movie instead. We are preparing ourselves as the premiere is this week! Once we got to Stonehenge we made our way around while Phillipa told us all about the stones. She talked about all the theories there are and the incredible feat it was to move the stones the miles upon miles to their final destination. No one actually knows what the stones were used for and we never will. I think that is what makes it so interesting. They are all perfectly positioned and for the time it was built only makes the place more amazing. I absolutely loved our visit to Stonehenge. If I were to talk about what I would tell my grandkids now it would probably be our visit there. We spent about an hour walking around the grounds…you really can’t get that close anymore but it was just as neat to see from a distance I thought.

From there we headed to Bath. It was about an hour drive and on the way we watched a little more of Harry Potter. (There is a reason for the entire HP which I will explain later.) In Bath people had the choice of grabbing lunch or going with Phillipa on a short tour of some of the interesting spots. Luckily I packed my lunch so I was able to go on the tour. We walked through the city and came to some famous architecture. The building had over one hundred pillars and consisted of thirteen houses in all. Next to the houses was a gray mailbox. It can’t be painted red because the area is used in several films. A red mailbox would give the location away! A little ways away we got to see some similar housing where Nicholas Cage once lived and might still live. To live in these homes it costs anywhere from four to five million pounds! I would love to live in Bath because it is absolutely beautiful but I very well know I’m not going to get to live in those houses!

After our short tour we made our way to the Roman Baths where we were set to take a tour. People ended up being late so while we waited for them we went through the Abbey that was right next door. While we were walking through a little girls and boys choir was singing and practicing their dance moves for what I’m assuming will be a performance later. It was fun watching them rehearse. By the time we went through the church everyone else was back so we headed inside for our tour to begin. We just had audio guides so we got to take our time and go through at our own pace which was nice. The baths were quite impressive for their time…they are still impressive to this day! The neatest part about the whole thing was that the water in the baths is actually the same water that was used hundreds of years ago. Because of this we weren’t allowed to touch the water though Jeana put her hand in! Another fun thing was that at the very end we were able to toss a coin in one of the baths. Then as we made our way out we got to go taste the bath water. It’s completely pure water and it’s warm so it was pretty disgusting but it’s supposed to make you healthy! A lot of people are sick right now so hopefully it helped them!

We didn’t have much time in bath since we left right after we all turned in our audio guides. We then headed to a small town called Lacock. The reason we went there was because a lot of filming for the Harry Potter movies was done in this little town. The town was adorable. We got to see the church where several of the scenes were filmed. Some other people made their way to one of the houses that was used in the filming too. It was just a short stop that was an extra bonus and helped break up our trip for the way home. The little town was definitely somewhere I could live someday. From there we got on the coach to head home. We of course finished up the rest of the fifth Harry Potter movie and have since put in the fourth. We are all gearing up for the premiere and then our group outing to see the movie the following week!

Soon we will be home and then we are all cracking down to finish up our assignments that are due on Monday because Jeana and I are headed to Paris tomorrow! We have to figure out what we are going to do while we are there tonight as well but we are getting excited. I remember booking the trip and thinking the time was so far away when we were going to go but time has flown and I can’t believe we are going already!

Ballet Class in London

Today was such a great day in London. The only minor nuisance that occurred was when my alarm went off at 8:30 and I had set it for 10:30. It really wasn’t a huge deal since I just turned it off after being confused as to how my clock skipped ahead two hours and fell back asleep until 10:30. When I got up I got all ready for the day, ate some breakfast and sat myself down to work on my project some more. My goal was to get all my slides done before Brit Pop. I came really close and was quite happy with my progress. After eating lunch we all headed to campus.

Today was my favorite Brit Pop class so far. I’m not really even sure what made it so much better but it was extremely entertaining and interesting today. Our topic of the day was girls in Brit Pop from the 60s onward. We got to hear the good and the bad. We tend to get off topic a lot in Rob’s class which leads to some rather interesting conversations. Today this seemed to happen more than normal for some reason, but just made class all the more entertaining.

On the way home after class we stopped at a store that was supposed to have some American things. We just wanted to check it out. They had things like Kraft Mac & Cheese, peanut butter, pop tarts, popcorn, etc. It was also a bakery. We didn’t end up getting anything so after not long we headed back to the flats. Once we got back to the flats we ate a snack and then got cracking on our projects again. I got all of my slides done so all I had left was my introduction. That was a huge relief. I then started to get really excited because it was almost time for ballet class.

I got all ready for class and ate a little bit of dinner before it was time to meet up with Janet to head out. I was extremely excited to go since I haven’t actually taken a class in over a year! Having not taken a class in so long made me really nervous. I was afraid I was going to forget everything. We ended up taking a general class and weren’t sure what that meant. It was either general or beginner though and we both had too much experience to take a beginner class. The great part about this studio was that people came and went every week so we didn’t stand out. That made me feel a lot more comfortable because I knew my skills were not going to be up to par after not dancing in so long. We ended up doing really well for our first time back in class. It felt so good to dance again. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it when we started. I forgot how great it feels to dance!

I’m so glad that we got to experience ballet in London. It wasn’t all that different. We had a male teacher who was very nice. Sometimes he taught the combinations to quickly but I always picked up on them eventually. I think being out of class so long made it harder to pick up the combinations fast like I used to. After bar was over we were both already exhausted but then it was time for centre floor. We did a bunch of combinations and then did some across the floor work. I absolutely loved the class and it went by a lot faster than I expected. I really thought I would struggle though the entire thing but it wasn’t that bad! Definitely one of my favorite memories of London so far!

When class was over Janet and I had to quickly throw on our clothes…which was rather difficult since we were both pretty sweaty! We worked hard during our class! We had to meet the rest of the group at the Tower of London because we were going to see the ceremony of the keys. This is the ceremony where they lock up the Tower of London. It is a tradition they have done since sometime in the 1300’s he said with only one day after all this time when it did not take place! Absolutely incredible! The one time it occurred late was during the blitz. The tower had been struck and in all the chaos the guards forgot to lock up the tower. They did realize eventually but it was after 10:00, the official time the tower is locked up every night. It was a pretty special thing to get to see.

The guard who was our guide was really entertaining making for an especially fun time. During the ceremony we had to be completely silent. The whole process takes exactly seven and a half minutes. Being quite for that long was a tad bit of a challenge as Ashlin and I were hanging out with the little ones! We lucked out though that we hung out with the little ones last night because they told us we had to make sure we were at the front of the group the entire time so we ended up getting the best view! I love hanging out with the little boys though so it was just an added bonus. Little Nathan seems to love tickling me lately and I can do nothing to get him back because he is not ticklish! I’m working on some revenge though! :)

When the ceremony was over it was time to head home. I was quite excited as I was pretty hungry after ballet class! We all headed for the tube. When we got to the tube one of the trains we could get home from was already there. It sat there for about five minutes and didn’t move. We saw the other train had arrived that we could take home as well. We all decided to make a dash for it and hop on the other one. As soon as we all got on the other one the first train we were on took off! Lesson learned that we should just be patient! Made for a good laugh for the whole group though! When we finally made it home we all ate some snacks and I had intended to finish my project but I was just so tired I didn’t think that was the best idea. After a little while we all headed to bed as we had our day trip the next day. I was so excited because we were finally going to Stonehenge and Bath! It is the Wednesday trip I have been looking forward to the most! More tomorrow on how it was!

An Unusual Monday

Monday was not a normal day. Instead of going to campus for class Lyndon came to our flats. He went from flat to flat to discuss our assignment one and two with us to help us get on the right track. Flat four had to meet with him first so they had to get up early, but he came to our flat second so we got to sleep in a little bit. :) He came over at 10:45 and we all sat in our living room to discuss our topics. He stayed until about 12:15 when he had to go over to flat six to have a meeting with him. That was all we had for class that day…quite an easy day and a nice break from our usual Monday sessions.

When he left Jeana and I went grocery shopping and then came home to make lunch. After our bellies were full we got to work on our second assignments. I really wanted to finish mine so I had time to work on my other assignments. I got a decent amount of work done and I was happy with my progress. Getting some of it done eased some of my stress. Although I love traveling on the weekends it really limits the amount of time we have to get homework done which is not good right now as we have a lot of it to do! So far I have really enjoyed working on this assignment though. I love being able to design the layout of my project…I’m just hoping my content is as good as it looks!

The weather was really nasty out and Denise saw Jeana and I come back from grocery shopping and decided to evaluate whether we should take our fitness walk or not. She ended up deciding it wasn’t necessary which ended up being really helpful because I got a lot more work done than I would have if we had gone on our walk.

In the evening we had tickets to go see the play Railway Children. The neat thing about this play is it is actually located in the Waterloo train station. You’re not going to be able to go to a play like this one in the US! The audience was actually seated on either side of one of the platforms. For the most part everyone enjoyed the play. Personally I thought it was really good. One of the main actors was sort of annoying but the rest of them were great so it made for a really fun evening! When the play was over we headed home, made ourselves some popcorn, and a few of us watched a snowboarding movie. After it was over my parent’s skyped me and Abbie showed off her tricks to everyone. Then Brandon had some fun torturing Ashlin causing all of our cheeks to hurt from laughing so hard before we called it a night. It turned out to be another really great day!

Ireland Departure

On Sunday Jeana and I got to get up bright and early again to catch our flight home. Our tour guide had told us that we needed to be at the airport two hours before our flight departed because security at the Dublin airport could be chaos. Our flight left at 8:10 so that meant we needed to be at the airport at 6:00 am. There was a shuttle that left our hotel at 5:30 so we decided to take that because we figured it would be the easiest route. This meant waking up at 5:15 which was a drag but we weren’t about to take any chances of missing our flight.

We got to the airport at exactly 6:00 and were through security by 6:10. As you can tell security was not a problem for us at all but we are always happy to be early rather than stressed about missing our flight. We then got to sit in the airport for two hours while we waited for our flight to board. The time passed pretty quickly as I read my book. Boarding got started a little late but the flight managed to land in London right on time still. We found out on our flight that Ryanair, which is the airline we took, actually landed 90% of its flights from the previous year on time. That’s a nice thing to know when you want to get places on time! Our easybus was right on time at the airport so we got back to London in good time. When the bus dropped us off we walked to the tube station only to find out the Bakerloo line was closed due to planned engineering works.

We decided the best idea was to find a bus. After walking back and forth between a couple streets we finally found out bus stop. Right as we found it the bus had pulled up. We flagged him down and sprinted to jump on the bus. The driver was nice enough to wait for us. We got off on Kilburn High Road and walked the rest of the way home. Getting home is always a really nice feeling after hours of traveling. When we got home we made ourselves some lunch and unpacked. I spent the rest of the afternoon talking to my parents and working on some homework. It was a really relaxing afternoon and it felt good to get some of my homework out of the way.

Ireland - Day 2

On Saturday we had a bus tour booked. It started at 9:55 so we got up at 8:30 to get ready. Our hostel provided breakfast so we ate and then walked to find our bus. We were getting picked up at Trinity College so it was really close. Being the planners that we are we got there about fifteen minutes early. It was extremely cold that day but another one of the tour bus drivers from the same company let us sit on his bus while we waited. He assured us he’s let us know when our bus arrived. I was afraid he would miss it but sure enough it got there and he told us when to get on.

The tour we booked was to take us through the country side to Wicklow Valley. We had one of the best tour guides I have ever had. She was so fun and helpful. To get to our first stop we had about a two hour drive. As we went along she pointed things out periodically and told us some stories. We made one stop on a bridge for some magnificent views of the country side. There was nowhere to get off so we had to stay on the bus. As we made our way farther along we got to see tons of Christmas trees. They were especially beautiful because they were golden. We really came to Ireland at the perfect time. Even though it was extremely cold, the scenery was exceptionally beautiful with all the leaves changing. We lucked out too because this year fall was about three weeks late!

We continued to make our way up the hills and our tour guide told us to start praying that the fog cleared up so that we got a great view. And as we made our way up it did just that! We stopped at a viewing area where they let us off to take pictures. We only got about ten minutes but it was more than enough time. It was so cold we took our pictures as fast as we could and got back on the arm bus! At the top it was a little foggy but still very pretty.

From there we had a short drive to Wicklow Valley. We had about an hour and a half to explore. We could go off on our own or with our guide for a short tour. We went with our guide. Here we got to see an old cemetery. It was especially neat because they don’t do a lot of up keep on it on purpose so that it maintains its original structure. Then we saw an old tower that was really pretty. It got struck with lightening once so they know there are seven floors and might have been used to store things at one point. Besides that they don’t know much about it. Today it is fully repaired and has had a lightening rod installed.

Next we went into the old church and made our way to the last building. The last building is a bit of a mystery because there is evidence that it was once either a church or a kitchen. It was pretty close to be another church but it did have a baptismal area. It seemed too small to be a church to me, but I guess no one will ever know for sure! Before we ended our mini tour our guide told us some interesting information about the tombs. First of all, all of the crosses have circles around them. No one particularly knows why. Our tour guide said she liked to believe it symbolized the everlasting life in Christ. Her husband on the other hand said it could have been a structural thing. I’m thinking I like her meaning better! The other interesting thing she told us was on some of the back of tomb stones you can see writing upside down. This means a person never paid for the stone so the stone mason would pull the stone out, turn it around, and use the other side for someone else! I thought it was pretty interesting!

When our mini tour was over we still had about a half hour to explore. We walked around outside a bit more and then down to the creek. It was time to warm up after that so we went in a craft store before heading back to the bus. We then had about a forty-five minute bus ride to the next location up windy roads. We were headed to Avoca Mills. It is one of the oldest woolen mills around. As soon as we got there we got to take a tour of the mill and got to actually see them making some scarves. It was absolutely amazing how much work went into making them. Watching the guy make the scarves was one of the highlights of the day.

We saw another machine all set up. Just to set it up it took more than eight hours to string the whole thing. Not surprising if you saw the machine though! It was a short little tour since the place was tiny but it was neat to get to learn about the weaving process. Afterwards there was finally some time for lunch. I got some of the best tomato soup with cheese break I’ve ever had and a tasty carrot and walnut cake for desert! When we were done eating we got to shop around the store before it was time to head home. On the ride home we took the highway so the scenery wasn’t so great but we got home pretty fast. We got into Dublin at 5:00. The tour was absolutely fantastic and we thought it was worth it, especially with such a great guide.

When we got back we decided to do some souvenir shopping. We looked around and eventually found a Celtic Whiskey shop. Jeana wanted to get some for gifts. They had free tasting but I wasn’t brave enough to drink it. Jeana tried it and from her face I was really glad I didn’t. I did end up dipping my finger in her cup to get a really small taste and I’m glad that’s all I tried. It was pouring when we left so we went to find a pub. Our tour guide recommended one where we could watch the rugby match that was on. We went in and walked around but it was super crowded. We had our backpacks with us only making things more complicated. Instead we decided we would just go back to the hostel to watch the game as it had a really nice common area where lots of people hung out. On the way we picked up some food to make for dinner and headed into our nice, warm, dry hostel for the evening. We watched some of the rugby match, I read for a little while and then we headed to bed a little early since we had another super early departure for the airport the next morning.

Ireland - Day 1

After a few short hours it was time to get up to travel to Ireland. We had an easybus to catch at 5:30 which meant we had to use the night bus as our means for transportation. The expert bus and metro figure outer, Jeana, took care of locating a night bus. The one we needed wasn’t super far away which was really nice. To get to our bus on time we had to leave the flat at 4:30 so we woke u pat 4:10 to begin our travels. We found our stop pretty easily and only had to wait a few minutes for it to arrive. We hopped on and made our way to Baker St. Station. Luckily I had my eyes on the lookout because when I told Jeana we were at our stop she was relieved I noticed. She had zoned out…totally understandable at 5:00 am!

We then walked to the easybus stop. There was one there when we got there and we were hoping to get on early but it was full. We had about 20 minutes until ours was set to arrive but it came early! Usually they are late so this was a nice surprise. Not only did we leave early but it only took us a little over an hour to get there and it was supposed to take an hour and twenty minutes. Things were going well. We headed into the airport and got through security in no time at all.

We just sat and waited for our gate to open. Once it did we headed to our gate and not long after they started boarding. As soon as I got on the plane I closed my eyes. The next thing I knew they were announcing we would be landing in 10 minutes! I had actually slept through takeoff! To top it off Jeana had done the exact same thing! It was probably good since we had gotten up so early. We still had a full day ahead of ourselves. Our flight took off at 8:10 and we arrived ten minutes ahead of schedule at 9:15. We really only got a short little nap in but enough o refresh ourselves to make it through the day.

When we landed we were on a mission to find the A16bus because that was what our hostel said to get on. We couldn’t find it at first so we asked the staff. It ended up being where we thought it wasn’t so we were glad we asked. Then we thought we got super lucky because it was sitting there when we got there but our luck had to run out sometime. The driver only took coins and we didn’t have enough so the bus left as we got our tickets. About twenty minutes later another one rolled in but then went out of service. We kept waiting. Then the bus left without us realized it and of course it was A16. That meant another twenty minute wait. We were quite frustrated at this point. We noticed bus 41 basically went the same way so we were going to take the next one that came. Of course it was next but it went out of service. The good news is the driver told us A16 would be there in five minutes. And finally it did arrive and we got on.

The bus ride took about thirty-five minutes which wasn’t too bad. We were worried we were not going to get off at the right stop but thanks to over hearing another girl ask someone we were able to locate where to get off. From there we had about a ten minute walk and then we had arrived at our hostel at last! Since we had waited so long for the bus we wanted to get exploring as soon as possible. We checked in, dropped off our bags and headed out. We then caught a bus to Guinness Storehouse. (This bus was easy to find as it was right outside our hostel and pulled up as soon as we got there!)

Touring the storehouse was pretty fun. You don’t need an audio guide or anything which is nice because you just got at your own pace and there wasn’t an information overload. The place in itself is neat because it is shaped in a point glass and is seven stories tall. Each floor has something different to check out. The first few floors teach you all about the brewing process. Then you get to do a taste testing and they have this whole process you can go through. There was a floor on advertising of Guinness over the years and another area on the history of the place. As you went higher there was less to do. At the very top was the gravity bar. Jeana and I went up there to explore what is supposed to be some of Dublin’s best views. Then we headed back down.

On the fourth floor there was a bar where they taught you to pour your own pint. Jeana and I thought I would be fun to learn the art so we did. There are six steps you must take to pour the perfect point. We had fun and even got a certificate afterwards. Then came the part most people look forward to the most but we were dreading…drinking the Guinness. At the taste testing we learned we were not huge fans. We still hadn’t eaten lunch either so we really didn’t want to drink the whole thing. We both drank as much as we could (which wasn’t much) and headed out to explore the rest of Dublin…and find some food!

Now for our trips I usually do the planning while Jeana does the navigating. Somehow the map ended up in my hands this trip…not the best idea. Before I admit the next part I will say it was not a very good map I was using. I will admit it was probably me more than the map but I managed to get us lost over and over the rest of the day. Maybe lost is a bad term…I just took us on the long scenic routes :) Jeana didn’t care at all, though I still felt bad for being incompetent at reading a map! I offered to let her take control but she told me I was doing fine each time. After I got us lost a few times I ended up double checking everything with her and that worked much better.

To begin though from the storehouse we headed to see St. Partick’s Cathedral. On or way we did find a grocery store and grabbed some food for lunch. After turning around a few times we managed to make it there. We didn’t go inside, just view it from outside. Next we went in search of Dublin Castle. This took us quite a while to get to as well. We ended up walking past it but the actual castle was behind a gate. We were expecting to see the actual castle. The castle wasn’t really anything special compared to other places we have seen. Originally we were contemplating going in but since we were a little behind schedule we decided not to.

Our last touristy stop for the day was Trinity College. This we actually managed to find with little difficulty. Sadly we were fifteen minutes late for the last tour of the day but it wasn’t really a huge deal to us. What we had come for was to see the Book of Kells. After wandering around the beautiful campus we headed to the Book of Kells. This was my favorite thing we did in Dublin. They had an exhibit on the book on how it was made and what things meant that was really interesting. Then we got to see the actual book. I was fascinated with all the detail and the amount of work put into it. They showed a video on how to actual book was bound together and one on how they wrote each page. All I can say is I would never have the patience for that sort of work! Getting to see how it was done gave me a greater appreciation for it though.

After getting to view the book along with a few others we got to go into The Long Room. This was my second favorite part of Dublin. Basically it was a gigantic room filled with books from floor to ceiling. The room was two stories tall and probably one hundred yards in length. It had old ladders to reach the top shelves and contained marble statues of famous writers. Books in the room were dated all throughout time. Some they had on display were all the way back from the 1400s, 1500s, 1600s, etc. Absolutely incredible to see the literature from so long ago! The best part of the room was it had the old book smell so you knew it was authentic. I was just mad we couldn’t take pictures!

When we left we walked around the courtyard and as we were heading out got to see a processional of students in their robes. We have no clue what it was but it was neat to get to see! At that point it was kind of late and we were starving so we went to find somewhere to eat. We found a nice little pub by our hostel and got a really nice dinner. I don’t remember the name but I had a potato with grilled vegetables on top and cheese melted over it along with a salad on the side. It was yummy and something my family would love so I’m going to have to try it when I get home. After dinner we went back to the hostel because we were about to crash from exhaustion. We took showers and got ready for bed straight away. Then we both read for a little bit before falling asleep at 8:30! Sort of early but much needed after our 4:10 wake up!

Manchester

Thursday morning came a lot faster than I had hoped it would. We had to get up nice and early in order to be on our way to Manchester. We got to eat a nice meal the hostel provided for us and then we packed up and left Liverpool behind. On our way to Manchester we passed a few more key points and the people who had conducted the research presented to us. After that we just rode in silence as we made our way into Manchester. Nathan and I played a few board games. He beat me at snakes and ladders and checkers! As we neared Manchester we went over the answers we had to figure out while in Liverpool. Our group was rewarded with the CD Jerry and the Pacemakers which has the song “Ferry across the Mersey” that we sang to Lyndon on it! He also handed out the prizes for the groups that won our pub quiz on the way to Liverpool.

Once we got to Manchester we were assigned our task for the day and then told to explore on our own. We had three hours to do whatever we wanted before we had to meet back up on the coach. At 1:45 we were to depart for Old Trafford Stadium where Manchester United plays. During our time in Manchester we walked around and tried to see as much as we could. Our main goal was to take pictures for our photo assignment that we have to complete upon returning home. The other task we had was to complete the questions about Liverpool and conduct some more survey work like we did in Dungeness and Rye. We had plenty to do to keep us busy for three hours. Besides stopping for a quick lunch break (we got Mexican…Jeana’s favorite!) we pretty much kept busy exploring the streets of Manchester. We had fun talking to some of the locals as we completed our survey work.

When the three hours was up we were pretty exhausted from all the walking we had done. We headed back to meet the group at the coach stop. Our bus driver was a little late but he picked us up eventually. This sort of put us behind schedule since we had a tour we were supposed to be at but we ended up catching the tour just as they were about to begin so it all worked out. The tour of Old Trafford Stadium was pretty neat. We got to see the stadium first. Now no one is actually allowed to touch the ground but as our tour guide was talking this little kid ran out onto the field. It was extremely funny and the kid’s parent had to run out and get him. All of us were thinking that parent was really lucky! The little boy couldn’t have been more than two or three so it was really just adorable. From there we got to go into the players’ lounge and their dressing rooms. Finally we got to make an entrance on the field as if we were the teams. Then before the tour ended we were able to sit in the seats where they players sat. All in all it was a really interesting experience even though our tour guide was a bit unique! He was one of the referees and was very nice but he just had an odd personality.

When the tour was over some people spent some time in the gift shop while the rest of us headed back to the bus to wait. Once everyone was on board we were set to head back to London. Everyone was thoroughly exhausted after two pretty long days. Most people slept until we reached our dinner stop. We had a half hour to eat our food and then board the coach for the final leg of our journey home. For the last part of the trip they put in the Star Wars movie though I didn’t watch it. I tried to take a little nap since Jeana and I had to be up very early the next morning to depart for Ireland. We finally made it home around 9:30. Once we got home Jeana and I unpacked and then packed our backpacks back up for Ireland! As I got ready I also got the good news that my parents are coming to visit me in London!!! I helped them search for a hotel for a little bit before having to call it a night as our alarm was set for 4:10 am!

Liverpool

We had a little over a four hour coach ride to get to Liverpool so we were set to leave at 8:00. Due to the tube strike Lyndon was a little bit late getting to our flats where the coach picked us up. We got going around 8:30 putting us behind schedule. For the first half of the coach ride we got to sleep and do our own thing. We made a half hour stop for lunch. Once we got back on the coach we got to experience our first pub quiz. We got to pick our own teams so Jeana, Alyssa, Ashlin, Elias and I joined up for form the Elianitors (Elias + terminators). Lyndon asked us about fifty questions from categories such as politics, the monarchy, sports, pop culture, etc. It was a lot of fun but also made us realize we should have known more of the answers! A lot of them we were close on but ended up missing. Overall we didn’t do bad and learned a lot in the process. It was all about having fun anyway!

When we were done we were pretty close to Liverpool. Ashlin and I spent the remaining time hanging out with Nathan and Elias and had a blast. Then Lyndon handed out our tasks for the day and the lyrics to Penny Lane. As we neared Penny Lane he played the song to let us know the tune. It is tradition that we sing the song as we drive down Penny Lane. After hearing it once it was our turn to belt it out. We enjoyed it…you really can’t drive down Penny Lane any other way. At the end of the road we jumped out to take our photos then get back on. ReBecca then presented her information on Penny Lane and we got to see the actual buildings that are mentioned in the song which was pretty neat.
We were then supposed to start a short bus tour of Liverpool to get acquainted with it but since we were way behind schedule Lyndon cut it short. Lyndon had a few people share their research as we passed their items. We passed two famous Cathedrals. I really wanted to go back and visit them but we never ended up having time. We then went to our hostel to check in and drop off our things.

We literally dropped our things and headed back out the door. It was already 3:00 so we did not have much time left to explore Liverpool. The first thing we did was head to the Beatles exhibit. There was no way we were going to miss out on that while we were there. The exhibit was pretty awesome. There was so much stuff to see. We sort of felt like we rush through it and still had to skip a few of the things in order to have time to do other things. I am really excited we got to go through. It reinforced a lot of the stuff Rob had taught us about the Beatles which was cool. When we got through we of course had to stop in the gift shop and get our Beatles merchandise.

Afterward we decided we needed to try and take some pictures for our project so we had something to work with. It rained the whole day so it made getting good pictures sort of difficult but we did our best. We stayed around Albert Dock area. We did have some questions to answer so our next mission was to figure out the answers. We went into a pub and the bar tenders got us every answer expect for half of one so that ended up being a super easy task! It was fun talking to them about the answer though. The accents in Liverpool are definitely different though I don’t think I can explain how. It was really nice to complete our task so fast (especially because the group with the most correct answer won a drink from Lyndon!). When we left the pub we ran into another group and we all walked around the dock. When it was time we headed back to the hostel for dinner. We were all starving so we had been looking forward to dinner. They made us a nice dinner of garlic break, pasta, salad, and cake for desert. After dinner we went back to our room for a little bit then headed back out. To claim our prize we had to meet Lyndon at the Philharmonic Pub at 8:00. We walked around and explored a bit while we found the pub.

On our way there we had to figure out the one part of the question we had left. To get full credit we had to sing the chorus of “Ferry on the Merzy.” We lucked out because we ran into some old guys who knew it on the way to the pub. We practiced as we finished our walk there and had ourselves some fun. When we got there Lyndon wasn’t there yet so we waited outside for him. He got there not long after. Upon grading our sheet he claimed us the winners even though no one else had showed up yet. He didn’t even make us sing the song but after all that practicing we had to show off our talent! I think he was quite impressed with our efforts. As he promised he told us to each pick out a drink we wanted. Ashlin and I were going to try winter Pimm’s but they didn’t end up having it so we got summer Pimm’s instead. After we got our drinks everyone else began rolling in. It was a great night all hanging out at the Pub together. We didn’t have to come but almost everyone did which was nice.

Eventually people began to do their own things. A few of us heard there was going to be live Beatles music so we wanted to check it out. We went to The Cavern. It’s a famous pub where the Beatles used to play. The one we went to isn’t the original but it was still neat to see. We were all pretty tired after a long day and headed home after a little while. They didn’t end up having live Beatles music though there was a live band. On our walk home we heard a band playing a Beatles song so we went in. They only played the one song so then we really went home and headed straight to bed.

My first Package!!

I had planned to get up early and go to the Tate Modern with Art History but after staying up late I decided to sleep in. I only slept in until 10:00 because I had a package to go pick up and I was excited about it. Once I got home I opened my package and saw my mom had sent me Yoder popcorn!!!! I was so excited about it I made some for Jeana and I right away. I’m sure they have popcorn in the stores but I’ve never thought to look. I have no idea why I haven’t because I have definitely missed it!

Before I knew it it was time to head to class. Jeana and I went a little early so we could print off everything we needed for our trip to Ireland this weekend! It ended up taking a little too long but Rob wasn’t in class when we got there so it was no big deal we showed up a few minutes late. Class was a hoot this week. We were having a “normal” lesson but then the music program stopped working. We got way off topic while he was trying to fix it. Then we pretty much stayed off topic the rest of class and talked about random things to do with London and weekend traveling. Just as he was about to dismiss us early the program restarted. It was really funny because Brandon had just stood up and the player said “Hey you” so it was excellent timing. Rob decided we were too far gone to teach us anything else though so he let us go early.

Normally I go home after Brit Pop but today I thought the Brit Lit class was going to the Churchill War Museum so I decided to tag along. It turned out that wasn’t actually where they were going but I still had a good time going to the Imperial War Museum with them. We went through a WWI and WWII exhibit. There was absolutely everything that was possibly used in the war on display. My favorite part was the propaganda posters. I just think the whole concept is interesting and it was neat to see how creative and persuasive some of them were.

The other exhibit we went through was the Holocaust exhibit. This exhibit was intense as I guess you would expect it to be. They recommended you be at least fourteen years of age to even enter for good reason. I struggled reading some of the information. By the time I got close to the end of the exhibit I had seen all I could have and left without looking at the rest. The part that really got to me was how they would perform medical experiments not caring if the people lived or died. I just don’t understand how anyone could bring themselves to do that. It is definitely not something I enjoy thinking about but is good to be education about.

We got through the exhibit just in time as the museum was closing in fifteen minutes. We headed to the tube for our lengthy journey home. The rest of the evening I spent getting things done and preparing to go to Liverpool/Manchester the next day before calling it a night.