Relaxation. Terror. Fun.

The day started off a lot later than planned. The majority of the flat ended up sleeping in more than we expected. Jeana and I were both shocked when we looked at our clock and found out it was one already! We all probably really needed the sleep though after being go-go-go all the time. We were starving when we woke up so we made ourselves some lunch and hung out for a little bit. Once everyone got up we planned a trip to Tower Bridge to figure out how long it would take us to get there (about 50 minutes). We have to meet there on Monday for class to begin our 3.5 mile river tour. It was a really beautiful part of the city. Sadly my camera battery died and I did not realize it so I was unable to take pictures today but we’ll be back there tomorrow so hopefully it’ll be all charged and ready to by then!

The Mayor’s festival is going on this weekend which is located on the Thames River. It’s London’s largest festival and it only happens once a year. There are things set up for miles and miles around the Thames. We decided to check it out today since we were already there and we did not make almost an hour trip for nothing! We only saw a small portion of the whole thing, but we got a program and are planning out tomorrows visit! The festival is supposed to have some of the best fireworks around so I am very excited to see those. They are shot off in the middle of the Thames so it should be spectacular! The only unfortunate part about the fireworks is that they are scheduled to start at 9:45 and it takes an hour to get back to our flats, which means we have to leave around 7:00 am Monday in order to make it with time to spare for our tour on Monday. I’m sure it won’t be too terrible though!

At the festival I purchased some candy from this cute vendor. I can’t remember what it was called now but I got four different kinds to try. Its hard candy and you can’t bite into it. It’s quite good and it will definitely last me a long time. Probably the whole time I’m here! But that was my fun purchase for the day. I also picked up a few postcards. Some people had to be back so we headed home around 5:30-6:00. We were all really hungry so it was good we were heading back.

As we were walking back one of the guys wanted to stop for a treat. While he was purchasing his treat some people had ventured ahead. I was just standing and looking at my program for the festival to see what was planned for tomorrow when I noticed that someone was approaching me. I just put my hand on my purse and didn’t bother to look up or do anything, but he kept coming closer so finally I looked up… and began to scream. The person was dressed up like he had just been murdered. He was bleeding from his head and according to Jeana he looked like the devil. So you can imagine my terror. He was an actor of course so I had no reason to be worried but I was scared out of my mind and so I kept trying to hide behind people and he kept walking after me and he didn’t change his facial expression the entire time. I got a bit worried that he was a creeper and not just an actor. The boys who say they will protect us at all times just stood about 10 yards away and laughed…so much help they were in a real time of need! The creeper actor finally stopped chasing me (and Jeana at this point) after he handed me a pamphlet from the place he works at. Let me tell you I won’t be going there anytime soon (or ever for that matter). It was some dungeon place…I still have the pamphlet up in my room somewhere but I don’t know exactly what it is. I definitely had the heebie jeebies after that encounter though. As we turned into the tube station there was another one of the actors (a girl this time) ready to harass the next bystander. Luckily the boys were nice enough to point her out to me so I stood clear of her. Now that it’s over and I’m safely home I can look back on it and laugh at it as a good memory.

Once we got back Jeana and I decided to get our cell phones since we were close by the store. So we did that then we headed home and cooked dinner. We made a nice salad and each had one of our frozen meals. It was quite tasty and we are really enjoying cooking our own meals. We finished watching a movie we started last night while we were eating dinner and then just hung out for a bit.

A few of us did our weekend assignments for class on Monday since we have a full day planned for tomorrow and have just been relaxing and writing postcards since then. It was a really nice day even though it wasn’t filled with tons and tons of things. Tomorrow should be quite fun and I’m probably going to try to go to bed at a decent time tonight so I’m all ready to go tomorrow! We’ll be going to one of the larger markets tomorrow at 10:00 am. Then we are going to come back here for lunch and to drop our findings off. After that we’re headed to the Thames for the festival where we plan to spend the rest of the day!