Sunday, January 20, 2013

Adventure Time

Yesterday was such an adventure.

I woke up, startled, at 8AM to extremely loud "Circle of Life" [Lion King. Duh.] which I immediately turned off because it was entirely too loud. But the Lion King is wonderful regardless. And compared to how my family usually sees me in the mornings, I woke up in a moderately chipper mood. This chipper mood continued to elevate as I drank my tea and ate my Nutella-on-toast (shout out to my mom for that one-thanks).


We went downstairs and our professors explained to us this "Tube Rally" which we were to participate in. Basically, we were broke up into teams and sent all around the city to answer questions and take pictures with the places we visited. The top three teams (based on time of completion, accuracy of answers, and creativity) were to be awarded prizes in the form of Pounds. Like, money. Then, at around 10:00 they sent us out to the streets of London.

There were six people in my group, and we power walked everywhere. I took very few pictures, because we were on a tight schedule, but we had a blast. We got to see the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Martin in the Fields and many many more. We finished and got back a little after 3:30, and were the first ones back! Later in the afternoon we found out that my team actually won! [Hopefully I'll get to steal some pictures and post them later]


 This guy was just chilling in the street, making bubbles.
 Look at all those bubbles!

 Isn't that amazing?!?!
 This was probably the coolest thing that happened all day
 Like nbd, just making bubbles in front of Parliament and Big Ben
 St. Paul's Cathedral
 St. Paul's Cathedral, it's HUGE!
 A sweet old pub that Dickens frequented
 The The Dodi and Diana Memorial at Harrods
 In front of Buckingham Palace
 Buckingham Palace and a unicorn's head
guys, unicorns are real
 Buckingham Palace again
The London Eye!

That night we enjoyed dinner at a tiny pub and had our first meal of fish and chips for the semester. The fish was massive. And I tried a soda called Curiosity Cola, which is very similar to normal Coke.



Today proved to be another great day. We got to go to church in St. Paul's Cathedral. Guys, the cathedral is amazing. Stunning. Gorgeous. Massive. Awesome. We participated in a very traditional service there, and although I did pay attention, it was extraordinarily difficult to tear my eyes away from the fantastic sights all around me. There were solitary statues and so many intricate details in the walls and arches. All of the smaller domes were painted beautifully with images of Bible stories, and the gold paint glittered from the light below. The arches going down the center of the cathedral had  The huge dome, directly above us was spectacular and huge. I can't even explain everything-it was indescribable. And unfortunately no pictures were allowed. But the worship is the reason we were there, and the service was really great. I enjoyed the readings and prayers quite a bit, although I am not as accustomed to that type of worship. My favorite part of it all was the choir, made up of a small group of men and boys. They sang beautifully, the younger boys voices were so clear and light, it gave me chills.

 We look so small in front of the Cathedral
Oh, now you can tell it's us

After St. Paul's Cathedral, we were free to go do as we wished, so a few of us went out to lunch. The first place we went was full, and the second was pretty busy as well, so our group of 5 split up into a table to 2 and another of 3, right next to each other! I had this delicious tomato basil soup and the three of us girls split an appetizer. It was a lot of fun, and our waiter did a great job. Afterward, Caitlyn, Megan, and I wandered around the Covent Gardens area, checking out all the different stalls and shops and talking with a few of the shop owners (they were very friendly and we had great conversations with a couple people working at  the places we stumbled into). By around 4:30 it was even colder and starting to get dark (it gets dark way early here), so we headed back to our part of town, went to the store for a few groceries, and now we're getting in our last bit of relaxing before our first class tomorrow!

 This great street performer guy had a great show with his huge unicycle and  juggling skills
 On the escalator down by the tube
 Lunch 
Emma and Jase and then Megan, Caitlyn, and I
 The soup was fabulous
 Two awesome things about this picture. 
1. Snow. Enough said. 2. The site of the fictional meeting of Dr. Higgins and Eliza Doolittle.
 We hung out in this market area for most of the afternoon
 Some cool journals in the market
Taken by the lovely Megan [https://www.facebook.com/MagicalMomentsbyMegan]
Telephone booths and the snow!!!
Another one by Megan. She's great.
[https://www.facebook.com/MagicalMomentsbyMegan]
 Flashback
Before going through security with Caitlyn and our huge backpack

 Flashback
Caitlyn and I got to sit next to each other on the plane
 Caitlyn and I on the tube
 Flashback
Tim, Megan, Me, and Caitlyn at the show Crazy for You
 We're really enjoying the snow!

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