Paper Commentary, My Thoughts, and a Couple Fun Days

I was flipping through the newspaper the other day and found some fun stuff. So here's some fun facts about London intermingled with the latest in Britain. 

 One fun aspect of life in London is the tube. Although Londoners generally don't appear to be massive fans of this form of transit (I'm sure it's an abomination in the summer as the presence of body odor and a complete disregard for personal space heightens), it's certainly not the place for anyone with personal space problems or germaphobes. The low budget film featured in the article above spent nine hours on the Central line trying to film a small scene. It must have been a form of torture for the actors, as being underground that long simply can not be good for anyone's emotional health. The reason this article caught my eye, however, was that I take the Central line on almost an every other day basis. I was so close to accidentally being an extra in some film none of us will probably see!!

I'm going to be honest with y'all for a second and reveal that I actually didn't read more than a few lines of the above article. A picture speaks in the place of thousands of words anyway, right? One thing that several of us on this trip have discussed is why pubs are so fantastic. Londoners have something which Americans direly lack: social skills. On several occasions, one or another of us has looked around, realizing that our group of friends (Americans) are all using our phones instead of interacting with each other. This phone epidemic is simply not a thing. And it's wonderful. People here talk to each other. I know what you're thinking, people in America talk to each other! It's just your generation, Lydia. And I'm sure that you're very right in that statement. This aversion to social interaction remains a massive flaw in my generation. We're so attached to technology, there's like this invisible magnet keeping our eyes focused on our phones and our phones in our hands that does more damage than help to young people. Anyway, back to my point. I love going out to a pub and paying too much for a meal for the simple joy of truly experiencing community with those around me. I've learned not to inhale my food, but instead revel in it's flavor and in the delight of conversing with my friends. We've all dreaded going back to a world without pubs, because we feel like we're going to lose that time of camaraderie (which, really, it's not an issue of place, but of the people-and I'll leave it at that so I don't go on another tangent). But the good news is it appears that cafes are becoming more a place of conversation, not just limited to those needing a caffeinated kick in the mornings, the studious readers, or the student stealing their internet. We have cafes back home and that will make leaving much easier.

So apparently plastic is going to be all the rage. Or something. I think it's silly and won't be terribly popular among normal people and even less so to Texans in the years to come. There's almost nothing more horrific than thinking about wearing a plastic skirt in the hundred plus degree heat; it's disgusting. A nice thing though I've enjoyed here is the freedom to wear literally anything. I mean, I don't wear crazy weird stuff, but I care much less about whether I'm dressed in a particular style. Appearances aren't as much of a priority here because each person has their own version of what's "in". There's definitely trends, but everywhere I go people seem to wear whatever they find comfortable or can afford (name brands are all over the place in some areas, but in others people couldn't seem to care less about the label). [Paris was even worse. I felt like they all went for the grunge/no hygiene look. There were literally two men who weren't American we encountered who were attractive, but the women didn't maintain such an unfortunate ratio. It's amazing how much more attractive people are in Texas than the people I sat next to in the metro in Paris.] How many of the outfits that appear on runways are for real life people anyway?

Caitlyn, Taylor, and I really enjoyed the opera Tuesday night!

Some girls who live across the hall from me lead a Bible study in our common room downstairs here in our hostel. We're going through Galatians and it's just really wonderful to get to bond together, be open with each other, and spend some time discussing God's word to us. I'm so incredibly thankful for all of these amazing people! They are lots of fun and super sweet.

On Friday we went out to the V&A (Victoria and Albert) museum after buying Lion King tickets (literally a dream come true!!!!). The highlights were the fashion through the years exhibit, the jewelry (Everything was so shiny! And we saw coral colored coral.), and costumes (worn in movies, shows, and concerts). We then went out and checked out various shops (including the National Geographic store-very cool, I really want a world map poster) before heading home to do some reading. Since it was Jase's birthday, a couple of us baked him a cake and we had a mini celebration for him up in our room.

Lion King costumes from 2010!!!

Today we enjoyed Hampton Court Palace! Internet is a bit of a problem so I'm too lazy to post pictures now, but we enjoyed the actors walking around, hearing the drama of Henry VIII and all his wives, my first garden/hedge maze, and lots of fun history!!! Check out facebook in the next couple days for pictures of that!