Paris

Have you ever seen “Everybody Loves Raymond?” If not, it’s your typical sitcom about a very dysfunctional family, and it’s hilarious.  Well, Brad and I were talking a few days ago about our group and how our personalities are all so different but still mesh together, and he decided that our HUE group is exactly like “Everybody Loves Raymond.”  It’s really funny to watch, but if you were actually in it, it would suck.  He wasn’t saying that our lives suck, because they don’t.  We’re in London, having the time of our lives.  But, the most ridiculous things, things that belong in sitcoms and comedies, happen to us ALL THE TIME.  And our Paris trip is the perfect example of this.

On Wednesday, we went to Paris for the day.  We got up early that morning to catch a train to Paris.   When we got to the train station, we changed some of our pounds to euros and then waited in the security line so that our bags could be searched.  You know how on every trip there is that one person that everything happens to?  That was me.  I was stopped at security because something suspicious showed up on the x-ray of my bag.  Security pulled me aside and asked me to open my purse so that they could search it.  I don’t know about you, but I feel like a little blonde girl who is carrying a stuffed hedgehog, three different kinds of chapstick, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a Disney Princess ziplock bag in her purse is really not a security threat worthy of being stopped.  But my opinion means nothing here.  Thankfully, I got through fine and then we all stood in another line to get a stamp in our passports!  It was very exciting.  However, I hadn’t had a stamp for two seconds before I was pulled over to a corner by security and asked where I was going and why I was going there and how long I had been in the UK, etc, etc.  And no, this didn’t happen to anyone else in our group.  Stephanie was amazing and stayed with me as they searched and questioned me.  After I was done going through the Spanish Inquisition, I decided that I deserved some hot chocolate.  Have I discussed Caffe Nero’s hot chocolate yet?  It is the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had.  It’s served with whipped cream and rich Belgian chocolate and I love it.  Anyways, while I was waiting in the line for my hot chocolate, we met a family from Texas who was also traveling to Paris.  They were from the Rice village area of Houston, further proving that is really is a small world.  We talked to them for several minutes while waiting on our train to arrive.  They had two wonderful daughters who were convinced that they were traveling to “Brussel Sprouts,” and we really enjoyed talking to them. 

It finally was time to get on our train.  I sat next to Lyndsey on the train, but for the most part I slept.  We arrived in Paris at one in the afternoon and immediately bought tickets for the Metro so that we could get around the city.  The Metro is the French version of the Underground Tube system, or the subway.  It took a while to figure out how to buy the tickets, and everything was in French so that made it even harder. And the people who were working at the train station knew English, but they pretended not to. This just goes to show you that what they say about rude French people is true! However, not all Frenchmen were opposed to Americans. As we were walking across the train station, trying to figure out how to get to Notre Dame, a group of soldiers armed with huge guns walked past us. I had never seen anyone carry a gun so openly in public, even our army at home, so I think I looked at a younger guy in the middle of the group just a few seconds too long. He made eye contact with me, and then he broke out in a huge grin. I kinda smiled at him, but quickly looked away…his huge gun really intimidated me. But before I knew it, his buddies in camo were waving him on and he was walking towards me! I nervously coughed and tried to look really busy, but he approached me anyways and in a very French accent said, “Bonjour!” I stammered a “Bonjour” back to him, and he asked me if I was American. I answered with what I hoped was a charming “Oui!” With that, I had reached the extent of my knowledge of the French language. After a short, slightly broken conversation with him in English, he rejoined his group and I rejoined mine. As I was walking to my group, all of whom were making fun of me, I got run over by a stroller. The group continued to laugh uproariously at me as we made our way to Metro.

We rode the rather rickety Metro all the way to the Notre Dame area. We got to see the beautiful cathedral (but no hunchback, unfortunately) and we spent a good deal of time in the church. The stained glass inside was absolutely gorgeous. I loved being in a place where so much history had taken place. After Notre Dame, we walked along the streets, occasionally spotting tons of soldiers with huge guns, and looked for a bakery to buy French bread. We came across the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, which is quite famous and very cute. The streets were so quaint in that area of Paris, and it just really felt like we were in France. I know that sentence doesn’t make much sense, but that’s the only way I know how to say it. 

When we finished with that section of town, we went to see the Arc de Triomphe and then Champs Elysees Avenue, where all the major shopping and expensive stores are. There was a lot of walking, and I’m not going to lie…the Champs Elysees didn’t interest me very much. I’m sure some people would be absolutely appalled by me saying that but that is how I feel.

We made our way down the Avenue, and came to the Louvre and its Glass Pyramid. The gardens that surround the Louvre were pretty, even though it was winter and November. And the chill didn’t stop the stereotypical French couples from French-kissing all over the place, on benches and picnic blankets. By then it was getting dark, so we didn’t spend much time at the Louvre…in fact, we didn’t even go inside it. But next we went to Paris’s most famous icon: the Eiffel Tower.

What I didn’t know about the Eiffel Tower is that at nighttime it lights up and sparkles every hour. By the time we got to the tower, the sun had long set and it was very dark. The sparkling tower was so gorgeous. Our group went up into the tower, riding the elevator so that we wouldn’t have to climb the ridiculous number of steps up to the top. Once we were up there, we could see the entirety of Paris lit up. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I was taking some pictures with Brad when we looked over and saw a man proposing to his girlfriend on top of the Eiffel Tower. It was so precious and so beautiful. To top that off, as soon as she said yes, the Tower lit up. The pulsing lights made it feel like a dance club, and yes we did dance to music on my iPod while the lights went off. THEN, on top of all of that, it started to snow while we were on top of the Eiffel Tower. Perfection achieved! All of that seriously couldn’t have happened at the same time if someone had planned it. It was so beautiful.

Remember how I mentioned a sitcom at the beginning of this post? Well this is where the hilarity and chaos really begins. We all made our way down to the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, and we were sitting around taking pictures when we realized we only had 30 minutes to make it back to the train station and onto our train back to London. We gathered up our belongings and started to rush to the nearest Metro stop to take us all the way across Paris. Unfortunately, we then realized that Lyndsey was nowhere to be found. We desperately looked for her everywhere as time was ticking away when she appeared out of a gift shop. We grabbed her and frantically began our mad dash to the train station. Our group arrived at the extremely crowded Metro and we couldn’t all fit on the train. It was filled to its capacity. Thankfully we sucked in our breaths and pushed many disgruntled French citizens against the edges of the Metro and squeezed our whole group on the Metro. This is probably why French people are so rude to us haha. Anyways, our Metro ride was incredibly long as we wound under the streets of Paris to the train station. Finally, we arrived and rushed off of the Metro towards the platform where our train was going to take off. Of course, we were on the other side of the incredibly large station and had 10 minutes to get to our platform and go through security before we could board. And so began our intense run to the platform. Soldiers with their huge guns glared at us as we ran through the crowds, nearly knocking people over. Pigeons flew through the air as we interrupted their grazing time on the station floor. Suddenly, the station was deserted. It was actually really creepy. We continued our run when I abruptly got a cramp in my leg.  The day before, we had been to Greenwich and I had fallen down a hill, bruising and twisting my leg in a weird way. It had been kinda tight all day, and running on it didn’t really help. As we ran, and man running from a different part of the station joined our marathon to the platform. At this point we literally had 2 minutes to get where we were going, and we had been sprinting across the station for a while and I was frazzled and out of breath. So when the man started talking to me in French, I wasn’t too worried about manners. “I (gasp) SPEAK (gasp) ENGLISH!” I yelled as we continued to run to security. Thankfully, the man understood me and shared our situation because he too was American and late for the same train. And then, it stood before us:  security. Lauren threw her purse on a table and scattered pens out for the group to fill out their customs forms. Me? I was fully prepared to lie and say I hadn’t bought the 4 post cards and miniature Eiffel Tower in Paris. As I was running to the metal detector, I threw my purse on the conveyor belt next to it from 15 feet away and began taking off my coat as I ran, yelling at the security guards “DO I NEED TO TAKE OF MY COAT?!” Alarmed, they realized I was in a bit of a hurry and waved me through the metal detector. I made my way to the platform, tickets in hand, and showed my boarding pass to a woman who worked there. Seeing my bright red face, how hard I was breathing, and the rest of the group running behind me, she calmly told us we were fine. We had made our train. We all briefly rejoiced, and then found our seats and collapsed, pealing sweaty layers off as we drifted to sleep. It was honestly one of the most stressful and hilarious things that has ever happened to me. But it’s part of what made our trip unique and I loved it.

The Month of October

I admit it:  I have let my schoolwork come in the way of writing everyday.  I came to London fully intending to blog once a day.  However, I unfortunately forgot that while I was here I would actually have to go to class, too.  Surprisingly, the classes that I’m taking are not completely blow-off classes and I have to do legitimate work.  Sorry guys. But, since I have blogged, life has been crazy and hectic and absolutely amazing.  We have seen multiple shows and performances, including The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wicked, and Les Miserables. 

Les Miserables is probably the best musical I’ve ever seen.  I had actually seen it before coming here in Houston once.  However, there’s something about seeing it in the Queen’s Theater on its 25^th anniversary tour that just makes the show even better.  The entire performance I was freaking out.  I ended up grabbing the arm of the person I was sitting next to multiple times because of the beauty of the sound of the actors’ voices soaring throughout the auditorium.  In fact, I had to reign in my enthusiasm for seeing the musical because I didn’t want to build up the show to be more than it was for everyone else that saw it with me.  As a lover of theater and music, it’s really easy for me to become incredibly ecstatic about seeing such a production.  I sometimes forget that other people don’t become as captivated by the music, the plot and the set as I do.  Thankfully, I had nothing to fear with Les Miserables.  Our entire group ended up loving the show.  The actor’s did such a fantastic job with their roles.  I mean, I know that that is what they’re paid to do, but I just completely lost myself in the story.  As a sympathetic crier, I found myself close to tears multiple times throughout the performance.  I realized as the show went on that when I wasn’t close to tears I was beaming like a lunatic.  But anyways, the show was great.  Wicked was also amazing.  I had seen that one, too, but I still loved every minute of it…not to mention the fact that all of the characters had English accents.  One of the characters, Boq, even had an Irish accent. Thankfully, I was able to understand all of it.  At both of these shows, we got amazing seats at really good prices.  In fact, for Les Miserables we were on the ground level and we had front row seats to Wicked.  Oh it was amazing. 

Ok. I can’t remember if I have already talked about this, but I have decided that I have a problem.  This problem stems from me being a history major.  I have become notorious in my group as the girl who likes to touch stuff she isn’t supposed to at museums and other exhibits.  I really can’t help myself.  I of course don’t touch things that would be damaged by the oil on my hands.  But, if there just happens to be the oldest door in Britain right in front of me and it’s only cut off from the general public by a rope, I’m of course going to touch it!  The same goes for the marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Greece and anything else I have access to.  There is just something about touching things that other people have touched over a thousand years ago.  Whether you’re touching something that Elizabeth I or just a normal person touched, you have an irreversible tie to that person through history.  It fascinates me.

Two days ago, we went to Westminster Abbey.  I was glad of course to see the beautiful church, but in all honesty I was not incredibly excited.  We have been to so many churches and cathedrals on this trip.  They’re all beautiful, and they all have remarkable historical ties, but I was just not particularly interested in Westminster Abbey.  However, this changed the minute I walked through the door.

            The first thing that I see when I have walked into any church on this trip is the ceiling.  That may sound bizarre, but I think that the high, soaring ceilings just naturally draw the eye upwards.  After I’ve looked at the ceiling, I then take in the beauty of the cathedral.  This time, it was different.  For some reason, this church really affected me emotionally.  I had been having a pretty rough day, and I think that just being in that church was uplifting for me.  It felt like every part of European history that really interested me, that I have studied on my own time because of my love for it, was in Westminster.

            For example, I have always loved the tragic and triumphant story of Elizabeth I and her royal family.  I do not know why, but the beauty, strength, and cunning obviously seen in the lives of the Tudor family fascinate me.  I think I know more about Elizabeth I than I do about some aspects of our own country’s history.  Anyways, when I went into the tomb room and realized that both Elizabeth and Mary were buried in that room, this intense, near-indescribable feeling came over me.  I was smiling, wanting to cry, and had goose bumps and chills all at the same time.  The fact that I was standing in the presence of two women who had completely altered the course of England’s history, even though it was four hundred years ago, humbled me.  I stayed in that room for nearly fifteen minutes, despite it’s many signs telling tourists to keep moving.  The next room was just as amazing to me.

            The tomb that Henry VIII commissioned for his father was right in front of me.  I could see the intricate gold leaf designs that I hadn’t been able to see in the many pictures I had seen of this tomb.  Edward VI was buried right where I walked.  James I, the Scottish king of England, was next to me, and his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, beheaded on the orders of Elizabeth I, was just a few steps away.  I was in complete awe.  These people were strong, sometimes crazy, but definitely powerful.  They led entire nations, and while some were definitely more successful than others, they still had a huge impact on the English nation.  I can admire something in all of these leaders.

            Of course, I couldn’t get out of the church without touching something that I wasn’t supposed to.  Just outside of the main part of the cathedral was the chapter house.  Right outside the chapter house was the oldest door in England.  It had probably come from the time of William the Conqueror, and it was separated from the general public by a dividing rope.  With two lookouts watching both exits, I was able to briefly touch the door that hundreds and thousands of people throughout history had walked through in their daily lives.  For all I know, every king and queen of England could have touched the same door that I illegally touched.  Even if this is not the case, I still have an undeniable connection to the lives of people, common or not, who lived nearly a thousand years ago. I know I already mentioned the “undeniable tie” thing in this post, but it’s so amazing to me that I can’t help going on and on about it.

            Let’s see. Since I’ve blogged last, we have also been to the London Eye, seen the Tree of Life in Hyde Park, been to the Natural History Museum, discovered Primark, been to Abbey Road, visited Buckingham Palace, tried to see the changing of the guard, shopped on Portobella Road, seen the Tower of London, been to Blenheim Palace, visited Oxford, learned the powers of woading tattoos, visited Warwick Castle, visited the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford upon Avon, had high tea while discussing Jane Austen, seen the white cliffs of Dover, visited Canterbury Cathedral, dyed Mindy’s hair red, and learned how to properly wear a toga at Hampton Court. 

            Good grief.  Just looking at that list makes my head spin.  It’s been an incredibly busy month.  I’m going to try to briefly go over some of these (VERY BREIFLY), so feel free to skip the next few paragraphs if you’re getting bored.

            The London Eye was really cool.  It was so interesting to see the city from so high up.  We had a few people who were really scared of heights, so that fun to watch.  Just kidding…but seriously.  We had one person who was detained by security because he was carrying around a massive knife with a huge blade…so massive that it’s actually illegal to carry. So that was a party.  The ride lasted about 20 or 30 minutes, and it was really a lot of fun.  There were so many great opportunities to take pictures and just see the city from such a calm place.  It really contradicted the image of London that is usually in my head, full of crowds and hundreds of people who show little friendliness.  Even in Houston, people smile at each other.  Here? Nope. I actually got really weird looks from people on the Tube the other day when I said “Bless you” to someone who had sneezed.  My bad. Anyways…     

            Hyde Park is really cool.  Brad, Lauren and I discovered a massive tree that we fondly call The Tree of Life.  The branches come down and cover the entire trunk of the tree in a dome-like structure.  You can have to kinda squeeze through the branches to get into the dome where the trunk is, and from there you can climb the tree.  Ok. I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t have much tree-climbing experience.  Back home, the branches are pretty tall, and it’s hard for short people like me to climb up when you can’t reach the bottom branches.  I was hesitant to climb this tree…especially when I realized that I was too short to reach the branches here, too.  However, Brad graciously gave me a boost so that I could get into the tree.  It was so awesome! Once I got the boost up, I had no problem climbing.  In fact, we go back there every now and then to read or study at the top of the tree.

            Primark is the store of clothing heaven.  It contains inexpensive, very cute, Londony clothes.  Therefore, we go like every week-and-a-half.  It’s really a dangerous store.  The low prices suck you in, and it’s extremely hard not to buy something if you go.  I have started making myself not go simply because I could probably buy out the whole store. 

            Oh Abbey Road.  The Beatles.  Fantastic.  We didn’t get a very good “walking across the street like the Beatle’s Abbey Road album cover” picture, but we intend on going back soon and trying again.  There were cars coming when we took our picture. But, we did get to write our names on the wall in front of the Abbey Road Studio.  I was freaking out the whole time, and I can’t wait to go back.

            Have you seen Notting Hill, with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant?  That is Portobella Road.  The outdoor market where Hugh Grant walks through in despair is where I was.  They have really cool booths set up all up and down the streets.  I like to think of it as a mix between a farmer’s market, an estate sale, and a garage sale.  It’s lots of fun to go to, and you can get really good prices of lots of things.

            The Tower of London was amazing…but that’s probably because I was really excited to see the place where Anne Boleyn was kept and beheaded and the torture chamber.  Hmm. I just typed that sentence and realized that if you don’t know me well I sound really sadistic and creepy.  But that’s ok.  Anyways, it was really cool.  I wish we had had more time there because I could have spent hours in each separate building.  It was amazing just getting to see certain things and realizing that real people, with real emotions were kept in the Tower.  Many of them were innocent.  It was sobering to think about, but at the same time I was excited to be in the presence of so much history. 

            For those who don’t know what woading tattoos are, prepare to be enlightened.  In ancient times, the Celts would tattoo themselves with blue ink.  These tattoos were swirls and intricate knots that were fabled to protect against evil spirits. When we learned about these in class, I immediately started doodling in the margin of my notes.  This doodling turned into me and Lauren giving Brad a woad tattoo on each of his arms.  That then turned into me giving Mindy a sharpie tattoo on her foot.  For a while we were all obsessed with these, but in the past month our obsession has died down.

            Besides all of this, we have actually been going to classes.  Unfortunately, midterms did fall in the past week.  Between the philosophy midterm, the humanities midterm, and the raging hormones that attacked our flat all in the same week, it’s been pretty rough.  At the beginning of this trip, I mentioned that I was worried about making friends.  Everyone seemed to already know everyone else, except for me.  However, this didn’t end up being a problem at all.  In fact, a bunch of people on the trip come to me to vent or for advice.  It’s working out really well.  It’s funny to look back on my preconceived notions of this trip and compare it to how reality actually is.  I was wrong on so many different levels, but that hasn’t been a bad thing yet.

September 30

            Today, I fell in love with paper.  After class, we went to this café/paper store that makes its own paper.  It was so beautiful.  I feel really silly about freaking out over a piece of paper, but the pages were so delicate!  They had intricate designs, textures and even leaves and flowers pressed into the pages.  It was absolutely fantastic. 

            Lauren and I broke off from the group when we decided we were dangerously close to wanting to buy random pieces of paper that would serve us absolutely no purpose and went to the grocery store.  We bought the food that we needed to tide us over until our next food allowance, and I was brave and bought a meat and potato pasty pie.  This is apparently a pretty British food.  It was delicious!  Basically it was like a pot pie with just beef and potatoes, but it was fantastic. 

            At 2:00 that afternoon, our group set off to go visit the British Museum for the first time.  We got to see the Rosetta Stone and the artifacts the British had recovered from the Parthenon in Greece.  The sculptures and pieces from Greece were amazing.  I’m going to do a very poor job of trying to explain this, but the pieces felt like they were actually moving.  The fluidity being their motions, despite the rigidity of the stone, was really just captivating.  I think I could have looked at those pieces for a really long time.  That, and the fact that I was looking at something over three thousand years old really got to me.  The best part is secretly touching something from the exhibit.  You’re not supposed to, but the temptation to touch a part of history, just a rock or a stone that so many other countless people have touched was too much for me sometimes.  But we should keep that in the cone of silence…I don’t want the Royal Guard after me. 

            We only caught a glimpse of a tiny portion of the British Museum.  It’s completely massive, and I’ll have to go back several times to be able to see everything that it has to offer.  Lucky for me, it’s free.

            After the museum, Lauren, Brad and I went to Oxford Circus where a lot of the shopping is.  If you are ever in London, make a point to go to Primark.  It is like a combination the Target clothing department and the Forever 21 of London.  There are tons of really cute clothes for really good prices.  For example, I got a skirt for 5 quid.  That’s London speak for 5 bucks.  It was amazing.  I also got a shirt, which I’m extremely excited about.  And then I bought a coffee mug that has a map of the Tube system on it.  So I went a little crazy today.  But, these are the first things I’ve bought except for post cards, so I was actually pretty proud of myself.

            We got back to the flat and had dinner pretty quickly.  Then Lauren and I showed the guys how to get on the roof.  It was completely dark by this time, so we figured we had a lesser chance of getting caught.  The city is really pretty at night, even though you can’t see much of it from our flat.  I love sitting out on the ledge.

            When we came back in (it gets pretty chilly at night), we watched a classic movie we had rented from the library.  The librarian was really excited when we checked it out, and even started quoting his favorite lines from the movie.  What movie was this?  Gladiator.  So good.  So epic.  Absolutely fantastic.  It was the perfect end to a really long day of walking around shopping in London.

September 29

            I feel like I am in a mix of Shakespeare in Love and Harry Potter.  Today, we went to the Globe Theater.  Yes, the actual Globe Theater.  This is right up my alley, because I not only love theater but also am extremely interested in this era in history.  In the 1500s and 1600s, when Shakespeare was really popular with the king and the common people, the Globe Theater was built as a hugeeee open air theater to put on his plays and other plays that were less popular. It's a circular shape, with the stage at the back and seats built into the circular walls (that's where the rich people sat...it costs more to sit). The bare ground is in the middle of the theater, and that's where the poor people (aka all of us) stood for 3 hours to watch the play. Even though I'm short, I could see the stage really well. It was amazing. And this is the same theater from that time period, except that it burned down in the late 1600s I think during a performance of Macbeth. That's why even today it's bad luck to say "Macbeth" before any type of show. I NEVER ever said it when I did musicals and plays in high school. And yeah, they've restored some parts and things like that, but oh man. It was so awesome. I was freaking out the whole time. The play we saw was Henry IV, which was written by Shakespeare. It's basically about the power struggle behind the English throne in the 1500s, and it was in Shakespearan language and all that. But it was really good! And I laughed pretty hard several times. I was kind of scared that I wasn't going to be able to understand what was going on, but I really got into it.  The only bad part was when it started to rain in the middle of the show.  Since there’s no roof, everyone busted out their rain jackets.  I, unfortunately, didn’t have a rain jacket so I borrowed Lauren’s plastic trash-baggy poncho.  Yeah, I was styling.  You would have been pretty jealous if you had seen me. 

            Another cool thing that I got to experience was walking across the Millenium Bridge.  For those of us that have seen Harry Potter, this is the bridge that the Death Eaters basically destroy in the latest movie.  Remember at the very beginning when this walking bridge is made to toss and turn until it breaks over the water?  Yes.  That bridge.  Oh man, I felt pretty legit. 

            However, when we were making our way back to our flats, somehow Brad and I got separated from the rest of the group.  And then, I somehow got separated from Brad.  It was kind of tense, just because I was a little worried about everyone making it back.  I was perfectly fine; I knew exactly where I was.  It just wasn’t necessarily something that I want to happen again.

            That night, we all stayed in and did homework.  It had piled up mysteriously on us, and we all had soooo much to do.  Basically, in the girl’s flat we all sat around the living room or at the kitchen table, trying desperately to understand the foreign language that is the philosophy of religion.  Again, I’m not ashamed to say that I’m terrified of that class.  Hopefully it’s not as bad as I’m making it out to be.

September 28

            So, I have officially been to all of my classes.  After sitting through speech and philosophy of religion, I think it’s safe to say that I will not like B Day’s classes…or B Days in general. 

            Today was pretty slow.  We went on a coach tour of London after classes.  Our guide, Suze, was hilarious as she showed all the girls where Prince Harry goes clubbing and the infamous military men’s bar, Paxton’s Head.  The military bar is actually very safe though, since the men are required to be absolutely respectful towards young ladies or they run the risk of being severely punished or even kicked out. 

            After the tour, a group of us traveled by Tube to Camden where all of the charity shops are.  The charity shops are basically good will stores that donate a huge portion of their profits to a specific charity named on the front of the store.  Everything there is pretty cheap, so you can find some really good deals if you get lucky.  It was exciting to see what we could find.

            Beyond that, there really wasn’t much that happened.  I had to read a chapter in one of my philosophy books, and I can already tell that it will not be a party. 

September 27

            Ah.  The first day of classes.  What joy, for the college student studying abroad.  Actually, school wasn’t bad at all.  The only class I had today was Humanities, and it was really interesting.  I think I’m going to end up really liking this test.  We had a quiz the first day and a reading assignment due, but I aced the quiz so I’m fairly confident in my ability in this class.  We had chapel after class, and as a result we were done with “school” by noon today.

            After classes, our sponsors had planned a scavenger hunt for us to get us more comfortable with the city and the Tube.  I was in a group with Caroline and Lyndsey, and our team name was Spain.  Each team had ten clues that they needed to follow to arrive at the same final destination.  Our sponsors told us we should be done by 2:30, and then let us loose on the unsuspecting city. 

            Our first clue led us to King’s Cross Station, home of Platform 9 ¾.  It was absolutely amazing for a Harry Potter fanatic like me.  My whole group basically loves Harry Potter, so we were pretty excited about our first stop. 

            Next, we were sent to Covent Gardens to take a picture by the new Apple store.  Covent Gardens is ridiculously huge, with tons of stores and lots of people everywhere.  We had to get a random person to take our picture, which was kind of awkward, but so far we were feeling really confident about our group’s chances of winning.

            I’m pretty sure the next stop was to Leicester Square.  There, in the middle of the square, is a discounted ticket booth for shows playing in London.  Our task there was to get one person in our group to do ten push-ups  in front of the ticket booth.  Well, one girl was wearing a dress and she opted out.  I was wearing a skirt and I tried to opt out, but the other girl absolutely refused to do the push-ups so I was the lucky one that got to do them in a huge crowd in the middle of Central London.  Lucky me.

            Our next clue sent us to Piccadilly Circus, where we took a picture in front of the massive digital screens they have in the middle of the street intersection.  I have to say though, the next stop was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in London.

            Clue number five sent us to Harrods.  Harrods is massive and amazing and beautiful and crazy expensive.  We were supposed to go to a French bakery named La Duree to meet up with two of our sponsors who had a treat waiting for us.  After eating our lovely macaroons, we went back through Harrods to the Tube.  I promise you, the whole place was like a dream.  The cosmetics center smelled beautifully of perfume.  In fact, our group agreed that we wished we could smell like that every day.  It was amazing.

            By the next clue, we were starting to drag.  We had done a lot of walking, and it was getting really close to 2:30.  After taking pictures with Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and doing cartwheels in Green Park, we were REALLY tired.  We headed off to our final destination, the London Zoo.  The zoo is not on any map we ever saw, and we looked at plenty of them.  We ended up guessing correctly where the zoo was, but once we got off at the Tube stop we literally had to walk like between two and three miles to get there.  After walking all day, this was not a party. 

            We came in second place by ten minutes and reached our final place at around 4:30, two hours later than we were supposed to.  It was fun, but not the last 4 stops.

            That night, we really just stayed in for the most part.  I got to eat Chinese food, which I had been craving desperately.   But beyond that, we didn’t do much.  Just rested our feet and prepared for classes the next day.  I did however have an epic conversation with Josh about whether Ohio or Texas was the better state.  I think it goes without saying that I won :)

September 26

            This morning we had our first church service in London.  The Tube was out of commission, so we had worship service in the Organ’s flat (our professors).  The singing was actually really good today, and I loved the songs we picked out.  Dr. Organ’s lesson also really got me thinking.  He started off talking about how there’s an ongoing debate at several churches about how money should be used.  Many people have no problem using the money to fix up the church building when it’s needed, but others think that it’s not Biblical to do so.  Then he told us the story of this man hundreds of years ago who was painting the massive stained glass window at York Minster.  This window is as big as a tennis court…literally.   The man in the story was painting the very top window, but he was using the tiniest brush strokes imaginable in order to show as much detail as possible.  Another man was talking to him and asked him why he was bothering with the small details since no one would be able to see it.  The painter replied that God would be able to see it.  That really hit home with me…about doing your best for God even if He’s the only one that’s going to know about it.  There are so many massive, beautiful, and intricately decorated churches from hundreds of years ago that are so different from our church buildings now.  While many of those churches were quite possibly built because of the vanity of a church figure, like the clergyman or the pope or whoever, the people that actually worked on the church or donated money to the church’s construction were giving their all for God.  They were using their talents or giving their wealth to bring praise to God, while living in dirty hut-houses that were far less beautiful.  I’m doing a really bad job of explaining how this blew my mind a little, but it was a really good lesson.

            After church and lunch, Lauren, Mindy, Mary, Travis, Brad, and I all went on the Tube and went to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, and several other places.  The coolest thing though was getting to see Big Ben for the first time!  Seeing Big Ben and Parliament and things of that nature is what really makes me realize that I’m in London, in a different country, overseas.  Unfortunately, it started to rain about then, so we headed back to our flat and got our umbrellas. 

            We reconvened to go get hot chocolate at a nearby café, and then we just walked around for a bit.  Our group kind of split off into different factions when half of the group decided to go back to the flat.  The group that I was in went off to walk around and find Brad a cheap watch.  This was easier said than done.  It took forever to find a place that sold watches at all.

            Later that night, we went to Wagamama’s for our group meal.  This is basically a noodle and rice bar, and it was fantastic.  I had been craving Chinese food since I left home, and while this was not exactly food that I was used to it did satisfy my craving temporarily.  I got teriyaki chicken and rice and it almost made me cry it was so good.  We had fun trying to eat with chopsticks, and I’m pretty sure I’m going back again soon.

            When we got back to our flat, I had a skype date with my family and got to talk to Brooke and Josh, some friends from Harding.  Even though I love the group I’m with and I’m getting closer to them all the time (figuratively and literally), it’s so great to talk to people that I’m really close to from home (and yes, I’m including Harding in that “home”). 

            Mindy and I were hanging out in our room, procrastinating reading for class and going to bed, and before we knew it everyone else was asleep and it was 1:00.  I think I see us as the crazy, outgoing, loud faction of our group, like the girls that live down the hall from you that never stop moving or never seem to sleep.  You know what I mean?  It’s kind of fun being “that girl” for a semester, because when I live in the real dorms that’s really not me at all.  It’s taken me so much less time to get in my element with this group of people than it did when I first moved into the dorms a little over a year ago, and I think that’s a very good thing.