Westminster Abbey, House of Parliament

So I figured I'd update once more before I leave for Prague very, very, very early tomorrow. I've also made the executive decision to use a bigger font on this baby, i hope that's ok with everyone.

Yesterday I toured Westminster Abbey and the House of Parliament. Because the Parliament sessions begins soon, the summer session ends Saturday, so this week was our last chance to get in a tour. The only way to get a tour during session is if your state governor gives approval, and i was not about to go through that!

The abbey was amazing--of course we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I got a few of the outside. I had no idea how many dead people were buried inside there! very creepy. But very cool to see where all of the coronations take place, etc.

The area where the abbey and parliament sit are known as 'parliament square', which gives you a great view of big ben, parliament and the london eye in the background.

Maggie tried to get me and our buddy Ben, but because i'm vertically challenged i barely made it in the picture:


As I was on my way to meet Maggie in front of Parliament, who did I see handing out "tours of parliament" pamphlets but...ELPHIBA! Of course, someone I thought I would NEVER HAVE TO SEE AGAIN, is just chilling on the street...so I pretended to take a picture of Maggie...take that Elphiba! Just picture her with green tights:

The tour of parliament itself was very interesting, kind of the equivalent of the Capital building in D.C....we got to see where the Queen gives the opening address each year to open the Parliamentary "season", where everyone sits, how they vote, etc. We also learned that this year they're adopting the US's idea of a "Supreme Court" and making their own....and then i just took pictures of Big Ben

So since I don't really have much to say, I thought I'd share something that Maggie found the other day, and just provided me with about 2 hours of entertainment, courtesy of http://www.yearbookyourself.com/, The first few are ones that Maggie did of me the other night, and the rest are, well, my gift to you (something to try @ work aunt maur!)

...you're welcome!

Visitors!

What a busy weekend! Bri got here Thursday afternoon, so Thursday night Bri and her friend Jackie from BC who's studying in London came over for a tour of the flat, and to go out to dinner. We tried this Thai place we had heard about from friends of ours who studied here,and it was AMAZING. Finally a good meal in this city! and what was even better, finally a meal with flavor in this city! Friday I went on the school trip to Bath. I don't know what it is with me and my luck with tour guides, but whatever bad-tour-guide-curse is on me struck again Friday morning at 8:15 AM. This scary lady in green tights told a group of us to board one of the coaches, so we did, and then one of the ladies from SU gets on yelling at us "WHO TOLD YOU TO BOARD THE COACH?! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO GET CHECKED OFF! YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER!" meanwhile, it was the stupid TOUR GUIDE who told us to get on. So we then had to all get off, and go through this whole, long, drawn out process.

This lady, whom we named "Elphiba" from Wicked because of her green tights, started yelling into the microphone. I don't know exactly how she got it that loud, it sounded like the whole top of the microphone was completeley in her mouth and she was screaming...so that was fun. The ride was about 2.5 hours, so 1.5 hours into the ride we stopped at a rest stop. The guide-in-training or whoever got on and he was like 'ok guys try to make this quick and not get food or anything, we need to make sure we have enough time in Bath' ...i stayed on because i was in the middle of napping...but i was soon woken up to elphiba yelling at some kid "WHY DID YOU GET FOOD? I THINK THAT'S VERY RUDE AND INCONSIDERATE TO THE OTHER PEOPLE ON THE COACH, WE SPECIFICALLY TOLD YOU TO NOT GET FOOD"...but wait, it gets better.

We then notice we're one student short, so she starts yelling at the kid who got the food "WAS THERE SOMEONE ELSE FROM THE BUS ON THE FOOD LINE? I TOLD YOU TO NOT GET FOOD BLAH BLAH BLAH" so she GETS OUT OF THE BUS and goes into the rest stop to track down this kid. I could not believe what was happening, God forbid a 20-year-old guy decides he wants a drink...Elphiba was not going to let this happen.

Anyway, she went in and tracked him down and he looked like he couldn't care less --we all watched her lecture him on their way back to the bus. We then got blamed because "NOW WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE, WE WERE ALREADY LATE AS IT IS, NOW WE'RE GOING TO BE EVEN MORE LATE"...wait a second, who told us to get on the bus in the first place that then caused a half an hour of confusion? oh thats right, YOU!

She then proceeds to tell us how we could all easily take the train home if we miss the bus going home...thanks.

Anyway, that was just a little story I thought you'd enjoy (mom). Bath ended up being beautiful. The bath museum 'thingy' itself was nothing special, i was expecting more. The town of Bath however exceeded my expectations...it was beautiful and overlooking these rolling hills and beautiful river. and the best part was, we had PIZZA for lunch! We came across this place called "the real italian pizza co.", which i could just not pass up. It was ironically (or probably not so ironically) situated right NEXT to "the real italian ice cream co." Anyway, this weekend I ended up having pizza 3 times in 36 hours, pretty good deal!

Friday night, Bri, Jackie, Maggie and I went to covent garden to this place called "fire and stone" which is all different types of gormet pizzas, kind of like a California Pizza Kitchen...SO GOOD! I got this pizza with garlic shrimp, some chinese sauce, spring onions and red peppers.mmmm. and look what i found on the way!

Saturday was our tour of Buckingham Palace! We made the tour for 12:15 to we could see (emphasis on "see") the changing of the guards at 11:30. Well, when we got there, i think EVERY PERSON in the United Kingdom was there. I don't know what I was thinking going to see this on a Saturday, but my disdain of crowds and tourists did not help the situation. I got some girl who half spoke english to take a picture for me, but all we could hear was the royal band playing "hey jude", which, i don't know, doesn't really say "royalty" to me. I did get some good video suprisingly, but just sticking my hand up in the air and not caring who's pictures my hands got in, because i didn't get any good ones myself! take that!

The palace itself was amazing, despite the stupid audio guides. We weren't allowed to take pictures but as soon as we got out of the house in the backyard I got some good video and pictures.

We then headed to Leister Square to the TKTS booth in hopes of seeing a show last night. And, I guess you could say what we ended up seeing was a show, in the loosest sense of the word. We decided we'd be all cultural and see "The Twelfth night", the Shakespeare play. We should have known what we were in for when the TKTS guy didn't even know what show we were talking about, and then he said "are you sure you want to go to that? you know it's in north london, right?" and we were all "yeah yeah no problem, we'll take 3 tickets"...well, let's just say that the show involved minimal acting, a bubble machine, and a big, fat, hairy man in short yellow shorts and matching yellow knee socks...

So that's all I really have to say about that. After buying the tickets we ate at pizza hut! I'm telling you, it's amazing here. the restaurants are all swanky, fancy menus, and the garlic bread is amazing. Bri didn't believe me, but I think she's now a believer.

After a late lunch we trekked to Notting Hill for a trip to Hummingbird Bakery and the doughnuts at the market, things Bri had (ONLY BECAUSE BRI WANTED TO GO!)...ok maybe not.

Saturday night was the play, which, yeah, i'm still not going to talk about it.

Today is my day to get all the stuff done i've been putting off. Laundry, including a trip to the laundromat to dry my clothes because we still don't have a dryer. I've just been hanging my clothes up but I just don't feel like draping my sheets all over the place and then them not drying, so i'm going to splurge! I'm going to look so cool trekking to the laundromat in the only thing that will probably fit my clothes...my suitcase! This should be good...

Not much on the agenda this week, Tuesday I think i'm going to book a tour of Parliament, the summer sessions ends Saturday once they resume session so I've got to fit it in now! Thursday I leave for Prague! Bright and early, Jackie and I are meeting Bri and some of their BC friends there, so we're taking a bus a 3:30 AM from London to the Airport for our 6:25 flight...eeks!

So far the traveling I have booked is:

This weekend: Prague

Oct. 10-12: we booked this "Preseli Venture" weekend, it's this 'outdoors' weekend in Whales where you go hiking, kayaking, etc. all weekend

Oct. 17-26: Fall Break: Paris, Venice, Barcelona and Madrid, for about 2.5 days each

Oct. 31-Nov 2: Dublin/Galway!

I'm debating over traveling Nov. 14-16 somewhere but we'll see how these all go first!