London Weekend

"By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show" - Samuel Johnson.

Honestly, that quote is the only way to sum up my weekend in London. I have so much to blog about, so I guess I'll just start at the beginning. We left Harlaxton at 6:30 and was in London by 8:30! It's crazy to be in all these cities that I always talked about, but never thought I would be in. We stepped off our coach and then had to walk up hill, in the dark, to our hostel. I have seen one too many scary movies, and I was pretty sure I was going to die, but I was excited :) Our hostel was a "nice one", and by that, I mean I never want to be in a hostel again.

We walked up, and there where big black gates, so at first I left like I was going to be safe, which I was, but I also thought I was in a third world country. We had 20 girls in one room, with two keys to get in. We set our things down, changed, and found the nearest pub. I'm becoming a big fan of cider beer, and England has great cider beer. We got to the pub and ran into some other students from Harlaxton. It ended up being a good night. The pub closed, so me and Kelsie walked back to our hostel instead of finding a new pub, because we didn't want to be hungover the next morning. Here is where the fun comes. To get in, you have to ring a doorbell for them to unlock the hostel gates, we did not know that, so it took us a good minute to even get in. Kelsie grabbed the key from the front, and we headed back to our building, which involved putting in a code to open to the doors to get to the rooms (it was nice and safe at least). Kelsie then brought the key back, and we went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and drunkly locked myself out of the bedroom. I went up to the big black gates to get a room key from the front, but the gates where locked. I stood outside in shorts, a tee-shirt, and no shoes in the freezing weather completely confused. I had no clue how to get back in my room and I have seen one too many scary movies and was sure I was going to die. I banged on the bedroom door until someone let me in and finally went back to bed.

The next morning, I woke up. I was hungover. I was not happy. I went up to take a shower, so I could look nice for the Paralympics. Oh wait, the shower didn't work. I turned it on, it turned off. I turned it on again, and it turned off again. After about five tires, some girl informed me that it only worked if the other shower was on, so I had the turn on the other shower...still keep turning off on me. I was hungover. Cold. And wanted to cry, it was the first time I TRULY missed America. Our horrible 2 Star motels have working showers and provide you with towels...we had to buy ours for 4 pounds. So I got out and went into the one working shower next to the one I was in...and this one didn't allow you to pick the temp. The window was punched out so ice cold air was coming in, and burning hot water was hitting my body. I have never been so unhappy before. It was worse than horrible. I never want to leave the Manor again. I never want to be in a hostel again. Oh and I don't have 300$ to stay in a hotel...awk.

Now it was Friday morning, my first real day out in London! Kelsie and I were both doing the Paralympics, but had signed up for different events. I was going to the all day excel one that had multiple events going on, and with her being a cowgirl from Texas, she was going to the horseback riding on. So we had to go our separate ways, but luckily I had ran into two girls from Harlaxton at the hostel doing the same one as me, so I went with them. We took the tube (subway train) and after switching at a few stops, we where at the Paralympics!

Overall, it was a great experinece. We went to judo first, which was super interesting because it was for the visually impaired. None of us had actually got to see a judo fight before. After about an hour of that, we ate a little lunch and went to the sitting volleyball.

The sitting volley first match was Brazil vs Rwanda. Brazil killed them, won the first three games. And when I saw they killed them, I mean they won 25- under ten in each of the games. It was exciting though. We went to stand up after the game, and then heard that the USA Woman were going to be playing China in the next hour. Although we planned to go to powerlifting after the match, we had to stay to watch our country!

Although I have only been in England for a little over a week now, this place has became home. Watching the USA women play China, knowing that last year the USA took silver and China took home gold, made this game even more impotant. There was one USA girl who was 16 years old. Younger than me, and playing for MY country. It was an inspiring moment, and it made the two girls and myself feel a real pride in our country. The US won the first game, it was close, but they won! They ended up losing overall, but they put up one hell of a fight. The final game score was 31-29. Watching them work so hard honestly gave me great pride in my country.

My two homes :)

After the game was over, the two girls I was with wanted to go to Kings Cross. We had an all day tube pass from the Paralympics and since it was kind of far away, we went after the game so it would still be free (and we had nothing else planned for the day). I am not a Harry Potter fan. I have not read the books, I have only seen one of the movies, so when they said we where going to King's Cross, I assumed we where going to an old church, so I assumed it would be a great picture! For those of you who are also not a HP fan, King's Cross in the train station where Harry takes to get to Hogwarts. There is a cart connected to the wall and a sign that says Platform 9 3/4. So we get off the train and one of the girls was like "OMG THERE IT IS!!" I was so confused. We then stood in line to take a picture at it. They then found out I was not a Harry Potter fan. Whatever, at least I can make my friends at home jealous.

Guess I'm going to Hogwarts?

King's Cross

Although I am trying to not eat at American chain food places, most everything was closed so we went to Subway. It doesn't even matter that it was an American chain place, because they didn't even have the same food as the Subway at home does. That night my friend got Pizza Hut and I had one slice, and it's just so strange how something can taste so different, but be the same.

Saturday was our free day pretty much, only because the Paralympics took up all of Friday. Kelsie and I jumped on the Tube and before we knew it we where walking up to Buckingham Palace. Words cannot describe how amazing it is to read and study about something and then be able to see it in real life. Not only is it a great sight, but it makes me appreciate my education that much more. Buckingham Palace is truly a huge place, fight for a queen! The guards however where not changing the day we were there (they change every other day). We were able to see the guard parade, which was a cool sight!

lolololol I had too

After Buckingham Palace, Kelsie was in need of coffee, so we waked around trying to find a coffee shop. We found a million Starbucks and Costa, which is the UK's Starbucks, but we didn't want that, we wanted coffee and tea from a real English coffee joint. We found one, and it was amazing. From there we walked to Westminster Abbey, which is just beautiful. We walked around, took pictures, and even saw the huge line to get in. To me it's a little funny to pay to see a church, but I understand it is beautiful, and a land mark, but to have a gift shop and a coffee shop and an ice shop all connected to it just makes me feel like it is a giant building, not a real place to worship God. Directly across from Westminster Abbey was a Methodist Church, which was also just beautiful.

3D street art- for all the people who worked hard to get women to be able to vote! 

We were now off to see the London Eye, which we did see it, but we did not ride it. It was a long wait, and well overpriced. It also took a half hour to ride it, and we had a lot to squeeze in one day. We decided we may come back to it, but for now we were just good see it.

Big Ben and The House of Parliament were next on our list! We did a lot of walking, but it was a great time. I love Big Ben, when it turned noon and the clock struck and made that loud ringing sound, I froze. I was so excited to be able to see and hear this amazing clock. The House of Parliament was also just a beautiful place, everywhere we went was just amazing.

By one o'clock, it was time to give our feet a break from walking. We found a nice little sports pub, and they were playing soccer on the TV! We were excited because it was our first time watching Soccer in a pub. We ordered breakfast for lunch, and it was huge! I could't even finish half of it, then again I am really picky too...But it still was great, and it wasn't even too expensive.

After we ate, we saw the Royal Courts of Justice and went on our way to make it to St. Paul's Cathedal. Which was also just beautful. It was really cool because there where all these huge old building, pieces of art work really, next to modern building.

We keep on walking and we even got to see Shakespeare's Globe Theater, City Hall,  and The Shard. We even passed over London Bridge, which is a very boring plain bridge. We even stopped at the Clink Prison, which is a very old prison, there was a cheap tour, so we went on it. It explained the ways they killed and punished people, and who they were. It was very interesting.

I'm really not a bad person.

Kelsie is clearly a bad person.

City Hall

The Shard

We finally made it to where we had planned going all day: Tower Bridge. The only thing we had planned for Saturday was to make it to Tower Bridge, and go on the Jack the Ripper tour. Only thing. Seriously, that's it. Jack the Ripper. We had been talking about it all day, and planned everything around this damn tour. Well we got to the Tower Bridge around four, so we went to a pub, which was pretty American. They had cowhide seats, french fries, and homemade chips. We made friends with the bar tender, and started to drink. We left to get pizza at this European chain restaurant called Pizza Express, and went back up to the pub we where at before. The first time at the pub, I got a pitcher of Pimms and Lemonade. The second time I got another pitcher of it. We finished our drinks and went to the tour...we missed it by a minute.  THE ONE THING WE PLAN, WE MISS! So we went to another pub, got some more drinks, and enjoyed our last night in London :)

Kelsie is from Texas. This made her feel at home.

Pitcher number 1.

Pitcher number 2.

After we missed our tour- Sex on the Beach

This is the picture that I NEEDED to take that made us miss our tour

Street Music

Just some guy

Exploring London was a great time, as everyone can tell, but I do love my classes. I love it here, I'm learning and having a great time. But I do miss home, more than I thought I would. It's the little things, but I wouldn't trade my time here. I love it and I can't wait to see how much more I'm going to grow.