Mind the Gap Please

The food prepared for us at Guiliana Orme's house.

I finally have a chance to write on my blog at 1:30 am London time. Unfortunately, my computer is not picking up the internet here at the hotel so I am using the hotel computer. Hopefully, it will work once I get to Switzerland. I'm going to recap the past two days, but I will upload pictures later. Its hard to upload pictures when 25+ girls are sharing the same computer.

Yesterday-Monday
We arrived yesterday at 11:30 am and hit the ground running. When we arrived we got tickets for the tube and rode it from Heathrow Airport to Russell Square. Then we walked from the tube station to the Crescent Hotel where we are staying. I thought about taking a nap, but I decided it would be easier to get over jet lag if I kept going. We went to eat at a restaurant called Pret, which is very popular around here. It is on every corner and has very good sandwiches that are reasonably priced. They also gave me hot chocolate on the house, which was nice. It was very good. After we ate, I rushed back to the hotel to change for the tea. Guiliana Orme teaches cooking classes and then serves tea for a small fee. She is one of Dr. Wiese's good friends from when she lived here a few years ago. It was very lovely. All of the food was delicious. My favorite was the shortbread. It was sweet and moist, unlike a lot of shortbreads I've eaten. Then we walked around Regents park for awhile. It was kind of chilly, and I was very glad to have the jacket that mom and I picked up at the last minute. We ended up gettting lost a few times, but it was an adventure. Eventually, we got to the tube station. By the time I got back to the hotel, I was exhausted. I slept decently, but I woke up about 2:30am. Then I went back to sleep, thankfully. It was a good first day. Good to be in London again.
Me in the tube station. Trafalgar SquareIn a classic telephone booth with Big Ben in the background.
Today-Tuesday
Got up early this morning (surprise surprise, I know.) We ate breakfast downstairs in the hotel. Then Kacy (my new friend) and I went out on an adventure. She was in London a few years ago so she still knew her way around. We bought a tube ticket and rode to Oxford Circus where we went shopping at H&M. She bought a jacket. We walked down Oxford street in the rain, but it was a lot of fun. We took the train to Covent Gardens where we went shopping in an open air market. Then we wandered into Trafalgar Square where we saw lots of pigeons and beautiful buildings. We saw the top of Westminister Abbey so we tried to find it amognst the tall buildings, but we got sidetrackd a little. We walked by Whitehall and eventually found our way along the Thames. We spotted Big Ben first and took pictures there. We walked passed Parliment Hall where guards with huge machine guns were guarding the entrance. Then we went to Westminister Abbey. I really wanted to take the tour because I took history of England this past semester, and I know a lot more of the people who are buried there now. It was interesting. After that, we went by the statue of Abraham Lincoln (weird, I know.) and Winston Churchill.

We took the tube back to our hotel because we had to get ready for dinner. I messed around with the internet on my computer for awhile, but no luck. Then changed for dinner and we went out. We ate at Porter's, a traditional English food restaurant. It was good. After shovelling as much food into our mouths as we could, we were off to the Lion King in the West End at Covent Garden Theatre. It was a wonderful play. The costumes were amazing. I'm sure kids would like it especially. The music was good also. After that we came home and here I am typing in the "Lounge."