Fish 'N Chips.

1/18/14
Well today went really well! We started off the morning by meeting for a Tube Rally, as mentioned in my last post, and divided up into smaller groups of 4 or 5 to go on a HUGE scavenger hunt all over the city. The goal was to use the tube as much as possible in order to get us comfortable with the system. (The tube is like the subway, just in case you didn't know, I didn't!) The race took about 6 hours total and holy moly are we all feeling the effects of walking the city of London for two days in a row, we're basically all old people disguised in college student bodies. But for reals I did something to my ankle and feel like an elephant is stepping on it every time there is any pressure so clearly walking was not great today. Prayers that I'll get to feeling better and be up and around in no time. I'm assuming that my soon to be PT bestie, Rebecca would tell me to ice it...sooooo I'll get around to that soon enough. Anyways, back to the tube rally: there were 11 places and at each place we had multiple questions and pictures to take with landmarks and other things. Some of the places were, let's see if I can remember them all: Harrods, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Paul's Church, The British Museum, The Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Oscar Wilde's grave, Parliament, Trafalgar Square, The Queen's Life Guard, Whitewall, and the Royal... royal something...I can't remember the name of it but it has to do with keeping records (I think?). Needless to say it was a very long day and my wonderful group finished at 3:50, we had 10 minutes to spare and strangely enough I think I'm actually okay with the tube system now! The busses are a whole other ordeal to tackle.
Now for a few pictures:

 Typical phone booths in London! There was talk of removing them with everyone having mobiles now but there was a public outcry for the iconic telephones to remain in the city.

 Just a chat with Oscar Wilde behind St. Martin's church! The quote says "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars."

 Selfie status with the Queen's Lifeguard! I know, I'm adorable. :P

 Big Ben! Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside the tower, the tower itself is called Elizabeth Tower.

 Part of Westminster Abbey!! Dang, this was absolutely beautiful and the pictures do not even begin to cover it.

 Buckingham Palace, and yes there were guards with furry hats outside the doors...Alisan, I was thrilled to say the least!

 St. Paul's Church, mentioned yesterday. Eliza Doolittle was sitting here at the beginning of the film :)

St. Paul's Cathedral, I get to go to church here tomorrow!! Tallowood I love you but goodness gracious this is beautiful!

The girls in my group outside Buckingham Palace. In pink, Sidney and plaid Lana, they are both great, Mike was also with us and was behind the camera!

Once we finished all of our stops we came back to our flats and got ready for a fish 'n chips dinner! Um yeah, fish 'n chips is super gross. Obviously I'm living in London so I had to at least try it but nope nope nope, never again.
Also, this particular group of students that I'm with seems to be very into the night life of London, let's be honest: I'm not into night life no matter where it is. If you have ever known me you know that I'm definitely a home body (thanks mom) and prefer to...well blog and watch a movie instead of going out to drink and whatnot. So I'm not only feeling super old, (as most of them are around 18 or 19 and now legal to do whatever they feel like) but a little out of place. Prayers that in this group I would make some great friends and lasting memories. I know that I'll get out there and do night life stuff later on in the semester but currently I'm feeling like since I have a whole 13 weeks to get out there, what's the rush?
Tomorrow we're headed to church at St. Paul's Cathedral! And you know what? I KNOW HOW TO GET THERE. Brilliant :) It's okay if you're a little jealous, this adventure is pretty crazy cool. I'll be going back to many of the places we visited today because I only took pictures on my phone and my Nikon definitley needs to make an appearance here. We have quite a few free Fridays and Saturdays and I don't have class on Tuesdays! Yeah!
Missing you all,
Lydia