Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Thanksgiving in England and London trip 2
















Hope everyone is enjoying the snow back home! I know I wish we had just a little bit of snow here, would make it seem more like Christmas time. It’s been hard to be away during this time, especially with Thanksgiving celebrations last week. I’ve been reminding myself though that “I’ll be home for Christmas” in no time at all. 11 days to be exact and as fun as it has been here for the past few months, I am ready to be home. Last week my friend Jordan came to visit for about a week and we had a good time. I picked her up last Saturday from the Canterbury bus station. On my way to get her I walked down High St. browse through the Saturday market. People were out in force Christmas shopping and it was really fun to see all of the Christmas stuff out. This coming Saturday I’m planning on going to the market again to take pictures so you can see all of the wonderful things I love about Canterbury’s market day and the Christmas season in England. Once I got Jordan we walked back down so she could see all the bustle of the town. I ended up making a cake that afternoon for one of my housemates whose birthday was on Sunday. I made a double layer chocolate cake called, “Dead Good Chocolate Cake,” and I got good reviews on it. :) It was really fun to make, so I might just have to make another cake before I leave, sort of a going away cake. Anyway, Jordan recovered from some wicked jetlag on Sunday and we did some exploring of the city in the next few days. I had a paper to write, which was unfortunate, but I did get it done. Thursday, we were both missing being home for Thanksgiving and after my morning class we made a mini feast of mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce…yes I know this sounds pitiful, but it helped us cope…that and listening to Adam Sandler’s “Turkey Day” song on YouTube. Later on in the evening we went to my neighbor’s house were they had a feast, with turkey even and lots of alcohol. We then followed this by a trip down to a local pub called The Jolly Sailor. I had heard a lot about this place from many of the other American students, but had never been myself, not being the type to spend my nights drinking in pubs. We did go and I had a great time talking to people and they even had apple pie there for us. The owner even dressed up like a pilgrim and had American flags put up inside and outside the pub. The big telly was tuned into the Seahawks-Cowboys game which made it feel a little more like home (although the other t.v. in the pub was playing “real” football for the locals). Overall it was a great night with friends and a good way to be distracted from missing home for the holiday. The next day Jordan and I had planned to catch a bus up to London for the day, but needless to say the festivities the night before had taken a toll on us and we decided to postpone our day out in London until Saturday. Friday was spent lounging around and then some more shopping on High St. We had a nice supper at Prezzo, my favorite little Italian place, turned in early in preparation for London.
We got on the bus at 9:30am and we were in London by 11:30am. I had only been to London once before, but that was on the east end, by the Tower, so I had never actually seen Big Ben, Parliament, etc. I was so excited to see it as we crossed Lambeth Bridge before getting to Victoria coach station. It really is a beautiful sight. When we got our bearings, we walked to Buckingham Palace just in time to see the Changing of the Guard ceremony. It was a neat thing to see, but no spectacular…sort of like Stonehenge. A quick stroll down Birdcage Walk, brought us right to Parliament Square where we got our first opportunity take some good pictures of Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster. Leicester Square was where we eventually wanted to go to get tickets to see a show on the West End and we got there by way of Whitehall and Trafalgar Square. We could see Downing St. but we were on the other side of Whitehall so we couldn’t see #10. Trafalgar was interesting, very crowded and made me really feel like I was in London for some reason. Don’t ask me why Big Ben didn’t do that to me and I had to walk all the way up to Trafalgar to feel that, but oh well. :) Leicester Square was packed with people and we stood in line for quite a while trying to get tickets to a musical. A lot of things were sold out and we ended up walking to the theatre on Shaftsbury Ave. where Josh Hartnett was in the play version of “Rain Man.” Jordan and I were both really excited to see Josh Hartnett (for those of you who don’t know who he is, he’s a pretty famous actor that was in Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down…yes…now you can understand our excitement! :)). The play was amazing and we were in the 5th row, which added so much more to the whole experience. After the play was over we walked to Piccadilly Circus, which is sort of like London’s Time’s Square of sorts. Loads of people everywhere and it was a bit overwhelming. We ended up walking back down to the Thames and crossed a footbridge to the other side, just down from the London Eye. I was snapping pictures like crazy because everything was just so cool! London is spectacular at night with things lit so beautifully! I fell in love with Big Ben, just like my housemate Nikita did on her trips to London. We were really exhausted by about 6:30pm, got some food in Victoria Station then waited for the bus back to Canterbury. I didn’t really enjoy the ride, back because I was tired, hungry and generally uncomfortable. Took a taxi back to Parham because we weren’t too keen on walking the ½ hour back to my house. Got some pasta and got Jordan checked in online for her flight the next day. She had to leave at 5am the next morning and I got up to see her off to her taxi. We had a good time and I was glad for someone from home being around, especially for Thanksgiving. Now it’s literally the home stretch, and most of that full of writing papers and studying for exams. I’ve got two papers down and two more to go, then next Wednesday I have two essay exams. I’ll probably update at least one more time before I’m back, but I can hardly believe that the end of my time here is so near! I have had an amazing experience here and even though there are a lot of things I will miss here, I’ll be glad to be back in good ol’ central Illinois. :)

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