"There's no place like London.."

Ok so I really, really should be writing my short paper for my British History class, but motivation to write that particular assignment is pretty low right now. Instead, I’m going to finish up my updates on what I’ve been up to in this crazy country. I left you with the end of our trip to the Emerald Isle and the Land o’ the Kilt and Sporran ( haha Clyde! :)). We recovered from our adventures and headed out again on Friday for the University sponsored field trip for us ‘mericans to the Tower of London and the Globe Theatre. This was my first trip to London since I was gone for the first field trip and hadn’t ventured there on my own time…because I haven’t had much to spare. Clyde was able to bum a ride on the coach with us because there was one open seat. I was pretty excited to see London and really glad that we got to go to the Tower. The Tower was really cool, although the guide we had was not the most entertaining and I would rather have taken one of the Beefeater tours instead, but oh well. We saw The Bloody Tower (very sad & sort of creepy), the White Tower (lots of guns and sharp, pointy things), the Crown Jewels (ooo sparkly!) Overall it was a good visit and I took quite a few pictures. Clyde and I ended up breaking away from the group, got some lunch and started walking towards St. Paul’s Cathedral which wasn’t too far away. I loved walking in London and seeing all of the cool buildings. St. Paul’s was gorgeous and I couldn’t help, but think of Marry Poppins the whole time I was there. We were going to try and go inside, but they weren’t letting anyone in, possibly because they were going to be having some sort of speech for Remembrance Sunday, which they celebrate all week long in London. I got some good pictures and we kept moving. Since we didn’t go far enough west, I wasn’t able to really see Big Ben, Parliament, etc. but I did catch a glimpse of the London Eye. Walking along the River Thames was really, nice with great views of the surrounding city. We had to meet the group at the Globe around 3pm for our tour there. We got to walk across Millennium Bridge, which pretty much brought us straight to the Globe. The tour of the theatre was really interesting, even though I already knew about the theatre from British Lit. classes in high school. Clyde and I walked back down the river, this time on the south side, back towards the Tower and Tower Bridge. It was getting dark, but I still snagged a few good pictures of the bridge, the Tower and the HMS Belfast that is anchored near there. I really enjoyed my first visit to London and can’t what to go back to explore all of the things that I didn’t during my first trip. Jordan comes on Nov. 21st until 30th and we are planning on trying to make it to London a few times. Well, I guess I’ve procrastinated enough and should probably get that paper done. I need to try and get ahead of my work before I leave again on Friday. Beth, Amy and I are leaving Friday morning for Oslo, Norway and staying with my mom’s friend Mona and her family until Monday night. I’m really excited to go to Norway, although I don’t know what possessed me to want to go to Norway in November where it will be freezing cold. I really don’t care though, I know it’s going to be a great experience in a place that not a whole lot of people can say they’ve been to and we get to meet some new friends. I’m pumped!

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