London: Day 2

Fun British Fact: On July 9th of 1982 a man by the name of Michael Fagan managed to break into Buckingham Palace, steal a bottle of wine, and have a little peek at the Queen in her bedchamber. Mysteriously, the drunken man was able to navigate himself through the royal palace without running into any of the royal guards or tripping any of the security devices. As the story goes, upon meeting the Queen Mr. Fagan asked one of the nearby maids for some cigarettes and then patiently waited for the police to come and "escort" him off the premises. In the end Michael Fagan was only charged for the stolen wine bottle, which was latter dropped after he agreed to seek psychological treatment at a mental institution. 

According to his mother he still thinks very highly of the Queen.

On my second day in London I also got a peek at the royal Buckingham Palace. My stay, however, was not nearly as extensive as Mr. Fagan's visit. To be honest I really only got to see the outside of the palace. As much as I wanted to go inside and see what royalty looks like, touring the exterior of the palace had its benefits as well. For example, I got to watch the "changing of the guards" which was interesting. To be concise, it was a lot of "pomp and circumstance." The only downside was how VERY crowded it was. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry seemed to be waiting on the steps of the palace just to watch a bunch of fancy guards march around the square, playing music. I guess that's the sort of thing tourists are supposed to do when visiting London. 

Beefeaters

Mother in front of Buckingham Palace

More Marching Band Beefeaters

Every Tom, Dick, and Harry waiting to see the "changing of the guards"

Saw these guys at Buckingham Palace....Tweeting? While Biking? 

After Buckingham Palace we visited another sort of palace-y sort of landmark: the Tower of London. While not as ornate as Buckingham Palace, it is still a very famous historical site. This is where Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VII, had her"adulterous" head chopped off. It is also her, and many other poor souls, supposed "haunting" grounds. Whether or not its haunted, I was more interested in the London Tower's Crown Jewels. I wish I had some pictures of the royal jewels to show you but the lovely guards said "No pictures!"

No pictures allowed past this point.

Posing with a local

Ninja Brit and Local and Coffee

Mom and Beefeater

Not very talkative.

Other small adventures of the day included: trying "fish and chips" (not that great) and a go-around in the Eye of London. If any of you readers ever have a chance to visit London I would recommend going on the Eye, it's a great place to take pictures (that is, if it's not raining) and it gives you a new perspective of London. Here are some of the pictures I took in the Eye: 

In case you didn't know what I was talking about, this is the London Eye

Inside the Eye

Parlament Building

This concludes Day 2 in London.

London: Day 1

My British Experience and Other Unintended Adventures

When I think of our great motherland, England, I picture royal celebrities, the best of classical literature, Doctor Who, telephone boxes, and words like "posh." Every since I discovered British literature I have had a deep desire to visit the home of my friends Austen, Dickens, and Rowling. This summer, I finally fulfilled that dream. 

Day 1 in London: Lost

My first day in London began with a tour of Liverpool Street and a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral. Since we were on our way to dinner we didn't have very much time to look around, however, I did have time to catch a few pictures of some of the more interesting finds in Liverpool. In the basement of St. Paul's Cathedral were these two grave markers for a family who died in a fire, if I remember correctly the father was one of the cathedral's caretakers. The only real reason why I took the picture was because of the unique phrasing, if you look closely you can see "he fell asleep in Jesus." 

In seminary I also sometimes "fall asleep in Jesus"

After dinning at a nearby restaurant (supposedly one of Charles Dicken's favorite pubs), we strolled down to the Millennium Bridge, or more famously dubbed "the Wibbly Wobbly." You may not recognize it from the pictures I took, but this is actually the same bridge featured in the 6th Harry Potter movie. Disclosure: I did not run into any Death Eaters; there was nothing there but a bunch of muggles. Apparently, the reason why the bridge got the nickname "the Wibbly Wobbly" was because when it was first opened to the public people began to notice that it "wobbled" back and forth at times. Thankfully, they fixed the problem before anyone got hurt. Here's some shots of the good ol' "Wibbly Wobbly." 

Mom and Me on the Millennium Bridge

View from the Wibbly Wobbly

Looks like it's turning into one of those "lover's" bridges

     

Nothing to see here but a bunch of muggles....      

                           

If there had been more then just a bunch of muggles...

My friend, Brittany, showing off her Tae-kwon-do skills

...I'm getting a little carried away with photoshop

Here's the Harry Potter clip of the Millennium Bridge 

This wasn't the end of my first day in London however. Here is where the REAL adventure begins. After everyone had had their fun the tour director began leading us back to the hotel. On the way to catch the "tube" (subway) my mother and I stopped to, in a way, smell the "roses." Here's the pictures we took: 

Pretty roses!

Oh! Let's take a picture by those flower-things!

Happy Pose :D

Acting posh in London

Now the problem with stopping to "smell the roses" is that not everyone stops with you. With the blink of an eye the rest of the tour group had disappeared. All that was left were four unexperienced tourists: my flustered mother, my ninja friend Brittany, a high school teacher, and myself. None of us were quite prepared for what happened next. Brittany and I began to run after the rest of the group who we had seen turn into an alleyway. However, the teacher....shall we call her Mrs. Bunny for the purpose of this story? Mrs. Bunny decided to go her own way, forcing Brittany and I to turn around and follow her. We crossed two busy streets, spun around a couple of times, and finally decided that we were lost. Mrs. Bunny asked one of the locals where the metro station was, he asked, "Which metro station?" (Let me now take this time to inform you that London has one of the most extensive underground railway-systems in the world with hundreds of different stations located throughout the city). Mrs. Bunny did not know "which" metro station. She also couldn't recall the name of the street our hotel was located on. Thus begins the adventure of being lost in London. 

Did I mention that Mrs. Bunny also wanted her picture taken?

Like pulling a random card out of a deck we decided to try our luck at the closest metro station. After consulting her "emergency contact information" Mrs. Bunny concluded that we needed to take the metro to the "Seven Sister's Hill" station. However, that's much easier said then done. For one thing, not every subway car goes to every stop on the map, you have to change cars a lot. As a girl whose never had to rely on any form of public transportation before, I was not much help to the team. To make matters worse ninja Brit had to use the Loo VERY badly (did I mention that there aren't a ton of public bathrooms in Europe? And even if you do happen to find one you most likely have to PAY to pee). After changing trains at least twice we threw in the towel and hailed a cabbie. Ninja Brit was still in need of a bathroom. Once the cabbie picked us up we rode back the hotel in shame (with a few silent prayers that ninja Brit's bladder would hold). Looking back on the experience I can truthfully say that I am so glad I had the opportunity to get lost in such a wonderful city. Granted, I wish that Mrs. Bunny hadn't been the one to get us lost and that her and my mother wouldn't have freaked out about it. Getting yourself lost in a city with such a thick culture and atmosphere isn't something you should pass up. During that hour of wandering around London "touring" became something else. I got to see people I probably wouldn't have seen if I had been on a guided tour; I got to figure out my own set of directions; and most importantly I had the opportunity to interact with the local people without a some harness keeping me at a "safe distance." While guided tours are nice, it's not the same as experiencing new worlds yourself. It takes the fun out of exploring when someone else is doing the exploring for you. 

Disclosure: We made it safely to the hotel, no one was scolded for getting separated from the group, and more importantly, ninja Brit was finally able to use the potty. 

Thus concludes Day 1 of London. 

School: A Pain and a Blessing

I feel the need to bow for an applause right now. That may be due to the fact that I just finished my first day of school as a Junior (I know, I know. You may now applaud. ) or it may be for the fact that even though today was only the first day of school I still had to take TWO tests (yes, you heard write. TESTS!!! Haha, did you get my little pun there? Write and right? Okay, never mind, back to my story). Now let me tell you, these tests were crazy hard. One was a Latin test that was supposed to asses how much latin we had retained over the summer. My teacher laughed when he collected our papers and said he expected that most of us would only score five of the questions right. Great. The second test was seventy-four stinking questions. And the whole thing was over complete nonsense that know one knew the answers to! Most of the questions asked us to solve for complex equations about the periodic table and other gibberish. I will be absolutely surprised if I get even ten questions on that test right. Today was a day of highs and lows that's for sure. I started the day with Show Choir at 6:50 AM this morning, then went to Latin 2, AP US, Chamber Choir, Lunch, and finished with Chemistry Honors and my teacher's horrible pre-test. Overall there were some good moments throughout the day; seeing my latin teacher goof off like usual, getting to sit next to my best friend in AP US, hanging out with all the awesome choir kids, seeing Nathan getting ready for his first class at Rock Bridge. All sweet moments in an otherwise hectic day. Ahhh... did I mention I have homework? Homework that I should probably finish now before it gets too late. Alrighty folks its time for me to sign off so I'll just end with a little forewarning to all those about to start school. Make of it what you want but remember, school is only as fun as how much work you put into it. Good luck!

Love,
Kelsey