Catching Up

       Time has managed to sneak past me again.  These past two weeks have just flown by.  Since the last time I've been on here, I have visited Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Tower of London, Brick Lane, Camden Market and a live taping of "The X Factor," which is the British version of American Idol.   

Now, let's break this all down.

    The weekend after I visited Monica in Bath, she came to see me for the day in London.  Lord knows that girl loves history, so we paid the eighteen pounds to go to the Tower of London.  We took a tour, lead by a beefeater, and Monica made sure it was her business to always be front and center of the crowd, leaving me behind in the back.  We saw the crowned jewels, obviously, and walked around the area before leaving for Trafalgar Square to visit the National Gallery. It was actually a really nice and sunny day out, which is RARE here.  

     Last week, some of my flatmates and I took a trip to Westminster to see Westminster Abbey.  On Wednesdays, the three of us don't have class so we decided to plan fun things to do around the city each week during this free time.  This past week we decided to head out during the early evening and get tickets to see the inside of the Abbey.  Twelve pounds later, (I am going broke by the way), we entered the famous landmark in which every coronation has been held since 1066, with the last one taking place in 1952 with Queen Elizabeth II.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures, which was disappointing, but it was absolutely beautiful.  It was so cool know that Queen Elizabeth I, Jane Austen, Charles Darwin and many other important people were buried there.  

    At the end of the week I met up with my high school friend, Safi, who is also studying in London and we went to the market and shopped while finishing the day off with Indian food for dinner.

    Last weekend, a girl who lives upstairs and works for "The X Factor" asked if I wanted to come along and see a live taping for free.  The studio was in a really bad neighborhood in West London, about an hour away, but we had so much fun.  My American friends and I had no idea who any of the people were, but we still screamed at the top of our lungs.  The judges were, of course, Simon Cowell, Dannii Minogue, (Kylie's younger sister), some random manager guy and Cheryl Cole, which we were told was England's sweetheart.  The studio only fit about 400 people, so it was much smaller than the American Idol setting, but supposedly over 16 million viewers had been tuning in to watch that night.  I also thought it was interesting, that unlike in the States, all of the popular television programs are aired on Saturday and Sunday, because the English tend to go out and have more fun during the week and end up staying home or traveling on weekends.

     Speaking of going out during the week, my friend Emily's birthday was last Tuesday night, so we all decided to head into central London to a club to celebrate. We got all dressed up and stayed out dancing and meeting new people, but once the clock struck 3am we decided to get a move on back to campus.  The downfall of living far away from everything is that the tube stops running after midnight so we have to take several double decker buses back in order to get home.  On this particular night, we didn't care to check the schedules before we left so we were unaware that all of the main streets close to the club would be closed due to maintenance work.  With no open roads, it was a little difficult for any of the buses to head in our direction.  

      The weather was around 32 degrees that night with strong winds and I thought it was a bright idea to just go out in a tank top.  We were all shaking so much we couldn't talk!  After taking a turn on a deserted side street, I saw a security guard sitting at the front desk of an office building.  I knocked on the glass like a homeless person and begged him to look up a cab number for us. He must have been Jesus in disguise, for he found us a number to the closest cab service.  Emily called and ordered us two cabs and while I waited with her, the rest of the group decided to go off and continue with the search to find a working bus stop.  After ten minutes the cab pulled up and we told him that our friends would be back in just a second.  The driver said that he could not spend any time waiting around and that we could either take the taxi right then and there or wait for our friends at the curb.  So naturally, we got in the cab and left without them. I was back to my room at around 4:30 and I went to bed with earmuffs and my winter coat on. I wish I was joking.

On Monday Luci is coming to visit me in London for the week! Then on Friday we are off to Paris for the weekend before I fly to Italy for my reading week!  

Monica really loved the tour.

"Westminster Abbey. Hands down the best abbey I've ever seen." Joey Tribbiani

British Museum for my Art History class.

X Factor stage.

Emily and I on the tube.

You know who this is.