Goodbye Europe, Hello Chicago!!

6/14 Brussels & Travel London (26th day)


Woke up around 7:30 had breakfast, went to EU commission broke for lunch, ate at a great little restaurant, probably the best meal I have had so far (besides Hard rock Cafe) and it was only 8.20 including drink. After that we had the EU parliament visit and came back after and had to get ready for the taxi (picks me up at 6:45pm). I took a shower and packed, then hung out a little with the group and said my goodbyes, everyone was really nice and I got lots of hugs. I really feel fortunate to have met some of these people. The taxi was really convenient. The flight to London was short only like 1 hour and that is with a slight delay in landing, I am now in Heathrow waiting for my flight, I am at Starbucks typing my journals up it is about 1am and I cant check in for my flight until 5:00am so I have a few hour to kill…I hope the time goes fast.

6/15 London to Rockford, IL – Back Home!!

I am very excited to be home! I had an amazing trip but Dorothy had it right when she said “There is No place like home!”

Back to Bristol!

Happy Birthday Amy! It is our final day in London and our bus leaves at 4 so we have to try to get as much in as possible. We have to meet back at the hostel at 2:30 to collect our bags from the closet (£1.5 to store each bag for the day at the hostel) and head to the bus station. To start we are going to Westminster Abby to beat the lines. Westminster was very cool. I thought it was amazing. I was much more impressed by the architecture, the history, and the statues rather than the art, but I still loved it. The Abby was located just across the street from Parliament and so when it was bombed in the 2nd world war everyone was amazed that the only damage done from the fallout was a small ole in a window about twice the size of my palm. They keep a gray colored glass piece there to remember. After that we went to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace at around 11:30am. I will admit that I found that a little boring but at least I can say I saw it. After that we headed to Harrods to see the store and the strip of shops. Princess Diana was engaged to the owner’s son so she was a frequent shopper at Harrods. There is a special memorial in the store for her and Dody. We walked around the store for a bit and I saw a Chanel purse that had a price of £1,325 which is like $2,600.

It started out as Amy, Ashley, Allison, and I but Amy dipped out after Westminster to do her own thing so it was just the 3 of us for the rest of the time. After the shopping we stopped for lunch at McDonalds before headed back to the hostel for our bags. When we arrived at the bus station I was freaked out because Mike had bought another ticket to Bristol. He asked me to buy him one last week and I reminded him 3 times that he owed me £17 but he had the nerve to say he didn’t know who or if anyone had bought his ticket. He tried to sell back his ticket but they wouldn’t let him. I told him that I was sorry but I needed that money. He promised to give it to me tomorrow. Lets hope he does! I feel bad but it was not my fault that he is absent minded. The bus ride wasn’t too bad. I was able to sleep for almost half of it. It was only a 2 hour ride and then we took a local bus back to Zetland.

We were home by around 6:45pm. At dinner we had gifts from the family. It was a little coin purse with a sequin British flag on it. It was very sweet. We also got cards (Amy and I for our birthdays and Ashley just because). Amy wanted to go out for her birthday and we were not sure what everyone else was doing so Ashley, Amy, Robert and I went to Bishops to have a pint. Ashley and Amy had 4 so they were funny to watch. I didn’t drink much. It was fun. We played pool and hung out. We got home around 11:45 and went to bed around 1:30am.

Me, Daniel, and Jack the Ripper!

I was woken up this morning by Katie snoring. She sounded like a cross between a kazoo and a lion. This was at like 6:30am and I was not a happy camper. Shannon, Katie, and Jenny were out until after 4 in the morning so they had not been asleep long. I tried to take a video of the whole situation because it was one of those things that you just have to hear to truely appreciate to horror of the sound she was making. lol

Teresa B., Lauren, Allison, Ashley, Amy and I went to Camden Market to do some shopping. It was a lot of fun. There were a lot of cute stuff and some great deals. I bought some really cool pictures to frame when I get home. I plan on giving some away but I like them so much…it will be hard to give them up.

I had to leave the group around 11:00am so that I could meet Daniel at Paddington station at noon. I having been planning to meet up with him in London for about a month and it was a little scary because he doesn’t have a phone that I can call him on so if we missed each other there was nothing we could do about it. I really started to panic after about 45 minutes. I started calling everyone at home to see if I could get his brother Steve’s home phone number. See Steve is one of my best friends and his brother Daniel is stationed over hear. I figured, Daniel and I could be each others little taste of home. He finally got there at around 1:10pm. I was so glad to see him (he had some rain troubles) if we wouldn’t have found each other I would have been alone all day. And being on my own all day in London did not sound like a good use of my day. Plus scary! lol

Daniel and I went to Big Ben and walked across the Millennium Bridge. We took pictures by Westminster Abby. We went to lunch at a little pub near the Abby called The Silver Cross. We both got burgers and a soda but it took almost 45 minutes for him to get his burger and when it came it was wrong so we got free refills (they are not normally free over here....weird) and had to wait longer for his correct burger. It tasted ok despite the service issues. Luckly over here you dont tip so HA take that bad service! In your face lol!

After we ate we headed to the London Eye. I offered to go up in it again if he wanted to but he decided the line was too long. Daniel and I took the tube to Piccadilly Circus which was cool. It is kind of like a very small scale Times Square. I saw my first pay toilet (.20p) at the mall. We went to T.G.I. Fridays and snuck in to use the bathroom for free. After walking around for a while we hopped back on the tube and headed to the the London Bridge as well as Tower Bridge and walked around Tower Hill. You know you remember that song London Bridge is falling down? Well I kind of expected some grand bridge since the song was so famous but it is just a ordinary bridge with a little plague nearby explaining its history. It was a little anticlimatic if you ask me.

 

We had to take a break after that because our feet hurt. All this walking is a killer.  I was really nice to see Daniel, he really did reminded me of home. Kind of quenched my homesickness for a while. At this point it was about time for the Jack the Ripper tour so we headed over to that. It was really close to Tower Hill so we didn’t have to walk far. The tour was really neat. The area is still called Whitechapel and we walked around and were told about the murders and all the suspects and evidence. The guide was one of the guides from Tower Hill who I had spoken to yesterday so I was pretty confident that he knew wht he was talking about. The tour was really long though. It took about 2 ½ hours. We even had to leave early so that Daniel could make his 10:00pm train. I felt bad leaving because you are suppose to pay after the tour if you liked it and I did but we HAD to leave. It was only £5 so I guess it isn’t that big of a deal but still I felt bad. (Funny thing I saw on the tour was a place called Snatch that sold Adult Food…..anyone else confused??? lol).

After saying goodbye to Daniel I headed back to the hostel to see what everyone else had been up to that day and to find out what was going out for the night. Everyone was going to go out but when we got the bar it was closed. I am not used to place closing so early. We all just came back and went to bed. I tried to get food first b/c I hadn’t eaten since lunch but everything was closed so I had a coke for dinner and was asleep around 2am.

Feeling a little under the weather...

To be honest I wasn’t feeling to well today. I can’t figure out why. I guess the schedule is starting to get to me. Late nights and non stop agendas may be the death of me. Oh well...I did a lot of walking around today and saw a lot of the sites. It was mostly the things that I saw yesterday only today I had a little more time to take it all in.  I think because I wasn’t feeling well the best part of my day was when we (Amy, Teresa B., and I) went to see X3. It was really good. I mean what Hugh Jackman movie isn't? Right? I am going to bed at a fairly reasonable time because tomorrow will be a big day for me. I was meeting Daniel at noon at Paddington Station. We dont really have a major plan, just whatever comes to mind! Good night!

London here I come!!!

We had to be at the bus at 9am to head to London for the weekend. We made it just in time. The bus ride to London wasn’t so bad I was able to see Windsor Castle which is where the queen lives. They fly a flag whenever she is at home and the flag was flying this morning. We passed a lot of cool building on the way to Parliament. I didn’t really know until this trip that Parliament was in the same building as Big Ben. We had an hour before the tour to walk around London so me and Amy spit off and did our own thing. We walked around to see the London Eye and cross the Millennium Bridge. We got some really good pictures. Before we knew it it was time to head back to Big Ben for the tour.

The tour was cool. We were able to see the House of Lords as well as the House of Commons. Some interesting tid-bits: the queen is not allowed into the House of Commons. She has to have someone retrieve them whenever she needs to address them. Also the members of House of Commons have a special line they are not allowed to cross when then come into the House of Lords. We were not allowed to take any pictures which sucked but oh well. After the tour we grabbed our stuff and headed to the hostel. The Smart Hyde Park Inn was not too far but it took like 45minutes to check in. I was also not too pleased with our rooms. After we got there we see sites. Lauren, Allison, Amy, Teresa, Ashley, and I ventured out to go up in the London Eye. The wait wasn’t too bad. It takes about a half hour to go all the way around though but you can see all of London. After that we walked to the Hard Rock Café. There was an hour wait which sucked because I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Once we got to the table it took about an hour to get our food because they were only using one kitchen for two floors. Once the food came it was so good. I was so tired alone with everyone else so we went back and went to bed.

Arrive in England and meet the host family!

I am in the London airport and very tired. I took some anti-anxiety medication for the plane and it didn’t put me to sleep but it did make my eyes heavy for the whole flight which was kind of annoying. I only slept for about an hour total. I watched Rumor Has It, as well as parts of Kingdom of Heaven, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Bourne Supremacy on the flight. I met Dr Hunter and Mike Edwards at the meeting place at about 7:15 am (my plane landed at around 6:30 am). Mike and I were the first to arrive this morning. Dr. Hunter has been in Germany for about 2 weeks teaching so he was waiting for our plane (and everyone else’s). It took about 4 hours after I got there for everyone to arrive. I had to get a coffee drink to help me stay awake and it still didn’t work well. I medicated myself heavily on the way here in an attempt to sleep through the long flight and I ended up passing out on the floor of the airport after I get here. Go figure. at least I wasn't alone I was passed out along with some other people while we waited for the whole group so I was not the only person who looked like a homeless person sleeping on the floor in a heap. We left for Bristol around noon by bus. It was a two hour bus ride which I slept all the way through. Again, why could I have slept more on the plane??? Grrrr! We did stop half way for a bite to eat. I had Burger King. It was a little reassuring to see that England had a Burger King. For those of you who do not know we that well I am a very picky eater and I am thoroughly worried about how I can survive for a month overseas.

I am rooming with Amy and Ashley in Bristol. We met our host mom at the Downs around 3:00 pm. We were an hour early which was nice. Our host mom is Daphne Addis (pictured second from left). Her husband is Jerry (pictured second from right) and her 29 year old son who lives here is Robert (far right). I forgot the other brother's name. Maybe it will come to me later. Everyone is really nice, not that I expected them to walk up and say, "Why hello there Anne. Can I show you to your crawl space you will be staying in. Oh and don't worry we will push your food under the door at 7pm and nightly beatings are at 8pm sharp." I know I have a strange sense of humor.

Ashley wanted the single room so Amy and I are rooming together. We have our own beds and I really neat window that opens out to the back yard and you can sit on the ledge and look out onto the yards (our room is on the 4th floor - see picture of Amy in the window to the right). Amy and I decided to explore a little despite how tired we were. Ashley opted not to go which was weird because it was technically her idea. Anyways…we got back around 7:00 pm (we had left around 5:00 pm). Amy and I took a quick hour long nap before supper. Dinner was surprisingly good. Once again this makes me sound snotty but like I said I am genuinely concerned about eating the food here. Chicken w/gravy, garlic potatoes, and veggies were served and clementines were given as a desert. It was at dinner that I found out that Audrey from France was also living with the Addis’s as an exchange student. Only she has been there since September and will be leaving this July sometime. She seems nice, not that we talked much, but that's probably more due to my zombie like state then either of our conversation skills.

Ashley fried her hair straighter so I am scared to plug in my stuff (especially my laptop). We thought about going out but decided that we wanted to sleep more so we were in bed by like 10:00 or 10:30 pm and I slept past 11:00 am. I really needed the catch-up.