We started off with walking around the dorm to find some food and ended up eating at a little Italian baguette shop right around the corner of Conaught, near where the student apartments are! It was a nice little shop, the food was relatively cheap and good, and the gentlemen working there were very courteous and friendly!
We talked for a long time about everything that has been going on with the trip and all the work in the courses. I think we all feel overwhelmed everyday we have class, and after that as well.
Next we walked down into town and found a TON of shops! We went into Sainsbury's Market and it was so BUSY! There were many many people I think getting out of work, but I was able to find some Jaffa Cakes so I was VERY excited! I noticed as well that I since I have been here I have been looking for a sign that says "cookies" but they don't call them cookies, they call them "cakes" or "biscuits"! Another language thing that I learned this weekend! :)
We went out to the Zoo Bar later that night and had a great time! The music was very different, they played a lot of pop songs but techno versions, which I LOVED! Techno is NOT big at all in the US, but here I hear it playing everywhere I go out to! I think the fact that this was also a club/bar made it a bit different from a pub. When talking to some Plymouth people our first week here they considered a club a bar....where as in the US we call a bar...well a bar, then clubs are separate. I found this interesting, but overall the Zoo Bar just seemed like a dance club to me, with a lounge area on the first floor and a dance floor on the second. We then left and went to a small cafe on the corner of the street we were on in Leicester square, and ate some chips! We were able to watch all the people go by, and it was AMAZING to see ALL the people! There were so many! Everyone was going somewhere or talking or yelling, so people watching was very interesting at that time of night!
On Sunday, we headed down to the heart of the city to look for things for our scavenger hunt and do a bit of sightseeing as well! We walked into Trafalgar square and were able to sit and people/tourist watch for a while. I noticed that you could tell right away who were the groups of tourists (many of them) and who were natives to the area. There were people sitting by fountains reading and relaxing, while some children, of many different ethnicities, were playing on the statues and running around with their parents. There wasn't much of a difference that I saw between myself as a tourist and other tourists, of the same, and different, ethnicities. They were curious of where to go, lost, or just baffled, like me, of all the things to do and see. When riding on the Underground I felt the same feeling. Many of the people riding the tube knew exactly where they were going and exactly what they were doing, while you could see others looking at the map, or having one out of their own, trying to figure out what the heck was going on and how to get where they wanted to go! After a few times I felt that this was AS MUCH me anymore...I know next time I go to England I will definitely be prepared and know how to find my way around easier! We then went on a city bus tour, riding on the top of the bus was great! We saw EVERYTHING in London from there! We went on the original bus tour and it was amazing! It was cool and I was able to learn certain things about the culture and history of landmarks that you would not get just walking by them. Like the Hilton Hotel, which was originally supposed to be 2 times larger than it is now, but the Queen disapproved of the height of the original building because it exceeded the height of the palace, and the builders couldn't upset the Queen, so even there was A LOT of money lost, they didn't build it as high as it was supposed to be! This goes to show how important royalty is in the country, and how respected the royal family is.The transportation is a BIG part of the culture of London I have come to see. This may be true as well for larger cities in the US, I’ve never been to NY or DC though. But I’m sure it’s very similar. In London I also saw a vast array of the arts around the city. Not only is there a TON of museums with art as a theme, but walking along South Bank on the River Thames, I found that there was a large area of arts that I had never experienced before. I saw the people that had great talents using them to make money, which is amazing!
There was a man that wore face paint and danced around and was able to balance these small clear plastic balls all over his body and on his hands. He then picked up another, and another, until he had 4 balls that he was balancing! It was amazing! We then saw some break dancers, and live statues, which i have never seen before. I wonder about how they train to do things like that, and if that is their full time job, or just a hobby that they do on the weekends. We were walking along the river on Monday night, our last night in London and was able to meet a musician that was down there playing her guitar and harmonica. Some of the girls bought her CD and we talked to her for a while. She was very good at what she was doing, and she seemed to love dong it, so that made it enjoyable for us. I always wonder what it would be like to have an amazing talent like that that you could use to make a living, or at least try, but that would be part of the adventure...trying.
Anyways, then Monday the girls and I headed to watch the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. This was an AMAZING ceremony that was great to watch. It was so neat to see how traditional the whole thing was, and to know that this has been going on for centuries, was even more amazing. This is something that dates back through the ages that shows the honor and respectability that there is for the Queen, and how guarding her is one of the most important things in the country. After this we grabbed a bite to eat at Queen Anne's Cafe, which was named after Queen Anne Boleyn, which I've studied before so that was neat! 
Then Tara and I headed to the Tower of London, and saw the crown jewels, which was AMAZING too bad I couldn't take pictures but it was so worth it to go there. Then I stood and took a picture of where Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded, they have a memorial of the other people that have been beheaded there, including Queen Anne's brother, George Boleyn. We also walked through some of the towers, then we headed off quickly, which was a shame, but we hopped on the tube and took it to St. John's Wood stop, which was a stop I had never heard of, but the closest one to Abbey Road. We then took pictures of our adventure there, seeing Abbey Road and the recording studio was amazing! I mean the Beatles took the same walkway across the street as we did! There was also a memorial wall outside the studio where thousands of people have written things for the band, including Tara and I now! :)I thought that getting off at a different stop on the tube would be scary but it turned out to be a really nice part of London that we were in! The culture there was very high class, including all of the houses and even apartments on Abbey Road were nice!
After all of our adventures during the day all of us girls met back together and got dressed up and went to see the Broadway show Wicked! We ate at a restaurant called JB's Restaurant one block away from the Apollo Victoria Theater, where our show took place. The food was really good and the whole restaurant was very classy. After eating a DEL.ICIO.US meal we went to see the show, and it was AMAZING! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and have been singing the songs (which I d/led on iTunes) since that night! I cried, I laughed, it moved me! :) I definitely recommend it to anyone! I would go see it again! Then we took a walk along the river and talked and just took in the sights of the city. It was beautiful to see the city all lit up at night, and a GREAT way to end our trip there!
I'm starting to plan my next trip to London soon! :)
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