Sunday, SUNDAY! I don’t know why but every time I say Sunday the Today’s Shows weather man’s voice, Al Roker, pops into my head because he says Sunday and then Sunday again in a crazy booming edited voice! That probably only makes sense to a few people, but if you’ve ever heard it you probably know what I’m talking about, if not watch the today show on a Friday between 7-8am and you will get what I’m talking about! Every week when he gives the weekend weather it happens, and yes I miss American tv!
ANYWAYS! Since everyone is gone to Paris, Laura is the only other girl in London so I decide to head to church with her. For those of you who don’t know I am baptized and confirmed a Lutheran. However, Laura is Catholic and wants to go to a specific church in South Kensington. I agree because religion is way more important to her and it’s worth just seeing the churches around here to go to a catholic one! WOW, a Roman Catholic church mass is definitely not something I shall willingly go to again. BORING and not what I’m used to. I’m glad that I went don’t get me wrong but I did not learn anything from it. There was no music and the main takeaway I got from it was that communion is the most important part of their service. I really didn’t learn much from the sermon but I think that was mainly due to the fact that I couldn’t really hear or understand the, now this I will probably get wrong but forgive me I don’t know the Catholic religion well enough, Father.?? (Is it the Father, Deacon, or Priest who give their sermon?! No idea from my end of things!) The church tho was very pretty. I took a few pictures though the sign on the door said no cameras! I know I’m going to hell; it’s just a good thing I did it in God’s house and repented for my sins immediately! It was just so hard not to take a picture of something so beautiful to share with those who can’t experience it for themselves. So I’m sorry if I offended anyone by taking the picture I did it to share with others! Communion was different as well; every aspect of it to be exact. They all got up at once, they were not ushered like they are at the Lutheran churches I’ve been to. It seemed that they only received the body of the Lord, the bread? IDK if that’s normal or what, but every time I’ve received communion it has been both the body and blood of the Lord. It was also dead quiet in the church, no music just communion. I like the aspect of singing to the Lord while others are receiving their communion, but to each their own I guess!
Laura is doing something that I think is awesome. Her goal for when she gets back is to go to mass daily. It is a 7am back at St. Thomas, she is only going to be a senior, and is offered daily. I think that is awesome, not something I could devote to, but admirable! I do hope to get to church more often though! After mass we went to a lil pub for lunch. Well not really lunch, I’d have to say brunch or early dinner! Mass didn’t start until 12:30 so we weren’t out of there until 12:45 and we did a little looking around in the Victoria and Albert museum. Side note about London that is nice is that a lot of their museums are free for admission! It was raining out so we didn’t want to spend too much time walking in the rain so we cut through the museum which was nice! The meal at the pub was very good! I ordered something thinking it was going to be one thing, but ended up with a surprise as to what it actually was! I thought it was a mash potato with cut up beef tips in an ale gravy, however I got mash potatoes with two bones that had the meat still attached and some gravy in a cup! It was good either way!
After our pub meal, we decided to go check out Wimbledon! Well that turned out to be an adventure in itself. Let me give you some background information that will help you realize why it was a hassle! The tube is the main transportation system in London and we have unlimited access to two of the main four zones. During the weekends they shut certain areas of the tube off for “engineering improvements.” Which I am assuming is probably for the Olympics and is the equivalent to our road crews working on a main stretch of interstate on the weekends. None-the-less it is a pain to redirect yourself around the closures! We knew we needed to get to zone 3 but didn’t have access. Laura asked one of the ticket people how we could get extra money on our card so we could access an extra zone there and back, he told use that it would only be 1.60 pounds one way and that we could use the automated machine. Well both of us tried and couldn’t figure it out! So I finally went to the other guy who was working the ticket area and he said yes we could do that but we had to do it with them. I was not happy that the one guy was so rude to tell us we could use the machine when we really couldn’t….jerk! So we figured that out. We got to where we thought we needed to be but realized after letting two trains pass that we needed to jump on one of those go to the next station where we could get on the right train to take us there! Such a pain in the butt and not known to non-locals! But we got to Wimbledon and had to walk probably 2 miles to get to the stadium. We walked in the rain and wind, which here in London is way different than back home. It is a fine mist and a bone chilling wind! IDK how to describe it! Anyways we get to the stadium and I actually was a bit disappointed. I thought that it would be a bit grander of a venue and showier than it really was. I guess I didn’t know what to expect exactly, but what I did have pictured was nothing like was actually there. We went in the pro shop and got a few things and then headed back to the flatts. I just hung around for the evening relaxing, reading and doing LAUNDRY. Laundry is a whole different story! Our flatt has a washer but no dryer so we wash everything, which takes a good 2 hours and is so loud and makes the whole apartment feel like a vibrating sensation that might take off because it is spinning so hard, and then have to hang it to dry! It is a pain in the butt process that makes me appreciate the convenience of having a dryer in the states and not having to plan to have your laundry done two days in advance since it takes so long to dry in your house. Remember in the city there are no yards so you just hang it in the bathroom or on a drying rack and let it air dry. Annoying! I also got to talk to Gramps and G-baby tonight! So good hearing from them! Gosh do I miss them tho! They had a great weekend, had BJ’s birthday party, because all the great people are born in JUNE! Hint hint! J Talking to them really made me miss my G-baby’s cooking and Gramp’s sense of humor and inability to sit still!
So it is Monday here in London and Oh what a day here it is! It started off to be a dreary looking day. Being my mood depends quite a bit on the weather, this made me now very happy. I knew I needed to get moving and go do things today. Too many days have been spent lying around just enjoying my vacation not being a tourist all the time. I decided to get ready and go do some shopping. When I refer to shopping while I’m here I usually will be referring to shopping for others. I am trying to get a lil something for those who have brought things back for me over the years or for those who have left a place in my heart that I’ll always remember! So, today I knew I needed to get my mom her present that I had scoped out days before but the store was closed. After getting ready I decided I’d check my e-mail as it was still a bit dreary out and I didn’t feel like going outside just quite yet for another crappy day of weather.
Well it will have proved to me that it was a great decision to check my e-mail/facebook. I got some great news from my family! My aunt and uncle have been waiting to adopt a little boy from South Korea. I have probably told most of you about this but South Korea only give so many visa’s to each orphanage there and from there the orphanages give the visa’s to the waiting children. The family has known about the adaption for a while now, but not sure when we’d be getting our new family member. The children get put in a pile and depending where the child is in the pile is when that child gets the visa for the parents to come get them. Brad and Jessica were told almost a year ago that they’d be able to get the lil guy “soon”; however, as most have realized by now they haven’t gotten him yet. They have been waiting and waiting on this little guy for a while now and it was really sad when he wasn’t here for Christmas or his first birthday in February. I really wanted Brad and Jess to have those special moments with their little guy right away but as we all know God has a plan and we may not understand the reasons why but he knows best. So anyways today I got the confirmation that they are leaving tomorrow, Tuesday June 14th, to get little boo, (his name will not be boo, but the family wasn’t sure how to pronounce his name and Brad and Jess are not naming him until they get there so we decided to name him Boo for now because of his given Korean name) God is finally making their dreams come true! They will be gone from Tuesday to Tuesday and will have the little guy that they have been preparing for for so long in their arms finally! It makes me so excited for them! I will be ready to meet my new baby cousin when I get home and you can bet I will have a present from Europe for him!!! I am overjoyed for my aunt and uncle right now I don’t know if you can tell?! Congrats again Brad and Jess!!! I will be spoiling your lil guy just as much as you’ve spoiled me and my other cousins over the years!
After reading the news and having a change in attitude I decided to head out on my adventure. I took the tube to Oxford Circus where I needed to go to get moms present. When I exited the tube I was very excited to see that the clouds had broke and the sun was shining! What a glorious site to see here in London when the skies are blue and the sun is shining. It is truly beautiful! So now I was truly ready to conquer my mission. I was in and out of the store in a mere 5 minutes. I knew the minutes I set my eyes on mom’s gift that that was what I had to get her. See I guess I may have mislead you all. I knew the store I wanted to get mom’s gift at, just didn’t know what exactly it was going to be. But I knew right away that I wanted it when I saw it! Mom, I hope you like your present as much as I do! Hehe!
Since I had already completed my mission what else would I do. The day was mine to do whatever I wanted. One of the girls in the store told me that there were a bunch of good sales going on and that I should go check them out, so what is a girl to do…..I went shopping! This time I was more or less looking for myself, selfish? Maybe, but I deserve some new clothes right?! Right! Oxford circle seems to be the place to shop. A lot of stores on this strip of road that spans one and a half miles long. Some I had heard of before: H&M, Gap, Urban Outfitters, Clarks, Claires and Fossil, and some that I had never heard of: Marks and Spencer, House of Fraser, John Lewis, BHS and Zara. This past Friday, Minday and I did a few of the stores but only have 2 hours so I decided today I’d just roam around and check out random shops. WOW does London know how to design a store! Uftda! One of the department stores was 7 floors! The best part about London is the fact that these department stores have everything in them. LITERALLY! The larger stores take up damn near a city block and with seven floors you know they have to have almost anything. The part I love best is that if you lived here you could say to your husband if he didn’t want you to go clothes shopping, “Hunny I’m running to the grocery store.” Because here they have a grocery store in the department store! That took up one whole floor of the store along with half a level devoted to two different restaurants and then a café somewhere else in the building. I don’t know if I’m successfully conveying to you how big these stores are but they truly are huge. More than one set of escaladers because it’s so large, you come in one block and exit on the other side and have to re-orientate yourself to where you are exactly. One store I was in I went in and went out a door I thought was right, but it took me to an alley instead of the main road I wanted! Oh the joys of a shopping maze. One could literally lose someone for days on this street! Grandpa, if you and G-baby ever make it to London, DO NOT go to this street if you don’t want to go broke! ;)
After walking in and out of stores I decided maybe a late lunch/early supper would be a good idea. I go to a place that I already had gone to early on in the trip called Garfunkel’s. This location of the restaurant is not the same one that I went to before. It was very good food, but for the second time on this trip I ordered something and thought it would be something else! I guess maybe it is my lack of cultural experiences or the slight language differences, but both times what I got was good! So I guess in a way I am experiencing different food without actually trying! Funny how things happened! My lunch/dinner was a long European experience! There was a two course option for something like 7.45 pounds, so I decided to get that. My appetizer was superb and came out super quick. G-baby you would be extremely jealous as they have mozzarella and tomatoes on almost every menu and it is amazing! That is of course what I had! Then I ordered the American Hot main course. I thought it was a pasta dish because it was under the Pasta/Pizza portion and the other pizza’s had the word pizza behind it. The description was something like pepperoni with hot chilis and a tomato sauce and for some reason I just assumed it would be pasta. After waiting a long time I finally got my pizza? I was a bit confused and the way this restaurant ran was that there was no specific person who was waiting on the table; it was just four waiters running around the entire restaurant, problem number one. I was confused and said I didn’t order that and then the person who took my order came over and said yes that’s the American hot so I didn’t argue! I enjoyed my pizza, and YES I ate the hot chili peppers, probably the first time ever! Wasn’t actually too bad to be honest! Anyways I finished my dt coke and asked one of the waiters for another one, which you pay for here because for some reason tap soda is expensive at certain places I guess? RIGHT! Anyways people around me have changed and a new set of people are sitting next to me and a new table in front of me. They all had ordered their drinks and no drinks for them after 15 minutes. I had been waiting 5 at this point. The table in front of my gets their food before their drinks, which they ordered before their food and they are like umm we ordered drinks where are they. The waiter didn’t know and went to check. Here they were just sitting on the ledge waiting to be served. My drink was also sitting there so I let one of the servers know that I had ordered my drink and would like it. Well, for some reason they decided to re-ring my coke and charge me again, which I figured out when I got my bill. Needless to say this was a long frustrating experience for a business major!
After my adventure on Oxford Street I find myself at home in my flatt enjoying my day by myself! I have had quite the great day as I sit here reflecting on it! On top of everything that has happened, I also got in touch with an old friend that I haven’t talked to since 2007! She got a new number and I never got it so we lost touch. Thanks to Facebook we are back in touch and I learned that she now has a baby! It is crazy how much has changed in her life and mine over the past 4 years that it occurs to me that I will have so much to look back on in the next 10-20 years! I am excited that I will have this blog to look at in 10-20 years to see how truly lucky I am to have made this adventure. Also thanks to the internet all of you are able to keep up on my life and experience Europe through me! Isn’t God just truly amazing!?
<3 E
P.S.....I will post pictures in the next posts....too lazy and have homework to do to download the new pictures! Oh and sorry for the long post, have to make up for missing a few days! hehe
