Finally, our trip concluded with a trip to....ENGLAND!!!!
January 19th:
Today was another travel day. After waking up, I threw my laundry in the drier because it hadn’t completely dried the night before. :-/ After, I headed back to the Notre Dame with my friends Anna and Heidi because we wanted to get some pictures inside the Cathedral. I bought a couple of last-minute souvenirs while I was out and about as well, and then we headed for the train station where we hopped on a train to good ol’ London. When we got to London, we checked into our hotel, and then Anna and I went to the Big Ben/Parliament/Westminster area with one of our professors, Kathy. She just showed us around a bit, and then we headed back to the hotel. Later on, the class had one final group dinner together. This time we ate Indian food; I got garlic chicken and vegetable curry...it was SOOO hot! My face was really red apparently. Haha. So after dinner, my friend Joy and I bought some ice cream to help combat the spice! The rest of the night was spent reading for our group discussion the following day.
January 20th:
This was a day of running all around the city. After breakfast and discussion groups, a bunch of us went to go buy tickets for a soccer game. After trekking to the stadium and securing some tickets for a game, we went ran around the city for a little while more (this included getting some Krispy Kreme donuts which I found out are now obsolete in Minnesota!). They were really good. :) After, we went back to the hotel, ate a quick dinner, and then changed before we headed out again and went to buy tickets to...WICKED! After we bought our tickets, we ate a quick dinner at a little Italian cafe, and then made our way back to the theater. Our seats were AWESOME. We were in the first section in front of the stage, in row L, and in the center. We had a fantastic view. AND, we got them for a great price! The performance itself was SO SO GOOD. I can’t believe it took me so long to go see it! I could seriously see it again and again--I loved the story, and the music and performance were amazing. A little sidenote: during intermission, Anna heard an American woman talking about how she had seen over 30 Broadway shows, and more than one showing of Wicked (at least a few I think), and she said that this was the best performance of Wicked that she had seen! So, it was definitely a great show. After the show, Anna, Joy, and I headed over to McDonalds to make use of their free wifi, and then we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.
January 21st:
After waking up and having breakfast, our day started with a trip to University College London where we met with a woman who spoke to us about Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. We also got to see some of the University’s Galton artifacts, and then we headed over to a museum with a bunch of displays. It was quite interesting; we saw a lock of King George the 8th(?)’s hair and Darwin’s walking stick among other things. After that, we made our way to Freud’s house. This is the house that he relocated to during World War II; he ended up dying in London, so this was his last place of residence. It was here that we saw the infamous couch! So cool. After visiting his house, a bunch of us tried to get tickets to the Lion King, but they were kind of expensive and almost sold-out, so we decided to forgo seeing the show. After our failed attempt at scoring tickets, we decided to grab lunch at the Italian cafe we ate at the night before (just in a different location), and then we went shopping for a few hours on Oxford Street (the best place to go shopping in London!). :) However, I was starting to feel a little under the weather, so I didn’t really buy anything. After our trip to Oxford Street, I went to McDonalds with Anna to make use of the wifi a bit, and then we headed back to the hotel for the night.
January 22nd:
This was the day that we took a day-trip to Cambridge. I woke up not feeling too well this day...just a cold, but since we had a 2+hour walking tour of Cambridge, it was still not fun...it was very, very cold! However, our tour guide (David, a hilarious older British man) was great, and it was cool seeing the things that we saw. We got to see Christ College (where Darwin attended), among other places of importance. We also stopped outside some famous buildings; one was where the first calculation (by a machine) was made, another was where Watson and Crick did their infamous work with and research on DNA, and another was where the proton, neutron, and electron were discovered. Cambridge is definitely a place of historical importance, that’s for sure! After our time in Cambridge, we headed back for the night. We made yet another trip to McDonalds for wifi, and then Anna and I went with our professor, Kathy, to go get some Chinese food. I spent the rest of the night in my room since I was feeling even worse, and after I took a nice hot shower, I went to sleep!
January 23rd:
This morning, after breakfast, a group of us headed out to Westminster for church. The service was kind of different than the one at Notre Dame (and easier to follow, that’s for sure!). Westminster was pretty, but we weren’t really given much time to look around. After the service, some of us to make a quick stop at my future home...Buckingham Palace. ;) hehe. Just kidding... It wasn’t as big and impressive as I was expecting it to be, but it was still really cool to see! After that, we made our way back to the hotel where a bunch of us met up to head over to the soccer game that we had bought tickets for a few days ago. We made our way over to the game, and the kickoff was at 1:15. Not too long into the game, a ball was kicked in our direction, and my friend sitting next to me, Joe, caught the ball! It was actually sort of near me, so he basically saved me from being hit (because instead of trying to catch it, I decided to duck in my seat..haha). That was super fun, and he was really happy that he got to catch a ball. “Our” team won the match 2-1, so it was a great game to go to! After the game, we headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours where we attempted to do homework, but then decided to go out to dinner. Anna and I went to a cute little Italian cafe and had a great dinner! The rest of the night was spent typing out basically the entirety of this blog (no joke). As soon as I was done, I went to McDonalds to post everything, but I wasn’t able to. So, I returned to my hotel room, basically concluded this, finished homework, and then went to sleep.
So....yeah! That’s basically what I’ve been up to for the past few weeks! Today, I have a day of sightseeing and shopping planned out, and then tomorrow, I’m flying back home. I’m sorry it has taken me so long to post everything; it’s been very hard to find time to write things out in detail, and even harder to find time/good internet to actually post on my blog itself! I will probably write one more post on here, and maybe post some pictures as well when I get home, so feel free to check back! I can’t wait to see you all when I get back! Until then, I hope that all goes well until I see you! <3
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