Hello from the Blog Slacker: Post #6 from London

So much has happened since this slacker has blogged, so I'll hit some of the highlights/funny stories from the past couple of weeks complete with some pictures of all of the neat stuff we have done! Time just flies when you're having the time of your life!

1. The Bird-Peeing Fiasco. So we took a day trip to Bath. It was a lovely, charming little city. We were having a delightful time, but we were starving so we went to find some food. My friends Sarah and Daniel and I selected a delicious-looking cafe to buy a sandwich and decided to enjoy the beautiful day by eating lunch outside. This was a critical mistake. Very critical. We ordered our food and were chatting while we waited when all of a sudden I felt some drops hit my head. I touched my hair and when I looked down at my hand there was GREEN goo on it. Sarah and I left our purses with Daniel and made an emergency trip to the bathroom to wash my hair out with soap and water. It was everywhere. Needless to say, my hair went up for the rest of the day. I told my professor the story and he burst out laughing. It was too soon. It definitely hadn't become funny yet.

On the bright side I got to see some gorgeous places that day: 

This was taken right before a fellow tourist told us that we should come back to Stonehenge with a six pack and we'd have an even better experience. 

2. Crazy Tracy. So last week, we took a 5 day long trip up north. The morning we were leaving, we met our coach driver for the week, a woman named Tracy. She seemed like a nice lady. Apparently our judgment was off at 7 in the morning, because we were in for SEVERAL of the rides of our lives. Literally. Day 1 of the trip, we travelled to Preston to see the temple and the church sites there and then drove up to the Lakes District, to spend the night in Ambleside. Tracy was okay the first day. The first near death experience didn't happen until the next morning. We were driving up a hill, when all of the sudden the bus started rolling backwards as Tracy loudly spewed out a stream of curses. In the process of trying to get back on the road, she smashed into a stone wall. Thankfully for her, us, and the town of Ambleside the wall and the bus survived with no damage. Later that afternoon, we found ourselves driving down a road that was not designed for coaches. My knuckles were white from clenching the seat in front of me for dear life. We almost crushed several cars/rolled down several hills and we all thought it was the end. Tracy made the rest of our travels delightful with her refusal to stop for meals or anything that was not on the itinerary, referring to us as "little rats," circling around the same roundabout over and over, making us all carsick with her aggressive driving, and of course yelling if we were even a millisecond late returning to the coach. What a peach. We're going on a day trip tomorrow, and begged our professor to make sure that Tracy would NOT be driving the coach.

3. The Lakes District and Edinburgh: The Lakes District was the most beautiful place that I have ever seen. It was comprised of mountains and valleys with lakes in between, I mean what more could anyone ever want? The highlights of our three days there included: reading by the lake, exploring/taking walks, and visiting a family-owned bakery called The Apple Pie and getting the most delicious sundae ever. The next day, we travelled to Edinburgh. We knew it would be a good night when we checked into our hotel and found the lobby stocked with candy. Edinburgh is so different from London and Paris. The buildings aren't as pretty, but it has a charm of its own. My favorite moment was when we were walking up the hill from our hotel to Edinburgh Castle and we passed a man in a kilt playing the bagpipes. If there were any doubts about whether or not we were in Scotland, they were resolved at that moment! I just wish we could've spent more than a day there!

 England/Scotland border! 

 4. Do You Hear the People Sing? Yesterday after classes, we travelled as a group to Greenwich. Greenwich is where the prime meridian is and we like got to hike up a hill and stand on a spot with one foot in each hemisphere and that was cool and all, but there was something even COOLER that we got to see. As we were walking my friend Daniel was like we should probably sing, "Do You Hear the People Sing" while we're walking here. I've never been one to turn down a Les Mis jam sesh, but I didn't know what had sparked the idea until he explained that where we were standing was where that scene in the movie was filmed!! It all totally came back to me! I kinda freaked out just a little a little bit and we reenacted the scene and stormed the barricades it was great. There's a video. 

I can't believe I only have two more weeks in this beautiful city! It's truly stolen my heart!!