Winding Down :(

Sunday:

Because the weather was absolutely gorgeous (upper 70's-80's!), we decided to go to the London Zoo! We seriously could not have picked better weather to go to the zoo, and I was especially excited because the zoo was one thing that I really wanted to do while in London! My dad had told me how great the zoo was, so obviously I had to do it! It was also nice though because it didn't seem to be as touristy as some of the other things that we have been doing--there were a lot of British families there. A man who sold us ice cream even seemed surprised by our American accents haha

In my opinion, the zoo here was a lot nicer than the one in Detroit, even though it didn't seem quite as big. I really liked how it really emphasized the fact that it was a zoo that functioned as a conservatory.

Monday:
Katie M. and I decided to go ahead and pay the 15 pounds to go inside Westminster Abbey. It was definitely worth it compared to just going to the service--I never realized how ENORMOUS the abbey was on the inside! It was really cool to see the graves and memorials for famous people I actually knew--Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Chaucer, and so many more! Katie was geeking out because of the Poets Corner in one area of the Abbey. I was pretty amazed by all the detail that clearly went into constructing the different aspects of Westminster! Plus, it was cool to walk through the building where numerous coronations have taken place, in addition to the Royal Wedding! I am so happy that I decided to pay the money, because the small amount that we saw when we went in for free during a service does not even compare to the other areas that were blocked off.

I would post pictures, but we unfortunately were not allowed to (well, supposed to) take any pictures on the inside!

Tuesday:
After class, Katie M. (my roommate) and I went into Surrey to visit some of my dad's friends from college. Mrs. Quint showed us around a bunch of areas in the county--and in a car! It was so weird being in the passenger seat on the left side! One place we visited was her daughter's home, where we had a cup of tea! Afterwards, we headed to Shere to see a spot where a scene of The Holiday was filmed. It turns out that the church that is there was also a stop for the pilgrimage in The Canterbury Tales!

After driving around the area for a while, we finally went to the Quints' home, which was a gorgeous countryside home! There was even a pool in the back and a very large patio and back yard. Mrs. Quint showed us around the house and it looked even bigger on the inside! It was nice to hear about the history of their home, since it was built in 1914 (most of the homes in that neighborhood have been torn down to make more modern homes). After our tour I finally met Mr. Quint, who was my dad's roommate back in college and good friend from his year he spent living in France. It was pretty humorous to hear about the funny things my dad did back when he was in college! Mr. Quint and I (and later on my dad) had a fun time talking about that.

Of course, we soon had dinner with champagne and wine, and it was so nice to have a home-cooked meal again! Mrs. Quint had prepared a very fresh, healthy, and delicious dinner--lettuce with tomatoes, mozzarella, and avocado, potato salad, coleslaw, chicken shish, and corn. The best came last though, when she gave us dessert! The dessert was mint chocolate chip icecream on top of an oreo cookie crumble bottom layer with chocolate on top. It was very delicious, but also very rich!

It was definitely nice to get out of the city to meet my dad's friends.

Scene from the Holiday!

The church from Canterbury Tales!

The back of the Quints' house

Our delicious meal!

Wednesday:
We had an excursion at a museum known as Rivington Place, but it was an extremely boring excursion, so I don't have a whole lot to say about it haha. After the excursion, we decided to try a restaurant called Pod, which we had never been to before. It pretty much was all just super healthy food! The food that I got was basically quinoa, chicken, lentils, and a bunch of other veggies mixed together. It was pretty good!

We came directly back home and I've pretty much just been trying to finish up final assignments for my classes...it's getting really annoying :(

Thursday:
After class, we didn't really do anything too exciting! Still lots of catch up to do :(

However, at night we went to a pub to watch the opening game of the World Cup in Soho Square! It was a pretty typical pub experience, but even better for one reason! I met up with a friend I haven't seen in FIVE years! Her name is Sian, and I know her from when I was a CIT at the camp I used to go to. She's from England, so that's why I haven't been able to see her since. It was so nice to see an old, familiar face! She commented on how grown-up I am now haha (weird to think that it has already been 5 years since I was 16!). We enjoyed a couple drinks and catching up with each other before we all headed home.

Friday:
We had an excursion today, but afterwards we went into Stratford (not upon-Avon) to see Westfield Mall and the Olympic Park! The mall wasn't anything special apart from being large and nice--a pretty typical mall if you ask me. But there was a Victoria's Secret, so it was kind of like being at home when we walked in there. We didn't spend too much time at the mall because our main goal was to go to the Park. We were also able to find a picnic basket that we could take to the Royal Ascot next Friday!

The Olympic Park was incredible! We walked around past the stadium, but no one can go inside it until I think 2016. Really the coolest thing was walking up to see the Olympic rings! We tried to climb up to sit inside the rings but it was pretty much impossible without having a tall muscular guy to lift us up into them. It would have been a sweet picture, but it wasn't worth possibly breaking a bone!

Overall, the park all around it was really nice and well-kept. The weather was also perfect to be walking through a park! There was a nice playground nearby too that we decided to try climbing on--it was all basically tree stumps built into a playground rather than the more modern looking structures.

Saturday:
Saturday was probably one of the best things that we have done here! We went to Trooping the Colour at 8 AM, which was outside of Buckingham Palace. This ceremony is a birthday celebration for the Queen, even though her birthday was in...April? There was a parade of the soldiers playing instruments and riding horses--very fancy! It was so much fun because, although we had to wait outside for a few hours in crappy weather, we were at the front of the barricade and were able to see the Royal Family ride past us in their carriages! Even my dad hasn't seen the Royal Family! We got pretty excited when Kate, Harry, and the Queen all rode past. We're sure that William did too, but we think that he was hidden and riding on a horse instead of in the carriage with one of the large hats as well. We were a little bummed to not see Little George, but that's okay!

Queen Lizzie!

Kate, Camilla, and Harry

After a few hours, the Royal Family rode back to the Palace, where we were able to follow and stand outside of the gates. After a bit of time, everyone in the family came out onto the balcony to wave while there was a fly over with multiple planes at different intervals overhead. My favorite part of the fly over was when there were jets that shot out colors of red, white, and blue!

I don't want to leave, and I only have less than a week left in London! :((((