"Never is an awfully long time...."

WELL.... as previously mentioned in my earlier post I went to London this past weekend... my oh my! what an experience. First of all, Elle, Ashley, Mendy and myself were so enamored by the fact that we were going to London that we forgot to do a couple of things that were vital to us moving in and about London. For example: knowing how to get to our hostel from the train station.... knowing how to get anywhere from the train station for that matter!!!!! Thankfully, a guy that is in our program and has been to London before was able to direct us and from there on out it was smooth sailing. We located our hostel... words don't describe my feelings about hostels but just know that tears were shed! Pretty much if you want to feel unsafe and dirty... GO TO A HOSTEL. and you see while most people know that fact, I did not! Thank you friends and family for not making me aware!!!! Anyways, Friday was just low key night of getting settled in and find our bearings in foggy London-town.

Saturday we woke up to realize that if we wanted to take a shower that we had to trek down the long corridor of the hostel to the community shower. very similar to freshman dorms at ACU but a longer walk. Once we showered and got ready we decided to take the train to the Apollo Victoria Theater and to get our tickets for Wicked so that we could sight-see before the show.

One of the guys from our trip proposed to his girlfriend in this park on Saturday!!!

It was the most surreal feeling ever to be standing in London looking up at Big Ben having seen in dozens of movies and always feeling like I would never come that close. We saw Big Ben, Parliament, The London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. British people are very into detail. The very details on the gates around everything was enough for me to marvel at not to mention the architecture of it all. It was absolutely amazing!!! Then we made it back in time to get to our seats at Wicked.... now I'm not complaining by any stretch of the imagination because our tickets were a steal of a deal, but our seats were the VERY LAST ROW. It finally became clear why they call it the "nose bleed section." But... it was worth even sitting in the very back row. Wicked is AMAZING!!!! the performers were excellent and the wicked witch of the west was PHENOMENAL!!!! I highly recommend it and I would even go see it again.

After Wicked, we just shopped around by our hostel and then did our own walking tour of Leicester Square which was like New York City with better accents. We got blisters so we called it an early night and went back to the hostel.

Sunday we were so ready to be back that we didn't tour anything and got on an early bus back to Oxford so we could have time to study for our brutal finals today.

ALL IN ALL... it wasn't what I expected but it wasn't a huge disappointment. I will say something that I'm learning is that there is a HUGE/COLOSSAL difference between traveling with school and parents. And I'm loving the time with my friends, but I'm going to love traveling with Mom and Dad and NOT staying in hostels!!!

i felt like i just typed a lot, but with all the stories and funny comments that's only the tip of the iceberg from this weekend!!!!

oh and I feel as if the pictures are self-explanatory!!! except for the minute detail that Elle and Ashley match (white shirts, jeans, and coach purses!)