Wicked

     School has been really great, although I have been suffering a bit without my morning coffee! Today, I decided to attempt to get Starbucks. I took the bus to downtown Kingston, two stops past where I get off for school, got my coffee (which is a whole other story), and made it back to the bus stop with plenty of time to get back to school...except the bus never came! I finally decided to take a chance and hop on the K2, which eventually led to the same place. Needless to say, I think I'm just going to have to learn to like tea.

I am amazed at the progress of these students; the more time I spend in the school, the more I wonder what makes it so different that these children can be so much further ahead? In assembly this morning, I saw a Year 2 (first grade) student do multiplication...it blew my mind!

     Now, on to something more exciting. After school and a 30 minute journey back to the lodge, Kensie, Andrea and I caught the bus, then the train, then the tube into London to see Wicked!

It was pretty awesome. 

On the train back to Surbiton, just after pulling out of Waterloo Station, the conductor made an announcement "if anyone in the medical profession is on board this train, immediate assistance is needed in car 7". Coincidentally, we were in car 7. On the other side of the glass that separated the car, we heard the most absurd noises for the majority of the journey; we came to the conclusion that the woman was either having a baby in the middle of the train or just a severe panic attack.

Well, I've got to get to bed so that I can get up and make sure I'm dressed sensibly (that's one of their favorite words) for the big inspection tomorrow. We also have a French lesson Thursday mornings which I'm super excited about :) Cheers!

P.S. Mom, thanks for saving the day and booking the flights to Paris/ Barcelona!

20:48

Today, we attempted to find Spitalfields market. According to the Google, we just needed to take the tube from Waterloo to Aldergate East then walk a few blocks. We successfully navigated the underground but when we walked up the stairs, there were absolutely no street signs! After wandering around for about 45 minutes, we finally decided to give up and take a bus back to civilization. We did, however, find this picturesque telephone booth:

When we got back to London, we got cappuccino at Cafe Nero (yum!) and visited the National Portrait Gallery. It featured paintings of famous royals ranging from 1500's to the present. There were many dukes and lords that I had never heard of, kings and queens, Princess Diana, Andy Warhol. It was quite an amazing collection! Well, off to bed...school starts tomorrow!

You're Never Lost, You're Just In A Different Place

We're still suffering from a bit of jet lag so we got a late start today. Every morning we eat breakfast at the place we are staying. For those of you who don't know, a full English breakfast consists of toast, sausage, bacon (canadian bacon), eggs (fried), beans, and tomatoes (boiled). It was an interesting experience to say the least!

After booking a weekend trip to Ireland with the group, we went to Kennsington and visited the Victoria & Albert Museum. On the way, we saw the Museum of Natural History:

The Victoria & Albert museum was one of my favorites that I have ever visited. It featured a selection of British, Asian and Medieval artifacts. It also featured an exhibit that walked through the history of fashion. This is what women wore under their skirts in the late 19th century...ouch!

My favorite exhibit in the museum was entitled Shadow Catchers: The Art of Camera-less Photography. It featured work from five artists who used photo paper and various techniques to capture images of nature. Mostly, the work would turn out abstract and suprisingly detailed. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed in the exhibit :( so I stole this picture off of the website:

To make this picture, the artist placed a sheet of photo paper below half an inch of water. The mother laid her child down for a few seconds and the artist flashed a light, which transfered the image to the paper. If you look closely, you can see water ripples around the baby. 

When we left the museum at 4pm, it was already dark outside! We met up with some others from the group and explored London pub culture. I absolutely love people watching. From pub to pub, it was fascinating to see how people interacted in this setting. Although they would be out with a group of two or three, they treated everyone in the pub like they were old friends. We stumbled upon a little Italian restaurant and had some very thought-provoking conversation before heading back for the night :)

Barrett's Death March

Dr. Barrett has kept us busy since we got off the plane yesterday! We woke up bright and early today and headed into London proper. This is roughly where we walked in 6 hours, on what Dr. Barrett calls his "Death March".

We started at Parliment/ Big Ben.

And eventually ended up at Buckingham Palace.

We ate lunch at a pub that served traditional Brittish food.

This was my rotisserie chicken and sweet corn pie (like a pot pie)...yum! :)

After we ate lunch, Dr. Barrett left us at Harrod's to make sure we could find our way back. We went through Harrods for a bit then got a taste of the Tate modern before we headed back to Surbiton.

These were my two favorite pictures from the day:

Dr. Barrett on the bridge outside Big Ben.

Haley, I thought of you when I took this, I almost got pooped on!

We've Arrived!

The group at Waco Regional Airport.

At Heathrow.

Right after we got off the plane today, we dropped our stuff off at the Warwick Lodge and headed out with Dr. Barrett to explore the Surbiton/Kingston area.

This is the view out our window!