I apologize for slacking the last few days...I'll try to remember details :)
Thursday (May 23rd), we went to the Lloyd's of London. It was an incredible building...built with all the pipes and everything on the outside. Our tour guide said that the only other building with the same design is in France. Lloyd's of London is more like a market of insurance firms as opposed to just a single entity.
After Lloyd's we were done for the day. A few of us went to a nearby market and ate at Pizza Express. We had pizza surprisingly more often than I thought we would. :) We then walked back to the hotel to change and have a quick meeting to go over our time in England and what we would do differently. It was fun to look back on things.
Once our meeting was done, a group of us went to the British museum. It was really cool to see different exhibits of several countries. We spent about an hour there and then went to Nike Town...a super-sized Nike store. :) Unfortunately I didn't get anything there though because I knew I could get all those things back in the US.
We then went back to the hotel and ate at the restaurant that was attached....we had to fuel up before going out one last time :) We ended up having one last hurrah by having a few drinks at the hotel and then venturing off to a club. Haha it's hard to describe all that happened...but let's just say there were a few punches thrown, tears shed, dances, laughter, and in the end some memories that will never be forgotten.
Friday was a free day and we took the day to sleep in and then shop, shop, shop! :) I probably spent a little too much but hey, it was London, England! Haha there were several interesting moments while shopping but one of the more embarrassing ones for me was when I was paying for a few of my items. The cashier asked me if I was paying with cash to which I responded with "no, I'm using pounds." He kind of chuckled and said "yeah, ok." That sounds normal to me until I realized as I was walking out what an idiot I was. Haha when I think of "cash" I think of US dollars but in England "cash" is considered to be pounds. He was just wondering if I was using a card or not. Ugh anyways :P
We came back to the hotel and just laid around until dinner time and then decided that we were craving McDonald's so went walked there in the pouring rain. Which reminds me, I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I now know why Americans are overweight, especially when compared to Europeans. Their portions are super small for both food and drinks! Their large is our small/medium when it comes to drinks and they barely put in any ice AND they do not do free refills. It was sad lol. Along with that, they walk everywhere...at an extremely fast pace and there are stairs everywhere as well. I enjoyed it and I love the city life but I think London would be a little bit too big for me.
Saturday I woke up around 6:30am and a few of us met to take the tube to the airport. The tube wasn't nearly as busy as it had been, which was super nice because we all had our luggage. I didn't have any issues at the airport and my flight went smoothly. It was a little longer than the flight over but that was ok because I was able to watch 3 movies this time! I watched Silver Linings Playbook, Warm Bodies, and This is 40. All were pretty good movies :)
My arrival was a little emotional. One, because when I went through check-in I was able to go through the fast lane since I was a US citizen and the lady said "welcome home." I know they say that to everyone and it's not that big of deal but for some reason it just made me tear up a bit. Then...after I got my luggage my mom was waiting for me at the gate and I almost bawled right away haha which of course caused her to start crying. I was never really homesick on my trip but just seeing her made me realize how much I had missed her.
Now I am attempting to get back to US time....my mind is still functioning on London time. Hopefully this doesn't last too long. One thing that I am super thankful for is the sunshine! I have missed it so much! All that I have left to do is write my paper and put pictures up. I am truly thankful that I was able to have this opportunity and if I have any say it, I will definitely be travelling to England again...and hopefully many other places as well because this trip has sparked a huge travel interest :) I hope those of you reading this have enjoyed reading my entries and if you have any questions about things I would be more than happy to share!
Love you all,
Sharisse
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