I have less than a week…3 days left to be exact…before our group disperses and our semester ends. Luckily I will be traveling for about a week, so I will have some time to let the reality set in…anyway this is not the time to speak about the end…that time will come soon enough—for now let me relate to you the wonderful events and blessings that occurred in our 8th week at HUE.
On Monday the 15th of November
Stephanie, Mindy and I were craving cappuccinos “bigger than our faces”—quote Stephanie.
We headed down the street to our new favorite little place, which I’ve mentioned before, le Pain Quotidian or in English “Daily Bread.”
In the French style they serve your hot beverage in more of a bowl like cup than a traditional coffee cup with a handle…it is quite lovely. We also partook of some snacks…Mindy got soup, Stephanie a scone and cream, and I got a plate of wonderfully wheat French bread and jams!
We had planned to only stay for an hour or so but we actually ended up staying most of the day just relating our first impressions of one another, laughing about the places we’d been, and the people we’d seen…it was a really great way to spend the afternoon.
I’ve been beyond blessed by the people in this group…we’re small 8 students, 2 faculty members, one director {her husband occasionally joins us} and me…and for our small group of 12 {sometimes 13} people we get on so well. We can laugh and have fun, there are no distinct cliques that have caused rifts…we naturally all have our ‘closer’ buds we spend more time with…but overall we can all have a blast together.
No one has wanted to leave or switch roommates or hurt someone…it has truly been a blessing from God that we’ve had such a great experience with one another!
Tuesday the 16th of November
Our last Tuesday trip….
We headed to Bath!...and we ventured out on the train!...it is funny our progression from Tuesday trips on the bus to assignment seats on a train…the main attraction we went for was the ‘baths’.
Bath has been known for its natural springs ever since the Romans evaded and conquered Britain…the site we visited was the temple/resort/city center built and frequented by Roman soldiers and well to do persons during ancient Roman times.
The baths were not only seen as a ‘nice vacation’ or a beauty/health treatment {as newer facilities in the area are seen today}, but the baths were considered to be a gift from the gods and therefore a spiritual experience. If you went to the baths you could ask the gods for help, or you could seek personal health benefits and many times you could take care of political/social business…hundreds of people frequented the baths and a lot of ‘business’ was taken care of while officials and nobles lounged by the bubbling pools.
It was cool to walk through the actual excavated baths’ used by the Romans…however it was freezing outside…so needless to say I moved relatively quickly through the outdoor portion of the exhibition.
After we explored the baths we had free time for lunch and exploration before our train left at 4…a group of us set out to find some food…I was really cold, because I had not wore appropriate socks…I had on flats and footless tights…bad new bears…so after some searching and lack of decision making by the rest of our group I took care of myself and went off into the warmth of a sandwich shop {look at me mom all grown up ;) } and Mindy was kind to come with me…she was also cold and just wanted to sit down ha ha.
After I got a sandwich we discovered there was no seating in the restaurant so we went to Costa’s {my favorite coffee chain} across the street got some coffee and had a seat. We were happy. We were warm. We were eating. : )
We spent about an hour just relaxing, talking, and enjoying being out of the cold. {P.S. I love Mindy dearly she has been such a blessing to me on this trip}
We had decided to meet up with the rest of our original lunch group later in the day to go to the JANE AUSTEN MUSEUM : ) but before we headed over to meet them I decided it was time to buy some socks…ha ha…so I headed into Boots {like a Walgreens} and bought some knee high stockings… a little layering of the two tights and I was good to go…
Bath is so gorgeous. The buildings are very classic…rows and rows of stone apartments, much of what you would imagine a late 18th century neighbor hood looking like.
It was lovely walking through the city center through the rows of homes and shops looking for the Jane Austen Center…the house where the center is located is not the actual house where Jane lived in the latter part of her life…but it is made up to look like the home she would’ve resided in…Mindy and I met up with Lauren, Stephanie, Mary, and Lyndsey just in time to get some ‘I heart Mr. Darcy’ stickers…unfortunately the entry fee was more than we wanted to pay so none of us actually went into the museum…but we did get a picture with ‘Jane’ {a statue} outside of the home and talked to a man dressed in period clothing…we dubbed him ‘Mr. Bingly’ however maybe we should’ve called him Scooby Doo because he did a pretty mean impression…ha ha yes true story.
Scooby...I mean Mr. Bingly informed us that if we’d gotten there just a few minutes earlier we would’ve been able to see Mr. Nicolas Cage….because apparently he lives in Bath during the Holidays….who knew!?!
But he DID tell us where he house was so we went and took pictures of the outside ha ha
After we saw Mr. Cage’s home we headed back towards the train station…and of course we stopped for several photo shoots along the way…the houses were just so lovely…rows and rows…but it did not seem crowded…it just seemed organized and mesmerizing.
{via...this is actually a very famous area in Bath called 'the Circle' but it gives you an idea of the rows and rows of homes/apartments that make up the city of Bath}Bath was all in all one of my absolute favorite places we visited on our Tuesday trips! I wish I’d had a bit more time to explore, but I really felt I got the essence of Bath in my time there.
Wednesday the 17th of November
Ah yes Wednesday…usually Thursdays are the days when we go on a ‘group outing’ in the city and have a group meal…however we moved the group day to Wednesday…and we headed out to South East London across the river to the Imperial War Museum.
It was huge. There are exhibitions on both World Wars…including simulations—you can have a walk through experience of the trenches from WWI and sit through a London bombing during the Blitz…both were very interesting.
They also had dozen of old airplanes, guns, canoes, cars, boats, and even information on the British Navy and their use of submarines during WWII.
There was a walk through exhibition called ‘the Children’s War’ highlighting the children’s experience during WWII…especially the efforts taken to ‘ship’ London children out to the country side, to avoid injury and death by the bombings…the exhibition also talked about the hundreds of foreign children, including German Jews, Polish, French etc who were taken in by British families during WWII.
I got very emotional in this exhibition…just looking at the little faces who had to leave their families…reading the letters they wrote home to tell their parents about their ‘new’ lives in the country side…
One of the biggest exhibitions they had at the Museum was about the Holocaust…this was obviously very sobering but they did a good job of documenting the progression of Hitler’s rise to power, his propaganda against the Jews, gypsies, etc and the reasoning/logic behind the ‘extermination’ that took place all over Germany and Europe.
There was not enough time to see everything {but Stephanie and I actually went back this past week! Ha ha} but it was a really cool museum and I encourage anyone who comes through London and has time to go to the Imperial War Museum!
After the museum we headed out following our fearless leader Lauren Knight to a Greek restaurant…after some walking, a bus ride, and more walking we found it! {it was in the less ‘photographed’ ha ha part of London aka the poorer side} but we had a great meal!
They cut us a group deal and gave us the lunch price and a lunch special…so we got numerous appetizers including hummus, olives, taziki sauce, with bread, a lot of other weird stuff {ha ha}, then a huge selection of meat, Greek salad, and french fries…I know right! They just kept bringing food out! It was awesome, paired with the Greek music and the ‘fake grape vine’ covered ceiling we felt like regular Grecians by the end.
Great night. Great food. Just great.
Thursday the 18th of November
I had a mission…to find cans of pumpkin. Yes cans of pumpkin…Thanksgiving was a week away and we had to make pumpkin pies duh…and there was only one store {that we knew of} in London who was selling canned pumpkin…so I headed out with my side kick Mindy to Oxford street to find some pumpkin!
It was cold and rainy {surprise surprise} and we got a little mixed up but eventually we wandered into Marks and Spencers John Lewis Food Hall down into the depths where the food was and we ask an associate, “Do you have canned pumpkin?”
She led us through the store {it’s quite nice very much like a whole foods/fresh market} and showed us the coveted cans! Ha ha and I bought all of them! ; ) no judgment.
After we’d purchased the pumpkin for Thanksgiving, Mindy and I went on the search for coffee {we seem to do this a lot but it really is a worth while search…if I haven’t said it before I’ll say it again good…really good coffee is hard to come by in the UK}. We found a Costa’s {we love Costas} after we’d wandered around Oxford street for a while…which was fine with us because Oxford street is like center of shopping in London much like 5th avenue is in New York.
So we found a seat {it was crowded…because of ‘tea time’} and preceded to talk for oh I think 3 or 4 hours! Ha ha we just talked about everything…I told Africa stories, we talked about the trip, we talked about our families, friends, life, God…oh it was lovely. And we saw some pretty cute babies while we were sitting there…several moms came in for a shopping break I assume so we got to stare and smile at their precious children…in a non creepy way of course ;)
After we’d finished our laugh/talk session we decided to walk back… we weren’t too far from our flat…we got a bit lost on the way back but it was still so fun to walk through London and just see all there is to see because there is SO SO SO MUCH!
Friday the 19th of November
Oh yes…today was the day…the day of the HARRY POTTER PREMIERE!!!!
Now if you will recall…we were present at the world premiere on the 11th BUT even though we saw the stars that day we DID NOT get to see the movie…that was just a privilege for the actors and other famous people…rude I know. Ha ha
But we were pumped…we’d gotten our tickets and we were ready to see the film around noon at the theatre in Leister Square where it was premiered to the WORLD! Ha ha
We had assigned seats because it’s a huge theater with a balcony and everything…and the seats are covered in leopard fabric…ha ha
Courtney, Lynsdey, Lauren, Mindy and I went to see the premiere and we LOVED IT!!! IT WAS AWESOME AND I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IT AGAIN!!! That’s really all I have to say…. Ha ha go see it!
{Lyndsey and me ready to watch the movie!!!}After the movie I lounged about…Stephanie was writing her Bible paper at Starbucks and when she didn’t come back oh all afternoon I decided to go up there an meet her…see how she was doing…she’d been at Starbucks ALL DAY! But she was almost done which was awesome! So I sat with her for about an hour while she finished up her paper.
We were tired so didn’t do too much which is maybe a bit sad especially since it was a Friday night in London but what are you going to do ;)
Saturday the 20th of November
Ah Saturday’s…I love them.
Especially when we go to Portobello road.
I wanted to go back to get a few things….which I cannot tell you what they are ha ha {wink wink} but plus I just like going there because even though IT’S CROWDED LIKE CRAZY it’s fun…so Mindy, Stephanie, and I ventured out and walked down the long road looking, watching, and just enjoying the surroundings.
We were all so tired…Stephanie from working all day…me and Mindy for no reason ha ha so after we wandering in the rain for a bit we headed back to the flat for a chill rest of the day.
Mary’s parents were in town visiting her and enjoying their own vacation and Mary’s dad was so kind and made our whole flat dinner!
He was hilarious! His name is Danny and he is from Venezuela! He’s spunky and friendly and we all just had a blast laughing and eating some amazing food!
All in all it was a relaxed and fun Saturday.
Sunday the 21 of November
Because this was considered a long weekend {the student’s did not have school on Friday} we did not have to go out to Wembley Church…so instead of going out to Wembley Stephanie and I decided we’d go to night service at Hillsong and in the morning we would go on a luggage search in Camden Town.
Camden Town is in north London and it has a pocket of charity shops, which are like Good-Wills, in London…Stephanie and I both wanted to find a cheap suitcase to help bring back all of our lovely finds from London, even though we will probably have to pay for the extra piece of luggage, better than shipping it back or paying an over weight fee…
Once in Camden town we wandered about looking for cheap suitcases…but were unsuccessful… we did however happen upon a 99 pence store, which was awesome! And so we had some fun in there ha ha and we eventually decided to get these big plastic like bags they sell for grocery shopping…they will hopefully get some of my clothes back to the states….yeah it will…but why pay 13 pounds for a small duffle bag when I can pay a pound 50 and get a huge thick plastic bag….yeah correct decision right!? ;)
As we walked back to the tube station we heard some excellent Jamaican music being played…which was not only awesome, but humorous because it’s freezing cold…there was a party going down on the north side of Camden road…so we decided to stop by…and it was a party! There was a rock band, the Jamacian dudes…people walking around with tattoo and piercing handouts…there were a lot of werid, random shops…it was kind of like the whole place was a ‘Hot Topic’—do you know that store? But then as we walked further it turned into this amazing ethnic outdoor food market! It smelled so wonderful!
Both Stephanie and I were like, “What is this place? And why have we not been before!?” It was the oddest assortment of nick knacks, weird costumes, ethnic food, charity shops, and other hole in the wall stores…ha ha
We had a great morning just wandering around…oh and then when we were ready to leave we discovered that the tube station was closed on Saturday and Sunday afternoons to ‘departing’ costumers in an effort to reduce traffic…so we had to walk about 10 minutes down the road to the next stop…which was fine just kind of frustrating because we had just been down that way about an hour before…
We got back to the flat and rested up before it was time for evening church at Hillsong! It was Stephanie’s first time to go and I was excited! We had a great time and wonderful conversations with some girls after service! I love meeting new people there every week! They are so genuine and always ask you to coffee or to come and hang out with them…they are all so genuine which I feel is something that is hard for a lot of people in American…we want to seem like we have it all together…and so a lot of times our ‘kindness’ comes off as fake or as charity…but not here….maybe it is also the age of the people who attended…most of the congregation is 20s and 30s….hmmm who knows I just know I love it! Ha ha
After church we all decided it was time to go on another Christmas light hunt…Stephanie had seen online that Hyde park had a Winter Wonderful Christmas walk through….so we were like, ‘OH MY GOODNESS LET’S GO!’ So everyone except Mary and Lauren headed out to Hyde Park…we all expected it to be a lights show…or a kind of walk through…lights in the trees etc BUT IT WAS AN ALL OUT CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL!!!! Booths, rides, music, food, hot chocolate, lights, Christmas music….it was amazing. We were all so giddy! It was so much fun!
{Mindy, Stephanie, Courtney, and I at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park}What a great way to end the week!
Thank you for reading! Only a small time left….sigh…a very short time left….
Continue to pray for our group… that the student’s finished up strong…that they study for their finals and that their hearts are prepared for the transition back into life outside the UK! : )
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