London Day 13

Today we had a picnic at Kensington/Hyde Park and then went to church and have been working on the computers/homework since then.
Well I thought that there were a lot of half naked people out getting sun Friday when we went to the park but now that it's the weekend the park looked like beach. There were people everywhere in their bathing suits and underwear soaking up as much sun as possible. So weird.+

They're odd these Londoners

See the gray rain clouds? Whoops scratch that.

Jenn, Jami, and Angie getting some sun

Odd outfit for the day. Sorry it's such a bad picture but I had to pull my camera out and turn it on to get this shot

This is my awkward lemon sorbet. I told you that Europeans are obsessed with the female body and fertility. No joke.

This is 23 Courfield Gardens where we live

Here is the church we go to. I think it's 5 stories tall

We attend the Britannia Ward.

And that's it because I need to write a paper and it's already after 10pm. Geez.

London Day 11 part 2

I took these photos shortly after I posted the blog for London Day 11 and I thought I would just add them now. Also are some pictures that other people took that I wanted to add.

All the time walking down the street you see little bags with doggie poo in them. You hardly ever see poo in the parks or anywhere else. In fact, there are special garbage cans at the park for dog poo. I wondered why people were so devoted to cleaning up.... well, it's a law. I saw a sign that threatened a $1000 fine if you did not clean up after your pets. I think it's a great idea.
It's nice to see plants here because they are so different than lots at home. It's amazing what can grow when it's not killer hot and dry.

A typical London sign

One of the shortcut pathways to where we go to school

Kieran's sign now has an addition to it. I don't know who did it but I think I may agree with their message

I got sunburnt Friday. And again Saturday. Mostly just on my neck but holy hades it itches.

Eating in Hyde Park

Jami and I at my favorite statue

Group picture in front of the fountains at the head of the Serpentine River in Hyde Park

Being bored of statues at the Wellington Arch

I don't know what's up with my face. Goodness

Our successful picture after many tries to get us all in with our eyes open

London Day 12

Saturday morning we started off our day with going to the markets on Portabello Road. You mean the Portobello Road from Bednobs and Broomsticks? Yes. It's not quite as classy as in the movie and I'm not sure that you can buy "anything and everything" but I was amazed at some of the things I saw there.

First off, there were a lot of people. A LOT. So many that you could barely walk and our group of 5 was impossible. Chase was in Paris this weekend so our group consisted of me, Jami, Angie, Jenn, and another guy named Adam Sneed from our school group.

In case I haven't already mentioned this, there are a lot of people that like to sing on the streets of London. Portobello Road was definitely NOT an exception. I did kind of like these 2 guys though so I have posted a video. I don't know if it will work or if it's any good but at least I tried.

This man I don't even know what to think of him. I think my first thought was "where did his dignity go?" I mean, really? He was singing to music and pretending to play a guitar from Rockband. I think the flippers were what really got us

Another thing that I noticed more frequently was the large amount of English hair styles commonly found on English men. I think the idea is to get your hair as big, frizzy, and gross as possible.

Example 1: Example 2:

Example 3:

I can't wait to get back to normal hairstyles in the U.S.

So anyways..... Portobello Market..........

Although I do not claim that they have "anything and everything" they do have a lot of interesting things like :

-telescopes

-leather balls. of all kinds. I even saw one that was probably about 3 feet in diameter

pewter dishes. One woman picked up a spoon and it was £250. The next one she picked up was only £150 because it was 100 years newer. Did these people rob castles? I think so

I thought I had seen some weird shoes. I think these surpasses some of the worst I've seen.

I especially became worried when I saw the writing on this one:

A third thing that was reaffirmed is the European love of the female body and fertility. My heck.

Look, you can even do house work in scandolous lingerie. This stuff is EVERYWHERE
another thing I saw was a stand of WWII artifacts. Jami asked the old men that were selling the stuff if they were in the war and they said no, they were just making money.

I really really wanted to buy a pocketwatch. There were lots of them and they were only £10 and really nice looking but I refrained because what in heavens am I going to do with a pocketwatch? I did take a picture to make myself feel better though. And I do quite like this picture. It's very...... artistic

There was also a lot of food for sale at Portobello Market. These grapes were huge. I put my hand by them so you could have something to compare them with.

This was my fashion outfit for the day. Weird.

After Portobello Market we went back to our flats and had lunch and then took a train to Hampton Court Palace where Henry the 8th (among many other royalty) lived although I'm pretty sure he built it with all the tax money he collected and some other palaces too. Anyways, I forgot my camera so these pictures are courtesy of Jenn.

Here's Hampton Court Palace. This is just the very front middle but it's about 3x as big as it is in the picture. Really it's HUGE.

We even got to meet King Henry VIII and his wife. This one I think was Catherine Parr. Maybe. He had so many I don't even know.

After we toured the castle for a few hours we decided to brave the maze that is created of hedges. I think we accidentely took the easy exit once we reached the center but oh well. It really wasn't too exciting.

After the maze we toured some of the gardens and there was one huge area with just roses which smelled wonderful. Hampton Court Palace is in the background.

Here is the Thames River about 30 miles from the other pictures I took. I thought this was a beautiful view.

Here's Angie and I on the train ride home. I think we both got a bit sunburnt. In fact, I don't think... I know. My neck has been itching horribly for 2 days now. It's not supposed to be sunny though!!!

London Day 11

I love Fridays. Always have and hopefully always will. Why do I like them? Well during school it signifies the end of the week. The last day that I have to deal with stress. A night of no homework. My party night. When school is out and I'm occasionally sitting at home Friday gives me a reason to go out. It also tells me that even if the week has been long and all I've been doing is working that a new week is soon to come. But why do I like Fridays here? It's the first full day we have off for the weekend. Also, it's that one day of the weekend before we become exhausted and still have a bit of energy to venture out into the world of London.

This morning we started out with heading over to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards at 11:30.
Around the entire palace there's barbed wire and spike and electical wiring along the top of the fence. Most people think it is to keep people out but Liz the tour guide says it's the Queens way of keeping the King in.
WEll when we got to Buckingham Palace there were people EVERYWHERE. It was horrid and hot and you could barely see anything. SO....after a lot of bad hairdos .........

and even some exposed rears......

we crossed the street and went to Green Park. The parks here are huge and absolutely amazing. I suppose that since London is so busy and stuffed full all the time the parks exist to balance that out. And it's true.... the parks are the exact opposite of the rest of London. They're friendly and clean and green and spacious and quiet and relaxing.... need I go on?

Well by the entrance to where we went into the park there was a monument that people were sitting on and sliding down. It looked quite enjoyable so we went closer.

[I would turn this next picture around but I'm too lazy.] When we got closer though we saw a sign that requested that we NOT climb on the monument.

But since we're horrible people....... we did anyway. I even slid down it. Oh I'm a rebel now.

In case you didn't catch it earlier the monument was for Canada. Hence the leaves.

Well it was a bit warm out today... and sunny... which is not supposed to happen in London.... Anyways Jami and I decided to take a moment to air out our underarms. Attractive, right?

After visiting the monument there was a whole bunch of noise and the Queen's guard came riding down the street so we took a quick picture. I guess we kinda got to see the changing of the guards...?

Today............. I was a tree hugger. Ellie you should be proud. I'm not really sure why but it just seems like something you would like.

Well the park is called Green Park and they weren't kidding...... EVERYTHING is green pretty much. Green trees.... green grass... even the tree trunks are green.

I took an opportunity to lay in some of that green green grass...

And was then soon joined by Jenn, Jami, and Angie. We attempted to take a picture but it took a while. I think Jami has a good one on her camera and we were so excited when we finally got it. I don't think I've laughed that much in a long time. And over getting a picture.... LOLLLLLLLLLLLL

AW.......tender! Flower behind the ear.

Angie was taking cool pictures so I copied her. I'm so original...

I ripped out the heart of this daisy... Oops :)

So sad looking...

After Green Park we headed over to Hyde Park but stopped at the Wellington Monument on the way. We even paid the fee to look at the gallery inside and ride an elevator to the balcony at the top

Such cute statues they had.

We were waving to random people taking pictures. They didn't wave back. Losers.

I almost got arrested for doing this. No joke. I guess you're not supposed to sit on the edge which I didn't know for sure until Jami read the sign on the door that I conveniently missed. It said that sitting or standing on the edge was prohibited and may lead to arrest. When I found that out I jumped off (onto the balcony.... not the street) and a minute or two later the woman working there came up and said that the police had called because someone was sitting on the balcony. I guess the freak out with security issues because it's so close to Buckingham Palace. That's basically all the police do here is security..... What a joke.

Arch of Wellington Monment

Gravel path in Hyde Park

We were interview and videotaped for a beer company. This is Jenn signing the release form. I guess now they're going to be selling wine in cans that look like Red Bull cans. Except with a more fancy cover. WEIRD

Horse path in Hyde Park

This is our friend the swan. I don't know why we didn't name him. Oh how we loved him

Someone threw a trash can in one of the fountains at the head of the Serpentine River...... Hello like London needs less trash cans. They already don't have enough

Well I finally got to go back to the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park!!! And it was actually sunny today. Not like that hasn't been normal for while we've been here but it was cloudy last time I went

Isn't it fabulous? Such a magical place.

Across from the statue is this lovely view of the Serpentine River. There are also a lot of interesting birds that hang out there. I LOVE it.

Really truly this is my favorite place in all of London.

Jenn and Jami were tired. Actually we were all tired. Who would have thought that walking all the way home from Buckingham Palace would do that to you? Naw...

Oh so I said the statue area was magical? No joke... It was snowing...... Bit of cotton. I think the tree by it must be a cottonwood.

All small children in London ride scooters. There is so much walking that they can't walk the whole way and strollers are too big and inconvenient. Plus, how many fat English kids have you seen lately? Not many.

This is the pond (??) or lake (??) in Kensington Gardens right next to Hyde Park. There were tons of swans there today. It was great.

Haha okay so Liz the tour guide kept telling us to watch for what happens when the sun comes out in London. Well I have been watching I guess the parks are where I should have been watching. These people are fantasitic. I saw almost as many people without clothes on today as I did with clothes. This woman is in her underwear. Not even a swimsuit... underwear! And she wasn't the only one. My heck it makes you laugh.... and take pictures. :)

At some parks (and maybe Hyde Park too) you have to pay £2 to sit in these chairs. Well, I guess you can sit in the until you get caught. They're not at all comfortable though

Being mostly naked in parks is not the only thing you can do on a nice day in London. You can also smoke Hooka............. in the royal parks..................... these people are weird but I guess if you live in a flat the parks are your backyard? ?

It was a fun eventful day. I love these strange people here. They're a little bit different but like a friend told me..... No matter where you go everyone's mostly the same. They worry about how they look, they want to express who they are, and most of all, they find what makes them happy.