London

I apologize for the lack of updates. London, although advertising Wi-Fi, was only available in the lobby, and even then usually sporadic at best. So I will do my best to not leave out any details. The first day we arrived in London, we split into a few different groups. My group and I went to the London Eye. The London Eye is the largest ferris wheel in the world. From atop it, you can see all of London! It was spectacular. The couple in the pod just adjacent to us, got engaged. The man proposed and the group I was with was.. well, lets just say very aware. They embarrassed them very much. Leaving the London Eye, we walked along the edge of the Thames river, and saw a few street performers and artists. There was a lady doing replicas of Leonardo-Devici's work. It was remarkable! The detail she was able to bring out, and the precision! She was using the grid system to duplicate the pieces. Each piece took about 5 weeks to do. Later down the walk- Cory, Kelly, Seth, and Shalie stopped at some street musicians to dance to the music. The dancing drew more of a crowd than the music did! We went to Hard Rock Cafe, spent too much money, and ate. Returning home, there was some.. drama.. on issues id rather not discuss, so I wont!

The following morning was the our first full day in London. We started off by visiting the Tower of London. The Tower isnt really a “tower”, more of a castle. The interesting things about the castles here in London, and around England, is that they have been in use up until the last few hundred years. So although we would have liked things preserved, as we all do, when things update, we toss the old and get new ones, and so have the people living in the castles, manors, and palaces. So although a lot of things haven't been preserved as have things in an archeological dig, it has a lot more history. I went with a group today, so we all had to make a few concessions for the votive of the group. We visited the old armory, and a the display of the crown jewels, but a lot in the group can't handle more than an hour or two, so we had lunch at a french pastry shop, and made our way to the aquarium. The aquarium was fantastic. It wasn't huge like at Berlin, but it was very educational and fun. We then made our way to WICKED! It was phenomenal. One of the best shows i've seen. The under study was in for Fiero was in, so there was a few fibs, but it was still WICKED! We saw some of BYU there, and had a grand time walking home in the rain. Speaking of weather.. WOW.. overcast in the morning, followed by a light rain about 11:00, then sun mixed with showers off and on the rest of the day.. it just can't decide! Then, its cool above ground, and stinking muggy in the subway, so its jacket on, jacket off.. on.. and off..

The third was supposed to be Ireland. Coming up on that evening after wicked, I didnt have a very good feeling about going to Ireland, so long story short, despite already paying $120, I decided to not go. Turns out half the people didnt even make it on the airplane! Long story short, it was a good choice not to go. Instead me and the boys (David, Seth, Trevor, and Nick) went shopping and spent a lot of time in Harrods, the largest department store IN THE WORLD! (or so it seemed) It was giant. And expensive. There were departments there for Dolce and Gabbana, Verccaci, Loui Vaton, HD, and YSL.. (ok, so not the Good Charlotte song.. and yes, I realize I spelled some of them wrong.) but lots of stuff. They had chocolate for $3 a piece, There was a little girls jacket for 3,450 pounds. Thats like... almost $6000 us dollars! We strolled through Armani, and other wicked expensive stores. It was interesting to see where the haughty taughty shop at. There was a GINORMOUS toy store we spent a good amount in. hee hee! After a bit more shopping, we decided to visit china town. It was.. Chinese.. everything you'd expect in china town. We visted a market raising money for St. James, a 400 year old church. One guy was selling jewelry made from “vegetable ivory”. It is a substance made from the seed of a tree in the amazon forest, which looks, feels, and is in almost every way identical to ivory! It was pretty cool. Mostly, the day was spent shopping. Seth persuaded me to buy clothes in “color”. Light blue.. I don't know how I feel about it. Oh yes, and before I forget. The first thing we did today, was go to see the changing of the guard. It was very anti-climactic, but still cool in a historical ceremonial way.

Today was the last day in London. We went shopping to spend the last of our pounds, and visted the last of the places we wanted to see. I broke off from the group and went to the british museum and spent about 3 and half hours there. They have really cool exhibits on the Panthenon, and other ancient roman and greek works, as well as a large section on egypt. The crowning piece would have to be the rosetta stone. I didnt have nearly enough time to spend there, before meeting back up with Tara and the boys, to finish the night off with the Globe Theater, St. Pauls cathedral, and a ridiculously long buss trip back home. A bunch of packing, and writing this, mixed with hopes of Wi-Fi in france and that concludes London!