thursday

today was very pleasant. we went as an entire group to westminster abbey. it was beautiful! we got a guided audio tour which was super neat. there were SO many tombstones and graves and memorials. i have never seen anything like that! we were talking in my fine arts class about how in america, we think that something is old and has history when its 100 years old. this abbey has foundations that go back to 616 ad. it was so crazy to me. we talked for a while with one of the priests, he gave us a history of a few of the items and graves. it was really cool.
after the abbey we went on a walk around the thames and past the london eye. we tried to go to a pub for lunch but they would accept our id's and didn't believe that we were old enough. bummer. we settled for a pizza hut instead. in our prep class back in provo our teacher told us that going into american restaurants in england would be a whole new experience. take into account the following picture.

yes. its true. mcdonalds is the epitome of "western civilization". wonderful. anyway, our teacher was SO right! it was crazy. the pizza hut was full of business men in suites. you could make reservations! and it was cleaner and nicer than any pizza hut back home. it was crazy. there was this place that we went to a few nights ago before the play that we were going to where, under the dessert section, the menu offered "American Style Pancakes with Ice Cream and Maple-style syrup". first - what is maple "style" syrup?? second, since when did pancakes become dessert?
anyway, after lunch we went on another walk through the mall (not a shopping one..but like..the governmental sort of district..) it was really neat - there are pictures in my last post.
after dinner we headed over to little venice. it was a short little walk and it was so cute! there is a canal and a ton of river boats. it was really fun.
i have the funnest friends. we have a blast together. we all think alike (to a certain degree) and we have all fallen into our certain "roles" that we play in the group. ray, for example, has become known as "the mum" because...well she sort of acts like the mother figure - keeping us on time, giving us hand sanitizer so that we don't get swine flu, reading the maps, ect. we have so much fun.
we already have a favorite treat here in our little section of london. its a hole in the wall belgian waffle stand. the guy who runs it is adorable and the waffles are DELICIOUS! seriously the most amazing thing i have ever eaten. tonight we talked and made friends with him and he gave us 1 pound off of our treat! lucky us.
one super funny thing that happened today - we were walking down the street by the parliament buildings, and this british man was walking next to us - he looked very important and business like. anyway, as usual, rachel was reading to us out of our london walks guide book. after we walked a little ways we came to a stop light where we parted ways with the man. before he left he turned to us and said "cool accent." haha. a british man thought that an AMERICAN had a cool accent. that's a first.
heres pictures!

reading the london walks book. always reading.

the thames..even though you can't see it. promise it's there. doing self take and actually getting the back ground is a talent which we have not yet mastered.


big ben and parliament :]

after being followed for two blocks by some gangsters..

little venice. one of my favorites. it was so quaint. and cute. and calm. atleast when we were there...