United Kingdom

It is the morning of the.....well I dont know...Friday. And it is Marens last full day in London. We dont have much planned. She wants to go see St. Pauls, but I do not think it will be open for none worship visits because of Good Friday.

Wednesday Morning we got up really early and headed for a theater to get half price tickets day of. We got them. We went and saw Peter Shaffer's Equus. It was awesome. I knew what the play was about and had read it when the media was all over it. I thought Daniel Radcliff did a great job. I do wish his voice was more powerful, it is still abit weak. But other than that he did great.

What did we do yesterday? Oh yeah I waited for Maren in a feild of Birds! We split up for the first half of the day, she went shopping while I went to the national gallery and then we were to meet at 4 on the left side of the steps outside the National Gallery. 4 o'clock no sign of Maren, 4 30 no sign, 5 no sign, 5 15 nope and then at 530 she showed. It was so nerve racking, there were Birds everywhere, they were hardly scared of humans too, they would come so close to me. I was trying to look cool, but I was freaking out in my head.

We had planned to go out tonight, but we got back to the hostel and basically just died. So we went to bed instead.

The other people in our dorm are so loud! I dont understand what it is. It not just them getting their stuff together, they talk....loudly. like they were alone or something. Very inconsiderate.

well so long,

Alice

So I have not been in the US for a week now. I have spend most of my time in London, and will continue on here until the end of the week.

Today Maren and I started our touristy plans, visiting the givens: tower bridge, tower of london and so on. It was fun. I find what is most interesting is when we just walk around. We walked around Oxford and Piccadilly Circus for a couple hours before we returned to the hostel. I thought it was much more interesting than anything else we did before it. The people we saw, and heard (yes eavesdropping) gave us a peek into the actual London, not just the touristy part.

While on the bus I was blankly staring out the window past some work men, and one of them caught my eye, and started to dance. I think he must of thought I was sad or something and he wanted me to smile. He was quite amusing.

We returned to the hostel to get ready for our night out. We went and saw Les Mis, a musical I know by heart but had never seen until tonight. We went yesterday and got 50% off tickets, it was a good performance, not the best I have seen, but very good.

Maren wants to go to another one, musical that is, and it is possible if we cut some other stuff out, but we shall see.

Another crazy thing happened once we got to the show. I ran into another person, but somebody I already knew, Clairellyn Smith. She is visitng London with her mother and she was seeing Les Mis the same night as us! It is crazy how this stuff happens so many miles away with no plans.

Well I am off,

Alice

Maren is here!!!

Well I made it. I am in Oxford England right now. I am sitting in a small conveniance store that has computers. It is run by a Benny of Bennys Conveniance Store.

So Yesterday I woke up at 5 30 am (10 30 pm chicago time) to catch my train to Paris at 6 43 am. Since the Train station was literally across the street it was not a problem, but breakfast was being served at 7, so i did not get to eat until I got to Paris. But the man at the reception made me a latte.

While waiting to board the train, five people commented on my shoes, I thought that was sort of funny. One person is normal, maybe even two, but 5 people?? I then boarded the Train. It was the only Direct train to Paris, that is why I took one so early. It had intended to arrive at Gaude du Est at 13:20, but instaed we arrived at 15:30. We stayed at the Metz station for two hours. The train left the Metz station 3 times but it backed up twice. Most people got upset, I just thought it was funny. I think something was wrong with the signals or something.

Finally I arrived in Paris, I took four different lines of the Metro to get to my hostel which was, way far away from the middle of Paris. I was so exhausted , i basically just went to sleep.

I then got up bought a pastry at a local bakery, they only thing open before 7 in France, and took the metro to Gaude du Nord, where I bought a ticket to London. Getting into the terminal was so draining, the passport lady wanted proof that I was leaving the UK, but I could not find my flight info. I think she just got tired of waiting for me so she let me through. Then I went and sat down. I went through my bag, and I found the flight info. I was scary for a moment, I thought I was not going to be able to get into England.

Then I took the train to London, the underground to Paddington and a train to Oxford.

I will spend today and tomorrow in Oxford and the take a late afternoon train back to London to stay there before I pick Maren up at Luton ( so far away ) on the 31st.

Well till next time,

Alice