Weekend trip to London

July 23, 2005
I woke up at 7:30 and went to breakfast at 8am (where I had tea). After breakfast, I went to Ben’s room to give him my stuff for the trip to London. He had a smaller bag, so he said I could pack my stuff with his instead of taking my huge hiking bag.

I got on the bus and sat next to Michelle. We talked almost the entire way to London about our trips before school started, her boyfriend, ex-boyfriends (especially the difficulty and delicacy of relationships). We also talked about church and beliefs. She’s really sweet and I enjoyed the discussion a lot.

We arrived in London and set out to check in to our hostel. It was only a few blocks away from where we were in Piccadilly Circus. Megan and I were able to check in but the large group of 13 weren’t allowed to check in until after 1pm.

We decided to go to Harrod’s and went in. Each department was separated by designer names. We decided to split up because we all had different things we needed to buy for relatives or wanted to look at. I found someone who directed me to the millinery department where I found a red hat I liked. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the price of £209. I knew there would be no way in hell that my parents would let me buy it, but I called them to see if a miracle would occur. It didn’t; Mom said no. My roommate Megan was with me, and she thought that they had said yes when I told Mom to tell Dad that I loved him. Megan and I wandered around the store a little while longer and then we met outside Harrod’s and then Kelsey, Grant & Amber went back to Piccadilly to check in.

Megan, Bill & I wandered around London more. I looked for a different hat, but I couldn’t find one that I liked. We went back to the hostel to move our luggage from the luggage room to our actual hostel rooms. Then, we went to the play. Bill had trouble getting into his room, so Megan and I ended up showing up late at the play, but the usher still sat us in a row further back than the Oxford students’ section. Megan and I moved to sit with our group at intermission.

I didn’t really enjoy the show that much (because there was a semi-plot and lots of holes in their attempt at having a plot). I was glad when it was over. The dancing and singing was good, but that was about it.

A big group of us (about 17) decided to walk to Trafalgar Square to fine the Sherlock Holmes bar. We found it and ate there, but we were disappointed to find out that there was a £10 minimum per person.

We ate dinner and took the tube back to Piccadilly Circus to go to a bar by our hostel. I ordered a cup of tea at the bar and drank it. Then, while everyone else (except Megan) shared a “Sex on the Beach” fishbowl, I had a “passion fruits” Archers. It was really good. Everyone decided they wanted to see “the red light district” because Dustin was telling them about it. We wandered around and then decided to go back to the bar we started at. I had another cup of tea and then we went to Burger King because the guys were hungry.

Megan and I checked into our room and found a man and another woman who were also in our room. They both seemed to be asleep. I went to find Ben. I got my stuff from him, went to the bathroom to change and then went to bed. I kept everything on my top bunk at my feet.

July 24, 2005
I woke up around 7am because I had to go to the bathroom. I went and then climbed back into bed and went back to sleep. I woke up again at 9 when my alarm went off. We were supposed to meet downstairs at 9:30. I changed and gave Ben my things. Then, Megan and I went to the breakfast room to get some toast.

We ate and then met Dave, Austin, Brian & Ben outside. We waited and waited and waited for Amber and Kelsey. Finally, we decided to send Dave upstairs to find them and Kelsey and Amber came out the front door. They had both been up really late talking.

We went to get on the subway and took it to Victoria station where we left the baggage. When we switched trains, we lost Ben. We hoped that he knew where the church was and he would show up there, but he didn’t. We arrived at Westminster Abbey for church. I felt really underdressed (I didn’t realize we were going to church, so I just had jeans and a t-shirt), but there were a lot of other tourists looking less dressy than I was.

We waited to be seated. The old woman who sat us reminded me of Mrs. Doubtfire. We listened to the organ before the service. It sounded like a song that could accompany a scary scene in a movie. I watched them seat more people. We were arranged in the form of a cross. The altar was in the centre with the choir in front of the organ and other people seated near the choir. Then, there were two sections on either side of the altar facing each other.

The service started and the organist played the processional (again more ‘scary’ music). Three men walked to the front and faced the congregation (back towards the choir & the organ). They were all wearing full green robes. The President spoke and sang the entire liturgy. He even introduced communion and announced the forgiveness of sins. The Reverend gave the sermon (which was about the source of the money that was used to purchase communion) from an elevated pulpit. The third guy had to hold the book for the President during the entire service while he read and sang the liturgy. (How much would that job suck? He never said a word. He just stood there.) One of the women from the congregation read the Epistle lesson and then they moved the cross they carried in at the beginning of the service to the centre of the congregation for the gospel reading.

There was A LOT of standing and sitting (up and down, up and down). Also, we only sang two hymns during the entire service. The rest of the time the choir sang or we chanted. However, the choir did the majority of the singing during the service and a large portion of it was in Latin. I was kind of wishing I were in the choir.

When they had communion, the choir sang while everyone went up. They had wafers like at Trinity Lutheran back home. Then, you could dunk the wafer or eat it, then take a drink from the common cup. You were supposed to say ‘Amen’ twice, after both ‘The body of Christ.’ and ‘The blood of Christ.’ but I didn’t realize it till after I went up for communion. If you chose not to partake in communion, you could still go up and get a blessing. Dave did that because he’s Catholic. After the service, I was surprised that they didn’t dismiss us row by row. I thanked the Reverend and the President before we left.

When we walked outside, it was raining. We hurried to the subway. When we got there, everyone had to go to the bathroom, so I waited while they went.

We got on the subway and took it to London Tower. We were going to try to find someplace to eat, but the woman at the subway said there wasn’t anything open on Sunday around the area. We went to London Tower and wondered around. I got to see the crown jewels. They were behind glass with a moving sidewalk on either side so people couldn’t stop and press their face up against the glass. Everything was housed in a HUGE vault.

Dave, Brian, Megan & Dustin decided to stay to see more sections of the tower. Kelsey, Amber, Michelle and I were exhausted, so we went back to the train station and found a bus to Oxford. We got on the bus and arrived back in Oxford at exactly 6:30. We had just missed dinner at Mansfield. We decided to get fast food and walk back. Amber, Michelle and I had Burger King. Kelsey was going to have McDonalds, but they had randomly closed for two hours, so she had KFC. We walked back to campus and I checked my e-mail, took a shower, ate, read and wrote in my journal for a while. Then, I went to bed. It felt so good to be back in a familiar bed.