walking in the steps of royalty.

so i have a confession to make. i finally made a connection that i should have made months ago, but i got extremely excited today when i realized that my parents names are William and Catherine and guess who just had a royal wedding here in london. you guessed it- William and Catherine. So im pretty sure that means im of royal decent, right. Actually, I think my mom told me once that we are a descendant of king john, which isn't something to necessarily be proud of, but still kind of exciting.

the plate i was looking at when i had this ridiculous epiphany

today the plan was to go on the big bus tour. our teachers gave us tickets for it on monday and you can use them whenever but once you start it you only have 24 hrs until your ticket becomes invalid, and considering  our day was pretty much completely free except for a show tonight we thought it would be a perfect day to do it. however, mother nature did not agree. we walked outside, and for the first time since we got here, it was raining! lets just say there was a quick change in plans.

but because it was raining i finally got to wear my new raincoat!

instead we went to Westminster Abbey and the Royal Mews to re-live to royal wedding, a re-live we did.

we got to westminster and there was quite the line to get in, luckily it moved fast and we only had to wait for about 20 minutes. inside the decorations were still up from the wedding and there was a special royal wedding tour. it was wonderful. technically you werent supposed to take pictures but cali used her mad skills and we snuck a few pictures. she is currently contemplating joining the CIA. thats a lie. but she should.

look at that line- yes. it does wrap around the corner to where we are. no worries.

Elizabeth, Cali, and Carli waiting in line.

This was the special tour you could take that showed you all the special places from the wedding. like where kate walked, the room they signed the register, where the queen sat, and where will and harry waited before the ceremony.

Kate's bouquet. I was surprised at how small and simple it was. It was beautiful,.

where they we married.

we got to sign kate & will's wedding book.

we then had to go to the gift shop. it wasnt a matter of wanting to or not. well thats a lie. but the gift shops are so fun to look around. I was amazed at the number of kate and will things. mugs, plates, you name it with their faces on it. There were some we saw later (like the one at the top) that i liked a lot better. It seemed more classy, where as the ones with their faces on them just make me laugh. after the gift shop we headed over to buckingham palace.

on the walk over we saw a double decker with tangled on the side. we got very excited. hmm three posts in a row mentioning tangled. i think i have a problem.

Buckingham Palace. contrary to popular belief the guards do not stand outside the gate for you to try to make laugh, supposedly that is at the tower of london. but you can see the poof poofs of their hats if you look closely.

While at Buckingham we went and toured the Royal Mews, which is where they keep the horses and carriages for the Palace. It was such a cool tour, and definitely worth the seven pounds it cost. your ticket gets you in for a year, so we might have to go back in the near future. but we were so lucky, because right when we walked in this cute worker woman was starting a guided tour, instead of the audio tour, so we walked around with her and she told us lots of fun facts about the horses and carriages.

This horse was my absolute forces. His name was Coachman. He was probably one of the funniest horses i have ever met- because i have met so many. but he would smile for the camera. and while our tour guide was talking she would say something and he would nod his head. it was wonderful, i think i paid more attention to him than to what she was saying

The Austrailian State Coach- this is the coach the middleton;s and charles' and his wife road in during the precession

The Glass Coach- this is the coach Diana rode in on the way to her wedding.

The Scottish State Coach- the carriage the queen rode in for the royal wedding.

The carriage that Will & Kate rode in! I forget the name of it, and sadly the sides were up . But it was way fun to see.

The Gold State Coach. This one was ridiculous! and hasnt been used since 2002! it was sooo ridiculously ornate. oh brother.

The car that Kate Middleton rode it to the wedding.

we found this error in the gift shop. all the others said the 29th but this one said the 20th. we took it to the lady at the check-out line hoping we could get it for free, and thought it was looking up when she said she was going to throw it in the bin, but then another worker said "im going to keep this one" and we were very sad. 

After our trip to the touristy places of london we decided a nice break at home would be grand. So home we came. We have been talking and realized that we have 6 weeks here, that we dont need to jam pack every day so full that we get burned out. And i am so grateful for this decision because i have a very busy summer ahead of me. So it is nice to have some time to breathe. Part of our time at home included eating dinner. As we had already spent money to be tourists we decided to eat the 1 pound pizza we got at Sainsbury the day before. lets just say it wasnt worth the 1 pound. It was one of the worst pizza's i have ever eaten. no bueno.

look at that beautiful pizza. this is before we realized how delicious this pizza was.

Cali made me choose what piece I wanted, but i am horrible with decisions. horrible. just ask nate (ps you made it in again...good work) or anyone else. so i closed my eyes and said surprise me- and surprise me she did. she put the entire pizza on my plate! i am sooo glad i vetoed that decision because of what we ended up tasting.

luckily we had biscuts and milk. yum yum.

after din din we were off to Little Eagles at the Hampstead theater. It was an AMAZING show. the acting was spectacular. It was a three hour show but the time seemed to fly. The actors were not just acting the parts but they became the parts. Yuri, became the first man in space, and made me fall in love with him because of his happy demeanor. Little Eagles is the story of the Russians making it into space and the man behind it all. It was enlightening intellectually as well as aesthetically.  One downfall of the show was the over abundance of the f word. They not only pushed the envelope but pushed the envelope to the moon and back, but even with the language it did not take away from the integrity of the show. There is something that can be said for being accepting of the show and letting it in without judging based on language. Moral of the story, it was an amazing show and i am so grateful we got to go see it.


one line i loved was from the doctor to Sergei, it reads

"On a night like this, don't you think to want more than the air around you is just greedy?" 

ooo and another line...sorry indulge me..once again from the doctor talking about all Sergei Korolyov. He was the chief engineer but we (the Americans) had no idea about him, and he, almost single handedly, ran the Soviet space program.

"Yes, just one. You had Von Brahn and all the other German scientists and all your thousands of workers and vilbions of dollars and we had Sergei Pavlovich and convicts and some university students. So what? We got there, didn't we? Quicker than you."

it was interesting watching the show as an American, in London, and having the play portray Americans because i had to remember that it wasnt being played by Americans so it wasnt like there were any politics with the way the portrayed us. If that makes any sense. 

Cali, Cami, and I at Little Eagles

other random tidbits-

our sheets were cleaned today- however the cleaning ladies dont remake the beds, and we came home and were soo exhausted and cute elly made our beds for us. she is amazing, and i adore her! Cali and I will have to find some way to repay her

did i ever mention i have the most amazing brother and sister-in-law in the world (well i have lots of them) but my brother gave me a present to write something about economics in my blog. it was perfect and will help me justify buying the ring from portobello that i loved. He is currently studying economics at the university of chicago and is an absolute genius. talking to him, i actually like economics. He is able to apply it to everything, and even can use it to out whit my dad and get out of doing chores. he is amazing. economics is amazing. but that being said, i have to most amazing family ever, and i miss them oh so very much.

the tube was super crowded on the way to the theater, and of course i couldnt stop sneezing. i felt like the girl that everyone hates because they get everyone sick

our teacher shuffles the tickets before passing them out in class to help us sit by different people and get to know everyone. however i have a talent for getting to know the person i am sitting by right before i sit by them. if that makes any sense. example. all's well- kristen came with us on the tube to the globe, we sat by each other at the lecture, surprise sat next to each other at the show. tonight. talked to Dezi lots on the tube, surprise sat next to her. I think i have a super natural talent.

we have a lot of fun in london.

the end.