The adventure comes to an end...

So everyone, this may very well be the last post about London. It is currently around 11pm on Saturday night, and I am scheduled to fly back to the good ole US of A at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. Being that most of that time tomorrow will be spent in the airport and in the plane, I decided to do a big long post with lots of pictures to catch you all up on everything I've done for the last two weeks! Here goes! (Feel free to email any questions and post PLENTY of comments! What did you think about my trip?)

Me and a "Beefeater" at the Tower of London - does anyone know WHY they are called Beefeaters? Because I do!

Then after the Tower of London, (which was SO much fun and very informative...I got to stand on the spot where Anne Boelyn was beheaded for her acts of crime during the reign of Henry the VIII), Laura and I had some chips and a Coke at the "Hung, Drawn, and Quartered." The chips are VERY good with mayonaise and ketchup mixed together!

We wandered into a small church that looked interesting...turns out this church was the oldest church in London City - and this is the font where William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, was baptized as a child! We took a 45 minute tour with a man who works there and found out all kinds of interesting things!

Then we walked to the Bank of England and went through the museum where I got to hold a bar of gold! It was 26 pounds, and it was only the size of like half a brick!

On Friday we went to the tube stop for Baker Street....can you guess what this is famous for?

And here it is - 221B Baker Street - Sherlock Holmes' residence! (Well, at least his fictional one.) This is now a Sherlock Holmes Musuem and a big gift shop. I bought a postcard and that's all!

Here's me at Camden Lock Market enjoying "arrapas" - a South American food! It's like a cornbread pita with salsa chicken and grated cheese inside. SO delicious!

Here's me crossing Abbey Road! This is where the Beatles recorded their songs, at the Abbey Road studio, which has since seen other artists such as Josh Groban and a bunch of others who I don't recognize.

Here's me signing my name on the wall in front of the studio! They have so many tourists sign here that they have to repaint the wall every month!

On Sunday morning, Laura and I got up early and went to Petticoat Lane Market - it's a market that was set up in I don't know when, but the Lane was originally named "Petticoat" but was renamed because the big shots thought they shouldn't make reference to underwear! Funny! They had lots of cheap clothes there...I got an ELVIS purse there for pretty cheap and I was so excited!

After Petticoat, Laura and I met a few friends from our life group at ChristChurch London and had "Sunday Roast," which is apparently a big deal here. It consists mainly of roast beef covered in gravy, steamed veggies like broccoli and carrots, and potatoes in the form of boiled and roasted potatoes, along with Yorkshire pudding and gravy. It was all so good! Our dinners ended up coming separate, so we got free dessert! This is treacle sponge with custard sauce. It was also really really good!

This is a picture of the singing group at ChristChurch. I took a few videos of my last service there...it was a sad but good time. I'm so glad that God brought me to that church. It was lovely getting to see how people worship God differently and to get some good Bible teaching in the midst of a city of 7 million who really don't care about God! It is a wonderful church that I would recommend to anyone.

On Wednesday, I went to Holland Park, a very BEAUTIFUL park that is not far from my flat at all. I wish I had known sooner! The flowers were blooming and there were little forest creatures roaming all over. Here's a few pictures from the trip.

After the trip to Holland Park, we went to the I.E. going away party at O'Neill's. They had TONS of food, and karaoke! It was interesting to see all the people we've gotten to know getting up there and singing their hearts out! Even some of the professors sang! We stayed a while and then went to the last life group meeting. It was sad to leave, but glad that we'd made some good British friends as well.

On Thursday I had the priviledge of going to observe in an all-boys prep school here in London! I stayed the whole morning and took tons of notes to observe the differences between U.S. and British education. I loved seeing and interacting with the kids!

I met Laura at Trafalgar Square that afternoon and we wandered around, went to Piccadilly Circus to go to a souvenir shop, and had lunch in Chinatown. Then that night we both began to pack and clean the flat!

I spent most of Friday cleaning the flat, after about five other students and one of our professors when to watch a murder trial court case in the Old Bailey Court House! It was pretty neat to see that - all the barristers (lawyers) still wear the big long black robes and wigs! They looked funny! It was all kind of confusing and disorganized looking, but I'm sure they have a system. While cleaning the kitchen later, I stacked all our jars of Nutella and look at the results!

On Saturday, we got up and went to Buckingham Palace. Here's one of the guards out front!

Here's me in front of the flower beds at Buckingham. They were gorgeous, and the sun was out all day!

Next we went to Trafalgar Square and Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. It was such a pretty day for pictures, but if I put them all on here it'd be too many! So here's one of me coming out of a phone booth with Big Ben in the background.

Then we went to Kensington Gardens and laid in the grass for a while...I enjoyed that a LOT!

Finally we went to the Muffin Man coffee shop and I had tea and crumpets! They were delicious - a lot like English muffins.

Well I guess that's it. It's late here and I need to get some sleep so I can be ready for my flight back to the United States of America tomorrow!!! See you all soon!