Last weekend my friends, Maggie and Caitlin, who are studying abroad in Spain came to visit! I play Volleyball with Maggie and Caitlin and they are some of my best friends from college. They also brought along another girl, Stephanie, from Central College who wanted to visit London. I was really excited for them to come since I hadn't seen them since before winter break. We had so much fun. I don't know how to explain my friends to you; they are completely different from me. They are wild, loud, and messy, but I absolutely love them and we get along so well. Picture left to right: Stephanie, Me, Maggie, and Caitlin
On Thursday night the girls arrived. I met them at Liverpool tube station. It was great to see them. We didn't stop talking the whole way home! At first I was a little worried because we were being pretty loud on the tube and people were looking at us. It is so easy to spot an American accent here, even for me and I am American. My friends were just really excited to be speaking English since they have to speak Spanish all the time in Spain. They told me a whole bunch of stories about all their adventures. They were really excited to see some American things in London, such as, pizza, McDonald's, Dr. Pepper, snickers, and coffee shops. They also went crazy over the cold milk. Apparently Spaniards do not refrigerate milk. The girls said they leave it on the shelf and serve it warm and chunky. Wow, I thought unrefrigerated eggs were bad! In Spain, the students live with host families so my friends have to eat whatever their Senora makes them. On the way home we stopped at the store and got some cheap wine because the girls wanted to go out to a club and experience what London nightlife has to offer. It saves a lot of money to just buy your drinks at the store instead of the club. This also got me a little worried because I knew that I had to keep track of them all night since they knew nothing about the city. All 3 girls stayed in my room at Vandon House with me and my roommate. Talk about chaos. My roommate was probably slightly overwhelmed. Just imagine a room packed with girls trying to get ready to go out. I felt like a Mom trying to organize everything. Then the wine kicked in and I just let everything be messy and out of place (if you know how much of a neat freak I am you will be proud of me for this!) We decided to go out to a club called Tiger Tiger. It was within walking distance of my place so this way the girls didn't have to buy tube or bus tickets. We went out with other Central students from London so we had a big group. The night was really fun and we all ended up leaving around 2 a.m. This is when my friends decided they wanted McDonald's. After walking to McDonald's, only to find it was closed; I offered to make them grilled cheese sandwiches (I am getting really good at making these). The girls loved it and were so happy to have non-Spanish food. I was only able to get two mattresses into my room for them to sleep on because of fire hazards and safety regulations. So I figured they would all just slumber party on the floor. However, Maggie just decided to sleep with me in my twin bed. After our grilled cheese's it was about 3 in the morning and Maggie crawled into my bed fully clothed with out taking off any makeup or anything. You kind of have to know Maggie to picture this (she reminds me a lot of my sister sometimes). I always wash my face and brush my teeth before bed like it is my job, so I was a little shocked that went to bed without doing any of that. However, she is one of my best friends and that is just part of why I love her. My friends are good for me; they help me be less uptight!
The next morning we got up pretty early as we had some serious site seeing to do! At breakfast my friends mentioned that they really wanted to see a musical while they were in London. I asked them if they heard about Wicked because I have really wanted to see that and it is currently rated as London's top West End show. I had also heard that if you went to the box office the day of the show you could get discounted tickets. So after breakfast we went to the Apollo Theatre and with our student cards managed to get great seats by each other for only 25 pounds each. This is an incredible price as that is only about 40 dollars for tickets that would normally be close to 100 dollars. We were excited! Next I showed them all the sites that were within walking distance. We saw Buckingham Palace, Traflagar Square, the Guards House, Big Ben and Parliament, the London Eye, the Thames River, Westminster Abbey, and St. James Park. We ate at McDonald's for lunch, since everyone was still craving a greasy American burger. I hadn't ate at McDonald's yet, but had heard that it was better than in the States. I was surprised because I normally don't like McDonald's, but it actually tasted really good. I don't know if it is actually better than in the States or if I just hadn't had a burger in like a month. By the end of the afternoon we were wore out, but my friends were absolutely loving London. We got some groceries and made spaghetti for supper. Then we got all ready to go to the show. They thought it was great to get dressed up. The performance was amazing. I thought it was better than Phantom of the Opera in New York and better than the Lion King. The cast was fabulous. The lead actress who played Elphaba was the best singer I have ever heard. My friends were floored. At one point Maggie started crying she liked it so much (again you gotta know this girl, she's a hoot). We couldn't stop talking about it. As soon as we got home we looked up the actress on the Internet. If you are interested you should YouTube "Alexia Khadime". She is amazing! After that we had a pretty low key night where we just chatted and made grilled cheeses' again!
Below Picture of Horse
Guard and the Wicked Theatre
On Thursday night the girls arrived. I met them at Liverpool tube station. It was great to see them. We didn't stop talking the whole way home! At first I was a little worried because we were being pretty loud on the tube and people were looking at us. It is so easy to spot an American accent here, even for me and I am American. My friends were just really excited to be speaking English since they have to speak Spanish all the time in Spain. They told me a whole bunch of stories about all their adventures. They were really excited to see some American things in London, such as, pizza, McDonald's, Dr. Pepper, snickers, and coffee shops. They also went crazy over the cold milk. Apparently Spaniards do not refrigerate milk. The girls said they leave it on the shelf and serve it warm and chunky. Wow, I thought unrefrigerated eggs were bad! In Spain, the students live with host families so my friends have to eat whatever their Senora makes them. On the way home we stopped at the store and got some cheap wine because the girls wanted to go out to a club and experience what London nightlife has to offer. It saves a lot of money to just buy your drinks at the store instead of the club. This also got me a little worried because I knew that I had to keep track of them all night since they knew nothing about the city. All 3 girls stayed in my room at Vandon House with me and my roommate. Talk about chaos. My roommate was probably slightly overwhelmed. Just imagine a room packed with girls trying to get ready to go out. I felt like a Mom trying to organize everything. Then the wine kicked in and I just let everything be messy and out of place (if you know how much of a neat freak I am you will be proud of me for this!) We decided to go out to a club called Tiger Tiger. It was within walking distance of my place so this way the girls didn't have to buy tube or bus tickets. We went out with other Central students from London so we had a big group. The night was really fun and we all ended up leaving around 2 a.m. This is when my friends decided they wanted McDonald's. After walking to McDonald's, only to find it was closed; I offered to make them grilled cheese sandwiches (I am getting really good at making these). The girls loved it and were so happy to have non-Spanish food. I was only able to get two mattresses into my room for them to sleep on because of fire hazards and safety regulations. So I figured they would all just slumber party on the floor. However, Maggie just decided to sleep with me in my twin bed. After our grilled cheese's it was about 3 in the morning and Maggie crawled into my bed fully clothed with out taking off any makeup or anything. You kind of have to know Maggie to picture this (she reminds me a lot of my sister sometimes). I always wash my face and brush my teeth before bed like it is my job, so I was a little shocked that went to bed without doing any of that. However, she is one of my best friends and that is just part of why I love her. My friends are good for me; they help me be less uptight!
The next morning we got up pretty early as we had some serious site seeing to do! At breakfast my friends mentioned that they really wanted to see a musical while they were in London. I asked them if they heard about Wicked because I have really wanted to see that and it is currently rated as London's top West End show. I had also heard that if you went to the box office the day of the show you could get discounted tickets. So after breakfast we went to the Apollo Theatre and with our student cards managed to get great seats by each other for only 25 pounds each. This is an incredible price as that is only about 40 dollars for tickets that would normally be close to 100 dollars. We were excited! Next I showed them all the sites that were within walking distance. We saw Buckingham Palace, Traflagar Square, the Guards House, Big Ben and Parliament, the London Eye, the Thames River, Westminster Abbey, and St. James Park. We ate at McDonald's for lunch, since everyone was still craving a greasy American burger. I hadn't ate at McDonald's yet, but had heard that it was better than in the States. I was surprised because I normally don't like McDonald's, but it actually tasted really good. I don't know if it is actually better than in the States or if I just hadn't had a burger in like a month. By the end of the afternoon we were wore out, but my friends were absolutely loving London. We got some groceries and made spaghetti for supper. Then we got all ready to go to the show. They thought it was great to get dressed up. The performance was amazing. I thought it was better than Phantom of the Opera in New York and better than the Lion King. The cast was fabulous. The lead actress who played Elphaba was the best singer I have ever heard. My friends were floored. At one point Maggie started crying she liked it so much (again you gotta know this girl, she's a hoot). We couldn't stop talking about it. As soon as we got home we looked up the actress on the Internet. If you are interested you should YouTube "Alexia Khadime". She is amazing! After that we had a pretty low key night where we just chatted and made grilled cheeses' again!
Below Picture of Horse
Guard and the Wicked Theatre
On Saturday we got after the site seeing again. This time the girls bought all-day tube passes so we could go all over the city. We started off by going to Notting Hill and then we watched the changing of the Guards. Afterwards we went to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We walked all along the Thames River past Borough Market and Shakespeare's Globe. I showed them Millennium Bridge and London Bridge. We toured St. Paul's Cathedral and the British Museum. We also did a little shopping on Oxford Street. After all, we are girls and needed some retail therapy! We went to a pub for lunch so they could try the traditional fish and chips. Maggie asked the waiter to substitute fries for the chips. It was so funny because of course chips are just what they call fries here! Since I am not a huge fan of fish, I had the cottage pie. It was a really great dish. Then we went to King's Cross Station. This is the station that is famous because of the Harry Potter books. It is there that Harry Potter mysteriously pushes his cart through the wall and boards the Hogwarts Express train to wizard school (if you are not a Harry Potter fan, this wouldn't excite you). Caitlin is a huge Harry Potter fan, so it was a must see. They actually have a cart stuck in the wall at this station to reenact the scene in the book. I hadn't seen this before so I was glad I took them there. Picture below of me at the site. We also visited Abbey Road, which is famous for being the place where the Beatles recorded most of their songs. It is also the place where the famous Beatles picture/album cover was taken of them crossing the road. Picture below as well.
On Saturday night we made spaghetti again and went out to a bar called WalkAbout. We had a really good time. My friends were pretty tired from all the walking and also had to get up at 5:00 to catch their flight back to Spain, so we didn't stay out too late. London is definitely a walking city, especially if you want to see things. I walked my friends to the bus stop at 5 on Sunday morning. This was an eye opening experience as there were a lot of homeless people sleeping on the streets. Up until now I hadn't seen too many homeless people in London, especially in my area. It is really hard to look at people sleeping outside on the streets and not feel guilty for everything I have. It is definitely a lot easier to ignore the problems of the world in small town Iowa, but here they stare you in the face everyday. After I slept for a while I cleaned up my room and got everything back in order. My friends loved London and I had a fabulous time showing them all around. This weekend I am off to Scotland with Carissa and Allison. It is going to be a great time, but I will probably not be
able to write again unti
l Sunday or Monday!
able to write again unti
l Sunday or Monday!Above Pictures of all of us and a Volleyball pose picture.
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