The Sunday after arriving home from Switzerland I went to Palm Sunday Service at St Paul’s Cathedral with Carissa, Allison and my roommate. Normally it costs to view the inside of the Cathedral, but if you go for a service it is free. We went early to ensure we would get a seat. However, when we arrived we were instructed to go to the square/courtyard across from the Cathedral. Here we were given a palm and a ceremony bulletin. Quite a lot of people were gathered in the square, many of them tourists. I have learned in class that the British people are not very religious and therefore do not attend church regularly. After a little while a processional was lead into the square by 2 donkeys. There were priests, a choir, and many people waving palms that followed. A priest addressed the crowd and the choir sang a song. Then everyone in the square followed the processional into the Cathedral. Walking through the Cathedral’s huge doors was neat and the interior was incredible. The architecture and detail was excellent. Once everyone got settled the service continued. It was quite a long service, but really interesting. Then it was time for communion. Even though I am not Catholic I was able to take communion because I have been baptized. I was sure communion would take forever since the church was packed with hundreds of people. To my surprise, there were many elders serving and it went quite quickly. The process was interesting. Instead of bread, they used the really thin wafers (didn’t taste very good), which an elder handed to you. Then there was another elder holding a large cup of wine, which everyone was drinking out of! I was very surprised that with all the diseases and stuff going around today that there was just a community cup. The elder holding the large cup would just tip it a bit for the person to get a little sip. Then he had a cloth to wipe away drips and the next person in line would take their sip. Most people were sipping from the cup, but I did see some people just dipping their wafer in the wine. I was in line behind Carissa and Allison. They must have thought the process was a little unsanitary too because they both just took a wafer and skipped the entire wine part! After seeing the looks they got from the elders, I just decided to dip my wafer in the wine (also not very tasteful). Seeing the inside of St. Paul’s Cathedral was great and I was very glad I went to the service for the experience. The rest of Sunday I spent unpacking and recovering from my Switzerland trip. Below picture of St Paul's Cathedral.
On Monday I spent the majority of the day working on a Midterm paper for my Advertising class, as well as, getting ready for Spring Break, registering for next semester’s classes at home and journaling for my British Experience class. I also had to get my camera situation figured out because mine died after the trauma in Switzerland. With Spring Break coming up, I didn’t want to go to Paris, Venice and Rome without a camera to document my trip! Instead of buying an expensive UK camera here, my lovely Mother and Jon helped me out. I picked out the camera I wanted online through the Target website and my Mom went and picked it up for me. The biggest problem was shipping the camera across the pond in 3 days so I would have it for my trip. The 3 day shipping charges were pretty outrageous, but my Mom sent it anyways. That is why I love her.
Tuesday I had my internship. Not too much exciting happened this day. I worked on the April newsletter for the organization the entire day. After a lot of editing and multiple drafts, I finally perfected it. For lunch we went to the Turkish café again. I had a ham and cheese omelet with chips. The waitress told me I had a nice accent! Ha ha! My supervisor gave me an Easter treat before I left and told me to enjoy break. Right after I got off work I had to go pick Elliot up at the train station. Even though we didn’t leave for Spring Break until Friday morning, he was already on Spring Break and decided that he would explore some more of London for a few days.
On Wednesday morning I sent Elliot to the Natural History Museum while I had my Advertising class. Then I met up with him and we headed to the Science Museum. For lunch I introduced Elliot to pasties, my favorite food here (I believe I explained these previously). We also went to Leister Square and Covent Garden later in the afternoon to walk around and browse. In Leister Square, home to all the theatre productions in London, we checked on tickets for a show. We had both heard that Avenue Q was really funny so we ended up getting tickets for 20 pounds each to go that night. We browsed around the markets at Covent Garden and did a little window shopping. For supper we made grilled cheeses and then headed to the show. It was interesting. I did laugh quite a bit, but the show was different than I expected. Some of the actors were puppets, which was interesting to watch as the actors tried to perform through a puppet. Elliot really enjoyed the show. My camera also came this day! Expensive, but fast! I love it. It is a lot better camera then my old one and I can’t wait to take lots of new pictures.
Thursday I had class in the morning. Then Elliot and I went to Oxford Street to do a little last minute shopping for our trip. Elliot got a very nice Wales shirt at one of the stores and I got some new walking shoes. I brought my running shoes with me to London, but I am walking in them so much that they are starting to get worn out. So I found a great pair of pink Nike’s that were only 25 pounds! They are loud, bright pink shoes, but I am a trendy girl and can pull them off. They made their big debut in Paris and I love them. The rest of the day was spent packing and getting ready for our trip. We were going to try to just fit everything in our backpacks for the whole week so we didn’t have to check a bag. However, packing one backpack for an entire week turned out to be a disaster for me. So we ended up sharing a big suitcase with plenty of room for clothes and extra room to bring souvenirs home!
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