Journal-Week Three
June 27th, 2009
We went to Paddington Station today to catch a train to Oxford. The train was small and crowded so we were all sitting with different people. After the first stop though, lots of people left and we were able to find seats together. We got off at Oxford and walked around the town a bit then went to get something to eat.I had a crossiant. Then we went to Christ Church where the Hogwarts dinning hall is. Christ Church is also a college and the dinning hall is used by students. On our way to the dinning hall we went through a cathedral that was absoultly beautiful. The stained glass was amazing. There were lots of little details on everything. When we were leaving, someone started playing a beautiful song on the organ. We walked on to the dinning hall. Right next to the dinning hall there was a room called the "McKenna Room"!!! It was pretty cool. Then we walked around the dining hall. It was just like Hogwarts. It was really neat! Then we went outside and got ice cream at a shop. Then we got on a bus tour and stayed on that for the whole loop which took about an hour. We learned alot and it was alot like the one in Paris exept there was a live guide that you could listen to through your headphones. He knew alot. My mom got of to go shopping and we stayed on and went back to the train station. At the train station we waited for my mom then go on an ealier train than we had planned. We got home, then seeing we had nothing for dinner, went to the Brook Green Hotel Restaurant for dinner. I didn't see anything on the menu that looked good so I just had french fries and then had some pasta when we got home. After I ate some pasta Iwas really tired so I went to bed. Check out my pics for today!
June 28th, 2009
Today we're going to go to Greenwich, London to walk around. We're going to go by boat which will take 50 minutes because it's a tour boat. We leaned alot about London that way.We got to Greenwich only to find that there was a festival there. There were lots of performers doing dancing, plays and other things. We watched one show then went to get some lunch. We went to McDonald's for the first time in the UK. It didn't taste like it does in the states though. Then we went to a maket to get food for my mom and dad who didn't want McDonald's. They got their food then we went back to the festival just in time to see these really weird performers. They were on wheels, playing instruments, in long black cloacks and had flaming torches on top of their heads. It was weird and cool at the same time. Check out the pics page to see what they look like. Then my mom wanted to go to the Prime Meridian of the World. There's a line at the muesum in Greenwich that is at the border of the East and West Hemisphere. It was cool to stand on the line and we got certificates printed with the exact time we stood on the line. Then we went to have Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. It was delicous!!! We got on the boat and went home. We had dinner then went to bed after a long day.
June 29th, 2009
Today was the most exciting and boring day of this month. Exciting because we went to Wimbledon and boring because we had to wait in line for about 4 hours to get tickets.Wimbledon is a giant tennis tournament for those of you who were sittinbg at your computer scratching your head wondering what this Wimbledon thing is. Anyway we went to Wimbledon by tube and then got in line. We had no idea how long we were going to be there. There really isn't a point of telling you what we did in line because it's the same thing over and over. We stand up then sit down. The line starts to move. We get up and walk 4 feet. We sit down and play Uno. We get up...and it went on and on. Finally we got to the ticket booth and got ground tickets which are tickets you use to get into Courts 3-19 (there are 20 courts including Centre Court). We watched a match then went to get something to eat. We came back and watched the end of a match that was awesome. A guy that wasn't even seeded performed an amazing upset of a World #8 seed. The whole crowd was on their feet cheering. Then a mixed doubles match came on the court. Mixed doubles is a match were a man and a woman play another man and woman. One of the men had been on the runner-up mixed doubles team last year. We left half way through thematch to go home since it was around 9:00.
Ok. Let me take a moment to talk about another match that was being playedwhile I was watching the mixed doubles. Andy Murray was playing in Centre Court.Visit Andy's Website! He is the World #3 and is British so of course the crowd was on his side. He was losing by a set in the beginning. Things weren't looking pretty when we went home. The second we got home we turned on the TV and watched as Andy started to come back. The tension was rising and reached a climax when it came down to the last serve. Who ever who the next part of the match would go to the next round. The loser would go home. I was hoping Andy would pull through. And he did! The match had started at 7:30 and had gone to 10:40. I went to bed after the match was over knowing Andy Murray might still win Wimbledon.
June 30th, 2009
Today I spent my morning writing the blog to please you guys! Only kidding, if I didn't write the blog all my thoughts would be mushed together. After I was finished we went to the Hammersmith Library to return books and get Catherine and my library cards. It took a while for the librarian to put our cards into the system, but finally we could leave. It checked out the sequel to Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. Then we went to a place called Vodafone to put more money on our Internet connector. We got on the tube and went to Regent Street where there are lots of shops that my mom whated to look in. The walked around then we went to fcuk which stands for French Connection United Kingdom. My mom got a dress that I really wasn't fond of. Then we went back to sketch. Remember sketch? The really cool place that Michelle took us? Well we came back and brought our camera this time to take pictures of the bathrooms and other stuff. I once again had the delicous french fries. After sketch we looked in Gap where my sister got a dress and in a little shop where I got a hat. Then we got on the tube to go home. We got off at Holland Park but didn't relize how far we had to walk.When we got back on Gratton Road we saw my dad sitting on the steps that you go up to get to our flat. He had gotten home from work early and went to Tesco to get dinner. He accidentily left his keys in the flat. We had keys so we all went in. We watched a little bit of Wimbledon but Andy Murray doesn't play until tomorrow so we started making dinner. I sat in bed for a while reading then when it was lights out I couldn't sleep because it was so hot and our flat has no air conditioning. Finally I feel asleep.
July 1st, 2009
It's amazing that it's already July. I'll be coming home next Friday! Wow...time really flew. Anyway, I woke up late and my dad was already at work and my mom and Catheriene were still sleeping. I read in my room then Catherine woke up and she watched cartoons for a bit. Then my mom woke up and she started to work on getting train tickets to Brugge, Beligum where we are going this weekend. Then we went into Central London. We went to the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Muesum. The addmission paid for audio guides that told you about different parts of the muesum. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. The Cabinet War Rooms were where Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his staff lived during World War 2 when the Germans were bombing London. The rooms are underground so it was nice and cool for us. The rooms have the furnishings they did during the war. It was really cool. In some of the rooms there were wax figures that made the rooms even more realistic. There were real things that were actually used during the war like maps. Then we went to a gate where there were guards with big swords and fancy hats. My mom wanted me to go stand with one of the soilders while she took my picture. I said no way was I going up and standing next to a guys with a huge sword that he could use. Suddenly a huge horse came through the gate. We don't know where the horse was going. Then we went to Westminster Abbey. A Evening Prayer for visitors was starting and my mom really wanted to do it. So with her basically pushing us through the door we went in and unfourtunatly there were only seats in the front row. After the prayer was over we got on the tube to go home. We stopped at Tesco on our way home and got pasta for dinner. Then we went home. We turned on the telly (the TV) and watched Andy Roddick in the quarter-final. My mom started to make dinner and I'm writing the blog.
I'll write more after dinner and upload pictures. Sorry there's none of Westminster Abbey on the inside. I didn't think it would be right to take pictures during the prayers.
July 2nd, 2009
Today we're going to Harrod's, which is a huge department store with about 7 floors. It's famous all around the world. One of the escalators was like a muesum. It's decorated with all this Egyptian stuff and is amazing. You're not allowed to take any pictures inside the store, so I only have pictures outside Harrod's. Check out Harrod's Website! My mom wanted to look at the women's clothing so we went there first. I'm going to declare it now. How can a white, fluffy dress with multi-colored sequins cost more than $300????? That's what was in the women's section. We then went into a place called Pet Kingdom. There are all this pet stuff and guess what? There were these adorable puppies and kittens. After Pet Kingdom we went to the a restaurant in the store called Planet Harrod's. The food was pretty good. Then we went to a section of the store called the Food Halls. They are huge. There is one room bigger than my flat that had all chocolate. Catherine and I got some to take home. It looked so good we ended up eating it on our way to John Lewis, our next stop. John Lewis is another department store with about 6 floors. It's newer and I like the stuff better. Click here to see John Lewis's website! We walked around for a bit then we went to another grocerystore called Waitrose to get some groceries and stuff for dinner. Then we rode the tube home. At home we watched Wimbledon, ate dinner and got ready to go to Brugge, Beligum this weekend.
July 3rd, 2009
We're off to Beligum! We took a train from London to Brussels then took another train to Brugge. Learn about Brugge! We got to the train station and then took a bus to our hotel. We got our key and went up to our room. Check out our hotel!The hotel used to be a house and our room has a slanted wall because we're basically in the attic. We chilled for a bit then went to explore central Brugge. We looked for things to do and places to eat. We decided to eat dinner at a place where I got chicken nuggets. The food was pretty good and after dinner we walked around for a bit. There was a concert setting up and we listened to them doing a sound test. Then we went back to the hotel and watched Andy Murray in Wimbledon. I was so mad when Andy Roddick some how found the courage to ruin the hopes and dreams of the British. (I'll cheer for Roddick in the final because he's American...) Then we read our books and went to bed. More about Brugge in the morning.