September 17, 2006

With this entry I begin my UK and greater European travels internet log. I have been over here for one week as of tomorrow but it feels like at least a month.

My flight from Kansas City left about an hour late and being as how I had 1 1/2 hours to get between terminals in the Toronto airport I almost lost hope. I was traveling with a lady nurse who was on her way into the Sudan to work in Darfur and so we were both sprinting as soon as we got off the plane. We made it to our London airplane just in time to notice the 20 foot gap between the closed plane door and the tunnel out there. The three stewardesses who were standing at the counter were thoroughly unhelpful and nasty until the plane's captain called their little phone and mentioned that he saw us peering out the window and he wanted the arm brought back out so we could get on!! It seems that God's grace was amazing enough to get me onto the plane but my luggage didn't catch the drift. Flying into the city of London I looked out my window and the first thing I saw were rugby fields and that got me as excited as I could be. I was a little put out that my bags weren't there until I realized that meant that I did not have to carry them! So I found the bus into Oxford and walked to the Warners and impressed them with how light I traveled. Francis Warner (who was once the tutor of Sir Ian McKellen, the actor who plays Gandalf) took me to my house where he introduced me to my room and house. I was the third of the four housemates to arrive and immediately got rolling on establishing the necessities so that I would not fall into that post travel lull. My first order of business was to find and purchase a bike.They were significantly more expensive than I had hoped but they are so terribly useful that I went ahead and got one. Here it is with my house.

The window above the front door is mine. The next day my housemate Brian and I did some basic exploration of the city and here are some pictures from that venture:

I ride past these buildings on my way to classes every day

Then, on my way home, I ride through this park:

We started our classes on Wednesday and on Friday we took a field trip to Hampton Court Palace. We spent the morning wandering around together then had the afternoon to do as we pleased. This was the palace where Henry the 8th met Anne and courted her and her sister. I can see how it would be a great place to fall in love what with many amazing gardens a pool which was nearly a mile long with swans. Now it boasts the oldest and largest grape vine in all the world.

Here, in order is Mr. Warner, Diana, myself, and Jennilee (my other two housemates.

This is the castle from the back yard. Let it be known that the ducks who hang out back here will bite you. The fancy gardens were along the side of the house and had many beautiful statues strewn throughout.

Yesterday, Saturday, Jennilee and I met up with our friends Phil and Cameron and we caught a bus to London and spent the day whirl winding throughout the city. We made it there in time to see the changing of the guards at the palace. This to-do involved a couple of bunches of the royal band, some big green armoured trucks and so many camera flashes that if we were to synchronize ourselves we could probably have blinded the Queen herself. Here the guards are marching around in front of their own building next door to the castle.

Here are Phil and Cam by the castle.

Naturally we paid our respects to all the major stops in the city but my favorite, by far was standing on the Prime Meridian. We visited the Clock Tower which carries Big Ben, visited the Marble Arch, sat and talked in Hyde Park, visited the Tower Bridge and watched it open up for a ship passing through and visited various neighborhoods, such as Soho. We got around on the "tube" (subway) and got to see the faces of the city by those means. We explored around the Thames and, in honor of my sister and her pirate tendencies we stopped by this big old ship which was planted right next to the tube which lead UNDER the Thames. We were pretty excited about that except that once we got down there we felt like Ninja Turtles b/c really it was nothing more than a sewer.

Now I am sitting here on an overcast Sunday. We tried to go grocery shopping but apparently everything here closes at 4 pm on Sundays. All in all, it has been a great first week.

Well, it seems that I have overwhelmed xanga with all my photos and so I am going to change my approach, I will post my photos on shutterfly and attach links to it in my entries. Here is the link:

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AYuGjRw4Zs2Lj4

I love you all and look forward to hearing from you.

With My Love,

~B~