Saturday
We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning and were greeted by our tour guide who is quite the morning person.
Joel taught us all about “English English”- the words that mean something different in England than they do in the US. In England they say rubbish instead of trash, pants instead of underwear and trousers instead of pants, and instead of saying awkward in an awkward situation (which he imitated in an American accent by plugging his nose) they break out in Kumbaya. He even taught us some abbrevs- like calling the Queen “Her Maj”. Emily, obviously this would have been your favorite part.
He took us on a tour of Westminster Abbey, and it was incredible. There was so much more history there than I realized. There were even some tributes to Americans like Martin Luther King Jr. and FDR. It was so interesting to see all of the different kinds of people buried there and the significance of it. The strangest one was Charles Darwin; I thought it was pretty ironic that he ended up buried in a church.
The group outside of Westminster before our tour.
Alpha Gam at Westminster!
So beautiful.
Martin Luther King Jr. in the middle.
After that we took a river boat to Greenwich (pronounced Gren-ich). I had never heard of it before, but it was such a cute little town! We loved it.
We had a guided tour of the Thames on the boat, and our tour guide was hilarious. We got to see a lot on the way to Greenwich.
Waiting for our boat.
Marie, Liz, Grace Ann and Me.
Our boat and the eye.
The Shard- when it's finished it will be the tallest building in Europe.
In front of Tower Bridge- not London Bridge!
Cher used to live here! She moved because everyone knew where she lived because of this boat tour.
This is so weirdly designed so that every room can be water front.
When we got to Greenwhich, we ate lunch at a little pizza place.
Then we just wondered around the town a little bit.
You will see this again, but it will be in Pirates of the Caribbean 4. They filmed a lot of it here.
We stopped by the Greenwhich Market, and it was so great- they had art, jewelry, clothes, food, and tons of other stuff. I made my first real shopping purchase of the trip-some cute handmade bracelets! I even bargained and got a lower price- Dad, you would be so proud.
Sunday
On Sunday we slept in and walked to a cute little restaurant for brunch.
Best hot chocolate ever.
We’d really only explored the area around our building that is on the way to our tube stop, but there was this awesome area on the other side that we didn’t even know was there. It has all kinds of cute shops and restaurants, but most importantly it has the SPITALFIELDS MARKET.
This place deserves all caps. It was incredible. They had all sorts of great jewelry, accessories, clothes, art, food and all kinds of other things. Everything was so unique and fun. We spent a few hours here after brunch and made a few purchases. At first we were really excited/overwhelmed by all the awesome stuff. But I remembered (thanks to all my Bonner family market experiences and the wisdom of Jim Bonner) that you can’t do that if you want to bargain, so we started acting semi-uninterested and asking for deals- worked like a charm! Dad, we’re getting pretty good.
Dying to know more? I wrote an article about the market!
Emily look- It's your Tacky Christmas sweater! This is the second time I have seen it for sale for real. Judy's still got it.
This was our favorite booth! The lady handmade leather accessories, and they were all SO cute!
This is one of her bracelets I got.
We went to the evening service at Westminster Abbey tonight. It was really cool to get to see what an actual service in there is like. He talked about the “small family wedding” that was there a couple of weeks ago. It was different and there wasn’t really a sermon, more like a story, but it was good. We sang a couple of familiar hymns and said the Lord’s Prayer.
Before the service.
We were waaaay overdressed.
We made dinner again tonight- chicken kiev, green beans, and garlic bread! So good! And I remember to take a picture this time.
Yummm!
Monday
Today was my first day of work! I thought I was going to be really nervous this morning, but I really wasn’t. I could really feel everyone’s prayers! It was a really long day - I’m not used to doing ANYTHING for 8 hours slash I couldn’t even take a lunch break until 3- but it went by really fast! It was intense and really busy, but I actually liked it a lot!
This is how the day started out- I walked in and when I went to sit down in the lobby I was greeted by a table full of the latest edition of the magazine. It looked like this…
I would start working the week Mr. President is coming over here for a visit. Oh well, anyways… The first thing they had me do was write an article! It was a little intimidating, but it actually turned out to be my favorite part of the day! It’s already published online!
Most of you will probably fall asleep reading it, but I can be a dork about this kind of stuff, and I had fun writing it. So here it is, my first big publication:
Everyone if the office was SO nice and helpful! God really answered my prayers about this summer, and I can’t wait to see where he takes me over the next six weeks!
I decided to start closing each blog with a Bible verse that I feel like the Lord has been teaching me something from lately. So here’s the first one:
Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
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