A birthday weekend back home!!

I'm a horrible daughter and got so caught up in stuff here and forgetting the date I forgot my Mom's birthday yesterday!!!!!! We've talked....she said she'll forgive me someday :o) And Tori is 14 on Monday!!!! I hope you have wonderful celebrations without me!

This week flew by...not a whole lot going on for classes but midterms are spread over the next 3 weeks along with several projects so it should be intense but hopefully over quick. (Our cruise is 3 weeks from today!!!)

So let me see this week our field trip was to an older section of London that included the meat plants of the 11/1200s. We visited a local green that used to hold executions. Actually William Wallace was hung, drawn, and quartered there (which is very gruesome....it's the end of Braveheart with Mel Gibson). Anyhow we also visited two churches dating back to the time of the Black Plague. One of the churches was the one used in the film 'Shakespeare in Love'...I was excited. It was also really interesting...the floors are surrounded by tombs on the floor many dating to the time of the plague. The next church had fabulous glass windows, so beautiful. We didn't get a chance to make our way to Temple Church (from Da Vinci Code) but I will get back there another time hopefully soon. It was raining during this particular tour so we hurried along and caught the tube home.

Thursday night my friend Tim had his sister and brother-in-law fly in from the D.C. area to spend the weekend. We met up with them at Tower of London and grabbed some pints at a local pub. They were awed by the drinking culture over here as many carry beers through the streets and congregate all around pubs and in the street. We made our way to Piccadilly where I met up with my girl friends for a live band at O'neils. We ended up needing to grab a taxi home as the bus never came! Saturday I slept in! It was wonderful. Around 2 p.m. I met up with Tim and his family and we did a great day walk of the city. First we did Hyde Park and Kensington Palace, then to Princess Diana's memorial fountain (I'll post pictures later...it's beautiful), then onto walk all the way down to Hyde Park corner...then to Buckingham Palace...and next to Westminster Abbey. It was really fun to just explore the city on our own. I saw random things I might not otherwise have come across such as the memorial to the Caribbean and African fighters of WWI & II. We saw people on horseback riding in Hyde Park, explored in parts of Westminster Abbey and generally figured out ways to walk about the city and get our bearings. Finally we went down to Trafalgar Square to get some Fish and Chips! We found a wonderful pub in a back alley (not as creepy as it sounds)...again people were spilling out into the streets. We sampled the Fish & Chips as well as Bangers (Sausages) & Mash (potatoes). Heading off we walked down to the Thames and saw the London Eye all lit up at night. We caught the tube to Covenant Gardens to do a pub crawl. We hit up very local places as many people picked us out as being Americans. A gentleman asked how I liked it over here and commented that at least over here they don't 'throw their tea into the river' (Boston Tea Party reference)....I agreed. We hit up two or three pubs along with Tim's roommate Stu and friend Tyler who had met up with us.

We called it a night early so that we could catch the tube back (it closes at midnight) and went to High Street Kensington for some late night food. There is a place called Ranoush....it's Lebanese food and it was amazing! They have wraps with Chicked, Pickles, tomatoes, a mayo-based sauce and a few other things....either way it was so good. I love discovering new food places and pubs around here...makes me feel more like a local. Anyhow we called it a night and today (for the third day in a row) I have woken up to the SUN! Beautiful set of no-jacket, sunglass days. My girlfriends and I got up and grabbed food at La Pastorella, a small cafe, with fresh squeezed OJ and fabulous omelettes. We're just mozying around today for a bit. I'm heading to the gym with Ashley in a bit, and need to do some homework. We hope to read a little in Hyde Park and then this evening I believe I may be going to a play...we'll see.

This weekend has been nice and calm as 80% of campus went to Scotland, Germany or Ireland on trips. (peaceful) I have to say post-Paris and being here watching movies like National Treasure 2 and Da Vinci code are so much fun having actually been there! I spent time this week going through movies with scenes from them that I've been to or seen. Anyhow I'm off for the afternoon but I love you all lots.

**Please keep my baby cousin Michael James in your thoughts and prayers as he underwent heart surgery and needs all the help he can get!!!** :o)

Happy Belated Mom! and Happy (almost) Birthday Tootie!!!!

Lots of love,
Kate

Fun Fact: The original London bridge is now located in Arizona. It was falling apart in the early 1970s and so the government had the idea to auction it off to pay for a new bridge. The U.S. bought it for about $2.5 million and piece by piece it was moved to Arizona and dedicated in 1971.