"Every good castle has a moat..."

This weekend was....a blur.

FRIDAY

Friday started out very early with a very chilly tour of the Tower of London. We learned a lot of interesting facts about it like that it is technically one of the Queen's places of residence, but of course she wouldn't live there. It is London's oldest functioning castle and there are still people who live inside it-the guards and their families. It used to be the place where prisoners were held and eventually executed but you had to be someone really special to be held there instead of, like, a regular prison. It was also used up until the 1960s. The Tower also houses the Crown Jewels and the largest diamond in the world (aka my future engagement ring haha)

To tell you the truth, I really wasn't into it. I mean, it was interesting but I was freezing and it was kind of rainy. I was happy to be inside when we were looking at the Crown Jewels (amazing).

I think the most interesting part was to go into one of the towers and see what prisoners had carved into the stone. Some of the designs and drawings were really intricate, which makes sense because many were held in the same room for several years.

For lunch we ate at Wagamama, a popular Japanese-ish restaurant with a ton of noddle and rice dishes. It was absolutely delicious and relatively cheap. Mary definitely made a good choice.

After lunch we took the Tube to Westminster Abbey to take a tour (one of those individual headset kind of tours). Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take pictures in there so don't look for them on Facebook. But it doesn't matter; no picture I could ever take could fully capture the incredible essence of this amazing place. Every single detail is represented in the architecture and painting. It's truly incredible. Many monarchs are buried there as well as prominent figures in British history. My favorite part was a writers' corner where some famous novelists and poets are buried or memorialized like Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen to name a few.

After the tours, a few of us went to Primark (a mix between H&M, Old Navy and perhaps Forever 21) for some shopping. Primark is famous for being really inexpensive and it definitely didn't disappoint. The hour-long line for the fitting room and the racks that looked like war zones were all worth the savings. I bought 2 pairs of jeans, a sweatshirt, and a pair of shoes for 24 GBP (roughly $40). It was awesome. Friday night was really fun. We all went out to a tiny little pub to watch the first games of the World Cup and a few of us ended up going to a club called Heaven later that night. I must admit, it was a little out of control but overall a very fun night.

SATURDAY

Another early morning to go and watch the Trooping of the Colour, the Queen's "official" birthday. It was really amazing to see the Queen and Prince William in person! Unfortunately, Harry wasn't there :( But all in all it was really cool. The parade was very elaborate with hundreds of guards in red coats marching, playing instruments, riding horses, and playing instruments whilst riding horses. It was crazy.

The craziest part, though, was while Rob and I were watching the parade, we met a woman who graduated from JMU in 2007 and is from Yorktown! She went to Grafton! Small world. She and her boyfriend/fiance/husband were on like a tour of Europe. It was so cool to talk to her about JMU in a place that feels like a whole different world. It was nuts. She is sending me pictures when she gets back to the States because all of mine turned out really bad.

Anyway, afterward I was so tired that I just came back to the flat and watched About A Boy with my flatmates. All we have are British movies here so it is what it is. Then we got ready to go to a different, and much larger, pub for the USA v. England game.

It was crazy. Fortunately, there were a bunch of other Americans there so it wasn't scary or anything. The best part was when we all sang the National Anthem at the top of our lungs. It was oddly and incredibly patriotic. The rest of that night was a blur as most of us had a bit too much fun and rough mornings the next day. I won't go into detail...basically because I don't remember.

SUNDAY

Bright and early we went to Hyde Park to Speaker's Corner, a part of the park where people come on Sunday mornings the stand up on their soap boxes (or, apparently, step ladders) and say whatever they want. I wish someone would have warned us about the kinds of truly offensive things that come out of peoples' mouths. I don't get offended easily, but there are some things I just can't tolerate.

After lunch, we went over to Little Venice and took an adorable little boat ride over to Camden Market, where I went last Thursday. It is 100X crazier on the weekends and, unfortunately, I didn't have any money. I did have enough for an old-ish copy of The Return of Sherlock Holmes for 4 GBP. I was really excited to find a huge bookstore in the middle of the market. I'll definitely be going back to buy gifts.

Yesterday ended with dinner at Professor Maune's family's house out in the suburbs of London. It was the most adorable neighborhood and, legit, the house I want to own one day. It was perfect. Fortunately, Marie took tons of photos so I can have some design ideas for my house one day. The food was delicious and it was just a great way to end the day.

MONDAY

Today we did not have a Media & Politics outing because we are going to Parliament tomorrow evening. I'm really excited. I don't know what I'm going to do the rest of the day, but I definitely need to get some work done.

-APC