I WENT TO LONDON!!
Alright, so this is the first time I have pre-written a blog, but I wanted to get down everything that happened in London before I forgot, because I am certain I will forget before I get the chance to post this online!
So the adventure started on Thursday night, when we left for carnforth on the minibus, driven by the lovely and wonderful Jo, aka the RA, aka my family leader, and favorite staff member. once there, we hung out at the train station for about an hour, and then got a train to Preston, where we had to get off to catch the coach to london. the only issue was we got to Preston at 11:30 pm, and the bus didn't leave till 5:45 am. and we had no where to stay. so.... we found a Subway (as in the resaraunt) that was open untill 4 am, and got permission to hang out there (oh, by the way there were 13 of us at this point... our smaller group of 4, and a larger group of 9) untill it closed. That was an interesting experience in itself as it was right next to all the popular clubs in the city, and we got to see alot of the after effects of partying a little too hard on a thursday night. After Subway closed, we wandered around and found this tunnel underground that was warmer than just being out, and there we were able to take off our packs and sit donw and sing songs and laugh, and just generally have fun. FINALLY the bus stationopened, so we went to the bathroom and boarded our double decker bus. The 6 hour bus ride was spent sleeping.
When we got to london (this is friday now) we split into our respective groups and went on our ways for the weekend. this ended up being for the best, as my group was getting quite annoyed with the other group. My group consisted of Karen, Stacie (from wisconsin) and Rudolf (from germany). We were later joined, at the hostel, by Stacie's friend Markus from Sweeden, who met us there. so we got settled in our awkward and tiny hostel with 3 random room mates that we never really got to meet, becasue they were out clubbing untill 4 am, and slept far longer than we did.
So friday night, we went out to Lecister Square to get some Chineese food and buy tickets for Les Miserables on Saturday night. we also stopped at starbucks. Then, we went to see Big ben, the westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, the Marble Arch, and walked through hyde park. pretty much all of this was done on foot, and a million pictures were taken, and alot of jokes were laughed at. it was really fun. Probably one of the highlights of the weekend, even though we only saw the outsides of all of the buildings and nothing super exciting happened.
So, we went back to the hostel, climbed into bed, and fell asleep right away. And when we woke up all seemed normal.... untill I noticed an extra body in the bunk below mine. AH!
Saturday started with us Going to Herrod's, which is like the hugest and richest department store of my life. All the workers dress like they are in an old time trading post, and everything is uber decadent and expensive. I bought tea. And we got Gelato, which was oh so good! From there we went to the National Gallery, and saw paintings By Monet and Picasso, as they had a special display on, and the only permanent pice that we sought out was Leonardo Di Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks, which was super cool to see... to stand in the shadow of greatness. WOW! and then we went to the British Museum... and saw the Rosary Stone! I had no idea that this is where it was located, and everyone got a kick out of how excited I was to just stand and look at an engraved stone, but I don't think they understand how pivital this one piece of earth was in changing the way modern society views and interprets history! wow! and we also took time to see the greek and roman displays... where we got to see statues and engraved rocks and pillars... very cool. This is the one place that I would love to have spent an entire day exploring and taking tours of. Then we went to H&M- a trend store that is famous in England... so that was cool. really busy though. Then we dropped off our days findings at the hostel, ate a 5 minute supper at KFC, and Ran to catch Les Miserables. which was super good. The boys didn't join us on this venture, and when we asked them what they did they responded 'we found a drug dealer'. of course we thought they were only joking untill Rudolf asked us what Dope was. SO FUNNY! Lamely, we went back to the hostel after this and fell asleep.
When we awoke, we had a brand new experience. The bunk below mine was blocked off with extra sheets... and there were two (2) naked bodies in the bed. OH SO AWKWARD! Thank goodness I didn't have to hear anything... thanks to dad's job, it takes alot for me to wake up. whew.
So Sunday morning (early) Markus left us, so we were left to navigate the underground by ourselves. so we set of into Hyde park (walking) to find the statue of Peter Pan. that took about a half an hour, and so we continued on to see the (under repair) Fountian put up for Princess Diana. so... we continued on throughthis HUGE park to buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. it was super hard to see anything through the hoards of people, so we only really saw like 3 minutes of the event. After this we hopped on the tube and went to find the theatre that Hillsongs London was located in. we found it no problem and found ourselves with about an hour to spare and really hungry tummys. So, we just happened to ask the exact right couple if they new of any good restarants in the area, and they walked us to a GREAT Chineese buffet, and on the way we found out that they go to hillsongs, and know people that went to capernwray. how good it was to talk to someone who was genuinely lovely! So lunch was good... and we headed back for church. and WOW! it was so good! the worship was unreal, even though I didn't know any of the songs, and the sermon was good... even though I fell asleep! ok, seriously, it wasn't because it was a bad sermon, I was really just that tired. wow. but the thing that impacted me the most abotu this church was how many people aproached us after the service. For such a large church (about 3500, which is HUGE for england) I didn't expect people to pick us out as visitors, but they did- about 5 of them. and that was so good.
After church we went to see St. Paul's cathedral, where we got to hear the endings of an Organ concert, and then we started walking to find the globe theatre. on the way we saw THE most amazing sunset of my life. so good! we got lost a bit too.. of course, but eventually found it- 15 minutes after the last tour started. that was a dissapointment, but it was alright! From there we walked through a series of sketchy back allies, and along the warf of the canal river to the Tower bridge, on the way we saw a movie filmed. Walking across the Tower bridge was one of my favorite things of the weekend. It was just fun to walk and take pictures and be silly. After this, we seriously spent 2 hours wandering around getting lost trying to find something to eat. on the way we saw another scene of this movie being filmed and learned that it was the sequal to 28 days later called 28 weeks later. real original, but whatever. now I have to go and see a Zombie movie, just because I saw 2 scenes being filmed. dang. that kinda sucks, but it will be totally worth it!
Finally we found a cheep pub and had fish and chips. then we went back to the hostel to pack up and go to bed.
the weekend finished with another 6 hour bus ride back that consisted of sleeping and studying for the test on luke that we had today.
My finial words are this- if you EVER have the chance to go to London, take it. Seriously, I think it is a place that everyone needs to experience- with the right people of course. but take the opportunity. see the museums and the buildings. You won't regret it.
But at the same time its good to be back. and I lied these aren't my final words.
God taught me so much this weekend through this trip. mostly through my room mates. He taught me what it was like to be in their place for a few days. I mean, some of these people were seriously living in this hostel, and had to deal with these situations everyday, and some of them created these situations. and no matter what they did, these were the people that Jesus would have spent his time with. the people that God calls us to serve. Not nessicarily evangelise to, but to serve. to Show them that we Love them, that we have time for them to just chat about whatever, even if its the cheepest and best Asian buffet in the city, or exactly when you should go to the changing of the guards to catch the best part. or maybe explaining to them why we aren't into the whole clubbing scene- and not just because we arn't allowed to because of school, but because we choose not too. These are real life situations that happen every day, and God just showed me how little my mind is, and how much he has the potential to stretch it in just a few days, but he doesn't, he paces me perfectly, and he backs it up with a blessing- like the wonderful roommates I have back home. I mean, sure, we have our issues, but in the end, no one is having sex on the bunk below mine, and at the end of the day, I have 3 lovely people telling me 'goodnight, I love you' and I couldn't ask for more than that. So God also taught me a lesson in thankfulness.
well.. congradulations on making it to the end! thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this
Laurel
PS- I only have one more thing to say, and it is a confession- Ben, Ashley..... I was the one responsible for Barlow Girl on my computer. ok. It wasn't me. it was Russel, he gave me a Rebecca St. James CD with a song on it by Barlow Girl. how embarassing. But just for laughs... Ben, its still your fault!
So the adventure started on Thursday night, when we left for carnforth on the minibus, driven by the lovely and wonderful Jo, aka the RA, aka my family leader, and favorite staff member. once there, we hung out at the train station for about an hour, and then got a train to Preston, where we had to get off to catch the coach to london. the only issue was we got to Preston at 11:30 pm, and the bus didn't leave till 5:45 am. and we had no where to stay. so.... we found a Subway (as in the resaraunt) that was open untill 4 am, and got permission to hang out there (oh, by the way there were 13 of us at this point... our smaller group of 4, and a larger group of 9) untill it closed. That was an interesting experience in itself as it was right next to all the popular clubs in the city, and we got to see alot of the after effects of partying a little too hard on a thursday night. After Subway closed, we wandered around and found this tunnel underground that was warmer than just being out, and there we were able to take off our packs and sit donw and sing songs and laugh, and just generally have fun. FINALLY the bus stationopened, so we went to the bathroom and boarded our double decker bus. The 6 hour bus ride was spent sleeping.
When we got to london (this is friday now) we split into our respective groups and went on our ways for the weekend. this ended up being for the best, as my group was getting quite annoyed with the other group. My group consisted of Karen, Stacie (from wisconsin) and Rudolf (from germany). We were later joined, at the hostel, by Stacie's friend Markus from Sweeden, who met us there. so we got settled in our awkward and tiny hostel with 3 random room mates that we never really got to meet, becasue they were out clubbing untill 4 am, and slept far longer than we did.
So friday night, we went out to Lecister Square to get some Chineese food and buy tickets for Les Miserables on Saturday night. we also stopped at starbucks. Then, we went to see Big ben, the westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, the Marble Arch, and walked through hyde park. pretty much all of this was done on foot, and a million pictures were taken, and alot of jokes were laughed at. it was really fun. Probably one of the highlights of the weekend, even though we only saw the outsides of all of the buildings and nothing super exciting happened.
So, we went back to the hostel, climbed into bed, and fell asleep right away. And when we woke up all seemed normal.... untill I noticed an extra body in the bunk below mine. AH!
Saturday started with us Going to Herrod's, which is like the hugest and richest department store of my life. All the workers dress like they are in an old time trading post, and everything is uber decadent and expensive. I bought tea. And we got Gelato, which was oh so good! From there we went to the National Gallery, and saw paintings By Monet and Picasso, as they had a special display on, and the only permanent pice that we sought out was Leonardo Di Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks, which was super cool to see... to stand in the shadow of greatness. WOW! and then we went to the British Museum... and saw the Rosary Stone! I had no idea that this is where it was located, and everyone got a kick out of how excited I was to just stand and look at an engraved stone, but I don't think they understand how pivital this one piece of earth was in changing the way modern society views and interprets history! wow! and we also took time to see the greek and roman displays... where we got to see statues and engraved rocks and pillars... very cool. This is the one place that I would love to have spent an entire day exploring and taking tours of. Then we went to H&M- a trend store that is famous in England... so that was cool. really busy though. Then we dropped off our days findings at the hostel, ate a 5 minute supper at KFC, and Ran to catch Les Miserables. which was super good. The boys didn't join us on this venture, and when we asked them what they did they responded 'we found a drug dealer'. of course we thought they were only joking untill Rudolf asked us what Dope was. SO FUNNY! Lamely, we went back to the hostel after this and fell asleep.
When we awoke, we had a brand new experience. The bunk below mine was blocked off with extra sheets... and there were two (2) naked bodies in the bed. OH SO AWKWARD! Thank goodness I didn't have to hear anything... thanks to dad's job, it takes alot for me to wake up. whew.
So Sunday morning (early) Markus left us, so we were left to navigate the underground by ourselves. so we set of into Hyde park (walking) to find the statue of Peter Pan. that took about a half an hour, and so we continued on to see the (under repair) Fountian put up for Princess Diana. so... we continued on throughthis HUGE park to buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. it was super hard to see anything through the hoards of people, so we only really saw like 3 minutes of the event. After this we hopped on the tube and went to find the theatre that Hillsongs London was located in. we found it no problem and found ourselves with about an hour to spare and really hungry tummys. So, we just happened to ask the exact right couple if they new of any good restarants in the area, and they walked us to a GREAT Chineese buffet, and on the way we found out that they go to hillsongs, and know people that went to capernwray. how good it was to talk to someone who was genuinely lovely! So lunch was good... and we headed back for church. and WOW! it was so good! the worship was unreal, even though I didn't know any of the songs, and the sermon was good... even though I fell asleep! ok, seriously, it wasn't because it was a bad sermon, I was really just that tired. wow. but the thing that impacted me the most abotu this church was how many people aproached us after the service. For such a large church (about 3500, which is HUGE for england) I didn't expect people to pick us out as visitors, but they did- about 5 of them. and that was so good.
After church we went to see St. Paul's cathedral, where we got to hear the endings of an Organ concert, and then we started walking to find the globe theatre. on the way we saw THE most amazing sunset of my life. so good! we got lost a bit too.. of course, but eventually found it- 15 minutes after the last tour started. that was a dissapointment, but it was alright! From there we walked through a series of sketchy back allies, and along the warf of the canal river to the Tower bridge, on the way we saw a movie filmed. Walking across the Tower bridge was one of my favorite things of the weekend. It was just fun to walk and take pictures and be silly. After this, we seriously spent 2 hours wandering around getting lost trying to find something to eat. on the way we saw another scene of this movie being filmed and learned that it was the sequal to 28 days later called 28 weeks later. real original, but whatever. now I have to go and see a Zombie movie, just because I saw 2 scenes being filmed. dang. that kinda sucks, but it will be totally worth it!
Finally we found a cheep pub and had fish and chips. then we went back to the hostel to pack up and go to bed.
the weekend finished with another 6 hour bus ride back that consisted of sleeping and studying for the test on luke that we had today.
My finial words are this- if you EVER have the chance to go to London, take it. Seriously, I think it is a place that everyone needs to experience- with the right people of course. but take the opportunity. see the museums and the buildings. You won't regret it.
But at the same time its good to be back. and I lied these aren't my final words.
God taught me so much this weekend through this trip. mostly through my room mates. He taught me what it was like to be in their place for a few days. I mean, some of these people were seriously living in this hostel, and had to deal with these situations everyday, and some of them created these situations. and no matter what they did, these were the people that Jesus would have spent his time with. the people that God calls us to serve. Not nessicarily evangelise to, but to serve. to Show them that we Love them, that we have time for them to just chat about whatever, even if its the cheepest and best Asian buffet in the city, or exactly when you should go to the changing of the guards to catch the best part. or maybe explaining to them why we aren't into the whole clubbing scene- and not just because we arn't allowed to because of school, but because we choose not too. These are real life situations that happen every day, and God just showed me how little my mind is, and how much he has the potential to stretch it in just a few days, but he doesn't, he paces me perfectly, and he backs it up with a blessing- like the wonderful roommates I have back home. I mean, sure, we have our issues, but in the end, no one is having sex on the bunk below mine, and at the end of the day, I have 3 lovely people telling me 'goodnight, I love you' and I couldn't ask for more than that. So God also taught me a lesson in thankfulness.
well.. congradulations on making it to the end! thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this
Laurel
PS- I only have one more thing to say, and it is a confession- Ben, Ashley..... I was the one responsible for Barlow Girl on my computer. ok. It wasn't me. it was Russel, he gave me a Rebecca St. James CD with a song on it by Barlow Girl. how embarassing. But just for laughs... Ben, its still your fault!
posted by Laurel at 9:09 PM
1 Comments:
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH I DONT CARE! ITS STILL BENS FAULT!!!!!!
k so i listen to that song a lot....i put my music on shuffle, and barlow girl comes on all the time!!!
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