In Sight!

Ahhh, I can see it. The end, I mean. My mind's eye can see things about 3.5 weeks in advance if I concentrate hard enough on 'seeing' the date in my mental calendar. Right, so about this time last week I was pushin' to see the end. And there it was! August 10, bright and shiny. Now it's super easy because.............August 10 is almost 2.5 weeks away!!!!!!! (Random thing about my mental calendar-- it's 3D and curves to the left)

But before I ramble on too much about that wonderful Sunday, let me relate a few of my most recent happenings. I apologize for not posting sooner-- time just seems to get eaten away.

Last Friday night I went with Emily, one of my flatmates, to St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church on Trafalgar Square so we could do some brass rubbings. Basically, you take a piece of black paper and tape it against a plate of brass that has a design etched into it. The brass plates range from about 1x1 foot drawings of dragons to knights over six feet tall (those are expensive). I chose a picture of St. George (England's patron saint) killing a dragon, and for £6.50 it was priced in the middle-low end. Boy, you gotta rub hard with the crayons they provide! It ended up looking really neat, and I've put it on my postcard wall.

Early last week, Ray, an intern I work with, and I decided to go to Greenwich to see the Prime Meridian, so on Saturday we got on a boat that took us for an hour-long ride up the Thames. I didn't know the Meridian was so close to central London. Anyways, it was a little cloudy while on the ride, but by late-morning the weather had turned absolutely gorgeous which was fantastic given that Greenwich has a giant park feel to it. It contains over five giant and absolutely free museums, so we wandered around the National Maritime Museum (saw the uniform Admiral Nelson wore when he was killed in battle-- Trafalgar Square is in his honor) and the Queen's House (not sure what purpose it served, but we did see the earliest example of a cylindrical staircase without a supporting column. It was anti-climactic).

After the museums, we headed over to the observatory to see the Meridian. Had to battle some pretty intense crowds of Asian tourists to get a picture with one foot planted on either side of the line, but after enough barreling through humans we got our pictures. We got a few together- each of us on one side of the line. I told him to stand on the East side (he's Asian). ;)

Then we watched a random red ball drop at 13:00, which is 1:00 PM for all you States-side. Again, a bit anti-climactic. But! We opted to take the Tube back to central London to save time and stumbled on the Greenwich Market on the way. There, we bought hog sandwiches very similar to the ones Katie Beth and I had in Cardiff Castle. Delicious! I also bought a wonderfully rich dark chocolate brownie- amazing! Food at these markets is pretty cheap and tastes much better than the ubiquitous sandwiches available at chains like Pret a Manger (don't ask me how to pronounce that though...I just say "Pret").

(Now don't get your knickers in a twist. Ray and I were just sight-seeing buddies.)

We met Emily at the Cabinet War Rooms and proceeded to tour the secret underground head quarters where Winston Churchill met with his cabinet regarding World War II. They've restored the rooms to what they looked like during the War, so it was neat to see things like the green handsets on the black phones indicating that they scrambled the user's message. Or stuff like the rooms used by various higher ups in the cabinet and the various meeting rooms where big time decisions were made. Crazy stuff! All for the very low (*cough, cough*) price of £12.50 with student discount!

Ray had to leave early 'cause he was heading out to Amsterdam for the weekend, so Emily and I wandered back to a near Tube station later on. We stopped by Downing Street so I could get a picture of where the prime minister lives (it's not nearly so cool as I imagine the White House to be. Obviously our country is superior what with our cooler housing. ;) ) Oh! She also snapped a picture of me in a red phone booth, so I've taken care of that 'thing to do' in London. I don't quite know the significance of red phone booths-- perhaps they're just iconic because no one else has them.

On Sunday, I continued my pancake adventures this time knowing exactly how much batter would make me two good sized cakes. Take that plus two rashers of bacon, a cool glass of milk, a warm cup of tea, and a bright sun streaming in through the kitchen window and you've got one terribly content Laura Beth reading along in Exodus. After wrapping up my one hot breakfast a week, I went off to church to fellowship with the folks at Bethesda. It was so nice to get to meet with them again! I must say, I will miss them on returning to the States.

After church I was going to go to the Handel House Museum where George Frederich Handel lived but figured I didn't have enough time because the afternoon church service starts at 4PM. So I just went back to the flat and caught up with communication back home. (I apologize to any and everybody if I haven't replied recently.)

Yesterday I went off to work same as all ways, but I've been excited all week because I'm taking off Thursday and Friday to do some sight-seeing. Plus, of course I'm going to use my maximum days allowed off! Just have to get through tomorrow and then I'm free and clear until next Monday. Absolutely fantastic. AND!! After that, I just have two four-day weeks of work (I'm taking off next Friday too). Oh my goodness, it's actually coming. August 10th is actually coming!

Oh, and last night my flatmates and I went to a wonderful little Thai place just a thirty second walk outside our flat. I had 'Thai iced tea' which is sweetened iced tea with cream and spices- it was very good! Because of Air India, I am almost permanently repulsed by chicken curry, so I shied away from that part of the menu. Instead, I opted for some stir-fried pork which which was much better than curry would have been (or at least I think). Mm, I have decided that I'm not the biggest fan of ginger though. The pork had ginger in it and even a few of my Harrod's chocolates had ginger in them. Ah well.

Right, so those are the most recent happenings in the life of this little London resident. Hopefully I'll be able to post a bit more frequently in the coming days. You know, it's kinda funny-- I figured when I started working I wouldn't have many events to relate and I'd just be left to philosophize on life or something. But it turns out there are still events to be had even with working. I keep coming up with ideas about things I should post here, but they get crowded out with the events I have to write about. I'll get to 'em eventually though, don't you worry!