This is a journal entry from earlier in the week. First time I had internet access to post it. I will post more about the rest of the week and our transition to northern England.

Sunday morning Emma, Chris, Jenny and I went to Hillsong. We really liked the service. I thought the message was right on. The facilities are impressive. They are located in the center of the city and are renting a theater.

We went out the night before to a club in the city. It was an interesting experience to say the least. We went to Soho which is there main bar area and we settled fairly quickly on a club. We decided to go to a club instead of a pub because we thought that this would be one of the few nights this semester we will be able to go out. I prefer pubs. It was an ok time, it is definitely not my scene. Its too superficial and way too expensive. We met an awesome British guy on our way out who gave us some advice about the area. He also knew a lot about American history. And he liked Bush. It was refreshing to meet someone in Europe who doesn’t hate conservative American politics.

We move at a very quick pace. This is kind of like Paris except that we do not draw nearly as much, which for now is something that I enjoy. Its nice to walk around the city and absorb all the information DuPuy tells us.

We checked out Southwark and Tower London after church. We spent most the day walking around. We saw some great new architecture projects. I really like the converted marketplaces. We also saw the new Norman Foster’s City Hall building on the water. I’m not a huge fan of it, but the rest of the complex was interesting. It morphed into the boardwalk that spanned the river. We also visited the Design Museum. They displayed David Chipperfield’s work who has some cool projects throughout Europe. The museum itself was very nice. It was located right on the water and had a great view of the city. It was also the first time we saw blue sky. The weather has lived up to its reputation so far.

It rained today. We spent most of the day outside too. We toured Hampton Court which is the old royal palace now converted into a museum. There are a ton of gardens. They have a famous maze that I remember visiting when I visited in middle school. We spent a few hours roaming around and then went into the town of Richmond. We ate Wagamama, which is one of the more popular restaurants that are here. It was so good—it’s a combo of thai and Vietnamese. The town was cool. It was a typical British mid-size suburb that had a ton of shops and cafés. It had some really nice houses too.

We were let out early and went to the movies. We have a London pass that gives us free access to loads of places within the city. We went to an independent theater and saw a three-hour movie about prison life. It was way too intense and graphic. And long. Afterwards, Emma and I went out on a date to a restaurant that had a twenty percent discount because our pass. It was my first time going to an Indian restaurant. I really liked it. We had a nice date and got to spend some time together, which is a good change of pace from being with the group so much.

We are having a great time overall. Our week is flying by but it amazes me how quick we are learning the city. I like London a lot. I am happy though that we will spend time in the countryside. It will be a great change of scenery.

First Day in England

I think I'm converting this into my travel blog. Now it will be catered to England, hence the title.

I pre-wrote this because internet is expensive.

England
The past two days have been great. I’m exhausted because we have already toured the city. Du Puy, our professor, knows how to travel well.

Our flight was smooth. We had a direct flight. The flight took about seven hours. Its ahead of us by five hours so we landed at 7am.

On our first day, we were fairly busy. We checked into our hostel. Our hostel is more family oriented than youth, so it’s by no means a place for people to party at. It’s very nice. Our room has four bunks for the four guys. The room is pretty big for hostel standards. We will be here until next Friday.

After we checked into our hostel we explored the area. We’re staying near St. Pancras/ King’s Cross. It’s a little out of the central part of the city but there are plenty of restaurants and places to visit nearby. We had to push through the jet lag so we walked a good couple miles at DuPuy’s pace, which is surprisingly fast for a sixty-five year old man who just got off of a plane without much sleep. We saw a good amount for the brief walk, which is starting to become a theme of the trip.

We had to take a two-hour nap because we were dying. It really helped to revive us. It was not nearly as bad of a transition as it was when I went to Paris. I just took a shot of espresso and I was ready to go. We headed down to Covent Garden, which is a converted marketplace into a retail area, and had a few beers. We decided to drink first then eat, I don’t really know why, so consequently we felt the beer a little than we would have otherwise. We stayed out until about 9pm, until we could really stand up without passing out. Besides the exhaustion, we had a great night.

Today we had an even busier day. This is a good preview of what the trip will be like. We will pretty much be up at 8am, eat breakfast, meet DuPuy at 9am somewhere in the city, and then site see until about 5pm. Today we saw a bunch of things. We toured St. Paul’s and the surrounding area. The cathedral is beautiful. We walked along the river and saw a good chunk of development. We went on a tour of the Globe Theater, very cool. We had a charming Scottish actress give us a tour. She had the greatest accent I’ve heard so far. We continued down the river, passed the Bank of London along the way, or that might have been earlier in the day, and eventually crossed the millennium bridge. We explored Tate Modern a bit. We were wiped out so Emma and I only stayed on one floor. I am beginning to accept that contemporary art is generally not my cup of tea. I might be a little too prudish for some of the content or unintelligent.

DuPuy then released us to go off on our own. On our walk home, we found a good hamburger place to eat dinner. It was pretty expensive. It cost 10 pounds, which is about 16 dollars. And I think that is not very expensive for London standards. We will most likely go over our weekly per diem.

We pretty much walked everywhere. At one point, we took a bus and that my feet were incredibly appreciate of it. My feet are still in a little bit of pain from today. I have to get use to this pace. It’s a bit of a contrast to the very limited walking I did this winter break. My body notices the difference for sure.

We are preparing our plans for tonight now. Since this is our only Saturday night in London, the general sentiment is that this will be our big night out. We have a few recommendations from the front desk where to go. I have a feeling it will be a good night.

Emma and I are going to Hillsong tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.