Last Few Days

Sarah and I each had a List. Yes with a capital "L." This was the comprehensive list of everything we wanted to do while we were in London. Time was short obviously so we planned our day as efficiently as possible. Ready, set, go.

Stop #1: Platform 9 and 3/4 at Kings Cross Station. Yes that is a luggage cart that has been mounted onto the wall to look like its going through the wall like Harry Potter does in the books. Perfectly set up for tourists to come take a picture. By the way, this is actually located between platforms 8 and 9... not 9 and 10... And yes, we even had to wait in a little line of tourists to take this picture. There was no shame today - we were tourists.

We were hungry by this time so we got breakfast at the train station. This was the first time it occurred to me that here in England, English muffins are just "muffins."

Instead of taking the tube which included line switch we decided to would probably be faster to walk to the station we needed. This was kind of the theme for the day ; WALK.

Next stop was Hampsted Heath. This is a large forest on the north side of London which used to be the king's hunting ground. Sarah and I walked/hiked/jogged all the way to the manor only to find that it didn't open for another hour. We realized we didn't really care about seeing another fancy house with cool paintings so we were grateful for the excuse to skip it. By the way we had no map the whole time we were in the forest and Melissa used her awesome sense of direction (AKA asking other people where to go) to navigate us to the manor and then back to the tube stop. If you look at the picture you can see downtown London in the background. Our little stroll through the forest might not seem exciting, but I just love being outdoors and the city can be a little clausterphobic so there wasn't a better way for me to say goodbye to London.

Oh by the way, our little adventure in Hampsted Heath ended with Sarah's first attack by stinging nettle (my first attack was at Mary Arden's home). The owl lady at Mary Arden's home had told me to rub the back of a fern on my skin that was now literally stinging and it helped. So I quickly found Sarah some fern and we were furiously rubbing her skin as two proper English women approached us and scolded us for being so silly as to rub fern on a stinging nettle wound. "That only spreads the poisen!" Riiight, why didn't we think of that??
Next we saw a cute white bridge in the distance and headed towards it. We soon found ourselves getting kicked out of a restricted zone, only to discover that the bridge is fake. It only looks like a bridge, its really just a single white beam running across the lake with picket fence type railing.... I think we overstayed our welcome at Hampsted Heath.

On our way to the British Museum we made one last stop at Camden Market, probably my favorite in London. Sarah and I used our perfected (well not quite) bargaining skills to get some sweet sunglasses. Then the tube stop was closed because the escalaters weren't working, but this didn't phase us for a minute. I pulled out my handy map (well worn with a few rips by this point in the trip) and we headed out on foot to the next closest tube stop. Arm in arm, sunglasses on, we were set to go!

Next stop - British Museum to see the Elgin Marbles. This was one of the first things I thought of when I realized I was actually going to London. I thought, "Oh! I'll get to see the Elgin Marbles." These are pieces of the Parthenon in Greece that were left for ruins until the a British guy named Lord Elgin realized what a shame it was these amazing pieces of art were being left to slowly decay, so he saved them and brought them back to London. They have been in the British Museum ever since (1800s). I studied some of these in my Humanities 201 class. Supposedly its quite the controversy as to who really has the rights to these antiques. Greece now obviously wants them back, because they technically belong there... with the Parthenon. But if it wasn't for Lord Elgin, they wouldn't really exist anymore.... Anyways I was excited to see them in person.

There wasn't a convenient tube route to get from the British Museum to our next stop - Tate Modern. So we decided to walk again. And on the way we passed St. Paul's cathedral. Even though I already had a ton of pictures, I made Sarah re-do this picture like 3 times to get it just right. I was starting to get to that emotional state where everytime I saw something I realized its probably my "last time!"

Another picture of St. Paul's
(recognize the bridge? its the one the dementers destroy in the 6th Harry Potter movie)

We lasted about 15 minutes in Tate Modern. I guess I just don't have the appreciation needed for modern art. There was piece on a wall that had the outline of a house, then 3 birds above it pinned to the wall with arrows. I just couldn't figure out what the author was trying to say.

Throughout the summer I've wanted to do a boat cruise on the Thames river. Most of them are kinda expensive so I found a way around it. We paid about 3 pounds to take a little boat from Tate Modern to Tate Britain, passing Parliment and some other sights along the way. There was no open top like other boat cruises, and it was only about 15 minutes long, but we loved it!

(Notice our new sunglasses)

This was as far as we had planned our day (its about 4 pm - or should I say 1600). One thing on my list that I hadn't done yet was go to the Florence Nightingale Museum. Sarah stayed in a nearby park to relax and I ran across the river to spend the last hour before closing time at this museum.

I've heard a lot about Florence Nightingale's contributions to the Nursing field (and surprisingly Statistics as well - who knew?) but I did not know much about her life. I liked the size of the museum because I read just about everything and got through in an hour. She talked a lot about how she felt God had called her to serve those in need to the best of her ability. I bought a magnet with one of her quotes on it to put on my fridge at school - since my new roommate, Nicole, is also a Nursing major.

I'm glad its the 21st Century and Nurses don't dress like this anymore

I found Sarah relaxing in the park and we decided to walk back to the London Centre. This walk started at Parliment, took us through St. James' Park, then onto Buckingham Palace, through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (where I took my daily runs) and back to 27 Palace Court. It was like a Closing Ceremony for our time in London :)

I loved the mailboxes here....

St. James' park with the London Eye in the background

Buckingham Palace

I'm going to take a moment to point out the bag I'm carrying. I found it at the Columbia Employee store before I left for 5 bucks and thought that maybe it would be good for London. And it never left my side--ever. It was a loyal and dedicated companion throughout all my adventures in Europe.

We got back from our "Closing Ceremony" just in time to change and head back to Kensington Gardens for a final football (soccer) game with the crew. We all got really sweaty and celebrated with Nutella and toast as usual back at the Centre.

That night we all watched the slideshow one of our professors had put together for us. Awesome!

The next morning was our last day at Church. As we gave our 3rd and 4th round of hugs to the primary leaders and other church leaders who had appreciated our service all summer I got a bit of how it feels leaving an area you've grown to love on a mission. At least thats what our professor said as we were leaving. I actually ended walking to the tube stop (15 min walk) with the primary president (the women just to my left in the next picture), Nadine. She's 45, used to be a professional dancer, single, and strong in the church. It was very interesting to hear her stories (she was in Phantom of the Opera) and perspective on life. I said another goodbye to Nadine then we headed back to the Centre.

Becca and I decided to get off the tube two stops early and walk past Speaker's Corner. We had come here a couple weeks prior during the week but we realized all the action here happens on Sundays. This is an area known for people to stand up on pedestals and share their beliefs... usually in a pretty aggressive manner. We observed some pretty crazy stuff (and tried to discretely get some pictures). After such a nice morning in church this crazy place definitely had a different feel. We enjoyed our walk back through the park!

Becca and I
Sunday evening was mostly spent packing and making plans on how to get to the airport the next day. We got together as a group again and the teacher's wives' had made "awards" for each of us. My award was the "How many things can I possibly do in one day?" award. Haha I thought it fit well.
Sarah and I made one last trip to Queensway (neighboring street with lots of little shops) to get a few last souvineers. We finally bought our Mind the Gap shirts. We'd been trying to find a deal on them all summer, but they are basically the same price everywhere since its a trademark of London Transport. I guess 9 pounds was worth the one souvineer I knew I was going to get before I even got here!

I lived in Dorm #1 and we are all proud of it!

Kylee, Allison, Caitlin, Megan, Sarah, Taylor and me (We are missing Anna!)

The next morning I got up and did my last run in Kensington Gardens, mixed with pushups on the back of the benches (I learned that was kind of the thing to do there). I came back, showered and then Sarah and I left for our grand adventure to traveling to the airport together.

Sarah and I leaving the Centre.

We braved the long walks, stairs, escalators, and multiple train switches to get the airport on our own. We left plenty of time and then had a sad goodbye in the Heathrow airport! Sarah has been such a dear friend!

I had a 9 hour flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota and then a 5 hour layover. I did about 15 laps around the airport as I called multiple friends I hadn't talked to all summer. This was my strategy to staying awake. I got on the plane to Portland and literally zonked out for the next 5 hours until they announced we were descending into Portland. It was exciting to see my family again!

Here's the whole group in front of Parliment.
What a great summer!