London and Normandie

t has been a long time (2 weeks) since I have written. So, here I am...

The week before last was a relaxing one. We didn't have anything to do except explore Paris. We slept in a lot. We made a lot of grilled nutella sandwhichs (which, are fantastic, especially when made with brioche) On Sunday Dr. Rusthoven left. So on Saturday we ate with her one last time at Flunch. It's strange. We didn't spend that much time with her but I kind of miss her...our safety net is gone and now there's no one to check up on us. We (the Canadians) also decided that we would go to London...because we can. We are pretty close (by Canadian standards) and we had a few days off with nothing to do, so we went to England! We figured we have the rest of the semester to get to know Paris, so why not see a different city when we had the chance.

We helped Jeremy move into his residence on Monday morning. And, let me tell you, dragging a suitcase through the Paris metro is a difficult task...he was going to do it by himself. So, then we went back to our apartment to prepare. We bought a loaf of bread from the boulongerie that's on our corner (the bread is mini) and made PB and N sandwichs and bought some granola bars and a travel pillow. And packed. And, as always I packed too much. But, it was a good lesson for when I travel for 2 weeks.

We took an overnight bus to London. But, we got little sleep because there were many interruptions. First, we had to get off the bus and get a security check by the French. Then we headed over to the UK side. And, they had some questions. They didn't see our visas kept asking us when we were going back to Canada...it was a little scary. Then we got back on the bus. Then we got off the bus once we were on the ferry. We talked to an interesting English bloke named Andy who worked at a bar. He gave us suggestions for what to do. Then we got to England and we got back on the bus. We were just settled and starting to drift off to sleep when we had to get out of the bus again. This time, with all our stuff to have the same questions asked.

We finally managed to sleep a bit. Then we arrived in London at about 6:15 am. We had the whole day. The original plan was to spend the day in London. But, we decided to go to Oxford for the day. So, we figured out the Tube and then found our hostel and dropped our stuff off. We took the Oxford Tube to Oxford. We spent the day in Oxford. It is a quaint town and is completly centered around the university. We saw some of the different colleges, including Christ College, where Harry Potter was filmed - but, we couldn't go in and see the actual spot. We also saw Exeter College, where J.R.R. Tolkien taught. But, the thing that we did that was the coolest in Oxford was going to Tolkien's grave. That was cool. C.S. Lewis is also buried in Oxford but we didn't make it there, malheureusment. We also ate in the Eagle and the Child, where the inklings met for discussion and drinks. We had fish and chips and a pint. We returned to London and I spent my first night ever in a hostel. I slept like a baby because by the time we got there I was basically sleep walking. But, we saw some pretty cool things.

Wednesday we spent in London. We saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We saw Westminster Abbey, which was beautiful. There is so much history there. So many people buried there. Charles Dickens, Handel, Chaucer, Henry VII, Elizabeth I. The coronation chair is there. It's been used since 1066. If that chair could talk...Once every hour the whole Abbey stops. Tourists, clergy, volunteers, for a minute of prayer. No matter who you are, if you are there you take that one minute and pray. It was interesting hearing such a big busy place silent (almost silent- there was a voice on the loudspeaker praying)

We also saw Big Ben and the parliament buildings, London Tower and Tower bridge, London Bridge (not too exciting) and the globe theatre. All of that we kind of did in a whirl wind. We only saw all this from the outside. But, we saw it. To end our first night in London we went on a pub crawl. We had so much fun! It was a great way to see the nightlife and culture of London. And we met some pretty interesting people. There were 2 Australians who were pretty hard to understand. there was a French guy from Rouen, 2 Germans, an Austrian and some girls from Brazil. But my favourite people we met that night were 2 Mexicans. James and Che Che. They were pretty funny. James called Hannah Marijuana (new nickname? I think so...) because at first he couldn't hear/pronounce her name. Che Che is a doctor and this trip was his break before starting his specialty, which just happened to be reconstructive surgery. So, we talked about surgery. We went to 4 different pubs. The last one was a club. We left after the tube stopped running but it was no big deal because we ended up being pretty close and could walk.

Then, the next day. Also very busy! The first thing we did was go to Abbey Road. We saw the spot where they walked across the road for the cover of the Abbey Road album, we all signed the wall. That was pretty cool. I wrote "Thanks for sharing your music" and I also wrote a message for Emily and Dad. I got pictures of them. And then we tried to get a picture of us crossing the road. But, it was difficult. We did but there's only 3 of us and we're facing the wrong way. It only sorta counts.

Then we went to Chelsea to look for Chelsea football stadium for Hannah's brother Wes. But, we didn't find it. Sarah and I left and went shopping before she did. But Hannah found it later. Then we went to Oxford St. for some shopping. Hannah joined us. Then we went to the evensong service at 5 so that we could see it. It was beautiful. It was mostly all sung by a choir. It was cool to think that people have been worshiping in that church (the building has changed since then) for 1400 years. Then we went to our a pub called the Stutton Arms that we really liked (it was our second time there)

Then we had to rush back to our hostel and grab our stuff. Then we had to rush back to the Victoria coach station. We barley made our bus. We cut it really close and I hope never to do that again throughout my travels.

My favourite things we did in London were Westminster Abbey, Evensong at St. Paul's Tolkien's grave and Abbey Road.

Then we went to Corny, Normandie. A very quaint little town. We went for a retreat with the young adults from the church we've been going to. We met so many new people. There were 36 people on the retreat and going we knew the other 3 Redeemer students and a few others. So, it was a great way to meet people. And we spoke French the whole weekend (almost) And, by the end of each day we were pretty tired. We just had to focus so much more than normal when people talked. And concentrate more than normal when we talked.

This weekend we ate so well. The food was so good. We had huge lunches. Like, 3 course lunches. On Saturday we had a salad thing and bread, mushroom porkchop stuff and rice and bread, and an apple and pear crisp. That was lunch! In Canada we have a sandwich and that's it. Our supper was just as big. Soup and bread, quiche and bread, salad and bread, a variety of cheeses and bread and for desert we had an orange. Also, everyone would always say "je te serve" or, can I serve you. Everyone would pass their plates to that person and they'd put food on their plates for them. Very different from home. Another interesting thing was leaving. You have to say goodbye to each person individually. That takes a while. You have to give the bisous to each person (the double kiss). It took us a while to leave. But, I enjoyed the chance to see a little bit of Normandie and the French countryside and to get to know the people from the church.

I've had a very busy week. This week our school starts. I am looking forward to having a routine. There is a bunch of stuff that we have to do before school starts. Like, laundry (haven't done any since we've been here), figure out our visa stuff, clean our apartment, pay our rent and see some more touristy stuff. I have confidence we'll get it all done.

Bonne semaine mes amis!