So yesterday we took our English final and then had History class. . .

UGH

so Kelsey, MaCall, and I went to Camden Market

And I went grocery shopping and bought a sweatshirt

We had our last dinner as a group in the center

And we spent the Whole Night Studying for our History Final

Which we took today!!!! 

WE are all DONE with finals and Spring Semester!

to celebrate our freedom Kate, MaCall, Kelsey and I let out bikes and had a great ride through Hyde and Kensington Gardens 

I will forever Love and Miss Kensington Gardens

Everything we did was for the last time today. . .

.    .  . way to emotional and sentimental

And in true british fashion, our last group event was to see Henry the V at the Globe

in the standing section

After the play we were left to wander the breathtaking beauty around us

I got to check my to do list all the way down to visit St Paul's one last time

Before we left we had to say goodbye to our friend the "waffle man"

He was the man for all of our needs

We told him it was our last night here and as a parting gift the waffle man gave us free candy

I will miss Waffle Man

along with just about everything else over here in London

I have grown and learned so much here

Through tough times and fun times

I am so grateful for my opportunity to enjoy living in a foreign country

to be surrounded by such great beauty and art

to have hands on learning

to meet such great people

And to learn to appreciate so much what I have

Our last trip on a coach. . .

It was a rainy windy day

We went to Blenheim Palace and boy was it Beautiful. Quite a spectacular building full of Baroque and Rococo design. 

We spent the day in Oxford 

It was a fun college town. Very different then what I thought it was going to be

We found the original Ben's Cookies and had to get a few

My new favorite is definitely coconut!  

We had a blue badge tour of oxford and got to see what our tour guide thought was important

Luckily for Kelsey our tour guide liked dinosaurs. 

It was a shame that the wind and rain was so hard. We were all cold and wet- not the best weather to explore. . .

Sadly the weather was so bad that we had to cancel going to Stonehenge 

But we cheered ourselves up with Wagamamas that night

Today I checked off my final to see building

It was the Westminster Cathedral

Since the central line was closed I took the circle which broke down- so I took the district. . .

This Cathedral is in the Victorian Style. . .

Singularly fascinating and extremely unique. I have never seen anything like this!

So, since I had so much fun getting to the Cathedral. . . I decided to walk back to the center. . .

Ha, a lovely 2.5 miles later I had gone through the city, under a triumphal arch, around hyde park, and through Kensington Gardens

I had to get back to meet up with a group who was going on the Mrs. Dalloway walk

I loved it. We got into deep discussions and stream of consciousness. This walk forced us to go where we would not have gone otherwise.                                

       

. . . Plus we walked right by Tiffany's!!!

Since it was such a lovely day, Kate and I decided to ride the London Eye!

It was a lot faster then anyone had told us....

but we had a great time bonding 443 feet in the sky. . . 

. . . surrounded by the city that was our home for two months

 breathtaking

after a whole day without food we went to tuk tuk and dug in

After a morning of history and Churchill war rooms we tired to walk around London as the  Queens Jubilee Parade was going on. . . 

That we found to be impossible so as a class we all watched the parade while eating 

clotted cream scones

Later some of us went to War horse 

It was way cool how they showed war and horses on stage

I am excited to compare it to the movie

Today Kate, MaCall, Kelsey, Cree, and I went to 

ABBEY ROAD!

Here comes the sun, all you need is love, baby you can drive my car, Ticket to Ride

Hey Jude, Let it be, get back, over me, Strawberry Fields Forever

Ha it is such a busy road and it took such a long time and patience to get our pictures

Latter tonight we treated ourselves with a little dessert from Ciaos called spaghetti   

White chocolate, Cream, Vanilla Ice-cream, Strawberry Sauce 

And sat on the Lion at Trafalgar Square 

Its a beautiful day in the neighborhood. . .

after reading and discussing Mrs. Dalloway it was nice just to wander

it was a way chill day as half of our group went to the cold play concert

the rest of us had brisket for dinner 

and waffles ( white chocolate strawberry cream ) for dessert 

and later tonight Kelsey and I went to Hyde Park for the Diamond Jubilee concert. . .

What a crazy environment

quite different then in America

Everyone was smoking. . . and no one was dancing

That is until a few people got drunk. . .

But Kelsey and I had fun and sang and danced the whole time

In honor of her Majesty the Queen we listened to 

Elton John

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Stevie Wonder

Renee Flaming 

And

Paul McCartney!!!!!!!

Just to name a few

swaying to "let it be" live in London

a surreal experience 

Saturdays are the best days for going to markets.

Kirsten, Kate, and I went to Portobello Market and we all found some lovely things

Later we went to what was left of the Tate

Right now it is under construction so most of their collection is not out

But we still got to see Carnation Lilly Lilly Rose!

It really is one of the most perfect lovely visually pleasing pieces of art I have ever seen

Later the night MaCall and I hit the city! and realized that her battery and my camera memory card had both been left at home. . . so no pictures of the insanely sketchy "Pillars of Hercules" we wanted to eat

On sunday there was to be a Jubilee Boat parade so I went to MaCalls ward

I heard the funniest stories and learned just how hard Primary is. . . 

but we were able to go to putney Bridge to see the beginning of the jubilee celebration!   

Which was an amazing thing to be apart of... but really not quite as big as I thought it was going to be

I am thinking that is only because more and more I am missing America... still a really fun experience

To start the day I went out to the Geffrye Museum and took a look though London's Middle Class

 The Geffrye Had 11 rooms set up in total fashion for different time periods in London History

from the wallpaper to the candle sticks everything was made from that time period

I loved having it all together

 There were a lot of chairs and everyday objects around the museum, lovely places to read provided books, and a garden. 

It was way fun to see all of the furniture and get a feel for what it was actually like to live then

Then as a big group we met up to take a boat ride to Greenwich 

It was such a fun time floating on the Thames 

Interesting Place Greenwich is

It is out in the middle of nowhere but it had some cool things

For lunch we had some Pizza

In a Double Decker Bus

Probably the coolest place was the Prime Meridian

But the Museums were fun to

there was a lot about boats 

Afterwords Kate, Cree, Kristen, and I went to the Olympic Mall. 

And some of us ended the night by watching Peter Pan