Day Thirteen

This was a day full of huzzahs and hurrahs, dramatic battles and victories, pidgeon armies, avengeful peacocks, balls of fire rocketing through the sky, tours of age old castles, tempermental captains, and lessons on queen's beauty products. So yeah, a very fun day. I can't wait to tell you about lucky day thirteen.

I slept great, and this is fortunate because I would have a very active day ahead of me, full of resplendent birds and faux violence and such. Our breakfast was a massive buffet, and it had these delicious cinnamon pastries (not cinnamon rolls, I think) that I devoured vigorously. Best cinnamony things ever. I ate three.

It's my breakfast! Eatin' up my BREAKFAST. Gotta eat my cinnamon thingies, yeah..

We hopped on our bus, for which I am grateful. I loved walking London, but bus rides provide the much-needed breaks to preserve your mental integrity. We had a small bus tour of London. We hit a lot of the Harry Potter filming sites, such as Diagon Alley and the bridge in the Deathly Hallows that got attacked by Death Eaters (or was it dementors)  and that was a lot of fun. We learned some cool fun facts, too. One I remember in particular is about Queen Elizabeth, who used a lead hair paste to style her hair. It caused her to go completely bald, and so she had to use fake eyebrows made of rat skin. Dandy.


We went to see the changing of the guard next. It was very crowded by the time we got to our viewing site, but it was exciting. Soon the music started to play and we could hear the uniform footsteeps of the guard marching before we could see it, and then we saw the guard stomp right past us.

The whole process is incredibly detailed, so we didn't get to watch it all. We watched as the guard marched past the Buckingham Palace gate, and out of view. Past our line of site would be the old guard preparing to switch places with the new one, and then the old one would depart.
We took our bag lunches to the park, which was a two minute walk from where we were standing. It was ketchup sandwiches and chips. I like to try new foods, but the sandwich was really gross, so I could only eat half of it. We sat under the trees, eating quietly, until I sensed a disturbance in the force and looked to my left. A giant group of pidgeons had amassed near our group, eyeing us like we were lunch. I took my ketchup sandwich and tore off the bread, and lay the bread around my feet, and soon a massive pidgeon army had become mine! Needless to say, I became drunk with power. I was laughing maniacally and spreading crumbs all over the place. Oreo, my general of my pidgeon army, stayed loyally at my side until we had to go.

Myuahahaahhah! My loyal army!

Oreo, my pidgeon general, and Tim, the envious pidgeon who longs for Oreo's position -- and his ketchup bread.

Next stop, Warwick Castle! I don't remember the journey there at all, but I still remember what it looks like. Warwick is breathtaking. We got an hour of exploration to ourselves, and I had a blast.

I'd show more pictures if it didn't take so long to upload them, but seriously, if you ever go to England, go here. It's gorgeous. So, after we had been walking around for an hour, we were suddenly acosted by an angry captain and his very pointy spear. He commanded us to line up and follow him, and his fellow soldiers started up from behind us and waved their weapons around.

It was awesome! I doubt anyone would have taken this situation literally, but for your information, this wasn't a real scenario. It was all a part of a training exercise. For the next three hours I would be a part of the Lancaster army, HA HA HA.

The first super militaristic thing we did was . . .

Eat food!

Huzzah!

We had chicken and potatoes, which are much better than ketchup sandwiches. We ate outside on picnic tables, which was very peaceful. Peacocks hovered around us, indirectly asking for food, since actually asking would have been too much for their poor, pampered brains. I don't have pictures from that moment, but I snuck up behind one and took a picture later. (Peacocks are finicky)

I remember one guy giving a girl a peacock feather that he said he found on the ground. We were later warned not to try to take feathers from peacocks, because the lovely creatures are capable of making a sound capable peeling the bark off of iron trees, which would immediately alert the security guards, who would bring you down, which would put you in jail and paying a large fine.

After lunch, we went to archery lessons. Our guy taught us the structure and the firing capabilities of the longbow, along with basic examples of armor from that century. We have a delegation member who has the magical ability to be chosen for every volunteer situation, and so he was chosen from the crowd of 50 students (many delegations were there too) to put on armor and be stabbed. Lucky guy. . . Our teacher was delightfully lewd, and talked jokingly about every terrible thing that could possible happen to the male anatomy. He was interesting and fun, although he scared the heck out of Gabe (the lucky one) with his various demonstrations.

We had sword fight training next, where we learned basic sword fighting forms. Gosh if I remember them all. It was a lot of fun cause we got to fight with real swords! Well, they were dullened in case one of us got the idea to murder someone, but they were quite real. We had the pleasure of a young and somewhat hunky sword master helping out that day.

Me demonstrating not-so graceful form. I got better.

I steadily improved, although it took me a while. It is possible that someday I will become a swordsman. . .Or maybe I'll stick with sharpened butterknives.

After that, we formed ranks and learned how battles were fought. For the front of the army, it kind of works like this:

1. Everyone in the front line dies.
2. The line behind them, which was previously unarmed, pick up their fallen allies' weapons and continues the attack. They are called the reserves.

We played both one and two. When I was front line, I died spectacularly. I watched someone near me be trampled as someone took his weapon. I placed mine gingerly by my fallen corpse, because I didn't want to be trampled. Just because I was dead didn't mean I didn't have feelings.

When I actually got to kill people, that was a lot of fun. Our instructor said our group was the most uniform when it came to marching. I waved my ten foot pole around and murdered thousands.

After that, we all relaxed and sat by the river as we prepared to watch the trebuchet launch a fireball into the sky.

After we said our goodbyes, we boarded our bus and began our trip to Ireland. Out of all the countries, I looked forward to Ireland the most, and I was right to. I'll see you in the next exciting installment of Take Esther to Europe!

Da!Da!Da!

Da da.

Day Twelve

Day twelve was another one of my favorite days, but it is also quite a blurry one. By the end of the day, I was so delirious with exhaustion that I couldn't remember a lot of it. I'm going to try and recall as much as I can, though!

I slept very well because our beds were amazing! I took a few pictures of the hotel room, but all after we made a mess of it, and I can't locate them on this computer, so a loss.

We started our day with a walk to the tube, the part of the London train system that is mostly above ground. It was about a fifteen minute trek through the city and road construction. It was a very pleasant day, though, and the walk was equally so. Because our group was so large, we had to wait for the "Walk" street signal to pop up twice to get our whole group across.

We arrived at our train with perfect timing, courtesy of our wonderful delegation manager. We didn't have to wait for more than ten minutes. We each grabbed a train buddy, so we could keep track of each other. Mine was a girl named Crosby, and we spent a lot of the day together.

A train going through the station.

We rode the train got on a few more trains like this, and then we hit the Underground station, where we rode for about thirty minutes on several different trains. It was a little difficult keeping track of everyone, and making sure they all got on the same train. Sometimes we didn't succeed, and some people got left behind! In the event of that happening, we would just wait at the boarding station until the next train with our buddies arrived. The system is so efficient, that we don't have to wait very long for each train. London, I must say, has a much more efficient train system that Washington D.C. At least in my experience.

And so we arrived where we were meeting with a former member of parliament. I can't remember the building or the street, because I was in Sheep Mode. But I remember it was a rich district that . . . had to do with COLLEGES. I'm not going to say more because I'll sound like an idiot. But anyway, we went in a building, up several flights of stairs, and into the the meeting room.

I was expecting that we would be the only delegation there, but there were tons of delegations. Texas was the majority population, but there were several others.

Our meeting was about an hour and forty-five minutes long, and our MP talked about how he got his position, what his position entails, and how the government works. It was very fascinating. I was surprised to learn how chaotic parliament meetings are. Ideas and suggestions are thrown around rapidly from any member that has some, and yet it is somehow contained with strict rules of propriety and rituals. I doubt I would be able to learn how it works in an hour and a half. No pictures, because somehow I thought that would be rude.

We went to lunch at Medieval Banquet (that's its actual name), complete with its own King Henry VIII! They had gowns that you could try on, but I decided not to. Surprisingly, it was the guys that actually tried stuff on. We had a sit down with Henry, who had decided to take a break from his grave and talk to us humble folk. It wasn't an actor or anything. Seriously.

Looking slightly creepy in the natural, purple, medieval glow.

Some of the building.

We went to the Tower of London next! We grabbed a few trains and walked the rest, and then we were finally there. I never actually knew what the place looked like, and when I saw it, it wasn't what I was expecting. It was a hodgepodge of different structures, a beautiful, but irregular hodgepodge. It has had add ons, things removed, things remodeled, and so it was very large. It was impossible to take a picture of the whole thing at once.

Tower entrance.

We were all sent off, with buddies of course, to explore on our own. My group was the smallest. It was just me and Crosby, but that meant that we could do what we wanted on our own time, really, so it was nice.

We saw a lot of really cool things. One of my favorites was the exhibit of the suits of armor worn by the kings through the ages. It was interesting to see the differences in style as time went on. We also so reconstructions of the horses that the kings rode.

King Edward VI's armor. He was a child king.

This particular horse stared through my soul and petrified me with its unusual smile.

Time flew by, and we soon only had thirty minutes left. I suggested going to see the crown jewels. Crosby, being ever practical, said that with the line, we might not get through in time.

"Nah," I said, with a wave of my hand, "we have plenty of time."

So we hopped in line. It was very, very slow going through the building. You didn't even get to see the jewels at the beginning, just a walk through video presentation that took fifteen minutes to get through. By the time we were out of there, we had 2 minutes to get back! We didn't get to see the jewels for more than thirty seconds, but they were gorgeous. I don't regret it, and I'm glad that we were in a short line, or else we would have never gotten out of there.

I had a blast there. It was full of history, and there was so much to see and do, that I couldn't name it all.

Next to the River Thames with Daisy and Luke.

China town was interesting. You walk five feet, and then all of a sudden everything changes, and you are in a totally different area.

 Guess what kind of food we had for dinner!

It's Chinese! I bet you guessed wrong, eh, eh?

When we got inside, there was a wedding ceremony going on, which I found very odd, but it was really sweet, too. The couple was lovely. We headed upstairs and got our food. I had the best sweet and sour chicken ever! I want ALL of the chicken! I want some right now...Mid dinner, I went into the bathroom and changed into my dress. We were going to see a play, baby!

The play was Million Dollar Quartet, a long walk from China Town, indeed. I had changed my shoes from tennis shoes to five dollar flats. I forgot to bring my comfortable dress shoes, and so I had to buy mine at a French supermarket! They went with my dress, though, polka dots and all.

The play was really, really, good. It had the best Johnny Cash and Elvis impersonators. The music was fantastic. Mid way through, they started singing "Down By the Riverside", and I started crying a little because it's a song that we sing a lot back home. Kind of uncanny, huh?

It was great, but when we got out I was so tired I could have sleep walked. By the time we got on the train, I was delirious. I started to babble. I put a flower hair clip in my hair (like an actual, 3-d, large flower clip) sideways on my head, and I turned to my seat mate/friend and said, "Do I look pretty?"

"Yes, yes, Esther. You look pretty."

I turned to my delegation LEADER and said.

"Kathy!"

And Kathy said, "Hi Esther! Are you tired?"

"Oh yes, very very tired. DO I LOOK PRETTY?"

"You look very pretty Esther."

Such good people. My friends carried me some of the way, like I was a drunkard. It was a lot of fun, though. As soon as I got to the hotel, I was out like a light. And that was my day!

DAY ELEVEN:

I wrote in my journal,

I slept like a rock last night; like a rock that developed human needs and decided it needed to sleep.

I need to work on my similes. Anyway, today was the day that I would say goodbye to UKSA. A very sad moment, because I think UKSA was my favorite part. It was a great bonding and learning experience, and I will remember it forever. One bad thing that did happen was a real shocker, though. I unloaded my suitcase from their storage room, and to my up most horror, the wheel had broken off! The people that had handled it had snapped it off on accident, and they even put the broken wheel in my suitcase for some twisted memento. Well, there was no way that I could fix the wheel, or afford a new suitcase, so I was stuck with carrying a forty pound black monster around for the rest of the week. Not fun, but at least I had a suitcase!

We said goodbye to our instructors, a sad moment indeed. I will especially miss Freddy, the adorable one who was willing to kick himself in the butt for 50 pence if he was "in the mood".

We had a very long walk uphill to our ferry. I would rather not relive that, because, well, it was very hard. I was so thankful by the time I got to the ferry. One male delegate carried my suitcase to the storage room. I love men with their arm muscles and their chivalry . . . of course, that kind of thing happened twice in the trip.

The ferry ride was about an hour. I occupied my time by reading Water for Elephants. It was pretty good. I might write a review about it someday in my other, much less updated, blog. We landed, hopped on our bus, and headed to London! London is my favorite city that I have visited. It's smaller than I thought it was, but it's really cool.

Parliament building!

We went to the Imperial War Museum.

It was so interesting! Very, very informative, and really big. Like all others, I didn't get to stay and look at all I wanted, but what I did see was very cool. There was one exhibit dedicated to the life of children during WWII, and it was a real eye-opener. One fact I found interesting was that children were given the biggest portions during the war. They were given meat and vegetables to promote growth. Grains were not recommended because they were harder to digest, and were only given as supplements. I would really like to visit the place again and see what I missed.

Next up, London Eye! I think it's one of those things that everyone wants to do, and it was so amazing! The line didn't take long at all, due to our P2P privileges, but I think that it would have gone fast anyway because the people working the lines are efficient and the capsules are massive.

London Eye from a distance.

We got into the capsules in no time, and we were soon enjoying the wonderful view.

Me in the capsule.

Shortly after this picture was taken, someone said, "Esther, you are so funny!" And I was like, eh? And she said that she thought it was cute how I always smiled so wide. I don't even notice that I smile so wide.

Me and my gal pals!

We got to the ground too soon! Although the ride was about thirty minutes long. The London Eye is the largest Ferris wheel in the world after all!
We had dinner at a fancy pizza place. The food was delicious, but I could have eaten even more! It started to rain as we left for our bus, and I forgot my rain gear. I got wet, but it was also really fun walking in the rain.
Our hotel was a Hilton, and it was wonderful! My roommate and I got a whole room to ourselves, and the beds were big and comfy, and the bathroom was spacious and clean. We were so excited that we opened up a bottle of water as a toast to our happiness. Shortly after drinking the water, a girl came into our room and pointed out that the water was 4.99 . . . Huzzah.

Another great day.