Sun

I cannot believe the weather, it has been gorgeous here. Okay so it's not 70 degrees yet, but it is getting warmer. Thursday through Saturday I spend with Katie, a friend from Central, who is visiting London with her aunt and uncle. She spent the mornings with her aunt and uncle and then we met up every afternoon. On Thursday we did normal touristy things such as Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, National Gallery, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster, and the London Eye. We walked a lot on Thursday, I think we may have only taken the tube once. The London Eye was cool, but it didn't quite make my expectations. I thought it was going to be amazing, it was pretty, but I must have had my expectations too high. The coolest part was that we could see St. James's Park from the top! Thursday evening, Katie and I went to Nando's to eat. It is a semi-nice, but also fast place to eat that has all chicken dishes. It was really good, but confusing and we had some awkward moments with a couple of the people who worked there. Overall we ended up fed and happy so it worked out and I think I will go back sometime. Thursday was also karaoke night at the International Student House. Usually I don't take part in the singing, but I found an Nsync song that my friends were willing to sing with me, so six of us got up on stage and sang the great song "bye bye bye" by Nsync. It was pretty hilarious and we were pretty good :)

On Friday, Katie and I spent the majority of the day in the Oxford Circus area. I had been on Oxford Street a few times, but I had never just wandered around. We did a little shopping and looked in a lot of stores that I had never heard of before. There are some really cute areas around Oxford Street. During our wandering we saw a huge store that looked interesting so we though we'd check it out. It was the most expensive store I have ever seen. A thin little dinky scarf was 165 pounds, I don't even like buying a scarf for 10 pounds! My goodness! Some of the purses were just ridiculous. The craziest part is that their were a lot of people in the store buying these outrageous priced items. We did a little people watching in a nice little cafe across the street. We continued wandering and ended up at Piccadilly Circus and then back to Leicester Square. Friday evening, Erin, Katie, and I went to Garfunkel's which is more along the lines of an Apple Bee's. It was pretty good and quite fast. We all got hamburgers and fries. The hamburgers were good, but they are just not the same as the ones in Iowa. They do have good food over here, but we win the hamburger contest by far. America also wins the dill pickle contest too. Anyway, later on Jenon, Mark, Erin, Katie, and I headed to the zoo bar for the rest of our evening. It was fun and loud and overall funny.

Today Katie and I went to Camden Market and then to the London Zoo. The first time I went to Camden Market I didn't like it at all. The people there were not people I was used too and I just felt really out of place. This time I really liked it and I want to go back. Katie and I spent probably close to two hours there. They had really cute clothes shops/boutiques and random shops. The food area was pure craziness. It had mostly Mexican, Chinese, and Japanese food. The people were practically throwing their food at you so you could taste it. We tried a piece of chicken from one and it was decently good so we just opted for that because the piece we tried from the next place was cold - gross. I got chicken and rice, which was a little questionable. I ate it and then later worried a little about what I was eating. So far neither Katie nor I have gotten food poisoning so I think it was okay. After the market we headed to the London Zoo. It may seem weird of all the things there is to do in London we would go to a zoo, but Katie really wanted too and I like zoos so I didn't object. It was sort of weird that all these exotic animals are in the middle of the huge city of London. Our favorites were the giraffes, monkeys, and penguins. I still think the Omaha Zoo is the best, sorry London Zoo. I was exhausted today so tonight has consisted of organizing some things on my computer and making a list of things I still want to see in London. Exciting, I know. Katie came over and hung out for a bit too, it was really fun having her around and I'm glad I got to help show her around a little.