European Adventures

It would not let me update my blog for some reason in England so I had to just type them in my Notes and then copy and paste from the different days- I KNOW I did not get all of it in there because I have seen and done so much but I mainly just wanted to keep track of it all so I can look back and remember everything!


May 26, 2010

Well, we made it through our first flight from Memphis to Detroit and let me tell you, Immodium does wonders for the queezy.  I was curious to see how our group of 30 students would all get along and so far so good!  My sister, best friend kelsey, and I have, of course, band together as a team force because I think we have all agreed on the fact that big groups make us nervous.  Now off to our 8 hour flight to London!  

May 27, 2010

Right now, I am relaxing in our corner hotel room at the lovely.. American Holiday Inn in London.  How much did I sleep on that long plane ride? You may ask... "Oh, a whopping ZERO minutes."  I will say because for some reason I just could not fall asleep!  I even took a dramamine AND watched movies, tv shows and played a couple games on my ipad (which isn't yet sold in London yet- crazy huh? I wonder if they would be confused if I walked outside and played on mine) But ANYWAYS, our room is a pretty nifty one compared to the not-so-shabby hotels we drove past.  I have enjoyed the beautiful English accents and frequent uses of the word "rubbish" happening all around me.  I quite fancy that!  We are in Bloomsbury and drove a good hour to get here from the airport, which gave us a cool look into life other than the fast pace commercial London.  A main attribute in the housing here I have noticed is that the majority of home are connected as townhouses are in Memphis.  They are much more common here and you don't see as many single "fenced in yards with a picked fence" house, but rather large connected brick buildings with a pointy roof.  Kelsey and I were discussing how alot of the buildings towards west London looked similar to those drawings of houses you made when you were a child.  You know, the simple squares with triangle roofs and windows- and then we discovered that alot of things here are close together yet simpler.  "There is no place like home" my sister told me just after we enjoyed a panini in a local restaurant and even though I have heard those words so often I never understood them until she said them today.  There will never be another place as comfortable as where you call "home" and therefore everywhere else becomes compared to what we believe to be most comfortable or convenient.  It is funny how different minds work, and I am learning to accept on this trip that my thoughts will rarely parallel with others around me.  When I see a man wearing colorful pants and bright cardigan I appreciate his unique choice of outfit and nothing more, simply because he is a single creative human being and it is hard for me to stereotype a person because of what he or she may be wearing.  As Americans, I guess we think that our way is the only way and that is where we are wrong.  Our way might be more efficient at times or more convenient, but that does not mean we should stick our noses up at anyone who does differently!  The different cultures around me even in the London airport have fascinates my senses as I smell new aromas, see new clothing and skin tones and hear smooth accents from all over.  It is refreshing to be around new ethnic groups and people that have been living a different way than myself their whole lives and to know we somehow crossed paths is just crazy!  I always try to place myself in someone else's shoes when I see them walk past me to see if I can, for a moment, understand what their life is like.  It blows my mind to see someone from a different country walk right in front of me to who know's where on whatever path he may walk, and I will most likely never see him again in my entire life, yet he has so many things going on in his life that never concern me!  It is almost as if I want to be apart of or take a peek at the everyday people living around here to just understand a little more of this country.  I get a little taste of it with this trip but I can only imagine what it would be like to actually move here and live a little whole amongst those we rarely see on the busy city streets.  I am already excited about the sites we are about to see and am going to rest up before we have to leave!