hey hey hey!

so its day two in london and lizbeth and i have actually accomplished a lot today.

we woke up and went to asda this morning (everyone’s favorite place..its owned by walmart for everyone thats not from there), and bought some crispy nut (woohoo! bet ya thought they still didn’t make it didn’t ya?). after eating, we both got ready and left to go into central london.

random comment that doesn’t have much to do with this part of the email: last night i was on the computer sending out the mass email, and henk came home from wherever he was over the weekend. i went over to say hi, and he was like, “where’s your friend?” i was sorta confused, but thought maybe he didn’t remember liz’s name, so i yelled up the stairs for lizbeth to come down. she comes down, says hey to him, i finish my email and go to bed. this morning henk sat down to talk to lizbeth while she was waiting for me to get ready, and he said that he didn’t actually know that lizbeth was coming. elmarie only told him that i was bringing a friend, not that lizbeth was coming with me hehe. so henk had no idea til last night that liz was going to be here. i thought that was pretty funny.

so the tube ride was good, it’s getting a lot easier to get around. i guess that before i didn’t pay much attention to where we were going, cuz one of the leaders or henk always made sure we got off the underground at the right places. but today we didn’t have much trouble finding the right place to go (which probably was because we both had like 10 hours of sleep last night, thats the longest i’ve slept in like 3 weeks).

another random comment: at cole abbey last night, one of the guys that went to church there remembered me. he was like, “you came with that guy barry, the one with the beard!” i said yeah, and then remembered this is the same guy that talks really fast and stutters and had cornered me like 3 years before and i couldn’t get away from him cuz he kept talking and i didn’t want to be rude. so he talked to me for a bit before elmarie rescued me and then we left.

we changed our money and went to harrods, which was cool but i’m still not too impressed with it. everything there is way overpriced. i don’t know who would waste their money buying stuff there, but i guess if u have the money then its all good.

after harrods we went to the victoria and albert museum, which was HUGE, and filled with art and artifacts from a billion countries. we actually got lost inside. the most interesting exhibit was the clothing one. lizbeth and i walk up, and standing in front of us is a male mannequin wearing a skirt. apparently the exhibition right now is men wearing skirts. we saw man skirts with cargo pockets, man skirts that were camouflaged, man skirts that were plaid, man skirts with floral print..it was all quite scary. i was thinking about it though and although i don’t condone men wearing skirts (to be honest i found it extremely unattractive, unless you’re scottish or from some other country where its part of your heritage), i can understand how it was such a big deal to everyone when women started wearing pants. there were major designers like tommy hilfiger and donna karan that had man skirts there. man skirts are scary. i better not come home and see any of you guys in a skirt!

after that museum we went to the museum of natural history. we saw a moon rock, some bugs, rocks, and experienced a simulated earthquake. woohoo! oh, and abuelito (long time since i’ve said that hehe), we saw the quetzal in the museum, it was a really pretty bird. have u finished ur drawing of it yet?

the funniest part of the day happened on the way home. we had just gotten off of the light rail at henk and elmarie’s stop, and we passed these like 12 yr old little boys. we walk past them, they start laughing, and all of the sudden i see this little one run up to lizbeth and run away. so i turn around, thinking he was just being stupid and running up to us, and started laughing. i turn to liz and i’m like, “that was pretty funny..” and she’s like, “no it wasn’t! how could u laugh? thats not funny!” and i was like, “why not??” and she’s like, “he slapped me on the butt!!!!” hahahaha! i told lizbeth (who just said, “its not funny! its like being in a bar and having someone pinch you on the butt, and its not funny! it was like the littlest one, he was like 8!”) that it was cute hehe, she didnt’ like that. then we told henk about it later and he’s like, “you were sexually assaulted by an 8 year old on our street!” hehe. i found it to be very amusing.

when we got here rachel and andrea were here, and both of them were like, “lindsay!” so after liz and i got back from asda (where i stocked up on polos, puffins, and ginger snaps) we played snakes and ladders with them (chutes and ladders is the same thing), and thomas showed up. he looks the same and everything. he spent the rest of the evening with us, and it was cool to hang out with him. he was helping me dry dishes in the kitchen and he’s like, “you’re the same height as you were three years ago!” hehe. funny the things people remember about you. he got an xbox, and he beat halo (woohoo! fun game right kit?).

tomorrow night we get to cook dinner for henk and whoever else eats here, probably thomas and the other people who work here. hamburgers, yaay! and i don’t really know for sure what we’re doing but we’ll see.

its fun being here, i love london, its like being “home” again. i miss everyone from the missions team though, its different being here without all of you. everywhere i go i remember stuff that happened, like when elmarie mentioned the 12 monkeys poster falling down into where the rails are in the underground, and going to the park, and how the guys would run up the stairs while we were going up on the escalator. silly stuff like that. i was complaining to liz about having to carry our bags up to that loft thing where the girls slept in 99, and she’s like, “i carried my bags up here that year!” hehe..i didn’t! one of the guys did. why aren’t u here when i need u?? hehe. but anyways, it’s going to be fun the rest of the week. we’re doing all touristy stuff for the most part. but i wanna come back someday with all my friends and stay in a hotel or something, that would be the coolest trip ever.

random updates: henk and elmarie are looking for a house, and in case i didn’t tell you, elmarie is five months pregnant
-jack moved back to scotland
-clare is supposedly working at asda, we may run into her (thomas saw her about a month ago)
-lynne is working here again
-the ali kids are still coming here, they’re a lot older now, i didn’t even really recognize them
-the park is different, its sorta overgrown. it seemed a lot smaller than it used to be

when i think of more i’ll let u know. so ends mass email #2. haven’t sent out postcards yet, so if you still want one and haven’t emailed me let me know. goodnight! (or good afternoon for you!)

Love, Lindsay

“do you know what the world can be?/ i wish that you were here with me/ to see the things words can’t describe/sincerely me, so long, goodbye!” –postcards home by unsung zeros