hey hey hey!

i’ll start with yesterday.

yesterday liz and i ventured over to trafalgar square to hang out and go to parliament and buckingham and westminster abbey and all that other fun stuff. when we got there, the whole place was surrounded by police cars. we tried to figure out what it was for, and after asking one of the london policemen about it, we were told that on may first there’s a big anti-capitalist march that happens, and 10-20,000 people were going to be coming through. we figured that would be a good time to get out of trafalgar and look around everywhere else. we actually got into westminster, and it was really cool, we got to see where a lot of famous people were buried or memorialized (shakespeare, chaucer, queen elizabeth I, longfellow, mary queen of scots, etc etc etc). everything inside of it was really ornate, but we did find a door that was shorter than i am! hehehe.

thomas was supposed to meet us here to go to dinner, and we waited like an hour and a half for him to get here (he was really really late). during the time we were waiting, we met one of henk’s bengali friends, forid, who stayed for a bit and then went home. when henk decided that enough time had passed for thomas to get here, he “suggested” that we take forid to dinner with us. henk’s friend henk had forid’s cell phone number, so lizbeth called him and forid didn’t answer. so right when we thought we were off the hook, henk walks back in the room and hands me forid’s address, telling me and liz to go to his flat and ask him out to dinner. liz and i were both like uh… (but you know when henk “suggests” something, you have to do it). we get down the street and realize we can’t read the address, but we ended up finding the flat anyway. so liz knocks on the door, no answer. i tell her we should leave. liz rings the doorbell, no answer. i tell her we should leave. rings the doorbell again, no answer. once again, i tell her we should leave. so of course, she knocks on the door one last time and forid answers, and ended up going out to dinner with us. it was really weird because he doesn’t speak or understand english very well at all. henk gave us an assignment in a way i guess. so we all left (we had met up with thomas at this point) and went to chili’s (of all places..we’re in london and eating somewhere extremely american), which turned out to be fun. our waiter was exactly like orlando eddie but shorter, and thomas asked him if we could take a picture of him so you guys back home could see, so liz stood with him and i took the pic. it was pretty funny.

this morning thomas met us at the dlr station and went to tate modern gallery, which is a new art museum that just opened up not too long ago. it was pretty interesting. the things people feel the need to call art never cease to amaze me. there was one exhibit where there were all these brown “sculptures” that looked like poop, and they called it art. there were rocks arranged in a circle, and it was deemed “art”. i dunno. there was a very interesting sculpture made of cigarettes though, i know what we can do with all the cigarette butts we find around u-club from now on! hehe. at the tate i ordered an egg and mayonaise sandwich, which is my third one this week, and a bowl of hot chocolate! it was in an actual soup bowl, it was great!

then we wanted to go to the globe theater, and ended up walking alllllllll the way around the block, only to find out that if we had walked out the back of the tate, the globe was just to the right. it cost too much to get in so we left. then we walked across the millenium bridge and took some pictures, and came home.

liz and i seem to come home earlier and earlier every day. jet lag maybe? i dunno. it was only 3 pm and the cafe was open, and we ended up spending the whole afternoon coloring with andrea and rachel. they’re so cute. andrea made a very very interesting comment. we were talking about how old i am, and she’s like, “so you’re 19….thomas is 20….and his girlfriend is 21!” ha girlfriend? so when liz and i went to asda, i was like, “woohoo! i can’t wait to see thomas tonight to see what he says when i tell him about andrea’s little comment!”

we hung around here most of the night and played with the kids, i saw billy and martin but they don’t remember me and i haven’t been like, “remember me i’m linzy”. shafia and amir both remembered me though, and jen, shafia remembers you cutting her hair. so that was cool. shafia is 13 now and working in the cafe.

thomas eventually arrived, and we stayed around here after the cafe was closed, catching up with lynne, which was really cool. she’s fun to hang out with. after everyone left and thomas and i were sitting there (by the way, those urinals in the boys bathroom still flush on their own), and i was like, “andrea said something really interesting to me today.” and he’s like, “oh really? what?” and i told him what she said and he’s like, “she said that?” and i was like yeah…and he got all quiet. and i’m like, “i caught you thomas!” messing around, and he’s like, “yeah i have a g/f”. so i of course was like….”weren’t you going to tell me?” i don’t like thomas like that (overseas relationships never work out! hehehe), but i was thinking he had been going out with her for awhile (only for a month), and i figure we’ve been writing to each other for four years now and he would have said something. it was pretty funny. so yeah. thomas has a gf. and we saw pictures, and we may meet her on saturday when we go visit him at mcdonalds (she works there too). but anyways, i thought that was a funny story.

haha..also i’m a polo (mints that look like lifesavers) and ginger nut (asda ginger snaps) addict and i need help! thats according to lizbeth. i’ve been addicted to polos during the whole trip and thomas eventually had to steal my pack of polos from me, cuz i’ve been eating like a whole pack a day and all that sugar makes me hyper. i’m hyper! hehe. henk has been ragging on me about that during the trip.

tomorrow we’re meeting paul somewhere in london for dinner, and going to the tower of london. i’ll drag the video camera around again. thomas got to see our video we made to send him, and he liked it a lot. it was fun to see how stupid i am on camera. so we’ll see how this video comes out.

its so fun to be here, everyone is the same except they’re growing up too. and in some ways i feel 15 again, i guess cuz things are so not different. its strange to go somewhere and come back, because you always expect for things to stay the same but they don’t. just like going home for the first time after awhile. everyone gets older and people change. but i’m glad to have this “second home” in london, henk and elmarie have been great about having us here. i keep telling liz that i have the coolest friends (haha and not just refering to henk and elmarie, but to all or you guys), and i’m really lucky.

anyways, its time for bed here, more tomorrow, and then after saturday the annoying mass emails will stop for the summer. haha sometimes i wonder if anyone actually reads these all the way through, or if you just hit delete! have a good night mis amigos!

Love, Lindsay