London Trip - Day Two (Morning)

Wow, another day another blog, so here it goes.

On our second day in London. We planned to visit the branch and have lunch at Bethel. Amy was able to ask her friend Jamie to have us as his guest. Woo-hoo! We woke up and took our showers and got out of the house in somewhat record time. I was moving a little slow that morning, but part of it was due to slight jet lag and the fact that Amy's clock was set at the wrong hour. It was an hour behind, so I kept thinking I had tons of time. Anyway when I realized what the actual time was I picked up my pace. We were able to buy our day pass for the tube and bus. We ran across the street to the bus stop. Elissa and I had to get use to driving on the wrong side of the road, and also looking both ways before we crossed the street. We weren't use to cars coming at the opposite direction when we were trying to cross the street. Once we got to the bus stop we had time, so we made the most of the opportunity and took pics. LOL We took the bus to a tub station, and took the tube for a while, and then we took another bus to the branch. Sounds confusing but its not - bus,tub, bus - got it? LOL Anyway we were running pretty good with time despite the delays when we finally saw our stop. We rang the bell on the bus, but guess what apparently our bus driver was hard of hearing and he didn't let us off. STOP!!! We finally got off and ran down the hill to Bethel. I must say I got a lot of exercise during my trip. Anyway we reach the branch just as the doors are closed for lunch. WAAAAAHHHH!!!! Thankfully Jamie got us in afterward, and saved us a plate. Shhh!!! Don't tell anyone. Anyway after our lunch we were able to see a lovely video of the branch, and then off we went on our tour. It was maintenance day so we didn't see a lot of action but it was still cool. Did I mention the weather was really sunny and gorgeous that was until we left Bethel, and then it rained.
Oh here is a pic of the lovely Bethel secretary. She was so sweet. She reminded me of a Swedish barbie doll or something. Seriously! That was our Bethel experience. We met a lot of really nice friends who were visiting from other parts of England.

London Trip - Day One

Hi guys!
So sorry I've been MIA. I've been so busy since we got back from London with the District Convention and tons of graduation parties on Jeff's side of town.

My trip to England was amazing! Elissa was a great travel buddy. Our flight to London was great. First class was FANTASTIC!!! It makes me sad to think of going back to coach, but hey thats reality. :( I had so much food during the flight, but I did manage to get a couple of hours of sleep in before landing. I guess you could say I was pretty tired because I didn't even hear when they came by with breakfast. Anyway I woke up about 20 minutes before we landed to see Elissa still fast asleep. She woke up about 5 minutes after I did. I promise I didn't wake her. "Oops did I bump your foot?" Just kidding.

We finally land in London early, and we proceed with our baggage to customs. I'm so glad we did carry on even though it was interesting trying to pack a week worth of clothes in carry on luggage. We were able to zip right through customs. We exchanged our money, and I felt poor immediately. Seriously! I had like 218 dollars in cash, and it was less than 100 pounds.

Anyway we try and get information on the best way to get to Putney, where Amy lives, and we buy a pretty decent ticket. The airport workers are pretty helpful in London. We talk to another airport employee and he tells us which platform we need to go to get the train and we see a train. Score!!! We found it and the train is early! Here's a lesson - Trains in England are never early, so guess what we got on the wrong train. We were a bit tired and we're slipping in and out of sleep when Elissa realized we weren't hearing any of the stop we needed. We were headed in the WRONG direction. We had to make a couple of transfers to get headed in the right direction. We had no problem asking for direction. Anyway we got off the right stop, but since we were coming from a different angle we should have adjusted the directions that Amy gave us. We were jet lag okay. It was like 2 in the morning our time. Seriously! Leave the American girls alone! Anyway we get on the wrong bus and head in the wrong direction and then to top it off the bus stops don't have names, so we had no idea which stop we should get off. Everyone has a bus pass and poor Elissa and I have cash but we don't even know what's a pound and whats a pence. LOL We figured it out really quickly though since we didn't want to be known as those "American girls." Anyway to make a long story short we decided to get off the bus and call Amy. Elissa went inside this store and apparently was trying to convince this Indian store owner to let her use her phone for free, while I stayed outside and watched our bags. She's trying to explain she needs help calling a number and I'm trying to ignore the weird British men who keep coming up to me and asking me if I'm on holiday or yelling that they find me attractive while they are driving down the street. Way to make a girl feel good! However I must say that when you are tired and you've been flying for over 10 hours nothing but a good shower makes you feel good. Anyway Elissa finally convinces the store owner to make her use her phone for free. Woo-hoo! We had trouble figuring out our international cell phone. Anyway Amy mom's tells us which direction to head and at that point we decide to walk. We walk for a couple of blocks and run into Amy who was waiting for us. YESSSSS!!!

We head to the Williams to clean up and they were so great! They made us lunch and we had yummy English tea. After we cleaned up Amy took us for a walking tour of London. We saw Big Ben, MI-6, Buckingham Palace, etc. We also hit up a pub and had a blast. At pubs you don't wait for someone to sit you and you go to the bar to put in your order. When we were leaving a drunk fell down and landed at our feet. It was the funniest sight. Welcome to London! After we left the pub we headed home and Elissa and I tried to stay awake till 9 which was 4 p.m. our time. I couldn't last till 9. I think I finally caved in and fell asleep at 8:45 p.m. Elissa and I both woke up around 1 a.m., but fell back to sleep minutes later. Anyway that was our first day in London. Do you see why I haven't blogged in a while. I'm exhausted and I just talked about the first day. :)



Favorite quotes of the day -
Sister Williams (Amy's mom) - "Tam, are you okay dear you look a bit spaced?" That's when she asked me what I wanted for lunch and she got a complete stare.

Tam- Sister Williams do you have spotted dick in a can?
Sister Williams - Umm...no dear it doesn't come in a can. She laughed when I first asked her. It was a totally random question that popped in my head. I once saw it at friends house and they said its an English thing. I promise I saw it in a can. Although Amy and her mom says it doesn't come in a can. I'm sure some of you are wondering what is spotted dick. Its like a custard.