Not the Destination, but the Journey

So, where I left off from...

Following our trip to the Tower of London on Friday, not terribly much happened. Saturday morning, we had a project to do. And by "do" I mean we went to Kensington Palace. We spent most of the morning exploring the palace and sneaking pictures of rooms were not supposed to take pictures of. And it really was for a project. After that, we walked through a strange riot on the street which we think may have been for a cricket game or something because there were a bunch of people wearing New Zealand flags as capes and carrying cricket bats. It was all rather odd. Mostly we just wanted to avoid it.

Then we got lunch at New Cornwall Pasties, which is kind of like a British fast food place that only sells pasties. They are kinda strange things, like, umm, if you were to make a pot pie into something you can hold and eat with your hands. I think i would have liked it more if they had had some of the one I wanted, but they didn't and the one I ended up getting turned out to be really spicey and I wasn't so much a fan.

Afterwards, we decided to go visit platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. Our rationality was that we go to Kings Cross everyday on the underground be had not yet been to visit the overground or anything like that. So we get there, and it's really not as impressive as you would think, but I did give the wall a nice little push. Nothing happened. Oh well. The best part was when someone walked by on the other side of a wall and shouted "Harry Potter Wasn't Real!" It was funny.

Now, it would have been very easy for us to turn around and get back on the Tube and get a train home, one stop north east. It would have taken about 3 minutes maybe and then we would have been home. But I decided it was a better idea to walk. I mean, its one stop, not so far, and it gave us the opportunity to see the city some more since you don't really see anything on the underground. So we walk. And we follow a sign to Islington and it brings us out to this street which is all well and good except that the British don't seem to like street signs so we have no idea what street it is or which direction we need to walk. So we walk to the bus stop because most have maps on the back, but this one doesn't. What it does have is a bus stop map and there is a bus that stops at that stop and right in front of our flat. So, we are on the right street, but still don't know if we need to walk to the left or right. Well, I determined that since our flat is north east of Kings Cross and we were near to Kings Cross and the Sun was setting over our left shoulders we should keep walking forward because that would take us north. Plus, there was a really cool church up there that I wanted to see.

It turns out that the St. Pancras Church is one of the oldest ones in London and when we went into its graveyard to see the giant memorial thing it turned out that we found the grave of Johann Christian Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach, the famous composer. Cool. After this Alan really felt like we were walking the wrong direction and should turn around, but the moss was on the trees and the sun was setting and I was convinced we were going the right way. So we keep on walking and find The Working Mens College, which is still a college today and I thought that was cool cuz its strange to hear someone say that they went to the Working Mens College. Anyways, we kept walking and ended up in Mornington Crescent. Ah. mornington crescent. One stop on the train...in the wrong direction. It turned out that Alan was right and I was wrong, despite the fact that we WERE walking north. But instead we got on the train and took it two stops the other direction, with one transfer, but hey...it was a fun journey.

Sunday, we woke up early because we had a day trip to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. The whole trip was amazing, though cold. I loved every second of it. We are actually thinking about going back to Oxford for a day trip. It was beautiful there, and I loved it. We ate lunch at the Eagle and Child (The Bird and Baby) which is the pub where the Inklings met. The Inklings were a group of authors who met and discussed and argued about their writing and other things. They included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The authors of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. It was cool and the food was good. We ate our first Sunday Roasts there. Mmmm.

After that we had a tour of Christ Church College, one of the 39 or so colleges that make up the University of Oxford in the city of Oxford. Christ Church College happens to be the one where some of Harry Potter was filmed. It was neat. I enjoyed myself. I just wish there had been less people.

In fact the people have been my only issue on this trip. People. Not everyone, and for different reasons. Most of the other students here I very much dislike. There are a select few that I enjoy being around and talking to. My roomates are really nice and a couple people in classes are as well. But most people treat this program as a joke. They don't do work for their classes, they don't even think class is worth anything. They wouldn't go at all if they wouldn't get thrown out of the country for not going. They are also SO UNGRATEFUL!!! They are all always complaining about how much they hate the program and how much they hate the school and company that brought us here and that nothing is good enough for them. They all have their parents credit cards and go out and get drunk most nights and are just not how I could ever imagine myself being. Its obnoxious and I can't stand it. The other people I have problems with are the British. There seems to be a rift among the society in that half the people are always in a rush to get ANYWHERE and the other half really enjoy standing still. This creates a great mass of a traffic jam no matter where you are. The impatient ones push there way around the ones standing still and no one says excuse me. People push there way to the front of lines and will push to get on the train one person ahead. Really? One person? Is that absolutely necessary? You're still going to get on the train...just one person later. Wait your turn and deal. And then the people that enjoy standing still...they will just stop walking anywhere willy-nilly and you'll end up tripping over them or running into them or getting push because someone needs to get passed right now. Its all rather frustrating and I have been kind of angry about it for two days now. I owe Alan an apology for taking all my anger out on him. It's not his fault. The other people I hate are Alan's flatmates. His roommate is nice, but often complains about a lot of things that really don't need complaining about. He is a nice guy though otherwise. But the rest of them really bother me. They have these really great habits of leaving the refrigerator door open so that all the food goes bad and we end up spending twice the money we have to because we throw away half our food because they can't shut the freaking door. They also don't do their dishes. Ever. In fact, they will load up the dish washer and put soap in it but not run it. They will stack dishes in teh sink until they grow mold. They will put dishes away dirty even. But they won't wash them. And every morning Alan and I cook breakfast, and every morning, if we want to cook I have to wash their dishes. And we have asked them...and they do nothing. And I hate it.

So...that is my rant about people who I hate and what I have been doing for the last couple of days. Now on to the future.

Tomorrow is Alan's birthday (so if you have made it this far reading you should wish him a happy birthday). For his birthday, we are taking a trip to Nottingham. The would be the Nottingham from the Robin Hood legends. Also, underground there is a whole city built out of the cave system beneath the city. And also, the dudes store is there. By dudes store I mean the main headquaters of the company that sells Alan's little miniature dudes that he puts together and paints and plays with. Its his big hobby so were going for his birthday and it should be fun. I am looking forward to it.

The weekend afterwards we are going to Paris. Yes, I will be in Paris for Valentines Day. That will be nifty. But I gotta go...so later.