Family!

Hello everyone!  This past week has been so jam packed but so awesome!  I celebrated my 21st birthday last week and what better place to celebrate then London?  It was a gorgeous day outside, lots of sunshine and I didn't have a single thing to do all day!  It was perfect!  I also hit up the Imperial War Museum this past week.  I didn't think I would be a huge fan of it, but the exhibits were amazing.  There was a replica of a trench, that looked, smelled and sounded like a trench from WWI and then a 'Blitz Experience.'  It was interesting to see the World Wars from a different perspective.  I'm so used to seeing them from the American point of view, and I've never even realized how lucky we are to have not had to fight on our own land.  There was also a Holocaust portion of the museum.  It was a little hard to get through, and I still can't really wrap my head around the reasons for it.

I went to Spring Convention this past weekend for my internship and I was able to see all of the little things that I have been working on at the office pay off.  I got to meet the presenters that I had been reading about and I even did a few of the sessions.  I did a ViPR circuit and it was the hardest workout I have ever done in my life!  I couldn't walk without pain for the rest of the weekend.  I also listened to Mark Foster, who is an Olympic swimmer and then I did a Zumba class on Sunday.  It was an exhausting weekend but a ton of fun too.  I felt like I was really submerged in the British culture.  I ate a roast dinner, watched a college rugby game and even watched the Grand National horse race (which was really depressing).  It was the first time language has really been an issue for me though, because I'm used to being around a lot of other Americans, but this weekend, I was one of the lone Americans, it was still a blast though!

On Monday morning, I headed off to Heathrow to pick up Mom and Karen!  It was so nice to see a couple of familiar faces after being away from home for so long.  On Monday, we did a big red bus tour, which I had been waiting to do for so long!  Tuesday, we really did London.  We started our day at Westminster Abbey.  The building is absolutely stunning, both inside and out.  It was a little depressing though because I had no idea how many people are buried in the building.  Poet's corner was another one of my favorites part of the Abbey along with the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.  After Westminster Abbey, we took a cab (my first one since being in London) over to the Tower of London.  We waited to get a tour with a Beefeater, and it was so worth it.  He was a riot!  I felt like a really learned a lot though, which is always a plus.  I think Mom and Karen had a great time there too.  We got the chance to check out the crown jewels, and boy are they impressive.  I think the 535 karat diamond was my favorite...its almost unfair that the Queen actually gets to wear all that stuff!  That night, I went on the London Eye for the first time with the rest of our tour group.  I can't believe I had waited so long to do it, because it was awesome.  We lucked out and had a really nice night, so it looked like London just went on and on.

Tomorrow, it's off to Brighton to spend a day at the beach...I cannot wait!