London experience day THREE

Hello, sorry its taken so long to finish off the weekend. I had two exams today! Yay, thats half my exams done! But still, I actually studied, I am getting a lot better than I was in Highschool. Anywho I will carry on, I left off on the Saturday of my LOndon experience. The Sunday morning I woke up fairly early and felt a little chilly. Remember I was right next to the window and it was left open the whole night. I turn back the curtains or disapear behind them to stick my head out but not distrupt anyone and see that it is snowing! Well, not really, but there were flurries and few centimeters or snow on the ground and on cars! We were very excited as we knew it would be cold, but could justify it if there was a little christmasy snow.

We had to check out by 10am and afterward made our way to the tube and back to the centre of London. Our first stop was at the National Portrait Gallery to see the Annie Lebovitz exhibition. It was amazing, I really enjoyed it. I love most of her stuff and they had her works from 1990 to present. They also had private photos of her family and friends that she had taken. We then went around other galleries in the gallery and looked around for a bit. After all that we went back to the internet cafe and chatted there for a little bit to pass the time. We then went to lunch at an italian restaraunt and had the most amazing pizza in a while. What was perfect was we realised that it was the same franchise that we had gone to when the two of us went out in Edinburgh! Do you remember that? We went out the last night together to a restaraunt? Same one basically.
By that point it was time to make our way to Victoria Station. I decided to take a bit of a longer way so that Karicia could see Buckingham Palace because she hadnt seen it yet. It was a nice surprise because I didnt tell her what we were heading towards until we got to it. We took some pictures, ood and awd over it and then continued walking, realising that it had stared raining. We finally made it to the station and took a few extra seconds to figure out what the enterance was as I have never atcually entered the station from the front before! Either we come into it from the train drop off or the tube or take the tube or train out of the station! It was weird.

Anywho we got in and what you have to do especially at Victoria is look at the big boards and see what terminal to go to. Sometimes it is only 5 minutes before the train is supposed to leave before it tells you! Well I guess everything was in a confuzzle because of the snow/rain (even though there was no snow left) and there was construction on one of the lines because of unexpected failure of some kind there were concellations here and train/time changes there and delays all over the place. We were fairly early so we had at least 45 minutes to wait and we just kept hoping our train wasnt cancelled as we kept watching other people get screwed over. Eventually strangely enough James found us. I dont think I have mentioned him before but he goes to the ISC and he had been somewhere else and happened to be taking the same trains as us. Oh and by the way we had this crazy thing where we had to trains and a bus to get us back. This will be explained as I go along. So basically we wait and wait and chat and then it says our train is in terminal 11 or something and all we see is mass amounts of people start migrating towards the terminal at a run. It felt like the stock market crash of 29, seriously, you know those pictures you see of people running and clamering to the bank on the fateful day? Well thats what it looked and felt like. Especially because we had to make our way through the little ticket machine thigns and way too many people were trying to do it at once. We eventually made it onto the train, but it was an effort and literally people were jammed into every nook and cranny. Random strangers were pressed against eachother, it looked like the New York subway system ot London tube at morning and evening business hours. Seriously, only this was a train! That we were going to be on for an hour and a half.

Why was it so busy? We were we left standing on our train with bags and smushed against otehr people? Well because the station had told everyone that had had a ticket on the train before us going to one certain station could get on ours because theirs was cancelled and a tram line that goes to Gatwick airport was closed and THEY were also told they could get on our train, so we had 3 train loads of people on one train. We were hot, we were thirsty and tired from wondering all day and people who hadnt even had tickets on our train were sitting on our spots! Boo, luckily Karicia, James and I had gone into the aisle and so had a little more air and space, plus we had peoples bags that they had shoved into the aisle, so that left a little more space. We also thought we were lucky because all the crowds were getting off a bunch of stops before us so they should only be on for half an hour to 45 minutes. Well you, the train was delayed...while we were on it. They would stop and then go, stop and go and then go slowly, apparently because they were doing work or something, but the guy driving the train kept coming over the speaker set and appologizing and at one point said he had no idea how long it would be, but he would keep us updated. We were deleyed an hour, yes an hour. And eventually the freaks got off, taking their screaming baby with them. This child didnt just scream, it was play screaming saying "I`M GONE!" because it was hiding amongst ppl legs or something. I am really glad and probs so is the mother that I could not see that child or was close to it in any way. Dont worry, I wouldnt have caused any harm to it, but seriously do not scream on a crowded train and dont let your child get away with it no matter how bored it is. Because seriously everyone was already pissed off and wanting to go home and the screaming only added to the torment.

Okay, so that rant over, the next part of our journey home. We eventually made it to Lewes, where we got on a bus (with a crowd of people) and and took that to Gerwick or something like that and then another train to Polegate. And all this was cheaper apparently than a straight journey, gah! We had scheduled (all three of us actually) to take the free mini-bus home, but since we were an hour late we had to call a cab and make our way back. Supper was over also by the time we got back so no food for us, only our beds and good whine to whoever would listen. Beleive it or not i actually wasnt that grouchy! I was in a pretty good mood, I think I was so worn out that I was just left to random fits of giggles and weirdness the whole time. It was an adventure though, so...whatever. But still, gah!

The week following was kinda slow, I mostly had classes and hung out on the computer or with people or I studied for exams. On one of the nights though Kari, Katie, Amanda and I decided to watch some christmasy stuff. We were going to watch Mericle on 34th street the original because its a tradition for Katie (who is American) to watch it on Thanksgiving, and you know how much I love traditions, seriously I do! But unfortunately it wouldnt load from the site she found so we went online searching for other things to watch. Mr Beans Christmas worked, as did frosty the snowman (animated) and Katie showed us this thanksgiving song (30 minute long) that she always listens to on Tanksgiving. It was really funny and if I ever remember what it was called I will tell you.

Okay, so a lot happened this past weekend too but you`ll have to wait for that one. Some tid bits - closing ceremony ... with a bar! As well as a morning after in Eastbourne and an interesting experience with remembering art history.