London in a Day

We took a whirlwind trip to London last weekend...and I say whirlwind, because we saw a ridiculous amount of things in one day! We could barely walk by the end of the day we were so tired. I don't know why we decided to see so many sites in one day...we are just ambitious people I guess or psychos. But here are a few cool things we saw:


We saw parliament and the Westminster Abbey of course. I like this picture because of the pigeons on that poor man's head. You would think a King (King George V) should have more honour!


We found Chinatown and had Vietnamese food...we were craving Pho!


We saw the British Museum...but only a bit of it...you could spend the whole day there, easily! This sign outside the museum made us laugh. If you can't read it, it says, "Please do not eat inside China Landscape."





We went on the London Eye...totally worth it! It was so much fun. We have tons of good pictures, these are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of photos...


Of course, we stumbled upon the Canadian Embassy...and had to take a picture.


We visited the Tower of London (the Castle) and the Tower Bridge.


We also saw St. Paul's Cathedral...a must see if you go to London. We didn't go inside cause it was late by this time, but the outside is enough to shock anyone...even Tom.


And these are only a few sites we saw...we also went to Trafalgar's Square, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, and rode the Tube all day. Oh and took a trip to the local IKEA. :)

London is so diverting...but we were glad to be home in our own beds, in our little town of Oxford, by the end of the day.

Dim Sum in Oxford?

Oh what a wonderful discovery. Great Dim Sum in Oxford. And it's not too expensive...if you don't convert to Canadian. We found it in sort of a little wannabe Chinatown. But we are not complaining! There are a few others around to try out but not many.

The other thing we came across while walking by the Oxford castle (yep, just another day here) was a free exhibit of the artist that does all the shots of the Earth from Above. If you want to see what I am talking about you can check the website: http://www.yannarthusbertrand2.org/

Gown & Town

There is an old tradition here that dates back to a time when there was a lot of animosity between the 'city folk' and the 'scholars/students' of Oxford. They were rivals at one time and there are crazy stories about the townsfolk became a mob and chased students and even killed some! Thankfully those days are long gone, and we all live in peace now...but the other night really made me smile as Tom and I have very different experiences...

He went to him formal welcome banquet at Exeter College (apparently it was just like Hogwarts, beautiful, posh, and formal. Including a speech from the Rector about how they have now joined an 'elite club' that few have the privilege of joining). While I, met up with some friends and went to the local tavern. Filled with townsfolk and students alike (kind of ironic), we enjoyed a pint at a small crowded local pub. So when we got home we had a laugh about how he was hanging with the 'gown' society, and I was hanging with the 'town' society. Gotta keep it real, I think!

Oh IKEA, you are worth it.

Last week we decided we needed to make a trip to IKEA to get the rest of our house supplies. I mean, FLAT supplies. This was no small journey, as we had to take a bus an hour away to find the nearest IKEA.

That morning we still felt pretty ill from jet lag, but we decided to go to IKEA anyways, because we knew we needed stuff for the flat, and we knew we only had so many days to go shopping before life and work hit hard. So we boarded the nice big bus in the pouring rain. Once in Milton Keynes, where the IKEA was, we met a guy at the bus stop who asked us where we were going. When we replied, he said he worked right by IKEA. Great! We said, "we'll follow you then." And boy was it God's grace that we did...IKEA is VERY hard to find by bus, and did I mention it was pouring rain? We took an indirect bus route, so when we got off with the guy (we felt like we were on the Amazing Race, especially when they try to use the locals to get ahead), we had to walk quite a ways to get to the IKEA. We were soaking wet by the time we got there (don't forget we felt crappy to begin with that day) so we decided to dry off and have lunch first. The day only went 'up' from there, as we got tons of stuff we needed for cheap (only IKEA, you are worth it!) and we got a much closer bus stop on the way home, not to mention, it stopped raining completely by the time we left the store.

So, it was quite the adventure, but even with the hour bus ride and the confusing local bus to get to the store, it was well worth it.

Best Phrase of the Day

My wonderful staff member said in her richly British accent,

"Well, we got ourselves into a wee bit o' a pickle really."

It made me giggle inside, but it's normal here, so I tried not to react like a dumb foreigner.

Easy Travels, Brutal Jet Lag...

While the trip to England was relatively painless, the jet lag we incurred since arriving has been brutal! Serves us right for snoozing our way through our 10 hour flight. It was wonderful-we boarded the plane, ate dinner, and went to sleep. Yes, we did take a few Gravol to aid the process...but the flight was also not full so we got to lay across free seats! We woke up, and when I looked at where we were on the little map on the chair in front of me, we were 30 minutes from London! That's the way uh-huh-uh-huh I like it!!

BUT then the first night in the UK our bodies were totally confused, and I was up from 3-6pm and Tom was up most of the night, then the next day we thought, we'll just sleep in and let our bodies sort themselves out...BAD IDEA! We slept till 2:30pm, after finally falling asleep at like 4am. So you can imagine the next day was the same...bed at 3am, BUT we made ourselves get up at 9am. And yes, we did feel like crap. Then that night we decided to take NyQuil (Okay, I am not advocating drugging yourself to sleep but sometimes you gotta!) And we were out by 11am, and up by 7:30am for our first staff meeting with work. Voila! But it took us 4 nights of bad sleeps to finally get a decent one. There was one more crappy sleep in there somewhere...it's a bit of a blur really.

Would I still sleep on the plane even if it means I have jet lag longer? YES! I love feeling like the flight is an hour and a half, it's worth it to me. Tom says 'never again'. Guess we'll have to go our own separate ways on this one.