Sunday, July 13, 2008

Hello to all!
I haven’t posted in a few days, so I have a lot to write about (and a lot of pics!)!
Let’s see…
I was able to get into the lecture the other night. They formed a queue (Audrey that’s for you :)) for all the people who didn’t have tickets. A lot of people who did have tickets did not show up so we were all able to get in. The lecture went really well and there were a lot of good questions at the end.
On Saturday I went out to my Aunt’s house. I haven’t really met that many people here to hang out with over the weekend so it seemed perfect to go out there. Witham was having their town carnival and as soon as I got there I went with my aunt and my cousin to help set up the floats for the parade. One of the “floats” was the world’s largest bicycle according to the Guinness Book of World Records. They only had one third of it out that day… The group that put the “bicycle” in the parade was looking for volunteers to help peddle the thing so my uncle and I jumped on! We rode the thing in the parade!
Shortly after the parade began it started raining. When this happened I assumed that the people standing in the street watching would head inside… but they didn’t. People here seem to have a very different attitude towards the weather. Everyone stayed right where they were and watched the parade, seemingly unfazed by the rain.
My aunt hurt her foot during the parade and my uncle took her to the hospital (she is ok, nothing too serious but it seems like her foot really hurts a lot!) My cousin and I hung out for the rest of the afternoon. It was really nice to get some good one on one time with her.
The rest of the evening was nice. We went out to eat with friends of my Aunt’s then came back and watched a movie. The movie was filmed in London and I actually recognized some of the areas in the movie (right down the street from my dorm :) ).
Today was a really nice. We spent most of the morning piddling around the house and then cooked a proper Sunday roast which was delicious!
I really enjoy spending time with them, and I don’t think that this experience would be quite the same without them right here. It’s so nice to actually be on the same continent that I really want to see them as much as I can (and as much as they will have me)! I do hope that being able to leave and go hang out with them doesn’t stop me from trying to meet people here to spend the weekends with. I hope it won’t be too tricky to balance.
Well I came back this afternoon on the train. The ride back to town was really nice and quick. After I got back to the dorm I decided to put off studying a bit more and went on an adventure!
I went down to Soho to the John Snow Pub. This is where the water pump responsible for the 1854 outbreak of cholera in London. We read a book called “The Ghost Map” in my Business Honors reading group all about the outbreak and how it was traced to this single water pump! It may be kind of morbid to want to see this place but actually seeing it for myself makes the history seem so much more vivid. The next post is all pictures and there are a few of this spot!

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