These past few days have been jam packed with adventure! We arrived at our residence to find that we are living in a flat with flat mates. It is like a small dorm hallway where everyone gets their own room, but we share a bathroom and a kitchen. Our first night was a bit rough. We both had trouble sleeping and had to get up early for mass. Mass was at St. Monica- literally a two minute walk from our residence! The music was not like I'm used to- how could anyone compare to my mom anyway?? There was no organ or piano at all. The majority of the parishioners were African, but the priest was a white guy with a British accent.
Sunday July 7th
Today was GREAT!
We met up with our site coordinator Jeff whom I call gee-off. He showed us around the tube (or the subway). It is such a trilling experience. The thing goes 90...(probably more, but I said that because 90MPH in my family means really fast). After walking around central London or the "City of Westminster" we had lunch with gee-off and the other girl in our program named Mia. I had a simple club sandwich, but it was legit...as Em and I now say, "Everything is better in London." ; )
After lunch we went to the London eye. Our program (Panrimo) is part of a larger social program through the University of Westminster. Therefore, when we go on our planned excursions about 100 other students come along. It seemed that many of the other students had already made friends so Em and I decided to be social and introduce ourselves to two girls named Erin and Robyn; sisters from St. Lois. We went on the eye with both of them. The eye was amazing, we could see miles and miles of London. After that, we went on a walking tour with the group. In the middle of it the lady said we had 25 minutes of free time. While practically everyone went to the pub for a beer, Em and I decided to save our 10 pounds (or 10 million dollars because the American exchange rate is so bad...thanks Obama :p) and explore the train station. What caught our eye was the solar power panels on the top of it. Apparently, 50% of the stations energy comes from those panels...sweet!
The end of our walking tour was a pub. The pub was crazy because Murray took it in Wimboldon. We got to pick out anything on draft so Em and I both went with a Cider. We sat and talked with our new friends from St. Lois.
After Em and I left the pub we were determined to conquer the tube on our own. With only a few major slip ups we out the tube and got to the stop where we needed to be. However, when walking back to our place we went a good half mile out of the way...hey I guess it helped us loose a few calories because we needed it for dinner....
Instead of being social and going out to the pubs with the rest of the students from the program I decided to make Mac and Cheese that I brought from home. Before doing so Em and I went to the store. Em thought Mac and Cheese sounded good, but when I asked the worker if they had it, he was really confused. "You know, noodles and cheese." He proceeded to show us some Ramon noodles. Not what we were looking for, but could be useful information in the future seeing as they were only 50 pence.
As you might be able to tell, I'm a little bit of a penny pusher. Therefore, when I Em and I decided we needed butter I grabbed the cheapest one....the kind that was not in a box or container, but just wrapper in plastic. After that we went back to our flat and back to our flat and I made the Mac and Cheese with the newly bought butter. I scooped some out for Em and she said, "This tastes different." I was a little bummed because I wanted to go with the "Everything tastes better in London" quote, even for my Mac and Cheese. After tasting it I realized it did taste a little different, sweeter. Em walked over to the butter and said, "Maria this is not butter, it's Lard." Welp folks, I can now say I have eaten Mac and Cheese with Lard.
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