"I spy something that starts with the letter... blue"

Monday afternoon met two courageous sisters braving their way around the train station, eager to prove their indepence and intelligence to the world. Aganist all odds we arrived at the Denmark Hill station right around 3:30, where we met up with the Glazier family (minus the men who were busy touring some random, unimportant football pitch) and Anne.
After arriving at Anne's house, we received a tour from Ari, switched the shirts on the Winnie the Pooh bears, smelled all the flowers in the garden, and then had tea before being walked down to the home we are now staying at. A delightful family with two teenage girls offered to take us in for a couple nights so we could stay nearby, and we have greatly enjoyed their generousity and company. As well as their accents and appliances. (we had a wonderful chat that night about carpet fur and cat fibers before retiring for bed)
We woke up early Saturday morning (i think Shaina is still suffering from our intense jetlag) and had a great breakfast that included pecans and nutella. In case you were unaware, americans and indians say those words differently than the english do.
The rest of the day was spend touring London with Sam Glazier. Despite the fact that he has grown up in thailand, he did a pretty great job playing tour guide. we learned new information from the signs we read, and we only really got lost once thanks to the shard, gherkin, and turban tower. We began our journey by each grabbing the best seller free newspaper, and hopping on a tram.

 we got to see the national gallery (who knew artist often paint in panels that can only be detected by x-ray?), buckingham palace and the changing of the royal guard, st. james park (where we had a lovely picnic with 100% british potato crisps), South Bank (i got ANOTHER bracelet before Shai even got her first), tower bridge, St. paul's cathedral,  tower of London, the Globe, and probably more. it was a lot of walking and great fun. except that poor sam was a little sick after the fish and chips we ate at Hot Munchies to escape the rain.

We made it back "home" around 7:00 after getting stuck in rush hour traffic and watched several shows before splitting up for the night and debriefing with our host family.


Today began a little less early - we were back at Annes to spend the morning chillaxing with Sam and Ari at 10. Ari and i spent most of the morning making pretend honeycakes and offering them to our costumers. Then we had a Jenga tournament. i placed 3rd.. out of four. i think our favorite moment of the tournament had to be when one of the contestants managed to topple the tower on the first turn. but watching sam and shaina play under the umbrella that Ari insisted they needed to protect them from the rain outside was pretty great too.
After a quick lunch, we headed out to Grenwich park. traffic was suprisingly heavy, but we made great use of the time spent in the car by playing I Spy. we were all pretty good at the game, but, as Mr. Richard explained, we have had years of practice, so we ought to be.
And in case you haven't put it all together, that would be the same conversation where today's quote comes in. not near as deep of a quote as they sometimes are, but it was so adorable, i couldn't resist. i guess Ari was a bit confused when we changed from colors to initials. :D
we finally arrived at the park over an hour later and found it was closed. sad day. but we still got to walk through the tunnel under the Thames, so that was super exciting... and very cold. God is preparing Shai and i for american winters. :P  We also went to the Maritime musem. that was pretty great too. i learned that chinese people used compasses to know which way to place bodies they bauried. who knew?
Ari and i danced on the cobbled streets all the way to the car. that may have been the highlight of my day - warm sunlight, a blue sky, fluffy white clouds, cool breeze, beautiful streets, and a very happy little friend twirling around and holding my hand. i love it.
back at Annes we watched more shows (Ari got really into Deal or No Deal), and had a great pasta and english sausage supper with a juicy melon for desset. yum. and then we watched Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. very intertaining. and i got a few rite. whoo.
and here i am back at the host home, ready to head to bed because sam said we were a tad bit late yesterday, and i'll need sleep if i need to move as fast as Shaina in the morning.
God bless!