Blast from the Past! Aka- London last weekend!

Last Friday we went on a class trip to London and split up into groups to see the different areas of the city. London is said to be one of the most diverse cities on the planet and I certainly felt like a minority walking the streets all day. It reminds me of the great song by DC Talk called Colored People that Chase taught us during chapel.

I joined Team Peckham for the day and Jacque was our fearless leader! My group consisted of Cameron, Ziggy, Kirsten, Megan, Jackson, Nicole, Julia, Nicolas, and myself. It was my first time to catch a train here and the trip from Oxford to London went through gorgeous green pastures and farms. Once we got to Paddington Station in London, we got a bus to Peckham. I sat in the very front seat on the top of a double decker red bus!! The whole ride it looked like we were going to hit people and signs and other cars every time we turned. It felt like I was livin' on the edge. These bus drivers are bold!

In Peckham we met with the youth minister of a church there named Dave. He gave us a mini tour and invited us into the church for tea. He shared with us the ministry that they are doing in Peckham. Peckham is an area that was very involved in the London riots and is still filled with gang violence at night. It was so interesting to hear what the churches there are teaming up to do in the streets and how to prevent kids and families to getting involved with crime. It put a real face to all the politics and social issues that we are reading about going on in the UK right now. Every Friday and Saturday night there is a group of pastors that risk their lives to walk the streets in Peckham to talk to people and people can turn their weapons into them without any questions asked. This is a really big deal because all weapons are outlawed and if you have one you can have up to five years in prison. Even a pocketknife!! Haha Michael would have been in jail a long time ago!

The library had a really neat sculpture of the world outside of it. It was covered in pieces of tiles imprinted with different languages and images. And I found a disney princess bandaid on it!

Then we took a bus to inner city London and got to play around by Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament! We walked a little further and came upon Trafalger Square where we played on some lions that looked like Aslan! They were so high up and just a warning that you should never jump down from high things when youre feet are so cold you cant feel them. I immediately felt my feet again but not in a good way. SOO worth it tho! And we found an Olympics countdown!

Jacque took us to an underground cafe that I never would have known about! It felt like we were secret agents going down a glass elevator into an underground tunnel with brick ceilings and it opened up into a huge cafe and dining area.

Next we tried to meet up with some people from different groups. We found out that this is extremely hard to do. Especially when no one has wifi or cell phones. We have learned to be very specific for our upcoming Paris trip and to have backup plans and times to meet just in case. We ended going to five or six different playhouses to see if we could get some last minute cheap seats. None were left but I will definitely be going back to see Le Mis and Wicked. They sell discount tickets during the week and for student groups so we have to take advantage!

We stumbled upon a fantastic building called M&M World- 4 stories of all things M&M. I took so many pictures and I could have spent sooo much money! I have never seen so much chocolate in my life. Then we stumbled upon a spaghetti house and stopped to eat dinner with our group of 10. They gave us our own private room downstairs (probably because we are American and very much louder than everyone here). I shared a Tropical Pineapple Pizza with Megan and Nic and it was incredible! Our waiter was so kind and was fascinated by our Texan accents the whole time. He had so many questions! I thought we should have tried to tell him that Texas succeeded and was no longer part of the United States. It totally would have worked!

Then we wandered back to Big Ben and the London Eye at night to see the night view. Lindsay and I began the tradition of Wobble Around the World. In other words we had our own mini dance party to the saxophone in the underground train station. I was so very proud of myself and my group when we finally got back to the house! I learned so much and I navigated London without getting too terribly lost. It was a day of a million pictures and lots of laughter and smiles and cold noses. Go Team Peckham!

Our journey to Paris begins in about half an hour! Here we go!