Simon Smiles

Little ps on this one, Border Collies have the problem solving abilities of a 12 year old. They are SMART! dogs.

And I totally want one.

I love England

We went into London again today. I'll have to upload the pictures later. It was so fun to see so much, and we still just barely got to the tip of the iceberg!! By far my favorite is the Tower of London. That was the coolest thing I've seen. We didn't get to go inside because we got there too late. We got there too late for everything, but it was still really cool. We ran into the other girls in our program walking along the South Bank. It was totally crazy! So all of us were in the same place at the same time. It sure is a small world!!
Anyway, there are more pictures to come, but its really hard to get them uploaded right now and I am really tired. But they are coming soon!

More Colchester!

This is the shoulder of a whale. It was used for the sign of an inn. It was in the Natural History Museum. I just thought it was cool.


This is Colchester Castle. It was built over the Roman Temple of Claudius. It is also the largest keep ever built by the Normans. It is now a museum, surrounded by a park. The Roman wall of the last post is part of the Park also. The park is beautiful, it also has a sensory garden where you can smell the herbs planted all around.

A Day in Colchester

Wednesday, we decided to not go in to London, but to spend a little time in the city we are staying in. Colchester happens to be the oldest recorded town in Britain. Pretty cool!!
First we stopped by the Natural History Museum. It was pretty neat, it was a converted church and we could see the old stain glass windows. They had life size pictures of a mammoth and a mastodon. I just don't compare


We also found a little door, but it appears that no one was home.


We saw lots of sculptures of the Lion and the Unicorn. Travel Buddy didn't know what I was talking about when I told her there was a poem about it, but I looked it up for her later.


A view looking down a cool street in Colchester

This Roman wall was built in 120 AD! I was so excited to touch something that old.


I've got more to show, but the computer isn't letting me upload right now. I'll be back with more, plus today's trip to London!! (And I'll figure out how to flip those pics around!!)

Jet lag!

What a long day!! But I am finally in England and tomorrow I get to go see things! Tonight, I really just want a good night's sleep.
So let me tell you about my trip. Travel Buddy and I left for the airport after it had been snowing all morning. We knew our flight was delayed forty minutes, which put us really close to missing our connecting flight, but I thought we could probably do it. We saw two or three accidents because of the snow on our way to the airport and seven or eight slide offs. At the airport, they told us the flight was delayed but they didn't actually know how long. Well, actually, it turned out to be an hour and forty five minutes late taking off. The flight was supposed to take three hours and ten minutes, but our pilot got us there in two and a halfish. That was nice because many of us were worried about missing connecting flights. It was a fast flight.
We ran to our gate and got on the plane. We made it, but then we sat there for about an hour before they let us take off, what with the de-icing and all. We should have grabbed something to eat, but we decided to wait until they fed us. It was a longer wait than we wanted, but what can you do? Needless to say, I ate everything they gave us. It was like two in London when we took off, but only eight back home, so it was a little hard to sleep. I watched one of the movies before I tried. Oh, and the plane was huge, I've never been on an international flight to Europe, only to Mexico and my Mexico plane was small. Then I tried to sleep. Travel Buddy managed to actually fall asleep, I didn't. I never sleep well when I'm in a moving vehicle.
We had breakfast before I was really ready to be awake. Then off the plane, through customs (where we didn't know what address to put because we are staying with Travel Buddies friend), picked up our luggage and met Essex friend. After waiting possibly an hour. Oh, yeah, with glasses, which is not a strong enough prescription and travel hair. Lovely. So we decided to go coach because of all our luggage. And take the cheaper route, which took a lot longer. So we took the first coach to Victoria station, where they charge 20 pence to use the restroom. That was fun trying to make change first thing over. Then we took the next coach for three hours and slept. Then, apparently there are two stops in Colchester, the main one and the University one. Fortunately, we figured out we needed the second one, with a little help from our bus driver (which is apparently quite rare). And then we had to walk up a hill with our fifty pound luggage after not getting enough sleep. That was fun. But its an adventure!! I hope I feel more adventurous tomorrow.