double-decker buses, stampedes, & fruit gums

Hello all! So lots has happened since being over Hudson Bay! I tried to sleep… that didn’t work out for me so well. I got about 2 hours MAX of sleep. There was some kid crying the whole time… I cannot imagine taking a kid on a flight that was that long. Awful… So yeah. Little sleep… However, I am in London now! It is SO COOL! A quick side note before I continue with my day- I basically went into the boys’ bathroom (toilets) on accident. My bad. Haha, I really thought it was the girls’ bathroom. I am losing my mind. Ha. I was pretty much exhausted when we got off the plane. We took a little van/bus thing from the airport to our hotel. I don’t know how long that ride was because I fell asleep pretty much instantly. Some of the first things I noticed are: the license plates (the cool shapes and colors), driving on the wrong side of the road, the wheel on the wrong side of the car, the amazing accents (my limited experience includes Harry Potter and Bend It Like Beckham), & of course the CrAzY double-decker buses. The time change, of course, is killing me. It is really disorienting and I feel like I have been doing Saturday for a long time. It is scarring. So after the bad driving of the crazy London man, I was sick and we finally made it to the hotel. I thought I was going to throw up, so I was kind of sprawled all over the lounge chair and coffee table by the check-in counter. OK, correction, my feet were touching the coffee table. The man came over and told me to take my feet off the table! I felt like such an idiot! Haha, but no worries. The rest of the trip will make up for that. After we rested for a bit and got all settled in, we went on our first London adventure!!! We took a double-decker bus (going towards the London Eye- don’t worry I’ll explain later). I even rode on the top!!! It was so awesome! London is so cute and perfect. I love how all of the buildings are old with some cool store. I saw about 4 H&Ms, so that is completely awesome. I also feel that London has some of the most choice people watching. People here are so posh. Really, everyone dresses really nice and fashionable. It’s really endearing I think. I pretty much love here. After about 30 minutes of insanity with the driving again, we got to the eye. Ok, I know you have been waiting for a long time to get a description of the Eye. What it looks like to me is a huge ferris wheel… it goes 135 meters up (whatever that means), and lasts for about 30 minutes. It is right on the river, and I was definitely a fan. You could see everything from that little glass room—like Big Ben and the parliament building. It was way fun. HA! Ok, so while I was waiting in line, I was pretty much stampeded. A little background knowledge, I HATE when people push, but I have no backbone. I just kind of shrivel back and let people charge. This is not necessarily a desirable quality in London. Anyways, I wanted to try these little gummy snacks called fruit gums (which taste like cat pee, highly NOT recommended) so my dad helped me pay for them. Anyways, these people of a certain race literally stampeded me!!! It was so scarring! They just pushed right over me! I felt like I was drowning! HAHA! I wish I had a picture, because I bet it looks really funny/pathetic. So yeah, like true tourist fashion, we went to the little gift shop afterwards. I didn’t get anything to do with the Eye, but I got the cutest little red, double-decker bus keychain! It is really cute. And it says London on the side. Very grand. =) After we went on the Eye, we took the bus going back to our hotel because the man at the hotel told us the Hard Rock Café was just around the corner! How ideal, right? WRONG. Well, I guess right if you have 3 hours to wait and 30 minutes to walk. So ridiculous! Anyways, we kept walking and found an excellent little Italian café. I had lasagna. We also experienced our first cultural/language problem. So you know how in English (American) everyone says, “I’m good” meaning “No, I am fine.” For example… “Would you like dessert?” “I’m good.” It seems like maybe everyone would say that, but don’t assume that. English people don’t apparently, because we confused about 3 waiters. The poor dears kept bringing us stuff we didn’t need. We thought it would be funny to say “Thanks, but no thanks” just to completely throw everyone off. Haha, but we refrained. So yeah, we will have to watch our colloquialisms from now on. We walked home from the restaurant and got there at about 11. London never sleeps! There were cars everywhere, and people everywhere! It was amazing! (And definitely different from Provo, Utah) Anyways, now we are home and I am getting ready for bed. Michael and I just watched a Michael Jackson special. It definitely rocked. I guess old Michael Jackson got to Michael (my brother), because he just slept walked over to the TV mumbling about Michael Jackson and pony horses. I honestly have no idea what that was about, but I laughed at him and told him to lie down and he said ok. Ha, so I guess that wraps up my Saturday in London! YAY! Cheerio! Frosted Flakes! Talk to you all soon! Loves.