BRILLIANT! :)

Ello loves, just posting one of my last blogs after a wonderful Thanksgiving and trip to jolly ol' London, England!!!!

So, for Thanksgiving, we all wore durdels (the girls, i forget what the guys are called) and they are a traditonal Austrian garb! I got ready (I put make up on and did my hair all up cutesey!! crazy, huh?) so anyways, I served dinner, so I didn't get to experience the dinner like everyone else, but I still really enjoyed it! :) We served the salad, and then the turkey, all lit up with sparklers came out, and we all sang the Star Spangled Banner and it was great. I ate after everyone was served and such.. after the dinner we had a Thanksgiving Ball!! The first 2 hours was full of Austrian Dancing!! It was sooooo fun! I thought it would suck, but it was actually pretty legit! :) An Austrian couple taught us some moves and dances and we all did it together, it was real cute and fun! After that there was a legit regular college kid dance.. which was super fun, too. I planned on only staying for an hour or so.. but got carried away with how much fun i was having.. and stayed the entire time, which may or may not have been a dumb decision, since I had to get up at 3:45AM to leave for the train!

So I slept about 2 hours before walking to the train station.. we trained to Salzburg and then we had an hour to get from the train station to when our flight was TAKING OFF.. we missed the bus transportation from the train station to the airport and we all figured we wouldn't be making it.. but then, just as we started to despair, sat an 8 passenger van (I traveled in a group of 4.. but there was another FUS group of 4, too) It was so awesome and only cost 2 euro each!! God is SO good. We just made it in time for the flight and were on our way to LONDON!!!!

We got there and got some food before heading into the city (we stayed in Stansted, about an hour away due to price and such) We got dropped off on Baker Street!! Where Sherlock Holmes is from!! It was real neat! Especially since I used to place this game called Baker Street (like CSI type thing) when I was little, oh reminiscing! We bought tickets to HARRY POTTER 7 and then we grabbed some English afternoon tea! We decided just to hang around there for a bit since our movie was soon.. and we found out that Abbey Road was just a few miles away so we hopped on a bus and saw it! We saw one of the Beatles old places, their studios, and of course walked like everyone else in the world on it!! (And like I said there were 4 of us.. so it was real cool) After that we bussed back (on a cute red double decker!!) and saw the movie. It was SOOOO good! It made me want to get back into reading the books.. and I'm determined to read 5, 6, and 7 before the 2nd part of the 7th movie comes out! :D We were so exhausted that after the movie we got a bus back and went right to bedddd.
The next day we got up, grabbed some English breakfast and headed to the city! We drove over the Tower Bridge (often mistaken for the London Bridge, but is not actually!) but it ISSSSSS the one the Spice Girls jumped over in Spice World.. yeah, I have my priorities! We got dropped off near Buckingham Palace but it was soooooo cold that we had to stop in like every other store just to walk there because we were in so much pain! We got there (It looked a lot like DC..) we saw the palace, and the changing of the guard, and then moved on.. walking through the Queen's garden's and such before hitting up the next touristy area! We played with the numerous amounts of animals all over the park and saw this beautiful and quaintly little cottage in the park.. sooooo cute! we kept on walking and saw Big Ben and took pictures in red phone booths!! so English!!! We saw the house of Parliament and then we got really cold so we hung out in a coffee shop for a bit! We also saw the London Eye! :) So after hanging out in a coffee shop for a bit, we started shopping and just never stopped! We went to Pickadelity Square, which is this huge shopping street and adorable little quaint square thing.. and then we moved onto Oxford Street.. which is like the Big Apple to a tee. I've never been there but it looks exactly like pictures I've seen. We saw their mini Hollywood where English actors have their hands in concrete, and we saw where the premiere of HP took place (where Daniel Radcliffe was just a week before!) They had Broadway places (Mama Mia, Lion King, Wicked, Oliver, etc.) it was just super cool! Because it was such a big shopping day they had the streets blocked off to cars, just full of people walking EVERYWHEREEEE! It was really neat. The final place we saw was this 5 story 250 yr. old toy store called Hamley's. It was just the coolest thing ever. We had so much fun and just hung out there for a real long time!! They had offical props from big movies, HP, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, etc.. SUPER COOOOOOL! :D

After that we got some dinner and just hung out before heading back to Stansted--waking up at 4AM to catch our 6:30AM flight.. got back to the Kartause by 3PM, welcomed by heaping piles of snow, and the Advent Market here in the Kartause. It's like a Christmas festival thing that goes on during the first week of Advent. It's super cool and beautiful!: ) They have so many cute homemade things and i just can't wait to come home for Christmas!!! I had one final today, early, on the last day of classes.. the rest are Thursday, Friday, and Monday.. please say a prayer for me!! I'll be home in 9 days!! SINGLE DIGITS!!!! AHHHH. so exciting.

Cya sooon!!
Erin

PS-HAPPY ADOPTION DAY RILEY BERNADETTE BRENNAN A COUPLE DAYS LATE! I WAS IN LONDON BUT I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU THE WHOLE TIME. I AM SO LUCKY TO BE YOUR BIG SISTER!!!! <3