Chinatown does not smell that great...

It's true, actually Chinatown smells really bad. :(

Well today I said I was going to do something independent and so I did. I am going to go ahead and update twice today because tomorrow I'm going on a day trip to Hastings. :) (Remember the battle of Hastings? Well anyway, I'm going there and it's a coastal town and it looks really quaint. So I'm pretty excited!)

I woke up rather early for not having to get up. I mean, I woke up at nine thirty and I would have liked to sleep in until maybe ten thirty? Anyway, I grumbled into the kitchen and looked around for some food. I made sausage and eggs this morning and it was absolutely delicious. :) I love breakfast. I'm sure when I go home again I'll hate breakfast. Haha, it's like my staple diet right now.

So I was awake and I decided to check out TimeOut London to see what neat things were going on. Well, I saw that St. John's Anglican Church had a free lunchtime recital. The genre was classical and I just decided to pick that one, because there are plenty of free classical lunch time recitals in London for some reason. And most of them are in Churches.

I got all dressed and ready to go and I went out of the flat with my map and slowly breaking bag...Anyway - I just started walking in the direction of the river. I am beginning to learn where things are more and more. I didn't write down the address or anything but I looked at a picture and I remembered that the church was located on Waterloo street. Somehow- by some miracle of Beccaness - I found the church no problem and was twenty minutes early. I gave myself a nice window to be on time.

I went inside the church and sat down. It was a beautiful church - sort of Catholic like windows as well as some great statues. Anyway - I freaked out a little because I was wearing jeans and I didn't know if for some reason I needed to be wearing something more suitable for Church, but people started showing up in everything from full suits to shabby, erm, 'holey' jeans. So I was fine. I was, however, the youngest in the crows except for an adorable toddler with blue eyes and blonde hair accompanied by her grandmother. She was very well behaved and listened intently to the music for the whole hour.

Anyway - the lady began to sing some French songs. If I wasn't lazy I would get up and walk into my room and search in my bag for the program and tell you the composer's names and such. But really, the important thing was that her voice was absolutely phenomenal. She sounded literally like the voice of heaven personafied. So of course, two things happened, I found myself overcome with emotion from the songs she was singing - especially since I couldn't understand the french and she was acting out the songs in her intense performance. AND I realized how much I miss singing. Not that I could ever sound like that but I want to be a part of a choir somewhere...

Hmmm. Anyway as I sat there in the fourth row congratulating myself on my small victory I was thinking a million things. I was thinking how the people in the crowd would somehow automatically know just by staring at me that I was American. I was also thinking how amazing it was to be able to just go do something all by myself - something I would want to do that I'd have to literally drag my friends to do with me. What other nineteen year old do you know that like to listen to free classical music concerts in churches when they could be a pub. Hey - eleven am is acceptable pub time. Sheesh.

I was also thinking how strange it is to be so far from home and yet find a place that can warm my heart. That church wasn't St. Paul's cathedral - it wasn't the grand church that you study in your architecture class. But it was definitely a community. I could tell from observing that the people there were a mixture of people literally taking their lunch hour off and people who were devout members of the church. Everyone was nice in there and I was somehow a part of it, and yet somehow an observer. It's an interesting perspective to have. After today I am starting to really be adjusted, I suppose, because I'm really feeling like this whole 'study abroad' thing is a great idea. I'm doing my best to really just do some fun things in London...at the same time I'm trying to grow up a little and become a braver person.

Ok. Now that that little sharing of recently acquired knowledge/rant is over - let me move on. I decided after my lovely lunch time concert that I would like to walk to a park to read. I was on the south side of the river Thames and relatively close to Westminster. So I walked in that direction vaguely. I did find a nice looking independent coffee shop that had a sign for student discounts. I went in and got the best mocha I've ever had. The barista must have read my facial expression really well because my mocha had a little extra chocolate in it. :)

Anyway - I hope you guys do know that the Pope Benedict dude is here. I have been reading about London's/the U.K.'s mixed reaction at having him visit for some time now in the Evening Standard. Apparently he flew in yesterday. Well...I just happened to see the pope today - no big deal. It was a shear accident. I didn't think as I was walking with my steaming mocha in my hand - oh I should avoid the Abbey today because probably the whole city is there either protesting or trying to hug the Pope.

MAN! I think he's seriously received some legitimate death threats or something because the police had almost every street over there closed as well as - well ... There were at least fifty-million police. I felt like I was being watched as I tried to figure out how I could get out of the abbey and to Green Park (I did use my map for that one - Green Park is not far from Westminster Abbey and it looked big enough on my map for me to find some quiet in there somewhere...)

So anyway. Yep. I saw the pope today. I wish it had been John Paul II though, I liked him better. I did finally manage to sneak my way around the hub-bub and I found myself accidentally at Buckingham palace. Unfortunately, I missed the changing of the guard AND my camera died - but I'm charging it right now. I did manage to take some pictures which I'll upload tomorrow along with my pictures from the day trip.

Anyway the palace is grand and massive - but I wasn't so awed by the actual building. It's kind of...well...ugly in my opinion. But, it turns out the palace is right next to both Green Park and St. James Park. I think I was sitting in the Green Park section but it was gorgeous. My favourite park besides St. George's gardens which have an interesting peaceful feeling about them. The neat thing about these two parks is the amount of trees! I realized today how much I miss trees as strange as that sounds.

In actual fact, London is a pretty green city and has a bunch of trees. But being in this park I felt like I was at Notre Dame's campus or something. I will have to go back when the leaves turn and take pictures. The trees hang over the paths as if they are enveloping you when you walk. I loved it. I sat on a bench and read fifty pages of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World for class. (Interesting book if you want my opinion so far - very very interesting. I find myself a bit scared of the idea of a utopia really...)

Anywho...I must have been there for a while because I also wrote an entry in my journal and I would have stayed longer but I was cold. I am not doing so well when i get dressed in the morning. I didn't have enough in the ways of layers - and I'm thinking that I should have had on fuzzy socks for sure. Needless to say, I was freezing. So, I got up and started walking. Without looking at my map once I got back to the flat via Piccadilly and Chinatown.

It was a great experience, walking on Piccadilly at rush hour. I want to go back and take a time to actually look at the stores and such. I feel like window shopping on that road would be fun. I found myself in Chinatown - with paper lanterns swinging merrily in the breeze above my head. You know it's chinatown by the lanterns and also by the SMELL. I mean, I like sushi but SHEESH. I do not think I'll be eating sushi in Chinatown...it's a bit sketchy...

After that I came back to the flat and made dinner. I had sausages sauteed in red pepper and green onion with corn on the cob. Don't worry guys - even though I can't cook it was really good. (Or I was just really hungry. :] )

I then talked with my flat mates for a bit and I've been researching and planning things that I want to do whilst I'm in London. Tomorrow we are for sure going on a day trip and I'm really excited. I'm currently charging both my ipod and my camera. I will do my best to take tons of pictures.

I've just been in the flat this evening lounging around. I've been so cold - but luckily I have my blanket and fuzzy socks. I ate a bunch of cookies...GAH! Comfort food gets you every time. I miss you guys enjoy the post.

Leave me comments! (I'll add pictures later.)

Cheers!