Weekend in London (Part One)

Once again I am sorry to all you loyal readers that it has been awhile. I will reward you with three different posts this week from our weekend in London. We left on Friday morning and took the train down to London which was fabulous, we loved taking the train. The only exception was the bunch of rowdies that rode from Edinburgh to Newcastle and sang to their music the entire way. One of the members of my new department got us some discounted rail tickets through his family so it was a great way to travel. The main purpose of our trip was an invitation to the American Embassy. All of the Fulbright exchangees in England and Scotland were invited along with British teachers who have done exchanges in the past. After some fearsome security (two days after the Yemen bombing) we had an awesome time in the lobby of the embassy. The decorations alone made it all worth while. Unfortunately we were not able to bring our cameras into the embassy so I have no pictures. However, there were amazing scuptures of Lincoln, the Constitutional Convention and unbelieveable art work. (I know I am a history geek) I was also amazed at the number of famous people who have been American ambassadors to Britian including four future presidents. After the reception we went to dinner with a number of the other American families and Monique had a blast with a girl from New York who is spending the year in Brighton. After we left them we walked around London until midnight. Again, I did not have my camera, but it was an outstanding evening. These pictures are from the next morning. The first one is Monique and Beth eating a traditional English breakfast in a London pub. The second one is the traditional guards in front of Buckingham Palace, but they are not out front of the gates like they used to before modern terrorism. Finally, off to the side is Beth and I in front of Buckingham Palace. Stay turned for part two, the musical WICKED.

Cheers