Walkin' Round London Town, Tea Time, and Quakerism

London! London was great, and turned out to be pretty much what you would expect it to be. On a saturday, a group of 8 of us set out to explore London for the day. The day we went was pretty foggy and freezing! We started off by going to the British Museum which is huge! I could've spent an entire day there, but we only spent two hours. My favorite exhibit was the one on ancient Egypt. They had hieroglyphs and even Cleopatra's Mummy! I also got to see the Rosetta Stone and lots of other interesting things.

After the British Museum (picture above) we went and ate lunch near Big Ben and the London Eye, pictures below. On the way to eat we came across protesters marching in the streets, band and all. Their chant was "no iffs, no buts, no education cuts" about the new education cuts and tuition raise in the UK. Since they were headed our direction, we decided join in the protest, which was such an exhilarating moment! Picture below:

After lunch and the protest, we walked through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace where there were grey guards, not red. And the guards looked like they had just stepped out of the Wizard of Oz. Next we just made it in time to attend an evening service at St. Paul's Cathedral. Sadly I couldn't take pictures from the inside, but the cathedral was absolutely beautiful. They had frescoes going all the way to the top of the huge dome of the cathedral, and while I was gawking, yes very literally gawking, at my surroundings, heavenly voices of the boys choir serenaded me. It was a very awe-inspiring moment. This was the end of our first trip to London. (Buckingham picture below)

On our second trip to London (four days later) our entire program went and attended a candlelight service at Westminster Abbey that only happens once a year. Once you get to the service, there is a procession to the cathedral part of the church in which the crowd follows in the choir and reverends. Once inside everyone sits down and the choir sings heavenly songs and lots of ritualistic things that I can't explain happened. We had communion (with wine, not grape juice) and overall it was quite a different but amazing service. After the service I went with my professor's wife and kids to go see Lion King the Musical!!! Oh my goodness, I loved it! Hands down, best musical. The set, costumes, and songs are amazing. If you've never experienced it, go youtube it right now. Warning, you will fall in love. (Westminster pics below)

Other exciting news: this last weekend I went to a girls tea with the college ministry I have been attending while in Oxford. It was so fun! I got to meet lots of sweet British girls (and two americans from California?), have a "cuppa" tea, or quite a few cups actually, scones, raspberry tarts, finger sandwiches - everything you would want a tea to be. On Sunday, my roommates and I went to a Quaker meeting which was a whole new experience. Once you get there you sit in a room and are silent for a majority of the time. There are no sermons, people just stand and speak if they feel that the holy spirit has moved them to say something. It was nice to have a whole hour and a half to just be silent, speak to God, read the bible, and reflect. I don't think I could totally convert to Quakerism, but it was a nice time to be still. The verse kept popping into my head, "Be still and know that I am the God" (Psalm 46:10) and the story about God not being in the fire, or earthquake, but being in the gentle whisper. It was definitely a nice reminder about God's presence.

Well thats the end of this post, tonight is our night to cook family dinner and we are having breakfast for dinner! I've got to help them cook! Tomorrow we head to Paris so I'll blog about that later!