And I thought college visits were for high schoolers

So I think I might transfer...providing Oxford accepts me, that is. This morning, Steph, Chrissy and I decided to go on a day trip to Oxford in search of the perfect university sweatshirt. And to see the third oldest University in the world.

We started with lunch at the news café, a cute little café that was painted blue on the outside and inside had magazines and newspapers to read with pictures of people reading the newspaper all around. Then we set off exploring through the beautiful buildings. We quickly found a bookstore to buy our hoodies. And later we found the University press, where they have Oxford dictionaries…yes this is where they come from, amazing I know. We definitely had our geeky moments looking through the bookstore.

But the buildings were beautiful and around every corner we were gasping and wondering why it is we live in Indiana when places like this exist. It’s just crazy to think how long this place has been a University and even some of the shops said things like, “established 1736” – before our country even existed. I know this shouldn’t be new to me because this is how a lot of England and Europe is, but it just hit me again today.

The London Reality Show that is my life

Friday night or "Britain's Got Talent" - class is over and our last full London weekend has begun. Caitlin, Danielle and I get ready and head to barfly in Camden, where we are on the "short list" aka the cover is cheaper, for Danielle's co-worker's boyfriend's band MOK.

Inside, the 7 p.m. World Cup game is ending and the bar is filled, so we walk through the side door and tell the bouncer our names (I have to admit - I felt kind of cool getting my name checked off the list.) and then head upstairs. A opener band was already playing. Then during the break, I noticed a man in a crazy sweater - turns out to the boyfriend of Danielle's co-worker Dolcie who found Danielle and explained the band - an indie band, but the lead singer is a rapper....interesting.

And when they started that was the best way to explain the band...interesting. We ended up leaving and going downstairs for a drink followed by fantastic tasting falafel at a stand down the street.

Saturday or "Jersey Shore, the British version" - last journalism school excursion to Brighton. The town is how I imagine the Jersey shore to be. But of course, classy because it's British.

The Brighton pier is great and filled with food, games and rides. We walked up and down and admired it all. I ended up eating crepes with ham and cheese and ice cream on the pier (not together of course) And then we made Sean ride the mechanical bull...which was great fun.

Danielle and I also did some shopping and walked around the Royal Pavilion. It was unlike any other royal housing place/castle I had seen. The pavilion was "oriental" style, by Englishmen in the 1700s who had never been to Asia. But it was beautiful and filled with bamboo and elaborate chandeliers. And it was so cool to see some of the original wallpaper and other things.

Later we laid out on the beach that wasn't sand but all stones. It was surprisingly comfortable and it was nice to remember that it is almost July and summer. I actually got a little tan too!

Then it was off to a pub to watch the US and Ghana game.

I. am. exhausted.

After the epic day at Wimbledon, today was a sleepy one. And even though all I want to do is sleep, I'm trying to get as much as I can done for work and class so that I don't have to spend my last days in London in the flat working.
I can't believe next week is our last week in London - two weeks from today I will be home in Indiana, half a world away. Crazy. And there is still so much to do. However, I am excited to have the extra few days for fun and to show mom around this city that I know so well now.

After work today, I went to the Bank of England museum to get information for my article for work and it was really cool and interesting.

Fun fact of the day - the exchange rate was created when several countries adopted the gold standard. Then, the rate was based on the amount of gold in your 1 unit coin. So for example, there was 486% more gold in 1 pound than in 1 dollar so the exchange rate was 1 pound = $4.86.

Then I was leaving and what did I see? More of the Play Me, I'm Yours pianos! I really want to have time next week to write a scene piece about them, because I'm kinda obsessed.(as you can tell by the additional picture)

Then later it was time for birthday shakes for Megan's birthday at Tinsletown with the group, where I got a Mint Aero shake (yum!)

Love Wimbledon

I officially completed a life goal. Never, ever did I think I would make it to Wimbledon, let alone have seats in the eighth row of Court #2. I was just hoping to go see the grounds during this trip, but Wednesday was so much better than that.

Biz and I left the flats around 4:40 a.m. to see our bus pulling away, without us on it. So we started walking to the tube and Biz hailed us a cab and we made it to Waterloo Station in time for the first train at 5 a.m. From the Wimbledon station, it was about a 30 minute walk until we found the queue and got our queue cards around 6:15 a.m.…numbers 1366 and 1367.

Then came the magic moment, the Wimbledon steward (who helped people queue) told the people in the queue behind us that the first 500 people in line got centre court tickets, the next 500 got court #1 and we got court #2! I was going to be on a show court at Wimbledon! I couldn’t believe it.

So we stood in the queue until around 8 a.m. when they gave us our wristbands for Court #2. Then it was more line waiting in the Wimbledon golf court, until we could buy our tickets and go in. After looking at the order of play, we went to the shop and then waited for the grounds to open at 10:30 a.m.

When the courts opened, we wandered through the open courts to where a few players were warming up. And who was there warming up? Oh Andy Roddick. Not a big deal at all!

After freaking out and taking tons of pictures, we wandered through the courts and grounds more, keeping our eyes open for a court that might have Venus or Roger Federer on it warming up. But we didn’t see them so it was off to court #2 to find our seats.
The seats were amazing. We were 8th row, on the side of the court. First up was Justine Henin! She won with ease. And although the tennis was great, so was all around it. there were ball boys or girls in blue Ralph Lauren polos on each of the 4 corners of the court and 2 at the net. Then there were 5 line judges on each side of the net. The judges were all dressed in cream pants (or long skirts for women) and blue button down shirts with cream hats and as each point started they would put their hands on their thighs and bend to watch the lines.

After Justine, we watched Gael Monfils and Karol Beck. It was a long match, but so good. And Monfils is such a good player! During the next match, we decided to go exploring and get the classic Wimbledon strawberries and cream with PIMMS to drink. But on our way to the food, we passed Serena and Venus’s mom coming out of centre court! She was inches from us!

We then explored centre court and to my surprise, when we asked if we could sneak in to take a quick picture, the guard let us! He even told us to go down the steps and he took a picture of us. So then we asked to see Court #1 and we couldn’t stay long, but we did see Federer on a change over!

Back at Court #2, there was a men’s singles match that we watched the end of and then it was #4 Jelena Jankovic against #60 Aleksandra Wozniak. It was actually a close match, but Jelena ended up winning. But during that match, they would show the scores of other matches on the scoreboard and that’s when we saw it….the longest tennis match ever. They were in the 5th set and had to win by 2. They ended up stopping because it was too dark at 59 games all….10 hours in. They finished the match on Thursday with a total of 11 hours of play. Crazy! And we saw them walk off court.

We went home tired, hungry and sunburned. But it was totally worth it to see the Wimbledon tournament!

“I’m yours” – Sounds like a Jason Mraz song to me

After work on Tuesday, I went to the Tate Modern because I hadn’t been back since we went in the beginning of the trip and it was still on my to-do list. Although I’m not much for modern art, it was still really cool to walk around for an hour or two. The pop art displays were my favorite. I really liked the propaganda posters and the Andy Warhol displays. But the best part was walking out and seeing this piano, just chilling at the end of Millennium bridge. It was part of the city of London festival and had the words, “Play Me…I’m Yours” painted on it. I watched as one group would go up and play around and then another group would stand nearby ready to pounce and take their turn. I finally got my turn and snapped a few pictures.

Amazing Race, Ireland style.

It began Saturday morning at 9 a.m. We met in Biz and Kamilla’s flat and walked to the Chancery Lane tube stop because our tube stop was closed. When we got to Baker Street we boarded our Easy Bus and talked to our Bangladeshi driver all the way there. Here’s what I learned:

- He was horrified when I told him that I didn’t want to leave London and go back to the U.S. and that I had never been to New York.
- He asked how close Indiana was to Hollywood and even though we explained it was far away, he wanted to know if we saw movie stars all the time.
- He thought all American roads are two lanes.
- If you compliment the city bus driver, he will let you off at a light or not a stop if you ask nicely.
Then it was off to Ryanair, which you board by going up the stairs a la important politicans on TV. When we got to Dublin, we wanted a cab but the cabbie quoted us nearly double what we were told it would cost, so we opted for the bus.

It dropped us off near the hostel and here’s what we did from there:

Day 1
-Check into hostel and almost score free tour because we are staying 3 nights, then realize we are only staying two, but decide to sign up for the tour anyway
-Walk into our 12 person room to find an American flag draped across the bunk beds and sorority letters in the bathroom.
-Go exploring to the famous Temple Bar area where we find a pub with the most amazing brazed beef stew. (It was cooked with Guinness.) We also drink our first Guinness in Ireland and watch Galic hurling on TV. (We were expecting the World Cup.)
-Continue to wander in and out of pubs to find that the Irish in the touristy areas really like to sing Sweet Home Alabama. Also we eat amazing Bailey’s cheesecake and text Lesa to hang out with us. (She never responds.)
-Go to explore Trinty College, only to be locked in and then led out by some nice Irish girl named Laura and her swipe card to the gates.
-Finish at the hostel only to have our hostel mates come in around 3 a.m., screaming “Look! The newbies are here!” Also, learn from there conversations that they wanted to smother Stephen when he snored.

Day 2
-Continue to overhear the hostel mates to find out they are from UGA, fratastic and leaving that day.
-Get on a bus with our tour guide Helen, who is Irish but lived in Texas for a while.
-Go to Glendaloch and explore the 6th century monistary. And then climb a mountain, see two lakes and a waterfall. Not a big deal. Oh and we played in the lake.
-Take the bus on an extremely bumpy road so Biz and I are jumping out of our seats
-Eat at the hostel BBQ and have burgers with American burger sauce aka Big Mac sauce.
-Go to the Jameson distillery, learn how whiskey is made, have a Jameson and cranberry juice and then watch Anna & Kamilla drink Irish coffees
-Then go explore Dublin including St. Patrick’s cathedral and more pubs. We find Lesa, her parents and Allen in a pub called “the hairy lemon.”
-Finish the night at an American style diner and then go back to the hostel and meet our roommates

Day 3
-wake up and go to full Irish breakfast with the brotrip a.k.a the four guys that replaced our UGA roommates. They were super cool and had just graduated from UCLA and were on a month tour of Europe.
-take the brotrip with us the Guinness Factory where we learned to pour the perfect pint (it’s official – I have a certificate that said I succeeded!)
-Leave the brotrip a half an hour late, luck out and take a taxi to the hostel and airport.
-Land in London to find a huge line for customs, but we are given a pass and we arrive at our bus with 6 minutes to spare
-go straight to the Globe to watch Henry VIII and eat ice cream
Race Complete.

Check, check and check

Today, my to-do list loved me. My stomach however, did not.
It all began with a traditional English breakfast, item #1 checked off my oh-my-god-I-only-have-two-weeks-left list. Danielle, Biz and I went to a little cafe across from the print shop and asked for the traditional breakfast. We got toast, hash browns, bacon (aka fried ham), baked beans, sausage and a fried egg - all covered in a layer of grease. I ate almost all of it and walking to class, my stomach felt like it was one of those oil spill covered birds minus the feathers. So much grease!

During class we watched a documentary about secret CIA prison flights and the producer came in to talk with us about investigative journalism. She was great and talked about really going after the story - never take no for an answer and to "squeeze every opportunity like a lemon"

Class got out early so we could watch the US game for the world cup. A bunch of us went to a nearby pub ad watched the game. We had fun cheering with the British people next to us who were also cheering for the US. And the game was actually kind of exciting - which is saying a lot since I normally think soccer/football is boring.

Next we went to the London Eye. Although it was raining, we had a lot of fun and London is so pretty. I took so many pictures of Parliament and Big Ben because it's beautiful! Check - item #2

Danielle and I then took the tube to Victoria & Albert museum. Another amazing museum. We started off in the Grace Kelly exhibit and walked through to see all her dresses. Then it was the rest of the fashion display - including shoes! ekk! And the architecture display, which had models of things that we saw in Rome. Plus there was the nest of books. It was a staircase that turned, so like a spiral staircase with platforms, and all around it was books - 6,000 to be exact. We were in awe and the man who was in charge of the display knew it. Are you two avid readers? uh-huh we nodded.
so there was item #3 - check.

Now by this point it was close to 10 p.m. and I hadn't ate since breakfast. And when we got back to Farringdon and to the pub to meet Tom's girlfriend who is in town, we ordered drinks. Which wouldn't be bad - but I was starving and the kitchen was closed. So it was a trip to Farringdon grill for food and then off to pack for Dublin!

So get on a train and go somewhere

So I have this secret (sometimes not so secret) obsession with trains. I sort of love them. So when I found out there was a transportation museum in London, I’ve wanted to go for the last…oh 5 and ½ weeks or so. And today, I went.

It was the coolest museum, possibly ever. First you start off in a lift aka elevator aka time machine! We got in and above the doors was the year and then as we went up to the second floor, the years rolled back to 1800 and when the doors opened, we could hear the clip-clop of horses and there were stage coaches (as I type that, I realize that’s probably the American version, but that’s what they looked like – the British called them “horse omnibuses.” But they were complete with horses and fake people riding and driving them. And this continued – with the Victorian trains and the tube from the 1970’s complete with passengers in bellbottoms and ads for platform shoes. It went all the way up to the current tube that we take almost every day. And there weren’t just trains, but double-decker buses too!

And another reason I wanted to go was for the amazing “tube art” or train posters. In one room was the coolest art display ever. It was a slideshow on a projector, but it started on the floor and raced up to the screen and was filled with art, photos and even typeface. I think I stood there for a solid 20 minutes. Brilliant!

Heaven is the 4th floor of New Look Department Store

After work today, I came home to meet Chrissy and we ventured to Oxford Circus for some intense shopping. Oxford Circus is the Michigan Avenue of London, except better because there are so many more stores where I would actually buy things. Plus the British department stores are huge. They all have like 4 levels and sometimes a place to eat. New Look had a Starbucks in it and Topshop had an EAT. How Brilliant! Also, New Look may be the smartest store of all time. The entire 4th floor was shoes and purses. (I was in love) And there were giant high heel shaped chairs to sit in to try the shoes on.

Naturally, I bought a pair of shoes. I’m actually surprised I’ve gone this long without buying shoes. Plus….they’re only size 8 thanks to UK sizes.

Later, floor 5 and Stephen went for dinner with Lesa and Allen. We went to a Japanese Restaurant at St. Katherine’s Docks by the Tower of London. It was so good and so much food! My favorite was this duck mango and rice roll (it had a real name but I have no idea what that is) and the dessert – banana and chocolate rolls with blueberry ice cream. Kamilla and Caitlin order this “flowering” tea. It was literally a flower bud that when hot water was poured on it, it opened up and the water turned to tea.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Oh, and Tuesday too…

Saturday was Leeds Castle and Canterbury. We got to the castle before it opened and took our time walking through the grounds up to the castle. There were birds everywhere. There were beautiful peacocks including a beautiful albino one. It was beautiful, but it kept shaking because it was angry at the pigeons nearby. (Another reason I loved it, we both hate pigeons). Inside the castle were the rooms of the royals who lived there and upstairs was decorated how it was in the 1950s when a different woman lived there. Then it was off to Canterbury. The town is known for its cathedral and the pilgrims who came there. Now, it’s lots of little shops. We ate lunch at a little pub and then Steph, Danielle and I went to the animated Canterbury Tales. It was cheesy with the people that popped up out of nowhere, but the tales were fun and it was Canterbury.

Afterward, we went back to London and watched the USA v. England Football game at a Pub. When we first walked in, all the tables were booked, but we managed to snag the couches right in front of the screen. So although it wasn’t super rowdy, we had a great view of the game. We went back to the flat and hung out, then we decided to go to Lesa and sing to her in her flat.

On Sunday, we slept in and then I decided I wanted to go to the grocery store because I was almost out of food. So Maggie and I walked to the big Sainsbury’s Grocery store, only to find out it doesn’t open until 11a.m. But we did find the Chapel street market and bought strawberries and nectarines instead. And on the way home, we bought meringue.

Then we went Spitalfields market, which might be my favorite market so far. There were so many aisles of clothes, jewelry and food. It was wonderful. We walked through most of the market and then decided to take a break and go to Brick Lane, which is known for its curry. Two of the best curry places were right next to each other and they fought to give us a good deal. We ended up getting drinks, a starter and curry with rice for £6.95. We were the only ones in the restaurant, but it was so good. Afterward, we went back to the market, finished it and made our purchases.

Later, we decided to go to mass at Westminster Cathedral. It was literally between office buildings and was brick. It kind of reminded me of a train station. But the mass was quick and we were able to look around a bit before we left.

On Monday, we had our visit to the Telegraph. I. AM. IN. LOVE. The newsroom was beautiful and arranged so perfectly. And once again the speaker was great and encouraging. Then we went to Westminster Abbey. It was one of the most beautiful places ever. I saw the tombs of kings and queens, Handel, Isaac Newton, and Jane Austen. So a-mazing. Plus we saw the coronation chair where kings and queens have been crowned since the 1000s.

Next was dinner at a Portuguese place for Steph’s birthday, followed by Les Mis. It was beautiful, but very sad and depressing. I do want to read the book now. And finally, today was work again and after work, Chrissy and I went shopping to all the different secondhand and antique bookstores. And later, a few of us met Alex Farris who has been in Spain for the last semester for drinks at a pub on Fleet Street. The street is known for journalism, so we thought it was appropriate.

Ok, so I’m finally caught up now.

Spanish dancing in London

I knew the minute I didn't blog everyday (aka when I went to Rome because I didn't have internet) I would have a hard time blogging everyday again. And as my posts show...I was right. So here's a recap of the last few days.
Thursday - Work and then more work. Since our projects were due for class on Friday. Our flat (along with every other flat it seemed)stayed in and worked. We worked until we went crazy singing Disney songs, eating oreos and drinking wine.
Friday - after all the presentations and the exhaustion we have put our feet through in the last 6 weeks, not to mention just in Rome alone, Danielle and I decided we would get pedicures because your feet deserved it. So after class, we set out on a trek to find the London Beauty College and its 13 pound pedicures. And we did - only about 45 minutes after it closed. So we went back to the flats on our poor feet.
But Friday night - we were ready to celebrate Caitlin's birthday. So after getting ready in the flats in true girly style - hair straighteners, heels, borrowing clothes and purses, music blasting - flats 9 & 10 (plus Megan and Steph) were ready. We started at the Salisbury, were Caitlin's "husband" was. And when we left, she was on cloud 9 because he had spoke to her. And then as we wandered around we found this great Spanish place with dancing and no cover. We had so much fun dancing, but sadly had to leave before lots of people got there. But last stop was Tinsletown for milkshakes. I got snickers and it was wonderous. We even ran into Flat 5 who was also there.

“I get by with a little help from my friends”

It was an exhausting weekend. We didn’t get back from Rome until after 1 a.m. and work was the next day at 9 a.m. So needless to say, I didn’t have much time to upload all my pictures and blog. And if Tuesday would have been my day to catch up, but yesterday was not just any Tuesday.

It was Brian & Caitlin’s birthday.

So how does EPS celebrate? By dressing up and going out to an Italian dinner followed by £2 Tiramisu, £1 Chocolate cake, fudge, champagne and wine while singing everything from the Beatles and Cher to the Backstreet Boys, of course. We all crammed into flat 9 (including Lesa) and spent the night singing our hearts out and catching up with everyone from the weekend apart. (And maybe we were putting off our group projects too)
But of course, that didn’t help how tired I was. So today, after work I took a nap before heading to Farringdon grill to pick up dinner and updating my blog and working on that project.

How can I put this city into words? More importantly…without writing a novel-length post.

3:30 a.m. Saturday. I wake up to Amanda asking when I was going to get up. Thank god I had packed & showered before bed because I had slept through my alarm and had just enough time to get ready and run out the door as Danielle was waiting anxiously because the taxi had called her to say it was here already…twice.

So after a successful taxi ride to the airport and flight to Rome, we got to tourist information, who told us to take a bus to the city. But it left before we got to it so we took a taxi. A taxi that:

1) Drove on the right side of the road and I didn’t notice until like 10 minutes into the ride.
2) The windows were down all the way – the whole time – at like 90 miles an hour
3) And the driver, oh yeah, he talked on his headset phone in Italian the whole time.

But we got to the city and after some mass confusion found the hostel and Lindsey, who had taken the train from Florence to meet us and may have gotten off at the wrong station. But we found her and went to the hostel. It had the biggest doors I’ve ever seen and the woman was so excited to hear Lindsey spoke Italian…and then sad to hear she was only there for the day.

Then it was on the metro train to the Vatican museum. Inside was filled with statue after statue of muses and roman gods and the most beautiful ceilings I had ever seen. And then, at the end, was the Sistine Chapel. We couldn’t take pictures so I bought a few postcards. It was so beautiful and intricate and I just wanted to stand and stare forever.

Next, was Old Bridge gelato, which is some of the best gelato in Rome according to Lindsey’s friends. Not only did we order in Italian, but it’s common to get 2 flavors in one cone…brilliant right? So I ordered chocolate chip and mint (and when we went again on Sunday, I got chocolate and rum cream yum!)

Then it was the Trevi Fountain, which may be the prettiest place in the entire world. I threw in two coins, which means I will return to Rome and find a new romance so I threw one with a British coin and one American coin to diversify my options. I also made sure we say this everyday we were there.

We took Lindsey to the Colosseum so she could see it before she left and it is literally right outside the train station. That’s how the whole city is. We were just walking along and it was “hello Roman ruins” or “Hello giant monument.” We ate dinner across the street on a 2nd floor terrace that overlooked the Colosseum. Not a big deal.
We were exhausted, so we ended the night with cannoli and 44 cent liters of water. (Such a good idea – why don’t we have that in the States?) And went back to our summer camp hostel with the tiniest showers ever.

Day 2 – Sunday and St. Peter’s Basilica. Mass in the Basilica in Italian. Tombs of the popes including John Paul II and St. Peter. And over 300 steps to the top of the copula. And they weren’t just steps. It was spiral staircases and slanted staircases with slanted hallways that if they were any more slanted I wouldn’t of fit. But the view was all of Rome.

Dinner was in a piazza with a beautiful fountain and delicious food. At the restaurant, they gave us lemon liquor that is an after dinner drink. It was like drinking pure lemon sugar water. Then, we went exploring and found a bar to have drinks where the bartenders were crazy and danced all around us.

Day 3 – The Colosseum was amazing and all around it was the Roman ruins including several temples, arches and the Roman Forum. It was crazy to walk through all of the ancient ruins. So we went shopping and then took the train the airport. The train had little glass rooms a la Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express.

Three days was really the perfect amount to see everything we wanted to see and not be rushed. And I still can’t believe I was really in Rome.

British Treasures

Fridays mean class. But today, our teacher Keith wasn't there so we had a guest speaker and watched a movie.
The speaker was Tom Felton who is the cutest old man journalist ever. He was a foreign correspondent for almost 50 years and has been everywhere from the Middle East to France to Russia.He was really cool to hear from and made me wish I could have been a part of the old-school journalism days.
Then it was off to the British Museum. How overwhelming! It was filled with artifacts from all throughout history including mummies from Egypt and the Rosetta Stone. But my favorite part was actually outside the museum. It was a garden that was filled South African plants. Super Pretty!
Then it was off to Covent Gardens to buy last minute things for our trip to Rome! Which I leave for in about, oh four hours. Which also means that I can't blog until Monday.
So I'm off to Rome - land of the Romans & the Vatican!

Some days you're famous

So today, I went home to my flat and was sitting online reading my e-mail, when a message from Danielle pops up: Your face is in a newspaper in our flat. Yep, that's right. Turns our Biz is a journalism superstar and she ended up writing the story and paper also used her photos about curry fest. Including the one of me being a cheese ball. Lovely. Speaking of lovely, we had dinner with Lesa tonight and it was wonderous.

I only worked half a day at work today. So I spent the afternoon in the courtyard of St. Paul's reading and eating my lunch, watching the tourists go by. Then I became a tourist and went on a tour about the blitz. Although it was really long, it was pretty interesting, especially the churches that were bombed and now the foundations are gardens. That was my favorite. Also a sign I found, "12 disciples wanted to start congregation" What?

And speaking of...Rome in less than 48 hours!

Walks through London

I love the randomness of the city. The way I seem to just become swept up in it. The sun was so bright and shinning so after dinner I couldn't help it and we decided to go for a walk, which turned into a walk, then a trip to the grocery store followed by singing.
What I love about London is how the old is mixed with the new. The buildings can be brand new or from the 1800s and right next to each other. So cool.

After work today, I was walking home and was stopped by a man who was leaving the tube station and he asked if I knew where St. Bart's Hospital was. I didn't and I told him sorry but no. (Imagine his surprise when he heard my American accent!) But the best part was just the fact that I was stopped on the street because looked like a true Londoner. It's a sign that I do fit in.

The Rain in London

Today was a rainy day in London. It was the kind of day that I was expecting in London. But it was perfect because it only rained when I was inside and not when I was walking to or from work. But once I got back, it started raining harder. So I put in Love Actually and ate some biscuits (aka cookies) as the rain came down outside.

Later, we booked our tickets for the Vatican Museum so that we don’t have to wait in the long lines before seeing the museum and the Sistine Chapel. But, sad day – The Pope will be in Cyprus when we are in Rome. But that won’t stop me from going to mass at the Vatican!