My First Visitor

So nothing exciting happened this week.
JUST KIDDING! My dear friend, Emily, visited London on her way home from a two-year term working as a missionary in Botswana. Her experience is fascinating, so you should read of her adventures on her blog (emilyinbotswana.blogspot.com). I had the idea for my blog from her, so credit to you! Her boyfriend, Andy, also came to London to be on vacation with her. So here is what we did during her week here...

1.) See Spamalot
Emily, Andy, and I went to see Spamalot, which is a musical based on Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail. It was hilarious! Even though we had nosebleed seats (FOUR flights up from the stage, and tall men blocked our view). There were even binolulars for rent up where we were. The best part was when everyone in the audience sang along with "Always look on the bright side of life". We had never heard of it (it's from the Life of Bryan) but it a HUGE song here! Absolutely everyone knows it.

Spamalot at the Palace Theatre--hilarious!

How nice it is to get dressed up for a show

2.) Have the Exciting and Authentic London Experience
Things I made Emily and Andy do...

• Cheesy poses for the camera

Like so...

The absolute ultimate in cheesy London photos!

• eat greasy fish and chips
  

fried food + beautiful historic location at the Tower of London = happiness!

• go to a pub quiz and WIN!
  

We went to the quiz night at one of LSE's bars, and the team with my flatmates, Emily, Andy, and I WON! That's right, we're smart. We won a 30 pound bar tab for that night, tickets to Crush (a party that occurs every Friday night), and a flight to a European city! Not too bad....

• See fireworks for Guy Fawkes Day (Bonfire Night)
  

okay, okay, so no, I did not take this cool picture, but we did see fireworks! And there was a carnival

• get caught in a gang war of fireworks and screaming rockets in the middle of the street

Sadly, we were too busy getting the heck out of dodge to take a picture! But the story is: we were walking back to the tube station from seeing the fireworks. Policemen warned us to maybe take the bus to the station, as teenagers were out setting off fireworks in the street. We walked! So all of a sudden, the gaggle of teenage girls in front of us start screaming their heads off and running away. And firework rockets went screaming down the middle of the street, too close for my comfort! And then we saw up ahead a war zone of rockets and fireworks being launched across the street at each other, hitting cars and buildings! We got out of there pretty fast...

• See the Queen

Yes, I saw the queen AGAIN! We were on Fleet Street and a police officer wouldn't let us cross the road. Then a motorcade drove by, and we saw the Queen in the backseat of a big black car! Two queen sightings in less than a month... maybe she is following me.

• Force Emily to do horrible, Western things

Like eat Ben and Jerry's ice cream. OK, if anything, Emily forces us to do stuff! By saying "I haven't had this in TWO years!"

3.) Had a Great Time
I had such a great time with Emily and Andy! It was amazing to have friends here (especially ones who have been holed away in Botswana for 2 years!) and show them what I think is cool here.

The place where we saw fireworks for Bonfire Night had a huge carnival with haunted houses and moon bounces and merry-go-rounds and a concert and a swing ride, which we went on!