I saw the Royal Family.

I'm horrible at doing this every single night. Ohhhh well. That means I'm busy living life, right? Yeah.

So. Yesterday was Tuesday. Woke up at 5:15 am. Left the house at 6:15 am (it was already sunny and bright out...weird. London sun stays up SUPER late and apparently wakes up super early too!). There were 7 of us that actually made it up that early, and we headed to the tube to get as close to Buckingham Palace as we could get for the Jubilee parade!

We got there about 7ish or so and found a spot RIGHT up against the gates that were lining the street that led to the front of the palace. People had been camping out, there were tents and people everywhere, even that early in the morning. Insanity. I'm so glad we got there when we did and were able to spread out and claim our spot!

The parade wasn't starting until 2:20pm, so we had TONS of time to kill. Most of us brought books for school, I read and people watched, we went off in shifts to walk back towards the tube station to get lunch (sandwiches and snacks from a grocery store), and we chatted with the awesome people around us!

Time moved really quickly actually, and I had a lot of fun. We learned our lesson after the floatilla and were wearing tons of layers...I was so bundled up! Of course, it wasn't as cold and it didn't rain at all, but I was comfortable all day which was awesome!

Marching bands went past at various points throughout the day, in full regalia and looking so impressive. It was fun to see things throughout the day!

The Royals all left Buckingham Palace in the morning in their cars to go to the service that was being held in St. Paul's Cathedral (I think?), so we were able to see them! First up close and personal sighting, even though they were in cars, and we FREAKED.

Prince Harry

Kate and William

THE QUEEN HERSELF

The service was played over speakers where we were, which was really cool. It was awesome to hear the prayers and messages that were being given for the Queen to honor her, and it was just straight up cool hearing all the people around us saying the Lord's Prayer together in unison. Awesome.

After many hours of waiting, tons of horses came through, and then the carriages carrying all the royals! SO MUCH EXCITEMENT. I was frantically just trying to take as many pictures as possible while simultaneously freaking out and screaming super loud! It's all a blur, and it kept hitting me throughout the rest of the day that I really did see them all that close. Insane.

queen queen queen

hi :)

hellllllo kate, will, and harry!

the masses

 Best. Day. Ever.


We got back and relaxed/crashed, had our weekly meeting talking about our upcoming weekend at Edinburgh, and Amanda and I watched Princess Diaries to end our day!

Today (Wednesday), I had my solo class in the morning. I cannot explain how much I love this class and it being just me. It's such a unique experience. My professor is so knowledgeable and I'm getting the opportunity to just soak up everything she says. We've been discussing Habermas and his writings on the public sphere, and I'm finding it SO interesting and so relevant. It's awesome.

We had a ten minute break halfway through, which was so great. I needed a break from all the intensity of just digging into the information, so it was good. We're adapting to the differences of just having me in the class, and it's really cool.

Our outing was to Covent Garden, and Rusty came with us. I'm sure it looked funny to people that saw us- they probably seemed like my parents or something! Oh well. Our conversations were just so rich and deep and I love just absorbing all the things that were being said, as well as contributing my perspective. So great. I can't talk enough about how excited I am about it all!

We saw the Actors Church in Covent Garden and I realized there was SO much more to Covent Garden than I've seen so far! It's a whole awesome place and I only saw one tiny part of it, so I'm really excited to go back and explore more!

We ended at the Charles Dickens Coffee House, where Dickens used to live and write. SO cool. We had a lot of awesome conversation over cappuccinos and hot chocolates...I'll post more about it on my class blog! (http://londonpublicsphere.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/week-two-outing-covent-garden-and.html)

After class, Amanda and I went to the Post Office- ridiculously long lines, and SUPER expensive for stamps. So annoying and put me in the worst mood! Spending money sucks. I had no idea how much money I would be spending, and it's driving me crazy seeing it go so fast.

We grabbed sandwiches, ate them, bought newspapers to have the pictures from yesterday, and came back to the flat. I tried to read some of my assignment for Politics and promptly fell dead asleep for a few hours. So sleep deprived.

Went to dinner with Griffin and Ian at a place nearby, got a really good veggie burger and an awesome dessert of lemon sorbet in a frozen hollowed out lemon! Came back and while most of the group was at their play for the theatre class, I was super productive on a lot of little things. Hooray.

Free day tomorrow- aka get more stuff done day!