No planes? Buses? Rushing around???

Finally this weekend we had a break. Well, not Casey, she headed off to Germany in the middle of class on Thursday. But the rest of us did.

This weekend, none of us had anything really planned. Sure, there was some stuff I was thinking about doing, but the beauty of it was I could do it whenever I pleased. No running to and through airports, carrying 3 days worth of clothes in my backpack then waiting for hours because Ryanair is unorganized and stupid. No need for motion sickness medicine for every day because we weren't taking any long bus rides to or from airports. So nice.

Friday I was totally lame. I slept in, watched some TV with Liz, then went to work and did an essay on absolute advantage vs comparative advantage. Yeah, I'm livin' the dream. No seriously, it is due next Monday but we're going to be in Edinburgh this weekend!!!! That promises to be an excellent (but very long and exhausting) trip, since we have to take a train there so that means its a couple hours at least. We don't get back until Sunday, which limits my homework time. But I'm not gonna worry, the essay is almost done, and who cares??? It's bright and sunny here!


After lounging around a bit Saturday, I headed out to the Imperial War Museum just for the heck of it (since Dad told me to go). The museum isn't massive, but it has a lot of stuff. Like a huge WWI and WWII collection, plus exhibits on MI5 and MI6 and the Holocaust (which I skipped because you had to pay for it, there was a huge class of young teens there, and I've seen the Holocaust museum in DC so I figured it wouldn't be that different). What I found most interesting was that there was so much more history in the WWI and WWII parts, where I spent most of my time. Because the war actually happened over here, there is a lot more that was preserved. No offense America, but you joined both late. So it was interesting to see the British perspective on things.

The cannon outside the museum

Nazi uniforms. Scary.

They had lots of cool stuff, from guns to gas masks, uniforms to letters. I even got to walk through a WWII fighter jet! It was tiny. I can't believe someone used that to fight. I could barely stand in it!

However a few hours is about all I can take of museums, so I called it a day and headed home. It was a nice trip to take though. I really enjoyed it.

That night, in the interest of using all of our pasta before we leave, Liz and I made a big spaghetti dinner with garlic bread that Liz made herself. This segment is only funny because Liz and I are terrible estimators of how much pasta to make... Both of us when we're home generally just pour the whole box in the pot because so many people are gonna eat. We can't estimate dinner for two. So of course, we made enough for about 4. Meh. I did successfully make a normal portion for myself the next day for dinner. Maybe next time I will do the measuring and let Liz stir it or something.

Sunday was another beautiful day so we decided to go adventuring. We went to King's Cross to find Platform 9 3/4 of  Harry Potter fame. Warning. It is neither between 9 and 10, nor it is a real wall. It is a painting of a brick wall on some plywood waaaaaaaay away from everything near Platform 8. Still fun, but not as cool as I thought it would be.

so classy they didn't even cover the whole wall

Then Sarah and I wandered through Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens for a while. Because the weather was just wonderful. It was absolutely gorgeous as we walked along the water looking for the Peter Pan statue. We found it, and on the way soaked up the sun and the smell of the beautiful flowers. We watched couples and kids frolic in the park, and saw the cutest dogs! It was a nice, relaxing stroll.

The park

Along the water in the park

Apparently these are the Italian Fountains

Peter Pan statue!!!

Later that night, when all of us were done with our Skype dates, we decided we didn't want to do homework so we played a game we all love. If you've seen Inglorious Basterds, they play this game in a bar. Basically, each person write the name of a character or person on a card, and then you stick it on someone else's forehead. Then they have to guess who it is, by getting clues in the form of yes or no questions. This game is fun when you get creative. Among my favourite characters, The Kool Aid man, The Great Stone Dragon from Mulan, Cesca, Abe Lincoln, Barbie, The Eiffel Tower and Barack Obama. Fun times.