London Flashback

A few friends have been posting flashbacks this week as it is the ten year anniversary of our arrival at the London Centre for our semester abroad. I thought I might as well jump on the bandwagon and reminisce for a moment. I did remember writing a couple of flashback posts back in the day when I devoted much more time and energy to my blog (and back when I was a much more interesting writer...) that you should really go read. Here's my tribute to the foods of London. And here's a top 25 list of things to do and some of my highlights from the 12 weeks I spent as a resident of England. 

Remember how my address was 27 Palace Court, I totally felt like a princess. The fact that the London Centre used to be a Russian Embassy and had fancy woodworking and ornate ceiling decor all throughout the five floors really made it feel posh! (And I hear they just renovated the interior this year, I wish I could sneak inside and take a look!)

Remember how we used to wake up some mornings and instead of attending classes, we'd race down to pack our sack lunches (because if you got there last, you'd be stuck with the prawn cocktail crisps) and spend the day on Martin's coach (charter bus) exploring the English countryside? Bodium Castle, Blenheim Palace, Chatsworth, Tintern Abbey and Rye to name a few....

Remember how there were like forty girls and 6 guys in our group? With those odds it's even more awesome that Trevor, the T.A and Sherry found each other and now, 10 years later are happily married with children! London Study Abroad Romantic Success!

Remember how we used to call the coach "The Narcolepsy Express?" After visiting a site, we'd get back on the coach and within a few minutes of chatting, we were either asleep or back to listening to the ipod (quite the new-fangled invention, the first generation had just hit the market....)

Remember the line for the one telephone in the Centre? Despite the fact that there was an 11 hour time difference, we still tried to call home every week or two. You'd be lucky if you only had to wait in line half an hour. If you were really desperate you'd walk out to Bayswater to use the payphone that smelled rank enough to knock you off your feet.

Remember dish duty? I remember Steph made a fun music mix to help us pass the time: 77 minutes of dish-doing bliss. We had to be in by 4pm to help set the tables and stay in an hour or two after dinner to clear and wash all the dishes. Any other night we were free to go out on the town, and usually catch a show. (And believe me, we did! I think my count was 21 in 14 weeks.)

Remember how we all took British Literature and got to visit the sites that inspired some of the most famous British Literature? The moors that inspired the Bronte sisters and Arthur Conan Doyle and others really were quite....inspirational...

Remember our various overnight accommodations on our week-long excursions? How we stayed at those dormitories in York with the disturbing yellow walls and pulling our mattresses in to have sleepovers (strength in numbers...) Then there was the night when we all piled in to share the one laptop screen for a Pride and Prejudice marathon and the hostel where we all grouped together in the great room to tell ghost stories and the boys tried to scare us with voices over the walkie talkie.

Remember how our home backed right up to the beautiful Kensington Gardens? I loved living in that area of town and especially since I went to church at the Hyde Park Chapel (spanish/portuguese branch) Katie and I just had to walk across the park each week to reach our Sunday meetings.

Remember the British obsession with badgers? I'm not sure why I'd never really honed in on badgers in my life, but once we got to London, they seemed to be popping up everywhere? While most of the group returned from walking on Hadrian's wall, I got many to believe that the cut I'd sustained on my thumb was actually a badger bite. I then proceeded to dress up as a badger for our AWESOME Halloween party.

Remember the London Walks? The tours that took you through all the various neighborhoods of London? My favorite was our night walks along the Thames. There's nothing quite like seeing Big Ben and Westminster all lit up from the riverwalk in the evening.

Remember how we got to visit all those church history sites on our field trips? Every time I hear about Benbow pond now and all those convert baptisms, I can say, "Hey, I've been there!" The London and Preston temples really were beautiful.

Remember toning at ten? We had to work off those baguettes and bread pudding that Tony and Tina served somehow! 

Remember taking the chunnel to Paris? We did a whirlwind weekend and got in the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomph, the Louvre, the Orsay, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and Saint Chapelle in two days.

Remember all the amazing friendships that we made? I am so glad that I met so many amazing people that semester and that I have stayed so close with so many of them.

Remember how we all bought those fashionable scarves that were all the rage and were totally ahead of the game when we came home and they were just starting to hit the fashion stage in the states?

Remember how we went to Stonehenge but it was so windy that several of our umbrellas got blown inside out? We couldn't go in and touch the stones but rather, took a big loop around it and had fun using the wind to our advantage for some "windblown" model shots....

Remember how amazing it was to LIVE in London? I am so glad I had that opportunity and all that I learned and all the memories I made.