Journal 32
December 4th, 2004

Thursday: the 2nd

Last day of classes. Well, Justin slept through his. I heard his alarm go off at 7ish, him roll over, he looked at the time, said "Fuck It..." and rolled back over and went to sleep. I went back to sleep to sleep too since I didn't have to be up for at least another hour. When I got up though Justin woke up again and realized that he slept through his alarm, which he didn't remember, and then felt bad he missed he missed Scott's class. Though it wasn't too smart of AIFS to put that huge party in the middle of our Finals.

Anyway, I went to school and checked mail. Then met up with Nadia and talked about the night before. We ran into Scott and were all comparing stories about the night before. Nadia and I had to turn around because we were actually headed to the wrong classroom/building. So we went back and found our room for Photography class.

Today in class we were all sharing what we felt was some of our best work. I think my favorite photos out of everyone else's were two: The first was a picture that Erin took in Scotland of a pond with horses running though it, the reflection of the sky and mountains in the water was so clear that you almost couldn't tell which side was up. The second picture I really liked was one by Chad. It was his watch laying on a table. He used a slow shutter so you could actually see where the second-hand had moved six seconds. After class I had to make my way back across town to meet up with my family who had just flown in.

I went the Tube stop on the map I got off the hotel's website, but I still couldn't find the place. After wandering around for about half an hour I just sat down and waited for my mom to call my cell phone, I knew if I waited long enough she would call - and then I could ask where they were at. Well, I was right, she called and told me which hotel they were in, I found it and met up with them. That night we went to eat down near Picadilly Circus at a little Italian place. Afterward my grandmother took a cab back to the hotel and my mom, aunt, and I walked to Covent Gardens to look around there. We we got home everyone got into an argument over money, so I left to go home to my homestay. I got back home, worked on some stuff on my computer, and then crashed.

 

Friday: the 3rd

I got up early this morning to meet my Mom at Ealing and show her around the area I live. I showed her my homestay and she met Ian. We then went to Safeway for groceries, and I also brought a bunch of stuff back to the hotel, since I was going to stay with them a few days after I moved out of my homestay. That day they were going to go on a Bus tour around London. So I went to school to book a hostel for Italy, and also to try and get plans set out a little more for my trip next week. I was able to sit and talk to a ton of different people from class; everyone was in the lab that day, haha. I talked to Kelly, he said that I took about 400 pictures from the night before last. After goodbyes were said my mom called and I met up with them at Picadilly Circus again. We then walked to Leister Square looking for a place to eat dinner. We ate at the same Italian I had eaten at after Photo class two months before. After dinner I headed back home to start packing up all my stuff to leave the next day.

 

Saturday: the 4th

Justin's alarm went off really early this morning; he had a 7:30am taxi to the airport. Well Justin had only had about an hour or so of sleep, so the alarm going off scared the hell out of him. He was freaking out because he couldn't find it; I told him to turn the light on and then look for it. Anyway, he got up and packed up the rest of his stuff. Jay called to talk and say goodbye. Graham came in to say goodbye also. Justin's cab arrived, he said bye to me, and left.

I laid in bed, went back to sleep, and got up around 9. I showered and packed up my things. I went to eat breakfast. We were out of crumpets this morning so I had these toastable waffle things, they burned in the toaster. Great... my LAST day here and I burn something... Ian just kind of laughed and told me to cook the other ones. After that I went upstairs to get my things. Justin had forgotten his sweater, laundry bag, and I guess he had accidentally thrown away jewelry from his backpack that Holly/Sam/Courtney or someone had bought. So I figured I'd take it with me and send it home with my mom in a few days when she leaves London. Ian gave me a ride to hotel that my family's staying at. I said goodbye, and told him I'd see him in a few days when I come bye to say bye to Sue and introduce my mom since she's in town.

That day my family and I went to Big Ben and Westminster Abby. The Abby was cool, but it was more of a graveyard than a church.They had a choir come in though and sing, and you can see where the Royal Family gets married and stuff. I lit a candle there for Margaret though, I always worry about her.
Afterward we walked down the street to an Italian deli (are you noticing a trend at all). It was the same one I had been to with Justin, Holly, etc. months before. The food was so-so and the service wasn't too great. They kicked out a couple because they were sitting at a table for four. The lady made them move to another table for four that only two people were sitting at. Then she told us to sit down at the now-empty table. The couple decided to just leave; we probably should have too. After that we walked to Trafalgar Square, and then to Buckingham Palace. After all that we went to Oxford Street because they wanted to do some shopping. My grandmother had to buy new shoes because the ones she brought weren't comfortable enough to walk all around in. After spending an hour or two doing that we decide to go across town to eat at a place that was highly recommended in the guide book that my Mom and Aunt have. Well, we made it all the way there but it was booked solid for the night, they said that they fill up pretty fast on the weekends. So we walked up and the streets there looking for another place... I'll give you two guesses as to where we ended up eating... Another Italian restaurant. Well, after dinner we ended up just going back to hotel while everyone tried to figure out what to do the next day. As I sat building the picture pages from the party on Wednesday I realized that all the students who flew home that morning were going to be landing in San Francisco, haha, weird.