London- March 22-25 (SB4)

I though London would be larger than it was, but it was still fun. I saw Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery and The Portrait Gallery. We were in London with Janny's dad, which was cool, aside from the 14 immature high school girls. I can understand it though, as I was also once 17. There were also a few parents along on the trip, plus 3 tour guides. It was a fun time, getting lost in a larger group. Some of the stuff the girls did was eye opening to how I might've acted as an ignorant high school kid when I was overseas before. They would laugh at things that were clearly just different than American culture, not weird. The time with the group and J got old fairly quickly. I got sick of listening to J be fake to the parents of the kids. She acted so different, like she had to act older because her dad is the coach or something. I cannot stand it when people do that. The parents were very cool. I talked to them and I know that had J just been herself they would have liked her just the same. Oh well, you can't change how people are I guess. You can only make sure you act like you want others to see you..and for me that is just me being me.

During the trip I took pictures of the girls playing soccer, which was fun for me. That may have been my favorite part. We did geet a chance to go out one night in London. We went with Graeme and Nick, two of the tour guides. They took us to the Cheers! bar in Picadilly. It was fun minus the drama. J lost her phone in the taxi on the way there and then she was freaking out about it even though there was nothing she could do. The night was fun aside from that and all the creepy guys at the bar. That happens everywhere, so it wasn't a big deal. The next day we headed up North to Manchester, where the girls did some training. One of their games got cancelled due to field conditions, so we all went to Warwick Castle instead. That was pretty fun. It was definitely more of a kid-oriented place, but still fun. I took some photos and got to have some alone time just walking around the grounds. That was just what I needed! That night, the girls did have a game. We went to the game, but had to leave from the fields to catch our bus. We had called a taxi, but as we were heading up to the parking lot the owner of the travel company offered us a ride to the bus station. Even though we felt bad for leaving the taxi waiting, we could not turn down a free ride. We both knew it would save us money and with most of the trip still ahead every little bit would help! We got to the bus station to catch out 6 1/2 hour bus to Stansted. It was a decent trip and we got our plane just fine after meeting up with Melaney and Kelly in the airport. We were all so ready to leave the UK and embrace Italy for the next week!!