Our home away from our home away from home...

3.26.10
Made it through security without having to pay any extra money for my bag! Whoop whoop. That was way too stressful. I almost wish we had just payed a little more for Jet Blue or another airline where we wouldn't have had to stress out for every flight about our bags. Live and learn.

But we're back in London now! Back in the good ole YHA with the familiar beds and showers! We had the evening off after meeting with DuPuy. I finally ran!! It was raining a bit when we first got back, but it let up and I could finally run. I was feeling so guilty when we were in Frankfurt because everyone was biking and running and rollerblading- if only I had room for my shoes! We cleaned up and went out to dinner at a pub. Some of us went back a little early- I had to present the next day on the London shopping arcades so I wanted to read up a bit. Exhausted.

3.27.10
Woke up early to run- I'm trying to bring back the good habits. Met downstairs at the hostel and followed DuPuy around, just like old times. We went to Hyde Park, Regents Street, the arcades, Piccadilly Street. Basically we went to a lot of the important landmarks around and to the east of our hostel that we hadn't been able to visit yet. I really like some of the urban design John Nash did (Regents Street and incorporating some of the arcades as other modes of transportation through the city)- not so much the architecture. Hyde Park was great- I already had seen a bit of it though with my morning runs. We passed by a lot of shops during the day- such a teaser.

After he let us loose we went back to rest up a bit: we are all going to see 39 steps tonight at the theatre. Sara researched an Indian restaurant near Piccadilly where we would be watching the play. I got something different than my go-to's, Chicken Tikka or Rogan Josh, bad decision. Not as much flavor as some of the other dishes. That's ok- I tried.

39 steps was AMAZING! I had no idea it was going to be that good- I had my reservations. It was funny and extremely well done. It helped that I didn't have any expectations going into it- good or bad. I literally had never heard of the play before so everything was new. Definitely recommend it.

I was exhausted- again. This running is killing me! I've got to build up my endurance again. I went back and read for a bit then went to bed. Sucks we're loosing an hour tonight- I could use the sleep.

3.28.10
Free morning! I woke up to go running then went out with Sara to shop- need to test out my new debit card :) Turns out stores in London don;t open as early as we expect them to in the States...Sara and I were there by 10:45 and the earliest stores opened was 11:30. And that was a very small percentage. We walked around a bit then got a cappuccino to pass the time and headed out caffienated and ready to shop.

Then I messed up. DuPuy changed the plans like 10 times for where we were supposed to meet and the final decision was made ~11:30 the night before while I was reading downstairs at the hostel. I forgot where it was. Sara forgot her phone. Bad combination. I THOUGHT it was St. John's wood. I was wrong. Then we went to the Marble Arch because we knew we were supposed to meet at an arch/monument and that was the recommendation from a man on the street. Eventually we just went back to the hostel and got got Sara's phone and met them at Hyde Park. My bad. We walked around the park and looked at the memorial for Princess Diana then walked along the canal.

A few of us went back to Oxford Circus to shop- stores were closed. We just went to dinner at the Slug and Lettuce (we had been wanting to go for a while) and went back to the hostel. Leaving for Cambridge tomorrow morning, and I have to present on Letchworth on the way there. More reading to do.