London!!! (I even have picture of Big Ben!)

I went to London this past weekend!!! Seriously, it's so cool-- London has been around since the Romans, so much history is smelted into it's streets. One weekend was never enough but I got to see some sites, go to Covent Gardens and Oxford Circus (shopping places lol), and made it to the Globe!!! Ah, Shakespeare... We also saw The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) in a little pub and I rode the Tube everywhere! (We actually spent about half the trip getting on or off the tube). At one station-- the deepest on the line-- one of the guys in our elevator to the surface pushed the "help" button and rather than wait for another lift, Jenny, Hilary, and I decided to climb the stairs to open air. All 193 of them. Yeah, that hurt.


So I went down to London with my friend Hilary and we stayed with her friend and my new friend Jenny. We left on Friday and Day One was spent travelling with about four hours in London (including getting Gelato!) and Day Two was spent walking around London (wish Sushi for lunch-- yum!) while Day Three we actually spent in Jenny's town, a little suburb-town called Harpenden, where we went to a wedding fair (because Jenny just got engaged!) and then out walking. Jenny's mom made a splendid roast dinner and we did facials and manicures in the evening. Day Four was return trips and laundry and on Tuesday I was back to work!


I didn't really make it to the Tower or Buckingham Palace or anything so I need to go again... (who wants to come with!) but for what we did do in London, I had a lot of fun and loved being part of such a vibrant city if only for a weekend!


With no further delays, pictures:

Hilary on her way to Hogwarts...

The First thing we did was find Platform 9 3/4

Covent Gardens is a pretty cool area-- lots of shops and performers and food all around. We found a nifty paper-doll theater shop and the Disney store (of course). I loved watching the living statures and this Charlie Chaplin impersonator was pretty funny. I was simply dazzled by London at this point. 

For a while, I went around and just took pictures of stuff. All these cool buildings and statues and history and creativity were just everywhere. Some made me smile, some were just awe-inspiring, and then there was ordinary stuff that kept it all grounded.

St. Paul's Cathedral (Thames side)

Cait getting artistic with her shots

This handsome gent guards Lord Nelson

Artistic shot of Nelson's statue. Sadly this is my best shot too.... 

More handsome lions... and speaking of lions: 

Big Ben! I got creative there too. :) and had my picture done with a charming phone booth (these things are all over the place, seriously!)

Cool bus

Super cool cab-- they are usually black.

Oh, did I mention we stopped by two different Disney stores? Yeah... the one in Oxford Circus was soo cool though! They had this sillouette of London on the store and then the Disney Characters who went there as well. So there is a sillouette of the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Garden and then the shapes of Peter, Wendy, Jon, and Michael swooping over the stature. Mary Poppins, Basil Mouse, Dalmations, and more show up on London via Disney as some point or another. 

of course Captain Jack was there! 

As we moved to more Elizabethan (and older!) sections of the city, we found all kinds of cool stuff. This is Sir Francis Drake's ship, the Golden Hind (great fairy tale too!!!).

A stature of Laurence Olivier... such a great Shakespearean! 


























Then.. The GLOBE!!!!

The last evening we went to:

Then went back to the station and left London for now...




So yes, my first Great London Adventure. It was wonderful! 
I have more pics from various other activities so there will be another blog this week hopefully. For now, I get to go home and make some nice Chinese Chicken wings. 


Thanks for all your prayers everyone; I know they are helping to keep me sane and in the Spirit and just where I am supposed to be. I still don't have a clear direction for January so please be praying about that. And keep praying for our church, our program, and all the kids who come here. They are great and God is working here-- it's palpable, it's glorious, and I am so blessed to be a part. None of this would be possible without my support from home and I cannot wait to see you all again. But I also am sad just to think about leaving. Maybe God will let me come back. Anyways, life is full here. I appreciate your prayers and I would love to pray for you. Let me know and I will put you on my prayer list! 


Grace and Peace and Gentle rain Blessings galore to you all,


Internationally Yours,


Cait

Arrival

Here! In England!
(Note: I'm going to over-excite you with exclamation points by the way... be careful if you have hypertension, are on meds, or may be pregnant... Or just enjoy the update, ya know.)


So the last day with mi familia was a little hard-- I kept getting super sentimental and shoving it back down. Admittedly, lunch as fabulous Pappadeux helped ease my nerves. My parents dropped me off and I choked out a "Goodbye, I love you!" before heading through security (not too hard, actually, but I had to pull my external hard-drive out of my carry-on bag and remove it from it's nest of scarves. Sure the other guys in line looooved that...). Then I waited. For like three hours. Because we get nervous about time like that, lol.


About ten minutes after I finished my novel, they called for us and we got on this gigantic plane. (My carry-on aka hand luggage aka small wheeled suitcase aka wheelie bag <-- (my fav!) didn't even have to go in the over-head bins but got tucked into a cupboard because the overhead bin over me was full. On the other flight, there was enough space for me to have my own bin. So we really didn't have to sweat over the strict airport size regulations.) The seat next to me was empty, which was MAGNIFICENT on such a crowded plane.


The guy in the window seat was really cool; he was leading a mission trip to East Asia with a ministry called the Burn which seems like a fairly legit ministry. We swapped called-by-God, God-is-awesome, look-what-God-did stories for the hour before dinner and now we are prayer buddies for our trips. Oh, and he knows Gilbert Morris! This  dude. Pretty cool-- I gave him my writer's card to pass along to friend Gilbert. (Dinner was curried chicken... it was pretty good, thankfully the one kind of curry I actually like, lol. The cheesecake was good; the roll saddened me. Mom, you or Allie would have been depressed by the quality of the carbs offered...) Watched a movie (thoughts at www.ellakkat.blogspot.com) and slept, my dreams punctuated by one of the kiddos on board about every hour. Breakfast was served (about par with dinner) and then I was in London, a nine hour flight that took me fifteen hours into the future. :)
London to Manchester was a hop, skip, and a jump, though we had a nicer plane than Waco to Dallas. Arrival was easy (customs and all happened in London) and I wrestled all my bags out to the pick-up area.


Rachel picked me up along with James, a gentleman from the church. The ride to Lincoln found me sleeping again and then we got here, to this wonderful little house I'm staying in. With these fantastic people who are becoming quick friends.


So more about settling in when I write tomorrow (this is waaay too long already but it's an adventure! Within an adventure!)


For now, please be praying I won't be overwhelmed by my work here, that God will do great things here, and that I will be obedient and draw near to the Lord.


How can I be praying for you?


Internationally Yours,
Cait