Day 1 & 2

Hello everyone!

Here I am, my second day in London.  I thought I would write a message about my day yesterday and today.  I had a wonderful evening... Toby and I were meeting up with a girl I happened to know from Vegas that is dating a guy out here.  Toby and I went early to walk around before we had dinner with them.  We took the tubes and got off on the Westminster station stop.  We came out DIRECTLY across the street from Big Ben.  It was soooo amazingly beautiful in person.  There is so much detail... it's incredible.  I saw the Westminster Abby from a distance and we kept going.  Wo we walked across a bridge and came to the place they call South Bank.  It's just across from Big Ben on the south side of the Thames.  It's a trendy strip of restaurants and little stores and museums.  Its really cool.  It was so picturesque at sunset... I walked over to a spot by the edge of the river looking out at St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was gorgeous.  

We got to this place called the Oxo Tower to have dinner and ate a ridiculously expensive meal (that Toby paid for) and I tried Veal Carpaaccioatoia... something.  It was RAW VEAL!  Can you believe it?!  Me!!  And the funny thing is... I LIKED IT!  Haha!  Toby is a food snob so  have been trying to fit in and eat anything he or anyone else offers me.  I had this stuff that looked disgusting and started with an F and I didn't like it and it turns out it was liver!  Like, regurgitated or cooked goose liver.  They pretty much make a goose eat itself to death and eat it's fatter liver.  Ew.  It wasn't that bad but it wasn't that good.  Especially after I found out what it was made of.  The place we went to dinner was really expensive.  It was $40 for my entree.. and I got the cheapest thing on the menu- a super gourmet Shepherd's pie and cheddar pasty.  Pasty's have a spice that makes me feel sick... There was a part of my meal that had some weird spices in it that I couldn't eat.  We got a $15 dessert and the night was complete.  As we left, the night was beautiful.  We walked with our friends down the South Bank.  They have blue an white lights in the trees at night... it was absolutely gorgeous. 

We walked a bit and got a cab.  Toby and the taxi driver were talking really fast dirty english so I only caught snippets of what they were saying.  The cab was freaking awesome though.  It was one of those weird ones... like the classic black London cab.  London is really beautiful at night.  I almost did every form of transportation.. I just should have ridden a bike.  Haha!

We got home kinda late and I didn't go to be until 2:30am.  I woke up at 7 AM and couldn't go back to sleep till 9 and I didn't wake up till 2:30 PM when my roommate woke me up to introduce herself.  She and I went to the grocery store.  Natalie, you would be amazed at the tons of varieties of meats!  Sausage!  Special thanks to Al & Jen for the Visa gift card.  I spent 22 punds on a lot of great food.  We took a double decker bus home that was so packed with people that the bus driver closed the door on a poor old English woman.  

Right now, I'm eating pizza and watching the football (soccer) game.  Netherlands v France.  i've been trying to pin point what exactly tastes weird about English meat... I think they put some kind of weird spice in them and I can't put my finger on what it is... Even in the pepperoni... it's driving me crazy.  Oh what I would give to have a bottle of ranch dressing right now!  

Also, for those of you who would like to chat with me, make an AIM account.  It's free for chatting and if you have a video camera you can also video chat for free!  My screen name is "HelloMistyBee" so you can add me as a buddy.  Cool huh?

Cheers!