Living in London: Christmas Break

To pick up where I left off... it was after Christmas, in the final days of the year 2014... in fact, it was my dear sister's birthday!
She turned 16 and I was not there and haven't had the courage to tease her about dating yet. It will come. Plus I really wanted to be there. I think I was more homesick about her birthday than Christmas... But we had an amazing chat and since then have been in contact a bit more, which is lovely. (**note** I am practising using my British terms and spelling haha)

On New Year's Eve I was able to do a session at the London Temple. It was a wonderful time of learning and analysing my last year, and planning for the next one. There is true peace in the temple. Also my friend is an amazing chef and made us a delicious dinner before our next adventure:

New Year's is HUGE in London. That's when it basically wakes up and transport is almost fully functional. Haha. All these YSA came from at least all over the UK to celebrate in London. They charge to watch fireworks here, which is a bit ridiculous... so we went to Buckingham Palace and watched them for free, though we missed being in the huge mass of drunk people... haha. We didn't get the 'full experience' being right on the Thames, but the tickets sold out before I even knew we needed tickets, and plus I am ~~cheap~~... er... frugal. But really, I didn't see a justification to pay that much for fireworks since we could see them for free... But of course it would have been spectacular to see them. My friends and I enjoyed a lovely walk afterwards and got to connect more of London, then I adventured home on the tube... which was mostly fine, only slightly creepy at times, well, once was scary: as I was about to get off, the entire car / section close to me like folded in on each other - fighting - I was so grateful we had just pulled into my stop so I could escape.

New Year's was when my London family started to really reunite. New Year's Day two of my closest friends here and I adventured all over London. We went to the British Museum, but it was closed... haha... and walked all over central, and then up to my bishop (church leader specific to our area) and his wife's home for dinner with another girl. They informed us how close we were to Abbey Road, so naturally we had to wander over there and get a picture. The studio even has a webcam set up so it is slightly less dangerous to pause in the centre of the road to get the infamous picture. Naturally, we did that too but the next day my friend and I re-watched it. We decided it was as close to getting a Time-Turner as we could - it was a bit surreal to watch us arrive, walk around, etc. Anyway.

... end Part Two...