In Which Kailey's Friends Come to Town

This weekend, my friends Harper and Jon came to visit. I met them both through our mutual friend Amber back home. Amber majors in Jazz voice (which is why I know her) and ecology? Amber also reads this blog, so if I got that last part wrong, she will know I wasn’t paying attention. It’s science something and she works her tail off for it, even in the summer, I’m positive about that. Sorry, Amber. I promise I’m only marginally fake.  

            Anyway, Harper and Jon and Amber and I all have something in common. We go to the same school. But Harper, Jon and I are studying abroad this semester in different countries. Informed by Amber that Harper was studying abroad in Wales this semester, I invited Harper to stay with me if she ever needed a place in London. She replied in a most likely affirmative manner, and a couple weeks later asked me if both she and Jon could stay at my place for what is now this past weekend.  The more the merrier I always think, so I found myself with two people over six foot sleeping on my student accommodation floor this weekend, one on a camping mat, the other on a makeshift, folded duvet mat. It works.

On Friday, we went to a student Thanksgiving social at a family’s house in London. I’ve been going to hang out there every other Friday night, and this time the Americans brought a Thanksgiving meal potluck style, while Eea, the woman of the house, made turkey.  Jon had arrived the night before, so he helped me make cranberry sauce until it was clear that the knives in our kitchen were not suitable for a novice and his eyes could not handle the onions. Then he went around and cleaned. Which was super helpful to say the least. On Friday afternoon, we picked up Harper from the station, walked to Saint Paul’s Cathedral, walked back home, packed up the cranberry sauce, and headed out to the only Thanksgiving meal at least two out of the three of us will have this year. Dinner was definitely yummy and the company was great. To say I am ashamed that I went back for thirds on Friday night would not be an untruth. While this is perfectly acceptable behavior at home, I’ve noticed that English appetites are a bit less piggish and a bit more proper.

            On Saturday the three of us toured London armed with a list of the things we had to accomplish before bedtime. Getting out at about 10:30 in the morning when all was said and done, we saw the following in no particular order: Marble Arch, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, the African exhibit at the British Museum, Primark, the London Eye, Big Ben, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Cambden Market (where everything looks like Christmas and we got homesick), and the Golden Jubilee Bridge. To top it all off we rode a double decker bus and ate at Nandos and some hole in the wall fish and chips place. On Sunday Jon left, and Harper and I, although well-intentioned in our desire to go to church, overslept. This is hard to do. My church is only fifteen minutes away by foot and doesn’t start until 11. But we managed. Instead of church we went to London Bridge and King’s Cross Station (where parts of Harry Potter were filmed). I showed her Tower Bridge, Borough Market (where other parts of Harry Potter were filmed), Little Dorit Park, the George (a tavern that Charles Dickens was known to frequent), the site of the Clink prison in Southwark, the Monument to the Great Fire of London. Harper treated us to climb up all 311 steps of the Monument to view London from the top, and I pointed out well-known office buildings according to their nicknames, Shard, the Cheesegrater, the Gerkin, and the Walkie Scorchie.

And thus concludes the synopsis of my weekend. I’m including pictures, but I’m not really sure what I did with my camera again this time. I’m failing at camera lately. So there are very few pictures that turned out in any remote sense of the word.  I think I’ve corrected my settings now, but we’ll see next time I post pictures. 

Gotta get that telephone booth photo.

Jon at Buckingham Palace at 4:30 in the afternoon. With such a bright smile, who needs sunshine?

Again...Who needs sunshine?

I found this stick and balanced it on my hand. Naturally Harper had to pick it up after I threw it down.

And because this whole post was such a rambling one, and because I have no real conclusion, I guess I’ll just let it trail off with this one word of sentimentality. Harper and Jon, I could not have been more happy to have you this weekend, and I hope we get to hang out a lot more when we all get home. You guys are golden.