Hello from London…or should I say cheers? I don't know. I have officially been in London for 2 days and it's been……interesting. I say interesting because London has had its good parts and its bad parts. I'll start from the beginning. Our flight left on time Tuesday which surprised me but we were board and off the ground by 6:45pm. After having a panic attack about flying, we got into the air successfully. I was fine for a while…started to watch a movie and ate the dinner that the flight attendants brought…but then it went seriously wrong.We hit TERRIBLE turbulence for the entire 8 hour flight. I seriously thought the plain was dropping altitude and that we were all going to die. Worst 8 hours of my life. The flight was only half full so the flight attendants skipped seats between passengers. Aaron and I were the only ones in our row so I spread out across the seat and slept on and off until around 6 when they woke us up for breakfast. I felt fine until I sat up. Then I felt sick. Needless to say, that last hour that we were in the air was miserable…considering the fact that I thought my ears were going to bleed from the pressure and my sinus infection. If I wasn't abroad, I would never fly again. Really.We landed in London and got in the line to have our passports checked and our bags sniffed by drug dogs. We all passed! Haha We were really glad that all our luggage got there in one piece.

We found our AIFS representative, a large Portuguese man named Victor who shoved 20 suitcases into the back of an 8 passenger van. Then the real adventure began. Something no one told me about London? Their traffic laws and roads make no sense. At all. As we were speeding through the winding circles and other cars driving on the left side of the road, we all started to feel sick. It was miserable. The 40 mile drive from the airport to the hotel took 2 hours and we were all carsick by the time we arrived. Daddy, I think you should move to the UK. Your driving would impress them. Victor yelled at some guy on a motorbike in front of us and I thought they were going to get into a fight in the middle of the road. Anyway, we got to our hotel in one piece….eventually. We've done A LOT of walking these past few days and have seen some really cool things. Yesterday, we visited Kensington Gardens and Palace which is where Princess Diana used to live and it's only a few blocks from our hotel. We also went to Hyde Park, the Royal Albert Memorial and the giant concert hall built across the street. We had lunch at an authentic London pub where everyone had fish and chips…I had an extremely gross salad. Ha. Today was a lot more fun.

We started the day with our double-decker bus tour that took us into the heart of London for a 3 hours trip and then dropped us off near the Tower of London. We saw Buckingham Palace (the guards were there but inside the fence so no pictures with them mom…sorry) Parliament, the Foreign embassies including the US which is right across from Big Ben J we also went to West Minster Abby which is where the funeral was held for Princess Diana and We saw St Paul's Cathedral which is where she was married. Even though it's been a long time, she's everywhere around here. After that, we went to Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square (I probably just butchered that spelling!) the tower of London, London Bridge and a lot of other places that I just can't remember…we're running off of very little sleep. At the end of the day, we made our way to the British Museum of Art. I LOVED this place. They had artifacts from every region of the word. I took a million pictures so you will see them soon.We ate dinner at this café called Café Diana because she used to come to it every morning to have tea. After her death, they renamed it and covered every inch of the walls with photographs of her. Once again, I'm going to bed hungry. I can't wait for some good Italian food!

London is nice…but I'm ready to get out of here. It is extremely expensive and breathtakingly cold. They told us that it is the coldest winter London has seen in a very long time. Good timing, huh? The traffic is horrible, the food isn't much better, the driving is insane but hey. They speak English so that's a plus. Mom, I need you to send me some stuff. It's very important. Ready? Okay…I need some tea bags for sweet tea, some cherry Kool-aid and some country time lemonade. Seriously. Send it in bulk. I'm dying without something I'm familiar with. PS to the mom: Chelsea and I are watching American Idol! Haha Okay, that's all for now. We leave for the airport at 4:15am so it's going to be another long day. Hopefully we'll have internet at where we're staying in Florence. Its weird going from having unlimited wireless at home to having to pay for it an hour at a time. I miss you guys!!!

Love,

Michelle