This is going to be an extended post because I haven't posted in a while. I think I'll post backwards and start with this weekend, which I spent in London. It is an incredible city and I completely loved it. When Jess, Katherine, and I arrived on Thursday night we went to the Famous Three Kings to meet Julie. It was a very chill evening and they went back to the hostel and I went back to Julie's apartment.

Friday morning, we met up again to go to the Natural History Museum. It was so cool, we did the dinosaur room, the jewelrey room, and the biology room which made us feel like little kids. Natural history museums are great because they are so interactive, however the biology room I felt was a little too graphic for most children. But thats just IMO. Friday night Julie and I went to see Mary Poppins which was magical. It was so amazing. First because Bert dances on the ceiling of the stage and Mary flies over the audience and disappears. It is so magical. Plus, its way more complex the the Julie Andrews version. The toys come to life in this song, "Temper, Temper" and convict the kids of crimes against them, it was so weird. Then, the "holy terror", the new nanny is borderline abusive to Jane and Michael, plus has a lark in a cage so Mary Poppins frees the lark. Then, they have this sing off and this giant cage comes out of the trap door and Mary forces the other woman into it and she burns alive. So not part of the Disney version. I do have to record my favorite part so I don't forget it, "If you reach for the stars all you get are the stars but I've got a brand new spin, if you reach for the heaven you get the stars thrown in."

Saturday morning we did the hop-on hop-off bus tour. We ended getting off in the West-End to try to get tkts for Dirty Dancing which is sold out until April. We got to through Trafalger Square while we were there. Me and Julie went on the Thames river tour which was grand. Best views of Big Ben, the Globe, Tower Bridge, and London Bridge. Next we headed to the British museum. However, we only had about an hour and I really wanted to see the Greco-Roman rooms. So we did one room of floor one, I felt like I could spend a week there. They stole all of the statues of of the Parthanon and bulit a model one with all the statues which was super cool. It totally affirms my belief that, the Greek gods are the real gods if I'm going to believe in anything. But there is so much I wished we could have done. Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Charles Dickens' house, ect...I needed more time but all and all it was an amazing time and I was glad to spend time with Julie.

Now let me backtrack a little bit. Last week, we had our first authentically Irish experience. We began the day at the Boyne Valley where Newgrane is. Its this huge mound that 3 thousand years older than the pyramid and its a completely accurate calender to predict the winter solsitice. We all went inside and they turned off the electicity, so scary but wicked cool. The celts don't get any praise for being hardcore thousands of years before the Egyptians. Then we went to look at the high crosses and alot of monastic ruins. Which was interesting but after a while its like, get over it. They English suck, the Protestents ruin life, blah blah blah. The one cool one was Beckwith Abbey because its pretty much still standing and we climbed it. It was closed but Brother Kelley was cool with it, so we jumped into it and climbed to the top of it. Finally, we went to the hill of Tara. Where we found one of the oldest phallic symbols in the world. Number one sign we're all teenage American tourists we needed pictures with it. Second sign, we chased the sheep. Chris led the pack and Katherine, Kathleen, and I followed him, deterimined to catch a sheep. But they move surprising fast, also the herders got up to us fast. They hung around to make sure we stopped. We got pretty darn close though. Tara is really kind of a let down though cause from the air its cool but when you get there you can't really see anything but sheep.

We're all off to Galway, Connermara, and the Cliffs of Morh on Thursday and we'll be back on Sunday. Then from the 8th to the 11th some of us are going to Barcelona!