Dustin goes to London

Dustin came to visit during my second week here, and we had some great adventures together! He was a good travel buddy and it is sad not to have him here anymore!!

The first weekend Dustin was here, we went on a little trip to see Stonehenge. It was my second time there, but I still thought it was very impressive! Actually, Stonehenge has been in the news recently because they have just done some more excavation and it looks like they are coming closer to uncovering the original purpose behind the stones....

Another view of Stonehenge.

Dustin and the cathedral in Salisbury, the town near Stonehenge where we stayed. The Salisbury cathedral has the tallest midevil spire in England and the fourth tallest in Europe. It also houses one of the original copies of the Magna Carta (unfortunately, we got there too late to see that).

We were supposed to also see Bath (an old Roman city -- yes, the Roman empire made it all the way up to England!) and Bristol, but they had record rains of 60 cm on the second day of our outing, so we had to head back to the shelter of London!

Fish & chips was the only authentically British food that Dustin and I thought tasted good. This picture doesn't quite do it justice... the piece of fish was enormous!

Last Tuesday after I finished with work, Dustin and I went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe Theater, a recreation of Shakespeare's original theater. I had been to the theater before (on the high school choir trip) and thought it was kind of hokey then, but this time we didn't hype it up as much and it turned out to be really fun. We got the cheap seats in the standing section right in front of the stage, so we got to be part of all the rowdy cheering of the crowd!!

They have this really pretty walkway along the Thames that we liked. This is us with Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye in the background.

Us with one of the lions in Trafalgar Square, Dustin's favorite place in London!

Trafalgar Square again, this time with the National Gallery in the background.

Dustin being touristy in the Tube station.

Another night on the Thames river walk, this time with the Tower Bridge in the background.

The Tower of London. It really looked like Disney World!

Yesterday (Saturday), we went to Oxford to meet up with one of Dustin's college friends, Lewis. Lewis is finishing up his MBA at Oxford and it was great to catch up with him! He will be there most of the summer so I am looking forward to seeing more of him while I am here!

Climbing a tower in Oxford....

We made it to the top!

Sporting our new Oxford tshirts, outside our hostel this morning.

It was sad to see Dustin go, but life definitely won't be boring for the next few weeks. After Dustin left this morning, I moved into my new student dorm. Although the space is pretty small, it is right near my office and I finally have a room all to myself! The other residents here seem really nice and since moving in a few hours ago I've already met my neighbors, a family from Chile! And then in two weeks, an old friend from high school is going to be staying with me in London for a couple of days, so the adventure continues!