JACK. THE. RIIIIIPPPPAAAA!!!!

so, once again, i have to apologize for my lackadaisical blogging (or blobbing, if you will). so much has happened in the past two week that i felt entirely overwhelmed thinking about how i could relate it all to my voracious readers. however, i've (finally) decided to update, in two segments. this past weekend i was in dublin, which definitely deserves a post of its own, so look forward to that. in the meantime, this is some of the other stuff i've been up to...

last week, krizcat decided to accompany me to the lovely city of westminster, home to the houses of parliament, big ben, westminster abbey, and buckingham palace. he loves making me feel stupid, so when we got off the tube and entered westminster, he decided to ask me what the building in front of us was. i fleetingly glimpsed some arches and glass, so blurted out, "the abbey!" well, it was actually the houses of parliament, but good guess. hahahaha. anyways, toursity pictures below!

fight on!

one of these days i'll ride the eye of london! for now i'm just a poser.

lots of war memorials in westminster. here's chris by one!

i saw the golden eagle from far away and didn't realize it was another war memorial, i just thought it was a sculpture. i exclaimed, "I WANNA TAKE A PICTURE OF ME FLAPPING UNDER THE EAGLE!" and chris berated me for a few minutes about disrespecting his country. oooooops

ministry of defense. a bit ominous, isn't it?

i can't remember who this guy is. i asked chris to explain every sculpture and monument we passed, and he turned out to be useless. so enjoy this meaningless picture.

yet another cool building

so we went into st. james's park (the queen's park), and upon seeing the fattest pigeon imaginable, chris dubbed it "lilly". what a gentleman!

the duck looks headless, which i personally find hilarious and amazing. we had to double back so i could take a picture!

guards! it was fabulous, the guard band not only played the theme song from "pirates of the caribbean," but also "eleanor rigby"! i like that they're not too stuffy.

chris wishing his beloved queen the best, i'm sure

changing of hte guards, and music playing! it was very cool, there were women guards! yay equality!

buckingham gates, and fuzzy-headed tourist

chris falsely told me that this was "traitor's gate," and that it was an act of treason to take a picture of it. i took one anyways, because he's full of it.

mark my words...one day, i'll be queen.

and as if that wasn't enough sight-seeing and excitment for one day, that night a group of friends and i went on a jack the ripper tour of london. i didn't know exactly what to expect, but the tour certainly didn't disappoint. for those of you don't know, the jack-the-ripper, or "whitechapel" murders took place not very far from my school. in fact, as we walked to the places where his victims drank, whored, lived, and died, we ended up in our precious brick lane, where we frequently go to get delicious bagels!! now we'll never look at brick lane the same way...

anywho, the tour was really interesting and fun...except at one point, towards the end, when the guide decided it would be hilarious to lunge at me (WHY ME) and scream. i'm a bit of a nancy, so of course i instinctively let out a yelp and cowered behind my hands, much to the group's amusement. har har har. later, alex experienced a similar embarrassment when the guide warned us to look out for rats among the garbage heaps we were walking through. chris thought it was a good idea to bend down and tickle her ankles, causing her to leap in the air and wail. why are men such tormentors?

as for the pictures...

the church with a very high steeple, which would have been a point of reference for all of those living in whitechapel. they would have passed by it (or at least seen it) every day. that includes JACK. THE. RRRRIIIPPPAAAA!! it is quite a forbidding looking church, though, isn't it??

after the tour, we went to a pub called "the white heart," which one of the victims frequented a century ago. judging by my friends' faces, this didn't bother them at all.

and indeed, as this picture shows (click on it to read the writing), one of the bodies was found right outside the pub! creeeeeepy

so, in closing, the week was highlighted by the city of westminster and the city of SINISTER!! oooo rhyming! but anyways, now i have to endeavor on my dublin update, which will be ages longer than this one...look for it! and again, so sorry for the dearth of postings. that just means i'm having fun!


still saying JACK. THE. RRRRRIIIIPPPAAAA,
lilly