Monday, August 31, 2009

Visiting Simpson Peeps















(above L-R)Jenn, Molly, Ashley, Hope, Keeley
(below L-R)Me, Andrea, Stephanie, Dani, Kelsey

I picked up Steph in Ames, we met Megan in DMS and unloaded our stuff. We had lunch and hung out a little and then headed down to Simpson!! It was great, great, great to see everyone again! The new apartments look good and will be even homier after our trip to Hobby Lobby. Then we went to Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries for dinner. I'll miss you guys!!!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

First Attempt Uploading Pictures...Yay!




This is from a week or so ago when Paul and Connor came to West Union for the weekend. This is mom putting her grandson down for a nap...or the other way around...!


I had to put up this ADORABLE picture of Abby from her baptism weekend!

Success! Now I can share awesome trip pictures with all of you!

All Packed!

Everything's nearly ready to go apart from some daily things. Even though all my stuff is in a suitcase it still doesn't feel like I'm going anywhere. I figure it'll hit me once we've been there a week or two. Yikes!

Tomorrow I'll head down to Ames to pick up Steph. Then we're staying at Megan's in DMS while we visit Simpson and Steph spends some time with her bro and sis-in-law in Grimes. Then Megan has lovingly agreed to take us to the airport! Thank you!!

I've been a first-class nerd (a good thing!) and I'm almost finished with our first week's reading so I have plenty of time to fall behind for the rest of our group tutorials. For those of you who don't know, Professor Gammon is teaching us in groups of 3-4 while we're over there. I'm hoping that leads to some good chats and even more free time to explore and travel.

If anyone is curious--and again, doesn't already know--our whole group is staying in a row house at 270 Earl's Court Road (SW of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, all W of Central London). Here's a link if you want to check it out here. It looks pretty cool and is really close to the Earl's Court Tube Station.

We arrive in London at 7:10am on Thursday Sept 3. I'm thinking I'll be too worn out to want to blog right away so I'll tell you now: We plan on just moving in, exploring the neighborhood, geting our Oyster cards (For discounted travel on the Tube and buses--and maybe trains? That'd be nice!). I think we're going to a market and having a group meeting, too. We'll definitely go grocery shopping--I'll need some bread and jelly to go with the peanut butter I'm smuggling!) Basically, getting situated and maybe doing some quick site-seeing.

Monday we're meeting at the Tower of London (getting there and back all by ourselves--I'm super excited!!) and then doing some of our own touring in the surrounding neighborhood and I've already got lists going of stuff to do. The rest of the week will be the same thing: Tues@Westminster Abbey, Wed@St. Paul's Cathedral, Thurs@Windsor Castle, and Fri@The Globe Theatre plus a show there later in the evening. It will be a busy week!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Countdown!!

Just nine days left! I've started packing a little, but it's a little overwhelming--especially when trying to keep my room livable at the same time. So I've moved the suitcase, clothes, and extras into our other bedroom. Spreading the mess!

Frequent calls with Stephanie help me decide what to take and what to leave behind. I'll be at UNI today and tomorrow, though, so that will put me a bit behind! Stephanie told me not to worry--as long as we don't wait as long as Keeley did (*cough* night before *cough*)!!

REALLY missing Paul, Sarah, Connor, and Abby even though the boys were here this weekend. I'm making due with my parents though! ;)