London!

I've been terrible about any and all pics and info about my month in Europe last summer! So here we are, almost a year-to-date, and I've decided to actually go through all of the pics and choose my faves to post here! I know Kell posted a whole bunch of our time together on facebook, but here is a start of pics for the two weeks I spent before Mom & Kell met up with me!

Starting off...

A brief synopsis of my last-minute departure from Uganda is: British Airways went on strike, which severely limited the number of flights in and out of Entebbe Airport. My flight needed to be rescheduled so that I could meet up with Mom & Kell in London when they flew in, in order to start our trip through Europe. At the end of May last year (I believe it was May 27th) I went to the BA office in Kampala to see about rescheduling my flight, and they told me the only flight that they were 100% sure was going to be leaving Uganda in the next two weeks was on the following Monday, May 31st. AUGH - three days to get last-minute gifts, PACK!, and LEAVE?! Well, it was the only option, they said... so it happened. Then came the scramble for where on earth I was going to stay for the two weeks I would now have in London! Thank the Lord - He totally provided some intervention and took care of everything (through my wonderful friends Dean & Jess Smith from SLO and the Thiel family from Simi!) by providing me with two separate places to stay for the two weeks. I felt overwhelmed beyond belief by the responses I received from that "PLEASE HELP" email I had sent out... Can you believe it? I had something like 30 emails in my Inbox on Saturday morning (my time) after sending out the message on Friday. God works in INCREDIBLE, FAST ways sometimes!! So, I had a hurried exit from a country that I had come to know as my "home" and continued going, not knowing what lay ahead of me in this new adventure!

I found myself in London (Hampstead Heath, to be more precise) for the first week and in Amersham (a little city outside of central London) for the second week. This'll have to be broken up into several segments, because there's just too much information to include in one!

We'll start off with the Calvary folks. Like I said, my old friends from Cal Poly, Dean and Jessica Smith, emailed some good friends and former church-mates of theirs from Shoreline in Morro Bay, who had recently moved to London in order to start a church in Camden Town. They very, very graciously offered to meet me at Heathrow and let me stay with them. They met me at the airport with the best present ever for someone who had been in Uganda for a year... KRISPY KREME DOUGHNUTS!!!

It was such a relaxing time. There was Pastor Tonye and his wife and two girls (I had lots of fun with them especially!), David and Trista, Landon, Tobi, and Luke and Frida. It seemed like such a different world in London - fast moving cars, the metro, Starbucks, electricity, hot water... I have to say that I was definitely in some culture-adjustment those first couple days acclimating back to this new world! The Camden folks were so great about giving me space and time to rest, recoop, and readjust. I went for quite a few walks around the heath, through the park, and past the little, quaint shops. It felt so nice to be out and walking, with no concern for where I was going or where I ended up! One of the days I walked from Hamstead Heath all the way down to Notting Hill (only to find out it's NOT A HILL - who knew?) and it was lovely.

One problem I had in London was the strange desire I constantly had to quench to NOT speak with a British accent. I don't know why - some unrequited urge to join the Monty Python entourage? some Pride and Prejudice fantasies? I don't know - but seriously I had to catch myself, and thankfully I never made a fool out of myself :)

On some of my walks, I stumbled upon a few things that are so uniquely British/European, that I (discreetly) attempted to take some pics and giggle at the remembrances.

funny little cars...

I particularly like the X-ray car; quite clever, if you ask me!

funny colored doors all around London...

I guess when you can't paint your building, a checker-tiled front walkway with a bright blue door is the next best thing!

funny sayings and misspellings...

(in case you're wondering, "fuller" is my last name, but it is not grammatically correct when discussing the 'full' feeling after eating - it IS correct if you are a person who 'fulls' cloth :) )

Yay London!