Let the Games Begin

Starting at 9:30am (for some 7:30 who think they need even more exercise) and ending until 10:30pm was go go go.
After a hardy English breakfast (the food not the tea) we were split up into 4 team and entered the Amazing Race around London. It was intense. Though our goal for this trip is not to look like obnoxious, American Tourists today gave away our identity immediately.
We had to take our teams picture in 5 landmarks: Big Ben, London Bridge, Piccadilly Station, Phantom of the Opera and Lord Byron. The intent was to get us familiar with the underground Tube as well as have a rough idea of the layout of London. Well, it worked. Not in the sense that we got to enjoy and soak in the scenery, but we did figure out London's system quite quickly. I am not going to lie, I was quite sweaty. It was so intense that when my team (Jimmy, Sarah, John, and Jason) and the team(Stephany, Lucas, Margo, Bekah) ended up on the same train to head back to our bed & breakfast, we bolted out of the train and up stairs, and then shoving to get into the harry potter portal looking elevators. As soon as we were out of the station it was all madness. Get out of our way London, Westmont Kinesiologists  are coming through. Turns out that neither of our two teams were in 1st place. Though the 4th team who came like 15 minutes after all of us thought they were the winners and started cheering and hugging each other. the real winners got a little London key chain that was a nail clipper. We will do anything to win competition.

I do not have a lot of time until I have to leave for church. But I will inform you, mostly to let my grandma Mom-Mom know that I saw Phantom of the Opera last night!! Unbelievable. I saw it with Rachel in the front row seats on the 1st balcony. Great seats for £35. We almost got ripped off by a "discount seller" who would had us pay £50 for seats on the corner in the 3rd balcony...terrible seats. We paid it, because he was lying and expressed it in a good way. But we were smart and returned our sketchy tickets without even a fight like we were prepared to do (the lady just grabbed the tickets out of my hand and threw the money back at us). So after 2 hours of going back and forth from the theater to the "discount place" like 3 times, we save about £20 for great seats. Granted we missed the Manchester vs. Barcelona futball game...but we still got to experience the crazy fans (not too crazy parents, but crazy) fans. The rest of the group went to pubs or the park to watch the game. It was great fun yesterday.
In between those events, we had a free day where most of us explored the British Museum (which I found a whole section of Greeks in Italy, which is my very own heritage, that was interesting) but there were also mummies and the Rosetta Stone and the Pantheon and oh so much more! Before that, Rachel and I ventured into the National Gallery where we saw paintings from the 15th century to the 20th century. It was outstanding.
Needless to say, I was quite satisfied sitting on my bum for 3ish hours during the Phantom of the Opera after a long long day of running all around!

Well, I must go. I will fill you in on the other days you have missed as well as future events!

Tah Tah