London, baby!!!

LONDON, BABY!  Anyone remember when Joey Tribbiani said that over and over during the Friends London trip?!?!

Joey = Me, Chandler = Joe

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I AM SO EXCITED to be going to London this afternoon!  Many pics to come I’m sure!

But first, let’s finish our wonderful trip in Banbury, UK (about 30 minutes from Oxford).  Let me start by telling you that everyone here has been SO friendly!  Everyone says hi, good morning, how are you, etc.  I get a lot of “isn’t it lovely today” or “how are you love” or “is the hotel treating you right?”  It’s amazing and so different from Gent!  (Not that Gent people are mean – they just don’t interact with strangers).

So – we had the pleasure of staying at a beautiful hotel in the city center, Whately Hall.  We’ve had excellent service and as I mentioned the other day, the included breakfast is great!

Sorry for the pic quality!

Most of my days here (unfortunately) have been spent writing my paper in our hotel room.  Who doesn’t want to write about descriptive statistics, box plots, and correlations/covariances?!  Yes, fun I know.

My days..oops Perez in the background & not my paper?!

I found the cutest coffee and sandwich shop close to the hotel (unfortunately I don’t know the name).  She was SO friendly and made the most delicious grilled veggie and hummus sandwich.  We got to talking and I tried to make it seem like I knew British english.  BOY, that didn’t last long.  I tossed in the word “quid” for money…and she was like, um, you mean cash?  Fail.

I also took a break yesterday to go to a spin class.  OMG.  I have not done one of these since the USA (I’m really not up for gym classes in Dutch in Gent).  At times I thought I was going to die…ok, not really, but it was TOUGH.  I haven’t sweat that much since my half marathon in 2010.  It was awesome and is definitely making me miss the YMCA in Milwaukee!

Ok, anyway, last night Joe and I went out to dinner (for another paper writing break – see a trend).  We went to a nearby hotel, The Cromwell.  IT WAS DELISH.  Check out our meal below!

Appy: Blue cheese stuff mushrooms!

Appy: Duck & hoison spring rolls

Joe: Chicken fajita's (yes, I had food-envy when I saw his)

Me: Side salad - funny there are potatoes?

Me: Veggie & potato soup

A great meal!  We finished the night by catching up on New Girl, Revenge, and Modern Family! AWESOME!