Lectures and seminars are over, I have one paper left to write, and the majority of my friends are close to being done with their traveling. How on earth did the end of the term creep up on us all?! The past two weeks have been busy ones, but busy ones around London. It has been nice to be able to spend a solid amount of time in this city while having some friends visit. Finally, they got to see my home for the semester.

The first weekend of the month, Chm and I had the chance to meet up with Alyssa and her friend from home. I meet them at Tate Modern before going out to dinner. Although it was great to see Alyssa, it was also a relief that I didn’t have to play tour guide that weekend. We were able to hang out, catch up, and eat at my favorite “American” food restaurant. I seem to end up taking every visitor there.

Over the course of the next week I spent a good amount of time writing papers. I never realized how much I would rather take a test. Studying is far less time consuming than paper writing, for me at least. The one good thing about papers is that you can do it on your own schedule where as exams you have to be present at a certain time. However, getting yourself motivated to sit and write when there are so many other things you could be doing is the real trick. I don’t think I have mastered that either…

This past weekend was the big Jefferson visit to London! Mara, Kristen, Kathleen, and Susanne all came from different parts of Ireland to visit Chm and me. On Thursday I picked them up from Heathrow, having a Love Actually moment where they ran into my arms. Too bad we all didn’t jump on to the tube in time! Mara and I just had to loop around to pick them back up, oops! It was just like dejavu in Rome when Jen and Melissa didn’t have time to get off the Metro! I took them back to Chm’s flat to drop off their bags before going out to dinner at, once again, my favorite “American” place. Luckily, Chm’s intership meeting was shorter than she anticipated so she was there to greet us when we arrived back with our special surprise to make our own milk shakes! We saw them on the menu, and just couldn’t resist but we weren’t willing to pay the price. After some catch up time, Kathleen and I headed to Harrow since there weren’t quite enough beds at her flat.

Making our way to meet the others in the morning, I brought our visitors for a walk along the Thames past St. Paul’s, Tate Modern, and the Globe down South Bank to Borough Market. Of course no trip to Borough Market would be complete without a chocolate brownie! Encountering a downpour of hail we decided to head back to the flat to rework our plan and meet up with Chm who just got out of work. Luckily, by the time we go back there the sun was out! Taking a quick break, we were back out showing them more of the city. Our first stop, Trafalgar Square, was where we finally climbed the lions. Let’s just say getting up on the base isn’t an issue, but getting on the lions is quite tricky and terrifying! Chm was quite a bit more scared than I was, surprising because of my whole dislike for heights. Luckily, having a large group made it much easier with people to give you boosts and pull you up. It is just one of those London things I felt like I needed to do! En route to Big Ben we stopped at the Horse Guard Parade to take the typical pictures with the perfectly still soldiers. Unknowingly, it was also time for the changing of the guard there! Perfect timing! Next, we walked through St. James Park where we met some friendly squirrels and pelicans all on our way to see Buckingham Palace. Sadly, the Queen wasn’t home and Kathleen’s hopes for having tea with her were shattered. But, our next stop outside Westminster Abbey perked her up a bit. She recreated Joey the “going into the map” scene from Friends. After photos of Big Ben we walked around by the Eye waiting for sunset (which was taking far too long after the time changed). Without waiting any longer we rode the London Eye, this time the sky was perfectly blue and I could see all the way to Wembley Stadium. It was much nicer having a feel where everything was in the city rather than riding it my first week in London, certainly the clear sky helped too. Heading back to Chm’s for dinner and the evening, we were all happy to be surrounded by friends from Jefferson…and soon to be Beckett!

Saturday we began our day by taking the typical phone booth photos. Chm had seen a grouping of three over by her university so we headed there to escape the busy streets (and thousands of people awkwardly staring at us). Once on the tube, we headed for King’s Cross to attempt to get through Platform 9 3/4. Muggles must have seen us because we weren’t able to get all the way through! Heading to Portobello Road we got delicious crepes and walked around a bit before encountering another downpour of hail. Thankfully we were right by a shop close to the tube so we were able to round the corner without getting too soaked. But once again, by the time we got off the tube at Harrods, the sun was back out. Apparently my other trips to Harrods weren’t up to par because we wandered through so much of that store that I didn’t even know existed… including a pet shop! Back at the flat we once again cooked dinner and hung out Chm’s flatmates for the night. More were around than we expected because some of their plans for Paris were booked incorrectly. However, it was an extremely fun night with the Ireland girls. We tried to get into O’Neils (which had a cover for the first time ever…lame!) and then went to Waxy O’Connors by Leicester Square. We momentarily lost K and Kristen in McDonalds and later Kristen had a little encounter with the sidewalk. Let’s just say this night was filled with memories.

Up too early for our liking, we got ready to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham. Due to the rain and London Marathon we didn’t see much guard changing, but we were there when an American runner broke the record for the US! Seeing some of the winners run past the last bend, we headed to Tower Bridge before the rain picked up again. We ate lunch, some girls getting fish and chips, before attempting the jumping photos. This is a thing that Mara, Kristen, and Susanne have done in every country they visited except their first trip, Scotland. This weekend we had a chance to join in on the hilarity. Before walking across Tower Bridge we got ice cream! Our next stop was Oxford Street for some souvenir shopping. This made me realize how many London things I really want to buy! Then we went to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park before calling it a day and going home to our pasta and blueberry buckle!

Kristen, Mara, and Susanne were up early to catch their flight and Chm when to work, so K and I slept in before getting on the tube and parting ways. It was a really, really fun weekend with them. It was the first time I really got to show off my city for the semester and they all seemed to thoroughly enjoy it! And it didn’t rain nearly as much as it did when we were all together in Galway and Rome. Right off the bat that makes everyone have a much more enjoyable time. I guess I’ve perfected my tour guide skills for when Beth comes next month! But for now, its back to procrastinating my last paper of my study abroad term and junior year before heading off to Spain and France!