Friday, April 16th, 2010

Well I am stuck on this godforsaken island. Thank goodness it is London and I love it! The volcano in Iceland has grounded all airplanes in the UK due to all of the ash in the air. Apparently if a plane flies through the ash, the ash will enter the engines, turn to glass, and then stop the engines. The plane will then plummet towards the earth, but the engines usually will turn on once they are cleared of the ash. Yeah, that does not sound like fun to me. So my flight is on Saturday morning… who knows if it will be cancelled. Some of the girls here are freaking out; it is ridiculous. Everyone is going through the same stress, but they feel that their particular case is worse than others. Ridiculous! It really makes me appreciate Allyson and myself. Most of these girls would not be able to go backpacking and do all of the traveling that we are about to embark on. I have also been very impressed by Allyson… she usually stresses too much about everything, but I think she is much better than usual. Still worrying too much, but she is handling it better than a lot of the crazy girls in the Centre.


Allyson and I slept in, then went to Buckingham Palace and saw the changing of the guard. I think it is funny that our last day here we do one of the most touristy thing possible. Allyson liked it a lot, and we both had a good time. We headed back towards the Centre. Since I had already done most of my packing last night, I went to Primark to return some of Allyson’s clothes for her. The lines were super long and it was very crowded. Headed back and stopped by Vodophone and Orange to look at cell phones. I bought a pay as you go cell phone and topped it up. Then I went back to the Centre and finished packing with Allyson. Her half-sister, Melinda, and her family came to the Centre at 6pm to pick up our luggage. Melinda is so nice. She and her husband were down near Bath for the week, and came up to London to pick up our suitcases to keep while we are backpacking. They are lifesavers. We chatted with them at the Centre for a while. Their kids, Clare and Jonas, are so cute. We all went to Nando’s for dinner. Afterwards we went back to the Centre. I sat behind the steering wheel of their car! So weird being on the right side of a car! It is such a relief to not have our luggage anymore. I keep worrying that I forgot to pack something, or that I packed something that I need. Well, I am officially a backpacker now. I am living out of my backpack with only five shirts, two pairs of jeans, four pairs of socks, and five pairs of underwear. I have a question… why are they called pairs of underwear?