Hooray for Visitors!

Our dorm room is packed to the gills right now. Somehow I don't think that tiny room was designed to have five people living in it... Still, we're having a great time. For those of you who don't know. Maike's sister Rika and our friend Lori are staying with us for the week. We also have two other visitors in town, but they're staying in a hotel down the street. Thanksgiving break has provided a perfect opportunity for visitors, and helped us keep our minds off being away from family on this major U.S. holiday.

There was all sorts of craziness when Rika arrived on Wednesday. She called me from the airport saying she was sick and we needed to pick her up, so Maike and I rushed down to Gatwick in an attempt to get her to the college safely. That didn't work. We searched the airport for two hours and couldn't find her. Then we got a phone call from a paramedic. Rika had been taken in an ambulance to a hospital in East Surrey. Ahhhh! We hopped in a taxi to join her at the hospital and waited several hours for the doctors to run tests. In the end, it was something fairly minor in combination with nerves and we were able to go home. Whew! She is much better now and seems to be having a really great time.

It is a lot of fun showing everyone around the city, and I got to see a few new things myself. I went inside Westminster Abbey for the first time on Thursday, and to St. Paul's Cathedral for the first time. Oh, geez, that's a story. When we arrived, the church had been closed to tourists, but a man made an announcement that all were welcome to stay for Evensong with such-and-such choir. Well, we were very excited about the chance for a free concert in this historic church, so we followed a few people, picked up a program, and headed in. Lori decided she was going to explore instead of taking a seat and, of course, we followed. We ran into a priest who led us, get this, onto the stage - into where the choir sits. Oh, no. We couldn't back out now, but it sure looked like we were going to be the choir for the evening!!! We're not Catholic or Church of England, and we didn't even know which this church was! We sat uncomfortably laughing for awhile, waiting for our performance to begin, then we saw the choir entering. As it turned out, we didn't have to sing at all, only watch, but we sure had been worried! It was hilarious.

I was also able to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace for the first time this weekend, and we went to an INCREDIBLE carolling and advent service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square last night.

It's so nice to have friends here.