"It has been a Robbery!"

Today was a late class day for Lauren and I. We did not have to meet for the the tubes until 11:30. Unfortunately the two vacant rooms that are in our suite are used for offices so at 8:00 am our suite becomes a revolving door of problems seeking answers. Needless to say, the light sleeper that I am, awakens no later than 8:00 am when the revolving door is unlocked. Except for being somewhat tired, it is not bad though. I was able to download the episode of: "Work of Art" that I missed and catch up before I headed out to class.

We ventured out towards the coast today on a 2 1/2 hour journey to Shepherd Neames' brewery in Faversham. It is the oldest live brewery in the world that was constructed in 1682. We learned of the process that goes into brewing beer in the UK, which is quite different than that of the the US. The UK tends to brew their beer longer because the majority of their beer is a real ale. For those of you who dont know the difference, Ale (which is what we have in the US) is a light beer in color and real ale (which is most common here) is a darker beer. The color difference is like apple juice and tea and obviously can be almost black. Also because the curing process is so long, the alcohol is stronger too. It is legal to brew up to 14% alcohol in beer here where as beer in Texas contains roughly 3.2%. Although they can legally brew up to 14%, most beer here contains between 5 and 7% alcohol.

The city was very small with brick streets and no traffic signs. The population is about 20,000 people which is extremely small compared to London. I find it very interesting that the change of pace is so drastic from city to city. In London you have to fight for your spot on the street and when we visit the smaller surrounding cities that is not the case.

We ate at a well known Italian eatery while we were in Faversham that was amazing. We had mushrooms stuffed with beef and other spices that I cant remember and served with a side of garlic mayonnaise. Then we shared a pepperoni pizza that had to of been stone baked to perfection. We love the Italian food here.

For our journey back home we had quite the adventure. It definitely took longer than it did to get there and we could not figure out what was taking so long. The train moved slower and finally at one stop did not continue to run for quite a while. As I tried to figure out was going on, I heard a loud banging sound coming from the toilets and a continuos chatter coming from those around us. After I saw a man that was dressed in a uniform yelling profusely about what just went on, I asked a person standing in the doorway what is going on. He proceeded to tell me that, "It was a Robbery!" The gentleman that works on the train taking tickets from the passengers had been robbed while he was collecting tickets. Sad thing is, he didnt even know he had been robbed until he turned around and saw his cell phone tucked under the shirt of one of the robbers. These guys pick pocket people for a living here and are so good that you dont know it until you reach for your wallet and find that it is gone. He told the guys to give his belongings back to him and the guy pleaded that he had nothing that belonged to the man who had been robbed. The worker called the conductor to inform him about what happened and the train stopped at the next station without proceeding. Come to find out, this is the reason why we never left the station. The banging noise coming from the bathroom was one of the robbers who tried to flee but did not get passed the guard on duty. The guard locked the robber in the bathroom until police arrived at the scene to arrest him. The robber had another accomplice who did get away with the money and whom I am sure will be caught by police. All of the city and its' trains are monitored with cameras and once police are notified it usually doesn't take long to track someone down. Needless to say, this has been yet another interesting day that I will never forget!

Hope you continue to enjoy our blogs!