So today was not a normal class day for Lauren and I. After being here for a week and a half now, our coordinators of this trip scheduled a walking tour of London. How convenient. Now that I have walked the entire city of London, twice, and taken a bus tour I might add, we get to walk it once more. This one was different though, we were led by a guide we have not been led by yet and hear that he knows exactly the same history of every other tour guide we have visited with. Yippy! No it's not as bad as it sounds. Our tour today took us through a few parts of town that we have not yet walked through and added a few extra tidbits of information that we have not already heard. And although the four hour walking tour of London was a bit tiring, we did get to see a few places that we would not have ventured to outside of a group led tour. Places that i could not find again unless I really tried hard to find. So lets just leave this at, "been there, done that, but I didn't get the t-shirt."

What does amaze me so much about this city is that everybody here knows the history of the city. I know they know their history because I get the same story about every building, fixture or monument erected here from multiple people. Anyways, after we toured the city, we went to Camden market to see what all the talk about the markets really is. Camden town is a place that is lined with little huts one after another full of clothing, hats, drinks, food, artwork, and just about anything else you might wish to find. Lets just say it's one heck of a flea market that extends farther than the eye can see. You actually can find some decent stuff at this circus too!

But since today was not all that exciting and I did not get to blog yesterday, I will tell you about our adventures from yesterday! We decided to go to the zoo since animals are amongst one of my favorite things to watch. The London Zoo is laid out is several different sections with all types of exotic birds placed throughout the park. When we first got there we headed over to the otters for feeding time. These little blobs of an animal scurried over logs and under rocks darting towards pieces of meat that were thrown into their pin. As cute as they might seem, I would hate to see what would happen if you took their piece of meat from them. From there we toured Africa and saw wart hogs, giraffes, okapis, and many more animals with origins of Africa. We walked through a cage full of birds as they flew over our heads and landed in the trees all around us. Honestly after seeing as many birds as I saw at this zoo, I don't care to see another bird ever again. Birds are just nasty. We walked across the park to see lions, tigers, emus, reptiles, fish and on and on and on. We planned our walk around the park so that we could finish just in time to see my favorite part of the whole zoo trip. We saw my mothers favorite animal, something that's close to Lauren's heart, the PENGUINS! These little fellers knew it was time to eat! They lined up about ten minutes before their waiter came with sardines. Just about all 36 of them lined up on the edge of the pool waiting for their food. When the waiter made his grand entrance, the penguins went crazy. Some of them ran to greet him while those that were in the back dove into the water to pass the one in the front that were running. Anyways, we had a great time and enjoyed every minute of the zoo.






Also yesterday was the first time we rode in the "Famous Black Cabs" of London. The cab was actually really clean and it was funny to try and stay in our seat as he took us through the round-abouts and corners like he was Mario Andretti.

As for now, we are busy trying to finish some papers that are due on Wednesday so I am not sure how much blogging we will get in. We have four papers due by wednesday, which is the same day we leave for Paris! We will be sure and take lots of pictures as many of you have asked and keep all of you updated!

We miss Texas! Eat for us this evening, we could stand some good mexican food!