USA! USA!

This has been quite possibly my favorite weekend in London so far, and it's not even over. I didn't want to forget anything, so here's what has happened so far:

We had a huge group presentation due in class on Friday, and my group's went really well! Even though the instructor is very critical I think he was impressed... I'm sure our grades won't reflect that though, he is a very harsh grader. To celebrate being finished with everything, a bunch of the girls got dressed up and went out. We went to a great pub in Covent Gardens, and then found a Spanish tapas bar/ dance club nearby. It was so much fun to go dance and relieve all of our stress from the week. My feet were killing me at the end of the night because I was wearing pointy-toed heels, but it was so worth it to go out with my best friends in London.

Yesterday was another J-School excursion, this time to Leeds Castle and Canterbury. Leeds Castle was absolutely gorgeous. We had to walk about 15 minutes through these winding paths (and there were animals wandering the grounds, like peacocks!) to get to the castle, which looked like it was straight out of a Disney princess movie. The first floor was decorated with the original owner's things, and the top floor was furnished with the belongings of the last owner, a thoroughly modern Lady. Canterbury was also a cute, but very touristy town. We walked into the city center and saw the medieval church that devoted Catholics used to make their pilgrimages to, and we also went through this attraction that put us in the center of the Canterbury Tales with animatronic figures. It was cute, and I actually learned a lot too.

Last night was the big night, USA v. England in the World Cup! My friends and I wanted to go somewhere where there would be Americans too, so we attempted to go to this American pub called Sports Cafe, but we couldn't get in. We went next door to Planet Hollywood, and watched the game shoulder to shoulder in a room full of England fans! It was kind of intense but so much fun- the England fans yelled so loud and teased us, but we managed to get a few good "USA!" cheers in and met some England fans. We went to Sports Cafe after and ended up meeting some people our age, a first in London.