A Royal Wedding

This past Friday, April 29th, was the Royal Wedding. And I was there!

And by there, I mean in front of Buckingham Palace, not inside Westminster. All my plans to become the harpist to HRH the Prince of Wales failed. Oh well. At least I got to see the Royal Family!

I took the daughter of a lady that I work with at Springboard, and then met up with my housemate and a past Springtime volunteer at Victoria Station around 7:15 in the morning and off we went to the palace. Surprisingly, we were able to get quite good spots right to the left side of the palace with a great view of the balcony for the famous kiss. A family standing by us offered to share their blanket with us, so we got cozy and waited for the members of the Middleton and the Royal family drive by. Lucky for us, we were standing right by where the cars would pass!

The first people we saw were Kate's mum and brother driving by. The "lower"members of the royal family left Buckingham in coaches and drove through lines of the Royal Guard. The Royal Band marched around entertaining us and also announcing the Queen's departure with a fanfare. Even from a distance, we couldn't miss her yellow hat! Then the flower girls drove by, and were by far the cutest things ever. They were so excited, pointing at us in the crowd, jumping up and down, and waving at us. Then Kate arrived and looked absolutely stunning! We were all so excited! Once everyone was in the Abbey, we were able to listen to the service which was broadcasted throughout central London on loudspeakers. The whole crowd was silent throughout, but sang along with the hymns and cheered when the couple said their "I do's".

The family came back to the palace in carriages and to be honest this was the worst part. The whole crowd from Westminster followed and we were pushed up against the barriers. It's no wonder people die in mass crowds! Even though it was frustrating that people were being lead down the street between our group and the palace, we still had a better view of the balcony since we were on higher ground, so instead of being swooped away in the moving crowd we held our ground and saw the family come out on to the balcony and the couple kiss. It was a day I will never forget!

After the couple went inside we all went home. Another YAGM in London was hosting an after-wedding party that we went to, and it was a blast! The weather has held up and I am really starting to feel like the end of the world is nigh, I don't think weather in England has been so nice for so long... ever.

Now it is a Bank holiday so I am sitting in Starbucks with an iced caramel latte and loving life on, yet again, a beautiful sunny day!

Peace and love to all of you, I miss you!

Erin

The family on the balcony

The couple in the carriage 

Flower girls

Our group

Kate's car

The Royal Cavalry and our view of the palace

Easter Holidays :)

School's out! Woohoo!!

Instead of immediate rest and relaxation, a couple of YAGMs game down and we gallivanted across the country. The first Saturday brought a trip to Oxford with my housemate. It was a gorgeous, cloudless, sunny day and there was a literary festival going on! Basically I was in heaven. The next day we found ourselves in Windsor. Another absolutely stunning castle and very quaint town, and again, a cloudless sunny day! After one day of rest it was back up and about and out to Cambridge on, yet again, a cloudless sunny day. By now we were all starting the think the end of the world was near, for how often do we get 5 days in a row of sunny days in England!? Well, Cambridge was indeed lovely but after a short discussion we agreed that we preferred Oxford.

The next week my family came!! I had seen my mom and her parents for about a day in a half at the beginning of December in Paris, but this has been the longest I've ever gone without seeing my dad. It was wonderful to spend time with them! I met them at Victoria station and off we went to Canterbury. Unfortunately, my family do not know how to take a vacation. We were up and about every day, exploring Canterbury and its museums, down to Dover to climb the cliffs and tour the castle, down to Deal Castle (many jokes were made about what the deal was with Deal), up to Leeds Castle (i'm modeling my future home after that place) and again back to Canterbury for Maundy Thursday. Friday proved to be an interesting day of travel to get back to my house and then over to the Imperial War museum, but all was well. And guess what? Every single day was sunny!!!

My family left last Saturday morning, and I went off to Bath to meet up with some other YAGMs. We started a weekend tradition of them playing frisbee and me reading my book in front of famous monuments. For Easter Sunday we went to my friend's church, and then drove off to see Stonehenge! From Stonehenge we explored the Salisbury Cathedral, and then drove off to Avebury, where we explored a neolithic tomb about 5,500 years old, a man made hill that is the oldest prehistoric man made structure in Europe, and the Avebury Henge, older than Stonehenge. The next day we drove to Cardiff where I proceeded to get sunburned. Who gets sunburned in Wales?! It's like an oxymoron. The bay was lovely and the Castle was stunning! The park around the castle is possibly one of the loveliest I've ever been to. I wish it were closer so I could go there more often!

Leeds Castle, Kent

My dad and I at the Imperial War Museum

Stonehenge

Neolithic Tomb

 Cardiff Castle 

All in all it was a lovely break, with much quality time spent with friends and family. A rejuvenating experience that really helped me to remember that Christ is risen, Hallelujah!

Erin

I climbed down a building!!!

Yup. And I did it face first too! Turns out I'm easily persuaded by doughnuts. My boss told me that if I went down face first instead of in a traditional seated position, he would buy all the full time volunteers doughnuts. Well, I couldn't very well turn that up now could I?

Klara and I arrived at Guy's Hospital Tower a bit early, so she went to volunteer and I went to go walk around the Borough Market. The market was full of fresh breads, cheese, fruits, flowers, sausages, pies, and lots and lots of vegetables! The colors are so vibrant there, I was tempted to buy most of the food just to look at it. A couple of other YAGMs and abseilers went back with me after we successfully made it down the tower alive and we got lunch, so I was happy :)

Now, the actual abseil. We got up to the top of the tower and all those going down "the normal way" had a lesson and practice session. Those of us going face first didn't get any of that, they basically just pushed us over the edge. Nah, I'm just kidding, but we didn't get to practice. By far the scariest part was climbing under the scaffolding and onto the edge of the building. There was a man holding my ropes behind me and another man 35 stories below at the bottom of the building holding the other end of the ropes. They lowered me forward until I was parallel to the ground, and then told me to take my hands off of the rope. My answer to that was "WHAT DO YOU MEAN TAKE MY HANDS OFF THE ROPE!??!?" but it turns out they just wanted to take a picture of me doing the 'super man' pose. After that climbing down the building was actually really fun! A definite adrenaline rush, and way worth it to raise the money for the children.

If you have donated money to Springboard for Children by sponsoring me, thank you thank you thank you thank you so much!!!!!! And if you haven't, please consider doing so. Every pound helps! The kids are amazing and every new resource we can get helps them learn and grow. Your help is much appreciated! Just click on the link to "Just Giving" on the left hand side of this blog :-)

God's peace and blessings to all, I miss you so much!

Erin