Nevertheless, it's fucking cold.

I went to London last weekend with Monika, another assistant and friend of mine who comes from Austria. While we were there we met up with Carl, another friend and assistant who's from Australia and was also in London for the weekend with four of his French high school students.

I had a super great time. Not only was I really excited just to go to London (as I'd never been before) but also just that I was going on my first "weekend trip" in Europe. One of the main reasons I chose to live in Caen this year was because it's in the north of France, and thus close to the UK. We took the ferry over on Friday night (sorta like a mini cruise ship, nothing like the ferries at home), arrived first thing Saturday morning, and spent two days going all over London, seeing as many sights as possible. We also had GREAT timing! On Sunday, we decided to go to Trafalgar Square first. When we got there, we realized that it was the Chinese New Year, and there were tons of celebrations going on because of it. We then wandered through Chinatown, where there were lots of other neat things happening. (Traditional dances, etc.) After wandering around a little more and stopping for lunch, we decided to head over to Hyde Park and check out Speaker's Corner. Before we left, we looked in the guide, and realized that Speaker's Corner only happens on Sundays. And we were there on Sunday! That was "très cool" too.. all these crazy men yelling at people, and sometimes at each other, mainly about religion and a few about politics.

Anyway... not only did I have a great weekend being a tourist, I also enjoyed being in an English-speaking country (for the first time in four months!). Especially with Monika, as she speaks better English than French, so she is less nervous and stressed out when speaking in English! Still... she's Austrian, and clearly English is not her native language. She took every opportunity to use "fuck" in a sentence - you can imagine that there were quite a few that were funny, sentences that no anglophone would come up with.

Later Sunday afternoon, we were in Greenwich (which she insisted on pronouncing Green Witch) and admiring the view, the lovely park, and the beautiful observitory at the top of the hill. (We were on our way up the hill to see the meridian that divides the eastern and western hemispheres.) I had said something like "This is really nice, the park is pretty to walk through" and Monika said.. "Yeah... nevertheless it's fucking cold." I couldn't stop laughing... never have I ever heard "nevertheless" and "fucking" in the same sentence. The funniest part was she didn't know why I was laughing... I tried to explain the variation in her vocabulary within the sentence. I think she understood eventually!

Was super tired when we arrived back in Caen Monday night, as we had been up until 4 am Sunday night .... went out with 2 Canadians (from Vancouver) and 6 Australians from our hostel. We were the only girls too ;)

All in all, a great weekend. I feel like I've "done London". (but don't worry girls... I can still go back in the spring!)