I love my friends!

Fear not my friends, I am alive and well! A thousand apologies for what must have been an excruciating silence over the past-can you believe it?-month since I've last updated my world tour. You'll find me now in a small mountain village in the French Alps. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me fill you in since my last update...

Celebrating Thanksgiving Day with Ben's family in London was a lot of fun. I had a lot to be thankful for over the past year and especially in my current position stying with Ben and his family. They were wonderful hosts, ever ready to make a cup of tea, help me plan my day or have a chat. While Ben was working during the day I caught up on reading some books my friend Trevor sent me, chatting online and going to the fridge whenever I was hungry! You don't' know what a luxury it is to be able to hop into the kitchen and have a bite to eat whenever you wish as opposed to going to a restaurant or food stall. One of the things I enjoyed most was being in a home again and waiting for those friendly faces to come back in the afternoon after being at work.

Ben and I went to Hillsong church in London on Sundays and attended a couple other activities like a men's day, teaching night and home group. I made some friends, ate some good foo and rocked out to eh Hillsong worship team. We also managed to explore some of the city and take some photographs on Ben's day off.

I was fortunate enough to have three of my friends from the States come visit me in London. Helen and I met in Costa Rica and hung out together in Denver a few times afterwards. She'd been in Spain for awhile and was finishing up her time in Europe bagging a few extra countries and between seeing a former roommate in Sweden and her dad in Ireland she had a stopover in London and stayed with me. We shared a fantastic day doing the tourist thing. We walked past Big Ben, the London Eye, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace. We had some fish and chips, rode a double-decker bus and took a photo in a telephone booth. To finish in classic "terry-and-Helen" style we took the wrong metro line and she nearly missed her airport transfer! Fortunately she made it on time and last I heard she was in Italy with her father.

Trevor and I also met in Costa Rica during a semester abroad. He now works for the company we studied with and was sent to London on a business trip. It had been five years since we'd seen each other, but we've kept in contact ever since and we never missed a beat as we met in London and went to a football (soccer) match. We managed to meet up another night for dinner with his colleagues and we all met up again in Paris a few days later. It was great to get to spend some time together again after five years. And what better than over a croque madame and cafe au lait with a view of the Eiffel Tower!

First Impressions: London

All my regrets from purchasing a wool jacket in Vietnam and carrying it with me quite uselessly for two months through equatorial Asia quickly vanished near baggage claim at Heathrow Airport. It was cold! It was even colder outside the airport and on the train-er, sorry, the tube. Here's a quick lesson in London lingo; what's the difference between the tube, train, metro, subway, underground and overground? If you can tell me I'd be happy to know. The obvious answer is that the tube, subway and underground are all the same thing since they are under the ground... except that sometimes they aren't, in fact sometimes they are elevated similar to a skyrail. And then there's added confusion that the overground is often underground! The tube/underground is not called a train even though it is a train. The overground is considered a train. Can you understand my confusion when I arrived? I'm happy to announce after two weeks, London transportation and I are good friends.

England is an interesting country in its antiquity. Everything is so old! I walked by a small church near Old London Road in Kingston which was consecrated in the eleventh century and has been under the ownership of the same school since the sixteenth century! Colombus had just 'discovered' my country at that time and here this church was already five hundred years old, yet it still stands to this day. This particular church isn't unique in London either. There are several standing examples of the history of the area. Beachcombers can be seen along the banks of the Thames River browsing among the discarded tires and broken bottles for artifacts and remnants of centuries past.

Despite the cold-which isn't the dry, windy, Wyoming type but a damp, quiet coldness-the city remains colorful. The grass and various evergreens are still green and there are flowers that still bloom. Single and double-decker buses are common and reflect a brighter, more monotonous red than the brick building neighborhoods they drive through. There is a certain familiarity to the city I've likely gained from watching television and movies. I would say it's somewhat similar to the feeling I had in Los Angeles. Although in Los Angeles I felt like everything was fake, make believe on a giant movie set. Whereas in London after walking past the London Eye and seeing Big Ben for the first time it hit me that I'm really in England!

The biggest shock was of course the price of everything. From the airport to Ben's house I'd already spent what was my daily budget in Southeast Asia on the underground and a couple phone calls. This was going to take some getting used to. Fortunately-depending on your point of view-the pound has fallen significantly in the last year and my dollars are going a little further than they would have before. Thankfully I'm staying with Ben's family and are at the mercy of their wonderful hospitality. After a couple days I came to the realization I'd have to find a job quick or go back to Wyoming. Physically it'd be easier to go back to Rock Springs, but I decided I'm not finished yet. My world tour isn't about to be over that quickly!