London

We spent several days traveling by train to London. The first trip we spent most of our time on Regent Street shopping for clothes. Hannah and Michelle enjoy shopping at Accessorize, H&M, and Zara. Rick just headed for the local Starbucks to use the WiFi and work. In order to travel from the train station to Regent Street, we walked through a part of town where Arab shops abounded. We encountered many people sitting outside at tables smoking with "Hookah" machines. We had never seen anything like this before so we stopped and talked to those smoking. We could smell the fruity scent in the air as we passed.

We traveled last Friday to London to visit the Kensington Palace and the surrounding parks. The castle is beautiful and it houses many famous painter's works throughout the first and second floors. Kensington Palace was the principal dwelling place of Queen Victoria as she grew up and Princess Diana lived there (in the back away from public view) when she was alive. We walked by a memorial Queen Victoria built to her husband, Prince Albert, when he died and it is located at the end of Hyde Park. We also walked to Harrods, a famous shopping store in London. Harrods is quite unique with its Egyptian motif throughout several floors: Pharaoh statues, hieroglyphics running across the ceilings, etc. We walked throughout the floors viewing elegance and gaudiness. Our plan was to travel to St. Paul's Cathedral and then to view the London Bridge at night; however, it was raining quite hard so we are leaving the rest of the trip for another night.

While in Oxford, our family primarily attends the Woodstock Baptist Church, fifteen minutes walking time from our house. Michelle met several high school students and Hannah and Kelly befriended several college students. On Tuesday nights Michelle attends a Bible study and Hannah and Kelly meet their friends whenever possible. Last night we had about twelve over for dinner; we enjoy listening to their accents while they enjoy listening to ours.

Love and Blessings
Jeanne