March 19

I thought I was adjusted to the time zone. Not. My brother and Dad snored all. night. long. I barely got any sleep! I am definitely buying ear plugs. Wow.

We went to Windsor castle today, it was SO MUCH FUN. I absolutely loved it. There was so much information and there was so much history! I saw the places where English royalty fought, lived, and were buried. I saw the grave of King Henry VIII (who I'm writing a paper about); learned why my ancestor King Charles was beheaded and why the Stuart family is no longer in power, where Catherine of Eragon (who I'm writing a paper about) watched chapel services, and more! I recommend it immensely.

While we were at the castle, there were guards of course, and we really wanted to try to make them smile you know? Common fun, and there was a little shelter where they would stand under if the weather conditions sucked, and they would stand there for a while when they weren't marching side to side, and while they were marching my mom wanted to get a picture while they were standing still, and so she asked one of the guides, "When does he go back to his little house?" (referring to the shelter) and the other guy just burst out laughing at her and said "oh yes, it's a nice two bedroom." and he was making so much fun of her! It was hilarious!

And when I went to one of the gift shops at Windsor castle I got a post card of Prince Harry, oh man. And I when I went up to buy it the lady was like "oh my that IS a NICE photograph isn't it?" and she was kind of old! And i was just like Yes!!! There are a LOT of attractive men in England.... man....

We went to dinner at a Shri Lankan restaurant, it was very good. Apparently it's very common here and all over Europe to eat your meals, especially dinner, very sloooowly. We were there for over two hours! It was a nice time to chat and joke with the family.

Tomorrow we're off to Oxford!

March 18

Today is Mother's Day in England. I think that's neat.

So yesterday we drove to Seattle to fly out with Iceland Air. I love traveling Iceland Air! My Afi knew the head of the department, it seems like they know everyone. (My Amma remembers Bjork growing up!!) And when we got on the plane they gave us Icelandic glacial water and I talked to them a little in Icelandic. My mom said that all the people in line in front of her that were boarding, the ladies were greeting them in English, but when my mom came they talked to her in Icelandic, like they just KNEW!

It was so nice to eat my favorite candies again, and practice reading Icelandic. It's so weird how the mind is triggered, like this lady said "Jesús, ég veit ekki hvar ég átti að vera!" which is "Jesus, I don't know where I'm supposed to be!" And that made me think of the song I used to always sing with Amma "Jesús elskar hár og smá" and I sang the whole song, and I haven't for years!

At our layover in Iceland we gorged ourselves on Malt and appelsin, pilsa, opal, ris, and more. It was delightful, it was so cool to see in the stores all the delicacies we crave during the year! Like lamb, fish, opal, malt, and more candy.

By the time we arrived at Heathrow we'd had like 2 hours of sleep. We were exhausted! When we were going through line with our passports to get into the country, Mom, Stuart and I zoomed through the Euro line, and dad putted along in the "everyone else" line. We made fun of him calling him "the American" I thought it was pretty funny. "Oh no! Did we lose the American?" "The American is holding us up!" And it was so scary having Dad drive on the left side of the road, and the ride side of the car.

It was really good to see Spencer! And I'm super glad to see him, we went to visit him in his dorm and this guy was in the hallway going to another room and was like "Who are those white people in the hallway?" It was funny.

We went and ate at an Indian restaurant, it was so. good. Spencer said Indian people here are like Mexican people in Portland. And you can only understand that if you live in Portland.

Tomorrow we're off to Windsor Castle!

Update:

So, I tried to make a new blog on blogspot but it was too confusing to figure it out since I already had this one, it wouldn't let me make another one..? Anyways, I had a hard enough time creating this one, so I figured I could bring it back to life, but use it with new purpose.

This Saturday I leave with my family to go visit Europe! More specifically Oxford, London, and Reykjavik. I am so excited to visit my brother in England and to see my own country of Iceland during this spring break.

To the point, whenever I start writing my thoughts down in a journal, nay, diary ;) my hand cramps, my thoughts run away from me, I definitely can't write 150+ words a minute very well... I will be journaling some of my thoughts and activities! "

I am very excited to document my travels in some way, even if no one is following this blog anymore ;)

5 days is nothing yet so long!