Studying Abroad in Northumbria: A weekend with the parents..

Hello! This week wasn't very exciting, but last weekend is a different story..

On Thursday, I went on my first travel adventure by myself. This was only because I was meeting my parents in London and no one saw any fun in that. (Brittany jetted off to Paris instead.. way less exciting..) I took the train on Thursday at 5 rather than having to wake up early and travel. I was nervous about meeting up with them since neither of them had a phone that would work in the UK and I didn't know where their hotel was. We decided to meet at the tube station that was sorta near their hotel.. right across the Westminster bridge. After a 3.5 hour train ride and two tube transfers I found my Dad inside the tube station. (I told him to meet me on the bridge) Things were all fine and dandy until I asked my Dad to carry my bag. He was unable to do so because he could barely walk. It was day one of their trip to the UK and my father had already fallen out of the bathtub. I will spare you poor souls the details, but let's just saw the sliding glass door that was the door to the bathroom was open 2 inches and he wanted to close it while standing FEET away.. enough said. We spent the evening just catching up. The following morning Dad's leg had gotten worse. Luckily, we had tickets to a Double Decker Hop on - Hop off bus or as some people in this family refer to it as.. The " Hip - Hop Bus". We spent our time at St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and other touristy attractions. We also went on a River Cruise and spent a lot of time on the bus because there were tour guides. We went out to dinner and went to see Thriller Live! After getting lost trying to find a tube station closer to the hotel we took a cab to the theater. My Mom disliked how there was a female singer singing Michael Jackson's songs and threatened to leave at one point.. she was fine after they sang Heal the World. The show was Okay.. I think London theater is much different than the shows we have on Broadway. On Saturday, We almost took my Dad to the hospital because he couldn't walk. However, we just left him in bed and went to Westminster Abbey. There was quite a long line to get in and it was expensive, but it was very pretty. I'm glad I got to see it before the Royal Wedding takes place there in April. On Sunday, the only not sunny day of the weekend we took a ride on the London Eye. It never stops and you have to wait behind these metal gates before getting on. Similar to a horse racing gate, once the gates go down you basically have to quickly jump on before they close the doors. We were quite worried that Tom may miss the jump, but we all safely made it on. After some souvenir shopping and trying to jam all the new clothing my parents brought me into two bags we went to one last dinner. We went to Slug and Lettuce which was quite good (Tom loved the ribs..) I rushed back to get my baggage and was off to the Westminster tube station to return back to Newcastle. The weekend went quite quickly, but I'm glad my parents got to experience the UK and some nice weather while they were here. It was so nice to see them, but scary because that means I'm at my halfway point here. See you in 10 weeks Joy & Tom!