Future Math Teachers Unite!

I am sitting at the computer writing this blog entry with Maggie Donahue sitting next to me on a computer as well. She was in Scotland this weekend and spent the today in London. Amazing!!!

That paragraph was written, like it says, with Maggie sitting next to me. Sadly, she has left me here all alone again so the rest was not written with her here.

I started the day by going to church. It was really good. The pastor, Father Perry, did the service. He hasn't been at the 10 am mass for a while so it was nice to have him again. The other priests have bad accents and are hard to hear. Plus Fr. Perry is just very calm and he smiles a lot. I like his style. Not to get too evangelical but I just liked his homily. He had a baby (not the Fr. Grile Christmas Special Homily) and talked about how babies can't see when they are first born just like people can't "see" until they baptized. It was more complicated than that but it was really good. He did a good job. It was refreshing to be able to completely understand the whole Homily. Anyway, I didn't go to Whole Foods like usual after mass because Maggie had told me that she would be in London today so I went back to the flat and tried to call her. It was no good. Her phone wasn't working. I was depressed but couldn't do anything about it. I started to put more pictures on Facebook and then all of a sudden I got an e-mail that said. "Call me you fool!" I replied calmly, "I can't!!" and then gave her my phone number. Soon after I got a call.

We met up at Trafalgar Square (picture 1). Kristina came with me because she knew some of the people Maggie was traveling with. We walked around the square looking for them. I turned to Kristina and said, "I bet Maggie is going to either scream my name or jump on me when she sees me." Sure enough, like 1 minute after saying that, Maggie jumped on my back. It was so cool to see her. The first thing we noticed was that we have the exact same coat!! Haha, the rain coat thing that I always wear and bought from REI. Crazy. Reminds me of the first time I saw John's winter coat (we have the exact same one of those too). I guess the old saying, "great minds think alike" is true. Maybe the other old saying applies better, I think it goes "Jeremy has excellent fashion sense" :-)

Anyway, it was just unspeakably cool to be able to see Maggie here (picture 2). It was like having a little bit of home come and visit. That sounds weird maybe to people who are still in MN. The same kind of feeling comes over me when I buy fruit cocktail (Dad) or read a depressing young adult book (Amy) or see a little boy walking hand in hand with his dad (Josh and Sam) or see an amazing sunset (Mom). In each one of those instances, its sort of like each of you are there with me. I have stuff like that for everyone from back home. With Maggie being here, it was like all my SJU friends and memories were here, even though it was only Maggie actually sitting with me. I hope that that makes some sense. As soon as Maggie and I started talking, it was game over with the rest of her friends. I felt sort of bad because we were walking way faster than everyone else but I was just so excited to talk and see her that it translated into a faster walking pace. Plus, I always walk kind of fast now. Its just a by product of all the walking I do.

Maggie and her pals wanted to see the Tower Bridge so we crossed the Thames on the Jubilee Bridge and walked along the South Bank. We passed the National Theatre, Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, Vinopolis, the Clink, and London Bridge. Maggie and I stopped on the Tower Bridge (Maggie said picture 3 looks like an elephant, I agree) and sat and talked while we waited for the rest of the group to catch up (where we sat picture 4). I don't even know what we talked about. Just a million things. We were sitting there and some people walked by and one was wearing a St. Cloud State sweatshirt. Turns out Maggie swam with that girl for 11 years when they were little. Go figure... The group caught up and Maggie and I zoomed off to go back to our flats. The rest of the group went another way back.

I took Maggie back by way of The Strand, the major roadway through The City. We passed by St. Paul's Cathedral, the Royal Courts of Justice, and Fleet Street. St. Mary-Le-Strand (picture 5), the church in the middle of the road, was looking especially good in the late light and budding trees. We got back to Trafalgar Square and continued on my well worn path back to the flats (I have walked from Trafalgar to Metrogate about 10-15 times. The usual sights went by: St. James's Park, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park Corner, and Hyde Park (the Serpentine and daffodils picture 6). It was fun to go on it with someone that wasn't jaded by it all like I think me and Vanessa are sometimes. This whole time we were talking and walking by the way. We took a little different way back by passing by Harrod's (picture 7), the V&A, and the Natural History Museum.

Back at the flats, Maggie and I had a cup of tea while we waited for the others. When they got there, we made the noodles and sauce that they had bought. They bought 2 kilos worth of noodles (!). That's a lot of noodles. There were 7 of us though and, come hell or high water, we finished all of them. Like I said, Maggie and her friends had just been in Scotland and they took an over night bus to London so they were all really tired. Plus, I felt like they were visiting me in my "home" so I was sort of the host. I did all of the cooking and cleaning. They offered numerous times to help but there wasn't much to help with and they were all tired. This made me think of one of the big themes of The Odyssey which is hospitality. All the people in the book offer lots of hospitality to everyone else who visits because they know that some day they will need the hospitality when they are out adventuring. I feel that way now too. Sort of a "Pay It Forward" type of thing. Plus I really enjoyed cooking for all those people. A welcome change to always only making stuff for myself which can be depressing and boring. It was really funny trying to finish the noodles (everyone was so full). Maggie told me that she sometimes cuts up garlic or spinach and adds it to the crappy sauce she buys which makes it taste way better. Great idea. I will remember that. Also, one of the people in her group made coffee chocolate. That being melted chocolate mixed with instant coffee and sugar, then reformed. DELICIOUS!!!!! It was so good and it was instant energy.

After dinner, we all just hung out in the dining room and computer room. They finally got ready to leave. I was really sad to see them go. It was all over so quickly! I was really sad to see Maggie and all her friends go. They had to catch a bus to Stansted for their flight in the morning. I was so glad to have Maggie come here while I was in London. I was/am amazed that the same person that I worked on Foundations homework with 18 months ago, is the same person I was walking across the Tower Bridge with. Crazy!! I had an awesome day of walking and talking. Tomorrow: class :-/

Thanks for coming Maggie and friends!

TTFN: Ta Ta For Now!