Easter Sunday

Last night I set my alarm on my iPod for 8:07am. At that time my alarm went off and I was so confused that Brittany was still in bed. She was supposed to wake up and shower before me. So I went and showered anyways and when I got back to our room she said "Claire, you know we're not going to breakfast until 9, right?" So I was like "Yeah, it's 8:20 right now." And we were confused because the time finally changed here in Europe last night. She showered quick and got ready. I had to text Jeni to make sure she was awake, which she was. Then I texted her "You know its almost 9 right?" and she didn't text me back,  but called Brittany confused. The clocks on our phones didn't automatically change, so she had to get ready super fast and met us at ISH for breakfast. From there we went to Baker Street station to go to Westminster. There was a long line of people outside of Westminster Abbey to attend the Easter service at 10:30. We got in and we got a pretty good seat, considering we were in the back of the church. It was interesting to see how the Church of England does their services. There were a bunch of boys in robes and guys carrying a banner on a stick type thing, and 2 boys carrying candles, a guy carrying an incense thing that he waved around so there was smoke and the smell of incense. There was also a guy carrying a big jeweled cross. They walked down the aisles, and after that, we couldn't see the front of the church so I'm not exactly sure what all happened up there. While they proceeded down the aisle, we sang "Christ the Lord is Risen Today", and it turned out that that was the only Easter song we sang the whole time. Brittany was disappointed about that. The choir sang songs but they sang in Latin, so we had no clue what they were saying. The organ was also quite loud where we were sitting so it was harder to hear the choir over the sound of the organ. When the gospel according to St. John was read, the priest/reverend guy went into the back of the church and he read from the Bible almost right in front of us. The two boys with the candles were beside him, there was a man holding the Bible, the guy with the incense who was swinging that around, and a guy with a banner. To be honest, I was not able to focus during the sermon, so I can't tell you what it was about. The way the chairs were set up our side of the church was facing the other side, so basically rows of people on my side facing rows of people on the other side. There was an adorable little girl who was not even 2 and she was so well behaved and cute so I was watching her, and distracted by the other people. They had Holy Communion, and Brittany and I were going to take part, but then we saw that it was a communal cup for the wine, so we decided not to. The people wiped the cup, but they wiped it repeatedly after each person with the same spot of the cloth. It was a germfest. After the service, we went back to ISH to eat lunch since it was about noon when our service was over. Jeni went to a Methodist church across the road, and her service started at 11, so she got done after us and just met us at ISH for lunch. This afternoon I didn't do anything productive. At 3:15 we met Jeni and Lisa to leave and make our way to Hammersmith to watch the Oxford vs. Cambridge boat race. We found a spot along the River Thames and waited for the rowers to go past us. It was so neat, but it went by way too fast! We heard cheering while they were making their way so we looked down the river and then they were in front of us, and then gone, all within like 10 seconds. We were not at the finish line, so we didn't even know who won. We googled it once we got back and found out that Oxford won. We're convinced they won because Brittany, Jeni, and I sported our Oxford sweatshirts today for the race. We made our way back to ISH for supper after the race. Since they tried to fix the internet here at ISH, they made it worse. My wireless works just fine, but everyone else can't get it. So after supper they went to Pret A Manger, a sandwich place to get free wi-fi, while I just went back to my room because I'm a lucky duck. I waited until my parents called me on Facetime, and I got to see and talk to all my family that was at my house for Easter. I loved that so much. I miss all of my family a lot and can't wait to be back so I can see them all in person and hug them. My grandma was crying when she saw me and it made me feel so sad/happy and I wanted to give her a big hug but I can't, so she'll get one once I'm back in 19 days!! It was really nice to say hi to all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. After hanging up with them, my cousin Peter called me on Facetime. It was really nice to chat with him, seeing as he lives in Minnesota and don't see him often.

Today, I also realized that around this time 8 years ago I had gotten sick and had my heart surgery. I'm so thankful to be alive and have so many family and friends that care about me so much. I am also really thankful to have my parents for helping me out and letting me come to London to study. This has been the best year of my life so far and I've experienced so much and it's made me the happiest I've been in a long time.

Happy Easter everyone!! I love you all!