Day 9: Tate Britain and The Victoria & Albert Museum

Lets just say today has not been the best day.  It seems like everything went wrong.  To start off, I woke up at 4:30 am not feeling well and it was really windy outside so I struggled going back to sleep. I finally fell asleep but then woke up at 9:00 am to get ready.  Everyone else was sleeping in because we didn't have to meet up with the group till 2:00 but I got up and worked on some homework.  Once everyone was up and ready we went to the Tate Britain to work on our assignment.  Luckily we ran into our teacher Courtney and she helped us a little bit!  It was actually a way cool museum.  I really liked the "Looking at the View" exhibit.  Here are some of the paintings I liked:

 John Brett, The British Channel seen from the Dorsetshire Cliffs

 Ged Quinn, Cross in the Wilderness

Patrick Nasmyth, View Near Sevenoaks, Kent

Then we got back on the tube and headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum.  When we got there we ate lunch and then we had to work on our homework.  The museum was huge! It had six floors and it was so overwhelming! I feel like I am always doing a scavenger hunt when I have an assignment to do in a museum.  We took notes on everything we had to and then left.

We wanted to go shopping so we got on the tube and headed to Covent Garden.  We wanted to get everything done fast so we could get home and work on homework.  We rushed through the tube station and decided to take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator.  That was the WORST decision we ever made.  As we were running up the steep stairs I was in front of Lauren and she was yelling "You're going down when I get to you".  It was right after that when we heard the bloody murder scream of a girl in the stairway and then it went silent.  It sounded like something had happened to a girl and then her mouth was covered.  I can't even describe the sick feeling I had inside.  Lauren and I rushed down the stairs as fast as we could and we were both shaking.  I don't think I will ever be able to go in a stairway again.  

When we finally made it out safely we went to some different stores.  I had looked up a store that had this dress I am in LOVE with and so I knew what I wanted, I just had to get to the store.  I had tried it on when we went to Salisbury but didn't have enough time to buy it so I was SOOO excited to get it.  Well...we got there and they didn't have my size :( I was devastated.  I asked if there was another store and if they could see if they had my size.  There was and so they put it on hold for me.  It was a little farther away than we wanted to go but I wanted the dress so we were determined to make it there.

After that we got on the tube again to head to Primark.  Lauren had wanted this vest that they didn't have her size at the other store so we wanted to see if they had it at this one.  We couldn't find it anywhere so we asked an associate and they told us it was upstairs.  We went upstairs and couldn't find it so we asked again and they said it was downstairs.  We went through this same process probably four times.  We were so frustrated.  We finally found some vests but they weren't the one.  We shopped around a little and then headed to the store to get my dress.  When we got there we had to guess where it was so we walked down and looked at other stores on the way.  We were on the opposite end of where the store was.  So we walked all the way back.  We were so tired by this point.

When we got to the store I hurried into the fitting room so excited, put it on, and just my luck...it didn't fit like the other one did and it was broken :( I wanted to cry.  I wanted the dress so bad :( I took it off and was just done by that point.  We walked away from the store and decided to get food before we headed back to the flat.  We got Burger King because it was right there and it was quick.  Well Lauren didn't have her bag so we frantically freaked out.  We backtracked and found it at a store.  We were so ready to be back to our flat and we both wanted to cry.  We thought about taking a taxi back to the flat but thought it would have been too expensive so we got back on the tube and hurried home.  

When we got home I got straight on my bed and put in my headphones and listened to music while working on homework.  I just wanted to shut everything out and cry :(  I wanted to FaceTime and talk to my mom, or Pete, or anyone...but no one answered.  So I just worked on homework for the next two hours while eating lots of chocolate and drank Diet Coke.

By 10:00 I was exhausted and so ready to go to bed but I still had so much to do.  I can't imagine what missionaries do on days like this.  I just am so grateful that we made it through the day safely even though it was one rough day.  I have such a long day ahead of me tomorrow and I really hope I can get some good sleep and have a better day tomorrow.