Finally, Finally, Finally...

Dear Grace,

Today after starting my first day of classes and getting a tour of a library, a group of girls and I all decided to go on a little excursion through Hyde Park on our way home. Halfway through, we came across a pond on our left, and a big, beautiful Victorian house on our right.

Naturally we all frolicked over to take pictures and explore, but very quickly we realized that this big house was none other than Kensington Palace! According to Betsy, it is home to the famous William and Kate. And, since the pond is between our flat and Kensington Palace, that now literally makes William and Kate our neighbors from across the pond!

Well, after that adventure we decided to take a trip to see the houses of parliament and Big Ben. We took a long ride on the Tube, and when we got off we walked down a tunnel where we came to a set of stairs. As we started to climb, I could see the side of a building with beautiful carvings on the walls rising up in front of us. I tilted my head all the way back to see and finally, finally, finally saw Big Ben for the very first time.

It's moments like this that make me feel like I'll got to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow to find that all of this was just a dream. But when I wake up each day I know I'm not dreaming anymore. I'm living. Not planning; not hoping; not praying; not wishing, but really living.

I think one of my favorite things I realize now that I look back over the pictures is the fact that I'm running around seeing and experiencing all of these things while wearing my awesome trench coat! We also saw the London Eye across the Thames River (which was too dark to get any pictures of tonight), and we even took a little side trip to see the Tower of London, where many famous people throughout history were executed.

This experience was everything I ever dreamed it would be, but I had something more I hadn't counted on when I finally lived to see this day: I was able to share it with friends :)