I think I’ve done more sightseeing in the past week than my entire month so far in England! This Saturday marks one month of being here. I have to say, its gone by really fast and now that I’m getting the hang of things, life is getting easier as well.

Saturday I went with two friends to the Museum of London and then out for drinks and dinner in SoHo. The Museum of London was great; I had really wanted to find out more about the history of the city in particular, and this museum delivered. We did a tour that focused on War, Plague, and Fire – it basically covered the 1600s period of the English Civil War, the Black Death (the Plague), and the 1666 Great Fire in London.

Sunday was exciting… my mom and Markie arrived! Their first day they were pretty jet lagged so we just walked around my neighborhood and relaxed. Monday though, we hit the town running. We went to the Tower of London, saw the Tower Bridge, did tea time, walked by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, and took a cruise on the Thames that stopped off in Greenwich where we saw the Cutty Sark and Old Royal Naval College. It was a really fun day and I was glad they got to see so much of the city.

Tuesday through today was back to work for me; I’ve had to go to Newbury twice again so it’s a little tiring but fortunately  both Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays so I have a four day weekend ahead. Friday we are going to Stonehenge, Saturday will be Hever Castle (former residence of Anne Boleyn), and Sunday after Easter mass we are heading to the British Museum.

Another large event that happened this week was the attack on Brussels. Sadly, I found out first thing going into work on Tuesday. My heart goes out to the people there, terrorism is a hateful force we are all having do deal with. I feel like I ‘feel’ it even more now than ever, being in this part of the world – one of my colleagues was on vacation in Brussels during the attack but fortunately he is safe. I actually was planning to go to Brussels for a weekend in early April, but because of what has happened I changed my trip to Bruges instead of Brussels.