A day to remember

Hello,

where do I even begin? today was amazing. We started off our morning as usual with a 6 am wake up call and then preceded on to breakfast for our 2 pieces of hard bread and corn flakes. after this we took off for the Supreme Court again where we met up with Constable Richard and Constable Phil. Both were extremely friendly, funny and knowledgeable. we then headed off for number 10 Downing Street. if you are like me you probably don't realize the importance of this address at first but number 10 Downing Street  is the home of the Prime Minister. this area is blocked off by big metal gates and tons of security guards. most people don't ever get the opportunity to go down the street let alone take pictures at the door with the security. it was pretty awesome. after taking pictures I was thrilled with our next event. Constable Richard informed us we were going to be doing something special today that we couldn't know the whole time because of security reasons. any guess as to what our next activity was? we got to go to Buckingham Palace AND we would be going INSIDE the gates to watch the changing of the guards. Richard made the joke that we should be prepared to have lots of pictures taken of us because all of the "poor" people with their faces pressed against the gates trying to watch will be wondering "who are these important people who get to go inside the gates."

 before we went to Buckingham Palace we got to Visit one of the dinner halls for the Police and get some refreshments before our big event. when we arrived at Buckingham Palace I was super excited and we were already getting looks from people since we were walking around with two police officers and then we were escorted to the front gates where no one else is able to even stand. once the gates were opened we were let onto the property and got to go right up to the door and stand to watch the changing of the guards which took about an hour and there were thousands of people on the other side of the gates snapping pictures.I like to pretend that it was my 15 minutes of fame ha ha. the guards, security, Palace staff and us were the only ones inside the gate. the view was amazing but we unfortunately were not allowed to take any photographs from inside the gate. we thought about leaving someone behind so that they could take pictures of all of us from the other side but obviously no one volunteered for this job :) when the changing of the guards was wrapping up a guard stopped and talked to us (we were informed he was a major.) he just wanted to say hello and wish us a happy trip. Constable Richard informed us that he was very impressed that a guard actually stopped to talk to us because he had never seen that happen before.

 while standing and watching we were also joined by a group of gents who were in training to be in the ceremony and they stood next to us. after this was over we were escorted out while people were still taking our pictures. We were then on our way to grab some lunch and go to New Scotland Yard. when we arrived at New Scotland Yard we went through security and were led into their main briefing room for some power points on what they do on a daily basis as well as big events like the Olympics. it was very interesting and they were absolutely Hilarious with their "american" jokes. from there we headed back to the hotel to take a quick break before dinner. I however passed out for about 45 minutes. we then had an offer from Dr. Snare (vice president of CSC) to go to dinner at an Ethiopian  restaurant  ( he surprised us to see how our trip was going.) I decided to branch out and give it a try. it was very interesting and not bad but I don't know that I would try it again. I took some pictures which I will upload tomorrow because this internet blows! so hopefully lots of photos tomorrow! I feel very blessed that I was able to experience all of this especially since the things we did today are things most people will never have the chance to do. and I appreciate all of the hard work that everyone did to give me this experience!!

 currently I am at the Blooms Pizza restaurant stealing their internet to type this and then going to bed! hope you guys are enjoying this blog and ill ttyl!