Day 8: Emma Arrives and 4th of July!

We got to sleep in this morning! It has been the first time we could this whole trip, so we all were definitely grateful :) I slept in until about 10:30ish and then I got up and around because Emma was arriving this morning!! Emma is the eighth member of our group and UPS lost her passport, so she had to go get a new one and a new visa. So she had to come a week late... She got here at around 11ish and it was really fun to get to know her and finally have her with us!

Lunch ended up being a mess because the dining hall was randomly closed for some reason? So Kirsten made some quick arrangements and we got to go to the Wired Cafe in the library. I'm so thankful for how flexible Kirsten is!

We came back and hung out for a while until it was time to head out to our Fourth of July BBQ! Tony, another worker at the International Centre at Roehampton, hosted it for us in his townhouse in Northern London. We took buses and trains and it took about an hour-ish to get there.



It was so much fun! We had burgers, chips, chicken, sausages, and other BBQ foods. It was kind of hilarious because they were throwing a barbeque for us that celebrated our freedom from them! But regardless, it was really nice... We played some music and chatted. Interestingly enough, Barron decided to use me as his guinea pig to show off some of his swing dancing skills! Although I had no idea what was going on, it was pretty fun!

Then we headed back to Bede where we investigated the "Welcome Center," which you can access just right down the hall from our rooms! Inside, there's a huge lounge area, and even a few chapels... It was crazy! We even played Hide and Seek in the large chapel area at like 11pm because the doors were still accessible from our residence hall... It was SO fun, and definitely reminded me of childhood :) It was pretty darn spooky though because it was quite dark!

Other than that, we had a pretty relaxing night. One of the things we got in our initial packets were yellow rubber ducks that have Roehampton University logo on the front. Anyways, Jason figured out how to wedge the duck in our room doors to keep them propped open... So I've done that a couple times throughout the day, and it has worked great! But then, this evening, all of a sudden I hear a ripping noise and then my door slammed shut... and now I am left with a beheaded duck :( So sad!