"I have nothing to declare but my genius."

I considered saying these words from Oscar Wilde as I went through customs in London, but thought against it. It has been several weeks since I have posted on here, but I promise I have not been idle while I have been away. I shall now give you a short summary of the past three weeks of my life. I will attempt to be brief but I am warning you now: This will be the longest post in the history of the world.

Monday, February 28: I finally find a pair of frames I can cram my lenses into. Not being able to see is incredibly disorienting.

Tuesday, March 1: Write abstract for Communication Law paper after Optimist deadline.

Wednesday, March 2: Run around like mad preparing for trip. Stay up until 3 a.m. studying for Comm Law test, packing, etc.

Thursday, March 3: Go in at 7 a.m. for Comm Law test. Make high B, as expected. Not bad for 3 hours of sleep and not even reading half of the assigned readings. We all leave for DFW at about 9:45ish. Arrive at DFW, Robyn's parents take us to lunch at Wendy's, drop us off at airport. We are on the plane for 9 hours, arriving there Friday, 7 a.m. their time, 1 a.m. our time. I didn't sleep much and watched Ray and the end of The Incredibles. A baby was screaming near me, the person behind me smelled and the couple in front of me kept kissing and working on scrapbooking. Ray, by the way, should not have been nominated for Best Picture and only received the hype it did because Ray Charles died. I'll probably continue that argument later.

Friday, March 4: It is snowing in London, creating a slushiness on the ground that soaks through mine and Sarah's shoes and socks. We are in considerable pain. We see Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and take a bus tour through the city seeing all the main sites. We are exhausted at this point and I fall asleep during it. I think I missed seeing the Tower of London. Oh well. Later in the evening, Sarah, Robyn and I attend Evensong at Westminster Abbey. We walk in a little late to the sounds of the boy's/men's choir singing hymns. Sitting in a 1,000-year-old building with monuments and memorials all around while reciting passages, etc., was unbelievable. The experience just felt sacred because of the surroundings. That night, the girls went to a pub and I had fish and chips. Thank God for ketchup because the food over there is bland as crap.

Saturday, March 5: After a slow start, we make it to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Sarah goes and does her own thing while the rest of us go tour Westminster Abbey. We took an audio tour that gave us this hand-held listening device so we could take our time. This was probably one of the coolest things we did and we spent over 2 hours walking through the Abbey. The history is out of control and it only reminded me of how we forget how young America really is. "Oh look, there's the tomb of Elizabeth I. Cool." "Wow, over here is Isaac Newton, and here we have Charles Darwin. Neat." My favorite part was Poet's Corner where I practically hyperventilated at all the names there. I kept looking for Wordsworth but couldn't find him. After the abbey, we went and rode the London Eye. It's the world's largest rotating thingamajigger and it's an impressive 20-minute ride. We went back, met up with Sarah at the hostel, and later me, Robyn and her tried to go see a musical. We weren't smart enough to anticipate it being sold out, so we grabbed coffee instead.

Sunday, March 6: Robyn and I head to Kensington Gardens and take pictures next to the Peter Pan statue and on one of the benches as seen in Finding Neverland. We decided the one we sat on was the one used in the movie because we felt Johnny Depp's presence. We also saw Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived after her divorce until her death. Then we walked to Notting Hill and to Portobello Road. I haven't been mentioning how I had been having shoe/feet problems. From the first day when I got them soaked they had been hurting me. I only brought one pair of tennis shoes and they were thin and the ones that were soaked. Other than that I had ballerina shoes. So, I had to buy new shoes. This was an adventure, and Robyn wasn't too thrilled to be shopping with me, but I found a pair that are the brand Faith, so see kids, God provides. After shopping, we went to the British Library where we saw a copy of the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible, lots of Beatles stuff, an original copy of Jane Austen's Persuasion manuscript on her writing desk, Handel's Messiah, Shakespeare stuff, you get the drift. Way cool.

Monday, March 7: We head to Oxford. And if you thought we hadn't been having fun yet, you were wrong. We spend the day walking around the town, doing a little shopping, going through indoor markets. Robyn, Angela and I tour Christ Church, which was beautiful. We then go and eat at the Eagle and Child, the pub frequented by Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. This is where the s*** hits the fan. I have a jacket potato, which is really just a baked potato, and a Pepsi. But, across the pond when you order bacon on something, it doesn't come out like you'd think it would. They don't fry things all crispy like but rather don't finish cooking them. After we leave and start walking to the university park, my stomach begins to hurt and I have now concluded that it was food poisoning from my potato. Well anyways, we go to a park and then we head to the ACU Oxford houses and Angela figures out the code to get us in. We leave a note for Dee in his room and take advantage of the free internet. All this while my stomach has felt progressively worse. We start walking back to our nasty hostel and I feel sicker and sicker. Robyn and I get back a little after 7 p.m. and the others are right behind. About 7:30, in the middle of a conversation with Joey and Angela, I sprint to the bathroom and throw up. I will throw up about 9 times over the next 3 hours as I sit on the dirty floor of the bathroom, shivering and exhausted. Robyn and Sarah take turns sitting with me and holding my hair back. After a while, Sarah tried to get me to drink water and then flattened Coke, but I couldn't keep anything down. So, at a little after 11 p.m., she decides I need to go the hospital. She, Joey and I get there at 11:30 p.m. and I am there until 6:30 a.m. When they put the IV in my hand and started putting the saline in me because I was severely dehydrated, I was convulsing and almost delirious. Sarah was freaking out and for good reason. We at first thought we might have been overreacting, but when they were about to release me at 1:30 a.m., the doctor took my temperature and blood pressure. I had a fever and my blood pressure was fluctuating a lot, as well as my pulse. I think my pulse was 128 while I was lying down. So they put me in the observation ward. Sarah and Joey went home at 4:30 and Sarah came back. I had 3 bags of saline put in me through the course of the evening, which is 3 liters of fluid I believe. My friend, Andy, who is an EMT, said they normally only give that much fluid to severe trauma patients who are bleeding profusely. That's right, I'm awesome. My nurses Oliver and Sarah were very nice to me and called me 'love.' I also didn't have to pay for my visit.

Tuesday, March 8: We sleep for a little while and at about 10 a.m. Sarah goes and books our hostel room for another night and then went and bought groceries for me. We were supposed to be heading to Scotland, but I was too sick to travel. I was too sick to move, really. Our train tickets weren't refundable, either. Angela, Joey and Robyn pack up for Paris and go out to eat and to a park. Sarah and I crash. I will wake up periodically and go to the bathroom and nibble on the crackers Sarah bought for me and sip the water and power drinks she got as well. I was able to take medicine and my fever finally went down at about 5 p.m. when we both woke up. I was supposed to drink 3 liters of fluid but that didn't happen. Sarah did coach me, though, and I tried my best. I was in bed reading and not being happy about being sick, and went to bed before 10 p.m. Oh, and we are rooming with 3 American guys in their mid-20's who were funny but stunk up the room.

Wednesday, March 9: I take a shower for the first time since Sunday night and brush my teeth for the first time since Monday morning. I am able to walk around town a little bit but I get dizzy quickly. I also don't have much of an appetite. In the evening, when we were sitting on the floor of our room playing Nerts, Sarah and I couldn't help but laugh at how we were spending our spring break while the others were trampsing around Paris. Oh well. I seriously could not have survived without Sarah. She took care of me and took on the mother role when I needed it most. She trusted her instinct to take me to the hospital when the others thought she was overreacting, and it was the place I needed to be. My sickness put a huge damper on the middle of her break, but she kept going and worked to get me better. You never know if you can fully trust someone until you are put in this type of situation, and I know I could trust her with anything.

Thursday, March 10: We head back to London. We sleep and so we don't get there and get checked into our hotel in Piccadilly Circus (a real bed and shower!) until the afternoon. Sarah is supposed to meet Robyn at an airport because she was flying in early from Paris. So I decide to go and see Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre by myself. I felt bad because I was the one who had seen it and Robyn and Sarah didn't get to go. But, I felt justified because of my crappy week. So I go the the theatre and Sarah goes to get Robyn, only when she gets there she learns there has been a type of strike among air traffic controllers and flights were cancelled. Robyn has a great story to tell, but basically she gets help from a variety of people who get her on a train and a plane back to London. She misses our Friday flight though but gets on the Saturday flight with the rest of the crew.

Friday, March 11: I leave bright and early for the airport. Our flight leaves at 10:30 a.m. their time, so I arrive at about 1:30 p.m. our time. I didn't sleep any on the plane and watched The Incredibles, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and Closer. Very large Russians (or something, I didn't recognize the accent) sat behind me and the women kept hitting my chair. At first, she sat slouched down with her knees in the back of the chair, not permitting me to adjust my seat at all. But ha! She got up to go to the bathroom and boy did I move my seat back quickly. She kept kicking me and moving around. I just wanted to be back in America. Talk about being confused. Robyn has contacted her family and so they knew I was coming. I called Mrs. King and she was on her way. She and her other daughter, Allison, took me to Chili's to eat and then I stopped by her work with her. All this time my body is about to fall apart. I still have not recovered fully and am very pale, and I had started to feel sick on the plane. So I go home with them and stay up until about 6 p.m. and then crash. I wake up at 3 a.m. to go the bathroom and then sleep until 8 a.m. They took care of me, fed me, washed my nasty clothes, etc. I had missed home and parents a lot during the trip (being sick will do it to you), so they were a great comfort.

Saturday, March 12: The others came in that afternoon and we headed back to Abilene. I go and get burritos at La Popular (crap I had missed American food) and crash.

Sunday, March 13: Church and procrastination.

Monday, March 14: I write a 12-page paper on Harry Potter for my short course that was due that day.

Tuesday, March 15: I spend 10 hours working on my Electronic Publishing Web site storyboard.

Wednesday, March 16: Finish storyboard, totally about 16 hours. Luckily, my Comm Law paper deadline was moved back.

Thursday, March 17: Have the paper and stuff to deal with.

Friday-Sunday: Exhausted. Sleep until 1:30 on Saturday and don't do any work. Fortunately, the Comm Law paper deadline was extended again.

And so here I am. This has taken my an hour to write (with the break for a phone conversation with Daniel). The trip was quite an experience and not one I will easily forget. I don't regret any part of it though. Yes, our communication was not at it's best and we all got on each other's nerves at one point or another. But that's life. I was still in Europe and got to see some amazing things. Hopefully one day I will go back and get to spend more time there.

You can see photos of mine at my Shutterfly account here. You should know my e-mail, and my password is my screenname.

Cheers.