Day 4- May 2nd

Today kicked off with a rousing orientation from our Brazilian  house manager, Alvero, and his wife, Thais. Then we all headed out to the tube station for my first tube ride! I must say it was pretty entertaining to watch the locals faces as they saw 60 Americans get on and off the tube together. 

We got off at Monument station and walked over to the London Tower, across London Bridge, and on to the south bank of the Thames. (Tiffany's suggestion to bring a maxi dress was amazing! Nice and breezy for the walk, and all kinds of comfortable) From there we all split into smaller groups as we made our way to Westminster Abbey.  I ended up in a group with Kenzie, Sierra, and Chloe. We saw bubble artists, street performers, made a wish with some sand sculpting artists, then saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (and a beautiful Lambourgini parked in the drive way).

After our 2 hour walk we took the tube back to the center, where Breck, Kim, and I decided to run (literally) to a showing of Viva Forever, the spice girls musical. We ran from the center to the Queensway station (I must have stopped running like a horse because an Italian man tried to stop me on the street "You are a lovely girl!"), transferred at the Oxford Circus and got off at Piccadilly Circus. We made our way over to the Viva theater and got some sweet  20 pound tickets. 

The show was cheesily fantastic, but after intermission the constant smell of alchol and smoke triggered a feeling that I haven't had in years... instant nausea. Half way through the second act I got that tingle in the back of my jaw and booked it to the lou. After throwing up serveral times, Kim walked in the bathroom to check to on me, but I felt better so we walked passed all the workers at the bar and finished the show. We then cautiously made our way to the tube station and after surviving one train we got to the platform to wait for the next one. 

As soon as our connection pulled up, Kim and Breck looked over at me and said, "Can you make it?" For a second I thought that I could just suck it up and get on the tube, but then that tingle came again.  So I said, "No, we need to find a bathroom...fast!" We took off running through the tube station which, turns out, has no bathrooms. In the midst of the running I saw a utility closet that had a plastic bag by it, I asked Kim if it had anything it and she looked in it and made a rank face. By that point I didn't care, it was either in that bag or straight up on the floor. Turns out someone else had already had the same idea since there was puke already in the bag. But there was no stopping it.  As I ralphed Breck and Kim rubbed my back and held my hair. Luckily, as I finished two cleaning crew people came up and were extremely kind and helpful. They opened the supply closet, gave me a seat, and got me some water. After that I was ready to book it back to the center before the next attack. 

We made it back without any catastrophes, and as I was running upstairs to change into my pajamas ANOTHER girl was throwing up! After I changed I took up residence in one of the bathrooms and someone told me that the priesthood was coming to give blessings. I just started to sob. It wasn't necessarily due an overwhelming spiritual confirmation, not that having them come wasn't a huge blessing and made me feel much better, but all the embarrassment that I had been hiding from the people at the theater, the 100's of people in the tube, Kim and Breck, the cleaning workers, and the peanut gallery that had formed around the bathrooms just bubbled over into a waterfall of tears. 

During one of my spells Breck and Kim came up to the bathroom with a piece of toast, a bottle of Sprite and two red Gatorades! It was so nice of them! After that my back started cramping something bad, but then Anna came down and gave me a back massage and talked to me for a half an hour by the toilet. Talk about tender mercy! When there was legitimately nothing left inside of my body I was able to turn on Bride Wars on the iPad and fell asleep. 

So despite the sickness attack, I was blessed with so many tender mercies. I had the beautiful sights, not getting lost, making it the show, having Kim and Breck take care of me, the friendly cleaning crew, the blessing, all the great girls that came down to check on me, Anna taking care of me, and being able to fall asleep; I guess I don't have too much to complain about ;)