We're small army

Back of Buckingham Palace

Really, we are. For the last three weeks we've been wandering around London, blocking stairs, taking up multiple tables and walking single-file down the stairs to the tube. Three long weeks the fourteen of us have traveled together, eaten together and gotten lost together (well technically in parts, but it was still a group experience). This was the first time I was part of a group all of the time. The previous times I have traveled abroad, Mexico in 2005 and Spain in 2007, I was part of a group but we did smaller trips together and class. But that was it. With this FSU program we got to know each other quickly because we spent so much time together. It is hard to be part of the group for so long, but it is a nice experience. This year I moved into a single apartment because I moved from Indy to Madison. When I first moved, I really missed my old roommates. It was nice to come Indy have a group of people in a flat and in a class that were always around. I did miss time/space to myself at times, but that's to be expected. On the whole, I liked having roommates. Also, I've never known as much about my classmates in a traditional class as I've learned about these people that I've traveled with all over London.
Therefore, its almost appropriately ironic that today we had a very individual day. We visited Buckingham Palace, which is only open for two months at the end of the summer when the Queen is in Scotland, so it was a rare and fun opportunity to see inside the palace. Most of us got audio tours and we individually made our way through the Palace. For a group that has spent more time together than some families do on vacation, it was a very solitary tour.
Unfortunately I have no pictures whatsoever as we cannot take pictures inside the Palace. Today was a really good for a Palace tour, actually, as we had our first typical English weather: rainy and chilly with random spots of sun.
Maybe this is London's way of sending us off?