alright, so about what happened to us today because i don't think that i'll ever get around to publishing it on my blog....we wake up before everyone in our room is awake and leave on a train that we werent sure was going to the right place to get out to ken and patty's house. both pick us up, ken with his red cap, and they take us on this extensive tour of the countryside with ken as our personal tourguide. we saw old old adorable houses, the marsh where toad's mate (cool--kinda weird actually), 2 castles...and then we had a picnic on top of the white cliffs of dover. then we went to their house and mom, it is out of a fairytale, seriously. they live in a house that part was built in 1460 and the other part in the early 1700s and there are flowers and streams and green everywhere. anyway, they fed us lunch and dinner and were just as cute as ever. then we come back into london in time to make it to a show that we thought everyone got tickets to. what show?? les mis....but when we showed up, no one was there, which meant that they either didn't find tickets to les mis or got tickets to another show--we gave them money beforehand. so we are standing outside waiting and this adorable couple comes up to us and asks if we need tickets. they were on a date and had both accidentally bought tickets and didn't know, so they had 2 extras side by side that they gave us a £25 discount on...so once again mary and i get something free or discounted and the rest of the group is left in the dust..oops!! is is currently 11:48 and we haven't seen them since 8 a.m. this morning when they were all still snoring. there have been numerous things on this trip that both mary and i have gotten handed, literally handed, to us. like when we first arrived here we all were waiting in line to buy underground tickets when some couple walked up to us and just handed us their day passes and said that we could use them because they were going home for the night--and then mary got a couple tickets to free entrances to church in paris and etc etc etc. so it was just hilarious that of all the poeple and all the cahnces that we actulaly got something free (or disocunted), it was tonight when everyone wanted to see les mis and couldnt because they couldn't find tickets. god is sure great :)