I Ate Bird Poop

The title of this blog is so crazy I knew it would grasp attention. Unfortunately....its also true. I did...in fact...eat bird poop today....

We woke up this morning...both feeling like we'd been hit by a train. But as soon as we got outside and walking around we were better. We had our meeting with YMCA London today at 11:00. I think it went really well. We talked with a friendly guy named Ben about different job openings, the application process, and many other things. He even gave us some great suburb areas to live that aren't "dodgy". He also was the first one to say "cheers!" to us as we left. My favorite phrase.I just love it for some reason. It sounds as if we would both have a pretty good shot at a job with the YMCA, but the process could be really quick so we need to have things in order. We are going to stop by the embassy sometime tomorrow and get an idea what the process will really look like.

So, how did I manage to eat bird poop? Let me tell you...

Ben and I were hungry and stopped by Pret a Manger (that's French for "Just Eat". Its delish. Absolutely no preservatives or yucky stuff. Organic goodness. Made fresh that day). We each got a sandwhich and split half (Roasted duck and barbeque sauce on baguette, and fresh mozzerella, tomato, and pesto on whole wheat). I also got a latte. mmmm. Ok, so we were only a few blocks from St. Paul's Cathedral so we decided to have a rest on the steps of St. Paul's and enjoy our lunch. (it costs more to eat in Pret a Manger so we opted for the cheaper and more scenic route). We were sitting down and enjoying our lunch along with hundreds of other people and pigeons. All of a sudden, I heard Ben say "Oh crap".
Tara: "What?"
Ben: "I think a pigeon just pooped on me"
Tara: "Nu uh! Let me see!"
Ben: "See...its all over my pants! (Ben was wearing his only nice pair of pants since we had a meeting this morning.)
Tara: "ohhh I'm sorry babe! Heres a napkin."
Ben: "do you have any hand-sanitizer?" (he reaches for my purse)
Tara: "no no! Don't touch my purse! You have bird poop on your hands! Let me get it!" (hands sanitizer to Ben)

Ben cleans up the bird poop with a napkin and leaves the napkin on the steps. He cleans his hands with sanitizer. Then he goes down to the bottom of the steps to take my picture. He comes back and sits down. Well, the neat freak that I am decided to clean up the trash we had all over the steps. The plastic wrap and such. The last thing I grabbed was Ben's napkin that he had used to get bird poop off of himself. Unfortunately....I had forgotten this.

Green bird poop looks a lot like pesto, mind you. And I was eating a mozzerella, tomato, and basil sandwhich. I had gotten the bird poop on my finger when I was putting his napkin in the trash bag. For some CRAZY reason (maybe its the jet lag...I'll blame it on that. Not my own stupidity)...I licked my finger. I licked my bird poop infected finger! And of course as soon as I did, I started spitting it out like I have never spit before.

Tara: (spitting....making horrible faces)
Ben: "Tara..what are you doing?"
Tara: "I just licked my finger! It had bird poop on it! I thought it was pesto from my sandwhich!"
Ben: I TOLD you that napkin had poop on it earlier!"
Tara: "I know...but I forgot!"

spitting...spitting...more spitting....Ben takes a picture....spitting...spitting...

UGH. It was disgusting. And for the next few hours all I did was wait to see if I was going to get sick. Thankfully I didn't. And we went on a beautiful walk instead and took lots of awesome pictures.

We walked across the Millennium Bridge and took pictures as if it were falling apart (like when the death eaters come to London in Harry Potter 6). haha. And we spent a few hours in Tate Modern museum (looking at Picasso, Monet, etc.). We then decided to get lost in a part of London that I had never been to and it was quite fun. We discovered a HUGE organic/fresh market and I bought some pear juice. Definately going back to take pictures, because our camera batteries had died by then. You all know how I am with taking pictures of food!

That's all for now. Keep praying for us as God leads our hearts. Pray that we would be open to His will....whether thats here in London or somewhere we don't even know yet. Pray that we would be able to make an impact even for the small time that we are here. Miss you all!