our 5th week in London

Why hello there—long time no see/read : )

I hope you’ve not been in TOO much turmoil at the lack of blogging from my end of the world.

But if you have been in distress DO NOT FEAR your suffering is at an end—here is an account of our 5th week in LONDON FREAKING ENGLAND {that’s the official name over here ;) }

Monday the 25th of October

Stephanie and I decided that we needed to go and explore—we just needed to walk and not care where we ended up and so….WE DID!

After we grabbed some flat white’s {my new favorite coffee drink ever} at one of the numerous Starbucks’—we walked towards the River Thames.

As we walked we suddenly started to realize HOW FREAKING CLOSE WE ARE TO EVERYTHING IN LONDON! We walked maybe 5 minutes and came upon Leister Square—which is the location of the official half price tickets {TKTS} booth AND the location where UK movie premieres take place AKA red carpet, stars, paparazzi, etc.

It was very chilly outside so we popped into one of the numerous souvenir shops and purchased a 2-pound scarf—yeah I know. Cute. Convenient. Warm.

As we turned the corner and made our way into the actual “Square” we came upon A FAIR! Yeah I know basically a country fair in the middle of London—including games where you could win large stuffed dogs AND bumper cars…

But our bliss in glittering frivolity was interrupted when we saw AND heard a group of screaming pre-teens girls…we got closer and they were all holding Justin Bieber signs…..as we got ever closer we all realized they were screaming “JUSTIN. JUSTIN. JUSTIN.”

Steph and I looked at each other and ran over like, “WHAT? Justin Bieber is in London?” But after about 3 minutes we asked one of the girls what was going on—and she informed us that all of the screaming was not FOR Justin BUT in petition for Justin to come tour in the UK…so we still don’t know if they were screaming at Justin’s agent or one of the producers from the radio station that they were outside of…I guess it will just remain a mystery.

But it is funny that for just a second we thought we’d seen iconic preteen sensation Justin Bieber

Stephanie had wanted to seen “Flashdance” ever since she’d heard it was in London…So we left the screaming Bieber fans and headed to the half price ticket booth and got tickets to see “Flashdance” for that evening.

We both agreed that in under an hour it had turned out to be a pretty excellent outing BUT we continued towards the Thames and came upon the National Gallery WHERE there was another crowd. However this time there was no screaming or flyers, no blonde girls covered in glitter yelling for Bieber…it was a street performer! {ha ha}

He was funny. Crazy. But funny. Kind of reminded me of the type of person you would pick out to play Dr. Jekyl/ Mr. Hyde…yeah. So we watched for probably 45 minutes as he screamed and embarrassed and made several crass joke WHILE contorting his body in such a way that he ended up rolling around on the pavement…legs behind his head, arms flaying about…yeah.

So after we watched “Showtime” {the ‘name’ of his street show which he had tattooed on his back} we walked towards Big Ben, but then decided to take a detour to Buckingham Palace and walked around some of the parks in the area.

It was such a nice day—chilly but I had my scarf so I was good—there were kids everywhere a lot of ducks—it was just nice to be out in London.

And my Mom and I had ventured through this same park when she came to visit me after I went to the France program in 2008—so it was fun for me to relive those memories.

After we inquired after the Queen {she wasn’t home} we decided to go and look for this chocolate shop Stephanie had heard about…they make a lot of the chocolate in house and it is super gourmet AKA super expensive

So we hopped on the Tube {I cannot express to you how much I love public transportation} and made our way to the Chocoholics dream shop. Truffles, dipped fruits in chocolate, chocolate bars, chocolates filled with anything from Earl Grey flavoring, pepper {yeah I know but it was awesome}, raspberry, pistachio, chocolate covered almonds and cashews…it was great! And it was a super cute shop!

So of course we had to indulge! Steph went a little crazier than I did {especially since I’m still on the ‘no-sugar’/ ‘no-white flour’ life style…and yes it’s still going strong after over a year and a half}

Let me just say that I got 3 or 4 pieces {can’t remember exactly} and it cost me 3.50 pounds…the exchange rate for the pound to the dollar right now is .60 GBP to 1 USD….you do the math.

But it was worth it! They were excellent. I mean I would not suggest buying a box for Christmas or anything but if you have that kind of cash to spend by all means! Feel free to buy me some too ;)
After our chocolate excursion we headed back to the flat to rest a bit before we went to FLASHDANCE!

Now I will not linger on this topic long…it was not the worst show. It was ok. The main girl was pretty good. The main guy I was like “why is he acting?” but then again he kept me interested so he must not be too bad…but ultimately what made Stephanie and I hate it the most of the amount of unnecessary scantily clad women! We were not having the excess of skin that was going on—so with our eyes closed we got through those scenes and finished out the show.

The dancing was GREAT. But by the end we were a bit disappointed that we’d chosen to see Flashdance…sigh.

Tuesday the 26th of October

Trip day!

But this day was a bit different because the place we were headed to, Hampton Court, could be reached by the train/underground system easily. So we did NOT have to wake up at 8 a.m. to catch a bus/coach PRAISE! But we got to sleep in and leave around 10.30.

Hampton Court is one of Henry VIII’s most famous hangouts. It’s a huge royal palace along the River Thames about 45 minutes out of London via train.

After we arrived, in the rain, we looked down at the scheduled events for the day and realized that if we hurried we could make the court dance lessons that were being taught in the dinning hall! So we picked up our skirts…well not really, but if we’d been in Henry’s day we would have…and rushed to begin our lessons.

Only four persons from our group—Stephanie, Mindy, Lauren Knight, and I—wanted to participate! So we made Travis hold all of our stuff, while he and some of the other students watched us dance!

It was simple, fun ‘line’ dancing, and my favorite part was where we had to ‘whinny’ like horses…oh yes and we stomped our feet and brought our fingers to our heads to make antlers…yeah they actually did this in court! Ha ha oh Henry the VIII so funny of you.

We continued to wander about Hampton Court, which was also a home and hangout to monarchs after Henry, and eventually made it to the cloak room where we found…yes. Cloaks.

All day we had seen these kids and adults wandering around with coats/cloaks on—and we assumed they were wearing them because they were a group or a school BUT once we arrived in the cloak room we realized that the cloaks were available TO ALL GUEST in an effort to make us more presentable for the court ;)

So we grabbed a couple of cloaks checked ourselves out in the mirrors and headed back out into the rain! Ha ha

After a bit more wandering and a neccisary trip to the gift shop ;) we headed out in search of lunch…it was almost 3 p.m. by this time!

We found a Pizza Express, which is an excellent pizza chain over here, and enjoyed ourselves, immensely.

Aside from my feet and shoes being absolutely SOAKED it was a wonderful day!

Wednesday the 27th of October…..

I cannot for the life of me remember what we did on this day…but I DO remember that I got a ‘new’ fan—our flat is on the 4th floor and gets pretty hot—so in my excitement I faced it full on towards my face right before I went to sleep…and there it stayed all night…so unfortunately I woke up with a sore throat. Blah.

Thursday the 28th of October

As I mentioned I woke up with a sore throat and I attributed it to the fan being on my face all night…so I drank some tea and hoped for the best.

The group was getting pumped for our afternoon excursion to Westminster Abbey! We were supposed to have gone earlier in the semester but because of a private ceremony taking place inside we were unable to visit…so needless to say we were all ready to experience the Abbey ;)

They provided free audio guides, which is always helpful, so we partook and basically all dispersed. I saw people occasionally on our wanderings through the Abbey, but for the most part I was ‘alone’ from the group to wander. Which was nice, however after I had puttered around for an hour or two I decided it was time to find some tea…my throat had gotten worse. So I went to the gift shop to wait for people.

Gift shops are usually a good place to convene…however no one came. So I bought a few post cards AND a book “ Brief lives of the English Monarchs”—we’ve all been determined to figure out this monarchy family tree thing and so with the purchase of this book and Stephanie’s huge poster of the line of king’s and queen’s I hope to become an expert or at least become unconfused.

I found a Starbucks {I’m not joking when I say they are on every corner} and a spot to sit while I waited for the time when we were supposed to meet back up as a group.

It was kind of surreal because I sat by one of the statues on the side of parliament Square, I think that is what it’s called, the little square with Big Ben, Westminster, and the Thames surrounding it…yeah I just sat there and watched the cars drive by…read a little bit about William the Conqueror until it was time to go.

By this time I had started to deteriorate…I had a runny nose and my throat hurt…and I was getting a headache.

We headed to Covent Garden for dinner, but before we ate we had some time to wander around the shops and stores…after a quick trip to the excellent new Apply computer store with Stephanie I headed to a pharmacy and got stocked up on cold meds and cough drops.

Boo for always having a cold in the fall no matter what side of the world I’m on.

We ate dinner at a place called Gourmet Burger Kitchen—it was really good. The Burgers were massive but I wasn’t feeling too well so most of the night I just sat in a stupor and listened to the conversation around me.

Headed back to the flat and WENT TO BED!

Friday the 29th of October

I slept late because I’d woken up sick.

My cold had gotten worse and I was extremely tired so I decided I would just sleep it off…I got up and did a couple of things around the flat AND I watched the Halloween episode of the Office {duh nothing can keep me away} but in general I was a lazy sick bum.

Saturday the 30th of October

I got up in hopes of feeling better but that was not to be the case HOWEVER I could not stay in bed all day because we had a Halloween party to get ready for!

Lauren and Tyler were coming in from Oxford and Lauren had sent me a list to get from the grocery store—she had an awesome spread planned—so I woke up early to go to the store and then came back and went to BED!

I woke up expecting Lauren to be cooking, but she was no where to be found…her train got delayed because of engineering work and she didn’t get into London until around 5.30 almost 4 hours longer than her original plan.

But it worked out fine because some of the girls started cooking for me and then I started on some stuff---so we got it all done. And it was all great. But I was not feeling too hot.

BUT IT WAS HALLOWEEN AND I HAD AN EXCELLENT COSTUME SO I HAD TO BE ‘WELL’.
I was Hermione {and for those of you who are either oblivious or unaware she is one of the main characters from Harry Potter}. My mom sent me my brother’s graduation robe {she couldn’t find mine} one of the girls lent me her Gryffindor scarf, I know awesome that she had one, I teased my hair, grabbed a stack of books and I was ready to go!

Our party was pretty low-key. Food. A lot of food. Games. Dr. Organ dressed at the scary guy from scream, Travis with creepy green contacts in…yeah it was a fun night.

But I was for sure ready to go to sleep!

Sunday the 31st of October

Muahahaha all-hallows-eve ;)

I woke up to Stephanie telling me we were not going to church {her and I} because she had been up all night sick and she knew I still felt like crap so she intervened and called the shots—we were sleeping in!

And we did! I slept most of the day.

It’s not fun having to blog about days when you were sick…nothing happened and I feel lame having to tell you that all I did was sleep.

Ha ha but I did—and it was neccisary because apparently I had a pretty bad cold—because when I did get up and try to exhert myself…aka the Halloween party…I was worse for wear afterwards.

But anyways—Steph and I spent a leisure Sunday sleeping in and I read a lot…luckily this sick time allowed me to read almost half of my “Brief lives of the English Monarchs.”

For space sake and for your sake I’m going to end this post here and continue details about our 6th week on another!

Thank you for reading. Hope you’ve enjoyed!

Loves