My Golden Birthday!

February 21, 2011.

Happy 21st birthday to me!

Since it was Monday today I had class... all day long! But, I like my classes a lot, so it was all good. One of my roommates surprised me with a yummy red velvet cupcake from Hummingbird Cupcakes (so good! Thanks Paige!)

After classes and dinner, our group had tickets to a play. So we all took off on the tube to go see Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband". I really enjoyed the play a lot (not as good as "The Importance of being Earnest", though). I really like Oscar Wilde. He always makes me laugh with all of his witty comments. I love how he ridicules Victorian society. The play was great, the actors were pretty good too. I even got to see Elliot Cowan play my favorite part, Lord Goring. Elliot Cowan played Mr. Darcy in this adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that I liked called "Lost in Austen". Gotta love BBC stuff.

The gang waiting for the second half during intermission

After the play was over a group of us went out to gelato to celebrate my birthday. It was lots of fun, and pretty good. It was getting pretty late and the tube was going to close soon, but a few of us decided to take the buses home. So, I had my first experience riding a red double decker bus! It was lots of fun. We ended up getting 'lost' for a minute, but no worries, we got our bearings and found our way back home to Notting Hill!

Birthday Gelato!! :)

Overall my birthday was really fun. What a once in a lifetime experience---to turn 21 in England! I am such a lucky girl! I'm always surprised by the opportunities that I am getting while I'm here abroad.

Let's go to Camden Town!

Feb. 19, 2011

Today was a fun relaxing day. I went to Camden market. This is one of many markets that you can find here, in London. The markets are a part of London that I love. You can always find so many random things at them... or really good food. Haha.

Camden is the market for GOOD food. Seriously. I got the best donut of my life there. Homemade. Carmel top. Fudge filled. Toffee chunks. Yeah, best thing ever. I need to go back to get the chocolate covered strawberries. I hear they are divine.

You might recognize Camden market if you have seen the movie, "What a Girl Wants" with Amanda Bynes. She goes there with her Dad during the movie.

After Camden I relaxed and went to Nandos. Yum. Overall, a great day!

Who knew that Henry the VIII was handsome before he became ugly and fat...

I sure didn't know that. To me I always thought Henry VIII was huge... haha.

Anyway...

Feb 18, 2011

Hampton Court. If I could describe Hampton court in one word it would be... stunning. It seriously was. It was one of Henry VIIIs favorite houses that he owned, and they sure played that up when I visited. Henry VIII paraphernalia was everywhere... a tea towel with all of his dead wives. Yup. Pretty crazy.

Anyway, we were basically set loose to explore any part of Hampton court that we wanted. We even got to get audio guides that came with these awesome velvet robes. Don't worry, Emily, Jaynann, Katie and I definitely took them up on that offer. I felt like a jedi master. Pretty awesome. Inside we got to learn more about court life and we got to see all the gaudy decoration. It was actually really beautiful.

Katie and I in our Jedi robe/Hampton court attire. 

After exploring inside, we had to relinquish our jedi robes (apparently lots of people steal them?) before going into the gardens.

The gardens were beautiful. The paths were lined with well groomed hedges and there were fountains and wild tulips everywhere. It was wonderful. I could have spent a lot more time there, that's for sure!

Funniest set of pictures ever. I love emily's face.

After Hampton court we left to go to Charles Darwin's house. In my literature class we had just read a non-fiction book about him and his relationship with his family and Emma (his wife). I loved the book and my admiration for him grew quite a bit. Needless to say, I was very excited to visit his house. I was not disappointed. It was nestled in the English country side and it was seriously so beautiful. I wish I could've lived there! They had turned the inside of his house into a museum and I got to see the wedding ring that he gave to Emma (super cute) and I got to walk on the sand walk that he had in his backyard. This is where he used to walk in order to ponder on some of his most important theories. It was so awesome! My bunkmate and I discussed our feelings on evolution while we walked on the sand walk. I loved this visit!

One the Darwin Sand walk!

I love to see the temple!

Feb 16, 2011

Today our group had reserved to do baptisms in the London, England LDS temple. Don't let the name deceive you. The temple isn't actually in London. In fact it's about an hour and a half away from where I live. But, the drive there was well worth it.

The temple was gorgeous and I was able to feel the much needed peace that the temple always brings. It was such a neat experience to be able to go to the temple with some of my professors. It makes me very glad that I am here in London on a study abroad, with the people I am with.

It definitely was a once in a life time experience. I'm so glad I went :)

"Excuse me, is this chicken seasoned with molten lava?!"

Feb 15, 2011

Today our group ventured to Southall. This part of London is the Indian section. I had just recently watched "Eat, Pray, Love" and so I felt like I was embracing my inner Julia Roberts traveling to 'India'.

When I first got off the train and took a breath outside all I could smell was curry. It smelt fantastic. I love Indian food. Our group had an assignment to go to one of the Sikh temples and look around there. So we walked over to the temple and went into the side room where you remove your shoes. We all did that and then the girls had to cover their heads with a head scarf to be respectful of their religion. After that we ventured up into their main room where people go to pray. We all sat down, indian style, and observed what was going on. Throughout the whole time there were 3 men at the front chanting and playing the drums. It was a really nice place to meditate and just sit there and think about how glad I am to be in London. After about 20 minutes of sitting there meditating we got up and left.

The group I was with decided to start heading to where the entire group would be eating dinner. As we walked over there we probably had about 10 people (usually men) say, "Did you see all those white girls?!?!". Yeah we were definitely a minority. We even had a group of guys count us as we walked past them. It was a very different experience. On the way to the restaurant I stopped at this shoe store that sells really cool, and highly decorated shoes. They were beautiful. So I bought a pair. The cool thing about these shoes is that there is no right and left. You can wear the shoes on either foot and it's just fine. Pretty awesome!

After the shoes we went to the restaurant (the thing that I was most excited for!). We were greeted by the owner and he came out to shake all of our hands. Giftos was seriously good. Just imagine: Chicken Tikka Masala, unlimited Naan bread, curry up the wazoo and this awesome stir fry. Not to mention I got to try this crazy cool Mango pop. Seriously, so good! The food was super spicy (at least for me, I am kinda sensitive, though). But it was super delicious!

Overall my adventure to Southall was a successful one :)

In front of the Sikh temple.

At giftos... enjoying the wonderful Indian food. Yum!

Why I seriously love Les Mis

please just watch this and be amazed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcbe4gSoef8


p.s.

I've seen 2 out of the 4 in one of the westend shows I've seen. Talk about awesome!