Itchy Feet: 11/26/13

This weekend I stayed in London with my friend Crystal. Thankfully, our hostel experience was a lot better than the last time (Elephant and Castle… super sketch). On Friday, after a chilly walking tour of the East End, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is essentially a history museum. I really enjoyed the fashion exhibit. There are samples of clothing on display from almost every decade since the 1700s. Also, I apologize for the grainy pictures. Unfortunately, all of these are from my iPod camera, which is pretty wretched. Deal with it.

The entrance to the V&A

After wandering through the museum, we headed into Harrod’s. In case you live under a rock, Harrod’s is a famous, prestigious department store that is known for its high end merchandise. We were greeted at the door by an enormous security guy who told us we had to carry our backpacks in our hands, not on our backs. The place is massive! And because it was a Friday night, it was packed with shoppers and, of course, tourists. We spent most of our time in the Christmas-themed food section of the store. I wish I could say I bought something, but everything was really expensive – even the chocolate. There was a special plate of Christmas chocolates on display for £248.00. I wanted to examine the label to see if the chocolates contained any gold, but I was afraid to touch it! I've heard stories about the dress code at Harrod’s, but thankfully we were allowed in even with our jeans and trainers. I felt kinda uncomfortable walking through there, but it was an interesting experience, to say the least.

Harrod's: Home of the most expensive everything

The next stop was Covent Garden. We wandered through the Christmas lights display and stopped at the Shake Shack to grab dinner. Everything was very beautiful. The only thing that could have made it better? Snow. :)

Inside the Covent Garden shopping area

We were near Yumchaa, so we couldn’t really pass up the opportunity to have some tea before turning in for the night. Honestly, the tea at this place is incredible. I had a tea called Notting Hill, which was apricot and strawberry flavoured. Can you say perfection? Mmmm.

The next day had a typical hostel breakfast: bread and generic corn flakes and watery orange juice. We met up with Amber, my friend from high school, and explored London together. It was so great to see her! She is studying in Dublin for the term and had come down to London for the Doctor Who 50^th Anniversary celebration. I’m glad we had the chance to spend the day together. She is such a sweetheart.

From the Christmas market at South Bank Centre to the lights at Hyde Park, I’d say we had a successful day filled with Christmas spirit! That was probably the last weekend (maybe the last day, even) that we will ever spend in London. Unless we are able to go back before the 14^th, which is unlikely.

London on a clear day - which is pretty rare

Christmas Market at South Bank Centre

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland!

Today has been really slow and unproductive for me. I've done literally nothing. Well, I take that back. I turned in three (3) essays! And did laundry. And cleaned my room. And stalked my mom’s Facebook because I miss her so stinking much. Other than that, I've been relatively inefficient. To be fair, I've spent the past week working hard on those three essays I just finished.

I've got three essays left of my academic term at CCCU and I couldn't be more depressed about this fact. It reminds me that I’m leaving in three weeks… booooooo.

When I went to campus to turn in my essays, I overheard a conversation in the café between a female tutor and a student. The student needed help with a research article and the tutor was trying to explain it. The tutor was looking the article over and said something like “Is this written by an American? Americans have this way of using the most complicated words… like, what is this? This is not a word. I think she’s made it up.” (looks at the front cover of the article) “Ah, yes. She’s from Yale. You might need a dictionary to read this one.” Pretty much made my day.

THIS WEEK IS GONNA BE AWESOME. We are headed to Rome on Friday and will be there until Sunday. Please pray for safe travels! I’m quite nervous about sight-seeing in Rome because of the infamous pickpockets there.

On Thursday we will be having our Thanksgiving feast and party at CCCU. To get into the spirit, I've made a brief list of who and what I'm thankful for. Enjoy :D