Wednesday-fun day!

Today was a great day! I first went with my fun sociology friends Laura and Sarah to eat jacket potatoes and then to see The Lion King on Broadway!!! The tickets were only £20.50 for a day of student price. So amazing! I think the original seats were £53.00. They were great seats and although we were surrounded by school children it was so fun! The music, the costumes, the sets, were AMAZING. I would recommend it to anyone and would definitely see it again!

After the play we went to the Sociology department's Christmas Party which was fun. Got to see people from the program and got to eat sandwiches and Indian food. New favorite drink: cider+black currant. yum.

Today was such a great day! We are hoping to see other plays next term, especially if we can get a good deal on them. I want to see several others. I'm doing laundry now and need to do some reading. I leave so soon!

3 days

It's so strange to think that in 3 days (and many many hours of traveling) I will be at home. I am excited to have a break from school (minus the papers I will have to write due in January) and I am excited to see family and friends. It will be strange to leave London, I have grown very attached to the city. I am excited that I get to come back and spend another 8 (ish) months here and I know that there will be a lot of hard work involved but I love this city and the opportunity to live here and to travel. I already have a little (ok long) list of places I want to go while I am here.

Today as I was cleaning out my closet to begin the packing process I found my flip flops-untouched in 3 months and squished into a corner. My poor neglected Rainbows that carried me through so much at Vanguard, and now they are abandoned with the cold of a new city. I am looking forward to wearing them again in the sunshine of Southern California. It makes me think of this summer living in the sunshine and I miss it! I am also bringing my boots for Seattle. Boots and flip flops in the same suitcase. Story of my life. I love the crowded rainy city and the sunshine and beach.

Tomorrow will be a fun day. I am meeting my friends Laura and Sarah from my program to go eat living food (an obsession of Sarah's that I am slowly becoming obsessed with too!) and we are going to see the Lion King!!!! We can get tickets the day of at the lovely student price of £20.50. I am looking forward to it so much and to have the songs stuck in my head! After the play we have our department party which should be fun. Then home to clean, pack, do laundry, and of course, try to work on my papers. 3 more days!!!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland...

Today, despite the rain I went out in the the city to do some touristy things. I started at the Victoria & Albert Museum and looked at a few exhibits. It's a huge museum, I definitely want to go back again sometime.

Then I went to Harrods. I would not recommend big department store's around the holidays. with tourists. not. fun. Also not fun is the entire 4th floor devoted to children's toys. Avoid that floor at all costs. On the other hand Harrods' is celebrating the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz and had a lot of window displays and clips from the movie playing. Here is a fun display outside of the wicked witch:

From Harrod's I walked to Hyde Park... as it slowly started to rain. It got worse as the evening went on. But it was still fun.

Winter Wonderland! Hyde Park devotes about 2 acres to a Christmas Faire. It was raining and not very crowded but it was still fun to walk through.

Ice skating rink!

Carnival area. I avoid the temporary rides but it was still fun to see everything lit up and the Christmas music playing.

Another street at the faire.

A snowman jumper!

Mini Christmas trees around a dining area.

They turned part of the park into a German faire. It was very quaint. Although deserted for the most part-unless you looked into any of the 4 or 5 pubs lining the streets.

Little shops!

I really did feel like I was in Bavaria again!

Santa! with Christmas trees and a snowman!

And of course, A giant Christmas tree! I love it!

Today was fun although cold and rainy. I left Winter Wonderland and headed home, with a quick stop at Nando's for a yummy dinner. I also had an interesting experience because I found a shopping bag that had some Clinique products, etc in it and had to turn it into the supervisor at the tube. I really wanted to keep it, several people have told me that if you lose something on the tube than it's finder's keepers, but I felt bad so I turned it in. Hopefully the person who lost it will find it.

Now I'm back in my room, needing to read for class tomorrow and clean/pack for Saturday! I leave so soon!

Christmas Trees!

It seems as if overnight London is celebrating Christmas. There are trees everywhere! I walked home today but when around Tower of London and Leadenhall Market to the Queen's walk. It's cold here in London!

This is the Royal Exchange. With 2 trees!

A church on the way.

Leadenhall Market! The first reason I wanted to go is that they have a Christmas Market. The second is that Diagon Alley from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was filmed here!

It's so pretty. Their tree was very pretty and all of the trees and lights lining the walls were fun to look at.

The tree and the ceiling.

I felt like I was at Diagon Alley!

Ice skating rink at Tower of London.

More wintery pictures of the tower of London.

A Christmas tree with Tower Bridge!

Tower Bridge from South Bank.

Look what I found Drake and Josh!!! :)

One last Christmas tree around a shopping center.

Today was a full three hours of class followed by my fun but cold walk home. I need to work on some homework, nothing due before break, but I need to get an outline and maybe a rough draft of each of the 3 papers I have due when I get back in January. No definite plans for tomorrow but possibly going to Borough Market and/or a Christmas market. The weather was nice today, not rainy, just really cold. It's strange to think I only have a week left before beak.

A Good Day!

This is what I did today:

1. I walked to school only to find that the professor did not show up. So we spent some time discussing our paper that is due in January and then I went to get tea and chat with a friend.

2. Walked to the National Gallery and spent about 2 hours absorbed in art

3. Walked to Parliament Square and took some pictures

4. Ate at Prezzo and had a yummy calzone and wine

5. Went to Waterstone's. I could spend hours in bookstores (and did spend about an hour)

6. Went to Cafe Nero and had a yummy soy chai tea

7. Sat in the freezing cold to watch the Lighting Up Ceremony of the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square

8. Today was a good day. I had so much fun.

This is the pre lit up picture. Also, it's a pic of it before it got too dark.

This is Trafalgar Square. There are pretty fountains, Nelson's column, the tree, and in the background, Parliament.

Found another Christmas tree! This one is inside a courtyard at Parliament. pretty.

This is the tree after it is all lit up! The ceremony was so fun. The Salvation Army played music and sang carols. The mayor of London did the introductions and the mayor of Oslo, Norway was the one to turn the lights on. Norway has been giving England a Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square for about 80 years, since England helped Norway during WW II, including providing a safe haven for Norwegians, many of whom stayed in London after the war. It was a really cool ceremony with lots of great Christmas music and a pretty tree!

Unfortunately, my camera battery died after about 2 pictures. I took a few more on my cell phone but it costs a lot to send them to my email to upload them. But I do have a cool shot of the tree lit up, with St Martin's in the Fields and a full moon. It's a great picture. It was so fun, although really cold, I am glad I went!

Tomorrow, class and a Christmas market! I am loving all of the Christmas Markets and want to visit them all before I leave! (While finishing some homework too of course.)

Today was fun. I had class this afternoon and the lecturer was Sarah Franklin who focused on reproductive technologies and sociology and it was so interesting! I am hoping to use some of her research for my paper in this class. I don't have the topic nailed down right now but I am thinking about looking at the social and biological in terms of in vitro fertilization.

After class I went to Piccadilly Circus and more specifically Fortnum and Mason. It's this beautiful old store, it's been in the same location for 300 years! It's very fancy, lots of levels with anything you can imagine for sale. I spent time around the tea section :) and enjoyed all of the Christmas trees and decorations. It's so beautiful! Apparently the store caters to lots of famous people and provides (exclusively, I think) groceries and supplies for the royal family. pretty cool.

I also stopped at Piccadilly Market which is an old antique and collectibles market which was fun to walk around and see what they had. Plus Piccadilly Circus is just fun to walk around and see the lights and the fountain and everything all lit up and decorated for Christmas.

Tomorrow I am planning on going to the Elephant and Castle Christmas Market which is down the street-and right next to Nando's... so I think I know where I am going for dinner :)

The next couple of days are going to be busy with school and work I want to get done before I leave, packing and cleaning, and of course, taking advantage of the numerous Christmas activities around London. I love living in a big active city where I there are tons of Christmas markets! Or, really, any place decorated heavily for Christmas. Which includes passing little cobblestone streets strung with lights. so pretty! I am planning on the E&C Christmas Market, seeing the Christmas Tree being lit at Trafalgar Square on Thursday, the Leadenhall Christmas Market (where Diagon Alley-Harry Potter-scenes were filmed!), and the biggest and bestest Christmas Market... WINTER WONDERLAND! It's basically 20 acres in Hyde Park devoted to Christmas. Lots of rides, ice skating, shops, etc. I am hoping to go there next week and it will be so fun! I am excited! Of course, I will try to post pictures soon too.

Since it's past midnight here in London I will say... 10 days!