Days 5, 6, 7 and 8

This week was a blur! I can't believe it's already been a week! I never want this to end. But in the words of my awesome Culture by Design professor, "If it never ends, it's not a party-- it's a lifestyle."

Day 5 aka the mini pub crawl day

Tuesday started off with a very tired Amanda rolling out of bed for class at 9am-- Media and Society. Which looks like it will be the class with the most work.... yuck. But also super interesting. yay. The professor gave us a 20 minute break to go get breakfast so that was cool. Then we went to the British Museum, from which we live 2 blocks away. We looked at the Rosetta Stone, pieces from the Parthenon

mm greek gods

We also saw Mesopotamian art and Latin American artifacts. And mummies. Super cool.

I've started cooking a lot because it's much cheaper. And I have deluded myself into actually thinking I'm a good cook by using some of the same creations over and over again. But hey, it's edible and usually delicious.

Because I was super excited about celebrating my birthday on Wednesday, I decided to go out to a couple pubs with my friends to start the countdown to 20! But we only stayed out until like 11 because we didn't realize that pubs would close at 11 on a weekday, then hung out in the flat until it was my birthday!

Day 6 aka BIRTHDAY IN LONDON

This was the perfect birthday. Legit. Couldn't have asked for better. First of all, I happen to have no Wednesday classes in London, so that was awesome. I slept until 9:00 for the first time since getting to London, which was much needed. Then at 10:30 I met up with Catherine, Lindsay, Leslie, Gina and Kerri for shopping at Oxford Circus. We went to Top Shop, which is a HUGE clothing store. It has like hair and nail salons IN the store. And candy mix and match in the store and a cupcake booth IN THE STORE. Lindsay bought me a cupcake for my birthday. AMAZING. They also were having a special promotion for the store where they were dressing people up in accessories and taking photos of them and printing them out. Then we came back and made lunch. After lunch, we ventured to kensington garden. which is GORGEOUS. and also the home of the princess diana memorial playground and fountain and the peter pan statue

every single one of us was excited for the peter pan statue

because of the fact that it is in the mary kate and ashley movie called winning london.

and none of us were ashamed to walk around the park for an hour looking for it.

After the park, we had a group meeting, where I got the surprise that one of the flats had bought me a cake and made dinner reservations to celebrate my birthday with me. It was so sweet. Everyone came up after the meeting and sang happy birthday. i was overwhelmed with happiness... especially because i kept thinking about how wonderful it was that i met most of these people just a few days ago and we all seemed like a family. i love it so much. everyone here is so excited and happy to be here! i love it. and then, it turns out, surprise #2... they bought me my first shot glass that says "i <3 london." It was too sweet.

We went to an italian restaurant for dinner. i had the best ravioli with a glass of white wine and we all shared calamari. Delicious food and great friends. :) Then, we went to the ICEBAR. The icebar is kind of a tourist trap, but also kind of awesome. It's -5 degrees Celsius inside, so you wear a fur lined parka and gloves and your drink comes in a glass made out of ice. You get 40 minutes in the icebar

flatmate pic!

... and afterwards the walk home felt really warm. We got ice cream on the way home and then i went to bed because i had class early the next day.

Day 7 aka Camden. is. cool. and so is theatre.

Went to culture by design in the morning... and the outing was camden market. It was sooo cool. It was an urban center of all of these stalls of an old stable filled with shopkeepers and food and all of this crazy stuff. I bought a tibetan buddhist ring with a blue pearl because pearls are my birthstone. it is super cute. sarah got a ring that had a symbol on it that means something to do with relaxation of the mind, body and spirit.

i went back to the flat after and made lunch, then tried to do homework. i ended up falling asleep for 2 hours. and then woke up and did 2 more hours of homework, made myself dinner and got ready to go to the Comedy Theatre. This was the "outing" for my monday theatre class. we saw betrayal by harold pinter. i really enjoyed the acting and set design especially, though there were many great elements to this very simple play. it was about the characters more than anything else, which is generally something that i enjoy in theatre. we also had great seats considering we were students.

another thing i really liked about seeing theatre in london was that english people do not give an automatic standing ovation, as theatre goers in america often do. sometimes you get forced to do it because then you can't see or you feel rude because everyone else is standing. but a standing ovation should be reserved for the height of performance. i'm not saying it was bad, but i like the concept of saving the standing o for extremely outstanding work.

Day 8 aka im a lobster

today we went to greenwich, which was a little ways down the thames. we went by boat aka my favorite form of transportation. :) except that the water reflects the sun on hot days and you end up with the worst face and chest burn to ever exist. i actually felt sick when i got home at 6:30pm. We left for the day at 10am. we took a guided boat ride down to greenwich, where the prime meridian lies. so i got to straddle the eastern and western hemispheres and be in both at once. which costs £5, unfortunately. but it is a cool picture and i'm glad i did it. before that though, we walked to the greenwich market and bought cheap but delicious chinese and thai food for lunch from one of the booths. then we walked around the national maritime museum, mostly because kent wanted to, but it ended up being very cool. then we walked up a HUGE hill in the park to the Royal Observatory... the view was incredible. We could see a ton of buildings and even a place that is already being set up for the 2012 summer olympics in London. The observatory is where the prime meridian marker and official time are.

straddling the hemispheres

after being in both hemispheres, we went back down through the park. claire and i paddle boated on the small lake while the others napped. we then rode the overground DLR train and tube home.

Tomorrow we will be touring the Tower of London and going on a walk in the East End... the adventures never end! Latersss