Twenty Pence and a Lovely Thanksgistmas in London

This weekend went by way too quickly, but it was wonderful just the same. Mark came down to London this weekend so that we could celebrate both Thanksgiving and Christmas (henceforth referred to as Thanksgistmas) together since I will be heading home for the holidays. Mark was so incredibly lucky to be able to make it down with all of the snow delays and cancellations- he got the one train out of Fife for the day just as I was giving up hope!
I picked up a veggie sub from Subway for the starving boy and met Mark at the train station (and believe it or not he hugged me before taking the sandwich even after travelling all day on an empty stomach... that was actually a test). Mark showed up Friday night with an extra blanket for me since my heat had been broken and it has been so cold lately and a whole wallet full of Twenty-Pence coins so that I can do laundry. Now if that's not love, I don't know what is :)
We actually did Thanksgiving and Christmas in reverse (Chrisgiving?), celebrating Christmas on Saturday and Thanksgiving on Sunday. I had Saturday's itinerary all planned out a week in advance. We set off to experience Christmas in London starting with the Christmas Markets at the Southbank Centre. We strolled along the river looking at holiday booths, food, and decorations. We then headed across the Golden Jubilee Bridge to Trafalgar square to see the large (real!) Christmas Tree in the center of London that has been donated annually by the Norwegians since World War II as a gesture of gratitude to the British (see what a good London tour guide I am getting to be!!! ). We then headed to Covent Garden for a stroll around the shops, dinner at a vegetarian burger joint, and a nice evening of listening to a quintet play some lovely tunes. My itinerary included a trip to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, but after a full day of Christmas in London we were worn out, and the rain signalled that it was time for a return home.
Sunday evening we set to the task of preparing a Thanksgiving-in-London-for-two-poor-students-one-of-which-is-vegetarian dinner courtesy of the care package my mum provided. The menu included a (fake) chicken/gravy/stuffing casserole of sorts, greenbean casserole, mashed potatoes, and corn. I'd hoped to top off the evening with pumpkin pie, but alas could not find the right type of pie shells or a pie pan, so we had apple crumble instead. The dinner turned out very well and the company just happens to be one of the people I am most thankful for, so it turned out to be a great Thanksgistmas!
I was sad (per usual) to say goodbye to Mark at the train station today, but so thankful for a wonderful weekend of celebrating the holidays in London!


Me with good ol' Big Ben



Mark and I at the Christmas Market at Southbank

The Carousel at the Christmas Market

View of the Market

Trafalgar Square and the Norwegian tree- sorry my camera isn't the best!

Covent Garden

My Adventures as of Late

Although the weather has turned quite icy and cold here, I have still left my cozy room a few times to experience winter in London. I have braved the streets of London to try to do some Christmas (mainly window) shopping... Oh yes, and I discovered something about shopping in London. Usually, I would feel completely comfortable out and about in Columbia shopping in whatever clothes I happened to be wearing, but in London shopping appears to be quite a big outting and something you want to look nice for. I was getting quite discouraged at my outtings to try to find Christmas presents, so I decided to put on a nice outfit and "put some color on" as us Southern Ladies would say, and shoulders-back I set off to wander through the expensive shops like I belonged. It was quite an entertaining social experiment, and felt very much like the infamous shopping scene from Pretty Woman (minus the hooker apect, "Big mistake.. HUGE!"). Alas, I still was not very successful, but at least had a nice day of it :)
I also braved the ice with my friend Pauline to go to a Dutch celebration for "Sinterklaas," in which we got a free glass of wine and free chocolate, and I was able to learn about how Pauline's family celebrates the holiday in Holland. Tonight we also went out for Chinese food and a Children's Christmas Choir concert that we happened upon at Goldsmiths. Aaand last week I was able to meet up with some NHSMUN friends for a glass of warm cider... it appears the holidays are in full swing in London :) I will include some pictures here followed by my next post of Christmas/Thanksgiving in London with Mark this weekend!


NHSMUN friends PK and Francie in London



Shopping in London- Christmas Lights

Christmas Window Shopping

Waking up and looking out my window to see... Snow!

My street in the snow- this wasn't at it's peak- we had around 6 inches I would say

View of a snowy street from my balcony

Well kids, when I was young we used to have to walk to school for a mile in the snow, barefoot, uphill both ways!!

Although not entirely true (I had shoes on and there were no hills to be seen), I did get my first experience of a white London today. I woke up as usual not expecting anything special (in my room with no heat...), yet when I opened my curtains and saw everything white and tons of snow still coming down I was instantly excited in the way that a South Carolinian gets about the magic that is snow. After this intitial reaction of magic, it suddenly dawned on me that in London, snow is not quite so magical.

If you are living in South Carolina, snow is sort of like Christmas; it comes once a year with great anticipation and a state-wide holiday is declared for the day. If there was even a chance of snow we would wait in the morning in our pajamas until the last minute possible to see if they would announce school cancellations and cry out about the injustice of it all if school was not cancelled. At Furman we would stay up all night claiming anarchy and refusing to do our homework until the last minute possible because we knew snow was coming and class would be cancelled. If we decided to go to bed despite the anticipation we would sleep with our phones so that as soon as we woke up in the morning we could call the "snow hotline" and find out if school was cancelled (and then proceed to speed dial the number until the official decision was made and we could fall back to sleep). Heaven forbid if a perfectly good snow experience was wasted on a weekend!

So waking up with this mentality and seeing loads of snow, I suddenly realized that snow is quite different here; I walked to class in the snow and sat in class all day as it snowed... somehow not quite as magical of a snow day. While it may seem counterproductive that the state shuts down because of snow, maybe we south carolinians know that everyone just needs a break once in a while! Yes, we could go out and go to work and school like the rest of the world does when it snows, but what's the fun in that? Instead, if it snows South Carolina essentially goes on strike. Now, I am in a country where tube strikes happen weekly and student protestors raid government buildings and they won't go on strike for snow but instead decide to be productive members of society?! no fun at all.

Despite the school, it was nice to see all of the snow- though I'm just hoping it doesn't get in the way of Mark coming down this weekend for Christmas in London!

Research...

This past week has been filled with classes, a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum, a visit to a Christmas market with my friend Pauline, and my last volunteering session at the Sunday Spot (look at the SLG website!) at the South London Gallery (until the workshops hopefully resume in February). I went out with the two workshop facilitators after Sunday Spot and enjoyed being able to talk about community arts/life in London with them. Now, I am focusing my attentions on my future experiences in London. While I am here doing my masters I want to be able to get the most out of this experience as possible, especially when it comes to work experience. I have a meeting with the head of education at the Dulwich Picture Gallery (historically, the first public art gallery in the UK) on Thursday to talk about getting involved with their education/community outreach department (they have a lot of programming- check it out online!). Even though I am done with Sunday Spot right now, I am planning on meeting with the head of the education department again to talk about future involvement at the South London Gallery as I am really interested in the gallery's community outreach work. At the end of my course I will have to create either a special project or dissertation, and I am hoping to create a special project (potentially through one of these partnerships with galleries) that creates meaningful programming. So I have had a very productive evening researching potential galleries/institutions in London to get involved with next semester/summer, but this research has led me to some new, unexpected discoveries.

I was researching the local community around the gallery I've been volunteering at, and then decided to use good ol' Wikipedia to check out my local area I'm living in. I knew that Goldsmiths was the university of Damien Hirst (considered to be the world's richest living artist) and that Princess Beatrice attends here now (though definitely does not live in the area)... but what I didn't know is that little old Brockley is home to some semi-famous people as well. Here are my wikipedia findings (yes I know, reliability is questionable... and you will have to look these names up as you've probably never heard of most of them)

Kate Bush, the singer, lived on Wickham Road... (my road!)
John Cale (Musician) with the Velvet Underground was a student at Goldsmiths College and lived on Wickham Rd in the student halls of residence (my dorm)
David Haig, the actor and writer, resides in Brockley (he was in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Two Weeks Notice as Hugh Grant's brother.. )
Matt Hales, singer, songwriter of Aqualung
Bernard Hill, actor lived in Wickam Gardens in the 1980s
(Captain Edward John Smith in Titanic, King Théoden in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy)
Lily Langtry, the actress and mistress of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, lived at 42, Wickham Road (very close to me!)
Edgar Wallace, author and original screenwriter of King Kong, lived at 6 Tresillian Crescent (next street over from me)
Emily Dean.... just saying :)

So there's your trivia for the day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving home and abroad!

Today I am thankful for loving and being loved, and I hope that everyone has a wonderful day :)

The Aztecs among other things

Today I am very thankful for the Aztecs... for discovering the amazingess that is chocolate.
I am thankful for wonderful, listening friends.
I am thankful for the best boyfriend.
I am thankful for my hallmate who is a chef from Taiwan that gave me a bowl of his homemade chicken soup for dinner.
I am thankful for the wonderful video sent from ACG of my godson walking!
I am thankful for the arm warmers mark's mum bought me that I'm wearing in the cold computer lab.
I am thankful for my education and I am thankful for all the possibilites that education provides.
I am thankful for imagination and free will- that each day I can get up and decide how I want to spend it.

AND I'm thankful that my little sister is the best dancer ever and is going to be Alice in Alice in Wonderland next year... definitely getting her autograph when I'm home for christmas :)

Tapas and Snail Mail!

Today did not start off too well (sleepy, couldn't find my card key to my building, had no breakfast food in the house etc...) BUT it's amazing how a day can turn around. Not only did I find my key card later in the day before having to buy a new one, but I checked my mail and had TWO special deliveries!!!

So today I am very thankful for snail mail and tapas. While e-mails and blogs (clearly) are great ways of spreading information (and increasingly in today's world filled with social networking, texting, and tweeting, the most accepted forms of communication), there's nothing like good old fashioned snail mail to brighten someone's day. Maybe this is my naivety in not have recieved loads of bills in the mail, or the fact that I've been dating my penpal for over two years (life lesson: when you start dating, boyfriends decide the battle is won and the penpal letters end :P ), but I simply love getting snail mail. Today I got a surprise letter from my dear friend Rrrrallison in Nashville and a Thanksgiving care package from home! Though I am convinced my mum thinks I have stopped eating since I've moved to London (maybe from my repetitive mentioning of free samples..), I am now fully equiped for Thanksgiving over here and was so happy to have such a lovely package!

After a long day of classes today, I headed out to meet up with my high school friends Liz and Francie for tapas in a charming Spanish restaurant in central London. It felt like being back in Spain and the food and company were amazing! A great way to end the evening :) Will definitely be returning to this spot!

finding christmas presents

Today i am thankful for finding christmas presents for people- Christmas shopping can be exhausting if you can't find what you're looking for, and I have no desire to be back in American next Friday dealing with the masses of Black Friday shoppers, but sometimes you have those moments when you think of the perfect present, and that is something to be thankful for :) though unfortunately that's only the very beginning of christmas ideas... hopefully more ideas will come in the next month!

oops..

So I had great intentions of writing everyday something that I am thankful for, and yesterday I thought of something to write but alas somehow I didn't get it posted. Sooo for yesterday I was thankful for blue skies (they don't happen here quiiite as much as in sunny South Carolina) and brightly colored doors (think scenes from Notting Hill).

Todaaay I am thankful for twenty pence coins... found a few more of them which meaaans I can do laundry again in the future :) I am also thankful for christmas lights and looking forward to exploring around town to see all of the best lights.

apple crisp and custard

Today i am thankful for delicious apple crisp and custard (equally good with icecream). No sign of pumpkin pie yet, but don't be discouraged... a week left to find some! if no luck Mother Teresa I am putting in a request (in addition to some much needed chik-fil-a and sweet tea)

Sweet Southern Twang and Not so Sweet but Quite Tasty Peppermint Tea

I am sitting enjoying a cup of peppermint tea- nothing like a warm drink when it's cold and you're a bit under the weather :) That is the first thing I am thankful for.

Secondly when I got on the bus and asked the driver a question he responded mimicking what apparently much have been my Southern accent when I first asked the question. He said "Why yes you may ma'am" in a lovely imitation of a Southern accent. I almost expected him to call me Suga and bless my heart- made me smile. So in a land of lovely different accents, I am still thankful for hearing that good ol' southern twang (even if it is only a British bus driver's impersonation)

schedules

Today I am thankful for schedules and structure- seems like an odd thing to be thankful for, but a lot of us from our course had a lot of questions about how the course is going to work out and what the schedule is going to be like for the next few weeks. Today our professor took the first 20 minutes or so of class just answering all of our questions about the schedule and what to expect, and it was very helpful. I am the type of person that makes lots of lists and lives by my planner, so it was just what I needed. I still left the class feeling a bit overwhelmed with all that I am going to be doing over the course of the next year- sometimes the existence of too many possibilities is also frightening- but I am excited to take it one day at a time and see where this course takes me.

I also have a potential internship opportunity for next semester, so no telling what more there is in store for me to learn in 2011 :)

Shower Pressure, Tough Love, and Warm Sheets these are a few of my favourite things!

So since this is my blog/my rules, I decided that I can say I'm thankful for more than one thing- because really, if you can only think of one thing you're thankful for each day, you're not thinking hard enough.

So this morning after waking up in my not so comfy bed, I got into the warm shower with excellent water pressure in my cubicle sized bathroom, and immediately I was thankful. My bathroom in Italy was lovely with gorgeous views of the Tuscan countryside out of the window, but alas my roommate Sally Ann can attest that the shower left a lot to be desired in heat and shower pressure... so this morning I am thankful for my shower :)

On a more serious note, I am thankful for tough love. Living on my own can get me down, and I'm used to being so happy and upbeat so I have not been too sure how to handle this new feeling and all of the stresses I pile on myself. Mark is the one who always gets the phone calls from me when I'm down, and today I started off my day on the wrong foot. You'd think after dating long distance for over two years this would be a breeze, but after a lovely week and a half relaxing with the boy, I did not handle being confronted with my life back alone too well. Sometimes when you get down and frustrated with yourself you want to be cuddled and cared for (and sometimes this is neccesary), but sometimes what you need is the person who loves you enough to say "ok, so what are you going to do about it?" This dose of tough love was exactly what I needed to get my head back in the game.

Lastly, I am thankful for warm sheets. I love the feeling of warm laundry, a feeling I haven't had much of since I've been here (the dryers suck up a lot of money- twenty-pence coins are like gold to me now as the machines require them). Usually I just hang my clothes to dry, but today I was washing my sheets (don't worry, not for the first time :P ) and with sheets you kind of have to use the dryer since you need them that night- so after hours of laundry labor and the loss of quite a few twenty pence coins, I now have warm sheets and towels :)

until tomorrow- which will no doubt be much shorter :)

Thanksgiving

So in the US we have (in general) the cultural understanding that Christmas decorations don't appear and Delilah can't start blasting those holiday tunes mixed with soul searching until after Thanksgiving. Well it never occurred to me before that since Thanksgiving is not an international holiday, elsewhere they do no have this same holiday buffer. Therefore, in the UK as soon as Halloween  ends, Christmas begins. I am personally pretty excited about having a whole month to explore all of the christmas decorations and festivities in London, but at the same time, we spotted the first christmas tree up and decorated in Belfast- CRAZY!!

I have decided my new task during the coming weeks before my return home will be to record the London Christmas festivities and decorations, which might mean a switch from tea to hot chocolate, warm mittens, and holiday themed free samples :)

While I am a huge fan of Christmas, even though I am in London, I can't forget my Pilgrim and Indian roots; I don't want Thanksgiving to go by unnoticed. Stealing an idea from a friend's blog, up until Thanksgiving I am going to try to post each day with something I am thankful for. Cheesy as it may seem, I think it's really important to remember; I've been so caught up in my day to day stresses of job searching, figuring out my life, finances, and trying to plan for the future, that I get frustrated with myself when I forget to remember how lucky I am. When I miss everyone I forget to remember how lucky I am to have such wonderful family, friends, and boyfriend to miss. In addition to this daily thankfulness posting, I am also on an equally serious mission to find pumkin pie. I will report back with my findings.

So here goes:
1.  I am most thankful for, and therefore should start off this list with, (though later posts I am sure will be less serious) all of my loving friends and family. I'm thankful for my parents, brother, sister, toby (ok he is dumb, but loving), all of the Deans and Quinteros/Cubans, cousins in Spain, my Furman family, my UK family of the McCauleys, my amazing best friends, my wonderful boyfriend, and basically, everyone that I miss! I have the opportunity to be in London right now with so much love and support from everyone, and I feel really silly for all the things that I stress over, because clearly I am the luckiest girl to have so many wonderful people in my life :)

Homecoming

So I unfortunately was not able to make my first ever Furman Homecoming, so my reading week (fall break) turned into my London version of coming home. After more volunteering, meeting up with new friends from my program and three more classes, Wednesday Nov. 3rd I was off to see Markus in St. Andrews. Mark had the same reading week as me, so we were able to head home to visit with his family in Northern Ireland. It felt so good to be in a home again after life in my dorm room. Mark and I had a wonderful week of relaxing by the fire and spending time with his family. Each day we went next door to spend time with Morenanny and Papa (Mark's grandparents), and Morenanny would fix us lunch and Papa would pour me tea and try to fatten me up some more :) Lunches with Mark's grandparents made me miss Grandma and Papi so much, and all of those lunches of cuban sandwiches, iron beer, and plantain chips by the pool. As much as I love Mark, I just don't know if the boy can be allowed in the fam without a cuban sandwich (he offered to try one without the meat.. without realizing that would just be a cheese and pickle sandwich) :P

Relaxing by the fire :)

Mark forgot to delete this from my camera :)

Mark's Homeland

The week with Mark's family was so wonderful (Minus a disaster that occurred about midweek, let's just say I am retiring as mark's hairdresser...no picture included for this one. We bought a few hats.), and I was so sad to leave.  

It's been a while...

Hello to all my eager followers (mum and dad),

I realized that I haven't posted in a while, and I will go ahead and be upfront in my confession that I don't have any pictures with me in them (my parents can attest that they did see me on skype.. proving my existence, though I will try to take a few pictures with me in them as requested by the fam...) You see, it's a bit tricky since usually I am on my own. I like exploring on my own and being able to plan what I want to see when I go out, but it can be a bit lonely and not exactly conducive to picture-of-me-taking, but I'll try my best!

So since my last post I did a bit more exploring, returning to the London Bridge area that I had visited with Mark's mum and aunt. My total distance walked in the day only amounted to about 13/14 kilometers, so not quite up to my previous explorations. From the London Bridge Tube stop I walked along the Thames, saw the Golden Hinde and some lovely buildings, decided to hold off on the Design Museum and Tea Museum as they both cost money (though they remind me of my friends Drew and Sally Ann, so I will have to go back at some point!), visited Southwark Cathedral, dined on some lovely free samples at the Borough Market (decided to forgo the raw meat/fish section of the market as I enjoyed my free baklava), and visited the Tate Modern. I was excited to go to the Tate Modern because they have a collection of Gauguin paintings on exhibit, though I found out that the exhibition was only free to members and came with a price tag to non-members, so I just wandered around the rest of the museum. I have the BIG Book of Art at home and it has become a part of my travels to put post-it notes on all of the paintings I have seen in person (Italy pretty much knocked out the Renaissance section), so I am looking forward to updating the book over Christmas break :).
From the London Bridge area I walked to St. Pauls Cathedral then down Fleet Street (Sweeney Todd- demon barber of fleet street, anyone? I might have just made that up...), to the Temple Church area (Davinci Code..http://www.londontown.com/London/Da_Vinci_Code_Temple_Church), and had a cup of tea in the Victoria Embankment Gardens. After failed attempts to find a photography gallery and a bit of time window shopping, I met up with a few friends to head to Covent Garden (I tipped them off on the free samples..). Yet again, we positioned ourselves right where they walked out with the free samples, and treated ourselves to some 5 star cuisine :). (Don't worry mum, I do buy real food from time to time...)

London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down....

Tower of London

Golden Hinde

This wall/window is one of the many things that proves the US is still a newborn historically speaking

Southwark Cathedral

Shakespeare hung out here.. aka the Globe

View of St. Paul's Cathedral from Millennium Bridge

Following my day of explorations and evening with friends, that weekend was spent volunteering as a notetaker at the Taking Part: Art and Civil Society Conference run by my professor. There were a few of us from the program that volunteered together, and even though we were so worn out afterwards, it was a good experience together. It was interesting for me as an outsider to hear all of the debates about art funding cuts. There were a few speakers from the US and they brought up that the gov't funding that arts organizations receive in the US is such a small percentage of overall funding. In some ways this could be seen as a negative factor, but at the same time it forces the organizations to be creative in order to gain funding through other avenues. To some extent it was sad to see how narrowly focused the dialogue was on gov't cuts to arts funding, especially in a room of such creative individuals. Despite some of the debate, the conference was a really good experience to see the work that people are doing in the field. Though I have only been here a few months, I've learned a decent amount about British/European politics from the conference, talks with friends, news, and the recent student rioting (don't worry, I was nowhere to be seen, those kids have no idea what we have to pay in US schools!!  :P). American government/politics, welfare, and the economy are all messed up and in a constant state of confusion/turbulence... but it's pretty messed up in the UK as well. All I have to say is I am glad I am not a politician, seems like the worst job ever.

I guess it's official now....

On a miserably wet and dreary evening I decided that it was time to finally cement my status as a Londoner. I have heard some alarming reports about British cuisine, but I felt that there was only one way for me to truly belong here. So, on my way home from classes after one month of living in London, I decided that the moment of truth had finally come…. I decided to try fish and chips. I ordered a small, which it turns out would have been enough to feed a small family. The chips were quite tasty, but I was a little unsure of trying the fish…. While I’m sure it’s good for me to get the omega-3 fatty acids or whatever it is fish have, I’m pretty sure the massive amount of fried batter negates the healthy fish (not that I’m particularly concerned with food being uber healthy- I mean I do come from the land of deep fried oreos). So I got up the courage to try fish and chips; it was not too bad, something  I could see having once again while in London, but as Mark would say “that was nice… but let’s not have it again too soon…”

My Life as a Starving (not literally, don't worry mum) Volunteer

So much of the field that I want to go into is experience-based; while the material that I am learning in my classes is important, it is also essential that I start volunteering with community arts organizations and museum education departments. I have spent the first month of my time in London e-mailing galleries and museums my CV and inquiring about volunteering/internship opportunities. Unfortunately, at the level of experience and training that I am at right now the majority of opportunities are unpaid, but I have learned a lot more about paid positions that I will hopefully be able to start applying for after my masters and volunteering experiences. Currently I am volunteering at the South London Gallery on Sunday afternoons for their “Sunday Spot” family workshops based on the gallery exhibition. I was really unsure of how this volunteering would go, but I learned so much from my first session volunteering. The workshop leaders are also young and are very interested in getting my feedback and having me involved in the ongoing development of the project. The Sunday Spot works as a drop-in workshop in which activities are set up for families to interact in to create art and develop imaginative play. In comparison to other workshops that I have worked on in the past, this was more about creating an experience for the community rather than a physical piece of art to walk away with. I am keeping notes reflecting on my different community arts volunteering experiences to incorporate into my coursework for my MA.

On Monday I had the opportunity to volunteer at Gasworks Gallery, also in South London, with their community outreach programming for families. It’s interesting to study the dynamic of family workshops since my past experiences have been solely working with children. On paper this workshop seemed much more structured and had an end goal of creating a film. There was a very clear “narrative,” as we discuss in our course for the workshop, but we ran into a lot of issues throughout the day with the children. After an exhausting day we had a debriefing and reflecting session in which we talked about how we could adapt the workshop to take into account some of the problems and contingencies that came up based on today’s workshop. It was a really positive learning experience for me, and I’m looking forward to volunteering at the gallery again in November. I have sent a few more inquiries about volunteering positions and have also been researching paid jobs (this volunteering thing isn’t exactly paying the bills), so we’ll see what develops within the next few weeks. There is one volunteering gig that I’m particularly hoping to get involved with that focuses on children’s literacy programming through creative practices.

Apologies for the Long Post

Well it has been about a week since my last post, so I felt like it was the perfect day to spend a lovely fall afternoon in London in my neighborhood coffee shop updating the blog with my dear British friend Mister Earl Grey. It has been another grand week of explorations, discoveries, and lots to reflect on. After my two days of classes (I know… it’s a rough life) last week, I decided to spend Friday embarking on another exploration of the city. Setting out around lunchtime, I decided to explore the Notting Hill area, admittedly mainly because of the number of times I have watched the Hugh Grant (sigh) and Julia Roberts classic. I know, I am in London, one of the greatest cultural hubs in the world, and my sight-seeing expeditions are being motivated by a piece of Hollywood glitz, but such is life. I walked up and down the stretch of the famous Portobello Road Market, loving the charming rainbow of English houses and shops. I wandered into a variety of cute clothes and jewelry shops (slightly more dangerous than my expensive window shopping trip of the previous week- though I still managed to walk away without opening the wallet, so that was good),  antique stores, stands with old maps and prints, and a flea market of grand proportion.

Sidenote: I am now noticing that this must be a Wednesday afternoon mum gathering hot spot given the number of mums, kids, and prams (strollers for the Americans out there…) .. and there is a Toby dog here!

Ok back to reflecting, after walking up and down the market and getting slightly lost, I decided to continue my explorations by wandering to Kensington Park. I walked along the Kensington Garden Street, which is full of absolutely amazing mansions which are the residencies for a variety of ambassadors for different countries. Given the political/security nature of the residents on this road, photography was not allowed, so you will have to come and visit for yourself to see. I then went walked around Kensington Palace (did not enter this time- a bit pricey) and marveled at the prices at the Orangery restaurant on the grounds. It was a lovely day for wandering around Kensington Park, and I saw the Albert Memorial, the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, and a variety of people out in row boats on the river. I went into the Serpentine Gallery, and then saw the Peter Pan statue in the park donated by the author JM Barrie. (Mark’s mum gave me a copy of Peter Pan, so I am now reading it and wishing I could go back to Neverland and be a little kid again to spend my days playing in Kensington Park). I then walked through Hyde Park; it’s interesting that after this meditative, contemplative walking through the park in which you forget you are in an urban space you suddenly emerge at Oxford Circus, which is indeed a circus of people shopping and filling the streets until it is difficult to move. It is hard to believe it is possible for there to be an economic recession after just a few minutes spent amongst the hordes of people on Oxford Street. Another interesting observation is that the shops on the street repeat themselves over and over again; you would visit one store and go one block down and see the same store equally packed with eager shoppers. Determined not to get on a terribly crowded Oxford Circus tube, I decided to see how much of London I could feasibly squeeze into my walk. I continued down Charring Cross to Trafalgar Square then across the bridge to take in some great views of the city. I ended my day of walking at the Waterloo station only to discover after retracing my steps online that evening that I had managed to walk 15 kilometers throughout the course of the day!

Notting Hill

Notting Hill- the London version of Rainbow Row

Hummingbird Bakery- will have to get cupcakes at some pt...

Kensington Palace

Lovely day in Kensington Park

Anish Kapoor Sculpture in Kensington Park

Fun public sculpture by Anish Kapoor

Albert Memorial

Bridge in Kensington Park

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain

Another Anish Kapoor reflective piece

Peter Pan Statue donated by JM Barrie

Italian Fountains

Marble Arch

London Night View

View from Waterloo Bridge

On Saturday I went out for a lovely lunch with Mark’s mum and aunt who were in town this weekend visiting London. My status as a Londoner is even more solidified as I have now had lunch in Harrods and marveled at the “Pet Kingdom” section where you can buy any variety of fancy dog treats, Halloween costumes, and jumpers for your dog. While we were marveling (and by marveling I mean laughing…) at some of the incredibly expensive jumpers (sweaters) for dogs, the kind sales assistant directed us to the even higher quality cashmere ones nearby- unbelievable! The toy section was also highly amusing as you could buy a car for children to pedal around in for 3500 pounds (around 5500 dollars.. no big deal). I thoroughly enjoyed the lunch and time spent marveling at the one-of-a-kind experience that is Harrods.

Saturday evening I went out to Shoreditch, a new area to explore, with a couple of people from my course. It’s great to be forming friendships with the people in my classes, and it makes classes so much better having a bond with my classmates, especially since our classes are participatory in nature. It’s so nice to have people here to talk to and meet up with; though, on a side note, after two girls from my program and I tried out a yoga course I learned that I am not quite cut out for yoga…so yes to the new friends, but no to the yoga.

After an exhausting afternoon volunteering on Sunday, I headed to the London Bridge area for one of my best nights in London so far. I met up with Mark’s mum and aunt for dinner and we strolled along the beautiful cobblestone streets and looked out over the river. I am already planning my trip to explore this area during the day time as it’s not too far from where I live. We had a lovely dinner at Pizza Express consisting of pasta, wine, and a massive (delicious!) tiramisu. I loved just having a relaxing evening and hearing so many wonderful stories about Mark and his family. My first month in London has been a bit overwhelming and I have a million thoughts going around in my head about the future and trying to set up volunteering jobs and work etc, and it was so nice to just have a relaxing dinner that had such a family feel to it.