Catch-up

 So clearly I've run out of creative names for my blog posts... as I marathon-ed another paper on Sunday (this time on the post-war welfare state of Britain, just thrilling) and have been catching up on sleep ever since, I am still quite a bit behind on blogging my recent adventures.


Also my heart is breaking as tomorrow is my one month left mark. While it will certainly be nice to be home among friends and family, I've made my own family here for now. (Cue the awwwww's). But seriously, if you guys—Mel, Alex, Little Tom, Chef Tom,  Harriet, Jess—are reading this, I really don't know how I'm going to manage to leave. 

ANYWAYS. Enough pouting/sobbing on the inside/having a panic attack/not coming to grips with reality. There's a third of my trip left and plenty to discuss!

So last time on Rachel's horribly updated blog, my mother was in town (don't even ask me how long ago this was in reality). After a crazy busy weekend, we took it easy Monday by exploring Strand a bit and going to the Twinings store (for anyone who doesn't know, the quintessential British tea). Which is awesome. Just like a tea store you could visit in the eighteenth century—clearly using my imagination here—it's a basically a long hallway culminating in a tea counter that has all varieties of tea and accessories lining the walls. Still have to try Twinings coffee one of these days!

On Tuesday, my mom headed to Bath and I headed to class (odd, right?). On Wednesday we got the chance to do possibly one of the most proper British things yet: go to high tea! As my mother and I both tend to be chocolate people, we headed over to the Hilton off of Hyde Park and try out their "Confessions of a Chocoholic" high tea. We should have known from the title what we were getting in to.

The beginning of tea started out as usual, choosing our selection of tea (English breakfast for me, green for my mom), sandwiches, and scones. Words cannot describe the fabulousity. Obviously, our tea was fantastic. Next came our assortment of five sandwiches, which were served open faced and outrageously delicious for how small and seemingly simple they were. Then came possibly the best scones I've ever tasted, complete with homemade chocolate praline spread, strawberry jam, and clotted cream. Can this be every day?

Then the real fun began with the desert tray, filled with an insane assortment of everything you could imagine: chocolate cake, lemon/raspberry flavored lollies, key lime cake, cherry cheese cake, butterfly shaped cookies, and oh, oh so much more. Even the plate on the top of the tray was edible chocolate. Don't worry, I couldn't get any further than one bite after all of the deserts I consumed.

Look who I found? A KD!

That night, I had a planned trip with Arcadia to go to: The Comedy Store, one of the most famous comedy clubs in London (and the world...? could totally be making that up). The show was fantastic. For a couple of hours, five players participated in multiple improv games with suggestions from the audience Who's Line is it Anyways style. My favorite? Their rendition of a James Bond musical, complete with a ludicrous villain, Russian double agent/love interest Olga, clueless James Bond, and, fittingly, enough sexual inuendos for not only Bond's first life, but also his second (clearly, I'm not as fun as them.) Absolutely hilarious. These people are seriously talented.

Thursday between my Austen and Shakespeare classes, we headed to the Tower of London, anothe rmust-see that I had waited to experience with my mom. It was a bit unfortunate as I was running a bit of a fever, but I powered through (especially comforted by the fact that I wasn't actually going to get my head chopped off).

This was a great example of how cool it is to be studying in a city like London—especially British subjects. After learning about the Tudors in Early Modern Britain and having a weak moment of watching the HBO show over my fever-induced birthday last year (should have named this blog post fevers), it was pretty cool—and pretty eerie—to see the place Henry VIII sent many of his wives, the place Elizabeth I was held during the beginning of Mary's reign, the place Jane Grey was executed after a nine day reign. Also the place Richard III sent his nephews before he killed them, as I so happened to be reading in Shakespeare that week. HOW COOL IS THAT.

The Ravens kept here for centuries.

Sorry, I'm a nerd. But I must say it's just something you can't really do at home in the states: learn history dating back that far and just go out where you live and see where it ALL happened. That's kind of amazing. After a guided tour from our Yeomen (if you didn't see the Olympic time special like I clearly did, they have to have a certain amount of time served in the royal army just to get the job), I headed off to Shakespeare and to attempt to sleep off my fever at the hotel while my mom spent the afternoon at the Imperial War Museum.

And then Friday came, my Mom and I's last day in London together. After grabbing some pub food after my last class of the morning, we decided to head to Oxford street to have some mother/daughter bonding time shopping for the afternoon. For those who haven't experienced the beautiful life of shopping in Europe (minus the exchange rate), it's just something else. Instead of heading to huge suburban malls with all chain stores that sell roughly the same merchandise, Oxford Street in particular is filled with dozens of unique stores selling just amazing clothing. It's really a rough time here.

After purchasing a real pillow (remember how I said the one I sleep on is paper thin—THANKS MOM!) and a few articles of clothing, we got dinner at a nice Italian place in Leicester Square, we checked off our last to-do: the London Eye. As you can't exactly leave London without going on it, it made a fantastic last night for my mom to head up and see the city lit up at night on the Thames.

There are no words to explain how amazing this city is, and being up on the London Eye at night was definitely one of those moments you have to experience to realize that. As opposed to my first night in London on the Thames, it was a surreal experience to be the person living here; to see this city as my home instead of a destination.



Though I know I'll be back after this trip, if only to catch up with the amazing British friends I've met here so far, it's hard to think I'll be gone in a month. Though I certainly have a life to get back to living back home in the States, it's pretty clear I've managed to make one over here as well.