High Tea Anyone?

Every day is a new adventure in London. Today we went to Portobello Road. One of the most famous markets in London, it took us well over an hour to make it from one end to the other! The street was crowded with people, antiques, booths, fresh fruit, fish and chips, all kinds of food, vintage clothing, and so much more! I can definitely say one of my favorite things here are the markets, especially on Saturdays. This Portobello Road on a Saturday afternoon!This is a crowded pub down Portobello, and I didn't even know they served my wine!The Hummingbird Cafe - located in the market, sells their famous red velvet cupcakes, which rival Sprinkles and Magnolias. I changed my mind, nothing beats Magnolias. Rhubarb. Londoners love rhubarb... and so does London. They sell it fresh at markets, and in yogurt and candy and pies. I'm not quite sure if I like it or not.

After we made our way out of the market, a couple of us decided to go find T.S. Elliot's home. We walked in circles for awhile, but finally found it! Had we not gotten lost, we would not have seen his wife Valerie Elliot come out of their flat, just as we were taking pictures under the sign. That was especially cool!
This is the home where T.S. Elliot lived, and wrote Wasteland. It's a really nice area, and just to the right of me are the front doors where his wife came out.

We walked back through the park, passed Kensington Palace, and made the brilliant decision to stop and have noon tea at the Orangery Cafe which is located directly behind Kensington Palace. This was so much fun! The Orangery is an old beautiful building, and was full of tea drinkers, and pastry eaters. FUN!The walkway up to the Orangery Cafe.Now I feel like a Londoner. Peppermint tea with an English Scone.

The local markets

Today was freezing! However, it's okay, because the rain has held off for a few days. We went back to Spitalfields Market today. It's one of the many bustling markets here. Spitalfields is filled with rows of fun dresses, purses, food, t-shirts, jewelry, and all of it's extremely unique! We found a fun little sandwich booth and bought lunch.

After Spitalfields, we got on the tube and made it over Oxford Circus. Oxford Circus has so many fun shops! The biggest Nike Town, Urban Outfitters, H&M, and TOPSHOP (The funnest store to shop in here) are all right next to each other. I actually got tired of shopping. I didn't make any purchases today, I'm holding out for the weather to get a little warmer.

Tonight, me, Liz, Kristen, and Sarajane snuck into the kitchen and made cookie dough! It was so much fun. We couldn't find brown sugar, so we ran around the corner, and purchased what we thought was brown sugar. The Local Food&Wine does not have brown sugar, they have brown sugar cubes for coffee. We still made it work!Secretly making cookie dough in the mini kitchen upstairs. Actually, the cooks here gave us all the ingredients they had, we just had to grab a few things. I agree, pictures of the market would be much more fun to look at, but I accidentally left my cameras home. I'm usually the one with a camera around here.

Is it ART?

It's Thursday - which means art class all day. My drawing class was held in the British Museum. We worked on our gesture and contour drawings. Everything went well except for that I lost my new eraser in the Museum. Drawing until 12, and my other art class started an hour later. I grabbed a quick pb and honey sandwich, which has become a regular for lunch, then headed off to the Tate Modern Museum for my conceptual art class. The Tate exhibition brings together three of the greater figures of twentieth-century art; Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Francis Picabia. These artists and many more are featured here.
This is the Millenial Bridge. It goes across the Thames River. It is very modern looking. In the background is St. Paul's Cathedral.Kristen and Me walking across the Millenial Bridge. It was so cold!Thames River. Outside of the Tate.This giant crack in the floor, is the first piece of art you see when you walk in the Tate Modern. Strange? The artist hopes it will encourage us to confront discomforting truths about our world and about ourselves with absolute candidness and without self-deception. Me, laying across the crack! I know, it's an extremely clever picture.It is a big crack, really!

The Wonderful World of Harrods

This morning a bunch of us went and played a game of American soccer in Hyde Park. One word - MUDDY! It was so much fun! After the game, I decided to take a small break from all of the recent museum going, and instead took the day for wandering around Covent Gardens and Harrods. This is one of the smarter moves I've made. CG was filled with Londoners enjoying their lunch break at the many fun cafes and restaurants. After an exciting purchase in The North Face Store (thanks dad :) ), I stumbled upon many other exciting stores (Mexx, Camper, Paperchase, Whistles, Ben's Cookies, etc.) before we went to Harrods. I've decided that Harrods is a museum itself, and therefore should be revisited several times. Instead of walking through different time periods or galleries, you walk through different departments and fitting rooms.This guy was holding on to this rail, standing over the ledge, leading down to the bottom level of Covent Gardens. He was singing opera, and was actually pretty talented.We stumbled upon the "Chocolate Bar" on the second floor of Harrods on our adventure. Of course we stopped in for some hot chocolate, which was delicious!The menu is simply inspiring.Mom and Britt, your sack is on the left. The one on the right is mine.

Tonight the whole group went to the opening night of The Importance Of Being Earnest. This is probably the funniest play I've ever seen. I didn't fall asleep either, which says something too! Just before we went into the play.This is me and Megan during intermission. She also happens to be my bunk mate.

Here comes the sun...

Trafalgar Square.


I saw the sun today! It was so great to go outside and not have to worry about the rain. After class today, we went to The British National Gallery. It's in Trafalgar Square. It wasn't too cold, so I sat out on the steps and sketched a fountain for art class. My drawing looks nothing like the actual fountain, but I'm okay with that. It was just relaxing to sit and watch the people. Eventually my hands got cold, and so I finally went inside the Gallery. It's one of the many places here that you can not see everything it has in one day. I spent a few hours there just walking around.
I sketched the fountain behind me and Kristen (fyi).
That's Big Ben in the way background. And that's me on the steps of the National Gallery.

I quite fancy the British Museum

Today me and Kristen went to the British Museum. I felt like I was walking through an encyclopedia. This is by far the most amazing museum I have ever been to. You could probably go there every day for the rest of your life and look at something new (not that you would want to do that though). We actually got sidetracked a few different times on our way there. We were almost to our tube stop when we decided to walk down Portobello road and look for jewelry. An hour later (and no purchases), we continued on our way. It wasn't until we got off at the right tube stop for the Museum that we saw a new clothing store we haven't been in. Another hour later, we left the store (again with no purchases) and we finally got ourselves in the museum. This is right inside the Museum. It was pretty crowded, I can only imagine what it must be like in the summertime. I sat and stared at this for an hour while I tried to sketch it.

For FHE we watched a movie. A Lion In Winter...ever seen it? When you have five hours of time and you don't know what to do with it, you should watch it. It wasn't bad actually, just a bit long.

Abejitas!

Just as I was sitting down for sacrament today, I was asked to come up and speak for a few minutes after the sacrament was given. Excuse me? No hablo espanol. During the sacrament, I tried to think of some things I could say to the congregation in Spanish. Before I knew it, I was up there speaking. I talked for about five minutes, and probably one minute of that was an attempt at Spanish.

They decided to move me to primary as well. SUNBEAMS! Hyper sunbeams. So from now on, I'll be in primary. There are three kids in my class; Pedro, Winnie, and Eduardas.