since my birthday was on a sunday this year, we decided to turn my birthday celebration into a whole weekend of celebrating! we had so many plans for friday, saturday, and sunday, but then our day trip was moved from wednesday to saturday due to blenheim palace being closed on wednesday, so that basically that ruined my birthday weekend. but we kind of played this week by ear and it turned into one of the best weeks of my life! here's why…….
on monday, we started off my birthday week right by going to NANDO'S. this is my favorite place on earth. well okay- not my favorite because there's no wifi there, but it's still pretty high up on the list! that night, our whole study abroad group went to see "a midsummer night's dream". for our shakespeare class, we are required to see six of shakespeare's plays and write up a critique on them, and this play was definitely one of a kind… let's just say that this group had a very interesting interpretation of this play which included plenty of nudity. so much that our director and his family left pretty soon after it started. hahah so this critique paper will be pretty fun to write. haha my shakespeare professor, dr. c, said it was the worst shakespeare play she's ever seen and apologized profusely in class the next day. hahahahha
on tuesday, we went to the south kensington farmer's market for lunch! it was really cute and fun, but we weren't too impressed with the food. haha
that night, my friend, audrey, bought my a ticket to see taylor swift with her for my birthday present! NICEST PERSON EVER, HUH? so we put on our bright red lipstick, audrey sprayed the tips of her hair red, and we rocked out with tswift all night! it was sooooooooooo fun!!!!! we had amazing seats, and we were belting it out, baby. ALSO: ellie goulding was the guest star in her show! and i LOVE ellie!
i have a newfound obsession with taylor now. THANK YOU, AUDREY. it was a night i'll never forget!
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| getting ready for the big event |
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| the name of this lipstick is "british red" how appropriate ;) |
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| like her shirt? i want one. |
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| taylor & ellie |
wednesday was now our free day since our trip was moved to saturday, so here is what we did: we slept in and then started off the day with hot chocolate milanos from caffe nero and ben's cookies. BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS. then we made our way to the wallace collection museum of art to see my favorite painting, "the swing" by fragonard. it was even more magical in person! i loveeeeee art and my inner art nerd really came out that day. the best part of the day was right when we got to the museum though. we showed up and asked when the free tour started, and the lady directed us to sit in a waiting room on the side of the museum for about ten minutes until the tour started. we sat in this room for a while, and eventually a tour guide came in and a bunch of elderly ladies came in behind her and we all sat down and had a mini intro about the museum. these ladies were asking random questions, they were all wearing name tags, and they kept getting off topic about how they used to quilt and stuff, but we didn't think much of it and tried to follow them into the next room to begin the tour. however, when we started following behind, the tour guide pulled me off to the side and said, "sorry, this tour is specifically for people with dementia." HAHAHHA like… uhh, sorry. hahah so then we went back to the info desk and found out where the free tour was that we intended to be a part of. hahahah good story. we still laugh about this all the time! after the museum, we went to the hard rock cafe london for some good food! it was so nice feeling like i was allowed to be american there. haha i could hang out there all day. it was so comfortable. anyway, the food was DELICIOUS. and they even gave me dessert and sang happy birthday to me! it was perfect :)
after class on thursday, we went to camden market! it was SO FUN. it reminded me of harwin at home! there are just a lot of vendors there and tons of cute, random, fun things to look at! and we ate delicious turkish wraps there! yummmm. we are taking full advantage of this international food assignment! ;)
that night, i went to cirque du soleil with a few girls from my program. it was SPECTACULAR. i've seen it on tv so many times, but seeing it in person is soooo different. it's unbelievable. look at these pictures. no, i didn't take them because we weren't allowed to take pictures, but these pictures (from google) are exactly some of the things i saw in this show. LIKE HOW??
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| when we got home, we were inspired and had our own cirque performance ;) |
on friday, we had our london walk! we started this with a tour of westminster abbey! so cool! yes, we stood exactly where will and kate stood. AHHHH. then we took a rainy walk to the tate museum full of amazing masterpieces. i definitely need to go back to this place. and a few of the collections were sponsored by BP, so i automatically liked them even more :)
PS this was VALENTINES DAY. so how would we celebrate without ben's cookies? these were a must. we got a ton on our way home from the museum and all got into our pjs for a GIRLS NIGHTTTT. we (as in me and ten other girls) ordered a pizza, ate our cookies, ate every other piece of candy we could find in our flat, gossiped, and watched "across the universe" and then ate more junk food and talked a lllllll night. it was seriously the best valentines day i've EVER had!!!!! so funnnnnn!
on saturday (instead of celebrating my birthday some more), we went to blenheim palace! we learned all about the dukes of marlborough and got a tour of beautiful rooms and beautiful landscapes outside of the palace.
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| SHEEP EVERYWHERE IN THIS COUNTRY |
then we went to OXFORD and got the full harry potter tour. haha and we bought out the school store. and we all wear our oxford sweatshirts. everywhere. all the time. together. hahah #embarrassing
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| mr. tumnus |
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| this is the spot where the students in harry potter were welcomed to hogwarts! |
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| this was the room that the hogwarts' great hall was based on |
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| look familiar? well maybe it looks a smaller. because it is. haha |
ON SUNDAY, I TURNED 20 YEARS OLD. and you know how most people say they don't feel different on their birthdays, well surprisingly, i actually felt older and wiser. haha weird, huh? anyway, we slept in that day, i was woken up with my favorite video of luke bryan in my face, and ashlyn, christine, audrey, ali, and i went to the muffin man for morning tea! it was delightful and very british :) after that, we went to sacrament meeting at the singles ward (where my freshman year bishop spoke in their ward conference that day- man, i can't escape him!) then we finished up the day with nando's and hummingbird bakery :) it was a good birthday :) i'm thankful for all of my friends who made it so special!
k well I'M TWENTY YEARS OLD NOW. WATCH OUT. AHHHHHHHHHH.
from london with love,
pep xoxox
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