A British Black Friday

This morning we lounged around, ate Thanksgiving leftovers and watched Love Actually. It was relaxing and fun to just chill for a bit. Then, in the spirit of black Friday, Kimmie and I went to the Southbank Christmas Market. Located about two miles from our flat, on the southbank (shocking, I know) of the Thames, the Southbank Christmas Market is home to about 80 stalls with food, crafts and gifts. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the memory card into my camera so no pictures exist, but I assure you it was adorable. Because it is such a touristy area (this is by the London Eye, the National Theatre, the Aquarium, and the London Dungeon), there are also lots of street performers ranging from guards to bears, breakdancers to statues, and plenty in between.

From there, we decided to walk past Big Ben and then up to Trafalgar Square. Since we had not seen the horse guards up close, we decided to walk by them. Then, we saw a park and decided to walk through, and then we decided to walk to Buckingham Palace. Our goal was to go to Oxford Street, Reagent Street, or Piccadilly to see the Christmas lights but since it was only 3:30 we had some time to kill. Then, after watching the guards switch (not the official Changing of the Guard), we continued walking. We walked past Hyde Park and saw all of the lights from the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland so we decided to head over and check it out.

I had read about in online and knew it was big but it was ginourmous! It had all of the traditional things, crafts and ornaments, clothes, hats, mulled wine, crepes, sausages, etc., but it also had 3 roller coasters and tons of rides. It was really fun to walk around and hear Christmas music, Thriller (at a haunted house), yodeling music (at a maze thing), and lots of happy chatter and laughter as people milled about. There was also a skating rink, ferris wheel, kidway, midway, and a ice castle. Kimmie and I enjoyed walking around and want to come back again so hopefully we can squeeze in time for another visit.

Afterwards, we took the tube home (we were over 3 miles from home) and then crashed. I enjoyed more leftovers for dinner and have been watching movies and tv since. Tomorrow, I am planning on going to South Kensington to go to the Science Museum and the V&A and then maybe walk around and look at Christmas lights at night.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was lots of fun but incredibly exhausting! In the morning, we moved the two couches out of our living room and moved the TV and small tables. We then went to other flats to get three more tables and 15 more chairs. This resulted in us carrying 9 chairs across a four lane road so it was a bit ridiculous. Kate cooked two chickens and I made my 11 pounds of mashed potatoes. Due to our small pan, I had to boil them in three batches and then mixed in sour cream, cream cheese, butter, etc. It took a while but I got it done faster than I expected. After showering and getting ready, we all just hung out and did the last preparations, putting appetizers on the table (chips and salsa, veggies and humus, sausage rolls, crackers and cheese) and lighting the candles.

A bit after 6:30 people started arriving and since the buzzer up to our flat does not work, each time more people arrived, I had to go down the stairs to open the doors. A lot of people arrived within two minutes, so I left a quiet flat and came back to lots of laughter and an overwhelming amount of food. People quickly took seats and once everyone had arrived and food was warm, we were able to eat. Everyone was actually quite civilized and we had plenty of food! We had a wonderful assortment of food including two stuffings, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberries, rolls, salads, chicken, gravy, roasted potatoes, and several dishes that I am forgetting at the moment. We had lots of food so people could have seconds and thirds and lots of wine to accompany the meal.

At one point, someone was taking a group picture, and as everyone was smiling at the camera, Peter yelled "Fire", standing up and pouring water onto the table. It seems that one of the styrofoam plates had gotten too close to the candle and caught on fire. Thankfully, the water took care of the fire and we were all laughing for several minutes.

Afterwards, we had pie (there were 10) and some people had coffee. As I was talking with people, I noticed a plate catch on fire, but did not want to pour wine (in my hand at the moment) on it so I blew it out and that actually worked. Who knew? Then I poured my water onto the plate for good measure. We decided that it would be a good time to extinguish all of the candles and there were no more fires after that.

Finally, I was able to briefly Skype home. It was really confusing as several people would talk at once and I could here background talking as well, but I was able to see almost everyone at home so it was very nice.

All in all, Thankgiving was a huge success. I think that we were all impressed that we had such a successful dinner and were very proud of ourselves.

Art and Tea

Wednesday, after class Eleanor and I went to the National Gallery after class. We were able to see about half of the museum before becoming exhausted. Then, we went to St. Martens in the Fields to have tea in the crypt. We really like having tea here because it is cheap and is a cool atmosphere. Afterwards, I went shopping and bought a dress for Thanksgiving and bought a few last minute groceries. In the evening we did a bit of prep to get ready for Thanksgiving and went to a pub for a bit.

99 Days

My last post about Ireland was super brief so I hope to add more to them later; however, I have been busy the past two days. If you want a well-written and detailed account of our travels in Ireland, you can read my flatmate, Sara's blog. She does and awesome job so check her blog out, it has over 1000 views!  On Monday morning we took a taxi to the airport, flew to London, and then took the tube home. Our flight was shorter than the tube ride home which is kinda crazy (55min v. 70min)! We got home and by that point I was exhausted and went to grab a burrito before taking a nap. I had no groceries so Sara and I went to Real Man Pizza to grab a pizza for 3 pounds. I finished reading Good Behaviour and went to bed. Today we had class in the morning and then I went grocery shopping. I bought 5kg of potatoes which was not very fun to carry a mile home, along with all of my other groceries. I was less productive than I intended to be but traveling is exhausting and a rest day or two is sometimes needed.

It is crazy to realize that I have been abroad for 99 days (and gone from home for 100). As my facebook feed is plastered with statues about going home, seeing family, and sitting at airports, it has hit me that I will not be home for Thanksgiving. Luckily I have a wonderful group of Grinnellians to spend it with and I am sure we will be very busy so I won't think about it much, but it is sad to be away from home for the holidays. That said, I only have 17 full days left in London. I feel like I need to cram all of the last things in really quickly.

Wicklow Mountains

Sunday was my favorite day in Ireland. We went on a coach tour, through the Wicklow mountains. It was a beautiful day out and not too chilly. I might come back and name all of the places but it is not that important. So instead, I am going to put up a lot of pictures.

Where James Joyce set the fist chapter of Ulysses.

Practicing my hurling skills

Flat minus Kate

Guinness Lake

Rubgy Match

We went on some tiny little path that we thought was the path to the waterfall. It wasn't but we had a lot of fun.

More Dublin

This morning we went to an exhibit on WB Yeats, the famous Irish poet who we have been studying. It was a cool exhibit that had lots of memorabilia, old poems and plays, and some really interesting videos. From there, we went on a walking tour that focused on the 1916 rebellion. The guide was hilarious and made our history tour engaging and interesting. We had lunch at a pub where I got an Irish beef stew. It was really warm and filled me up. It was served with soda bread which I find kinda gross and bland. From there, we took a taxi to Prospect cemetery where we saw the grave of almost every single person we have studied and talked about in the past week. It is quite ironic that these people who fought against each other are now buried next to each other. You can see the Irish pride in the cemetery with the monuments that have been erected. We had a break for dinner and Donna took us out to tea. I got a hot chocolate with marshmallows that was absolutely wonderful. Afterwards, Dany, Mollie, Kimmie, Joe and I went to a restaurant and I got a pizza with ham and pineapple, a salad, fries, and a pot of tea. It was a strange combination but it was very filling and what I needed. We walked around for a bit and it was really enjoyable to see the city at night. Then, we went and saw the play Silent at the Abbey Theatre. It was a one man show about alcoholism. It was incredibly depressing and crossed a few lines, in my opinion, but it was very captivating. 

Guinness is everywhere

Liberty Hall

Ireland...so helpful...

In the post office (where the rebellion occurred) they had this Christmas display and the head fell off of the polar bear. I got a little distracted watching them try and fix the bear.  

Weirdly drawn Snow White