Portobello Market! (3rd weekend)

Saturday (1/23)
Ali, Cameron, and I went to Portobello Market in Notting Hill - I LOVED it. It was massive and crowded though, very colorful and more intense than I expected! It must be a madhouse in the summer. We were determined to see it all though, and poor Cameron stuck with us until the end of it. Seriously, we were there for most of the day (nearly all the daylight hours haha). The market is shown in one of my favorite movies – Notting Hill – and I was definitely on the lookout for Hugh Grant (no luck, there or anywhere in London). Portobello Market was fabulous… bursting with little shops and stalls, antiques, clothing, trinkets, jewelry, souvenirs, live music, and food. Ohh so much food! Tantalizing.
I bought (limited myself to!): a cheap watch, an antique-y clock necklace (haha in case I lose my watch again), hot chocolate (one of the best of my life), olive ciabatta bread (Ali and I shared a huge loaf), and one of the best treats in recent memory - a glorious giant hot crepe with Nutella and fresh strawberries! I made quite a mess on my face with it; some guy at a stall advised me to find a tissue for my face. :) Definitely returning to Portobello Market soon.

Somehow Saturday night Ali and I ended up at the neighborhood Tesco (yet again) and somehow I bought 2 big packages of digestives (they had dark chocolate!) as well as a few candy bars. I want to make sure I try them all! In January. Haha.

Sunday (1/24)
My group finally made it to our assigned ward (although we got lost..). I’m still in Whitechapel ward, but not in actual Whitechapel. It takes nearly an hour to get to church (in Northeast London). We’re actually out of the tube zone boundaries, so I’ll have to pay £2.60 to get to church every week! Which is a bummer because I’m doing my best to stay on a pretty tight budget. But I like my ward a lot, it’s so friendly! There’s about 50-60 people in the ward, and a lot of them are Nigerian. There are very interesting people who are extremely welcoming to us! They seem to really love BYU students. The little kids are adorable! Haha and there’s a girl in the ward who went on BYU study abroad a few years ago and met her husband in her London ward, then married him and moved to London permanently. We met the Bishop (very young!) and we’ll get callings next week. Oh boy. I’ve heard some horror stories about British primary kids… some can be very rowdy and violent. I spent the rest of Sunday reading Oliver Twist and eating Nutella (obviously) and attempting to make a spending budget for myself. We’ll see how that goes.
Award for Prettiest Sunset of the Week goes to South Kensington!