Mummies, McDonalds, & Peter Pan

Thursday 2/4
Slow day… lots of classes and schoolwork. Highlight of the day: I bought a 3rd pack of Digestives. I now own milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and caramel. :) Mmm and on Queensway we found a delicious waffle place! I got a chocolate-strawberry-banana waffle. Haha wow I do blog about chocolate/food a lot! Oh well. Sometimes it’s the highlight of the day :)
Friday 2/5
 Program field trip to Banqueting House, Whitehall street (center of Brit government), and the British Museum.
When we got to Whitehall they couldn’t let us in yet because the royal military had a party there last night and they hadn’t finished cleaning it up yet. Nice… So Ali, Cameron and I did some exploring around St. James Park, in front of Buckingham Palace. I’m pretty sure we witnessed a duck orgy on the pond. :)   (not shown here...)

Later we toured the Banqueting House, which was mostly a big grand room with Rubens’ paintings on the ceiling (that I need to write a paper on very soon...). It was originally built around 400 years ago, pretty cool. Afterwards we grabbed lunch at a pub and then walked down Whitehall together. I got to see a ‘mini’ changing of the guards (haven’t seen the real thing yet), then we all went to the British Museum.

The British Museum is the most amazing and massive thing I have ever been inside! I’ve been there twice already and I don’t think I’ve seen all of the ground floor yet! They have everything. Literally. A lot of countries are trying to get their treasure back haha. Today I saw parts of the Parthenon and lots of Egyptian cool stuff! Many many mummies, statues, the Rosetta Stone!!, ancient art, jewelry, artifacts, etc. And some disturbing things. Let’s just say the Egyptians were dirty! ;)

Also – went to Poundland (land of fantastic cheap chocolate) and got giant toblerone and bueno bars and then lots of great stuff at the five or so different souvenir shops we visited on one street.
Saturday 2/6
Slept in (finally!) and Ali & I went to an amazing Thai restaurant for lunch – Tuk Tuk Thai Noodle. Went to Leicester square and walked through Chinatown, which is decorated because Chinese New Year is coming up! Did some (window) shopping and explored Covent Garden. Saw a clown and some funny people dressed up and doing tricks on the street. I love how normal this is in London. Dinner at McDonald’s (2nd time in 2 days!) I haven’t mentioned this but I eat there kinda a lot, like more than I ever have in my life! Especially for lunch. It really is better here though! When we don’t get dinner at the Centre our most common dinners are Tesco (grocery store with delicious supercheap meals) and McDonald’s. We do go to restaurants occasionally.. Ok enough about food.

Sunday 2/7
First Sunday in Young Womens (where I got called to in my ward). Not my favorite. If I’m going to be dealing with bratty kids I’d rather they be little adorable ones with British accents (aka Primary, where most BYU students get sent to). Haha even the Bishop warned me that the girls were a little wild. Leslie and I (and the 2 leaders) are with 3 extremely sassy/bratty/chatty black girls who don’t want to be there and they sure do let you know. Literally there wasn’t really a lesson because they refused to stop talking/fighting. Definitely a different experience here. Let’s just say I’m not excited to teach a lesson in that class. They’ll probably eat me alive.
Got back to the flat, comforted myself with globs of Nutella on toast, then Ali and I walked through Hyde Park and a bit of Kensington Garden. Along the park walls artists were selling paintings, like an outside exhibition, very cool. In the park we saw pretty ponds and fountains and swans. I’ll never get used to how beautiful it all is! Can’t wait for spring though. Everything will bloom in London right as I leave haha sad. We found the Peter Pan statue! and the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (which was a little strange looking, very modern). Then Ali and I explored an area called Little Venice as a class assignment (we picked that “walk” because we’re going to Venice this week!!). It was cold/rainy and kinda boring, and had nothing to do with Italy except that there were canals.
Hyde Park!

Monday 2/8
Ali and I went up and down Oxford Street (shopping paradise) in search of a new camera lens for ali’s broken camera. Took awhile but we found a good cheap one at some Indian camera warehouse. Little bit of shopping but I couldn’t find what I want (a dress!). After dinner five of us went to Coronet Theatre (Movie Monday!) and saw Invictus, which was pretty good but very long (I don’t usually love sports movies). It’s about South Africa, Nelson Mandela, and rugby. Day trip tomorrow and Venice in 2 days (our extended weekend trip)!
PS. our inner demons emerged...

:)