Parents Visit London!

My parents came to visit me in England!

The first day of their visit we took the Tube to Westminster and upon exiting I told them to "look up" for their first view of Big Ben. About half a minute later, it started to ring. We then explored Westminster Abbey fully, and they liked it so much they came back twice for services: one for evensong that same evening to hear the boys' choir, and later that week to hear an organ recital by the head organist.

Mom and I in front of Big Ben

We also walked to Buckingham Palace, just to say we've been, and visited the first Hard Rock Cafe. In the following days we saw Covent Garden, had AMAZING Indian food, walked through Harrod's, visited Hamley's, bought Paddington Bears for the little ones back home, and took a day trip to Oxford to see Christ Church, AKA Hogwarts.

Mom, Tony, and I walking through Portobello Market

I had papers to work on and packing to do, so they visited me for a short time in Reading and went about on their own in London while I stayed behind to get my stuff done. The last day Tony flew in and we all walked down Portobello Market on a gorgeous day. It was definitely a successful visit!

Thriller in Trafalgar Square

My house learned of a Flash Mob event taking place in Tower Bridge Tube station on Friday the 13th that involved learning the Thriller dance and doing it, sans music, with a large group of people in the middle of an Underground station. Sounds cool, but the bobbies heard of the happening and, after other large flashmobs had gone awry in stations, they patrolled the area to make sure no zombies showed up. Bummer, but my house had practed Thriller for the past month and would not give up so easily. We therefore crashed another flash mob going on at the same time in Trafalgar Square-a silent disco-to do our dance. So here it is. It fails a little bit, but know that we're trying to keep in time with each other while our individual mp3 players were, well, not in time with each other.

A visit and a blizzard

Aunt Debbie and I at the Hourglass!

Earlier this month, Uncle Jim and Aunt Debbie came into to London! I got the chance to stay with them from a wonderful night and enjoy their beautiful flat and bed with flannel sheets (I think I'm going to dream about that bed). We had Indian food for dinner! It was, of course, delicious. The next day Aunt Debbie took me to Partridge's super market to show me their American foods section. I was ecstatic to find Kraft Mac&Cheese, Mrs. Butterworth's Maple Syrup, and PACE SALSA. Yea, the Pace was gone in my day 2. I did let my other homesick housemates have a crack at it, but I honestly ate most of it. After that we looked at a cute handbag store Deb liked and then she took me to Harrods: the department store so big that it might as well be its own city. We then joined Uncle Jim for lunch and I (sadly) had to head back to Reading for a class. It was absolutely fabulous to see them, even for the short amount of time that we had, and it was soooo good to see someone from home. I've been really homesick lately.

Uncle Jim and I about to climb in for my first London taxi ride!


Having Indian food. Yum!

Shortly after Jim and Debbie left, England went through a moment of temporary insanity. The cause of this insanity? Little white fluffy objects began to fall from the sky, and then stick to the ground in increasing quantities. Yep, I'm talking snow, and the English just couldn't handle it; I think the whole country owns maybe one snow plow. Anyway, the hoohah was more than a little amusing, and the site was quite lovely.

Sadly, I don't know how much longer the R-MWC sign will be there. We begged Dr. Ivy to make sure they didn't change it while we were still there, and they never did.

141 Whiteknights Rd in the snow.

Christmas Videos in London

Covent Garden Fiddlers


Covent Garden Fiddlers

Westminster Abbey Boys' Choir