This should have been 4 different posts, but I'm a little behind.

There's always something to see and do around London, that's for sure. On Wednesday, I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum (The V&A). As all other museums, this one is massive. I thought the building itself was impressive. I began wandering around rather aimlessly when a lady came up to me and asked if I wanted to join a tour. This one happened to be of the British Galleries. After the tour, I went to the floor called Materials and Techniques which showcased ironwork, metalwork, glass and ceramics. I then saw some of the galleries devoted to different countries before ending my day with a visit to a musical instrument exhibit followed by a visit to the fashion exhibit.








Ladies, can you imagine walking in these?

This exhibit was in the process of being set up.

On Wednesday, there were a lot of people sketching at the V&A. The next morning, I bought a sketchbook and went back to the V&A after class to do some sketching, which I haven't done in a long time. I should mention that Thursday morning was once again an early morning as it was time for another Lost screening.

The Science Museum was across the street from the V&A. Overall, it was pretty disappointing (as I kind of expected it to be), although I did see something that made me laugh. There was a whole floor of scenes of everyday life and work places in the 1900s. One of them was supposed to be a bacteria lab from the 1950s, although I'm pretty sure that the museum felt it was sufficient to simply order lab supplies from Fisher Scientific and make them look a little dirtier because everything looked a lot like the materials I've used in lab.

Sam and I had been talking about making crepes for a while. So on Thursday night, we made dinner and desert crepes. We stuffed the dinner crepes with chicken, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and pesto sauce and the desert crepes with baked apples and peanut butter.



Friday was our first trip outside of London! That morning we took a one and a half hour bus ride to Oxford. The town was very cute, and the university buildings were gorgeous as expected.








We then visited Christ Church and the Tudor Dining Hall. Not only was it the inspiration for Hogwarts in Harry Potter, but it was also where Lewis Carroll and Charlie Chaplin dined and where Charles I held his parliament. We also met Talia, who is studying at Oxford this semester.









Speaking of Lewis Carroll, we passed this cute little store devoted to Alice in Wonderland.

I then followed a sign to Oxford Castle. I thought that I might finally get to tour a castle, which I have yet to do in London. However, when we got closer to the castle, I realized that this was not like any castle I was interested in touring. It had a gift shop stuck to its side, and Sam even found a Krispy Kreme stand inside.


Sam and Josh found the physics department with the intention of recreating a scene from the most recent episode of Lost at the expense of the receptionist. At this point, I turned around and pretended not to know them.

We went to a couple pubs. The first one was the oldest pub in Oxford (I think built in the 1300s). It also had a sign that said "It is alleged that it was here at the Turf that Bill Clinton while here at Oxford University during the sixties 'did not inhale' whilst smoking -- illegal substance." We then went out to a bar with Talia. After that, we said bye to Talia and went to another pub that claimed to be one of Bill Clinton's favorites.





We then ran to the bus (see Josh's blog for the video), and after my first trip on a night bus in London I made it home by 2am.

The next day, we went to a football match. It was freezing outside, and I couldn't feel my toes by the time the game ended, but we had great seats and it was a lot of fun. The match was Fulham v. Portsmouth. Fulham (the home team) won 3-1.




Whew! I know that was long, so if you actually read to the end, then thank you!

Markets and travel...

The past few days have been a blur of markets and travel plans. On Friday Brittany, Sam and I went to Camden Market. I had read that unless you are between the ages of 15 and 30, you will be absolutely miserable at the market, and I can't say I disagree. I think I saw enough belts with spikes on them for the rest of my life. Because the street food was disappointing at this market, we went back to Borough Market for some lunch. Most of the stalls were the same, and the samples were just as great, although I must have missed this pleasant little stand the first time that I was there.

That night, I went to a concert at a bar called The Lexington, which Sam found. Two American bands -- The Dead Trees and Delta Spirit -- were playing.

Saturday, I went back to Portobello Market. Josh met me at the market, and quickly regretted it when he realized that he had just signed up for another painful search for a bag. If you've read any of Sam's blog, you know that Josh was not the only victim. By the end of it all, he was nearly in tears, but all ended well because I finally found a bag.

Because three markets in three days was just not enough, on Sunday I went to a market called Spitalfields. I had been in this area once before during the Jack the Ripper Walking Tour. After the Ripperologist (yep, that's what he called himself) informed us that one of the victims of Jack the Ripper was murdered in this area, he told us that during the day, this stop on the tour is a great market to visit. On our Jack the Ripper walk, I took note of a crepe place at the market. I had a crepe with baked apples, pecans, and cinnamon on Sunday -- it was just as good as it sounds. This market was one of my favorites. It was originally a craft market set up by artists, and still sells a lot of handmade goods.


After several Skype conversations, several meeting, credit card issues, and a little frustration, I have booked trips to Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Paris. More on this later...Thanks for reading!

An early morning

I was up and awake before the sun today to watch the season premier of LOST. That will never happen again, but I had a good time. I then ran to class (free entertainment for Sam and Josh) and somehow made it on time.

After class, I met Sam at Covent Garden for some crepes. Covent Garden also has a market (deceivingly called Apple Market), that I looked around for a bit. But it was a little disappointing because I would've been perfectly happy if the market really was an apple market. There was a quartet playing outside of the crepe place. These crepes were as delicious as they were messy. Sam's smile was even bigger after he took the first bite.


Then, Sam and I met Mark and went to a small museum called The Geffrey Museum (Sam called it The Daniel at one point), which showcased English rooms from the 15th century to the present. I really loved this museum. On our way there, we walked through an area that made it hard to believe that we would ever reach a place that claimed to have gardens and courtyards, but we did reach it, and were pleasantly surprised by the appearance of this museum.



Cooking dinner took way longer than it should have tonight. After my water refused to boil for 20 minutes, I found a switch on the wall to turn on the stove. (In my defense, I've never heard of such a thing before). I cooked two new dishes, both of which were a success!

All five of us went to see musicals tonight, but we couldn't all get tickets to the same one, so the boys saw Hairspray and the Chicagoans (Brittany and I) saw Chicago! I now have all those songs stuck in my head.