Shenanigans

Tuesday:
After we had class in the morning, we pretty much lounged around our flat until we had a study abroad group dinner at a restaurant called Santore! It was Italian cuisine and it was some of the best food that I have had here. We got a set menu of a starter and a main course, and the portions were enormous! I had caprese (mozzarella and tomato), which I ate with the bread they gave us on the table. The starter sizes were actually so big that I probably could have been okay with just that as my meal! I also got pasta with salmon on top--mostly because it reminded me of a pasta that I had gotten in Paris when I went there with my parents for this past spring break. Everything was very delicious, but I couldn't finish everything! Luckily, the entire meal (other than my glass of wine) was covered by the program!

My Caprese

My pasta!

After we went to Santore, my friends and I headed to a nearby pub that we hadn't all gone to together before (I had actually gone there last week with Stephanie when she was here). We all only had one drink. We mostly just wanted to sit at a pub and have a drink and socialize because we really haven't done that too much here! Though that's probably a good thing because drinks are definitely not inexpensive here haha

I got a Pimms, an apparently very British drink!

Wednesday:
My friends and I decided to hit up Oxford Circus to do some shopping! I again didn't buy anything because everything is a little out of my price range here--plus I did already buy a fairly expensive item (my Zara vest), so I think that will be the extent of my splurging! We were mostly looking around for things to wear to the Royal Ascot, though I think I will probably stick with my mint green summer dress that I brought here--I might as well wear it some time! However, I do kind of want to get a big sun hat also or a fascinator to wear for the horse races. Hopefully we will find some fairly inexpensive items! We're also on the prowl for a "nice" picnic basket because that is what we are allowed to bring into the Royal Ascot--we're also allowed one bottle of sparkling wine or sparkling champagne per person.

After we shopped, we had to go watch a film for one of our classes, which was very boring. It was hard to follow because it was all in French, although there were subtitles. After the film, my friends and I went to the Eye (again, for me!) at night. Unfortunately though, because the sun doesn't set here until after 9, we didn't exactly get the nighttime view that we were hoping to see! Actually, there was a huge storm that started forming above us--I definitely got much better pictures when I went with Stephanie earlier. However, I gotta say, the picture of the storm coming over was amazing!

Thursday:
Thursday was a catchup day!

Friday:
On Friday we had an excursion that started in the early afternoon, where we went to a small cafe called Nana's Cafe. They had delicious tea! I've actually decided that I like the way the British do their tea better than in the US (with milk and sugar), and I am planning on buying some and bringing it home with me! Apparently it's a cafe that was started by this one woman who has recruited older women to socialize and help out with the cafe!

My tea :)

After our excursion, we got ready to go to the One Direction concert here in London! It was at Wembley Stadium, which apparently is the big soccer stadium here as well, so it was a pretty big deal for them! It was a really nice day, so it was perfect that the venue was partially outside (it had an open roof). We had so much fun despite the fact that we had awful seating (we were in the standing section). It was really hard to see anyone in the band, but luckily there were big screens so that we could see. It was mostly enjoyable because my friends and I were able to just listen to the songs and have fun together! Personally, my favorite part of the concert was when the guys were lifted up on the raising platform so we could finally see them! They only did that during one song though, so I wish the boys would have been like that for the whole show. Nonetheless it was so much fun!

Saturday:

We got up early to a very rainy day! We went to TKTS in Leicester Square (a ticket booth that has very good ticket prices) in order to purchase tickets for a show that we wanted to see in the next couple days. Unfortunately the line was very long and we didn't want to stand in the rain waiting, so we decided to come back a little bit later in the day. Instead we decided to go to the British Museum and walk around--I think my favorite exhibit was the Egyptian one with all of the mummies in it! We weren't able to see eeeeeverything because it's such a big museum, but I am sure I will cover more later, as Conor will probably want to visit it when we come back here! 

Afterwards we wanted to get a good lunch, so we decided to try some new cuisine during our time here! We went to a Thai noodle restaurant chain known as Wagamama, and I got Yaki Udon! It was actually very delicious, and I definitely wouldn't mind going back again! 

Of course after lunch we had to go back to TKTS to get tickets for our show, and we decided to see Mama Mia on Monday night, so I am really excited for that!

At night we all went on a pub crawl in Camden! It was so much fun, especially we were able to see a bunch of pubs that we had never been to before. We got a lot of nice deals by doing the pub crawl, like free drinks and discounts which definitely saved us a lot of money! However I gotta say that some of the free drinks were...let's say...lower than our standards haha. Also there were a lot of really creepy guys that were on the pub crawl, but there were also some very nice ones! It took a very big effort trying to avoid the creepy ones--one of them kept trying to dance with me by twirling me around and then he broke my shoe so let's just say I was REALLY unhappy with him after that hahaha

Nonetheless, it was still a pretty fun night!

Onward to Week 5!