Hello everyone!

I have no idea how anyone in this city can afford to drink as much as they do! I had to actually buy a drink at the bar this weekend and it was crazy expensive - I bought a Mai Tai and it cost me 5.25 pounds!! Ouch. The only cool thing was the bartender drew a heart in the foam with the grenadine (as you can see in the photo I took) but that still didn't make up for the price of it. Luckily that was the only drink I had to pay for that night... ;o) So, the night I am referring to was Friday when I went out with Karyna and a couple of her friends for her friend Bree's 21st birthday at a bar called Strawberry Moons. They played a mix of old classics and new songs and overall I had a really fun time!! I didn't take very many photos that night though, just me in my room getting ready (wearing my new Paris shirt!), my drink, the outside of the bar, and the full moon. I'll post the link a little later on in this entry. I've decided that guys at home should learn from their British counterparts though - I swear almost every guy who pushed past me in the crowded bar said either "Sorry, love" or "Excuse me, darling" haha it was great.

I've also decided that I complete hate public transportation! haha. I had to take the night bus home and this lady came on muttering to herself and of course sat next to me. She was coughing and making gross noises throughout and then spit (luckily in the opposite direction of me). Ew. The only good thing about the ride home is that I finally got my first glimpse of Harrod's! I will have to go during the day sometime and actually go inside and take a look around.

I slept in a little bit on Saturday, although it is hard because it gets so bright in my room and the street below is really noisy... then I decided to take a walking tour in the British Museum. It was really interesting and much bigger than I expected. The tour lasted about 1.5 hours and then I spent an additional hour wandering around and exploring myself. Out of everything there though there were only two exhibits I found really interesting and worth going for - the Rosetta Stone (which was used to help translate hieroglyphs) and the Elgin Marbles (statues from the Greek Parthenon). I really like everything I've seen in museums that is Roman or Greek, in terms of their carving, architecture, and overall design - it is all really beautiful. Hopefully one day I will be able to go and see what remains of the Parthenon...

Today I decided to go to Kensington Palace, former residence of many royals including Queen Victoria (it's actually where she learned that she was going to become Queen), Princess Margaret, and of course Princess Diana. The pathway leading up to the Palace was quite long and wide and it was crazy to think about how many flowers must have been bought to completely fill that street after the death of the Princess... Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos inside the Palace! It was gorgeous though and not over the top like Versailles (although I would love to live at Versailles haha). They had ceremonial dress on display, including outfits royals from various decades would wear to court and to balls. I also toured the Queen's Apartments and the King's Apartments which had beautiful painted ceilings and huge paintings throughout. My favorite part of the Palace though was the Princess Diana exhibition they have on at the moment - it includes blown up photos from her last photo shoot for Vanity Fair (including shots never seen before, not published in the magazine). She was so beautiful, there were many photos of her laughing and smiling, but in some of them you could see almost an insecurity or sadness in her eyes... I think the photographer really captured who she was as a person rather than as a Princess. They also had some of her evening gowns on display that were absolutely gorgeous! Another dress they had on display was the stunning dress the Queen wore when she went to Paris in 1957 that was intricately embroidered with gold and beads and pearls... so beautiful. There were also many areas of the Palace that are not open to the public including where Princess Di used to live.

After exploring inside the Palace for a couple hours, I decided to wander throughout the Kensington Gardens which turned out to be a lot bigger than I originally thought!! I ended up walking around for probably close to three hours! It was a beautiful day out today so many people were relaxing around the park. I saw the gardens surrounding the Palace and then ventured out through the park to the Round Pond where there were a bunch of swans and Canadian geese! I saw the Albert Memorial, and went into a really strange art gallery haha. It is called the Serpentine Gallery and it is full of modern and contemporary art, which I must say I don't think I will ever understand... some of that stuff you wish the artist was there to explain to you what they were thinking at the time. The exhibition right now was called "The Uncertain States of America". It was... interesting. I decided to follow the signs to try to find the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain but it was harder to find than I thought - much further away than I was expecting! It ended up being in Hyde Park, not Kensington Gardens, so I had to walk quite a ways to get there. And it wasn't as spectacular as I was expecting either, kind of a letdown actually. It turned out to be a circular thing with running water in it (haha not a very good explanation but maybe you'll be able to tell what I mean better by my photos!) and I didn't even see a plaque or anything near it... Oh well. I headed back into Kensington Gardens and stopped for an ice cream and then went on to find the Peter Pan statue. Overall it was a gorgeous day and perfect for spending in a park! :o)

Here is the link to see my photos from this weekend: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IZuGzZm2asQc

Back to work tomorrow but the good news is that Raj is going on holidays for two weeks starting this Thursday! I can only hope that I'll have enough work to keep me busy while he is away... Usually when he goes away, Sam and the student try to find things in the practice that can be improved and done more efficiently so I'm sure we'll find stuff to fix while he is gone! Anyway, I hope everyone else had a great weekend :o)

Later days!