More things I've learned:

• to "alight" just means to get off or dismount from a vehicle etc. (on the tube there are always announcements like "alight here for the Tower of London")
• "Subway" in London means basically the same as walkway
• If you are planning to go to the Changing of the Guard ceremony GO EARLY
• The Royals love to decorate using gold haha
• The Queen's actual birthday is April 21st but her official birthday was celebrated on June 17th (don't you wish you could just choose when your birthday is? haha only when you are Royalty... check out the explanation http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page4820.asp)

So after work on Friday the weather had actually cleared up quite a bit - it was still really wet outside but the sun came out and it stopped raining. I stopped at Covent Garden on my way back from work in attempt to buy something I saw a while ago but I ended up getting to the place 15 minutes after they closed!! So I got back on the tube and got off at South Kensington station, and then I walked through the subway towards the Natural History Museum. But since I forgot my badge they wouldn't let me in (just kidding! LOL if only I was actually invited to London Fashion Week!!). I took a couple photos of the signs and the tents set up for the event but couldn't see anything exciting at all.... everything was obviously taking place inside where I couldn't go! How depressing... hopefully one day I'll be able to go to a runway fashion show. Then later that night I hung out with my roomie and our American neighbours and we watched a movie. And guess what? I was telling them that it was fashion week and they were like "oh that must be why we saw Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith yesterday"!!! I am SO JEALOUS. I really want to see someone famous but never have... And they went into Lush on King's Road (hence the face masks in the photo of them) and apparently the people who work there have met both Johnny Depp AND Angelina Jolie before!! Can you believe it? I would die if I saw Johnny Depp, I don't even know how I would react haha. Well I guess I still have three months left... I'll have to keep my eye out! I mean, Hugh Grant is my neighbour afterall... ;o)

Right before I woke up on Saturday I had a dream that I woke up and Justin was my roommate and we were going to go to Buckingham Palace so I opened the drapes to see what the weather was like and it was a lovely day with blue skys and the sun shining! Then I actually woke up and realized it was Saturday not Sunday so I wasn't going to the palace yet, Justin isn't in London with me, and I looked outside and saw a gloomy day with clouds filling the sky... not a good way to start the day haha. But luckily the weather cleared up quite nicely and it turned out to be a sunny crisp Autumn day :o) . I met Michelle and her friend Claire in the morning, and after a quick stop at Starbucks, we went to the Tate Modern. It is in a converted power station so the building itself is not very pretty from the outside at all but it is quite large inside! We only walked through the free parts but there was lots to see - including some Dali, Lichenstein, Matisse, and Monet! Some stuff in there was quite strange but that is modern art for you haha. Seeing the surrealism by Dali though made me really want to visit the Dali exhibition that is in another gallery in the city (sadly that one is not free) but his art is so beautiful and creative and imaginative, I really have a better appreciation for it now that I have seen it in real life and want to see more! I wish I had enough of an imagination to paint things like that - I tend to keep my art to more realistic images.

So after spending a few hours there, we were going to visit St. Paul's but decided that it was already getting a little late in the day and we still wanted to go for dinner and a movie and Claire lives about an hour or so outside of the city and didn't want to be out too late, so anyway we are saving the cathedral for another day! We were a little early for the movie so we went to a nearby mall to stock up on candy for the show. We found a Woolworth's and I finally found Curly Wurly chocolate bars!!! And they are so much cheaper here obviously than at home - I bought 5 for only one pound! We ended up going to see "The Black Dahlia" which turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment... The plot was really good in theory and the casting was perfect (Josh Harnett and Scarlett Johansson really fit the era of the 1940s and Hilary Swank was better in the part than I was expecting her to be), but overall I think they had some issues adapting the book into a movie. Parts of it were a little slow moving and other parts were rather confusing... Maybe I should read the book. It's crazy to think that a murder that brutal and gruesome actually happened in real life and was never solved though!! After the movie we went to a fish and chips place for dinner which was okay, I'm not a big fan of fish and chips though. Overall it was quite a fun day! :o)

This morning I woke up to gloomy skies again but this time it was raining. Luckily by the time we left it had cleared up quite a bit and ended up being a really nice day again! Also this morning I got a call from Kari :o) So it was nice to catch up with her even though it wasn't a very long conversation. Today was a long day of sightseeing with my roommate Luana - we left at about 10am and got back around 6:30pm. A couple weeks ago we purchased our "Royal Day Out" tickets online for Buckingham Palace which enabled us to tour the Royal Mews (stables), The Queen's Gallery, and the State Rooms (which aren't always open to the public). Unfortunately we couldn't take many photos, only outside. After we got there we decided to start with our tour of the Royal Mews - we saw a few horses and beautiful carriages that the Royal Family still use for various things to this day. At about 11am we headed towards the forecourt of the Palace to see the Changing of the Guard Ceremony, unfortunately when we got there we realized we should've been there WAY earlier as there was already thousands of people EVERYWHERE and we couldn't really see anything at all!! So that wasn't very exciting... We saw the new guards and the marching band coming down the street, but we couldn't see the actual ceremony because there were too many people in front of us. All of my photos are just me holding my camera way above my head and hoping that I was aiming at something LOL so most of them didn't turn out very well!! After that, since entry to The Queen's Gallery is in specific timed intervals and we couldn't get in until 12:45pm, we had about an hour to waste so we wandered around the area aimlessly and found a M&S where I bought something to drink, and we also looked around the gift shop.

Finally we were able to enter The Queen's Gallery which currently has two exhibitions: Watercolours and Drawings from the Collection of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Treasures from the Royal Collection. There was also another room set up with a small representative selection of the thousands of birthday cards the Queen was sent for her 80th birthday. Everything was really beautiful! In the Treasures from the Royal Collection, among furnishings and art they also had some jewelery on display, including the crown that you see the Queen wearing on stamps and coins, and a brooch made of two gigantic diamonds - I'm talking huge!! One was about 94 carats and the other was 63 carats! It was insane.

Lastly, we entered the State Rooms. If you ever get a chance to visit the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace I highly recommend it as they are gorgeous!! Really sad that I couldn't take any photos inside. I have almost changed my mind to pursue William instead of Harry just for the opportunity to live in the Palace because it was beautiful LOL. After wandering through the various galleries, drawing rooms, throne room, etc., we came to the special exhibition they have on right now in honour of the Queen's 80th birthday of a collection of her evening gowns and jewelery. Some of the dresses dated all the way back to the 1940s and I must say that I prefer the dresses she wore when she was younger in the 40s and 50s to the ones from the more recent decades. Many of them had very intricate beading and detailing that you don't really notice in photos as much compared to seeing them this close up. And the collection of jewels and crowns etc. they had on display were absolutely beautiful!! I can't ever imagine wearing that many diamonds...

After exiting the State Rooms, you come out at the back of the Palace through the gardens. I would love to have gardens like that behind my house LOL. They were huge and beautiful and so green! Gorgeous. We walked around the front again to get some more photos of the Palace and then after such a long day of sightseeing we were really hungry! We hopped on the tube and got off at Leicester Square in search of somewhere good to eat. We couldn't make a decision so we finally ended up at Garfunkel's which was pretty good but pretty expensive as well and I am so stuffed I feel like I'm going to explode LOL. We split garlic cheese bread to start, then I ate cajun chicken with mashed potatoes, and drank the most expensive vanilla milkshake I have ever had haha. Another fun day!! :o)

Here is the link to my photos from this weekend: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IZuGzZm2asRY&notag=1

Well another weekend is over and another work week about to begin... I should really make a list of all the things I still want to do while I am here because before I know it I will be out of time!! I hope everyone else had a good weekend :o) Love and miss you all

Later days!