Yesterday was my first class, which went well and the teacher is lovely, but there really isn't terribly much to report about it. I can't wait to get into the plays we're studying and everything. We're going to be discussing/seeing Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe at the Globe Theatre next Tuesday, which is positively thrilling. The best part is we don't even have to read the play first. She let us off the hook and decided to just give us the gist of it. Huzzah! "She" being Patricia Doyle, our lovely teacher who isn't even a proper professor. She studied theatre and was an actress for many years and now she directs plays and such. I'm really looking forward to her class.
After class yesterday a few of the girls and myself went on our first (small) shopping expedition to Oxford Street. We only stopped in Topshop and H&M. They were both quite overwhelming, but I bought a few essentials that make me look decidedly more British and fabulous. :)
Last night we had a welcome dinner at Porter's, a pub that serves traditional English food including the famous fish and chips, of course. I decided to pass on that option, however, and chose instead tomato and basil soup, steak/Guinness/mushroom pie, and Spotted Dick for dessert. It was all scrumptious. I got Spotted Dick mostly out of curiosity, but it turned out to be quite good! It is very much like bread pudding with raisins and a little less sweet. But still delicious. I feel like I should mention that I also passed on the alcohol. Unless you count the Guinness in my pie.
Today was supposed to be my first class with the director of our course, Professor Lutze, who came over with us from Wesleyan to teach the course "The Bloody History of Afternoon Tea". Instead of having a proper course, we had afternoon tea in the Orangery at Kensington Palace. It was most definitely the best tea I've ever had in my life. We each got our own little three-tiered plate thing with four finger sandwiches (cucumber, salmon/cheese, cheese, and roast beef or something), a scone with raisins (or sultanas?), and clotted cream/jam, an orange tart, and a little chocolate cake. It. Was. Epic. Unfortunately, much of the palace was under construction so we only really got to see a little bit of the gardens. I think they're making it look nicer in preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London next summer.
Before returning to our flat some of us walked around a small area of Regent's Park. It is just a few blocks north of our flat, but I had yet to take the time to explore any of it. We walked through the Avenue Gardens and Queen Mary's Gardens (aka the most beautiful garden in the world according to me). Queen Mary's Gardens had pretty much every color/shape/size of rose EVER. There were SO many roses. I wanted to take pictures of all of them. Mom, you would have gone insane taking pictures of all the flowers. It was ridiculous. There were also little waterfalls and fountains and whatnot.
Now I'm back at the flat and Mary's making all of us dinner. Yaaaaaaaaay. I posted my pictures from today on Picasa. I think I'll do that from here on out as well as putting many of them on facebook. My Hampton Court Palace pictures are already on facebook.
Pictures from Kensington Palace and Regent's Park.
Disclaimer: Many of my rose pictures were blurry because it was quite windy today, not because I'm a horrible photographer. Because I'm not. I promise. Also I know now to go slower on my panoramas so they're less blurry.
Of course you're right about the roses. If you were that impressed with the gardens, they must have been good! OK, so you're having WAY too much fun and you won't want to come home...
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