a few things i forgot!

more things i'll miss about england:
- boys wearing tight trousers...rawr!
- businessmen wearing lots of pink and pastels
- bagging your own groceries, instead of feeling like a tool while the clerk does it for you
- people laughing at the phrases i use
- their dumb pronunciations of words (haha)
- amazing indian/pakistani/bangladeshi food
- how, every time you eat, part of the packaging reminds you to have your "five a day"
- witnessing drunken football fools on the tube
- tube escalators, where everyone checks each other out
- an overall more liberal attitude
- ending everything with "x"
- pretty, rainy, ugly weather
- the automated lady's voice in the lift

more things i'm looking forward to in los angeles:
- having the first floor actually be first floor, not the second!
- not having to push a button before opening a door
- VEGGIE. PATTIES.
- getting free bread and butter at restaurants
- not being confused about who to tip, or how much
- low fat ice cream
- mooching wireless internet
- people asking "how are you," instead of "you alright?" or "you okay?"
- people responding "you're welcome" or "no problem" instead of "s'alright" after you thank them
- rarely waiting in line for ATMS
- seeing lots of familiar faces when i'm out and about
- less tourists getting in the way!


well, that's all i can think of at the moment. i won't be able to blog again until i get home, so that won't be for a few days. tomorrow, alex and i are off to visit chris in kettering, and then i'm flying home on friday!

so, this is my last authentic, actual post from jolly old england. i've said it so many times, but really--i love this country, and this city, and have had a glorious time these past five months. they've flown by incredibly fast, and i wish i had more time to enjoy it here, but home is beckoning and i am ready to be reacquainted with the land of the free, and the home of the brave! farewell, dear readers--next time we see each other, i'll be back on your side of the pond!

much english love from this london lassie,
lilly

"going to california, with an aching in my heart" -led!

with leaving on my mind, of course i've been thinking extensively about how i'll deal with the transition back to amurica. i've always loved lists, so i've made two to help organize my feelings about what i'll miss about england, and what i'm looking forward to in good old los angeles.

things i'm looking forward to:

- first and foremost, family and friends
- the ocean
- food (including, but not limited to: burritos, good vegan food, voluptas, summer fruits, cpk, REAL cookies, trader joe's, avocados, infusion teas, good hummus, homemade cakes [funfetti], bbq, in n out)
- french press coffee
- the village
- PV cliffs
- being a redhead, and not a ginger
- sunshine and warmth all year round
- piano, singing, and violin
- american showers
- toilet seat covers in every bathroom you go into
- calling the bathroom the bathroom, not the "toilet"
- driving on the right side of the road
- eating outside
- long walks
- church with good music
- supermarkets with everything i need and more
- not paying ungodly amounts for laundry
- dishwashers
- wearing dresses and sandals daily
- not feeling like an outsider
- being 21!
- jeopardy, comedy central
- the pillsbury dough boy
- KROQ and indie 103.1
- being somewhat fashionable
- my bike
- american plugs
- bonfires
- late night drives with great music and the windows down
- my record player and LPs
- fabulous shopping, cheap stores!
- less expensive fun
- home cooked meals
- working
- sunsets every night

what i'm going to miss terribly:

- people, obviously (flat 10 and company)
- pubs
- strongbow
- food (digestives, cadbury, ritter, twisters, squash, frozen pizza, crunchy nut, sticky toffee pudding, fish and chips, calippos, walkers, meat pies)
- teatime
- online grocery shopping
- the convenient tube and buses
- being a ginger, and not a redhead
- free museums
- so much to see and do
- trains connecting everything
- british television and music
- topshop and other shopping/british fashion
- walks to victoria park
- greenery everywhere
- proximity to europe
- diversity of people and accents
- BRITISH SLANG
- prime minister's questions
- lovely little towns
- quaint old people
- how british people curse like nobody's business
- the confidence that you won't be shot
- everything being new, different, and exciting
- randomly cheap food (bread that costs 50p)
- meeting new people and being a novelty
- outdoor markets
- british accents

i think that's all for the moment...such mixed feelings about my departure, which i knew would happen. i love london, and having it be my second home, but i'm ready to see the loves i haven't seen for 5 months! and on that note, i'm off to finish shopping for their gifts!

bittersweetly,
lilly

MEIN PLATZ! MEIN PLATZ! --The Munich Adventures

at long last, the final installment of my (entirely too long) documentation of the frogs and germs. but before launching into the circus that was munich, i'll just finish up telling you what helen and i did our last day in berlin.

though it wasnt the most cheerful tourist thing to do, we decided we wanted to see a concentration camp whilst in germany, so our third day we took the bahn to sachsenhousen, the "model" concentration camp just outside of berlin. the weather was really miserable that day, rainy and freezing, and after splitting up and walking around the camp for a few hours, we were ready to go. i didn't take any pictures, sorry about that..didn't feel quite right at the time.

anyways, we were happy to get back on the warm train, and headed back into berlin to check out the famous bit of the wall that's covered in artists' graffiti. but first...WURST! we needed some food, and i was sick of sausage by this point, so i got a greek sandwich and helen opted for german fare yet again! after lunching, we spotted a dunkin donuts next door--they're everywhere in germany! i wanted to see how their donuts measured up, so we each got one. i must say, it was pretty dry, and not amazing.

a few hours later, when my stomach began to churn in pain, i (somewhat involuntarily) cried out, "dunkin, you've betrayed me!" much to helen's amusement.

we made it to the wall, and walked along the remaining length of it...the artwork was very cool

frolicking

that afternoon, we decided to have a look at the berlin holocaust memorial museum, which was very well put together. i dont feel much like describing it on here, but suffice it to say we spent the afternoon here, then came back to the hostel to rest.

by this point, my insides were twisted into such junk-food-induced knots that i decided it would be wise to skip dinner, and take it easy for the night. helen and i chatted with some of our hostelmates--they included:

a 40-year-old chinese/british man who snored like nothing i've ever heard. "chainsaw" is a gross understatement. he had a full-blown construction crew lodged in his sinuses

sarah was a sweet kiwi gal in her mid-20s, traveling the world by herself for 6 months

macgregor from new york was "freelance," making helen snarkily whisper to me, "I BET HE'S JUST UNEMPLOYED!" hahaha. macgregor decided to regale us with tales of tiny passageways in pyramids that had tiny doors at the ends of them. i couldn't even look at helen while he was talking, because i knew we'd both start laughing uncontrollably

the next morning, we went downstairs to check out, and saw macgregor and sarah woozy after an all-night chat in the lounge. we hugged them goodbye, then hopped on over to the train station. i wanted a fruit parfait from mcdonald's (haha, i know), and while grabbing a spoon, i noticed the small packs of nutella that were up for grabs...so i grabbed. then, while i started eating it right out of the tiny jar, i noticed all the germans looking at me in disgust, and i shame-facedly put it away.

after boarding the train, for the first hour or so of the ride, helen and i could only be classified as vagrants. we hadn't noticed that our tickets had assigned seats, and didn't realize that the seats we'd found were reserved for someone else.

so, imagine my surprise when--literally--one of the most obese men i've ever seen came wheezing up the aisle towards us. he had to squeeze himself through the aisle, huffing and puffing, till he was standing over us. he said something in german which helen couldn't make out, and with scared looks on our faces, we timidly asked, "english?"

he was really angry by this point, and with spit flying out of his enormous purple face, began to scream over and over, "MEIN PLATZ! MEIN PLATZ! MEIN PLATZ!" which we immediately understood! like the scolded kids we were, we skulked around and found some other empty seats. a few stops later, more germans kicked us out of them (though kindly).

not knowing what to do, we found an empty private carriage with sliding doors. i felt certain we'd get kicked out of there, too, but helen goaded me into trying it. luckily, third time's the charm! we stayed in for the next 6 hours or so, finally arriving in munich in the afternoon.

digging into my stolen nutella

at last in BAVARIA, helen and i high-tailed it to our hostel. right away, we noticed the packs of sketchy men that were very reminiscent of italian and french homies we'd encountered on earlier journeys...perhaps because of all the BIER?

we walked around and took in the sights until it was time for HOFBRAUHAUS--the BEER HALL! it's actually very famous...hitler gave a speech there back in the day! the inside was lined with wooden tables and benches, and filled with wonderfully wasted germans.

helen and i, after taking a look around, plopped down at a table next to some middle aged and older germans, who were delighted that we ordered the GIGANTIC tankards of beer. finally, one of the elderly men came over to us, holding a sketch pad that he showed us...he had DRAWN US. at first we thought he was going to ask us to pay for it, and we were going to refuse, but turns out he was just having fun. he happily informed us that his entire table was "tipsy," and throughout our dinner he kept taking photos of us and waving. his table seemed to think it was pretty funny, as well, and they kept turning around to make sure we were eating all our food (meatloaf, kraut, and pretzels).

when they eventually left, another man from the group came up to us, totally red-faced and sloshed, and declared, "you'd make good nude models!" hahaha

we were soon joined by some other germans, closer to our age. we chatted a little bit with one of them, and he was really friendly and nice. he was impressed that our first stop in munich was HOFBRAUHAUS.

after dinner, i won't lie--we were feeling the BIER! we gigglingly decided that gelato would be nice, so we stopped at a stand and ordered. the guy knew we were tipsy, because he laughed in my face as i pointed at the "cookies" flavor and asked, "..uh...EIN COOKIES?"

EIN COOKIES IN MUNICH!

the next day, we embarked on yet another free walking tour, since we'd had such a good experience in berlin. well...our tour guide was a bit eccentric, and although it was informative, it wasn't as well done as the berlin tour. also, he kept randomly cursing, and lectured us for 20 minutes about a pamphlet he'd found with misinformation in it. yikes.

marianplatz--main munich square, where these older folks were protesting in front of city hall

glockenspiel (spelling?) clock, voted the #2 most overrated tourist attraction in europe

inside of a church where pope benedict gave a mass! his hometown is close to munich

market where i bought a peach for freaking 1.70 euro. and it was hard!

after the tour, we wanted to go to englischer gartens--it was beautiful outside, and perfect for BIER! so we picked some up at a convenience store, and drank them on our walk over (no laws forbidding open containers in germany...sweet!).

englischer gartens are famous for nudity--on warm days, germans strip down and sunbake. we saw a few nudies! the gartens were gorgeous, and we meandered around them until we could find...the BIER GARTEN inside!

we got to the BIER GARTEN--and i got bratwurst, SAUERKRAUT, and MUTARD. it was so good!

after lunch, it was time for some relaxing. helen plopped down in the sun, next to all the naked germans (jokes, there were only a few), and i found a bench in the shade. i took a nice little nap, and an hour later we found ourselves walking back towards marianplatz, to look in the shops and make our way towards the AUGUSTINER BIER HALL!

augustiner beer hall (acutally i took this photo the next morning...cheater!)

we both got the lemonade/beer combo drink, which was very nice and refreshing--until a fly flew into mine and died. we chatted over our pretzels and drinks until going back to the hostel for showers and sleep.

unfortunately, once we stepped into our room, a cloud of stink met us with a vengeance. we couldn't figure out who was to blame, but accepted it as a consequence of staying in a 15 euro/night, 12 person room hostel.

we awoke early the next morning, and said goodbye as helen headed for the train station (to austria!) and i scouted for the bookstore in marianplatz. i bought "me talk pretty one day," and pulled a jk rowling similar to the one i did in rome, reading and writing in my journal while nursing a coffee for three hours. at least, it was time to go to the airport, so i took the s-bahned it and planed it and arrived in london at 5:30 that night.

it was funny, as i got off the plane in london, and took the various trains home (gatwick express to london victoria, victoria to mile end) and walked down mile end road, i kept excitedly thinking, "i'm home, i'm home, i'm home!" i had really missed london, and the london cronies, while i was gone, and i can only imagine what it'll be like once i'm back in the states.

speaking of which, i need to go get giftoids for the american homefries this afternoon, which i'm not looking forward to. oh dear!

but i hope that you enjoyed my euroblobs. from now on, its england till the day i leave (which...is in 4 and a half days!). in my next postings: london museum trips, brighton, and oxford! hooray!

glad to be done with writing about europe, practically a month later,
lilly

the swamp city

after spending a week in france, helen and i agreed that we were ready to move on to deutschland (aka...sausageland). we arrived at paris orly laughably early on may 3rd, and were surprised by how empty it was. i guess the staff felt like they should be doing something, so they gave me a very thorough pat down. no one trusts gingers!

everything else went smoothly and uneventfully...until we boarded the plane. about fifty passengeres had boarded, when suddenly the stream of people stopped. helen and i, comfortable in our seats, hadn't noticed anything, until a steward went on the loudspeaker and announced that a "problematic passenger" had created a scene at the gate and was being removed by the police. a few minutes later, we heard horrible screams coming from the gate, and they kept getting closer. helen and i were getting a bit scared, and after ten minutes of approaching shrieks, the steward finally closed the airplane's door as "a safety precaution."

then, everyone realized that the police were leading the woman away, and wanted to spy--so the entire plane rushed to the left side of the aircraft to see. i didn't see anything, but it was pretty hilarious to see a bunch of shameless adults rubbernecking like kids.

relieved to finally be off the plane a few hours later, we stepped onto german soil and into lovely warmth and sunshine--quite the relief after cold, rainy paris. we practically skipped to the s-bahn, and on the way kept catching whiffs of delicious-smelling sausage.

after dropping off our stuff at the "heart of gold" hostel, we scouted for a place that served german specialties. we found a promising place, and downed berlin specialty beer with raspberry syrup, pork sausage, sauerkraut, mustard, and potatoes. it was the perfect comfort food!

bursting with DEUTSCH food, we had a wander around the neighborhood, passing a synagogue that had been damaged during kristallnacht, the tv tower, and a pretty little park. we immediately deduced that berlin was a lot less pretentious than paris, and the germans with whom we interacted were largely friendly.

the two of us wanted an early night, because the next day was sure to be jam-packed. back at the hostel, we met one of our roommates--a lovely lad from manchester named jonathan--then popped in our earplugs and hit the hay!

the synagogue

the next day, we hustled down friedrichstrasse to get to the starbucks where the "free walking tour" of berlin meets up every day. randomly, we had run into one of helen's fellow edinburgh interns the day before (small world), and she joined us for the tour, which lasted about three hours. our tour guide was a scottish lassie named natasha, and she gave us the full low-down on berlin. apparently, it was built on a swamp, which explains the clouds of stink you occasionally have to walk through in the city. she also told us all about the third reich, the division of east and west berlin, and the fall of the wall. i'm way too lazy (and forgetful) to bang it all out here, so i'll just let the pictures do the talking

brandenburg gate

the very large holocaust memorial, located in the center of berlin. it's not clear whether the artist wanted the blocks to represent graves, a cityscape, etc etc...walking through it was very interesting, though. i thought it was a very poignant and approrpriate memorial

i believe it was after the memorial that we went to a seemingly random car park...but underneath was where hitler's bunker used to be, and where he committed suicide. unfortunately, it's all blocked off and caved in now, but it was still eerie to stand over the place.

building damaged in wwII

former nazi building

a remaining part of the berlin wall. look how thin it is!

these cobblestones mark where the wall used to run through berlin

checkpoint charlie (crossing point between east and west germany)

uh oh. i kinda forget what this is. a church??

bebelplatz, where the book burnings of 1933 occurred. there was a little memorial in the middle of the square; a glass panel showed an underground room, and if you peered down, there were empty library shelves

st. hedwig's cathedral in bebelplatz

our tour guide then took us to a sort of hidden war memorial, which had been sculpted by a local female artist. it's called "mother and her dead son," and at the base of the sculpture are the graves of an unknown german soldier, and an unknown concentration camp victim. i think it was my favorite part of the tour--

nearby, on "museum island," we saw this breathtaking church, which looked really old...turns out its only from like 1900. those cheating germans! they built it to look old, the sly dogs!

YAH, BEER!

i thought this was very a very cool mixture of old and new. the museum of contemporary art building is clearly pretty dated, but they've hung a neon sign among the pillars! look closely and you can see it

naturally, after the tour, helen and i were keen to find some munchies. we were also incredibly cold, because we'd dressed that morning in hopes of more sunshine--and instead got rain and freezing winds. we felt a bit foolish in our dresses, and had to squealingly run through the streets once it began to pour.

luckily, we found a sausage stand (haha), and got some currywurst unt brot (and bread). after wolfing it down, we still needed a place to warm up and sit for awhile, so we went to a giant chocolate shop we had passed on the tour. after droolingly wandering around it for a few minutes, i bought a bag of assorted chocolate chunks, shown below!

after i'd eaten over half of it. one chunk had peppercorns in it, another had chunks of raw ginger, and all were delicious!

the tv tower

finally full, helen and i hustled back to the hostel so that we could change clothes (my body was still riddled with shaking). then, we hit the road again! we tried to find the jewish museum, but instead got ridiculously lost and went in a gigantic circle. finally, helen asked a local security guard about where it was located, and it was clear on the other side of berlin.

close to where we thought the museum would be. i miss LA!

we regrouped by a fountain, and decided to trek to hackescher markt, famed for its shopping and nice little restaurants. on the way, we spotted some cool graffiti (berlin is COVERED in it).

see a familiar american?

after shopping for a little while, helen was jonesing for DAS BIER! we ventured into an "irish pub," and when she asked for a berlin brew, the bartender straight up laughed in her face and said, "you come to an irish pub for a german beer? that's brilliant!"

helen sheepishly asked for a pint, and the nearby drunk german men laughed at us and called helen an alcoholic. a wee bit embarrassed, we went to the back of the pub so helen could get toasted in peace. haha

fueled by DAS BIER, we decided to cap off the day with a visit to the bundestag, the parliamentary building that has great views of the city--for free!

the wait was a little long, since security was very strict (and oh-so-very-german), but as we waited we befriended a gigantic group of middle-aged slovenians standing next to us. they were really friendly and excited to talk to americans, and one fellow joked to me as we went into security that i needed to cough up my "hunting knife" before entering. good thing the germs didn't hear him, i might have gotten DAS boot to DAS face

front of the BUNDESTAG!

pretty sunset view from the top

as you can imagine, after the BUNDESTAG we were utterly drained. we needed some greasy sausage fuel, so we stopped at the train station on the way home and got some fast food wurst. it was highly delicious, of course, but my poor stomach was starting to get really angry at the vast amounts of fatty meat it was being forced to digest. i dunno how the germans do it--years of practice, i suppose.

anyways, that ends the action-packed berlin part EIN! come back soon for part ZWEI!

hoping you find german words as funny as helen and i do,
lilly

long-lost italy videos

before, when i tried to upload videos, i was doing it incorrectly....so here are a couple for your viewing pleasure!



benedict xvi performing the stations of the cross outside the colosseum. good friday, 10 aprile 2009.



the kind of eerie-sounding gregorian chants, and a shot of the crowd. we were packed like sardines.

but i am le tired: mont st. michel

alright, alright, back to business--euro-style. when we met last (before the wee london interruption), helen and i were out of our sleep-deprived minds in the paris train station, fighting off predatory men as best we could. we made it onto the train to rennes at 7am, and tried to snooze for the two hour ride.

i actually don't remember a lot of train ride, and i don't know if i slept or not. i was in a very nebulous state of consciousness. i do recall, at the end of the journey, looking out the window. i caught sight of my reflection, and immediately thought to myself, "i look like a drowned person." my eyes were sunken in, my skin was blue-white, and my hair was hanging limply. conclusion: heroin chic is not a good look for me.

after stumbling off the train, helen and i hurriedly tried to find the bus to take us to mont st. michel. we only had ten minutes to find it, and unfortunately got to the stop too late. thanks to a helpful frenchman, we learned that the next bus wouldn't be for another two hours. with time to kill, we got some coffee at the train station, then barged into a waiting room and fell asleep on the floor, amid disapproving stares.

finally finally finally, it was time to go catch the bus. we pushed our way to the front of a pack of asian tourists, and boarded the bus with relief. after an hour-long drive, we finally got to the town bordering mont st. michel!

we dropped off our bags, and walked down the road towards the mont. fortified with food from the local grocery store, we tried to summon up our energy and fully enjoy the scenery. bustling with people, the mont was a very popular destination. stupidly, though...it was closed for the day. as we are wont to do, helen and i just laughed, walked around the outside of the mont, and decided to come back the next day.

initial views of le mont

on our walk back to the hotel, we passed a tiny local market. after taking too many free biscuit samples, we bought a couple bottles of cheap local cider to imbibe later

by the time we got back to the hotel, i felt like i'd been put through a meat grinder. we decided to shower and take a nap.

four hours later, i was awakened by helen's gentle nudging. i must've been completely disoriented, because apparently (i don't recall this at all), i asked helen about the time. when she told me it was 8pm, i looked out of the sunny window and disbelievingly asked, "eight o'clock is that way?!" my poor brain was thoroughly cooked, i think.

we decided to go out for dinner in an effort to rejuvenate ourselves, so we dressed and went to a nearby place that was teeming with frenchies. the service was quite slow, but the food was good-- i nibbled on roast chicken with pommes frittes. we finished eating at 10:30, and walked back to our hotel under strangely light skies. the sun just wouldn't set.

back home, helen wanted to get her booze on. haha, i'm just kidding, we both just had small glasses of the cider, which was oddly bitter. here's a picture of helen boozing in bed

the next day, we knew we'd have to have an early start to smoosh in all the mont in one morning. the line to get into the mont was very long, and after waiting for over an hour, we finally got into the abbey. it was really beautiful inside, and had gorgeous views of the nearby sand/clay beaches. i'm too lazy to tell you the history of the place, so you can look it up for yourselves. here are some pictures!

sheepsies venturing into the road

mushroom head.

after thoroughly exploring the mont, we walked around the crowded little streets surrounding it. we grabbed a quick bite, then caught the bus back to rennes, and our train back to paris.

my friend ana, who's studying in paris, very kindly offered to take us in for the night. we happily dropped off our bags in her cool flat, then wandered into the local neighborhood for dinner. she lives in a very interesting part of paris, a section we didn't see when we first visited. it's close to the louvre, so on one side it's very posh and expensive, but in the other direction its extremely loud, vibrant, colorful, and diverse.

we went the cheapie route for dinner, and got some delicious donner kebab. we wanted to eat outside and enjoy the warm weather, so we ventured into a local park to nosh. on the way, we passed a man opening peeing into a bush, as well as throngs of ghetto teenage boys making kissy faces at us. after our delicious dinner, and a brief hour at an internet cafe, we headed back to ana's for a much-needed sleep.

the next morning, it was time for berlin! so i suppose i'll end here, and the next post will be thoroughly deutsch! until then, my pretties!

au revoir (for good this time...peace out, france),
leelee

a little london interruption

in desperately trying to keep up with my euroblobs, i've left out quite a bit about what i've been up to lately. thought i might fill ya'll in!

finally done with my classes last monday, i've spent the last 8 days with my glorious flatmates. look below for my oh-so-professional photojournalism...

tuesday: we embarked on the monopoly pub crawl. we had high ambitions, with 26 pubs to hit in one day. i became a bit apprehensive after it took us 40 minutes to find the first pub, worried that we wouldn't finish. turns out i was right, haha. elle, chris, and i only managed 10 pubs in 8 hours. the transport was the hardest part, it was really time-consuming. but at least we had a good time! i began my drinkathon with a shared pint of guinness, at 11am. oh me, oh my. the headache that came later in the afternoon told me that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

figuring out the bus. this picture pretty much sums up the day

the lord nelson. first drinks, 11am.

the blind beggar. any pub that lets the cat sit on the counter is all right with me!

elle and i dropped off after being unable to find the pub close to hyde park. i snapped this touristy photo as we made our way back o the tube. i dunno what this monument thing is.

wednesday: chris, elle, and i moseyed over to notting hill, and explored the famed portobello road. unfortunately, precious few of the market stalls were set up, but we got to look at the cool vintage boutiques and funky antique shops.

then, spur of the moment, elle decided to get another tattoo. none of the places in notting hill had openings, so we bused it to camden town, where the tatoo parlors abound. we found a clean-looking place, and chris and i walked around while elle got her wings done. finally fully inked, elle proudly ran out from the tatting room to show us her tat...but the blood pouch pretty much obscured our vision. yummy!

thursday: elle and i went to westfield (i hadn't been back since january!), and had a nice afternoon shopping. elle got some stuff, but i was content to window shop. in the middle of the brand-spanking-new mall, they had all these tables with t-shirts set up. we read a little sign, and that afternoon they were going to break the guinness world record of "amount of people folding t-shirts at the same time." needless to say, elle and i didn't stick around to watch what promised to be the most exciting record-break of the 21st century.

the tables

the posh part of the mall. it's really beauteous

on our way back home, we stopped at waitrose, a very chichi supermarket. i've been on a mission to find that nutella cereal i had in nice, and figured waitrose of all places would have it.

...EUREKA!! the cereal is called "swiss choco-bits," and i was completely giddy after buying it. i polished off the box a few days ago.

friday: my lovely flatties threw a little early-birthday party for me in the kitchen, balloons and all! i made a cake using the all-american funfetti icing and cake mix my mother sent me, and all in all it was a smashing success!

saturday: chris was leaving to go home, so in the morning we all woke up early to send him off. he's now working in an amusement park for the summer, which i definitely find amusing...since the fools in charge are trusting him with the lives of chillen. little do they know of his sadist tendencies.

saturday night, we girls were hankerin' for some american food, so we went to a diner place in shoreditch for milkshakes and burgers. then and only then, we headed to alex's friend dominic's flat, had a few drinks, and went out on the town!

we went to a club called "the star," and it was a really good time--we danced the night away! of course, i had to have a celebratory drink at midnight!

the girly-cakes. dang, i look horrible! hahaha

sunday: my actual birthday! it was made extra-special by the birthday box my parentals sent me, and letters/emails from relatives, along with the calls from friends. so thanks to you all! i had a wonderful birthday weekend.

that night, since i'm forever craving la comida mexicana, a group of us headed to "cafe pacifico," in covent garden. the food and margaritas were pretty good, but the poor british were slightly confused about what "carnitas" are. they seemed to think that they are beef. something must have gotten lost in translation when crossing the atlantic! haha, it was alright though, my beef tacos were tasty, despite the lack of authenticity. sorry to be a mexican snob.

nick illegally drinking in the tube station. elle harrassing him.

pretending to be mopey

girlies!

monday (yesterday): alex, lizzie, elle and i went to bethnal green park to romp around on the crazy jungle gyms and play a bit of tennis. of course, i'm ridiculously bad at tennis, but it was still fun! eventually, alex and lizzie headed off to oxford street, and i went to explore the nearby v&a museum of childhood.

monkeying around

the museum was quite small (i suppose since it's meant for children), but there were some really neat things inside. there were puppet theatres from the 17th century, gorgeous doll houses, 19th century bicycles, 1970s video games, etc etc. here are some of my favorite/not so favorite things

mechanical monkey musicians. i thought this was really, really creepy. made in france.

magnetic hair! you could give the beatles hairstyles/moustaches. 1960s.

beatrix potter peter rabbit teaset! i used to have that!!!

weirdest/coolest thing ever. they made earrings out of hummingbird heads! mom, want one?

much to my delight, the museum also had a new exhibit...of roald dahl/quentin blake proportions (it was called snozzcumbers and frobscottle)! i kept grinning as i looked at the various original drawings, reading the accompanying excepts from my favorites: the witches, the twits, the enormous crocodile, the fantastic mr. fox, matilda, james and the giant peach, charlie and the chocolate factory, etc etc etc. it was a pretty small exhibit, but very cool to see the original artwork from the books. good job, england.

funny side note: as i wandered around, i passed a section of the museum where some construction men were doing renovation. it was right next to the children's play area, and there were some young kids hanging around. i could only laugh as i heard the construction men repeatedly yelling hair-curling swears to each other, within earshot of unconcerned mothers and their youngins. haha, in america those construction guys would've gotten a bludgeoning.

anyways, after an afternoon of childhood throwbacks, last night alex & elle & walter & i meandered around soho for the night. we began at a japanese restaurant, then went to a place called "ku bar," which had good music and lots of dancing. then, at around 1am i was feeling pretty tired (because i'm an old lady), so i bused it back home while the rest of the lot stayed out. i was happy to get into bed!

anywho, that's the (not-so-little, i've realized) recap of the past week or so. hope you feel up to date oen my oh-so-exciting life, haha. much love to all, dear readers!

with only 17 days left in this beautiful country,
lilly