Autumn Half Term, Part 2

If this is the first time you're reading my blog, click here to see what I'm doing this year!

Word comparison:
English: cinemas. American: movies.
Instead of seeing a movie at the movie theater, you'd go see a film at the cinemas.
English: advert. American: any form of advertisement.
The US would use ads, commercials, and movie previews to describe different forms of advertisement, but Brits just use the term "advert" for all three.

Okay, here's part 2 of my half term adventures!

On Tuesday, I had a day off to relax and do laundry and read. It was nice and calming ^_^ I also got a chance to talk to some friends about travel plans, and unfortunately wasn't able to visit my friend Virginia in Switzerland! So instead, I talked to Sophie, Roger and Patsy-Ann's daughter, to see if I could stay in her and Daniel's flat in London with them for a few days! Also, I talked to Kathleen about coming to see her for the weekend and staying in Sunningdale with her! So plans were made :)



On Wednesday, I headed out to London! I walked around a bit, did some sightseeing like walking through Regent's Park, and got Indian food for dinner. I have totally missed Peshwari Naan! Actually, though, I messed up travel arrangements a bit, and I didn't tell Sophie that I was arriving that evening, because she was out the whole night! Luckily, Dan (her brother) was in the flat and was able to meet me in Liverpool Street station to walk me to the flat. I felt so bad that I didn't make it clear what day I was arriving, but they took it with a lot of grace! :) Also, I did the washing up for them the next morning to try and make up for it :D

On Thursday, I spent the day wandering around, seeing different sights I had wanted to see. I went to St Paul's Cathedral, walked across the Millenium Bridge (the one in Harry Potter that they fly over at night on broomstick! Also the one that muggles were walking on when the death eaters destroyed it.) It was so exciting. I must've looked really goofy as well, with a huge grin plastered across my face, taking a bunch of pictures. I also walked to London Bridge and Tower Bridge, as well as walking to and seeing inside of Westminster Abbey. I got a lot of exercise from walking everywhere that day. I kinda wonder how many miles I walked!

On Friday, I took met Kathleen at Waterloo! It was good seeing her again, and it totally felt like more than a week since we'd last met :) We made our way to Westminister Abbey to go to what we thought was a free concert in the abbey, but turned out to be a midday worship, which was quite lovely. The only weird part was people were touring the abbey around us and kinda watching us during worship lol. We then made our way to the Tate Modern Art Museum and saw the different exhibits shown. I was supper excited to see some cubist work from George Braque! And some pretty sweet Picasso pictures as well. It still surprises me how graffic some of his material is, though! Also, free entrance into public museums is one of the most awesome things about London!
Afterwards, we went across Millenium Bridge again! Whoot! We were searching for Thai or Indian food, but came across an old pub that Kathleen had recognized from one of her guide books... Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, one of the oldest pubs in England, rebuilt in 1667! AH!!! It was so cool and mideval, since they kept the original interior and decor instead of adapting a new look, which most pubs do to stay in business. They've kept their authenticity, and they had the best sticky toffee pudding EVER! Afetrward, we went back to the flat to collect my stuff, and then made our way back to Waterloo and caught the train to Sunningdale. We walked to Kathleen's house, and settled in with a cup of tea, then went to an Italian restaurant for supper. The risotto I ordered was fantastic! And Kathleen's calzone was so big lol. Then, we went back home and played Taboo and Bananagrams. Definitely going to have to buy that game before I go back to the States!

On Saturday, Kathleen and I caught the bus to Windsor Castle! It was GORGEOUS! The whole park and village are just naturally beautiful, and the castle itself, seated on top of a big hill overlooking the village, was just perfect. They gave us free audio guides with our tickets (Kathleen's was free since she has an Advantage Card for living in the area) and it was really neat to see where the royal family live! St George's chapel was also extremely beautiful. After we toured the grounds, we went to a local pub and got some Thai food, and an autumn beer festival was happening there! We are really lucky! We looked around the shops and got some "cream tea" which turned out to be green tea! Apparently our American accents are not very clear :)

We then caught the bus home, and went to Kathleen's church so she could practice piano for service the next day. She is soooo good at piano, and she taught me home to play the background part of Heart and Soul!!!  Absolutely loved it, even though I was rubbish at playing piano and kept messing up. It was really fun! I've practiced it since, and I really love it. Also, we played a bit of the 12 Days of Christmas, my favourite Christmas song! I had such a good time. Then we went home, I met Kathleen's housemate Fliss who just got engaged! We made supper, which was spaghetti hoops (spaghetti-o's) and cheesy bread, followed by fruit and yoghurt for pudding. Then Kathleen and I had some girl time, which consisted of more Taboo and Bananagrams, drinking tea, watching Josh Groban on youtube, and talking about boys. Yup, we're cool :D


Sunday, I had to catch the train/tube/train/bus/taxi back to Boxted. Boo! It was a brilliant half term though, and I can't wait til the next one!

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