From your younger sister Jess...

Hello there. It's two something in the morning over here but I'm not quite ready for bed. Instead of doing one huge post tomorrow (tomorrow is Homework day) I thought I'd go ahead and let you guys know about what went down today.

I didn't get up early and it was a nice change. I managed to sleep until around eleven thirty. :) However I was up until about five last night talking to Mom and Dad and Jess and Johnny on skype. Then I had to shower and then I looked up at the clock and decided that I was due in bed.

When I did finally get up though guess what? I HAD A LETTER FROM MY SISTER! Jess - what's up with this "From your young sister Jess?" Am I like, OLD now or something? Sheesh. :) MIss you crazy girl.

Anywho I got up and went over to Kemper's flat. She graciously shared her lovely pasta with me for lunch today and then we went off in search of shopping destinations. Now, let me explain. I have a small amount of money set aside for one nice thing from here. I've already decided that I want to buy a nice bag to replace the black and white newspaper one I have because it's falling apart. :( So Kemper, who is in somewhat of a desperate need for shoes, and I, went to go shop-seeing in a way. We wanted to scope out the field really before we buy something to be sure we get the best thing out there.

Well, we got lost and we couldn't find the stores we wanted to find. We did end up on this nice little alley off of Oxford Street called Christopher's way or something like that. I took some pictures because I thought it was pretty quaint. Anywho - after we finally gave up on all hope of finding our vintage stores, we hopped on the tube and headed back to the flat. I ate some of the pringles that gramner sent me - well Kemper and I shared them. I also had some cheese and crackers - woot.

Haha. I have this weird need to tell you exactly what I eat all the time - except for maybe my incessant intake of cookies...:) Anyway - after that we decided that since we weren't going to spend money anyways we would just go to Harrod's for fun. Well...we got out in the Kensington neighborhood - which is where Harrod's is located and we made our way all the way round the building before we went in.

Oh my goodness. I have never felt quite so many emotions at once whilst in a huge, um, is department store the correct terminology here? That place was like a heaven and a hell all at once. A heaven because there was a tea and chocolate shop and a really cool christmas section and toy section. However, there were all the other lah-ti-dah sections and I felt completely out of place. I mean yes, I think a Burberry peacoat is beautiful, but I don't have £850 to spend on it...

Sheesh. After my eyes adjusted to the dazzling lights and the crazy elevators and the crazy design, Kemper and I found the pet section. Did you know that Harrod's sells three specially breeded dogs. Did you know that all three breeds are worth £1500 at the leats...and £2500 at the most. How lovely...anyone want a French Bulldog? They're cute...Haha. Sheesh. I do plan on going back to get some tea. The tea is actually reasonable...and well...you HAVE to buy tea from Harrods. Anyway it was interesting. I actually took some pictures inside - when I felt like I could get away with it - so I'll post those tomorrow.

Kemper and I finally got out of the building and we walked off in this random direction in Kensington to sort of just look around, because we've never been in that neighborhood. Well Mom and Dad, hope ya'll are ready for some high-end...um...neighbours...Haha. Kemper and I walked down a little street circle and we were looking at all the expensive cars - well most of the expensive cars.

Anywho - we ended up at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is mostly free. We were sad because we thought it might be closed because most of the free museums close over here at five and it was well past five. However, on Fridays the Victoria and Albert Museum is open until ten or something like that (I'm so tired of reading Military time - it's like the THING over here for businesses have their hours in that confusing language of time...). So we trapezed on in there and woa man.

We noticed the museum for it's lovely mixture of gothic and neoclassical architectural elements. Well then we went and looked at a few exhibits for early and mid medieval and renaissance Europe. I'm telling you, all the stained glass windows that they have in there are amazing. For some reason I'm drawn to them more than the statues and paintings. I really have always liked Stained Glass. The ones I stared at for what seemed like forever are from two different Parisian churches. I will upload the pictures that I took of them so you can stare in wonder as well.

Anyway - we didn't stay too long because today was Hillary's (one of my flatmates) birthday. Kemper bought some cake material and so we ended up baking a chocolate cake and then decorating it with chocolate frosting, blue icing, and sprinkles. AND Gramner we heated up some of the caramel that you sent me and drizzled it over the cake. The cake was absolutely gorgeous. The only thing I really helped do was melt the caramel and write "Happy Birthday Hillary" on it - but still. We offered the cake to everyone and we all got pieces. I took some pictures.

It was nice that we did this cake celebration thing. I know that we are all a diverse group of college students in some ways - but it's nice that we can come together. Maybe the best thing to do to solve world peace would be just to bake one huge chocolate cake drizzled with caramel over the top of it. Everyone would have a warm full tummy and we could all be friends right? Well my idealism is one of my better qualities...

So anyway. After that, because Kemper and I hadn't eaten, we went to her flat and made some soft tacos. MAN. It was so nice to have British attempted Tex-Mex. Let me explain, haha. I am not sure that the British know what sour cream is, or even taco meat mix...Haha. The sour cream we got had some weird chives in it and we couldn't find any just plain sour cream. Also - their idea of cheese dip is a joke. I didn't do it this time, but next time I promised Kemper that I would make my mom's famour guacamole recipe. :)

Anyway - I miss taco nights at home. So, getting our tortilla chips and an interesting version of cheese dip for dinner with our soft tacos was amazing. I don't care who you are man, it was amazing.

After that we were supposed to meet the group at a pub for Hillary's birthday pub deal. However, we couldn't ever get a straight answer as to where they were...so...we watched a movie. I would tell you the movie - but - in risk of being judged I think I'll keep it to myself. Plus - Mom and Jess will be jealous.

We originally wanted to go see that free outdoor screening of Pretty Woman - but it's actually been rainy London here today so that was kind of a no. Also, we didn't plan our time all that well and we had to do cake and participate in Birthday Festivities. It was a nice evening all in all. A nice day actually.

Tomorrow we may just go see Chicago the Musical. I'm excited, the tickets aren't too bad and it's something that I would love love love to see in real life. It's open for a while though, so we may end up doing something else. Either way, I'll keep you posted.I'm really tired right now though so I think I'm out.

Cheers!