Wolverine Visits 607!

Yesterday after coming back from the library, Wolverine aka Tiago from Brazil visited 607. Actually it was more like, "Hey Lauren, after we get back from the library can I dress up like Wolverine and you can take pictures with me?" Nice.

So It's been a pretty eventful week. On Tuesday I went and saw Oliver! The Musical. It was okay. I've seen better shows. There was a lot of energy lacking from the cast mainly Oliver. I mean, sorry kid, but he couldn't really sing and had no personality. But It was really fun to see Rowan Atkinson aka Mr. Bean. It was still a really fun experience. I only have a few more shows left here in London.

Wednesday night was worship night. I filmed it again. Overall it turned out pretty well - a better turnout from students than last worship night, the Garden Room looked beautiful- Grace make it like an Art Gallery sort of thing and had students put up some of their art pieces. I'm not much of an artist, but I made a little picture out of some old Lee Abbey papers that I found while I was shredding. But the music was amazing. I'm a little bummed that its my last worship night :[

Now tomorrow morning at 3am....I am off to AMSTERDAM!

Shakespeare Land!

Yesterday I took my last English day trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon with Ezster, Jay and Christina. The weather was horrible, well not completely horrible- it would rain really hard, then be sunny, rain really hard again, then stop and so on.
We visited the house where Shakespeare was born in. It was really interesting because they restored it to the way it would have been in the 15th century when Shakespeare and his family lived in it. There were people dressed up in and around the house preforming acts from various plays. It was probably also the last time I will ever take a train in England :[ I love taking trains- except on the way to Stratford there was a screaming baby sitting behind me for 2 HOURS. Not fun.

It was a really cute little town, very touristy, but cute.

I Say Sausage, You Say Banger!

So I've been here for over 10 months now, meaning my volcabulary has changed slightly. Here are some British words of note, some which I like saying and others which I don’t...

My favourite British words:
*Trolley
*lovely
*holiday
*bloke
*post
*cinema
*football
*jumper-sweatshirt
*bin
*waistcoat- vest
*queue- line (its particularly fun, because it can be used as both a noun and a verb, for example, "Are you queuing?")

My least favourite British words:
*Quid- slang word for £, comparable to the American word "buck". I just don't like it. It sounds dumb, plus it rhymes with squid.
*Nappy- means diaper. But its sounds like nap, as in "Would you like to take a nap in a nappy?"
*rubber- meaning eraser. No need to comment.
*Torch- means flashlight, reminds me of lighting things on fire
*banger- meaning sausage. Why can't they just call it a sausage?

Other words of note, which I do not have a particular opinion about:
*chemist- pharmacist
*Garden- backyard
*Cheers- thank you
*let- rent(as in 'to let', kind of sounds like toilet)
*queue- line
*lift- elevator
*braces- suspenders
*courgette-zucchini
*petrol- gas

No longer from the Stoneage

So its been up for a few weeks now, but if you haven't seen it, be sure to take a gander at the new Lee Abbey website.

"Why yes Lauren, I would love to have a look."

Picture Parade!

Spring!


Grace!


Seeing Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre



Working Hard!



Ireland


Hats!


In Greenwich with Rebekka!

Saturday Day Off Work

Yesterday Grace and I planned to have the same day off so we could hit up a bunch of markets around London- Portobello, Borough, and Camden.
We started off the day with Portobello Road market up in Notting Hill, just a 20 minutes walk from Lee Abbey. Its one of the worlds largest antique markets and has so many interesting and crazy things. However, Grace had never been all the way down to the end of the street before. In my opinion the best part of Portobello is the end where there are tons of vintage and specially made clothes, shoes and jewellery. I got some amazing old buttons, a vintage blazer and some cat eye sunglasses. So basically I spent all of my money at Portobello, samesies from Grace, so there was no point in us going any where else. So we got some pizza at this cute little place in Notting Hill and walked back to Lee Abbey through Kensington Gardens.
In the afternoon, we got all dressed up and took pictures of ourselves around Kensington!
After dinner Christina from Denmark (more fondly known as X-Tina) and I went to this little cafe by Gloucester Road that all the Hungarians are crazy about called Paul to get some hot chocolate. its a small little place, with very limited seating, but "luckily” there was only one table left. All the tables are really close together and unfortunately the one that was open was right next to this table that this lady was sitting at alone. Lets just saw that before we sat down she started yelling at the waiter saying that he should stop telling "those two girls" meaning me and Christina to not sit down at the table next to here, even though he didn’t say a word. It was a little freaky because she was talking to herself and kept staring as us while we were talking and kept asking us questions about America and Denmark and not in a friendly way- in a creepy way. So I downed my hot chocolate as fast as I could and were out of there.
It was kind of a bummer because X Tina and I had been planning our "date" for a while and were hoping to have a nice chat, but it got kind of ruined. So we just walked around and explored. I haven’t done very much wandering around Kensington for a while, and we were walking around some areas that I haven’t been to before. On Old Brompton road we came across this beautiful old cemetery. It was not kept up at all- the grass was so tall, the graves had weeds and grass growing out of them and most of the tombstones were so old that you could even read the dates. But it was just so beautiful and old. I definitely want to go back before I leave.

Okay Okay

Due to popular demand, I am now going to try writing a lot more. I mean I only have roughly two months left in this great metropolis, therefore only two shorts months when I can write more little adventures in this blog. So my new goal is to do two updates every week, I'm going to aim for Sundays and Wednesdays. So lets cross our fingers on that one.

Well, after reviewing my blog, it has been empty since February- and it is basically impossible to fill in everything since then. So here are a few highlights ( and yes, I have noticed that the past few posts on this blog are 'highlight' posts)

-My parents and Ethan came! Lets just say is was ridiculously amazing. Have people here is always nice because it makes you do a lot more things that usually, more exploring and eating lots of scrumptious foods. They were here on Valentines day (wow, seems so long ago) and we ate at this cute little French Restaurant on the way to Earls Court Station that I've been wanting to go to for a while.

-I've seen "Spring Awakening" in London five, soon to be six, times. Not really a highlight, more like a fact. A sad, yet exciting, fact.

-I've had a few epic days off recently, During the winter, they were all pretty lame, but seem to be getting better. Though I was looking at my schedule the other day and I only have 1 more day off that is not planned (most of them are being used for holidays coming up, I'm going to Stratford-Upon-Avon next week, and the other one is for when Grace leaves and that’s ALL!) One day I went with a few girls to IKEA and bought a plant named Rasmus, my favourite Danish name, and some picture frames. I went to Greenwich with Rebekka a few weeks ago, we had amazing weather and had an adorable little picnic on the top of the park with a stunning view!

- In April I went back to Ireland to visit my friend Adam in Waterford. It was so green! We saw this crazy magician and I got my hair cut, finally! I no longer look like a cave man/ Darth Vader!

The 3rd Term started a few weeks ago, so its getting pretty busy around here. Lots of preparations for the summer meaning lots of summer bookings. And basically everyone on the office team is leaving in the next 2 months (one next week, on the first week of June, me the last week of June, and one the first week of July)

Thursday night Grace and I went to watch "Romeo and Juliet" at the globe theatre. we had the standing tickets in the yard, and were right in front of the stafe. Sure my legs kind of (actually ridiculously hurt) at the end and during the show, it was a really fun experience. I mean that’s how all the poorer people during Shakespeare's day watched his plays, and it was only £5- sweet.