Dancing Through London

Today I made my first solo journey into London! I went and bought myself an Oyster card for the Tube, and then made the trip to the most famous address in the world - 221B Baker Street, formerly home of the Consulting Detective Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, now home to the Sherlock Holmes museum. The museum consists of 4 and a half floors, the first two dedicated to recreating what 221B would have looked like, using all authentic 19th century artifacts, including Sherlock and Watson's study, their bedrooms, and Dr. Watson's study. And then the top floors are dedicated to these incredibly wax figures that depict those in the stories, including characters from Musgrave Ritual, Hound of the Baskerville, and Scandal in Bohemia. I love Sherlock Holmes and all of its iterations, so getting to wander through and see these rooms come to life, and learn about all the different artifacts that would have been used was really something special! Here are some of the pictures I took. ...

My first days as an au pair are what i would refer to as eventful. Not bad, not the best, but eventful. Don’t get me wrong, things have been going incredibly smoothly, and the family and kids and I are getting along super well, but i’m just exhausted. I’m used to sleeping in and eating crappy foods, but now i’m cooking for the boys and they need to be balanced meals and i’m eating at proper meals times and my day starts at quarter to 7 and i’m just tired. But i’m loving every minute of it. Genuinely I love what i’m doing. I have busy times, which are very busy, but then I can do whatever I want during the days and I get nice cuddles at night and I get to hear all about their days, and help with spelling. despite me being tired 100% of the time right now, I do love what i’m doing. So details! The kids i’m looking after are 2 and 5 right now, and they’re bundles of energy. Teddy, the youngest, woke up this morning a bit early and had to use the bathroom, and then he got cuddled into bed ...

Sara and I decided that today would be my first day in London, and I was thrilled. We took the train in from Kettering, and arrived at St. Pancras station. St. Pancras is right next to Kings Cross, and that is somewhere that I will be returning to. But onto the day’s events. We then took the tube to Covent Gardens, which to my surprise were not a garden at all, but a really beautiful shopping center. We wandered around, listened to some beautiful music by a string quintet, and the grabbed some lunch. We shared starters, which were Sliced Beets and Shallots, and then she had chicken for lunch and I had pasta. Then we just wandered. We went to Trafalgar Square, which was housing a big celebration for St. George’s day, so I couldn’t really see or wander around. But! I did see the hilarious statue called “Really Good” which is just a big thumbs up pointed directly at parliament. Bit sarcastic, innit? Then we went to have a drink in an English pub in Soho called the Flying Horse. And we sat...

This was my first real outing. We packed up and headed to Burghley House in Stamford. Sara had checked the times, and it should have been opened. But when we got there, there was a sign that had the opening times, and it was open every day except Fridays. Oh well. We still got to see the exterior through the gates and the house is beautiful. We also drove through and wandered around Stamford, which was where part of the 2004 Pride and Prejudice movie was filmed. I discovered this at lunchtime and got very excited. There was also a family riding in a horse drawn carriage with a man on the back playing trumpet. Yeah… We thought that only happened in movies. Me at Burghley House The famous Stamford Bridge And then we went off to Cambridge! We could spend a weekend there and still have things to do, but we only had about two hours. We walked around a bit, and then went to see Kings College, which is a college that is apart of the University of Cambridge. They have a beautiful chapel there,...

April 18th&19th The day I flew to London was a month to the day after I made the decision to go. I think that’s what’s the craziest thing about this trip — that I haven’t had time to even come to terms with the fact that i’m going to England, let alone the fact that I’m writing this from England. Trip was mostly uneventful. Got some sleep on the plane. Listened to a lot of ABBA. Played a lot of spider solitaire. And then I landed. And then the queue. The line at passport control was absolutely insane. it was long, and winding, and seemingly unorganized but I got through it eventually. My professor, who had decided to wear a backwards hat the entire trip, was actually stood in front of me at Passport Control and we had a lovely chat, despite the both of us still being half asleep. But I got through the queue — which took about an hour, mind you — I found Sara by arrivals. And the first thing we did was take a picture to make it concrete that I was in England. Which is crazy. We dro...