Recap.

I haven't posted in a few days, and so much has happened! Therefore, I hope you are reading this because you have time to kill, maybe you're avoiding writing a paper or you're bored at work, because this will be a long entry.

THURSDAY

In Art and Society, we went to the National Gallery museum in Trafalgar Square. To be honest, I really didn't care for it. It had a very religious theme to it: a good majority of the paintings were of Christian stories and themes. I like to be able to analyze art, and any form of analysis I would give about these paintings would instantly send a lightening bolt from the heavens to strike me dead in the middle of Trafalgar Square. It wasn't until the very end of class when we got to look around on our own that I enjoyed the museum, because I got to see the most fabulous Monet paintings.

It was an absolutely beyond beautiful day on Thursday. The sky was blue, the birds were singing, the sunshine warmed my skin and lit up my smile, and everyone in Trafalgar Square even broke out into a spontaneous musical number where everyone automatically knew the lyrics and choreography (well, at least that's how I saw it in my head). Natalie, Kristen, Sam, Jordan and I picked up lunch at Pret-a-Manger (best place ever) and ate in the square on the steps. It was such a beautiful moment. Then Jordan and Sam climbed up one of the walls by the lion statues in the square and pulled me up with them. I would have been able to climb up by myself if I didn't opt for heels and a skirt that day. It was a great idea, until I had to get down somehow. Pretty sure all of London saw my underwear that day.

Afterward, I went back to my flat to change, and then walked around Hyde Park for a few hours. FINALLY. I finally made it to Hyde Park... and it was beautiful.  I walked around the park by the river, sat and ate a strawberry crepe with some swans, walked to Kensington Gardens and saw the Peter Pan statue (the number one thing I wanted to see in London), and saw the Princess Diana memorial fountain. I saw dogs playing, old couples walking, and ducks swimming. I really, really miss nature. Hyde Park is by far my favorite place in London, as I knew it would be. For the first time, I actually felt like I loved something about London.

FRIDAY

I will never be on time to my fashion class, no matter what I do or how hard I try.

The Metropolitan line was delayed, so I couldn't catch my train for about 10 minutes. Then, because of the delay, while I was on the train they changed it to a fast train instead to make up for the delays. Well, that's great for people who need to get beyond Northwick Park, but for those of us who need to get off there, we can't get to our stop now. Bollocks.

I got to fashion though, and wished I hadn't. It's definitely my least favorite class. I don't even like the professor now. We had to make a mood board representing a trend for this Spring/Summer, and I chose bright intermixing of patterns. She stopped at each person and questioned them about their trend, and when she got to me she just completely ripped me apart. She said it wasn't focused, that I needed to pick a specific type of pattern because I was showing both floral prints and geometric prints and she didn't see what my message was. I told her, "That's the trend though, the fact that you can now mix the two together. You can mix together any patterns you want," but she wasn't having it. Fine. But THEN, some girl in the class presents the same exact trend as me and she completely eats it up! I was so angry. I am so happy Jordan is in that class though, because otherwise I'd go crazy.

I do love making mood boards though, so I came back and made one for myself of just all looks for this season that I love. What I hate about myself when I'm buying clothes is that I never buy things I like. I know that doesn't make sense. Let me explain. From a fashion career perspective, I love when designers present fun ideas. I love bright colors and patterns and shapes and colors. Fashion is supposed to be fun. You would think that reflects in my wardrobe, but I literally wear black everyday. I barely own colors at all. I hate it! I just like getting a lot of versatility out of my clothes, because I do buy higher quality clothing, so I figure if I'm spending the money on it I want it to be something that won't fall apart and I won't hate in a few weeks. This leads to me just buying neutral color clothing that I find so boring. I'm hoping this mood board, which is so filled with color and things I love, will inspire me to buy clothing like that instead.

To make my day completely about clothing, I washed all my clothes in the bathtub. It hurt my knees and back so much, but it didn't cost me 15 pounds at least. They're finally all dried like two days later.

SATURDAY

SUCH an awesome day, despite having to wake up at 5:30.

We had an ISA excursion to Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle. I absolutely fell in love with Stratford-upon-Avon. It felt so English. London is just a big city, it feels like other big cities. Stratford-upon-Avon had that suburban English town feel. I can definitely see myself living there. It has some busy city-like streets, but it still has so much nature in it. The coolest part of it is fulfilling my English major nerd dreams and seeing Shakespeare's house, where he was baptized, where his family lived, and even where he went to school. Although they completely made Shakespeare's home a cheesy tourist spot, it was cool to be able to say I've been there.

Then we went to Warwick Castle. It was so beautiful. They opened up the door from the entrance area and you just catch the first glimpse of the castle and melt. It's so different to see something like that in person. We climbed to the top of the castle, and walked along the top of the different towers. We saw a torture room, where they have a little hole in the corner that they used to fold people up in and leave them there to die. We saw the gardens where they have a ton of peacocks, and I tried to make friends with one but it ran away from me. My favorite spot there was a "sex and scandal" tour, where you saw mannequins and read all about the different people who would hang out in the castle and all their love affairs and secrets. Winston Churchill's mom was apparently quite the tramp.

 Shakespeare's home, and me in front of it.

TODAY

I'm doing pretty much nothing all day today. I was going to go to the library and start writing my marketing paper, but apparently all the books I need are at the library on the Harrow campus, and I was not making the journey there today. I'm just going to go in early on Tuesday before my marketing class and maybe stay a little later after to get my sources, and try to write most of it Wednesday. I really want to have it done before I go to Morocco (which is this Thursday!!!)

In a little bit though, some friends and I are going to go to a pub by Trafalgar Square to watch the Superbowl. We're getting there ridiculously early so we can actually get a table to watch instead of having to stand up the whole time. Even though I have no interest in the Superbowl this year at all, because I have absolutely no strong feelings to the Packers or Steelers in either direction, I'd feel like a complete traitor to America if I didn't watch it.