Afternoon Tea, Brighton and Fulham Football

My week was pretty average, with a few random activities thrown in so here we go!

Monday we went with my History of London class to the National Portrait Gallery because it's semi-educational but mostly my professor is just incredibly lazy.  Anything he can do so that he doesn't have to do actual work!  Anyway, we saw portraits from the Tudor period and uhh the Stuarts. I didn't really pay attention to that. They literally all look the same. I joked that the artist just painted one face and put the face on everyone else in the portrait.  There is a really great one of Prince William and Harry, it almost looks like a photograph.  The most...interesting portrait was of David Beckham.  It's not a painting or a photo though, it's a video of him sleeping.  It's really odd, but it's David Beckham with his shirt off so I'm not complaining.  And now to the portrait that really matters- Kate Middleton.  If you haven't seen the portrait yet, quick! Google it!  Now let's discuss theories as to how/why the artist botched it so horribly.  Perhaps, the artist was thought to be a decent one but I assume they wouldn't hire just anybody for this.  So that leaves us with either a) the artist hates Kate and/or the Royal Family/Monarchy OR b) someone paid a lot of money for someone to make her look like an old woman with saggy cheeks, eye wrinkles, etc.  I will say her hair looks great!  But that's the only good thing about it. It's truly a disgrace. 

This was the week before midterms, so I decided to get a head start on all the papers I had due.  The majority of my week was spent writing about the Viking Age and the Great Fire.  I thought the whole "study" in study abroad wasn't real!

Thursday my program organized afternoon tea at the Gore Hotel (no apparent relation to Al Gore).  It was awesome!  I was kind of expecting a boring, stuffy afternoon but was pleasantly surprised.  We all got dressed up, which was fun because I don't usually get out of leggings during the week.  We had tea, which turns out-is delicious with sugar and milk, french press coffee (much better than my instant stuff), and cucumber infused water (they are really into that here, although I prefer my water plain).  The best part, of course, was the food!  First they brought out small triangle sandwiches filled with salmon, egg salad, ham and something I couldn't identify with ham.  Then they brought out brownie bites with chocolate on top-so good!  Plain and raisin scones with cream (sweet butter) and jam followed.  Multicolored macaroons came next, I opted for a chocolate one.  And the best part came last- mini eclairs.  I could eat eclairs every single day, so amazing!  This was definitely one of my favorite British experiences and I can't wait to share it with my mom and dad when they visit!

Friday we went to Brighton, which is a coastal town 2 hours directly south of London.  It was very pretty!  We toured the Royal Pavilion, which is a very tacky palace built by George III.  It's pretty neat from the outside, but the inside is covered in oriental decorations and just very overdone.  I was also getting sick of touring royal palaces, so this wasn't really my cup of tea that day.  As usual we were not allowed to take pictures.  After the guided tour, a few of us escaped and went to find lunch.  We had been given a list of restaurants around the pier and I was really looking forward to going to this Mexican restaurant, but as fate would have it it was closed!  So we settled for Thai food.  I had veggie spring rolls with sweet chili sauce and pad thai.  I really enjoyed it!  After lunch we headed over to Brighton beach/pier.  I was most excited to touch the British Channel, bragging rights!  I also picked up a rock for my mom.  It's a family tradition that has been engrained in me since I was little.  The beach is gorgeous!  I'm sure it's better in the summer, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

 
















Saturday we attended a Fulham football match, but first we prepared (or pregamed, rather) like we were in Madison.  We are badgers, no matter what country we are in!  Everyone attending the game went up to flat 5 and we all hung out before leaving for the game.  It was really fun to all hang out, something we don't get to do a whole lot.  I had never been to a football (or soccer) match before and it was a lot of fun!  I mean, I had no idea what was going on in the game and for most of the match I didn't even know which Fulham was!  Luckily, the man next to me knew his stuff so he explained lots of things to me.














The rest of the weekend I slaved away at my midterms...actually I spent a lot of time watching Harry Potter!  Spring break starts Thursday and I'm headed to Italy until March 10!  I will be in Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre and Venice!  So on that note...ciao!