Woop-Gobbles

     I had a very educational weekend, or rather, made a very valiant effort to give myself brain food.  Chris (the british version) and I went to the Natural History Museum on Friday because he had off work (as did everyone else), despite the crowds (because everyone had the same idea) we had a great time going into the vault and looking at all of the gems and reading their stories.  After that we skipped the dino exhibit, which had about an hour wait, and looked at all the giant recreations of different prehistoric and modern animals.  Chris had a lot to say about it all, come to find out he's a closet reader of random science magazines (cough, nerd, cough).  Afterwards we went and ate at the most wonderful English version of a Mexican restaurant that I've ever been to.  I was the happiest little California girl in the world at that moment, steak fajitas... delicious.  Next day we met up to go to the Science Museum where I read a bunch of stuff about rocketry that I'll never remember and then moved on to the "into the future" exhibit where I got to play computer games against little kids... much more my style.  Did you know that it's now possible for men to be pregnant?  Well... it's still extremely risky so they don't do it, but still... POSSIBLE!  Had Wagamama's for the second time in a week for dinner... so delicious.  Earlier in the week Andreas and I met up with our friend (well, originally his friend Phoebe from their church) and we had Wagamamas and then went to her parents house for tea and board games.  I got my bunz kicked at boggle by a 16 year old... how embarrassing.

     Easter day I woke up at 2pm and Paul came in on his way to the shower to wish me Happy Easter... after that I sat around feeling like it didn't feel like Easter at all, until I talked to my parents and saw the kids and their Easter presents.  After that I went to a really nice service at HTB (originally planned on going to Westminster Abbey as well but clearly that didn't happen).  Next morning I woke up intending to go running for the first time in 3 weeks, opened my window and it was SNOWING!!!  I've never woken up to it snowing outside my window before, I ran down the hall like an idiot knocking on Chris and Paul's doors telling them to look outside (Paul is from Philadelphia and really didn't care... but Chris enjoyed it).  That didn't stop us though, (well, it stopped us from running, but that's irrelevant) Paul, Chris, Liz and I went out walking around the city all day, so fun!

     We all spent the night in (except for Liz who had to work) and Tuesday Paul and I decided to go to the John Soane museum.  He is a famous architect, best known for his work with the Bank of England.  He was an antiquarian to the extreme and collected a lot of old sculptures, paintings by Hogarth and also had an extensive library (jealous!).  We walked around the Holborn area and ended up down the street at the Lincolns Inn which is the first of the four Inns of Court, established sometime around but before 1422.  Basically a very prestigious group of lawyers and their students.  To my luck, there were tulips of all colors planted all over the gardens of the property.  Beautiful!!
    This picture is Lincoln's Inn... originally we thought it was a church but there is a church for the members of Lincoln's Inn behind me.  In the past most of the barristers (lawyers) lived inside the building so there was a church down the street that they could go to.
     We came back from our day out and got ready for Liz's 20th birthday party.  We had SUCH a good time!!!  We bought her a cake and sang happy birthday in the kitchen before heading to the Absolut Icebar.  The entire bar is made of ice, the cups are ice, the walls, everything.  You wear these amazing ponchos inside and you're only allowed to stay inside for so long because of the temperature (surprisingly it didn't FEEL that cold... unless you're an idiot like me and don't realize that there are gloves attached to the poncho so you try to keep hold of your ice drink barehanded... stupid).  Here is Chris and I being excited about our Absolut drinks.
      We then went to a bar called Candy Bar before heading to the Roxy, where we spent the rest of our night dancing away.  Here's a picture of "the gold team" doing what we do best: acting ridiculous.  
     Today was a nothing day, I read a lot, got my FAFSA stuff done with dad and, most exciting of all, booked a 7 night cruise to Greece for May!!!  Paul is going to fly out and go with me and I'm SO excited to see him!  Liz and Erica also booked a room, it was only $150 a person.  Basically it's more of a traveling hotel than a cruise in that food and housekeeping are not included.  However, the ship docks every day around 9am and doesn't leave until somewhere between 2 and 4am the next day so you essentially have the freedom to do as you will everywhere you go... I anticipate it being a fabulous trip, we see a different island every day!  Plus, we're going to fly to Athens a night or two before the cruise leaves so that we can see the mainland.  Other than that, Jenni and I leave for the Loire Valley on Monday and in the meantime I'm enjoying exploring London and reading at my leisure!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!!