High Tea and The Start of Another Week

Hello again,

This last week brought a lot of fun. We got to experience the English tradition, High Tea at The Gore Hotel. It was a blast! We all got dressed up and went to this amazingly fabulous old hotel. Everything seemed to be accented with gold, there were candles everywhere and the wait staff was great. We got there not really knowing what to expect but as soon as they set down the pots of tea the trays of food followed. Oh. My. Gosh! It was amazing! They gave us 4 plates with 3 different levels of different sweets and sandwiches. Everything was so proper and tasty we all felt a little out of our elements but it was a blast. I ate waaaaaaaaaay too much, but it was so good! Their tea specialty is a scone that you split in half and put jelly and a large dollop of cream on each top. It was so rich but so fantastic. It was definitely one of the best things I have tasted so far.

This last weekend it was welcome back weekend at Imperial College, which is the college we are associated with. We got to go to the pub and their little dance club for a small cover and spend the night there with all the British students. Let me tell you, these are some smart kids! We were standing in the back of the pub area and saw a group of kids playing some sort of drinking game but in the middle of the table someone had set their magazine down that read, I Science. And Lindsey also heard a kid talking about one of the classes they were taking this spring, it was Fluid Mechanics.... I don't even know what that would mean. But anyways, we had a great time. It turns out British college students are pretty interested in getting to know Americans. We spent the rest of the night dancing in the little dance club area and the music really brought me back. We danced to some Backstreet Boys and some other great older hits.

Yesterday was an amazing and quite spontaneous day! Alyssa, Karen, Lindsey and I set out after a short time at Petticoat Market to go and ride the London Eye. Well when we finally figured out the tube station and the changes we had to make to get there (because on Sundays only like half the tubes run) we walked up to the London Eye ticket center only to see that this week is the only week out of the year that it is closed.. haha. But don't worry, we ended up going to the London Sea Aquarium and that was absolutely fabulous. We got to see a bunch of sharks, turtles and seahorses. We ended the day with some dinner on Kensington High Street which is just down from our flat. We found an amazing and cheap Chinese place. It was almost just like China Star haha.

Classes have begun again for this week. Today's discussion consisted of British stereotypes and American stereotypes. It was completely fascinating hearing these things from a British perspective. I also learned the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain. This is good for all of you that are coming to visit so write this down:
Great Britain = England, Scotland and Wales
United Kingdom = England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Alright that is all for now, we are going to a dinner and play in Piccadilly Circus tomorrow night, so I'll have much more to tell soon!

Love!