January 19, 2012- A Birthday in London

Me and Benjamin Franklin.  That's who it was named after, right?

Birthday in London! My day started off pretty exciting with...class. But what can you do? I mean, I am on a STUDY abroad. And it's not as bad as in High School where my Birthday always fell on midterms. The best Birthdays are when my Birthday falls on Monday, because then they honor me by giving everyone the day off of school. After class I went with my friends Lyssa and Mikelle to Primark (basically a super cheap version of Forever 21 (both cheap in pricing and quality) and got a new top, and then we went to Herrods, which is the mall to end all malls. It has clothes from straight off the runway, and you’d be hard pressed to try to find anything in the place under like 500 pounds at least. It sells stuff from all the high end fashion houses and I basically didn’t want to even touch anything with my middle-class hands. We talked about it, and I’m pretty sure that my entire outfit I was wearing that day wouldn’t add up to how much a pair of socks would cost from Harrod’s. I found a stunning floor-length pale pink silk dress with crystals all down the dress that was 12,560 pounds. I wanted it so bad, but basically I could either buy that dress (and wear it every freaking day for the rest of my life. Seriously, it was STUNNING), or go to college. I’m still not sure if I made the right choice…
So after that we came back for our religion class, sat around and chatted for a bit, and then had dinner. Dinner was actually pretty good for once. Dinner is always a gamble here. Sometime we get edible stuff and other nights we get awkward diaper Shepard's Pie or poo mayonnaise shrimp. However, and maybe it was in honor of my Birthday, we got corn on the cob and chicken cordon-bleu. Success!

Out with the ladies

Out and about with Benjamin.

After that we got with a group of people to go ride the London Eye for my Birthday. I was really excited to ride it, because that would have made an amazing Birthday. I really wanted to do something that I could only do in London and that would make my Birthday epic. We rode the bus over to the Eye (I LOVE the busses here! They are fantastic and I love being able to be above ground and see the city), but when we got to the eye (which was well-lit and looked like it was operating…little British liars) we found out that it has been closed for this whole month for tune-ups or whatever. So lame. So dumb. After that we didn’t really know what to do, so we decided to just go to get something to eat. I really wanted a good milkshake (like one from Sammy’s!), but apparently Europe doesn’t believe in milkshakes…or having shops stay open late. It was only like 8 PM, but basically all the shops we went to were closed. We tried going to a place that sells cookies, cake, desserts, and ice cream and they were all closed! We rode around on the tube for a bit, trying to find a place that was still open and in the station I had fun with Alyssa having a photo shoot. Oh yeah. Birthday bliss.

This is the only picture that really turned out with the cool moving tube in the background.
And unfortunately, I do not know what I'm doing with my hands.

I decided that asking for a milkshake was too tall of an order for London, so I lowered my sights for a pizookie, but where do they have those in London?! So we went to….wait for it….Pizza Hut. Yep, for my Birthday in LONDON I went to a dang American cheap food place. But before you judge, understand that Pizza Hut here is actually pretty fancy. It’s a sit-down restaurant that sells wine and the such. So Pizza Hut in London equally basically Macaroni Grill back home. Those Britains know how to do something right! We got pizza and basically the equivalent of pizookies. Thank you America! I guess it’s appropriate that I had American food on my Birthday. :)


After that we came back to the center and Alyssa and Mikelle surprised me with a Birthday cake, complete with 22 candles….that were trick candles!!! FREAKING AWESOME!! It was the best thing ever!!! I’ve always wanted trick candles!!! (and by that I mean that I’ve always wanted trick candles when I didn’t know I’d be getting them. It’s just dumb when you already know you’re getting trick candles. No surprise there…and that's kind of an oxymoron. You couldn't really call them "trick candles" either. They'd be something like "non-trick candles" or "not-a-trick candles" or something) Success!!! However, the tricky things wouldn’t stay out and kept flickering back on! Soon the kitchen was filled with smoke and we got really nervous the fire alarm would go off. Another girl rushed over and started throwing the candles in a nearby cup of water. It was just about the funniest thing I’d ever seen. And that made my Birthday the best thing ever.

I think I've gotten more comments about my LOST shirt here at the center than anywhere else.
Ahhhh LOST, how I love you.

Here's a picture of my Birthday cake complete with the cup full of those stubborn candles.

It might sound dumb, but I’m actually really excited to see what this year will hold in store for me, because 22 is my lucky number. I feel like this year is going to stand out or be different or something. We'll just have to wait and see what this year holds in store for me...