Hey there!
Its me, Diana, and I've finally gotten the hang of this new-fangled contraption called "blogging". I've been trying to muster up all my courage and patience to make a blog; needless to say, its hard work, but it is also very rewarding. Alright-- enough chit-chat! Im here to tell you about my London adventures!
I've been here in London for almost 6 weeks--count them, they are all there-- and my impression of London changes every week! Week one I started trying to emulate the British accent so no one would think I was a riddiculous American. Fail. I stopped trying after one Sunday evening when one of my good friends though it was silly to fake an accent. She was right. Reality checks don't hurt as much if you've already secretly known it was coming. So there, Im using my normal, Texan accent... well, except when Im walking into someone and I feel compulsed to say "Su-rry" in the gutteral, English tone. I think that's gonna stick, even back in America.
Recently I went on a trip to Ireland. We stayed in a tiny town called Tarbert, which has a population of maybe 20 people, one or two eateries, two convenience stores, a ferry, and a hostel. Consequently it was named after the main attraction in the town: "The Ferry" Hostel. More on that later. But essentially, the best part of living in a small town in Ireland is that when people come and hear your accent, POOF, instant celebrity status.
But here's the main part of today's blog: an account of the fun stuff in London we did today. The original plan was to wake up and cook eggs (my favorite breakfast item) with cheese and milk. A recipe I found on google... sad story, last year I realised I never cooked eggs before so I literally google "How to scramble eggs". But, it was rewarding, and I got a "Most Pathetic College Student" badge for my Girl Scout vest. Anyway, I forgot to set an alarm (maybe because I lost my phone...) so I missed cooking breakfast. Frosted Flakes will have to compensate. After breakfast...
I end up spending over 2 hours seeking Jesus in my quiet time, and luckily everyone is not yet up, so I have the common room for myself. I worship by the windows, sing, and cry-- I learned about the violence it takes to be a more-than-zealous follower of Christ. One story got me: There was a group of Chinese believers who fasted for 21 days together because they had not seen anyone raised from the dead in 3 weeks. Do you see that kind of faith? That brought me to my knees-- this cloud of witnesses that has run before us is urging us to run, fight, contend, and battle for the Kingdom of God. This is what fuels me: Jesus and His love for us.
Ready to face the day, I go upstairs and get ready, and Faith comes to my door. We were finally doing it: going to Cecil Court, the inspirational street that Diagon Alley was based on in the Harry Potter series! Its down by Leicester Square: left, straight, left. It was magical to me! Magical in the sense that it was uncrowded. It was very green, and had many old and odd bookshops and antiques, and gizmos galore! I want to go back-- we only parused a bit.
For lunch we headed toward Chinatown, near the SOHO district, hungry for Chinese food. We got distracted by real, glorious pizza. We noticed one of the toppings was corn! My friend Joey Wahlquist told me once that corn is actually the #1 pizza topping in the world: mainly because thats what they put on pizza in China! But we walk with our food and apple juice and its just so crowded that we have to stop! We end up walking towards Oxford Street and find this amazing mall that has PANDA stores (sadly they said no pictures) and a really amazing anime/manga store. If I was still a rabid otaku I would have lost my head and bought everything. I mean... I still wigged out a bit, but restrained myself. The lady who worked there was wearing a Haruhi Suzumiya outfit!
Then we saw a few gamer stores and took pictures.
Faith and I got some really cool dried/crystallized fruit to compensate for our inability to eat the luscious Ben and Jerry's ice cream right next to us. But its good, we are both fasting from sweets and are keeping each other accountable! There was a really cool, albeit touristy shop that had all these cute clothes on sale for 5 pounds each! I got a purple, flowy, romantic, summer dress, and Faith got a stone-blue frock with tribal patterns; very indie. We ended up stopping in front of the London Rainforest Cafe, and also took a look at Ripley's before going into Lillywhites. If you don't know what that is, you will be excited to know that it is like Sports Authority, REI, Academy, and any other mega sports-store on steroids! At 6 stories, this building has EVERYTHING! We tried the He Runs She Runs line of clothing to get some cool gear, which would have cost hundreds in the states, but a few pounds over here!
Basically, we got back to the hostel and I got ready for my internship interview, which I was so nervous about! But Jesus is so good, the woman who interviewed me really put me at ease, and it was very natural. I told her about the British Church I go to and she flipped out, saying it sounded like a band name. Its called the Glorious Undead, and it appeals to the music genre it sounds like. So, I got the internship, praise God! It was so exciting! We ended up making an awesome dinner afterwards, consisting of Italian chicken breast and Caprese salad. It was epic! Then we had to hunker down for homework... still doing it, haha! Wish me luck!
Pip Pip, Cheerio!
Yours,
Diana
