tea sets and ferris wheels

so today was straight out of a dream! i had such a great day!
since today is monday we had class today and i loved it! i am so lucky that i seriously love the classes i am taking while i am here. love love love it! it is hard work but i really don't mind. it gives me an excuse to have down time but not feel guilty about not being out and about. so after class i did my laundry for the first time here and got all my reading done for tomorrow. so efficient right? i thought so too.
after that i decided today was the day i was getting my china! my mom got her china as well as christmas china while she was here on study abroad many moons ago and has given me permission to do the same! kind of a fun little tradition we have started :) so before i left for england we researched a couple places and she also gave me the names of where she got her china. so me and my friend chelsea went off china-hunting! first we went to the department store Liberty. I AM OBSESSED. it's like harrods 100 years ago. it's still british and cool but still high end. i'm going back and buying freaking everything. they have the cutest prints in the world and everything just makes you want to cry. i wanted to live there! and their chocolate shop. oh my gosh. it's not quite the overwhelming factor like Harrod's, but it's super exotic and mostly the packaging is ADORABLE. ahhhh!!!!!! i am dying just thinking about it. so that was Liberty. it was awesome.

liberty! i LOVE it!

mom this was for you! it was a store front window that said 'hello london' and its all succulents! 

we decided to keep looking and go to the china store where my mom actually got hers. it was just down the street! on our way there we saw this amazing bakery.. the pastries looked so good! so we decided to go get one. when we walked in, the host asked us if we wanted to be seated and we said yes, not knowing that we really had a choice. when they brought us the menus we saw that they had afternoon tea... complete with scones, clotted cream, jam, and other pastries. could we resist ? NO. it was freaking amazing. all i want to do is eat scones and tea for the rest of my life. i would die happy. seriously though i have been craving another one of those scones all day. haha!

 but anyways we finally made our way to the china shop and it was so cute! what was really crazy is they have all the china that i recognize because it's the exact same stuff my mom bought! it made me miss her so much! i kept saying to chelsea how much i wished she was here to help me because i was super overwhelmed! but i think i figured it all out and i will be going back tomorrow to purchase! i also found the cutest royal albert tea set... it has robins egg blue polka dots and little english roses. super girly but so fun for tea parties! i am to excited!
by then it was dinner time so we hopped on the tube at the famous picadilly circus and it was back to the centre! tonight we had shepards pie! it was great! then everyone just hung out for a while.

i really wanted to do something tonight though, so i got together a group of people and we went on the eye at sunset! (london eye=giant ferris wheel on the river) a lot of people didn't want to go because it was overcast and rainy, but i seriously think that just made it better! it was beautiful!!! to see all the lights... wow! i have to say that big ben and parliament is an amazing sight. i took about 60 pictures of just that! i was on cloud nine! all of us were! it was so funny we were all singing and stuff we were so happy to be in london. we got a lot of weird looks! who cares!
after we got off (it's about a 30 minute ride, which is perfect) some people went home to finish homework, and some of us just walked around parliament and westminster abbey. it was so beautiful. i love london because it's kind of like a mix of new york city and washington dc. it has all the big city stuff, but it also has all the cool government historical landmarks. it was neat to walk around and see a lot of statues of their national heroes. one surprise was the huge statue of abraham lincoln! represent america!!

 

my first of the whole trip of big ben! walking right out of the westminster tube stop! 

it wasn't raining too hard but we walked around forever so we were soaking wet! 

OH i almost forgot!! on our way to the eye we were talking really loud (as americans do) about missionaries and our home wards and whatnot. lo and behold two guys about our age in normal clothes come up to us and say "we are missionaries!" how funny is that!?!? they are serving in the london mission. one of them was from brazil and he is serving in the portuguese speaking mission and the other one was from mexico. he was technically english speaking but he had just been transferred to a portuguese ward. it was so cool! i just wanted to hug them and tell them how much i loved them hahah. i love missionaries. you could tell they were pretty stoked to find members.

so it was a great day!!!!!! i am so happy! i love london! thanks for checking in! much love to all :)