So this week was pretty much awful, with one awesome day tagged onto the end.
I started getting sick about three weeks ago, right before I left for Edinburgh. The running around in cold weather and lack of sleep made it worse, but by last week I was pretty much better... some coughing, but I could fall asleep and night and I wasn't driving my classes crazy. Then Paris did me in, and I got progressively worse through the weekend. By the time I got back to London, I was walking death. I haven't been able to sleep through the night because I'm choking, which isn't so great when I have to get up for class the next day.
So, on Wednesday I was feeling miserable and stressing about the work I have to do and my trip to Rome next week, so I decided I needed to see a doctor. I was pretty crushed that this was the day I had to go, because I had been looking forward to this particular class session all semester (covering the Royal Family in the press). But I also didn't want to die, so I went to a local doctor who gave me some penicillin. The whole medicine thing is very interesting here. You can get a lot of stuff over-the-counter that you can't at home, but all meds at the pharmacy are behind the counter and you have to ask a pharmacist. Doctors, I learned, give you the prescription medication themselves, at the office.
So now, armed with drugs, I was ready for my Fun Friday. After a 2-session make up class, I walked over to the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge (a really posh area where Harrods and Harvey Nichols are). I almost stopped at Harvey Nichols, just to look, because it's such a nice department store and the window displays were pretty, but then I saw "Chloé, first floor; Balenciaga, second floor" and decided not to depress myself.
I had to wait in the lobby of the hotel for my friends to show up for a little bit, but I didn't mind because it was very fancy. When they got there, we headed over to the room where afternoon tea is held. This was a special tea that I read about in Glamour UK (Did I mention that a magazine editor came to talk to my journalism class, and she agreed that my five magazine subscriptions are a career investment? Vindication!). It was called Pret-a-Portea (like pret-a-porter, or ready-to-wear clothes), and all of the little cakes and sweets and things were inspired by designer clothes and accessories. It was sooo cute, and well worth the price tag. Not to mention, it was fancy-schmancy and the waiters put our napkins on our laps for us and everything. Very classy. Unfortunately, I managed to get chocolate on my dress, among some other faux pas... you can't take me anywhere.
Anyway, the menus were super cute and described what each of the little desserts were:
If you can't read it (you can see the hi-res image if you click), the highlights include: Jimmy Choo high heel tuile, Yves Saint Laurent honeycomb supreme with chocolate jelly and pearl croquant, Christian Louboutin "Pigalle" green glitter shoe biscuit with renowned red sole, Prada dark lace Valrhona chocolate creme, Valentino signature red chcolate coat buscuit accessorized with gold buttons.
After tea, the group split up and my roommate and I went to The Strand to see The Taming of the Shrew at the Novello Theater. I was really excited about this, because I had to see Shakespeare in London, and pairing it with afternoon tea made it the perfect British day. I read Shrew sophomore year of high school, so I was pretty familiar with it (but also because 10 Things I Hate About You is based on it... sophomore year English was kind of a mess because my teacher was crazy and fell off the face of the planet). It was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and I was very impressed. There's something you miss when you read it off the page--like, there are a lot of lines that you laugh silently at, because they're witty, but when you see them with stage direction they're laugh-out-loud funny--but they ended it on a weird note. The actors were very good, especially Petruccio, the male lead, but the woman who played Kate either had a Scottish accent or just played the part with one, which was very distracting because everyone else had an English accent (actually, there was one character who affected a Jamaican accent, but it was for a good reason and very funny).
It was nice to do something fun in London, and hopefully I'll have more time for that once my internship starts. I'm only taking a few more trips during the semester (Rome next week for four days, probably Madrid for a short weekend in March, and hopefully Florence over Easter break), but then Holly and I are going on a European adventure when the program ends! :) So I'll have a bunch of weekends here in England, but I'm a little nervous I won't get to do all the stuff I want to. There are loads of touristy things and museums (and day trips, like to Brussels and Stratford-upon-Avon and Waddesdon) that I want to do, and I'm going to have to try hard to squeeze everything in. This way, I can come home and be really pretentious because I'll be so cultured.
XOX
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