Start of Summer

Today the Ehdaie's flew back to Seattle after spending their holiday as our next-door neighbors! It was so great to see them, catch up, and of course see more of London with them. On Sunday we visited Kensington Palace, the Orangery restaurant, and Kensington Gardens. We've had bizarre weather in London, so while it was pouring rain during lunch, the day ended up being sunny and beautiful. After Kensington, we walked to Notting Hill where we browsed the stalls, people watched, and ate cupcakes from the famous Hummingbird Bakery where I ate carrot cake with the best cream cheese frosting I've ever tasted. 

Also last weekend Mom and Dad surprised Franny and me with seeing the play "War Horse" in the West End. It was an incredible play- from how realistic the horses (mechanical puppets) seemed to the story itself. It was fairly minimal on the stage, no extravagant sets or costumes, just really well performed. So we had a great night out that night, and then another night went out for Indian food with the Ehdaie's. 

School has been far more relaxed this week because we're now on 'summer timetable,' meaning that we have one lesson for either a whole day or a half day with one break in the middle for lunch. It's perfect for all day Art or English but I wasn't loving it when I had all day Maths! Today was nice, though, because for History my class went into London to the Clink Prison Museum at South Bank. We have been studying crime and punishment in Britain through the ages so my teacher organised a trip to one of the first prisons in England; it was really interesting to hear more about the conditions of prisons in the 12th-18th centuries.

We have more very exciting summer plans coming up, so more bientot...

The Orangery

Queen Victoria

Notting Hill