The British Museum: much less boring than expected

I've lived in London for over a year and a half but don't have much in the museum-department to show for it. But my great-aunt ("the academic", as my grandfather used to call her) more or less made me go to the British Museum so I could see the Greek Elgin Marbles and also the Rosetta Stone.

To quote her, "The English were great thieves in their day." Indeed.
We had a great time - thanks Auntie Chuckie!

Just some everyday sights

The other day there was a fire drill in my (11 floor) building so we were all outside for awhile. My office is right on the Thames and I sat on the steps of the Tate Modern Museum and looked over the Millenium Bridge to St Paul's Cathedral, and took this. Not so bad.



Walking home from the Tube the other evening, I took this pic of the church across the street from my house. (You'd almost never know it's in East London).

Easter

Here are the Easter baskets I made for Billy and Rosie, Pete's niece and nephew who are deprived English children growing up in a country that doesn't do Easter baskets!


OK not so deprived. Here's how I made out.

On the buses

I love getting to know London. But without a car, I'm pretty much at the mercy of London public transport. I've spent a lot of time especially in the past 8 months or so taking purposefully long routes on buses, for fun.








Here's an example of just some of the routes I've taken home after work (routes in red). Sometimes I'll take as many as 5 buses to get home and see some things in between. Click the picture to see it bigger.



And here's a wider perspective on my journey home.


I do the same thing with trying out shopping areas and getting home from train stations etc. While Pete likes to get from A to B with as little to-do as possible, this city still holds a lot of newness for me and I think it's really fun exploring it.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day in the UK is two months earlier than at home.


Last Sunday we took Pete's parents out for ice cream to that place we love in Ilford. Then walked around a little, went back to their place, played a board game and had a nice dinner provided by my darling boyfriend.












Happy Mother's Day Carol!

Cambridge

On Saturday we went to Cambridge, which is only about 50 minutes up the M11 (highway) from where we live. I can't believe it's so close and easy to get to but I hadn't been there yet.

My friends from Gordon, Charis and Seulgi, live there with their 3 ADORABLE kiddos. It was great to see them again and have them show us their home and around Cambridge. It's a beautiful and quaint old place. And Pete and I liked pretending we were "on holiday".



And a short video.
Check out the Noah's accent, 5 year old child of American parents! And how cute Maliya is too.

TAKES

Pete's cousin Carl runs a production company that shows "A Fine Selection Of Short Films From Around The Globe" the last Wednesday of every month. It's called TAKES and we love it. It's in a really cool old pub in North London, in a great room above the bar. They introduce the films and often some writers or actors from the films are there. I think Pete mostly likes it because they sell candy.

It's dark in there so my phone can't really take pictures, but I tried to find some online of the pub itself. They also do some music events in the function room so one pic is of that. I want to live in this room.



Next time you're in London, make sure you visit the North London Tavern.

Quiz night

Our church does an annual quiz night, and this was my first one. Our buddy Spencer came along too. If you add up our three ages you'd get about the average age of most of the people there.

But, it was a super fun time. The Brits are really into their quizzes and pride themselves on their trivia knowledge!











I asked Pete to take a pic of me and Spencer, and this is what he got.






Course, this is the one I got of Spence.

















How cute is my boyfriend.

I will never understand some things about England

THESE ARE THE HOT DOGS
(!!!!)

Bye bye Pete

(Not MY Pete!) We said goodbye on Sunday to a guy from Pete's youth club at church - named Pete - who is going to Korea and Japan for 6 months. He's got no plans, just going! Crazy kid.

(My) Pete and I found an ice cream place on Saturday that was awesome, which is kind of a rarity around here, so we went back on Sunday with some of the rest of them for a final hurrah for (the other) Pete.














Ice cream numbs of the pain of goodbye ...