Stroud

Hi Guys!

Today was a big driving day. Well not exactly for me, because not only am I hopeless with this whole opposite side of the road thing, I also never learned how to drive a manual car. Trust me, it's the first thing I'm going to learn how to do when I get home...well maybe not first, since I've got a pesky little thing called law school, but definitely second! 

We took a taxi to meet Jes, which took about an hour and a half. Then hopped into a car for another 4 hours to get to Stroud, Jes' hometown. All I can say was my butt was so sore from sitting that long! I was nice and let mom sit in the front like the good daughter I am. But I can't complain too much because we had some epic car-eoke where even mom sang along! I know!!!

We made it to Stroud and the first thing we did was meet Mumma Bailey (Jes' mom) at the local ice cream shop. Here they have a field called the Common, where it's literally nationally owned land and you can let your cattle and horses graze freely. Usually we learn in school that the problem of the commons is a bad thing, because then nobody takes care of it or that it get's used up too fast because people get greedy. Apparently that's not really a thing here. Small town life? Also, a little bit weird to eat ice cream next to cows. But trust me when I say that was the freshest ice cream I have ever had. I fear that I'm doomed and will never eat ice cream again when I get home! (Weeeelllll maybe not never, since I said the same thing when I went to Italy and yet my fridge was fully stocked with dairy deliciousness both law school semesters.)

After our ice cream we walked around Stroud on a quintessentially English path. Mom was obsessing over the flowers and the English gardens that everyone had, while I couldn't get over the thatched roofs. I mean it's a roof made of straw! How odd. But Mumma Bailey said that they only have to get replaced every 20 years, which already beats the tiles that mom had to replace on our roof back in LA. 

This is Jes always being half a mile ahead of us on the walk. She doesn't know about leisurely strolls, despite my best efforts to teach her.

We are making faces because the moms keep stopping our walk to talk about plants. I think they've already totally bonded only two hours into this road trip. This could prove to be a very dangerous combo, since moms always have the most ammunition against their daughters...

Obviously as you see in this photograph, none of our national secrets were spilled. Got about a week left for that to happen. Wish me luck, and mom if you're reading this, please keep the embarrassing stories to a minimum yeah? Well, actually there's probably not that many since I'm the perfect child ;)

I don't think there will ever be a time when I'm not totally excited by farm animals, and there are lots of farm animals here. Sheep, cows, HORSES. It may not smell the best, but let me tell you, it's just so exciting! I'm like a little child and run up to the gate and call out the them. So far, only the cows took the bait with my mooing...gotta work on by bhaaas and neighs.

We walked all the way to Frampton canal. From our viewpoint you could see Wales off to the left but it was too far to get a good shot on camera. The water didn't look too bad, as there were people paddle boarding and leisurely laying on their houseboats.

We ended our walk at the pub where we went for dinner. The food was AMAZING. I'm not exaggerating, mom got minted lamb on top of mash. I'm not crazy about lamb, but I almost stole her dish it was that good and so fresh. Here they make mashed potatoes and mix it with cabbages, which sounds odd but is really typical British food and way tastier than expected. However the best part of her dish was the gravy, it was this rich Sherry lamb broth sauce that was "rounded and had depth." (So says Mumma Bailey). Honestly, it was good and I stole more bites from my mom than I'll probably admit to. Not that my meal wasn't equally good, I had chicken and brie sandwich with homemade jam. So, yummy. If I thought the food in London was fresh, the food here absolutely blew me away. 

However, the very best part of the day was realizing that I'm staying with PONIES. Oh my god guys, I'm in 7th heaven. We are living on a side house in a farm and the hosts were so kind to let me meet their ponies. My whole day was made! Literally I never wanted to leave. The kids were telling me all about their competitions. They actually have a British version of western games (which I totally would have done had I had that option back at home!). Gymkhana is what it's called over here. The kids also get to take their horses out and on the rolling hills and race them home across the commons. 

I wonder if these kids know how fabulous their lives are. I'm trying not to be too jealous, but I am definitely pretending that I live here and that these are my ponies that I get to ride and take care of and that's my ranch backyard. Maybe after a few years at a firm I can get a little horse property with a ring. Life goals am I right? 

Getting ready for lots of silly adventures. 

Love you all,

Carolyn

Westminster Abbey And Windsor Castle

Hi guys!

Today was a day of W's. Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle. I actually woke up early today, because we had a lot of ground to cover, I know, I was up by 8 am. Oh the horror of getting up early on vacation!

Westminster Abbey was nice, but so crowded that it took away the magic of someplace special like that. St. Margaret's church is right next to it, and while we were waiting in line I popped in there and actually liked it way better, it had the right feel of good energy with a bit of crispiness in the air.

You can't take pictures inside the church, but it was exactly what you'd expect to see. Lots of graves of kings and queens, the famous unknown fallen soldier grave that all the princesses leave their wedding bouquets on top of, golden alters, stained glass windows. It was beautiful. I did get to walk the coronation walk! I pretended that I was getting knighted there. Yes, I realize I'm a girl and a coronation is about becoming king or queen, but being a knight sounds way cooler and being royalty sounds like too many rules.

Just embracing the public transportation life, mom and I caught the train to Windsor station and walked to the castle. Between Kensington and Windsor, this castle is totally where I would want to be. It was way fancier and nicer. I actually got to see some very famous portraits of Queen Victoria and Albert and Henry VII. I never ceased to be amazed when I get to see something in real life that I only saw pictures of for years in history books and university lessons. Every time I'm like, woah, this is right there. Especially if it was an art piece that I had to write about or analyze, because that means I stared at it for hours picking apart why the placement of the hands resembled power and humility, when in all reality it's probably just because the painter wanted it that way or the person simply was standing that way and no thought went into it at all but I had to come up with 500 intellectual words about it. Don't tell my old art history teacher that though, every apple was a metaphor and she'd be horrified if she ever read this.

The town was adorable, so mom and I walked around going into shops here or there and looking around. Sometimes to escape the heat (poor mom burns so easily while I was doing everything to soak up the sun). Sometimes because we just wanted to play around with all the hats!

Did you realize that these little things go for about $200 each! Like what the heck! Who knew a hat could cost so much. They were so silly I couldn't help but make faces. However, I do kind of want to go to a posh British event now and wear one of this hats. We decided the last one that covered half my face was the best look for me, however I'll not look into it too much that my mom liked the one the covered my face the best! Lol! Here I thought I was passable in terms of looks.

To finish off our perfectly sunny day in Windsor, mom and I got gelato and ate our ice cream walking along the Themes River. There were so many swans and ducks out we got so distracted by the birds and didn't end up walking very far. I guess that's being present though right? Or just being a bit lazy after being on our feet all day long.

We had a long journey home but finally made it back around dinner time. The great part about getting home at 8 is that the sun doesn't set until 9:30 so you hardly notice that it's late at all! Seriously, I could use this amount of daylight in LA, it fakes me out all the time here. I'm going to have to say bye to my tiny apartment in Shoreditch. I can't believe this month and a half flew by! Like way faster than I was ever expecting. But I'm also excited for this epic road trip to come with Jes, her mum, and my mom. We've got a bit of a drive tomorrow, so the blog might be short, but stay tuned for all the adventures!

Lots of love,

Carolyn

A Day Of Decadence

Hi Family! 

Mom was pretty fed up with the tube, so we actually took a red double-decker bus today. Surprisingly Mom loved the bus! She says it was because she could see the city while we were driving around and because it wasn't so hot. Honestly, I think there's more characters that get on the bus rather than the tube, but I guess it didn't really matter at this point since I'm travelling with someone else. Plus on this bus ride over we sat with a preschool! I literally had the best time seeing London from their eyes, as things like birds flying over statutes or random advertisements had them tittering in awe. Anyways, we decided to start our morning off at St. Paul's Cathedral. 

 We walked around in the gardens. The cathedral itself wasn't open, since they were in some service (what is this? A cathedral actually used for prayer instead of tourism? Blasphemy!) so we just enjoyed our surroundings.

Since there's definitely no drought here (are you sick of me complaining about the rain yet?) the flowers are just out of this world. They're so vibrant and big. I absolutely love this color!

Mom started getting pretty artsy with her shots. 

Then we did the best thing ever. We had high tea in London! Yup, since I couldn't put together a Mother's Day gift in time due to finals, I told her I'd take her out to high tea in London. I am so glad that I did. We went to Bea's of Bloomsbury because they could totally accommodate my nut and fish allergy (which was awesome and meant I could eat everything on my tray!). Let me run you down this insane menu. Sandwiches were avocado and dill, hummus and roasted aubergine, pastrami and mustard, and egg salad. Then the next course was an English scone with homemade strawberry jam and clotted cream. Finally desserts were brownies, blondies, a red velvet cupcake and a strawberries and cream cupcake. I almost ate everything, but then had to pack up most of my desserts for later because I thought if I ate any more my stomach would burst. Oh and of course we had proper English Breakfast tea. Simply couldn't have anything else could we? It was delicious and mom and I just sat there for about two hours munching and chatting away. She even posed for pictures! I felt like I was a kid at a tea party. Really, we should do high tea in LA, it's just so much fun and a great way to pass the afternoon. 

We then made our way across town to the British Museum. I have to say, I feel like the more I travel the more things start to look the same. Museums are great but sometimes they just have all the same stuff, or you've seen a better collection of what they have. Well, the British Museum absolutely blew me away. I've been to Egypt, but the Egyptian collection here was fabulous! Maybe, dare I say, better than the one in Egypt? Which started a fierce debate between me and my mom about whether or not this collection should be a permanent one in the British Museum or some of these pieces really should be given back to Egypt since it is their heritage. I have no problems with travelling artifacts but I kind of don't like how soooo much of this is just permanently here. What mom and I did agree on though, was that the top pieces of the Parthenon really should be put back on the Parthenon rather than housed in this museum, especially since the Parthenon is still standing. After walking into that collection though, I can finally say that I have seen both pieces of the Parthenon, albeit that it only took me 10 years to get to the other one. Mom was obsessed with the Rosetta stone housed here, which was super cool, but I was more into the Assyrian collection. I loved their style and mythical creatures more. We got a good look at a bunch of Ancient Greece and Rome artifacts, passed through the mummies, examined King Henry III's library (including all of his weird taxidermy and coin collections) and finally called it a day around the Asian collections. Here are a few pictures I snapped:

Exhausted, we made our way back to my apartment and had a little nap before watching Love Island (a totally hilarious and trashy British version of the Bachelor that I got my mom hooked on) and eating our desserts from high tea. Like I said, a day of decadence. I definitely am going to bed on a full belly tonight!

Love you lots,

Carolyn

Down In The Borough

Hi Everybody!

Today was a rough one at first, not going to lie. Mom got a call from the office at 3 am to do some work, and let's just say that me getting up after three hours of sleep is not pretty. On the one had, I had time to write blogs, on the other I was the biggest grumpy cat out there and there was no stopping me. So after a while, I went back to bed and then mom and I had a late start to our day.

First, we went to Borough to get pancakes from that place I went to when I was sick! Trust me when I say the waiter was very concerned about our totally silent table. I mean, literally I was non functional until I had a belly full of forest berry pancakes with clotted cream and a nice big latte. Poor mom. Poor waiter. At least we were quiet restaurant-goers?

Afterwards we went to Shakespeare's Globe!

Mom kept stopping along our river walk for pictures, so here's more of my face!

Remember that market Tanja and I found. Well it was on the way to Tower of London so obviously even though we were insanely full, mom and I found nice French cheese (Laious), freshly baked sourdough bread, strawberries, and grapes. (I'm fast fowarding a bit, with the pictures, but isn't this the most European dinner you can think of? And honestly we were so full afterwards)

We even found Rainer cherries in the market and mom could not get over how expensive they were ($28.80/kilo) She said she literally bought a carton for $4 back at home before she came here. Apparently they're from Washington and boy does that pricing show! On the one hand, Borough Market is perfect if you want anything from Europe - Spanish meats, French cheese, you name it. On the other hand, something from America is a less than ideal purchase.

Tower of London was next!

Unfortunately you can't take pictures of anything in there, so you've just got my words. First off, you had to be elite to get executed at the Tower of London, so actually only 6 people were executed there, everyone else got shipped off down the river. Second, it was partially a palace, but a not very fancy one when you think about palaces. Third, at this time period people were obviously clueless and discovering other parts of the world. So they'd bring home animals, like cute little lion cubs from Africa, and then realize that lions are actually dangerous and you shouldn't have kept them there, so they locked them in the moat. So, in the tower of London, you had a moat zoo. There was a polar bear who could go fishing in the Thames River because he was tied to a long rope. The British apparently didn't learn from their first mistake and continued to keep lions at the Tower of London for over 200 years (with the lions finally being moved to a zoo in 1832). Uncaged monkeys roamed around. Ostriches were brought over. If you're thinking this sounds like a bad set of jumanji, you're totally correct. People literally died all the time because these animals weren't cared for properly (usually because the British didn't know how) or because humans were clueless as to the actual nature of these "pets." I mean, literally a lady died because she was petting a lions paw. Um lady, where are your survival skills? You don't have to actually know a lot about a lion to be able to look at it and think hmmm big scary predator, maybe I shouldn't pet it like a little house cat. All I can say is I'm glad those animals are no longer roaming around in that Tower.

The one animal that is still left is the ravens. There's a superstition that if the ravens leave the Tower of London then London will fall. Well, these sneaky pete Brits clipped the ravens' wings so they never can leave. I'm not really sure that's how fate works people, and usually the Fates get really pissed when you try to cheat them. Also, where's the fun in the superstition if you cheat at the game? It was cool to be around so many ravens though, I don't think I've seen a lot of them before.

Finally, we waited in line for forever but we got to see the crown jewels. So. Much. Bling. I mean seriously, I think my sunglasses were needed for so much sparkle. Like all the coronation dishes were totally elaborate gold with figures and designs. They had a bunch of unicorns with beards on the dishes which I thought was hilarious. Then you've got the crowns, which are more like hats that all the various queens and kings wore. It was a good idea to have unisex head-wear, but also, I think I'd prefer a tiara thank you very much, they're just so much prettier. I saw that famous diamond that's literally the size of a rock you find on the floor. I wanted to take it, but mom said no being a total buzz kill. hehehe just kidding mom, I value my life more than that diamond so it wouldn't have been worth it anyways.

We walked around until closing time exploring and then made our way home. Jes came over! So we had a lot of good laughs (mostly at my expense). See what I mean? My mother condoned this behavior.

I'm counting on you Mumma Bailey (Jes' mom) to even the odds when we go on our countryside trip, because I was totally outnumbered for dinner. We stayed up way to late and giggled most of the hours away. Guess a day can really turn around after all.

Love you guys,

Carolyn

Back To See The Queen

Hi guys!

Now that mom's in town it's time for being a tourist part II. I informed the Queen of my return arrival, since she forgot to open the gates the first time I came in June. She promised to have the gates opened for me, but somehow, Mr. Body Gaurds with Machine Guns didn't get the memo and barred me from entry, again! How dare they, Her Majesty will not be happy when she finds out. Alas, for the second time in a row, I was stuck being a tourist outside the palace. At least we got some pretty pictures! (Next time though, I'm going to be walking through those doors as an honored guest and be given an apology for not being let in the first two times I came here)

Mom tried her best to get a picture of me in front of the gate with the guard "putting on a show" (ie marching) but she instead got an artsy insta pic, with a barely visible guard...new profile pic?

The Wellington Arch also had pretty gates that matched my outfit, so a picture was a total must!

Mom and I then walked to Hyde Park and ambled through the gardens. We had pizza by the Serpentine and really enjoyed the breeze. Scratch that, mom really enjoyed the breeze while I froze my butt off. That didn't stop me from getting soft serve ice cream in the park though! We also watched a pair of ducks protect their babies from a heron (don't worry this time the duckies won!).

Making our way to Kensington Palace we came across Albert's memorial. I made a comment about how highly he must have thought of himself, but then my mom informed me that actually his wife Queen Victoria had it built for him. But still this is the epitome of pomp. 

Like look at all that gold and religious stuff surrounding it. I mean...was this all really necessary?

I did find a portrait of myself from a previous life, as a queen of course heheh. Actually this was really interesting. Each corner of the memorial represented a different continent (I think they might not have figured out the last three lol). So they had Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Each statute was some human riding a beast, so for the Americas it was wild buffalo or Africa had a camel. Obviously Asia had an elephant. Very intriguing, but still a weird thing to memorialize. 

We actually went into Kensington Palace this time, which was home to Queen Victoria as a child. It was pretty cool! My favorite pieces were the tiaras. Poor Queen Victoria though, her mother was so paranoid she would be murdered that she had this insane rules and practically lived under her mother's thumb. When she ascended to the throne at 18, her mother tried to usurp the crown from her! Like come on, how cliche could her mother get? Obviously Victoria quashed that pretty quick, but man what a suckish awakening to royal life. All I can say is, I might joke about being a princess, but I'm so glad that I am not. It's way to much drama. Plus I'm a rather easy target with my food allergies and asphyxiation as a mechanism for death sounds less than ideal.

After Kensington Palace my mom and I got dinner with really old family friends who were in London for the day. They were so excited to see my mom! So I just sat back and enjoyed the Persian food. It's not every day that your mom is way cooler than you, so I let her have her moment. Just kidding mom! It was a pleasant evening (despite their screaming child...trust me the teacher in me was itching for some discipline, I was like your 3's will be out of control if you can't contain the 2's. But who am I to judge, I only managed a classroom of 30 toddlers ;) ). Anyways, that's all for now.

Love you lots,

Carolyn