Today was so fun and it was such a beautiful day outside. After staying up watching the football game, (although all the girls left at about 2 in the morning including me), we got up at 9, ate breakfast and decided to spend the day locally in Richmond. We decided to avoid Central London on 9/11 just to be safe so we first walked to Kew Gardens in Richmond. The Gardens is about 2 miles away, and we just wanted to see how much it was and whether it was an easy walk. The Gardens have a palace, botanical gardens, observatory tower, Queen Charlotte's Cottage, and a lot more to do, so we didn't go in that morning because we knew we were going to need a full day to explore that area. Instead, we all went back to campus to get dressed up to go to Tea Time at an art gallery nearby. My roommate found the place and tea time starts around 2:30 everyday and people take actual breaks to get tea. We went to the Wallace Art Collection, and the price included entrance to the entire gallery and the tea time. It was really fancy so all of us dressed nicely. Emelia, our roommates, and I went straight to eat first, and it was the best experience. It was in a beautiful room that had a glass ceiling and each person got an individual kettle of tea of any flavor we wanted. I had a strawberry tea that was so amazing. We all got to try one another's, and if we wanted another one, the server would give us one. I'm glad I went because I think I'm really starting to get into tea, which was a goal of mine. With the tea the server also gave each of us a 3-tiered tray of finger foods. The bottom plate had four sandwiches: salmon, egg, chicken, and ham. They were all so good and were decent sized, which we didn't expect. The second plate had a raisin scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam, and it was to die for. Just the cream was worth it. The top tier had three desserts: a lemon meringue pie, a chocolate orange mousse cake, and another pink cake thing that I don't know what it was. Everything was so good and we spent about an hour and a half just drinking tea and talking and it was absolutely amazing and so much fun. After we finished, we explored the rest of the place. The gallery was in a house owned by the Wallace family, and they were basically just a rich couple that liked collecting a lot of random things and dedicated a room to their house based on what they collected. They had one room full of swords and armor, a room just for things owned or given to King Louis XIV, a room full of medieval art, Dutch art, etc. The rooms were so gorgeous and it was interesting to just hear how the family obtained all of what they collected.
After all that, we went back to the Tube to get back to campus. None of us were really hungry to eat dinner, but we got something small because we knew we would be hungry later. Then some people needed to buy stuff at Tescos, so I accompanied them just for the walk. Some people in our WNE group were getting upset at others because cliques apparently are forming, but as usual I'm out of the loop so I don't know what's really going on. Apparently some people were going to a club but didn't tell the other half of our group, so the other half of the group got mad? Either way, people are out tonight, but I started Harry Potter 7 so I am very content with that. Tomorrow I think I am going to the Doctor Who Museum and Shop with the girl I met at the boat party, then visiting the very exciting Imperial War Museum and Churchill's War Rooms while others are taking a walking tour of street art. The laziness of people here though is still surprising. We invited all the other girls to Tea Time today, but they were too tired and said that they needed to take a nap. I use the phrase 'you can sleep when you're dead' a lot, although people aren't getting that yet. Have a good night :)
The three-tiered tray.
Strawberry tea
Part of the House
The outside of the Wallace House
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