Awesome Birthday Weekend

So not much out of the ordinary happened last week. For the most part it was pretty low key: school, study, dinner, hang out, sleep, repeat. :)

On Wednesday night almost everyone went to the college bar, and after that, most of us headed off to a club to go dancing, but there was such confusion as to what we were doing and where we were going that a few of us left before anyone actually made up their mind (apparently everyone ended up at a foam party until about 2am, I'm kind of glad I left). When I got back I went by Kevin's room (he's not really into dancing in small spaces w/ lots of people, but then again, I don't know too many guys who are into that) because he had my key so he could go pick up his laundry while we went out. Since it was midnight he gave my birthday present. It is a silver necklace w/ a ruby pendant (my birth stone). It's beautiful, and I absolutely love it. :)

So obviously, Thursday was my birthday. I didn't really advertise it though b/c I didn't want it to be a big thing. I just wanted it to be pretty low key. Most people looked on facebook and saw, and it was nice to get so many "happy birthdays" on my wall and in class. :) Like I said, I wanted a pretty low key evening, so I just invited about 8 people out for dinner and drinks. The cider festival is going on at Wetherspoons around England, and so we ate there for the cider, cheap food, and cheap drinks. Plus it was curry night, and pretty much everyone I know beside me likes curry. Lol. We chilled there for about 2 hours and then headed to another local pub called The Free Press and had a few drinks there. Oh, but before we left Wetherspoons, my friend Jesse grabbed some of the balloons that were everywhere and tied them to my wrist. It made me smile. :) At The Free Press, it was again very chill, we just hung out talked, and a few drinks. We left about 10:30 because we all had to be up the next morning for a bus ride to London (another reason i didn't want it to be a crazy night). As we left, two of my 3 balloons were drained by my friends for their helium, and the third one I used as my "birthday candle" and I released it and made a wish. We'll see if it comes true.

So Friday, as I said, we all had to be up for a bus ride to London. We did something called "Legal London" and it was pretty awesome. So we loaded the bus and left about 9, getting into London by 11. We unloaded, and headed to Middle Temple. London has 4 Inns of Courts: Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn. We saw 3 of them. I'm going to try and explain this as best I can, so bear with me. When you practice law in England, you either become a barrister or solicitor, and if you become a barrister, you have to join one of the Inns. You do this after you complete your undergrad (I believe) and before you do any more education. The Inn you join helps pay for your education, and you have to dues. As a student you're also required to attend 12 dinners within the year. Each Inn has their own dining halls, and a lot of barristers have their offices there, and it's literally just down the street from the Royal Courts of Justice. I'm sure I've left something out, but you get the gist.

So the first thing we did upon arriving at Middle Temple was to get a tour of Temple Church, and for any of you who have read the Da Vinici Code, this will be familiar, If you're not, check out this page for some back history: . It was a pretty cool church, and it is shared by Middle and Inner temple. The church was built by the Knights Templar too. In 1608, after many years of renting the land from the monarchy, King James I gave the land out right to the two temples forever in return for their loyalty. After a tour of the church, we got a tour of Middle Temple, and then attended a reception looking down into the dining hall (I had sherry for the first time at this reception. Not something I plan on drinking again). After the reception we were led down to the dining hall and served a 3 course meal (I had cold tomato and basil soup, trout w/ vegetables (although the trout looked like salmon), and strawberries and cream and coffee for dessert. It was all pretty good). I'm just going to say it, the ABA, needs to have something similar to these Inns of Court, b/c they're amazing. Even though the normal members didn't get served, it was still just an amazing room and an amazing opportunity. It would take entirely too long to explain everything about this system to you though, so I won't. :) After lunch we took a "Legal tour" of London. We saw two more Inns, the Royal Courts of Justice (we even got to peak into a few of the court rooms and see everyone in their robes and wigs), and then we went past a shop that actually makes the official robes and wigs for judges and barristers. Yes, judges and barristers still where the robes and wigs, although, now it's just in the Criminal courts, they have been done away with (mostly) in the Civil courts.

After that, we were free to go our own way, or get back on the bus and come back to Cambridge. I think only two or three people came back to Cambridge. Jesse, Kevin, and I had booked a hostel near King's Cross so we went there, checked in, and changed out of our suits. After that we went down to Saint Paul's, walked across Millennium Bridge, and then down along the Thames. For dinner we grabbed some of the stand food and some ice cream, and then we headed to the London Eye. We got Fast Track passes (which was totally worth the extra 10 pounds b/c the line was ridiculous even at 8pm) and basically got on in about 10 minutes as opposed to over an hour. After that we went to the other side of the Thames and went on a boat/bar. I had some pumpkin soup (which tastes nothing like any pumpkin I've had before, but I think that's b/c when I have pumpkin, it's been sweetened), and hung out there until about 11 and then headed back to the hostel. We ended up being split up into two rooms, I was not happy about this considering I had booked us all together, which kind of sucked, but we were only there for sleeping, so it wasn't too bad. Also, the hostel was in the middle of London, literally a block away from Kings Cross, so it was kind of noisy. Oh well. You pay for convenience sometimes.

Saturday we got up and had breakfast at the hostel (it was free, so why not), and then headed to Greenwich Park. Part of the park is going to be used for the Olympics, so they had a big chunk blocked off, but it was still very pretty. We went up to the Royal Observatory and saw the Prime Meridian, and looked in the free museums up there and then headed back into town. They're rebuilding the Cutty Sark (which was badly damaged by a fire a few years ago) and it should be open next year sometime. We went into an old sweet shop and got some chocolate. Then we went to Greenwich market. We ended up eating there because they had so many food stands, and it wasn't just fish and chips. They had crepes, Thai food, Mexican, Ethiopian, and specialty stands. I ended up with some red sausages in ciabatta bread w/ green leaves (it wasn't lettuce) and to drink I had some Horchata (which is kind of like rice milk, but w/ a hazelnut flavor). Kevin got Thai food, and Jesse got essentially a Philly Cheese Steak. After lunch we headed back into London and went to the Imperial War Museum. P.S. This museum used to be an Insane Asylum and the Victorian people (I'm pretty sure that's when this was) used to get dressed up and go there, peer into the cells of the insane people, and watch them in there; it was their entertainment. It is now a museum though, and a pretty interesting one at that. Although, there's not much in there from before WWI which seems kind of strange.

After the museum, we went back to the hostel, where we had left our bags, got changed for the theater that night, went to Kings Cross to store our bags for another few hours, and then headed to Piccadilly Circus. We grabbed dinner at a pub just off Haymarket St and then headed to Her Majesty's Theater to see The Phantom of the Opera. When I was looking for tickets about a week and a half ago, a lot of the shows for Saturday night had already sold out, or the three of us would not be sitting together. Both Jesse and Kevin wanted to see Phantom, and I loved it so much last summer, I had no qualms w/ seeing it again. We sat pretty much at the very back of the balcony, but it was still pretty cool. I know they both enjoyed it a lot. After the show, we had to hustle back to King's Cross, b/c the luggage storage place closed at 11, and the show ended at 10. We were leaving nothing to chance. So we were rude Americans and ducked out as the curtain went down before they all came to take their bows. We got to the store about 10:30, and after we grabbed our bags went to go get our train tickets back to Cambridge. We ended up catching the "Express" train, or rather, the one that doesn't make 50 stops, but goes via Cambridge. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. There was standing room only on that train. Luckily, we all got seats so we didn't have to stand for the 45 min ride back to Cambridge.

I had a blast this birthday. It could be one of my favorites that's for sure. Somehow, I don't think next year's will be quite as exciting, but it will be on a Saturday, so we'll see. :) I can't believe that my time here is almost up. My birthday has always signaled the end of summer, so it's a little bitter-sweet, but this time it also signals that it's time to go home. I've got two more full weeks here. This week is the last week of classes, and then next week is finals and the farewell dinner. We have to be out of our rooms by noon on the 4th of August, and most people are leaving on the 5th. :( I'll be around until the 9th in London. I've already got my hostel booked, and I've already made mental notes of things I'd like to do while I'm there (such as eating at one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants). There will still be a few people around, so I'm going to top up my phone (it's a month by month phone) so I'll still be able to get a hold of people, and hang out with them some and do my own thing a little as well. I've stayed under budget very well this summer, so I'll have a little bit of wiggle room while I'm in London, so I might take a day trip or two, we'll see. Anyways. That's it from here. Hope you all are well.