9/10
Picking up where we left off last week… we had a lazy Sunday morning at home. Catja and Zoe sat in the living room working on our puzzle of the London Tube map. After making a good dent in the puzzle, we went our separate ways for the rest of the day.
Zoe headed off to Oxford to visit her uncle, aunt, and cousins. This involved riding the Metropolitan line almost to the end before hopping onto a 45 minute bus ride. Zoe spent the rest of the day walking around Oxford (including seeing C.S. Lewis’ grave) and enjoying a home cooked meal while catching up with family who she hadn’t seen in almost six years.
Catja met her new Fulbright friends in Notting Hill for lunch. She took the bus and snagged the best front row seat on the top of the bus and read Sankofa, the book Zoe got her from the library (it’s so so so so so good!! Definitely recommend so far - reminds Catja a lot of her Ghana class and trip). Then, she zoomed back home for a thINKingDANCE Zoom meeting then a family Zoom call with her siblings and mom. Then she called her dad and her grandma and went to sleep.
9/11
Monday morning meant heading back into the city for a day of exploring. We started the day at Daunt Books on the Marylebone High Street, an iconic London landmark with a gorgeous loft view. We perused the London section of books, learning fun facts about our new city. While walking down the High Street, we also passed a real estate agency, which advertised a property in York: a converted water tower turned flat… we thought that would be pretty cool.
We then had a bit of time to kill before our lunch plans, so we wandered around and stumbled into the Wallace Collection. We originally went in because a collection called “Portraits of Dogs” was advertised outside. However, we never managed to find it and instead spent our time looking at a seemingly random collection of old artwork, portraits, and furniture. It was a fascinating find, and we meandered around the surprisingly massive property. Apparently, the museum is quite famous, but we didn’t learn that till later.
We then headed down Baker Street to meet up with Catja’s old friend from the 2018 Washington Ballet summer intensive. After Catja fangirled over 221B Baker Street and Sherlock Holmes, we introduced her friend to Tesco meal deals and had a picnic in Regent’s Park. According to Catja there were paddleboats, which were very exciting, but Zoe has no memory of seeing any paddleboats. After enjoying our meal deals and shooing away pigeons that were way too bold, we decided to wander the park. We walked through the rose garden, which was full of various rose varieties with very fun names, including Free Spirit, Your Lovely Eyes, and You’re Beautiful. We then made our way to Primrose Hill for beautiful views of the city and of a man sprinting up and down the steep hill.
Before heading home for the evening, Catja and Zoe stopped at a craft shop to pick up paper for some homemade decor plans. We made our way back to our flat for dinner and spent the rest of the evening painting posters. We stuck with a pink and blue theme to match our Ikea couch cushions. Catja painted roses that she saw at the park, and Zoe painted pastel houses that we saw in the city.
9/12
After our exciting Monday, we decided to spend Tuesday catching up on work and completing our to-do list tasks. We woke up early and headed to our fav outdoor gym! The weather was finally cool, which was ideal for our morning gym session.
We then made our way back to the flat to get ready for the day and headed to Gail’s, the coffee shop in Willesden Green were we met Lucy and Hebe before we got the keys to our flat. Gail’s has lots of discounts, including a free drink for signing up for their loyalty program. So, with free chai lattes in hand, we got to work. Catja read Beyond Yellowface and worked on a book review for thINKingDANCE while Zoe applied for a job and started working her way through her class pre-reading.
Once we felt we had finished enough work for the day, we headed back to our flat for lunch and a bit of gardening. We finished bagging up the garbage and plant debris in the backyard, which still doesn’t look great, but is definitely coming along. Our agent and landlord said they were very impressed with what we did which was a nice pat on the back.
We spent the rest of the afternoon painting, cooking egg sandwiches for dinner (since eggs aren’t refrigerated here), and getting stared at by the cat next door. See photo above for the view from our kitchen window.
Signing off with our fingers crossed for Saturday's game!
Comments