Foxes and Nandos and Palaces... Oh My!

Want to know something weird? Seeing a fox is a normal thing here! It's almost like seeing a deer back home. I see them a lot while walking home at night from the bus stop... I saw 3 foxes yesterday! Really random, but I just thought I'd share!

Anyway, this week was just like the others. I feel like I'm so settled here now that my routine is nothing special. I go to uni, do my own grocery shopping, hang out with my friends and head into the city sometimes. This stuff use to be exciting for me (grocery shopping on my own is something I NEVER did back home thanks to my mom cooking and dorm food). But now it's a weekly routine. Milk and bread go bad really fast here so I have to buy those weekly.

On Friday I saw Oz The Great and Powerful. Since we went to the red carpet premiere it only seemed right to see the movie, as well! I also bought a ticket through Uni to see Wicked on Wednesday... so much Wizard of Oz events in a week! But the movie was good. A lot different than I expected, but still good! Finley the monkey was adorable. I can't get over how cute he was! Seriously, whenever he was on the screen I would just saw "awww" because he is that cute. James Franco is cute, too, but Finley might have him beat (ok that might have been a bit dramatic, but do you get my point?). It was cool seeing the movie and thinking "I just saw these actors last week." Oh, the perks of living in big cities!

Something really exciting happened to me, as well! You know how I love Nando's? Well, they replied to a tweet from me! I know it's kind of a silly thing to get excited over, but here's the story: They tweeted something like "A cheeky Nando's and going to see Oz... sounds like a good night." Right before I saw this tweet Kaley, Maddy, Kara and I had gone to Nando's and then decided to see Oz later. WEIRD, RIGHT?? So, I replied to the tweet from Nando's and told them that was our plan and asked if they were stalking us (I mean they said they were doing the same thing we were so it seemed like a good question!). They basically told me I had a great mind. Thanks Nando's!

To start saving money I have began to walk to the grocery store.... which is about an hour walk. I only do this when I have nothing going on for the day so I don't have to rush. It makes me not feel so bad about not exercising, too! So yesterday I woke up fairly early because it's impossible for me to sleep in here! I don't know why but if I sleep until 10 it's a miracle. I'm usually up between 8:30 and 9:30... not ideal! But since I was up and needed milk I decided to go to the store. So after my hour walk there, 20 minute shopping extravaganza, and hour walk back I got a text from Maddy asking if I still wanted to work out. I forgot I said I wanted to! But I did want to go for a run, so we decided to meet at Thames River to go for a jog.

Well, the jog started out good! We did intervals, just jogging to certain landmarks. But before we knew it, we just started to walk the whole time. We were looking for a bridge to walk to the other side of the river (where we originally started), but there was no bridge. So we just kept walking and walking until we eventually walked into a Hampton Court Palace. Completely normal, right? We walked around the other side to get back and even got to walk around some of the gardens in the palace area. We are definitely going back once the weather gets nicer!

That night Ellyn came over for another Disney movie marathon! But before we watched any movies I had a skype date with my family. They were celebrating some of my cousins birthdays. Happy birthday Micah (13), Bella (5) and Olivia (2)! When I answered the call the first people I saw were my mom and Bella. They were at a bowling alley so they couldn't hear anything I said, so my mom just passed her phone around to everyone and I just waved! Kind of a pointless skype call, but it was good to finally see my family! I'm pretty sure this is the longest I have gone without seeing my aunts, uncles and cousins! A real skype date is in order, soon.

I got a tweet that night from my brother Aaron. It was a picture of him and Bella with her birthday hat on and the tweet said "Bella asked me to have you wish her a happy birthday." How very Bella of her! I did wish her a a happy birthday when I first saw her, but she couldn't hear me.

Back to the movie marathon, we only watched one movie! The Little Mermaid is such a classic.... I just love Disney! But after the movie was over, we decided to go make some ramen noodles. Remember how in older posts I said I don't cook? That is still true, and ramen is considered cooking for me. But here's the catch, I didn't even use the stove to make them! I used the tea kettle to boil the water (smart thinking, Ellyn!) and then used the microwave. The fact that I had something other than cereal or a sandwich is a big improvement for me, though, so I might be making all my noodles like that!

Today we had planned to go to another movie premiere (The Croods), but when we got there they said it happened earlier that day. You know how people say you shouldn't trust everything you read online? Well, I guess that goes for when movie premieres are as well. We really wanted to see Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. I felt bad for Ellyn because this was one premiere she really wanted to go to. If it weren't for Blake Lively, she would be Mrs. Reynolds. Kaley, Maddy and Rachel were at a Travel Expo in town and were planning to meet back with us for the premiere so I broke the bad news to them.

We didn't want to go back to Kingston quit yet, so we headed to Madame Tussauds to see when the Emma Watson figure would be revealed. I don't remember if I said this earlier, but Ellyn is a HUGE Emma Watson fan. There are no words to describe Ellyn's love for her.... she is the ultimate fan. Sometimes the celebrities go the reveal of their figure to pose with it, so if that happens Ellyn will be able to see her. Cool, right?? Since she dealt with all of our One Direction adventures I want to help her see a celebrity she cares about. Mission Find Emma Watson is in full force. But the workers had no idea when the figure would be revealed so it was a pointless trip.

From there we went to Buckingham Palace since I still haven't seen it. I saw it on the walking tour we did when we first got here, but we walked by it so fast that I don't count it. I was so excited to go there! Sadly, the Queen was not in. But it was still so cool to see! It's kind of crazy thinking that my senior year of high school I was watching Will and Kate drive to the palace after their wedding and now I am seeing it in person.

Make a wish!

Buckingham Palace

Another fangirl moment for me happened. And yes, it dealt with One Direction. They filmed their music video for "One Way Or Another (Teenage Kicks)" throughout London and Africa. Part of it was filmed in front of Buckingham Palace. I got to stand in the exact spot. I didn't know what to do for a picture at this spot. I mean, how do you pose where part of a music video was filmed? I eventually settled on just smiling. Kind of lame, right? I think that is all I could handle, anyway.

THE SPOT where the music video was filmed!

I almost forgot to mention the wild hunt for chocolate that happened earlier!!! This was before we even found out the premiere didn't happen! The other girls were at the Expo, but since Ellyn and I had our trips all planned we decided not to go. When we got into London we had planned on going to the theatre and finding a Starbucks near it to sit in for a while. Well, I had heard that Kinder Eggs are really good here and still have yet to have one. We literally went all over the area of London we were in and failed to find it. We'll just have to find it in Kingston some other time!