Birthday in London :)

I am officially 20 years old! This was such a great birthday, and I was so excited to spend it in London with so many of my best friends. I can't tell you about today though without telling you about yesterday first.

Yesterday morning, Melissa, Chrissy, Liz and I went to Notting Hill to explore. It was absolutely adorable- I found my future flat, and I think that if I had the means and I ever lived in London I'd want that to be my neighborhood. There were colorful homes lining the streets, and rows and rows of adorable shops and booths. We also found a Mexican cantina, and had our first Mexican food since we'd been here, a welcome taste of home- plus our server looked just like Hugh Grant :)

We were feeling adventurous, so afterwards we decided try to find Abbey Road. We jumped on a city bus (our first double decker bus ride!) and got off at Abbey Road, but we had no idea which crossing was the infamous one depicted on the Beatles' album cover. We walked for about 20 minutes, and then found one that we thought looked pretty close to it, so we decided to take some pictures of us crossing the road like John, Paul, George and Ringo. It turns out, that was definitely the wrong Abbey Road crossing... the correct one was in fact about 30 feet away from us, and there we were stopping traffic and getting strange looks. It was so funny, when we realized our mistake we were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe! We did go to the real Abbey Road crossing and get some pictures. We also ended up people watching for at least half an hour... it was hilarious to see so many tourists stopping traffic and crossing the road awkwardly to imitate the Beatles' strides.

On to today. First, we had a media visit this morning at The Telegraph. Our visit was surprisingly uplifting... the editor who gave us the tour told us that there would definitely be newspapers and jobs for young journalists, we would just have to figure out how to use our technological skills to redefine the industry. Then, we went out and explored Oxford Circus and the Soho neighborhood... I didn't end up buying anything, but I spotted a couple things I might come back to later.

At about 5:30, most of the IU Journalism kids met up at this Portuguese restaurant near the theater for dinner. It was so sweet that everyone came, I felt so loved. I had a great meal and the best sangria I've ever had in my life, and to top it off my roomie bought me dessert :) Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, one of the waiters brought me a little custard topped with a candle and everyone sang to me. I might have teared up just a little bit, it was really sweet! Then, we went to the theater and saw Les Miserables. I had no idea what to expect, and honestly, it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. I don't think I could listen to the music on loop, but the singing was spectacular and it really was an epic play. I was so upset though- apparently Nick Jonas is starring in the same production starting June 21! Missed it by a week!

It has been such a great weekend, I'm kind of sad it's over! On to another week in Londontown :)