History in the Making

I post on my blog every day and say it is the best day yet, but the days just keep getting better and I keep having more favorites...so here is today's fun update:

We spent the morning at Portobello Market...I just love that place. We are going to Paris this weekend and Scotland the next weekend, and since the market is only on Saturdays, we ran real quick to experience it for the last time this month. This month?!...speaking of that, I am coming up on my month mark. I have been here for so long, yet it has gone so fast. Two months to go.
After that we headed straight for the Houses of Parliament. We had some trouble getting there with closures on the tube, so we took a bus and then a tube the rest of the way. We had a tour at noon and it was so cool to see parliament because I had no idea what to expect. We went through intense screening and an intense two hour tour. Good thing we loved our tour guide, or I would have fallen asleep standing up! I found out so many interesting things about the English government....
The government has three parts: the monarch, the unelected Lords, and the House of Commons. The Houses of Parliament has three sections, one for each. Each section has a different color.
Monarch: Blue
Lords: Red
Commons: Green
It was interesting to hear about how legislation is passed and votes are cast! Lets just say, I know our government isn't perfect, but I appreciate it so much more after our tour. Their government boils down to this: The queen is "in charge", but she is a figure head and does absolutely nothing. The lords and commons are left to work it all out. Ever feeling bad about our government?!..take a tour of Parliament :)

After we finished, we walk out onto the street into the middle of a student riot. Police were everywhere! Students are protesting about the government raising university tuition and things tend to get violent! We were told to go home for safety, so we hopped on a tube home.

I wish I could post pictures of my tour, but they don't allow us to take any :(

Saturday night?! Party time! One of my friends, Annie, has a birthday tomorrow and so we went out to celebrate. We left early evening for the gigantic mall in Westfield. We shopped around and ended up celebrating by going to dinner at GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen)! It took so long to get a table for 8, but we waited so that we could all be together. Everyone had gelato for dessert and we just had some great quality bonding time. SO fun :) Here are the pictures...







Hope you are all having such great days and making every day count. Make every day your favorite :)