Well it's my birthday too

So I promised I would take up where I left off yesterday. So where was that... ahah! Yesterday morning we went to the National Gallery and saw some cool paintings. One from a guy named Da Vinci, whoever that is. And many other paintings by artists whose names have too many vowels for me to even attempt. That was the day I had my first official fish and chips. For those of you that know me really well, know I hate fish. Battered and fried fish isn't bad, but when you are the one who gets the biggest portion by far and you feel pressured to eat it all because England is crazy expensive, you start to wonder if there are forces of nature working against you. Then we shopped a bit for people to buy shampoo and the like and went home. We had delicious chicken and I watched the Man from U.N.C.L.E with Sam and called it a night.

Today was the day I decided to start taking pictures. And it is kind of special because.... IT'S MY BIRTHDAY. I no longer have the option of being a teenage pregnancy statistic.

For the last few years I haven't really been able to do much for my birthday because it is in the middle of the week so I woke up feeling less than enthusiastic about birthdays when everyone here started singing to me.
                                              
It was thoughtful... but I had to say the breakfast prayer in front of people for my birthday. Boo.
Then it was business as usual and we headed off to the National Gallery again to learn about the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries through art. This time I did take a picture of a painting I saw. It's kinda famous I suppose.
                                                   
I know my mom is somewhere saying, "You could see a picture of that online, why didn't you take one with you in it." Well jokes on you mom, cause I did. It is even the classic selfie, but what's a girl to do?
Before I post said selfie, I should explain. There is no plug near the mirrors nor are there any in the bathroom. I basically have accepted the au natural poodle look at this point.
                                                    
After discussing the sensual and erotic Rococo period, the hopeless impressionists (yes I saw a Van Gogh for that one) and the reemergence of the classical style Neoclassicism, we were free to spend our time as we wished. My good pals Sam and Kayla said because it was my birthday, I got to pick our location. And that, my friends, is how I ended up at the one, the only, ABBEY ROAD!!!!


We discovered that people out of the main part of the city are nicer to foreigners than people in Central London. A man in the cafe talked to us and was talking about Mitchigan, Michigan said the British way I suppose. And then a lady asked us if we needed help finding our way and another man did the same.

From there we went to catch our tube train at the Baker's Street London underground station when we found two bucket list places.
                                          
Obviously I would go here. The Beatles = life. (This hot lady next to me is Sam. Picture credit Kayla.)
And
                                                
Sherlock Holmes museum for all your die hard fandom needs!
And of course right next door to the museum there was one of these.
                                                   
Because if I can't realize my dream of living in 221B Baker street, you better believe I am going to take a picture in front of it!
Next was nap time. Because I am basically a cat.
Dinner was great and then some of the girls decided that I needed cake of some kind for my birthday so we jetted off to a fairy cake (cupcake) place on Oxford Street. Little did we know that google maps was taking us to Selfridges.

For those of you peasants who don't know what Selfridges is, it's a massive department store. One of the first in Europe. It swept the nation.
                                                       
This was the place we got the treats, Lola's!
                                      
Me, Sam and Kayla. Photo cred Ellie
                                                     
We selfied so Ellie could get in on that Lola's picture action.

Don't be alarmed citizens, I won't be writing until next Sunday because next week we are headed to the continent to go to Amsterdam and Paris. I am not lugging my computer around for a week so it will stay here. Maybe a mini post on Sunday night but I doubt it.

Well all in all a successful birthday. Got some contact from home in the form of emails, messages, videos and Skype. Love my family and London.

Cheri o,

Kemarie