Wrought Iron, BEST SANDWICH IN THE WORLD, and Lion Scaling

this happened yesterday, but I'm just now posting it today.

Kalen and I had the morning free before our 1:00pm (or 13:00, see? I'm learning) theatre class so we decided to go over to the V and A museum. It was the second time for me, but the museum is so unbelievably huge that I'll probably have to go several more times to even see half of it all. I like to not even look at the directional signs or a map and just wander around because everything there is so pretty and interesting. Things like "the 1600 - 1800 room" sounds so boring and takes the fun out of it anyway. The whole museum is essentially dedicated to anything designed (statues, clothing, fashion, vases, chairs, musical instruments, jewelry, windows that someone carved something on randomly in the middle ages and it survived... etc) so anything you happen to stumble upon is amazing. It's like window shopping to the past, but unfortunately you're not able to buy anything (the whole time I kept thinking how awesome some of the wrought iron things would be in my future black and white room.)

Some of my favorite things this time included:

• a hanging sculpture of smushed musical wind instruments hanging so that they're horizontal and even from strings many feet above.
• a window from 1600s? that was in a prison or something I think that someone had carved messages on with a diamond. I love that this was considered design.
• the WROUGHT IRON HALLWAY. love love loved it.

Ok blah blah blah let me skip to the BEST part of the day. Kalen and I (half) joked about only putting the following on our blogs. Just a picture of our sandwiches and nothing more. I came very close to doing that or at least creating a new entry just for these sandwiches... but I resisted. These sandwiches are AMAZING. We've passed by this place other days on our way to the tube and admired their deliciousness from afar. We've always been in a rush to get to class though and didn't have time to get one until yesterday (we planned it specifically.) By the time we return for the day, they are no longer selling them and that is sad (Europe is so weird about the times you can and cannot buy a sandwich... God Bless America if for nothing else, then for 24/7 food places)

But back to my sandwich. The bread. Let me start with the bread. It's crusty, it's soft on the inside, its warm (after she put it in the panini press at least) and it is lightly dusted with flour. The inside - pesto sauce and basil leaves on top of mozzarella and tomatoes. We took pictures. Of the sandwiches AND of the window display (I wonder if we'll be let back in next time.) I shouldn't even get started about their almond macaroons or their hazelnut butter cookies.



OK so after that we went to our theatre class. After class we had some time to kill before going to our play for our theatre class that night, Under the Blue Sky. The theatre was around Trafalgar's Square where the big lions are. Well I was still sad that I was too afraid to climb very high on the statues at Buckingham (see facebook pictures - I'm sitting down b/c I was afraid I was going to slide off the VERY slick marble into the fountain) so I was determined to climb these damn lions. My roommate Kalen and our friend Sarah climbed part of the lion fairly easily - it was a little harder to get back down but they were ok. I could not. So I tried a different spot that looked easier and... sometimes pictures are better than words so I'll just post them in chronological order.











I've never been a climber. I had to rely on people from half the countries in Europe to help me. Sarah helped but all Kalen could do was laugh and take pictures. Thanks Kalen.