"Let me guess; you Americans say things like 'literally' and 'oh my god' and 'like' a lot, right?"

It was a blessing that the day after we returned to Stratford we only had a Saturday morning session of class with Charlie.  In class, we each took turns performing our scenes with our scene partners.  Lori and I had decided that our scene would be that we are sisters and I am preparing to go on a trip to London where she has already been.  I have just returned from the travel agency and am frustrated because they were no help, and now I am refusing Lori's help.  We performed the scene, and then Charlie gave us critique on how to do it better.  We ended up doing the scene four or five more times, each time tweaking something else.  It was really interesting to see how the whole dynamic of the scene could change just because we said a pair of lines faster, or I used my prop in a different way.  It was a nice easy going Saturday class, and I was relieved when we finished up at 1.  Only two more days of real class before we start presenting our final products!

After class, Maggie and I went to afternoon tea at The Palm Court Brasserie in Covent Garden.  Not knowing what to expect of afternoon tea, especially since online many of the descriptions just say "assortment of teas, pastries, and finger sandwiches," you could say we were very very pleasantly surprised.  The waiter came over to take our tea orders; I ordered green tea and Maggie ordered chamomile.  Several minutes later, we were each presented with our own little iron kettle steaming hot with our desired tea, along with a decently-sized teacup and sugar.  Seconds later, our 3-tiered tower came out with our assortment of tea-time snacks.  On the bottom tier, there were four triangle-cut finger sandwiches of four different kinds; egg and mayonnaise, cucumber and cream cheese, ham and mustard, and salmon with some other type of dressing.  On the middle tier, there was a raspberry-topped mini cheesecake, a fudge brownie, and two eton messes.  Okay, so I had no idea what an eton mess was and had forgot that the menu even said that this would be on there.  Basically, it looked like a ice cream sundae with strawberry syrup and fresh strawberries.  But, when I took a bite of it, it was warm.  It turns out that eton mess is the original "strawberries and cream."  So, literally, it was a glass of cream, strawberries, strawberry syrup, and meringue which is just chunks of sugar and egg.  It was a delicious surprise.  On the top tier, there were two scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream.  This was probably Maggie and I's favorite part of the assortment.  The scones, which are similar to biscuits, were sweet and crumbly and were paired perfectly with the jam and cream.  I'm pretty sure both of us would agree that if they gave us three tiers of just scones, we would have been perfectly content.  Although we had been in the Covent Garden area before, we had never actually been to the Covent Garden Market.  Similar to Spitalfields and Camden Markets, Covent Garden had lots of little stands and tents with food and trinkets.  What was unique about Covent Garden Market, is that a large portion of it was inside a building-type structure with permanent restaurants and other shops.  We got to catch a glimpse of a string quartet finishing a performance, a mime performing in the middle of a large crowd, and the spot where Shake Shack London would be opening in July 2013!  It was very exciting and as always, on a whim.

I find it funny how some of the other students on our trip keep telling me that Maggie and I are so on top of things and so scheduled.  But, who wouldn't be?  If you just sit around trying to figure out what to do, you will never do anything and before you know it your month will be up.  We have made such great time with everything that we have wanted to do, and along the way, have seen so much more than we had expected just because we chose to wander and see where the city took us instead of going to once place and then heading back home.

Later on last night, Maggie and I decided to go to O'Neill's Irish Pub.  O'Neill's is a chain pub in London with several locations, but Maggie was determined to go there because she wanted to see if they sold shirts (they didn't, of course.)  So, we went to O'Neill's, the Irish Pub, in Chinatown of London, and they played all very very American music.  Like, country music about Sweet Home Alabama.  It was weird, but really really fun. The pub had three floors, and after splitting a pitcher of strawberry daiquiri, we went up to the top floor where live music was being performed.  We each grabbed a pint of Guinness and listened to the band play covers of Mr. Brightside and Sex on Fire, as well as a ton of other popular songs.  At one point, Maggie had to go to the bathroom, so she handed me her glass to hold while she went.  In that small amount of time of probably only three or four minutes, four or five people approached me to comment on my double-fisting of two Guinness's, or how I had "one too many" beers in my hand.  I was relieved when Maggie returned, and hastily gave her back her glass because I didn't want anyone else to approach me.  A few minutes later, as we were listening to the band, a guy came up to us and asked us where we were from.  When we told him Boston, he said, "Oh! The place where you don't pronounce your r's right?!"  We laughed, and then he continued by saying, "Let me guess; you ladies say things like 'oh my god' and 'like' and 'literally' all the time, right?"  We sadly admitted that this was all true.  He also asked us if we played American drinking games like beer pong and flip cup.  It was pretty funny how much this guy knew about American college culture.  At another point in the night, Maggie and I were dancing, and some random person grabbed my arm and tried to pull me into a picture with him and his friends.  I was so utterly confused, but luckily ducked out of the picture right as the flash was about to go off.  To say the least, it was an interesting night.  I had a ton of good laughs, but there is definitely a large culture difference between Americans and other foreigners.  The way they interact is so very different, and a lot more upfront than in the U.S.  Maggie and I went home feeling confused, happy, and accomplished at having fun on our last Saturday night in London.