One Sweet Dream Came True Today, Came True Today

I have had an innate desire to visit Notting Hill ever since I saw the movie. Saturday, that dream came true. It was a free day so a few of us decided to head over to the area and check out the famous Portobello Market. There was a plethora of assorted clothes, jewelry, food, books, electronics and antique trinkets galore. Although I do not plan to bring china tea cups back to the states, they were nice to look at. We also had our first celebrity spotting on the trip. While walking through the market, Mary Margaret, another girl on the trip, ran straight into Maggie Gyllanhaal. We knew it was her because she was on her phone and said, “Hey, It’s Maggie”--and bunch of girls around us got all giddy and started taking photographs.

On the way back from the market, we stopped by George Orwell’s house then decided to venture off the tourist path a bit. Earlier that morning, I found out through the World Wide Web that Jimi Hendrix died in Notting Hill. After a bit of walking around a very ritzy neighborhood, we finally found the place on Lansdowne Crescent. Instead of turning around and going back the way we came, we kept walking and eventually circled around the town. Along the way, we passed the private gardens Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant explored in the movie, Notting Hill. I even got to see the little bench they sat on after the “whoopsie daisies” part. We have already planned to go back later this week and find The Traveler’s Bookshop. It was all very charming.

One thing that a lot of the students have been trying to do on this trip is to try new foods so once we got back to Bloomsbury, we ate at this Indian restaurant. It was not my first time trying Indian food, however, it was the first time I actually liked it. - Just in case you wanted to know, I had chicken curry. It’s getting close to 2 a.m. over here and I have class at 9 a.m. so I better be off to bed. I can’t wait to write about my adventures from today (Sunday). Seriously, I get extremely excited when I think about what and who I saw. I promise to write on it tomorrow, but get ready because it’s good.

Cheerio, y’all