Madame Tussauds London

Dear Everyone,

what a great weekend it's been. Although we didn't get as much sunshine as we did during the week, we had great fun.

On Saturday I decided to go shopping on Oxford Street in the morning. This is still the worst idea you can have and I have to say I will probably never like Oxford Street as much as the rest of London. After that I met Celine and we visited the Wallace Collection and took a free guided tour through Mr Wallace's house. I had to go home early that day, because I was babysitting, so after a short break for a Hot Chocolate I had to go home. 

Sunday was Funday! We took the Tube to Baker Street to go to Madame Tussauds. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long in the cold wind and once we were inside the fun began. It's the perfect place for taking silly pictures and laughing all day. Our ticket also included watching a 4D Marvel adventure, which was amazing. I think for today I'll just leave you with loads of pictures of famous faces (and my face next to them).

See you!

Fear Is A Funny Thing

Dear Everybody,

school started again this week for J so everything is going back to normal. Halfterm was pretty exhausting for me, because I had to keep him entertained all day, which can be quite hard. Therefore I enjoyed the weekend even more. 

On Saturday we visited Tate Modern, the most visited art gallery for modern art. We took one of the free guided tours around one of the exhibitions. In the beginning it was only Celine, our guide Steve and I so it felt as if we had a private tour, but later more and more people joined. I enjoyed strolling through the galleries. If you are not interested in art, you might find it controversial whether a lot of the exhibits even are art. It also gives you great starting points for discussions: What is art? Does it have to be done by an artist? Is it the process of creating or the final result you see? Or can instructions for building something be art?

After this sophisticated Saturday afternoon our Sunday was completely different. We had booked tickets to go to the London Dungeon and I was already nervous hours before we got there. I like being scared and watching scary films or series, but being there in the moment, being scared by actors seemed like a completely different level to me. I now know it is different! But it is great fun as well, it was the perfect mix between screaming and laughing about it seconds later. The scariest part was when Jack the Ripper attacked me out of all the people in the tavern we were in. The room went dark and suddenly a spotlight revealed Jack the Ripper, who came running towards me, knife in his hand, leaning over our table ready to attack me. I screamed louder than I ever did and the only logical reaction for me was to slide backwards with my chair into all the people standing there. I heard Celine screaming my name. Then it went pitch black again before the normal light was turned on again. That's when I started laughing and then everyone did. They are right when they say: Fear is a funny thing. 

After calming down and having a drink we went for a walk along Whitehall to Trafalgar Square where filming for a Warner Bros film about the first World War took place. Of course we ended up in Covent Garden in the evening and ended our weekend on a funny note by watching the best street performer I've seen so far.

See you!

A Magical Weekend

Dear Everybody,

this week has been quite busy and exhausting so far. It is Halfterm so I have to look after J all day every day. But it's also been great fun. On Monday we went to the Kentish Town City Farm and spent a lovely day playing with the animals. Yesterday we went to the Royal Airforce Museum, which was interesting for me, because of all the information about World War One and Two. Today we did something creative and went to a cafe on our High Street, where you can paint ceramics and then have them glazed. I did a cute little unicorn, which I can't wait to collect next week. 

Before Halfterm started I had an amazing weekend. On Saturday it was grey and wet in London, so Celine and I visited the National Gallery. I got extremely excited about seeing Van Gogh's Sunflowers as well as Monet's Water-Lily Pond. If you are not as interested in art as I am, going to an Art Gallery can still be great fun. You just have to make up inner monologues for people shown on paintings, some of them pull great faces that would make the most funny Memes.
Sunday was Valentine's Day and I have to say it was one of the best ones I've had so far. It was the day I finally got to see the Harry Potter Studios! It was truly magical. After a long journey by bus we arrived at our destination. The first stop on the tour is a cinema where you watch a short film about how the story of a wizard boy took over the world. After the screen goes black it rolls up and reveals the massive wooden door, which marks the entrance to the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Seeing these doors open and stepping into the Great Hall is like going to a whole different world. Behind these doors you're left with hundreds of costumes, props and sets to marvel at. It is like walking through the films, discovering details you never noticed before. We had the chance to fly on a broomstick, if only in front of a Greenscreen and making a broomstick fly up into our hand by saying "Up!" I also learned the five most important moves you have to master when fighting with a wand. At the integrated cafe I tried Butterbeer for the first time. I have to admit, that I was a bit afraid of it, I feared it might be disgusting. But it turned out to be quite nice.
My favourite part of the day was walking over Diagon Alley. It has always been my favourite place in the world of wizards, maybe because I love shopping. Walking the paved street and peeking intp all the shop windows was a dream come true.
The whole day was amazing and I made memories I will keep forever and already love looking back on.

See you! (I'm flying off :D)

Being Social

Dear Everyone,

what a week it's been! A lot of amazing things happened the last few days and I feel like this week went by in no time. I've been going out quite a lot, which might added to that. On Wednesday Celine and I decided to go to Pizza Express for dinner, just because we love it and had a voucher left. On Friday night we headed to Finchley to meet Jessi and Kaisa, two other lovely Aupairs, in a pub called The Joiners Arms. We ate delicious Fish and Chips and it was just nice spending a whole evening chatting, like girls do. 

On Saturday you nearly got blown away in London so we went to the Wellcome Collection. Next to the permanent exhibitions about medicine we visited the Tibet's Secret Temple exhibition. It will be on til the end of February. If you are interested in Buddhism and meditation I would definitely recommend you go see it. 

Sunday was one of the best days I spent in London so far. We took off in the morning without a real plan or agenda for the day. We got off the Tube at Paddington and then had a lovely walk around Little Venice. It's not Venice, but it is a beautiful quiet spot in London to escape the hectic city and we'll come back in summer for lunch on one of the boat cafés. 

We then walked to Queensway, because that's where my hostel was, the first time I visited London in 2011. I remembered all the places and it brought back great memories. After a quick Subway lunch we decided to go for a good old Sunday walk in Kensington Gardens. Right after entering we saw a helicopter flying pretty low and soon we realised it was about to land right next to Kensington Palace. While I was still joking around that it might be William flying the helicopter, people already started running to the fence behind which the helicopter landed. Of course we hurried there as well and after the arrival of two policemen Kate Middelton herself walked out of Kensington Palace to board the helicopter. She looked amazing and waved at all of us standing there. I couldn't believe that it was actually real and it still strikes me that I saw her. After calming down we continued our walk and along the way, we found a tree occupied by green parrots. In the middle of Hyde Park! Luckily we had bird food with us, so we joined all the people feeding the birds. It was amazing, them landing on your hands, trusting you. They are really pretty birds and their feathers are as soft as a pillow. The encounter with those little chaps was the perfect ending to an amazing day.

This week started off great as well, because yesterday was Pancake Day. We have a Pancake House on our High Street, so of course we went out for lunch, which was delicious.
Make sure to check out my Instagram it_is_rosalie where I post pictures, often before I write about my adventures here.

See you!

Many Museums

Dear Everybody,

I feel like spring is slowly coming to London. The air is mild in the morning when we walk to school and quite often the sun comes out in the afternoon. But back on the weekend it was quite chilly and drizzling all the time. So we took our chance to explore some of London's many museums. 

On Saturday we visited the Grant Museum of Zoology and the Petrie Museum near Bloomsbury Road. If you are ok with seeing a lot of dead animals and their body parts preserved in jars, you're going to love this museum. If you don't, well I think you'll hate it. There's no inbetween. I was really fascinated by everything I saw and my eyes were glued to the displayed items. It was the same in the Petrie Musuem, which contains one of the biggest collections of Egyptian items. You can marvel at stones engraved with hieroglyphics, wondering what they might say. Or you get active by trying on traditional Egyptian clothing or laying out the Egyptian alphabet in the right order. 

Of course we finished our day by going to Covent Garden and watching a street perfomer. It's a weird habit we developed.

On Sunday we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and only made it through the Europe 1600-1815 Galleries. We were amazed to see a lot of China from the famous German manufactory in Meissen, because it is near where we come from. After our visit we went to have a nice (probably not so healthy) lunch at Mc Donald's. The waiter there told me to keep smiling. That's what I want to tell you for this week as well: Stay happy and positive, keep smiling and make other people smile.

See you!