Portobello Road and The Tempest

Before I tell you about Portobello Road, first let me just say a few things.
1. I feel like I have been here for two weeks, not five days. I have packed so much in these past couple days, it all seems a blur. I'm having trouble separating the days. And I still have a touch of jet lag.
2. I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that I will be here for six weeks.  I feel like I'm leaving in a few days, like it's been a nice trip and it's time to go home now. I keep forgetting I live here. I live here. I live here.  I have a month and a half left.  It's weird.
3. I was assigned to a ward today and I am so excited! When the Stake President was talking about the different wards, he said one of them was a Porteguese speaking ward. I got so excited and hoped that I would get assigned to that ward, and I did! I'm very excited to learn how to communicate with the people and to serve them.  I speak Spanish, which I hear is close to Porteguese, so we'll see how much I understand.
4. I'm so glad I'm not the only one here who is trying to speak in a British accent.  Everyone in my group, and I mean everyone, is trying to speak in it. We mostly only speak it to each other, but when we are out and about, we often slip into it without noticing.  We're terrible at it, but it's so much fun to speak in it. And we're in London, so we gotta talk in one right?

Saturday we went to Portobello Road.  I was nervous that it would be so crowded because it was the wedding weekend and lots of people are here, but it wasn't that bad. I live so close to Portobello Road, we walked there and the walk was so pretty.

As I'm sure most of you know, Portobello Road is in Notting Hill. I almost live in Notting Hill. Maybe I'll meet a movie star and fall in love.  But I need to own a bookstore first. But this door looked like the door in the movie. I wanted to knock to see if Hugh Grant was home, but I was too chicken. Oh well.

This is the top of the street. Or the bottom I guess, depending which way you're going.

Street signs in England aren't on poles like here in America, they are attached to sides of buildings. So it can get confusing which street is which.

This guy was totally rockin' a kilt. We really wanted a picture of this guy, but didn't want it to be obvious, so the elbow you see in the pink sweater is my friend standing by him as we pretended to take a picture of her. We're sneaky.

The buildings around were just SO pretty.

Let's be honest, would you see a shop in America with a giant tea pot hanging above it? Probably not. I love England.

There were lots of street performers.  These guys were really good. They should be famous. I tried to get a video of them but it didn't work. Darn.

Me and my friends under the street sign

Some of the wonderful merchandise on Portobello Road

What a wonderful hat. I didn't buy it though. I bought a coin purse instead.

They charge you extra if you eat in the restauraunt, instead of taking it out. It's annoying.

I had  to get a picture of the store Notting Hill, just like the movie!

That night, we went as a group to the Shakespeare play, The Tempest. It was really good. And some of the characters were played by puppets.  It's not as weird as it sounds. I was a little worried too when I first heard that, but the show was great.  Very well done.

I wanted to take pictures of the show, but it wasn't allowed. And these pictures I couldn't use flash with. So they're not very good.

P.S.   This is what I get when I go on a BYU Study Abroad...

See you next time my friends!