Okay so yesterday, as most people know, was Arizona's birthday! Oh, I mean Single Awareness Day. Oh, and I guess it was Valentine's Day, too.
So I woke up kind of in a bad mood cause I'm still kinda sick and I was tired and didn't actually HAVE to wake up because I didn't have class. But, I woke up to all my roommates enacting the famous
"PRETTY THING WHIMPER"
You've all heard it. The "aaaawwwwwww!!" whenever a girl sees something too cute to handle. Yeah, times that by 12. Pretty good wake up call, eh?
Well, the reason for the whimper was because the wonderful Ramzi had handmade, handwritten and delivered 33 individual valentines for all the girls of 27 Palace Court, London. So yes, *insert PTW here*. They were only the beginning of a marvelous day. After that, the packages started. Children, boyfriends, and families of everyone sent care packages of chocolates and love letters. Bouquets of roses were delivered with every ring of the doorbell. None for me, but I still loved seeing the love. (Plus, I skyped my fam on sunday night and that was beautiful :))
My day consisted of waking, reading my sweet note from Ramzi, and then heading off to TBM to do some homework and have alone time. When I arrived back home, there was another lovely and HUGE boquet of roses on one of the front tables with a note that read:
"To The Beautiful Women of 27 Palace Court"Not signed. However, we eventually found out that they were from Collin and Mike, two of the guys in our group. And of course, everyone was so touched! We have THE best guys in our group and I love them dearly!!
Then, we had a nice dinner and headed off as a group to the Royal Opera House to see their performance of Swan Lake. [Warning: Performance review ahead!]
Okay, so I've seen the ballet before and I can still clearly remember when my dad took me to see the Nutcracker ballet. It was just the two of us, our little daddy-daughter date night, and I remember not really having any pre-interest to see the ballet. I love ballet and think it's beautiful and I wish I could have that much strength and beauty in my body, but I just wasn't super excited.
So, The Nutcracker. I know the story and everything but didn't really know what to expect. Now, from what I remembered I followed it easily and enjoyed it for the most part and then all of a sudden, during one of the couples' dances, I wanted to cry. And then, next thing I knew, I WAS crying. I felt like an idiot. It's just ballet, why was I crying. And then I realized, it's so much more than that.
Even with Swan Lake, the dancers get up there and have to tell an amazing story of love without saying anything at all. It is art. Their medium is dance and their tools are their bodies. They are so incredible in how they express everything. The music helps the story along as well and the orchestra was amazing.
Now, this night, I was literally blown away to the point that I wanted to cry and tears began to form but I couldn't cry because I was so awestruck. The Prima Ballerina, the White Swan, was absolutely phenomenal. She was tall and thin, strong and beautiful, powerful and graceful.
She had such control over her body.
Absolute perfection.
Anytime she came out, I wanted to start crying. She was so beautiful and I'd never seen anything like it. I have such a respect for ballet and the strength it takes to push your body like that. She made it seem effortless. Every move was seamless and flowed wonderfully with the music. Like I said, she stole the show.
The story alone is amazing and with such fabulous dancers, the whole thing was incredible and the perfect event on my Valentine's in London.
After the ballet, we decided we needed some dessert to finish the day off right. But not chocolate, I'd had enough of that already. Instead, we went to Creperie Cremerie off South Kensington and got indulgent crepes! Perfect ending to a perfect day :)
Okay, now today, for History 201: World Civ class, we discussed India and the civilizations there and so, Durst felt it was only right to have Indian for dinner. And where better to have Indian than in Southall, aka "Little India"?!
It's in London but a ways away, so we had to take a train and as soon as we got off, we were in another world entirely! All the signs were in Sanskrit with English translations and it smelled very strongly of the delicious food we were about to partake of!! Needless to say, I was PSYCHED!!
But first, we needed to visit one of their temples and see what it was like to worship like them. This was a scary, overwhelming and neat experience.
We visited the biggest temple first:
Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha
As soon as you walk in, your head must be covered with a scarf and you must take off your shoes and wash your hands. Then you walk up stairs and enter the worship room that would be like our chapel. Everyone goes in and there's large white sheets covering the floor. There's an altar at the front and some men playing instruments and chanting prayers. You walk in and it's women on the left and men on the right. We didn't walk up to the altar but just sat down and watched instead.
Now, as soon as I walked in, I was overcome with a feeling I've never experienced before and still can't explain. It was part anxiousness, part overwhelmed [in the size and grandeur], part confused [as to what to do], and part awe [for the religious devotedness of these people]. It wasn't a BAD feeling, per say, but a feeling that just made me physically uncomfortable. But once I sat down, I felt a little more at ease. I sat there among my 20 white friends and for the first time in, I think, my whole life, I was the minority and everyone was looking at me weirdly. We stuck out like sore thumbs. I ignored it for the most part and just enjoyed the people and their practices. It was such an eye opeing experience and I can honestly say that I loved it.
But I still couldn't help but think, "What a contrast this will be tomorrow when we go do baptisms for the dead in OUR sacred temple". It made me that much more grateful for our church and the spirit of confirmation I feel that helps me know it's the true gospel.
After the temple, we made our way to the restaurant called Gifto's for our dinner. But on the way, we stopped at a little shoe boutique and bought some traditional Indian shoes/slippers. Mine are gold and are adorable with all their intricate beading! I probably won't wear them THAT often because they're far too uncomfortable but they were a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn't pass up!
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| "Never pass up an opportunity for new shoes!" |
Then we went to dinner. And, oh boy, what a feast!! It was a traditional Indian dinner with all the courses and they just kept on coming!! It was AWESOME!
Some things were better than others, but everything, as a whole, was DELICIOUS! As you can see, I enjoyed myself :)
Next came the Hunt for Henna! Some girls had already gotten it done but their directions about the whereabouts were vague and/or misleading. So we eventually found our own place and got our Henna tattoos!! Check it:
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| BEFORE |
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| AFTER |
So basically an AWESOME day at Southall! If I ever have the opportunity to go back, I wouldn't think twice about it. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget!!
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