Like Night and Day

This was what I had written as of this morning:

These past few days I haven't been too active on le blog because I haven't been too active, period. I've been laying low a little bit because a) I feel gross, and b) I don't want to inflict myself/my illness on the London population at large because c) that just doesn't seem considerate, and d) it's not very fun to have people look at you like you have the plague. And blowing your nose/coughing/sneezing is even less convenient when you don't have a ready supply of tissues and a rubbish bin on hand. So yeah.

On Saturday my one outing was to the play Duchess of Malfi by John Webster in the Old Vic Theatre. And despite feeling like my head was going to explode from sinus pressure, it was kind of cool. The lighting/music/atmosphere was some of the most effective I've ever seen. The set was incredible, and all the effects combined to make a production with foreboding undertones that were very appropriate for Duchess of Malfi. Good theatre experience.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to blow my nose and go back to bed. Blech.

*****

And now, later this evening, I feel SO much better than I did this morning. Really, I would like to give a shout-out to my friend Kenzie who has endured my whining patiently, has empathized with me (she had the cold first) and has worked her magic with her Essential Oils so that I largely attribute my current good feeling to her. I have only had to blow my nose a handful of times in the last few hours, and while I still have a touch of cough and congestion/sinus pressure, I feel so much better that sometimes I even forget that I'm sick. Hooray!

After school (which was held in the LDS Hyde Park Chapel building on Exhibition Road today, by the way) I had to do laundry and write a paper, but I took a break this evening to venture out for some gelato with a few of the other girls--Abby, Janessa, and Kenzie. I got cookies and cream and caramel. Mmm mmm. It was a lovely evening walk through Kensington Gardens in the warm twilight.

Side note: On our way to get gelato we walked by the window of this store with a bunch of shoes labeled "5 pounds," and I saw the CUTEST red sandals/heels with flowers on them. I grabbed Kenzie and dragged her over to the window, pointing to those shoes, and said, "I HAVE TO HAVE THOSE. I HAVE TO HAVE THOSE SHOES!!" Needless to say, we will be returning to that store soon--it was closed when we walked by. I kind of have a shoe fetish, and it manifests itself sometimes at random moments... Yeah.

I had one of those "You're a foreigner, aren't you" moments at the gelato place tonight. One of the few I've been conscious of, actually. This nice British lady, seeing us pull out our cameras after we had gotten our ice cream, offered to take our picture, and in the process of getting that set up, I remarked that I didn't think I had ever had gelato before coming here. The lady, gasping in shock, asked, "You've never had ice cream before??" Apparently here ice cream and gelato are one and the same--there is no distinction between the two like there is in the U.S. We tried to explain, but I'm not sure we got the message across, but I'm sure we did communicate loud and clear that we were not from around here. Oh well.

Ice cream, gelato--whatever it was, it was delicious.