meet eunice.
you may have seen a glimpse of her in some of my earlier pictures,
but i have yet to give her a proper introduction.
for those of you who didn't know,
eunice was my roommate this past semester in oxford.
we arrived at oxford as friendly acquaintances,
having only spoken to each other two times in person prior to england,
but i know that i left oxford with a truly wonderful new friend.
over the course of the three months that we lived in the same room,
we did not have a single issue or dispute.
in fact, she was always incredibly thoughtful,
giving me snacks and food when i was too deep in a furious writing frenzy
to even go out of the room for food
and kindly allowing me to borrow her adorable dresses
whenever the occasion arose.
i was so excited when eunice agreed to come to london with me
one saturday in november.
because eunice had class on monday's & friday's
with essays due on thursday/friday nights,
her schedule was not very ideal for traveling.
in light of this, dan & i decided to plan a really special day for her.
[actually, this day was mostly dan's planning.
from lunch to goodbye, he had everything all set for us]
stop #1: lunch @ a korean restaurant
on the way to our lunch location, we walked down oxford street,
one of london's largest luxury shopping districts,
taking everything in with our eyes.
i think there were 3 aldo shoes stores and 4 h&m's,
all within a few blocks.
then, we saw ben's cookies
in a small nook on the corner of an adjacent street.
this place is kind of a big deal
as far as cookies go.
i'm usually not too picky when it comes to cookies.
i will eat them crispy or soft, moist or crumbly.
anyway, we bought a box of seven.
i wasn't expecting anything more than delicious cookies;
however, that quickly became a clear understatement.
these cookies are soft & moist, but not too fluffy
with a perfectly textured middle section.
the chocolate chip ones even have melted chocolate in the middle.
i think the craziest part about these cookies
was the fact that even after dan & i returned from
our 10-day trip to barcelona & paris,
they were still perfectly soft in the box.
thank you, ben.
stop #2: king's cross train station/platform 9 & 3/4
eunice is a fellow harry potter lover
and had been dreaming about visiting platform 9 & 3/4 for quite some time.
so, of course we needed to incorporate
a trip to king's cross station into the itinerary!
we told her not to get her hopes up too high,
but it turns out that she absolutely loved it.
roommate love!
this is the inside of king's cross train station.
with the white domed ceiling,
i almost felt like i was inside of a huge golf ball.
i can't even count how many times i rode this during my three months in england.
my oyster card (tube pass) became a basic necessity.
stop #3: harrod's (disney/christmas display)
yes, i was right.
harrod's does look even more magical at night,
twinkling with all of its lights.
i'm not sure if this is an annual occurrence or not,
but harrod's had a special disney display that opened in early november.
each of the glass windows on the ground floor depicted a famous fairytale.
from snow white to cinderella to mulan.
this was my favorite display:
a modern rendition of cinderella's glass slippers.
but instead of the fairy godmother,
these were the work of french shoe designer, christian louboutin
(famous for his shiny, red-lacquered soles)
i'm a sucker for things that sparkle.
then, we took eunice through the food & chocolate halls.
the bakery even switched up their dessert selection to match the holiday season!
we ended up buying some turkish delights,
as none of us had tried them before.
i know i've wanted to ever since i read the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe
with the scene when the witch offers edmund a box of them.
they tasted just as i had imagined.
chocolate-covered oranges and other sweets.
i love how fresh everything is at harrod's - from their main entree foods to their fruits.
after wandering the food halls,
we headed upstairs to the 7000 square foot disney pop-up boutique.
hello there, magician mickey. :)
they even had a cinderella slipper salon
where little girls could try on limited edition replica glitter-embellished glass slippers.
the plush, pink stools were simply precious.
we had a lot of laughs and fun walking around taking pictures.
ariel's pink dress is actually one of my all-time favorite disney princess outfits.
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. ;)
stop #4: london eye & big ben
the grand finale of the day was supposed to be watching the fireworks display
from the top of the london eye.
well, we ended up getting slightly behind on our schedule,
and the rides were already coming to a close as we approached.
in place of it, we decided to take a night walk along the thames river.
it was chilly, but a really great time, nonetheless.
i think the most interesting part of this walk was when a group of american college students
asked me to take a picture for them. of course, that was no problem.
i was a bit surprised, however, when the girl whose camera i used
asked if she could take a picture with me.
apparently, i looked just like one of her friends.
then, in return, she took this group photo for us
with big ben glowing in the background.
these two were here for me all throughout the semester,
through late night papers, homesickness and more.
i am so thankful to have had them with me.
we were all pretty tired by the end of the day.
look at these troopers.
and lastly, i included some of the silly photobooth pictures that we took earlier in the day.
in november, eunice & i requested each other as roommates for the upcoming semester.
we were told by the housing people that this would not be very likely,
since students are first assigned to their preferred housing,
and they could not guarantee and empty room for the two of us to live in.
so, i literally jumped up and down when i received the email from housing
informing me that eunice & i will be rooming together on east campus for spring/summer.
it's going to be so wonderful :)
wishing you all a happy new year!
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