Fancy Dress and Fancy Houses

Surprisingly enough, I found myself with some extra time Thursday night. The reason? For the first time in a long time, I didn't have to pack a bag for the weekend. These last few months, I've been heading out of town right after school Friday afternoons to chase another adventure, but last weekend, I was lucky enough to just stay home. Well, of course I didn't just stay home. I might have slept here at the flat, but I still managed to keep pretty busy!

I started off the weekend with a trip to one of our favorite Friday afternoon pubs, the Balham Bowls Club, with some of my fabulous work friends. We cheekily call our Friday afternoon pub trips "7th Period," and it's one of my favorite traditions here in London. We popped around to a couple Balham hot spots and then had a fun dinner together before I scooted off home to get ready for my weekend.

Donal, Leah, Anna, me, Charlie

Saturday morning, Fulbrighter Rebecca came down to London from Woburn Sands where she lives. We had a big weekend planned--first, a huge Rugby tournament and then a trip out to Hampton Court. We had heard about the Rugby Sevens event a few weeks before and even though neither of us knew much about it (or about rugby in general), it sounded like fun, so we booked a couple of tickets. The London Rugby Sevens is basically a two-day tournament held at Twickenham Stadium with rugby teams from around the world. Each team has seven players, and each game is composed of two seven-minute halves. 

Turns out the event isn't really about rugby. It's more about getting dressed up and having a big party while some rugby games are played in the background.   :)  Each year has a different theme, and this year's theme was "Safari." Rebecca and I both made a lame attempt to dress up by purchasing some tiger ears at the Woburn Safari Park a few weeks ago (and I also bought some fun animal print flats and wore an animal print top while Rebecca painted a nose and whiskers on her face), but our outfits were essentially a huge fail compared to the amazing costumes of almost everyone around us. But that didn't bother us too much. We were both so swept away in the extravagance of it all. It was so neat to just be there and witness it all! The Brits call dressing up in a costume "fancy dress." And I must say, nobody does fancy dress quite like the British! All that enthusiasm is pretty impressive!

The train to Twickenham was insanely busy! And almost
every single person jammed onto the train was in fancy
dress, headed to the stadium. Except this poor woman and
her husband! 

I'm not exaggerating about how crowded the train was.

Look at all those crazy kids getting off the train!

So much fun!

Twickenham Stadium

LMFAO onesies were quite popular. Scratch that. Any
kind of animal onesie was quite popular!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! 

The "cheeleaders" welcoming the English rugby team to the pitch.

Team USA lost the first match against Australia but then won against South Africa later in the day.
The weirdest part was that the whole crowd in our area was chanting U-S-A every time the USA team played.
We couldn't tell if they were actually cheering for us or if they just wanted to chant something! 

The fourth Ninja Turtle and the craziest giraffe costume ever!

He must have been on a snorkeling safari? 

There was a lot dancing in the aisles  :)

Another thing that kills me is how much the British seem to enjoy the YMCA.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen people do the entire YMCA dance
(did you know there were WAY more moves than just the Y, M, C and A?)
with more enthusiasm than a whole class of American third graders.

My first rugby even was definitely a success!

 Rebecca and I decided to take it easy Saturday, so unlike the other thousands of partiers at Twickenham, we called it a day in the late afternoon and headed back to Brixton where we had some delicious Mexican food at Brixton Village.

The next day, we had plans to meet a woman named Dorothy and her lovely husband Dennis outside of London to tour the famous Hampton Court Palace. I met Dorothy at the US Embassy welcome event back in September, as Dorothy has been sitting on the Fulbright Steering Committee in England for about 40 years. Dorothy has been a great supporter of me, and she even came to visit me at La Retraite earlier in the year. Rebecca and I were both so excited to see Hampton Court and to spend some time with Dorothy and Dennis.

Hampton Court Palace is one of the many legacies left by Henry VIII who had this amazing property built. Much like the Rugby Sevens, I really didn't know much about the palace before my visit, but it quickly has become my favorite royal residence I've seen so far. The buildings themselves are gorgeous, and you can tour all sorts of places, including the grand hall, the estate rooms, the chapel and even the kitchens. But even more impressive than the historical buildings of the palace are the gorgeous, amazing grounds and gardens. Never in my life have I seen so much beautiful landscaping all in one place. And we were so lucky to visit when we did because we had bright blue, clear skies! That's truly a gift for England, where grey skies are really the norm. There are just so many pretty photos to share--I simply couldn't pick what to post, so I've posted almost all of them!

The entrance to the palace

Myself, Dorothy, Rebecca and Dennis outside the front gates of Hampton Court Palace

Inside Henry VIII's Great Hall

There were lots of hunting trophies all over the palace,
which makes sense because King Henry loved to hunt.

Do you see King Henry VIII? 

Cheers!

Dorothy and Dennis at the head table 

There were many actors running around in full
costume, and they would speak to you in character!

This is the game room where they would come through after a feast for
games, dancing or just lounging. 

Throughout the palace, these fabric posters give you
information about the rooms you're in and the history
of the palace/the kings and queens who've lived there. 

The grounds are amazing!

Looking out into The Great Fountain Garden

Orange and Blue! Go Lions!

This part of the gardens is called The Wilderness. I love how it's tamed but untamed at the same time.

The palace grounds has a famous maze, so we had to give it a go! Good
thing Dennis knew the trick and kept telling us to keep right. 

The Rose Garden

Rebecca loves meat pies and look what we found! 

The Pond Gardens

The Knot Gardens

This was our favorite garden, The Pond Gardens. You could actually smell the sweet flowers in the air! Aren't those colors incredible?

The Pond Gardens

The Pond Gardens

The Pond Gardens

The Pond Gardens

The Pond Gardens

The Pond Gardens

The Pond Gardens

This is the world's largest wine vine, called The Great Vine. Cool!
And each year they give the first batch of grapes (or barrel of wine,
can't remember?) to the Queen! 

After our visit to the palace, Dorothy and Dennis took us back to their house where we had a nice roast lunch at a hotel almost next door to them. Dorothy is quite social and even heads up her local luncheon club, so we also got to meet several of their friends and really got a feel for what life is like for Dorothy and Dennis. We headed back to Dorothy and Dennis' house after lunch for a coffee and a chat. The cherry on top of this fabulous day was the very thoughtful gesture Dorothy and Dennis made for Rebecca and I:

Dorothy and Dennis have a beautiful Victorian home, and look at that flag!!!  (I've only seen the inside of Victorian
homes in London, where they've pretty much all been converted to flats. It was so neat to see the full size and grandeur of a real Victorian!)

Staying home last weekend proved quite an adventure after all, and I really had fun taking in at all that fancy dress and all those fancy houses!