Day Thirty-six from Melissa - Tea at the Palace

Do you know how strange it is to type "Day Thirty-six?"  Every day it shocks me how fast time is flying. We pack it chock full, I assure you.  

So, all the girls in our room but one decided to go have tea at the Orangery.  Another girl joined our group, so that made fourteen in all. Seven of us had kitchen crew, so that complicated things. We have to set up and take down meals, so we have to come early and stay late.   Here's the outline of our day. We knew it was going to be insane. 

7:50 Set up breakfast

8:00 Breakfast open

8:30 Breakfast closed

8:45 Hopefully have breakfast cleaned up

9:00 Class

12:00 Class ends

12:25 Tea group picture

12:30 Leave

1:00 Tea appointment

4:00 Set up dinner

5:00 Dinner

5:45 Everyone assembles lunches for trip tomorrow

6:00 Clean desperately 

6:45 Leave for concert (class event)

7:30 Concert

With that schedule in mind, we were all showering last night and setting out our clothes. In addition, we were informed that a cleaning check would occur at 3:00, and since there was obviously no time to clean today, we cleaned last night as well. 

By 7:15, girls were busy doing each other's hair. Makeup and hair half done, we ran down to set up breakfast and eat our own, then clean and run back up to keep getting ready. 

Class was great!  We talked about England's religious history, from Henry VIII to Oliver Cromwell. Fascinating!

Class ended and the girls from our room were the first on our feet. Up in our room it was like getting ready for prom, only fourteen times more. 

Everyone was doing hair and borrowing curling irons and hats and dithering over shoes. It was really fun. 

This is all of us. 

And this is all the girls from our room. 

These are my roommates. Yep, that pretty much sums it up. 

Of course the wind was blowing, and it was misting (not really raining, but almost), so our hair was pretty blown by the time we got to the Orangery. 

The Orangery used to be Queen Mary's greenhouse to grow orange trees. Situated on the grounds of Kensington Palace, it is in the gardens. 

 

Tea was very fancy. One tray for every two people. 

The pink drink in my cup is called a berry infusion. No, it is not actually tea. Don't worry. I looked up how it was made. They chop up berries and apples and rose hips and put them in the teapot. Then they pour boiling water on top of it, stuff a sieve down the spout of the teapot to keep the fruit from coming out, and serve. No tea involved. Looking down inside my teapot (I had my own personal teapot), it looked like potpourri swimming around. 

It looked great. It smelled like hot berries, which is a smell I like. It tasted - well, have you ever washed raspberries, put them in a bowl and eaten them, and then drunk the water out of the bottom?  That's what it tasted like. Water with an earthy taste. It wasn't sweet until I added sugar. It was okay, but it certainly looked much better than it tasted. 

Cucumber and mint sandwiches (white triangles), egg salad (eclair shaped thing), veggie wrap sections, and bagel bite with smoked salmon (looks like a rose).  We also had scones, clotted cream, and jam. On the top level was chocolate cake, a vanilla and jam cake, and chocolate and lemon syllabub. That last is very sweet and whipped in a little glass. 

Afterwards we took a lot of pictures. Check my Facebook. We all had an agreement to take pictures of each other and tag each other on Facebook. 

Some people asked us who was getting married. Later we realized we should have just picked one is us as the bride-to-be. 

Then we explored the grounds. 

Oh, and we found the statue of Peter Pan!  The story of Peter Pan was written by J. M. Barrie, who used to play with three little boys in Kensington Park. It was inspired from their playtime. Years later, he gave this statue to the park as a gift. It was put up in one night so the children would think fairies had put it up. 

It's much bigger than I imagined. 

Then we hurried home to help set up dinner. It's hard to hurry in a boot, but we did the best we could, and admired the park as we went. 

Can we have Park Day here sometime?  I've never seen such an epic place for Capture the Flag. The pictures don't show it, but there are hills and trees and bushes and tall grass and short grass and daisies - Miriam and I were both really wishing Park Day was there. 

Arriving home, we scrambled out dinner. It was very American - pulled pork sandwiches, corn on the cob, salad, and chocolate cake for dessert. Then, because we're leaving too early tomorrow for breakfast, we got out the sack lunch fixings and everyone made a lunch. 

Rushing desperately, we got all the dishes cleaned and put away just in time to run out the front door. Our class has had a total of four events we've gone to as part of the program. Tonight was the last - a concert showcasing Dvorak's cello concerto, Ravel's fairy tale suite, and Stravinsky's Firebird. 

We were three rows back, close enough that I could see the broken horsehair in the Concert Mistress' bow during Firebird. Also close enough to see the subtle smirks on the violinists' faces when a loud chord woke most of the audience up. I was grinning myself. 

It was epic, hearing all that music eighth in front of me. I could feel the drums through the floor with my feet. Dad, the French horn was excellent, especially during the really exposed bit near the end of Firebird. Listen to it and you'll know where I mean. Mom, you would have loved the fingering on the violins. I don't even play and I found it fascinating. 

Then home, and a late night snack. 

Yum. Leftovers are fair game here. 

Then we packed as fast and as lightly as possible. Scotland tomorrow!  And we have to get up at 6:00. 

I think I'll be a very excited zombie.