We went to India...In London.

On Friday we took an interesting trip to Southall. I say interesting because to be quite honest I didn't really like it. It's basically the India inside of London. Our first stop here was the Sikh Temple. We had to covere our heads with scarves, remove our shoes, and enter their temple room and sit there for 20 minutes. I didn't really get much out of it because I didn't really understand it. I learned here that I hate Indian food as well. We had to eat a blob of brown goo (made out of wheat, butter, brown sugar, and flour) after exiting the temple and I literally had to gag it down. It gets better too...we went down the stairs and were given an entire tray of food. I think I maybe had 2 bites before giving up and returning my tray. It really just didn't sit well with me at all. After leaving the Sikh temple we made our way to a Hindu Temple. Again, it was hard for me to grasp a whole lot when I don't understand the culture or religion at all. I did my best though, to get out of it what I could. From there we had to go to larger more elaborate Hindu Temple. By this point I was just ready to put this all behind me so a group of us hurried over there, got in, got out, and headed to McDonald's. I wish I was kidding, but I'm really not. On the way there we did look through a few shops and bought some self-serve hena though. When we got there I ordered myself a chicken nugget happy meal and finally felt at home. We spent the next hour in there talking, eating, and creating hena designs on our hands. It was the best part of my day. At 5pm we met up with the rest of the group at an Indian Cuisine retaurant. Great... Luckily I was pretty full from my Happy Meal so I just tried a few dishes (none including curry). At 6pm things finally turned around when we left Southall and headed to Hyde Park for the Peter Pan performance. It was amazing! I already have a love for Peter Pan and this was no exception. It was inside a large round tent so they were able to project scenery on the ceiling, fly, and just do amazing and creative things. I was so happy to be there. It made me feel like my day was actually worth something. When it was over Catherine and I walked back to the flat and went to bed totally exhausted from a culturally exhausting day.