Wimbledon Rules!

Today consisted of shopping at TopShop after class and walking from Oxford Circus (sadly no monkeys or elephants) to Leiceister square and exploring near our flat at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). However, yesterday we rode the tube to Wimbledon! It was about an hour's ride on the District Line, which is prettier than most because it travels outside a lot of the way instead of just under the city. We got off the tube and walked through the town of Wimbledon on our way to its legendary tennis courts. There were a ton of boutiques and cafes, a few flower shops and even a Chinese restaurant with tennis balls hanging in its outside seating area. The houses there were incredibly pretty and different from what we've seen so far because Wimbledon is a small town in the country compared to London. Although they were pretty big they reminded me of the typical English cottages you picture when you think of the English countryside. Once we finally made it down to the courts, which form an enormous complex, we planned on just walking around and taking dorky tourist pictures of the signs that say Wimbledon. Much to our surprise we could buy tickets to get in to the complex and watch courts 2-19! The gift shop was lavish but pricey. I must say it seemed like they screened Ralp Lauren models who looked very cute and British in their polos to man the counters! While we were there Serena Williams beat Sharapova, enabling us to take pictures of her name on the scoreboards and Andy Roddick was also there although we didn't see him, sadness. The entire place was gorgoeus, the flowers were so perfect that if you didn't see them in person you would think they were fakes. There were atually a lot of British tourists from all over England so we didn't feel too touristy. Also, shoutout to the Wimbledon staff they were super helpful (two staff members offered assistance when we were lost)! There was also a ton of police on patrol, our bags had tobe x-rayed and we walked through metal detectors. There was even barbed wire surrounding the entire complex! We saw a lower level women's tennis match which we also saw later on a tv in a restaurant, so we were sort of on tv . . . Anyway it was all very posh and completely British. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Serena will continue to win in the semi-finals!