High Tea

Our morning class was just a discussion with Dr. LaPine about our opinions, impressions, thoughts, etc. about the first two weeks of our trip. It was his last day with us since Dr. Cooke is flying in on Friday to take over. After our discussion class we came back to the flats for lunch and to get dressed up for our high tea event. At 2:30 we went over for tea at Fortnum and Mason, another ritzy department store with a restaurant on the top floor, which is where we had tea. Apparently it is where the queen buys her groceries and tea from, too! We had a long table for 17 people and then a smaller round table for five and each place was set with pretty, turquoise china and silver cutlery. They started off tea with small appetizers (toast rounds with dill salmon, pesto and cheese pastry-type finger appetizers, and pork slices). Then, they brought us each an individual tea pot with loose-leaf tea, sugar cubes, and milk. The rest of the “meal” was brought out on three-tiered platters (one platter for each set of two people). On the bottom plate was an assortment of finger sandwiches (curried prawn, cucumber and cream cheese, smoke salmon, and chicken), on the middle plate was scones and lemon meringue cookies, and on the top plate was an incredible assortment of desserts including chocolate cake, lemon tart, raspberry jam shortbread sandwiches, raspberry tart, and a funny cake with pink frosting that tasted like flowers or old lady perfume or something haha. Most of it was very delicious and it was a very fun experience! Even though all of the portions were small, there was so much food that we were all stuffed afterwards. When we were finally done with our feast and finished our socializing we headed downstairs to do a little shopping. From there, we headed to the Ritz Carlton just to see it and take some pictures. After that, we came back to the flat to pack and finish our planning for our trip to Dublin, which will begin in just over three hours haha. That being said, I’m going to try to get some sleep and I’ll report back on Sunday after our weekend in Ireland!