Harrod's: from safety pin to elephant

This morning, Karla, Mary, and I made the journey to Harrod's Department Store and waited until the front doors opened. They advertise that you can buy anything from a pin to an elephant (of course, you must special order them :) They will plan your wedding or funeral, deliver your groceries, and design your child's nursery. They boast over 300 hundred departments and 5 shopping floors. We figured we could make a day of it, but it happened that it only took us around 3 hours to make it through everything. 

It was founded in 1834 by Charles Henry Harrod and has had only 5 owners since; including that of Mohamed Al-Fayed-the billionaire father of Princess Diana's boyfriend Dodi Fayed, who was also killed during the accident in Paris. Fayed sold the store to Qatar Holdings on May 8, 2010 for £ 1.5 billion!

One part of Harrod's world-famous food courts. I bought a delicious Turkey club for lunch :)

My mom loves cows, so this is for her :)

An absolutely gorgeous gown designed by Elie Saab for Gwyneth Paltrow

Another beautiful gown by Elie Saab for Beyonce

Fun retro Harrod's print

This is the memorial dedicated to Dodi and Princess Diana in the Egyptian Escalator banks at Harrod's. Within the pyramid, there is a preserved wine glass from the Hotel Ritz in Paris where Dodi and Diana spent their last evening, and the engagement ring that Dodi bought for Diana the day before they were killed. Sad story :(

On a lighter note, I had my first Film Studies class today. There is only one other person in the class. So pretty much, it's us chatting with the professor. His name is Nigel Gearing. He graduated from Cambridge University in England, and is a playwright for theatre and writes as well for film, television, and radio. He seems really interesting and really knows a lot about film so I'm excited for the future of the class. I also took the tube for the first time by myself which was definitely a rewarding feat as I will have to do it in the near future for my internship. I wandered down to Piccadilly Circus to see what was happening downtown. Tomorrow I have morning class and then have an FIE welcome dinner with raffles and dinner. On Thursday night, the group will attend the play "39 Steps" based on the well-known Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name. Friday is no class, which is fine by me. I'm sure there will be some sort of adventure waiting:) Have a great night!