Wrapping things up with Peter Pan & War Horse

Thursday (12/17) was another lazy day for me. I just relaxed more, made myself breakfast, nothing too crazy. I spent a good portion of the day writing my Billy Elliot review and got most of it done, but we had a scheduled dinner with the whole group and it was time to get a move on there.

So we went to what seemed like it was going to be a really great place for dinner, but it was quite disappointing. I got a Caesar salad that wasn’t good (how hard is it to screw up Caesar salad?) this lobster ravioli bisque thing which sucked because it was like 2 bites and didn’t even taste good, and I got a brownie for dessert which also tasted crappy. Oh well what can you do. The waiter knew Faryn and I (she ordered the same stuff as me) were unhappy with out meals so he brought each of us an order of French fries :P

After dinner we saw Peter Pan. Although I love Peter Pan, it wasn’t the best rendition of it I’d ever seen. It was very cool because all the actors were on wires and flying in the air at times, and there was also this projector system that surrounded the place which was very cool, but I guess the acting wasn’t so great. I don’t know really but it was a little disappointing. I slept threw some of it! That night it was SO COLD! It started to snow here which is the first snow I’ve seen all year! I don’t know what the exclamation points are for because I wasn’t excited lol

Today I wanted to do some shopping on my last full day in London, so Randy, Leanne and I went back to Oxford Circus and I finally went to HARRODS! It was a great place but I obviously didn’t buy anything. The place was ridiculous, they had a pet kingdom, and they had puppy bulldogs that were £4000 each! What?! Seriously!!? For a puppy?! I don’t get why people don’t just adopt their pets.

Anyway, we went to pizza hut for lunch! Haha, it was delicious and I needed some greasy American food. I got the buffet, so I ended up eating so much pizza that I was too full to eat dinner that night.

The show we saw tonight was called War Horse. I was actually excited to see it because we had heard it was very good, but I was sooooooo tired from shopping all day. Basically, I didn’t like the show, well at least the parts I was awake for! It just wasn’t that exciting and it took place during WWI and I don’t know. There were certain parts that were very good, like the horses were these amazing puppets that needed 3 people to handle, and there was music in the show that I thought was pretty good, but I thought the story and acting were both pretty bland overall.

Anyway, when we got back, I finished and submitted my Billy Elliot review, and finished my draft for my small Seize the Day review! After I submit that one which will be soon, I only have my final essay to do which I’m going to work on during the plane ride tomorrow. Well time for sleep soon… I’m going to finish packing in the morning and then off to the airport :D

The Globe, Tate Modern, Tower of London, and Billy Elliot

Seeing the Globe Theater (12/14) was pretty amazing (if you don’t know what that is it’s where Shakespeare’s plays were performed back during his time). It was very weird because there was no roof and it was like stadium seating? I don’t know it’s hard to explain, just look at the picture. The guy taking us around was explaining to us that the theaters unique design effects how the actors perform which I thought was very interesting.

After exploring the theater and doing an acting workshop, we went to the Tate Modern, which I had been looking forward to the entire trip! It was one of the best Museums I’ve ever been too! I loved it! They had all my favorite artists including Monet, Pollock, Dalí, Lichtenstein and… ANDY WARHOL! They ad an entire Andy Warhol Room! It was awesome :D

Yesterday (12/15), we went to the Tower of London. It was such a fiasco getting there. Basically, there was a ton of construction and delays on the tube, and Randy, Amy, Emily, and myself were about half an hour late. Patsy was not happy about it to say the least, so we had to pay for our own tickets. Patsy reimbursed Randy though so I need to e-mail her about that.

Anyway, the Tower of London was great! We saw the Queen’s crown jewels and Henry VIII armor and just walked all around. There were a lot of guards so we finally got some great pictures that we had been looking to take. We also saw the London Tower Bridge, which is so beautiful.

Later that night we saw Billy Elliot and it was phenomenal. I can’t even believe how good it was. I was crying during half the show; all the parts when he talked about his dead mom, and the talent of these kids was just so unreal. That show just made me wish I could do what those kids could do. I felt like such a dork crying during the show, but that’s just me for ya :)

Later that night a few of us went to a dance club called TigerTiger, which was a lot of fun. We danced and hung out and Steve tried teaching me how to Salsa, but that clearly didn’t work so well. We’ll have to try that again in the near future!

Today (12/16) was a day off so I slept in until about 1PM. Faryn had already left to go shopping. I considered going shopping myself, but I looked out the window and saw rain and lost my motivation. I finally submitted my Mother Courage review, so now I just have one more long review and one short review. I’m definitely writing a long review for Billy Elliot! Since its been a little while since Seize the Day so I might just do a short one on Peter Pan or War Horse since those are shows we’re seeing this week.

All of done today is THINK about writing my Billy Elliot review, and bought some groceries and went to Pret A Manger with Kamara. Don’t hate on me for being lazy, I’ve been doing so much! I bought myself a premade dinner thing so hopefully its good (trying to save a little money!) speaking of which, I’m all about of pounds! I need to exchange some ASAP. Don’t know what’s the plan for tonight. More to be continued!

Weekend in SCOTLAND

Sorry I haven’t written in a few days. Internet in Edinburgh was terrible!

Pied Piper was an extremely cool show. The entire thing was hip-hop dancing with pretty good music. There was no dialogue except for a narrator every once in a while. I enjoyed it a lot!

So Friday (12/11) morning we started our 3-day weekend as we journeyed off to SCOTLAND! The train north took a little less than 5 hours. The second we got off the train we knew we were in a totally new place. It was SO COLD and it was SO FOGGY! We arrived in Edinburgh, which is the capital of Scotland and the 2^nd biggest city in the UK. At first glance it seemed like a pretty nice place.

We arrived at the hotel and Steve booked a 2-bedroom apartment… for 10 of us! It was a little crowded to say the least, but we mad it work. It was like a giant slumber party. After settling in and whatnot, we were all excited to explore. We decided it would probably be a good idea to get some food. We went to a pub and decided we aught to do as the locals do, so everybody got a pint of beer with dinner. I know what you’re thinking, but it actually wasn’t terrible. Apparently the beer here tastes more like cider; I thought it tasted very similarly to red bull ;)

So we hung out at the pubs for a little bit and played pool and whatnot. When we went home around 12ish I noticed something… restaurants and other places were still open! And people were out and about on the streets! Everything in London closes around that time, but it was nice that people were still out in Edinburgh.

The next day (12/12) we basically shopped the whole afternoon. We also saw Edinburgh castle which was cool, but I got over it quickly and went back to shopping. That night we went to a dance club which was a lot of fun. A bunch of us just danced for a few hours and hung out but we didn’t stay out to late because we had to wake up early for the train the next working. It was still cold and still SO FOGGY!

This morning we left Edinburgh and arrived back in London this afternoon. I’ve just been relaxing for the most part and writing my review for Mother Courage, which is almost done. Tomorrow we are doing a bunch of things, like touring the Globe Theater. Well I’m off to sleep in a bit; I can’t believe it’s the start of the final week!

Lots of Touristy stuff and SARAH JESSICA PARKER!

So the Toy Museum was a little lame, but it was cute. It had a lot of really old dolls that freaked me out. The gift shop was fun. I got to play with some stuff.

Leanne found out about a premiere that night for Did you hear about the Morgans? so we went to that in Leicester Square. WE SAW SARAH JESSICA PARKER AND HUGH GRANT! it was so exciting! i wish i had something for them to sign, but i probably wouldn't have gotten anything anyway. the crowds were pretty intense, but it was so awesome. SJP looked so good!

Seize the Day was really good! I enjoyed it a lot and we saw the original production of it. It was basically an all black cast and it took place in modern time and it was about a black man running for mayor of London. It was very well done, so I’ll probably write a review about it.

Yesterday (12/9) was a very touristy day. We woke up on the earlier side to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace (for the record, I always thought that Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament were the same thing. Well they’re not :P the one next to Big Ben that you see in all the pictures is the Houses are Parliament) the actual changing of the guards was pretty boring, but the whole experience was really great. Apparently it is the biggest visited tourist spot in the world. I definitely believe that because I heard so many different languages there. There was also a parade kind of thing that went on. There was a marching band and they played a medley of show tunes! It was so great! I’ll put a video below so you can see what I mean.

After that we walked through this park, which was really pretty. The walkway was named after Princess Diana which I thought was really nice. At the end of the walk we arrived at the Cabinet War Rooms, which was where Winston Churchill lead operations during WWII. It was also a Churchill museum and the place was basically left the way it was since WWII. It was pretty cool, and I little scary to see how it was then, but definitely an experience.

After this we went to Westminster Abbey which is where a lot of English figures are buried, including Queen Elizabeth I. it was a little freaky seeing tombs and whatnot, but the church was very pretty. It looked a lot like Hogwarts from the Harry Potter movies, so I have a feeling it might have been designed after that.

From there we walked over the bridge to the South Bank for our tour of the National Theatre, which is where we saw Mother Courage and her Children. It was cool to see the backstage workings and whatnot, but I was so tired so I didn’t get to really appreciate it unfortunately.

When we finally got back to the flat, I literally passed out (around 7:30). I woke up about 4 hours later and stayed up for a while. Luckily my sleep cycle wasn’t completely screwed up this morning!

So I woke up a little early this morning and Faryn and I walked to Starbucks for breakfast and then to the grocery store to get some food. Definitely needed to do that because I totally didn’t have any food in the apartment.

Today’s big sight was the Bevis Marks Synagogue, which is the biggest operating Sephardic synagogue in London (which is orthodox). It was nice seeing some Jewish culture considering half the sites in Europe are churches. This was in the East End of London where apparently a lot of Jews live. To be honest, I didn’t see anyone that looked Jewish outside of a 20-foot radius of the temple. The area seemed very Arabic, but it was cool to see a different part of London for sure. While seeing the temple we walked on the trail of Jack the Ripper, which was interesting. The shopping in this area was also very cheap so I might be heading back there.

Right now I’m on a little break until we see Pied Piper tonight, which is supposed to involve so hip-hop so that should be fun. Probably won’t write a review on this one however. I need to start writing about Mother Courage before Scotland tomorrow! I refuse to fall behind!

More Shopping & Chinatown

Yesterday morning was lovely because I didn’t have to get up at any specific point. Steve came to my door and said to come up for breakfast. It was very cute. Randy was being like a short order cook; he mad everyone scrambled eggs and crumpets which was all very delicious.

We decided to go to Oxford Circus and Carnaby Street for some shopping. I didn’t buy much unfortunately, just a black hat and a ring. Oh well, there is still plenty more of this trip to go shopping! I saw a pea coat that I really liked, but I didn’t buy it. I’ll keep looking for one though because I want one so badly!

Then we went to a Japanese/Thai restaurant in CHINATOWN :P yea, I know how weird that sounds but that’s how it was. I got shrimp dumplings and spicy tuna rolls, which were very good. Then Kamara, Emily, and Steve decided to eat the wasabi that I didn’t touch… yea, not a good idea. Steve ate a lot of it, and his stomach was burning for a while! Haha. I exchanged some more cash too. We went into a small casino for a littlewhile. I just watched Steve play, but he didn't win any money. But he did win a stuffed animal from a crane game (naturally).

When we got back to the room, I basically passed out immediately. I guess I was just really tired from being out all day. I slept until noon today, which was lovely; I got a lot of hours under my belt for the day :)

We’re going to Pollock’s Toy Museum in about an hour, and then we’re seeing another show tonight called Seize the Day. I haven’t’ really heard anything good about it but we will see.

ALSO! Since we have 3 days off this weekend, we’ve planning to travel somewhere. Well we have officially booked a hotel in SCOTLAND! Very excited to go to another new place. I’ll tell you how the museum and show are in the next post. Until then, everything has been so fun! AND! Patsy posted our grades for stuff we’ve handed in and I got a 20/20 on my Inherit the Wind review and 10/10 on my Woman in Black mini-review! Woooooo! So as oh now I have a 40/40 for the class :) (Thank goodness!)

Frustrating Morning, but Mother Courage was AMAZING!

Yesterday I didn’t do much because I didn’t go to bed until 5 AM the night before! I made sure I finished one of my long reviews before I went to sleep (friday) so that I didn’t have to worry about submitting it on time (due on Saturday). So when I went to sleep I had the rough draft of my Inherit the Wind review finished and I e-mailed it to Ben so he could proofread it for me.

So naturally I didn’t set an alarm (for Saturday) because we had the whole day off and I thought it would be nice to not have to wake up to an alarm. When I woke up, I looked at the clock and it was 4 PM! I’ve never slept that late in my life. I guess I’m still jetlagged. I got up and finished my Inherit the Wind review, and did a mini-review for The Woman in Black. a lot of us went out for a nice dinner to a place called Prezzo which is right down the block, really convenient. The dinner was great and it was nice to dress up a little since I haven’t at all on this trip. When I came back to the room I watched 2 episodes of Ugly Betty and 2 episodes of Private Practice :P

This morning (12/6) was a bit annoying to say the least. Patsy asked us on Friday if everyone wanted to go for a meal to talk about the shows and whatnot either before or after the show today (Sunday). We decided then that we would do lunch at 1 PM. APPARENTLY the lunch was moved to 12, but the e-mail wasn’t sent out until 9ish this morning. I didn’t have my alarm set until 11:30 because I anticipated going to lunch at 1!! Faryn and I get a knock on the door at 11:25 that everyone is leaving at 11:30. I was so pissed off that nobody let us know earlier.

I figured Steve might not know that the time was changed wither, so Faryn went upstairs to see if they were up while I was getting ready, but him, Randy, Emily, and Amy left without us. To say the least I was pissed off by this whole situation, and of coarse Faryn and I were the only ones out of the loop, and 20 minutes late. I still don’t understand why the lunch was moved to 12 when the show didn’t start until 2:30! Whatever, I could go on and on about this, but there is no point venting here.

Anyway, we say Mother Courage and her Children, which starred Fiona Shaw who is Aunt Petunia in Harry Potter. Patsy says she’s one of the biggest stage stars in London. The show was AMAZING! I loved it so much. The special effects as well as the music were great, and Fiona Shaw was spectacular. I’m probably going to write a review about it, but haven’t decided if I’m going to do a long one or a short one.

That’s another thing! Patsy lessened our work load! Now we only have to do THREE long reviews instead of 4 AND she got rid of the deadlines! I’m probably going to write things right after the shows anyway, but this way I don’t have to stress about getting them in on time.

That’s pretty much it for now. I’m in my room just killing time, and Faryn is out with some of her friends that are here on term abroad. I’m still pissed about this morning though. But the show definitely cheered me up!

Shopping, and the WEIRDEST show EVER!

Today (12/4) we went on a shopping/walking tour. Faryn and I woke up excited to shop with everyone, but when I went to wake up Steve, Randy, Emily, and Amy, they all decided to stay in and sleep instead. Faryn and I ran to the tube stop and took it to the Marble Arch stop. The group for today ended up only being Faryn, Anna, Valerie, Patsy, and myself. It was actually good to have a small group because it was easier to go shopping that way! I can’t really remember the significance of the marble arch except that it is pretty and it used to be by Buckingham Palace and they moved it to its currently location? Whatever, all I know is it’s near the shopping district!

We walked into Governors Square which is across the road from the U.S. Embassy. It was cool seeing the embassy, and Patsy told us all about it. She said going in there is like crossing the boarder and they will check your passport and whatnot. She told us that she grew up in Switzerland as an embassy kid which I thought was cool. Her dad was someone important who worked at the embassy and it taught her to be tough. Every once in a while they would have kidnapping drills. Almost like fire drills but her family would practice what to do in a situation if her father were to be kidnapped or something and she wouldn’t know if it were real or not. I found that to be a little scary, but it was cool to hear about. She also said she used to have diplomatic immunity!

As we kept walking we located the house of HANDEL! That was so exciting considering I just wrote a paper on him for Baroque music. I wanted to go inside because it is a museum now, but nobody else wanted to go… I guess that’s something I’ll just have to do on my own one day soon. We went into the famous Liberty and Hamley’s Toy store, which was a lot of fun. We went to Carnaby Street which is where famous people in the 60’s would hang out (Beatles for example) and Piccadilly Circus, which is like the Times Square of London. We walked passed Waterstone’s, the biggest bookstore in the world. That’s something I also have to do on my own.

Around 1:30 we went to St. James Church which has free music concerts every Friday afternoon. We heard an orchestra of kids that looked about my age and they were incredible! We went to the famous Fortnum & Mason’s, which was so expensive haha. The shopping continued and then Faryn and I split and did our own thing and bought a few gifts :) then we went back to relax before the show.

That night we saw Endgame at the Duchess Theater. I honestly wish I could tell you what it was about, but I had no clue what the hell was going on during this show. The show was only one act, so there was no break. All I can tell you is that the main character was blind and sat in a chair the entire time, and he lived with his servant whom he always yelled at, and his parents lived in trashcans. It was so weird I cant even go more into it. Patsy loved it, but most of the group was so confused coming out of that theatre. Definitely not writing a review for this show.

A bunch of us found a place to eat a little. Most people wanted to stay out longer but I decided to go back and write my papers. I got back to the room and decided I wasn’t going to sleep until I had my long production review for Inherit the Wind finished. I eventually finished it, and went to bed at 5 in the morning. Oh well! Tomorrow is a day off and I can just sleep late! I’ll write a short review for The Woman in Black at some point during that free time.

Impressionist Paintings and Our Crazy Running Late Fiasco!

I actually got some sleep last night. I think I’m getting used to these shitty beds! Wooh!

Today (12/3) at 1 we went to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square which had a lot of famous paintings including Monet and Van Gogh!! The impressionists are some of my favorites, it was so great to see some of the paintings I’ve been familiar with for so long and actually see them up close. The textures, for example, were so great! The museum had a lot of medieval and renaissance paintings as well, but they were mostly of Jesus and Mary so it was getting a little redundant if you catch my drift.

Afterwards we went around the corner to the National Portrait Gallery which was mostly photographs from today. There were pictures of a lot of English celebrities, like Keira Knightly, Kate Moss, and Twiggy which was cool to see. There were some disturbing pictures too, like a woman with a stab wound in Rwanda that I couldn’t look at for too long because it was just so sad. The woman in the picture was crying and it make me really upset :( we had the rest of the afternoon off, so the lot of us went back to the room until the show that night. We also stopped in some church between the museums, but I really can’t remember the significance to be honest! Hehe. It was pretty boring compared to the others.

So being the irresponsible group that I guess we are, Myself, Faryn, Steve, Randy, Emily, Amy, and Kamara as well, we were running late getting to Covent Garden where the Woman in Black was showing at the Fortune Theater. We got off the train around 7:45, which was the time we were supposed to be at the theater! Then after running around like maniacs not knowing where this theater was, we finally made it. But we were late and the show had already started. Since the show already started Patsy left our tickets at the box-office for us, which wouldn’t seem like a big deal right?

So we get to the box-office and I tell them who we are and they say they have our tickets. The man counts the tickets and there are only 6 tickets although there are 7 of us!! We were like shit what the hell do we do!? Steve said he would wait out here until things got figured out (despite the fact that we didn’t know if things would get figured out).

The rest of us wait until we are aloud in the theater which takes a good 10-15 minutes. Luckily one of the ushers filled us in on what we missed before showing us our seats. We finally sit down and Patsy immediately notices that Steve is missing. Randy tells her what happens and she immediately gets out of her seat! Next thing we know she’s back and said she got it figured out, thankfully. Apparently the theater didn’t print out the last ticket and she didn’t notice because she kept it in a stack. Nevertheless, Patsy called Steve, and he he came into the show during intermission.

Despite the fiasco, the play was okay. I enjoyed it and I was scared at times, but it wasn’t my favorite. We walked around afterwards because none of us had really eaten anything, and we ended up walking around forever because the restaurants close so early here. Finally we find a really good Italian restaurant. We played never have I ever and it was a cute, bonding experience. we took the bus back instead of the tube for the first time because the tube stops running after 12. Overall it was a good day, which was definitely what I needed after the previous day. Onward to shopping tomorrow!!

St Paul's Cathedral, Inherit the Wind, and definitely not my finest hour

I woke up this morning (12/2) and actually got some sleep the night before! Yay! I finally figured out a way to feel comfortable at night; I take the blanket and rap half of it into a ball and rest my head on that to make the pillow softer, then rap the rest of it around my body to keep myself warm. I know that sounds weird but it’s the only way I’m comfortable!

We started our day by heading over to the tube station, and of coarse I forgot my oyster card that allows me to get on the train. I had to pay for a single ride ticket which sucked because it was £4! For one way! So expensive… that was really frustrating and I was pissed about it.

We went to St. Pauls Cathedral in the City of London. Yes, that is different than London. It is the old, historic part of London. St. Paul’s cathedral was designed by architect Sir Christopher Wren, and apparently Memorial Chapel at school is based on his design! What was also really great about the Cathedral was that it is in the Engl

ish Baroque style, and I actually knew what that meant after just finishing the Baroque music class! I thought it was really great being able to understand that first hand. The church was very beautiful, and the fourth biggest in Europe.

We also went to the Museum of London. It wasn’t anything truly impressive to be honest. All I really saw there were some really old artifacts that were thousands of years old which actually was cool and a bunch of stuff on the fire of 1666 and plagues and whatnot. Nothing very exciting.

We then had the rest of the afternoon off to do whatever we wanted, so myself, Steve, Faryn, randy, Emily, and Amy (the 6 of us have kind of formed our own little group) took the tube to Waterloo, which is where we were the day before (on the south bank of the Thames River). We went to a really good Italian restaurant called Strada which is all over England. I got a kind of margarita pizza that was really good. I took about half of it to go because it was too big to finish. (keep this in mind for later)

So when we left the restaurant we finally got a hint of the London weather; it was DOWNPOURING! There were lots of booths of candy and food and whatnot, so while we were standing under train tracks to keep warm, Steve ran to a gourmet candy booth full of candy that Emily and I had been eying the day before. He bought so much candy it was actually ridiculous; I think he ended up spending £45 worth of candy! We kept walking around and we found a little café to sit in to pass the time, and all of a sudden I realized that the stuff in my hands felt light. I look down to find that the paper bag that was holding my leftover pizza got so wet from the rain that the pizza fell through the bag! It was actually really fun, but frustration. I guess I’m just having one of those days…

Later that night we saw Inherit the Wind, which was starring Kevin Spacey as Henry Drummond. The play was really great and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure it was the first non-musical I’ve ever seen! All the British actors also have American accents, which I thought was really cool. Because I read the play in high school I’m going to write my first theatre review for it (has to be 2 pages single spaced, ugghh). Oh well at least I’ll have the first one out of the day done with.

Later in the evening I checked my grades for the fall term, which I probably shouldn’t have done because it made me sad :( oh well. Tomorrow will most definitely be a better day! I've never been that person who always forgets something, but I did have a little bit of an off day. But no worries, I am in London after all!

Terrible Night Sleep & Theatreland Tour

I had the worst night sleep of my life last night. I fell asleep right away obviously because I was so tired, but I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep for a number of reasons. For 1, the fire department is down the block, so there are tons of sirens, 2. the streets are extremely noisy in general, and 3. The beds are still hard as rocks!!! I had to bunch up a blanket on top of the pillow for my head because it’s actually painful to sleep with my head directly on the pillow :( I was like wide away at 4 in the morning, I got up and had a glass of orange juice, got up and charged my camera, and basically waited for the sun to come up.

So a bunch of us woke up early and went to that shopping center. Faryn and I bought some groceries. I still don’t have a phone because the cheapest phone they had was out and I refuse to spend a ton of money when I’ll probably end up throwing out the phone. The line in starbucks was ridiculous, so I went to another coffee place called Giraffe, and the coffee sucked to say the least. We went back to our rooms, Faryn and I sat down and ate a little breakfast, and then the lot of us was off to the Tube (their version of the subway).

We arrived at Leicester Square in Westminster, which is kind of like the Theatre district of London (technically next to London), known as Theatreland. We met with Patsy and our tour guide named Val around 1:30 PM. Val was a great tour guide, but she had purple hair (I’m just saying). Anyway, we had a walking tour of Westminster for about 2 hours. I learned a lot from her. Some things that I found interesting that she told us was that London was not a planned city, therefore there are a lot of different kinds of buildings and architecture. WE went to a church called St. Paul’s, which is a church dedicated to the theatre and many English actors have memorials there. She explained to us how England switch from catholic to protestant around the time of Henry IIX because he wanted to get a divorce and the pope wouldn’t let him.

We also saw the Savoy hotel and theatre, which is supposed to be one of the most luxurious hotels in England. The street that drives up to it is the only street in England where everyone drives on the RIGHT side, rather than the left. The reason for this was back in the day, females needed to get out of the carriage on the side closest to the theatre (or something like that). There are no signs there though so I don’t know how they expect people to assume. That’s another thing I noticed about London… THERE ARE NO STREETS SIGNS ANYWHERE! It’s the most bizarre thing.

We went to Covent Garden, which is like a big piazza now, but it used to be a major farmers market. The walking tour continued until we got to the Thames River. Val explained the importance of the river and its history in London. She said that when the Romans developed the city, it was crucial to be centered on the river for trade purposes. She also said that the river is gradually getting narrower and deeper with time, which I thought was cool. We walked across to the other side of the river, which is considered London and the tour stopped there.

When we got there, everyone immediately agreed that we should go on the London Eye which is that Ferris Wheel looking observatory which has a perfect view of anywhere near the river, like the bridges and Buckingham Palace. The palace is on the Westminster side of the river, while we were on the other side in London. There was a really cute street fair going on around there so I’ll be wanting to check that out in the near future. We saw billboards for the Beatles exhibit and a Dali exhibit, so those are some things I might do on a day off.

For dinner we went to a pub called the Mad Hatter which had the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland painted on the ceiling. They claim to be one of the first pubs in London. I got vegetarian lasagna, which was different but tasty. Eventually we walked back to the tube stop and ended the night back in our flats. I am very exhausted but it was a great day. It was kind of cold out towards the end, but Steve tricked me into dressing very warmly in the morning so I was very content. A bunch of us hung out in Emily and Amy’s room later that night and ate chocolates. Amy

and Steve decided to make a fort in his room? And a bunch of us watch my dads bootleg of 2012. I fell asleep immediately :P when I woke up I had a second wind which sucked because I need all the help I can get falling asleep tonight. Oh well, hopefully tonight will be different! I am just going to finish up a homework assignment that’s due on Thursday and then I am off to bed (hopefully!). We are seeing Inherit the Wind tomorrow night with Kevin Spacey! I’m very excited.

Goodnight!!

View from the London Eye:

American Dining and Starbucks Galore

So I woke up from a glorious nap and feel extremely refreshed, despite the fact that the bed and especially the pillows are rock hard. Oh well I’ll manage. A bunch of us went to a pub down the road and of coarse I got the most American thing they had on the menu: Cheeseburger. Don’t worry I’ll get into the culture soon, but it was bar food so not too much to choose from. Steve of coarse got desserts for the table…

We walked around for a bit to see what the neighborhood is like. There are SO MANY restaurants! Thank god. We also found a shopping center with a grocery store and a lot of boutiques including FCUK, so I’ll definitely be doing that in the very near future. Faryn and I are planning to go there around 10 AM tomorrow morning to get groceries and some window-shopping. Did I mention there are 2 starbucks within 3 blocks of my studio flat?! Yea, so good. (by the way, the place I’m staying at is a studio flat, not a hostel like I said in my last post).

So it’s almost 11 PM and I’m exhausted so I’m just relaxing in my room. Faryn is video chatting with her boyfriend and they’re playing Chinese checkers against each other (so cute). I’m trying to load last night’s episode of desperate housewives but it’s taking forever to load!!

Tomorrow we’re supposed to meet Patsy (Patricia Culbert, Theater Professor from Union) at Leicester Square I believe it’s called? We’re supposed to meet around 1:30 and since I am so afraid of getting lost I want to leave at least an hour in advance (it’ll also leave time to shop more!). I’m so afraid of getting lost because Patsy isn’t staying in the same place as us, so it’s our responsibility to get there. In addition to the many instant messages I have going on my screen right now, I’m just going to do some last minute computer stuff then get to sleep early for an early start in the morning. So far this trip is looking good.

Oh and I love Mike Jacobson, just throwing that out there ;)

I have Arrived!

The trip has officially begun! I am currently on the plane in seat #59D on Virgin Atlantic Flight #46. Our flight took off right on time which is always a great start. I am sitting with the aisle to my left and Steve to my right and Randy to his right.

So the first movie of the evening with my oh so delicious airplane dinner (not going to lie, the brownie for dessert was excellent) was 500 Days of Summer which was great because I’ve been wanting to see it. I really liked it, I thought it was very cute and I love Zooey Dechanel so that was a plus. I LOVED the point of the movie, which was basically that everything in life is a coincident and that there are no miracles; things happen the way they are meant to happen. I’m going to keep that in mind…

17 Again is the best movie .. Zac Efron actually said as a guy was giving his wife carnations, “Carnations? What a dooshbag!” Ahhh! Love it, so good. I actually got choked up at the end of this movie, it was so cute :) steve is watching it too, I find that very funny.

Someone 2 rows up is watching the west wing…

Bandsland or whatever the movie is called with Aly Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens was cute but I didn’t finish it before the plan ride :( Anyway, we landed, and I am officially in the UK! Of coarse it is raining… The group of us on the plane consists of myself, Steve, Faryn, Randy, Emily, Amy, and Kamara. We split up into 2 cabs; the cabs are so cute and different, and the driver was kinda a jerk and I couldn’t understand him… the other driver called him a wanker (first slang word since being here)

The drive to the hostel or whatever you call this place, it is called Endsley Garden, took an hour and I kept sleeping on and off until we got here… the trip cost £80 for 4 of us, so we each payed 20, not terrible. I converted $300 and got about £160 in exchange just to start off with. I’m finally in my room. Its not bad, there's a bathroom and a bedroom and an extremely tiny kitchen. I don’t plan on doing a ton of cooking to be honest. Faryn, Steve, and Randy just left to go to startbucks even though it is about 5 AM in our minds (actually 10 AM here), but I choose to stay in and sleep since I haven't gotten any. I need to get a pay as you go phone at some point soon. For now I’m going to relax and try to sleep as much as possible. Until next time <3!