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!)

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.

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!