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!

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!