Days 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33

Hello from back in the UK... finally. I fell in love with the idea of Paris, but while actually there, I felt homesick for London and its clean streets and its friendly people. BUT had a great time and great adventures while in Paris!

Day 29 aka bread bread bread and more bread.
The morning started out with a French continental breakfast which consisted of mini baguettes and croissants. That's all they eat in Paris, apparently. Sarah and I left early to get to the area around the Musee D'Orsay and to get some Euros out so we could actually pay for things. Our hotel was in the strip club district, so no shopping there. When we got to the Musee D'Orsay, we saw tons of furniture and home goods stores, but no clothes. Weird. The museum highlights: Degas ballerina statue/ paintings, Monet everywhere, the design for the Paris Opera building (aka the real life Phantom of the Opera setting) and lots of French art all over the place-- basically all art comes from France, I'm pretty sure. I bought a crepe outside the museum-- SO DELICIOUS. After meeting up with the group we went on to the Louvre!

locks on the bridge to the louvre.. you're supposed to leave one there with your true love <3

Did you know that you are allowed to take pics in the Louvre but not the Musee D'Orsay? Weird. There we saw the Mona Lisa (La Jaconde in French), the Athena nike and Venus de Milo statues and some amazing artwork including 4 other Leonardo da Vinci paintings (out of the like 20 that exist). Not to mention the effect of the building itself. Gorgeous.

roomies at le louvre

After the Louvre we had free time and went to dinner at a (pretty empty) cafe. They took forever, so we didn't go to the eiffel tower light show that night. Instead, we went back and got ready to go out! We went to a dance club called Cafe Oz and had a great time, even though it was PACKED. I decided to head inside early when we went back towards the hotel, but my friends went walking around Paris looking for more clubs and ended up just walking for an hour and coming back.

Day 30 aka SO HOT and dehydrated but who cares because it was awesome
The day started off with a large headache and 80 degree weather but I was still excited for the day's activities. First up was Notre Dame. It was so huge!

no quasimoto sightings, unfortunately. but the pope was inside!

We couldn't go inside unfortunately because they were doing a HUGE ordaining service. After listening to the service on the loudspeaker for a while, we went to the Eiffel Tower. To be honest, I wasn't really THAT impressed with standing below it during the day (more on this later). We also went to the Musee di Quai Branly, "which is like the British Museum on crack" according to Jay, the culture by design professor. It had basically French conquest and imperialism stuff from around the world. Afterwards, we met up with some of the group and stood in line for going up the Eiffel Tower. NOW I was impressed. The view was beautiful! And it was the only time I got to see the Arc de Triomphe, but it's huge-- I could find it from the skyline.

crepe i bought outside the eiffel tower right before the whipped cream splatted on the ground.

After the Eiffel Tower, we went back to the hotel and napped. I ended up accidentally missing dinner, but that's ok because my friends spent a lot on their meals. We met up again at 9:45pm and headed back to the Eiffel Tower for the light show!

It was beautiful at night, and way cooler than during the day. We drank wine and watched it light up several times. Then I realized I hadn't actually eaten anything all day, but when I went to go get something, all the stands were closed, so I ended up just going to the only open stand and bought a bag of chips and a pistachio ice cream cone. Perfect dinner. We realized that it was almost 1am and we needed to catch the metro. We made it back around 2am. It was a great last night in Paris.

Day 31 aka you thought yesterday was hot?!
Sunday was an entirely free day to walk around Paris and we decided to go shopping in Montmartre, which was just north of the sex district where we were staying. It was so cute, we walked up the hill to the Sacre Coeur cathedral, stopping to shop or eat croissants along the way. Once we got to the cathedral we sat on the hill and got another view of the skyline of Paris.

sacre coeur church

It was gorgeous. But so hot. Emily, Haylie and I lost the rest of the group and tried to walk back down the hill, but we got lost. So we walked part of the way back up and eventually met up with our friends. We walked back down the right way and got dinner at a cafe near the hotel. By 7 we were back at the Gare du Nord ready to go back to London, exhausted and sweaty. We got back around 11pm and then I had to work on my Media and Politics term paper. I worked on it from the minute we got home (minus a cold shower) to about 3:30am. It was SO HOT in the apartment I could barely sleep.

Day 32 aka exhausted.
I woke up at 8:30 and scrambled to get ready for Media and Politics. I ended up being a couple minutes late, but my paper was printed and ready. I was also late because poor Catherine has pink eye so I printed her paper and brought it as well. We watched a movie as our outing and you could tell everyone had been up so late doing this paper (I started on Wednesday, worked on it on Thursday afternoon and night on the train to Paris, and all night on Sunday) and even our professor fell asleep during the video. I came back to work on my theatre presentation on The Cherry Orchard, which we saw last week. I ended up not taking a nap because it was so hot outside, I didn't even want to move. I went to class and gave the presentation with Catherine and I think it went really well. Class got out about 15 minutes late, so I had just enough time to make dinner before heading to the Young Vic for their The Government Inspector. I did not really have a good attitude going in because it had been such a long day, but I ended up really enjoying it! We got back at around 11pm and I started to work on the two papers due at 9am. I worked on them until 3 am and then decided to get up and finish the rest in the morning.

Day 33 aka you thought you were exhausted yesterday?
I woke up around 7:15 to finish my paper. Good thing, because it literally took the entire time I had to work on it and get ready to finish it. I was late again, this time because mine was the only computer working for the printer and so I eventually just told people to use it and bring it to class so I wouldn't be so late. We literally answered 8 questions the whole time and then went on an outing to the London Greek Radio station, which was cool, but pretty far away, especially for being so tired. But! I did find out about a Russian Orthodox CATHEDRAL (and some churches, but I want to go to the cathedral) in London not too far from me so I will be trying to go to church on Sunday if someone will go with me. If not, I might go anyway on my day off since they have the services like every morning and vespers or a vigil every evening. After class I took a nice hour and half nap, which is exactly what I needed before going to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the Haymarket Royal. I absolutely loved it. Tom Stoppard is such a word genius and Trevor Nunn's direction focused on the death themes and pointed out the ties to Waiting for Godot in a really good way. I especially liked the way they handled the Shakespearean scenes and the way that the set actually was a box. A wooden stage with a wooden ceiling with a fixed viewpoint. Tomorrow we'll be having a Mexican fiesta in our apartment with the whole group! So excited! Ta ta for now!

Days 25, 26, 27 and 28

Bon soir! Je suis en Paris! More about that later... but I still must update on this week!

Day 25 aka Throw him in the Thames
Media and Politics started off with a bang as we were reminded that our term paper is due on this upcoming Monday... oops. So I've been working on that ALL week. Then we went to the Old Bailey, which is a courthouse near St. Paul's Cathedral (more on that later). Before we were allowed into the public gallery, a bailiff told us about how you can't talk in the public gallery, and how some judges will find you in contempt of court if you do. He told us that one judge fines 200 quid in cash on the spot-- and if you don't have it? Jail time. With the murderers and rapists, so he said. So that shut me up. I always get more anxious about being quiet when I'm not allowed to talk. Anyway, we went in to listen to a mortgage fraud case.. super boring. So boring, in fact, that our professor was actually falling asleep and we spent more time watching him catch himself than listening to the barister (who wears a robe and wig!!) ask the banker a lot of questions. Neither of them really had a case against the other. It was a little ridiculous-- even the judge was getting fed up. After about 45 minutes we left and headed back to Madison House.

Our theatre professor was 10 minutes late to class so we played a game of telephone pictionary. Catherine taught us the game: everyone writes a sentence on a piece of paper and then hands it to the next person (in a circle). Then, the next person reads the sentence and draws it, then folds back the sentence so only their drawing is visible, then hands it to the next person. They write a sentence that they think the drawing represents, then hand it off again. Ideally, this goes on until you get your own back and see how far your sentence has been translated from the original! Mine started with "The Queen is on the pound" and came back with "Put your two cents in." A very fun game, and all you need is paper and pencils! We talked about Macbeth, which we had seen on Thursday in Stratford, and about Chekhov since we were seeing The Cherry Orchard at the National Theatre later that night.

We left straight from class to get to the National Theatre by 5:15pm to take a backstage tour! We were led through all 3 theatres and the backstage areas, and even got to see a horse puppet from War Horse, which we're seeing later in July! I asked a ton of questions and had a really good experience. We broke for dinner. With our backstage tour ticket, we got a discount on the 10 quid wine and main meal special at the National Theatre's Olivier Cafe and Bar. So I only paid like 8 for it. :) And it was some of the best non-Italian food I've had in London so far-- just roasted chicken with a kind of asian glaze? and salad. We went into the theatre to see The Cherry Orchard at 7:30pm. I was one of the 4 people doing a presentation on the production, so we got to sit in closer seats than the rest of the class. I loved the production elements of the show, and the acting was very well done for the most part. BUT. The version was an updated script. But all the production elements were left in the original 1904 setting. I agreed with the critic who wanted to throw the updater and his script into the Thames because it completely ruined the play for me. They were using words like "bloody fricking" and "bozo" and it was just so misplaced that it sounded ridiculous. The language of Chekhov is hard to access, but if they were going to update the language, they needed to keep to the spirit of the play, instead of going for cheap laughs. Chekhov definitely throws in a bit of comedy, but it should not be the kind that causes uproarious laughter by any means. But I digress...

Stayed up until 2:30am doing Media and Society homework. I am starting to get a little ticked that we have been here for 4 weeks and I haven't gotten a single assignment back from ANY class. I know that it is rough to grade so many papers (though none of my classes have over 20 students), but they have a week to do it from when we turn it in... and now it's just piling up because they won't turn back any of it, and we keep turning things in. This might seem trivial given that this is study abroad, but with so few assignments I just want to know how I'm doing!

Day 26 aka London is such a maze!
We went to Fleet Street for Media and Society, which is where Sweeney Todd takes place. It is also where the newspaper industry used to be, before all the streets got bought out and they had to move to the docklands. There are also courts there. That was about as interesting as the walk got. I know there is some sort of plaque or house or something about Sweeney Todd, so I'll have to go back and find it. It was very close to Madison House. After class, I made lunch and did homework before going out to dinner for Claire's birthday! We went to Zizzi's, an Italian place, and I had delicious spinach and goat cheese ravioli with tomato and pesto sauce and a sweet but dry white wine. Afterwards, we went to Scoop, the best gelato place in the area. It's in Covent Garden, which is a short walk from the house as well. I had peppermint and tiramisu (you get two scoops in a small, three in a medium and four in a large). Then we RAN to the Odeon Cinema thinking that Bad Teacher started at 9:15, but it actually started at 9:45. SUCH A GOOD MOVIE. GO SEE IT. I might actually buy it on DVD when it comes out. That's how funny it was. We then walked back to Madison House in the freezing cold and got ready for bed.

Day 27 aka homework party!
I spent the entire day Wednesday working on the aforementioned Media and Politics term paper. Still have about half left. But I did gather and cite all my sources so that I can work on it without internet and on the train. I should be doing it now... but this is more fun at 1am. At 6:30pm we had our weekly meeting, where we got our Paris itinerary and stuff for the week! Gina and Alli orchestrated a birthday celebration for everyone who had/has a birthday for the time we are together in London! Everyone got a cupcake and we got to blow out candles and they had bought each of us cards that were passed around for everyone to sign! It was so sweet and a great cupcake too! At 9pm we had a social committee meeting where we planned out our potluck Mexican food dinner for next Wednesday! We are also going to all go bowling and to some other free events later in the summer. After the meeting, a bunch of us met up in our flat to work on the various essays we were all completing. Except Sarah, who never seems to have homework... lucky. I finally finished going over sources and decided against reading for Culture by Design because it was late-- don't tell Jay!

Day 28 aka more steps than i have ever seen before
Today I climbed over 1000 steps. We went to St. Paul's Cathedral for our Culture by Design outing to observe the architecture and what makes it a symbol of London. I saw no feed the birds lady... but I did see the steps she sat on! As part of our guided tour, we got to see the beautiful cathedral (which randomly has Russian Orthodox icons and Byzantine mosaic work in it) and got to climb up to the Whispering, Stone and Golden Galleries. We didn't get to go to the VERY top, but we got all the way up to the tallest outside balcony. It was beautiful-- a clear, sunny (but windy) day, with a great view of almost the entire city.

me at the top(ish) of st. paul's. you can tell i had 2 papers due that week and had just climbed over 500 steps.

The cathedral's view is actually protected by law-- no one can build anything to obstruct the view in the area. It is 528 steps to that point, and 528 more on the way back down.

view of the floor of the church from the 2nd to top stairwell.

Nice workout for the day, but we were all feeling it afterwards. After class, it was time to pack for Paris!!! And finally we left at about 6pm for the train station. We left St. Pancras Int'l at 7pm for the Gare du Nord in Paris. I worked on my essay for the majority of the 2 1/2 hour train ride. I got two pages written, so a little less than half done! I bought a hot dog on the train for dinner. It was actually not bad-- but I had really wanted a cheeseburger. They ran out, though. Oh well. We rode the Paris Metro to the Piagalle station and walked to the hotel, where I am typing this now. We were finally let into our rooms at 11:30ish. This place has continental breakfast AND they give you a boxed lunch. Sarah and I are definitely going to a crepe stand tomorrow though. Tomorrow we'll be seeing the Musee D'Orsay and Le Louvre!!! Then we will be walking down the Champs Elysee (big shopping street) and seeing the Arc de Triomphe!! Bon soir!

Days 18-24

Bloody 'ell! It's been a week since I've updated! This is due to A) being super busy B) having loads of fun and C) our first group weekend trip and no internet!

Day 18 aka mannequins are creepier underground
Monday we went to the Cabinet War Rooms with the Media and Politics class. This is where Winston Churchill ran WWII as Prime Minister from 1939 to 1945. So the museum shows all the rooms in this tiny bunker... and they have mannequins in quite a few of them.... super creepy. But it was cool to see the museum about his life and the working/living conditions of the people working down there. Then for theatre class we talked about School for Scandal (which seems SO long ago) and Macbeth (which we would see the next Thursday in Stratford Upon Avon). Then we had our first social activity at Mad House... the bakeoff!!

It got pretty competitive over facebook between the flats... but we all know flat B was the CLEAR winner.

We made Shame Truffles-- the recipe Emma and I created for Shane when he was going to drive us to VT but then didn't. Basically they are SO DELICIOUS.

But then all 4 of us were in a chocolate coma for the rest of the night. Bleh.

Day 19 aka what is going on.....
Tuesday started off with a normal trip to an art museum-- or so we thought.

What is going on #1: The Saatchi Gallery is owned by an advertising company and houses a lot of modern, VERY contemporary works. Some were cool, like the oil room, which is literally a floor covered in used fuel.

the oil room. it isnt that deep, but it reflects the ceiling.

Some were not, like the large orgy sculpture and the statue covered with real dead horse hair.

Ok so then we got back and got ready for the film we were all seeing as a group with the film class. It was called Cria Cuervos and it is a Spanish film from 1975... supposedly very critically acclaimed.

What is going on #2: This movie was SO WEIRD. This little girl thinks she's poisoned her father because she thinks he was responsible for her mother dying. Pro tip: he wasn't. and she didn't. So then she tries to poison her aunt who is trying to take care of her. Oh and this is after she almost shoots her. The dead mom also keeps showing up every five minutes. And they keep flashing forward to the future, but never say why she's there, or where she is, or who she's confessing only HALF of the story to. And they kept focusing on this girl's big, beautiful brown eyes. But the actress who plays her when she's older as well as the dead mom has blue eyes. Only redeemingish quality of the movie was the soundtrack. Oh by the way, the whole movie only had TWO songs in it. The piano song that the dead mom played and then this really awesome song called Porque te vas, which definitely got stuck in my head.

Then we went to the LONDON EYE!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!! It was so cool-- first there was a 4d experience where they snowed and sprayed and had things flying at you. We got into a pod just in time to see the sunset as we reached the top of the Eye. It was beautiful. On the way down all the buildings started to light up and we were over the river and it was marvelous.

just chillin over the thames

Day 20 aka 3 H&Ms in less than half a mile
I woke up late on Wednesday because it's my free day. I spent most of it doing homework and reading. Once the flat mates got home, Pam and I decided to go shopping on Oxford Street. Mostly because I needed a bathing suit for the spa in Bath. But then we ended up buying clothes. Anyway, we were looking for an H&M that had a particular line of clothes, but only one of the three in the area had them. Literally, you could SEE the third H&M from the second one. And of course, we started at the wrong side of the street and had to find the right one. Once we got there, we accidentally lost each other, and I ran out of minutes so I couldn't call Pam and then lost service in the basement of the store so when she called me it didn't work. Crazy. So we finally found each other and went home. I got a cute bathing suit from a store called Marks and Spencer, which is basically a Marshalls-ish place... but it also has a food market in the bottom.

Day 21 aka STRATFORD UPON AVON
Thursday was soggy and gross... we had to walk for our outing all the way to the National Portrait Gallery. That's a place I have to hit again, because we only saw one exhibit- Ida Kar's photography. It was very interesting to see what you can tell about what a person wants you to know based on their portrait. After we tried to figure out how to get home and ended up going a super long way, in the rain, we had just enough time to make sure we had everything we needed for our weekend trip! We were on our way to Stratford Upon Avon, home of Shakespeare, by 2pm! Once we got there we headed to Cox's Yard, a pub on the way to the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company). I got fish and chips and a pimm's lemonade. Quite British. Although this one put cucumber slices in the pimm's lemonade, which I was not really a fan of... they're better with mint. Then we walked to the RSC and saw Macbeth!!!! It was a fantastic production that I won't even go into details right now because it would take FOREVER. After the show, Jonathan Slinger, the actor who played Macbeth, came to the Craig Cleeve House (where we were staying) and talked with us for about an hour! He was really nice and a very down to earth guy.

Day 22 aka where are we again? aka the day we did stratford, oxford AND bath
Friday was CRAZY because we toured a million places all in one day. Geography-wise, they were all west of London. Stratford is about 2 hours northwest of London, Oxford about an hour south of Stratford, and Bath about 2 hours south of Oxford. So we really traveled around. In Stratford, we went to Anne Hathaway's house. Highlights: getting to sit on the bench where William Shakespeare courted her, and pics in the beautiful garden. Then we went to Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was baptized as well as buried with his family.

holy trinity church

He has a cool epitaph.

"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear to dig the dust enclosed here.

Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed by he who moves my bones."

Then we walked around the town to see all the original homes and finally the house in which Shakespeare was born. Also cool: they had a window pane that visitors in the 1800s had etched their names on, including Ellen Terry, a renowned English Shakespearean actress.

We left almost right after that in order to get to Oxford for our tour of the town and some of the colleges.

these statues were built to keep out the townies... i think jmu should get some of that.

Those were amazing. They all looked like Hogwarts... and that's because a lot of the colleges were film locations of outside scenes in the movies. Some members of our group got to see the set of the hospital wing from the Harry Potter movies since it is in Oxford. Sadly, I was in the other group. After the tour, we went inside the market and bought Ben's Cookies, which are SO GOOD, then almost everyone bought an Oxford tshirt or sweatshirt and we got on the bus to head to Bath.

Bath was founded by the Romans in the third century AD around a hot spring. We got there on Friday night and had free time to explore. We tried to go to a Thai place but it was super crowded, so we ended up going to Strada, an Italian food chain in England. It was very delicious. Afterwards, we went to a pub called Flan O'Brien's. Don't go there if you are American, because they jacked up the prices for us and laughed about it. It was raining miserably, but we tried to go find another pub. We didn't find one, so we just went home and Sarah and I watched Made in Chelsea for a while. Made in Chelsea is like a British Laguna Beach/The Hills etc. Hilariously cheesy rich people having rich people problems.

Day 23 aka the day the weather needed to MAKE UP ITS MIND
We went on a city sightseeing bus tour of Bath. It started POURING halfway through, so everyone tried to come downstairs. Then someone puked so it was gross and we didn't pay attention to any of the tour. BUT I got a free pair of headphones out of it! After the bus tour ended, we went to the Bath Abbey. It was a beautiful church and full of lots of historical stained glass and churchy things. After that, we toured the Roman baths.

same water that's been there since the 200s... gross.

They were built in the third century as the center of the town. The hot spring provided water for the like 8 baths in the one area. It was very cool but a shame that we were inside the entire time it was nice outside. Then we went shopping for a bit in the town and checked out the flea market. It probably would have been better if it hadn't been raining, as most people had packed up their stands already. After the markets, we went to lunch and afternoon tea at Sally Lunn's. The Sally Lunn house is the oldest known house in Bath, dating back to 1482. Which was before America was even an idea. Crazy. We had delicious chicken sandwiches and tea, as well as splitting some famous Lunn Buns, which we had covered in cinnamon butter and clotted cream.

yummmmmmmm

It was so so so good. Sam needs to make this pronto. We spent half of lunch trying to read our tea grounds ala Harry Potter. Apparently mine looked like a kangaroo.

P.S. Speaking of food that I want my family to try, we had traditional English breakfasts at all of these B&Bs. The components: a fried egg, a tomato, a sausage, 2 pieces of very thick ham-bacon, baked beans and mushrooms. All served with toast, butter and jam, as well as English breakfast tea. I am making that for all of them when I get back.

After lunch, we went to the Jane Austen Centre. Apparently, Jane Austen lived with her family in Bath for a few years. Both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion take place in Bath, and it is believed that many of her superficial characters in all of her novels may have been based on the people she met in Bath. She didn't like it there very much. We went into the exhibit, which had a lot of info about her life and her novels. We also learned the fan language. It was adorbs. Following the Jane Austen exhibit, Sarah and I did some more window shopping and headed back to the room to nap before our (failed) pub crawl. We went a cool live band place called Market, which was fun. We tried to go to another place called The Porter, but Sarah only had her student ID, so she couldn't get in and we decided to get dinner. We looked for open places all over, and eventually decided on a place called Southern Fried Chicken, which actually was awesome. The burger was HUGE and the fries were delicious. They even made it plain for me! Then we went back to the room and ate it there while watching Notting Hill, which was such a cute movie!

Day 24 aka the second day we did three places and returned to London!
The day started with another traditional English breakfast and then we were off to Stonehenge! Well, kind of, because first we had two stops to make. The first was Castle Combe, a beautiful medieval town that has had very little alterations on the exterior since the 13th century. It was small and quiet and lovely.

tiny door on a house built in like 1200something

Then it was back on the bus for Wilton House, which is the home of the 18th Earl of Pembrooke, as well as the filming location of the recent Pride and Prejudice movie and some other movie of which I've never heard.

how come my dad wasn't born an earl, huh?

It was a gorgeous estate, and I really enjoyed walking around in the garden pretending I had the lucky accident of noble birth. But alas, I don't even fulfill the nationality requirement for that.

After lunch and ice creams for pretty much everyone, we got back on the bus for Stonehenge! Did you know that it costs £6.50 to see some rocks-- and that's the student price! It was kind of dumb, because even though there was an audio guide, there is so little known about the reasons behind Stonehenge that all that information was speculation. But we had fun doing the photo op portion!

the whole jmu program at stonehenge!

We finally got back on the bus once it started raining (again) to go back home. Which is weird that London is now home. But I love it.

Also, on a weird note, this trip made us all a little cranky. i think this is because we have all known each other for three weeks now, so people are starting to rub other people the wrong way, and that we were all suddenly taken out of our brand new comfort zone of London and given a lot of free time and a very misleading map. Tensions were high for a while, but everything worked out in the end. I think we're all excited to be back in our city and ready for Paris next weekend!!!!!

Days 15, 16 and 17

First free weekend! Not quite as action-packed as I might have hoped, but all in all a nice (but rainy) 3 days.

Day 15 aka the rocket

I literally have been sitting here asking Sarah, my roommate, "What did we do on Friday before we went to The Rocket?" Not because I got so drunk that I lost my memory, but because I actually do not remember what I did two days ago. I do remember that we got together some of the ladies who were home (a lot of people traveled over the free weekend, including our flatmates, Pam and Emily) and picked up some pizzas from Pizza Hut. Shameful, I know. But they had a deal where 2 pizzas and 2 sides was £20 so it came out to dinner for £4 each. Then we got ready and went to The Rocket, one of our favorite places to hang out with a younger crowd and buy cheap drinks. It also has a dance floor and really loud music alternating between (presumably) British hits I had never heard of and the all too well known American dance variety and then some more classic (but not soft) rock thrown in there.

Day 16 aka Happy Birthday Queen Elizabeth (but really Prince Phillip)!

We got up early and at first, debated whether or not to go to the Trooping the Colour parade or to watch it on TV. We realized that we would not ever forgive ourselves if we missed this annual event the one time we're here. We met up with some others in the house at 9 and left for The Mall, the street between the Horse Guard and Buckingham Palace, and St James'Park and Green Park are along it. We got there early enough to get a good spot, only behind one row of people (and lucky enough that they were kids). We saw tons of guards walk by in the ceremonial uniform, and then the carriages came with the royals! Sitting in the first carriage was Kate Middleton, Prince Harry, Prince Andrew and Camilla Parker-Bowles.
The second carriage had Prince Edward's wife, their children and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. The third carriage that came later held Queen Elizabeth and her consort, Prince Phillip ( in full ceremonial guard uniform).

Directly behind her carriage on horseback rode Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince Edward and Princess Anne. It was too cool to see them in person and have them waving at the crowd! I wish I was a princess. But not like directly in line to the throne. Just the super overprivileged and doing charity fundraising part. We got home at about 12 and I fell into an incredibly deep sleep for 3 hours. We watched Love Actually with some of the girls in Flat A and then watched Harry Potter 1 about halfway through until we decided to go to sleep.

Day 17 aka Lazy Sunday

I woke up with a big headache, so I decided not to venture to Columbia Road's weekly flower market. It was also raining, so I am sure I will go on a more sunny Sunday. I slept until about 11:30, when I woke up to the return of Pam and Emily, who went to Amsterdam and Brussels this weekend. Thus started the cycle of reading and procrastination. Which I am doing right now (for the homework that's due on Tuesday, don't worry family members reading this). Also notable about today was the time when there was no toilet paper so I had to walk to the supermarket and buy toilet paper and back all while holding my pee. In the rain. Attractive, I know. Good thing the grocery store is like, .25 miles-- sorry, .4 kilometres-- away. I then spent the entire day reading EIGHT chapters of politics homework. And skyping Michelle Kay Smith and skype touring Kasey's new apartment :) Sarah and I finished watching Harry Potter and now are continuing to procrastinate haha. Goodnight readers! PS this is the 3rd year in a row I am missing the Tony Awards! So NO TELLING until I can get up and read them in the morning. UPDATE: we watched Harry Potter 5 and then Andrew Levy left me a link on my facebook to stream the Tony's live!!! But then as it was from 1-4, I fell asleep around 3am and missed most of what I wanted to see... thank goodness for youtube :)

Days 12, 13 and 14

Day 12 aka "this is not a brothel"

Tuesday we went to Soho for British Media and Society class. Soho here= nothing like Soho in New York. Soho here is all about music and film production. De Lane Lea invented dubbing. There are millions of record stores everywhere. I can't wait to take Cait when she gets here in about a month. Paul McCartney's publishing house is there. So is the 20th Century Fox London headquarters and jazz clubs and apparently, prostitutes. Well, not so much anymore. But there used to be:

there was a camera in the doorway looking out at us, too... very weird.

After the class I took a long nap, went to a social committee meeting, ate dinner and then got ready to go to The Rocket. The Rocket is a very young, hip bar/dance club/pool hall that had super cheap beer and cider. Nice. We'll probably go again. What was extra great was that I have no Wednesday classes, so Tuesdays I can stay out later than usual. In London, it's necessary!! Even though we didn't really stay out too late-- the bar closed at 12.

Day 13 aka AWESOME LONDON THEATRE DAY

Wednesday was AMAZINGGGGGGG

First, Sarah and I decided to buy tickets to see Rocket to the Moon, an American play written by Clifford Odets in the interwar period, at the National Theatre. I absolutely LOVED it. I ADORED it. The themes were so relevant, the acting (and even the American accents) was great, and I loved the set design and use of lighting especially. Overall, it was a fantastic production, and we saw it for only 12 pounds! We sat in the back row for this price, but it barely mattered because the back row meant 11 rows back in the upper section. Then we went straight away to the Barbican Theatre where we saw the most crazy, amazing, diva, punk, pyrotechnic, rock, awesome version of The School for Scandal (a play written in 1777). They broke all the rules of design concept but in a way that worked perfectly with the themes and style of the play. I absolutely loved it. Our FMIR (faculty member in residence) was so offended he and his wife left halfway through. I found this amusing. Also of note, the actor who plays Slanen, the elf who wants to be a lawyer in Ella Enchanted, played one of the main roles, and the actor who plays Dudley in the Harry Potter movies was another character--and a very funny one at that.

Day 14 aka groundling and toms

i bought my first pair of toms today for just about $4 more than if i had ordered them online. win because those shoes are SO comfortable. which i needed because tonight we went to The Globe, a full replica of the theatre Shakespeare's plays would have been presented in way back when. We were seeing Much Ado About Nothing, which I'd never seen live, but saw the movie version starring Emma Thompson. We got there early and I got to stand right where the end of the stage met the corner of the modified apron thrust piece was.

we were allowed to take pics of the stage before the show started :)

It was a perfect spot, right up in front stage right. It was perfect. The actor who played Geoffrey, the butler, in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air played Leonato, the father of Hero and uncle of Beatrice. We had a great time, even though we were standing from 7 to 11. And now I am watching the movie version of Billy Elliot, as I might not get to see it while I'm here. I've seen it twice in New York and it is very expensive, even at the tkts booth here. Tomorrow starts day 1 of our first free weekend and half of my flat will be in amsterdam and brussels. Sarah and I are staying behind with a small handful of people who aren't traveling so we can explore London on our own. :) Cheers!

Days 9, 10, 11

Day 9 aka i wish i had no feet because then they wouldn't hurt so much.

Saturday started off with a bang... Sarah, my roommate, was running across the street when she turned her ankle or foot in the same place that she broke it last year. So she had to take a cab home from the Tower of London and eventually went to the hospital. Thankfully, she is ok-- just hurt some soft tissue. Walking is harder for her, but she should be gradually getting better at walking on it.

Meanwhile, we had a guided tour of the Tower of London, the fort that was constructed in the 11th century to protect William the Conqueror.

best place for hide and seek since 1066.

It's right on the Thames, next to Tower Bridge (which many people think is London Bridge). As expected, I got a little queasy thinking about all the murders that occured there... and went gaga over the crown jewels. The biggest 2 diamonds IN THE WORLD are in the scepter and Imperial State crown. Gorgeous. We walked to the Tower Green where Anne Boleyn and others were beheaded.

heads rolled there.

We saw the Yeoman Boarders who protect the Tower of London (derogatorily called "beefeaters"), who live there and are allowed to have their children baptized in the St. Peter ad Vincula church (who can then marry there and be buried there). We also saw the ravens, the center point of a big legend of the Tower. King Charles (II? I think?) was told that if the ravens ever left the Tower of London then it would fall. So far they haven't left on their own accord, although they were moved during WWII for their own safety. We also saw replicas of three torture instruments that were used in the Bloody Tower.

Following lunch at the cafe in the Tower, we embarked for the East End. At first, I absolutely hated it. Pretty much because it's the antithesis of where I live in Bloomsbury. It used to be as pretty, but it was also the industrial and immigrant area for years. It got even worse after the air strike in WWII that brought down a lot of buildings. We walked to the Royal Hospital, where the Elephant Man lived until his death and the new Elephant Man lives there now. It didn't help that it was burning hot, we were all tired and that the streets were super crowded with Bengali immigrants shouting their wares in languages I don't know. We cut the tour short and Dr. Butt cancelled the outing for the next day (which was a visit to Hyde Park to see Speaker's Corner, which is an area where anyone can talk about whatever). YAY DR. BUTT! So the guide pointed us in the direction of the only 2 Jewish stores left from when it was a Jewish immigrant section. BAGELSSSSSS FINALLY. And too bad the tour guide didn't take us down to the market, because that was actually really cool, and looked like an artist community. We got back, finally, and I made dinner and talked to Tina on skype, then went to bed.

Day 10 aka first free day (kind of)

Sunday was the first day I got to sleep in (and by that I mean I was awake by 11) since getting to London, so I finally feel caught up to the time zone (although after a long 4 hours of class I still do want to nap). I stayed in my pjs and did homework for most of the day. At 4:30 we left to go to dinner at Dr. Butt's house, which is about 30 minutes away in a more suburban area. It was a lot quieter than my area. And it reminded me of Harry Potter houses. They ordered really great Italian food for all of us. After dinner, we all crammed into their living room and shared each one story that we felt explains who we are from our childhood. I talked about how when I was little and I made Alla, Tina and Maria do plays and ballets in the basement, and how one time when we performed The Nutcracker, I got tired and asked for a drink of water right in the middle, at which point the dads said, "I'll get it!" and went upstairs to watch a Giants game. This is where I think I get my directorial aspirations (the making them do the plays, not losing all male audience members to a football game). I learned a little bit about each member of my group. Then we took the tube home and settled down for more homework.

Day 11 aka who knew i liked politics this much?
Monday is my two class day. Catherine and I gave our presentation on the issue of privacy and freedom of the press. Then we went to the British Library, which is next to King's Cross Station (haven't gone to platform 9 3/4 yet, Harry Potter fans, but I will soon). We saw the Magna Carta and some other very cool documents, such as some original handwritten Beatles lyrics and the original libretto for Handel's Messiah, and Beethoven's tuning fork, and some Shakespeare folios, some very old Bibles, Torahs and Qurans, and early English alphabet books. I really enjoyed it. Catherine, Allison and I stopped to get Chinese take out on the way home. Big mistake. This woman was really rude and the take out selection was a lot different from the menu (aka almost non existent). The food was good and very cheap, but I won't go there again. At 3 I went back to FSU for London Theatre class. It turns out that Sheila worked at the Royal Court Theatre at the same time that Timberlake Wertenbaker was the resident playwright (Wertenbaker is the playwright of Our Country's Good, the play I am co-assistant directing in the fall at JMU). We discussed the play we saw on Thursday, Betrayal, and talked about Robert Sheridan, the playwright of the play we're seeing on Wednesday, The School for Scandal. At 6:30 we had a group meeting, where I tried a bit of my first meat pie. I don't know how I feel about it yet.

things i learned in london today

walking for 10 hours straight sucks.

brick lane bakery has good bagels because it used to be the jewish neighborhood in the east end.

sunscreen is good

there is no such thing as cold tap water in london.

Days 5, 6, 7 and 8

This week was a blur! I can't believe it's already been a week! I never want this to end. But in the words of my awesome Culture by Design professor, "If it never ends, it's not a party-- it's a lifestyle."

Day 5 aka the mini pub crawl day

Tuesday started off with a very tired Amanda rolling out of bed for class at 9am-- Media and Society. Which looks like it will be the class with the most work.... yuck. But also super interesting. yay. The professor gave us a 20 minute break to go get breakfast so that was cool. Then we went to the British Museum, from which we live 2 blocks away. We looked at the Rosetta Stone, pieces from the Parthenon

mm greek gods

We also saw Mesopotamian art and Latin American artifacts. And mummies. Super cool.

I've started cooking a lot because it's much cheaper. And I have deluded myself into actually thinking I'm a good cook by using some of the same creations over and over again. But hey, it's edible and usually delicious.

Because I was super excited about celebrating my birthday on Wednesday, I decided to go out to a couple pubs with my friends to start the countdown to 20! But we only stayed out until like 11 because we didn't realize that pubs would close at 11 on a weekday, then hung out in the flat until it was my birthday!

Day 6 aka BIRTHDAY IN LONDON

This was the perfect birthday. Legit. Couldn't have asked for better. First of all, I happen to have no Wednesday classes in London, so that was awesome. I slept until 9:00 for the first time since getting to London, which was much needed. Then at 10:30 I met up with Catherine, Lindsay, Leslie, Gina and Kerri for shopping at Oxford Circus. We went to Top Shop, which is a HUGE clothing store. It has like hair and nail salons IN the store. And candy mix and match in the store and a cupcake booth IN THE STORE. Lindsay bought me a cupcake for my birthday. AMAZING. They also were having a special promotion for the store where they were dressing people up in accessories and taking photos of them and printing them out. Then we came back and made lunch. After lunch, we ventured to kensington garden. which is GORGEOUS. and also the home of the princess diana memorial playground and fountain and the peter pan statue

every single one of us was excited for the peter pan statue

because of the fact that it is in the mary kate and ashley movie called winning london.

and none of us were ashamed to walk around the park for an hour looking for it.

After the park, we had a group meeting, where I got the surprise that one of the flats had bought me a cake and made dinner reservations to celebrate my birthday with me. It was so sweet. Everyone came up after the meeting and sang happy birthday. i was overwhelmed with happiness... especially because i kept thinking about how wonderful it was that i met most of these people just a few days ago and we all seemed like a family. i love it so much. everyone here is so excited and happy to be here! i love it. and then, it turns out, surprise #2... they bought me my first shot glass that says "i <3 london." It was too sweet.

We went to an italian restaurant for dinner. i had the best ravioli with a glass of white wine and we all shared calamari. Delicious food and great friends. :) Then, we went to the ICEBAR. The icebar is kind of a tourist trap, but also kind of awesome. It's -5 degrees Celsius inside, so you wear a fur lined parka and gloves and your drink comes in a glass made out of ice. You get 40 minutes in the icebar

flatmate pic!

... and afterwards the walk home felt really warm. We got ice cream on the way home and then i went to bed because i had class early the next day.

Day 7 aka Camden. is. cool. and so is theatre.

Went to culture by design in the morning... and the outing was camden market. It was sooo cool. It was an urban center of all of these stalls of an old stable filled with shopkeepers and food and all of this crazy stuff. I bought a tibetan buddhist ring with a blue pearl because pearls are my birthstone. it is super cute. sarah got a ring that had a symbol on it that means something to do with relaxation of the mind, body and spirit.

i went back to the flat after and made lunch, then tried to do homework. i ended up falling asleep for 2 hours. and then woke up and did 2 more hours of homework, made myself dinner and got ready to go to the Comedy Theatre. This was the "outing" for my monday theatre class. we saw betrayal by harold pinter. i really enjoyed the acting and set design especially, though there were many great elements to this very simple play. it was about the characters more than anything else, which is generally something that i enjoy in theatre. we also had great seats considering we were students.

another thing i really liked about seeing theatre in london was that english people do not give an automatic standing ovation, as theatre goers in america often do. sometimes you get forced to do it because then you can't see or you feel rude because everyone else is standing. but a standing ovation should be reserved for the height of performance. i'm not saying it was bad, but i like the concept of saving the standing o for extremely outstanding work.

Day 8 aka im a lobster

today we went to greenwich, which was a little ways down the thames. we went by boat aka my favorite form of transportation. :) except that the water reflects the sun on hot days and you end up with the worst face and chest burn to ever exist. i actually felt sick when i got home at 6:30pm. We left for the day at 10am. we took a guided boat ride down to greenwich, where the prime meridian lies. so i got to straddle the eastern and western hemispheres and be in both at once. which costs £5, unfortunately. but it is a cool picture and i'm glad i did it. before that though, we walked to the greenwich market and bought cheap but delicious chinese and thai food for lunch from one of the booths. then we walked around the national maritime museum, mostly because kent wanted to, but it ended up being very cool. then we walked up a HUGE hill in the park to the Royal Observatory... the view was incredible. We could see a ton of buildings and even a place that is already being set up for the 2012 summer olympics in London. The observatory is where the prime meridian marker and official time are.

straddling the hemispheres

after being in both hemispheres, we went back down through the park. claire and i paddle boated on the small lake while the others napped. we then rode the overground DLR train and tube home.

Tomorrow we will be touring the Tower of London and going on a walk in the East End... the adventures never end! Latersss