Update on Sept. 24 through Sept. 28

Sunday, Sept. 24: I washed all of my clothes by hand, which officially made me decide that it was a horrible idea to do so! I am terrible at ringing out enough water for them to dry efficiently, so I am going to wash them in the flat washer, and then simply let them drip dry. The washer does a much better job of ringing them out as well as getting them clean! Otherwise, I might go down the street from the GoogleBox and wash/dry them there. The only problem is transporting my clothes there, but we decided that I could use either my backpack, or if I needed more room, my luggage. Oh, it also took me forever to wash them! Lastly, I learned the important lesson of needing to wash clothes more frequently, so I’m not scrounging up clothes to wear while the freshly washed ones are drying!!!

After doing laundry, I went grocery shopping at Tesco with Mac. That was a good time; I really enjoyed spending time with just her. We were relatively quick too, so that was nice! When we got back, Mac made the whole flat supper: delicious lasagna, very similar to the lasagna that she made when we were staying at SMU with the boys. Good stuff!! For desert… strawberry covered cheesecake! Mmmm… It was another good flat bonding experience. I am a large supporter of the weekly flat meal :)

That night, Lindsay and I spent the evening in the theatre boys’ flat talking and watching movies. I watched all of The Princess Bride. Good, funny movie. I approved :) Medieval time movies are always fun! They also watched another movie, but I ended up talking with those who weren’t watching it instead.

Monday, Sept. 25: I had my first Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread), peanut butter and banana sandwich. It was on wheat though, don’t worry :) It was delicious! For the next few days, I ate any combination of the three, sometimes switching wheat bread for delicious flaky croissants. Mmmm… remember croissants are my new obsession!

We had European Business for the full three hours again. I almost fell asleep all during the first half hour to hour of class! It was horrible! But somehow I managed to get out of it and wake up. I did my best for the rest of the class period to take detailed notes, participate, and stay awake. It worked out in the end!! I just remember looking at the clock every minute from about 1:45 to 2:15… it was gross… It didn’t help that he didn’t give us a break until nearly 3pm, instead of his normal 2:30!

That night we went the play Fabulation at the Tricycle Theatre. Skjerven, Walt and I decided that we have to go to a movie there sometime (they have a cinema as well as a stage theatre). The movies are unique and relatively inexpensive. Oh goodness! Speaking of Walt; before the show, the three of us were sitting at a table in the ‘bar’ area outside of the theatre, and this older woman comes up to him only to tell him that she was so amazed and happy that he was wearing a pink shirt. She said that British men never do that. Once we explained that we were American, she was a little disappointed, but told us that we had to come back again. As we were passing the bar, the server apologized for the woman’s behavior! We’re guessing she’s some crazy regular. That was fine with Walt, though; he enjoyed the compliment :) Fabulation was a decent show. There were things that could have been done better, but overall it made you think. I really want to read the script; all the theatre kids absolutely loved the script. They just weren’t so happy with the way the director carried it out in this production; he went for cheap laughs, ignorning some of the major emotion within the script.

Tuesday, Sept. 26: We went to the National Gallery for the third week in a row for our last visit. This week we looked at Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Next week… modern art! I decided that I really like some Impressionism, but not so much others. I think that’s how it works with all genres of art, but I saw a big divide in this one. I got really excited when I saw a Monet similar to the one I had painted on my bottle during acrylic painting in high school. It made me realize that I have actually seen that landscape now, and in person, not just in the painting!! Any time I became skeptical of a piece of artwork, I couldn’t help but remind myself that they were originals, painted by extremely talented artists, so many years ago. I also couldn’t stop thinking of my mom. I wish you could have seen it all, Mom!! It made me really miss you!

After class, I had plans to hang out with Walt. We decided to catch lunch at The Moon Under Water (because we couldn’t find a sandwich place in Leicester Square that appealed to us, and we decided to just fall back on that known restaurant). Skjerven, Zak and Nina ended up joining us outside, while Andrew, Mike, Missy, Simon and Schares were all eating inside. It was a grand theatre people gathering :) They all had acting class at 2pm, so Zak and I took the tube back to the flat by ourselves. I ended up trying to read for international business, but decided to just take a nap. That night I met a new girl, named Sandra, who lives in the flat 13 with our new Italian friends, Beppe and Max. I guess other country’s international students don’t need to be separated by sex! Sandra seems like a very sweet Swedish girl. She seemed to also be kind of interested in Skjerven, which should prove to be interesting :) He thinks that she's pretty swell as well!! :) Haha!

Wednesday, Sept. 27: Ahhh… yes… yesterday… It proved to be quite the dramatic day, but we all made it through alive. I had been progressively getting more tired as the week went on because I hadn’t caught up on my sleep yet, and yesterday everything cumulated into one big crabby fest. All the little things from the past couple weeks all added up, and I most definitely snapped at a couple people (namely Skjerven and Walt), but now things are fine. I also was having a really hard time because I am really beginning to miss home. I didn’t think that I was, but I am. I don’t want to go home, but I do miss the people. I really miss my parents, my friends at school and home, and especially Chris. I know we’ll get through it though; I have faith in us!

On top of all that, it was also Mac’s 21st birthday, which was the highlight of the day (no sarcasm there, I am completely serious). First of all, we had a play to attend called See How They Run at 2:30pm at the Duchess Theatre for our Theatre in London course. That show was awesome! It was a huge farce that dealt with the normal things: mistaken identity, too many doors in the set, confusion, confusion, and, of course, confusion. It was so much fun! I enjoyed watching all of the vicars (religious figures in black suits with white collars) running around!! It was hilarious! At one point, during the chase, a dog randomly ran after someone across the stage!!!! We were all so confused! He was only in that one part! It was awesome, though, to see an animal involved in theatre :)

After the show, seven of us (our flat and Mel) went to a pub/restaurant for supper, the Wellington or something similar. It was so much fun just hanging out with the girls. As much as living with six girls can get a little strenuous and catty, we’re all pretty good about that, and supper is always fun :) Then it was cake hunting time for Mac. We found this delicious chocolate cake… Mmm… She loved it! I think after that Brookly and I came back, while Mac, Lindsay and Erin went shopping for Mac’s birthday. I napped :) Then I went to the internet café and checked on flights to go visit Tamara in Germany. Ish… they are expensive! But I have a couple other websites to check out before I book anything. I talked to Bob about it today before class, so I know which airports I’d want to fly out of and which airport I shouldn't even bother with. Then it was cake time. Then a big group of us went to Settle Down (the same place that we went to for Pat’s birthday) as Mac’s choice. It was very fun! They had salsa music playing in another room, so people like Bryan, Neil, Kris, Mel, and Renee went to town! It was so awesome to watch them!!

At the end of the night, a lot of drama occurred, which I choose not to go into detail over, but I will just say that a few of us stayed up until after 4am getting our lost friends home over the phone with maps spread out among us. In the end, we were just glad that they made it home safe.

Thursday, Sept. 28: I had Global Issues at 9am, and after such a late night last night… I was tired and… crabby. When I woke up, I tried to be happy and goofy, but by the time class was over (about 9:45-10), I was cranky. I ended up coming back to the flat with everyone, eating a little, venting a little to KP and Brookside, and then heading to the library to get a library card (yeah, I’m set now) and to the London Lost Property Office to pick up my wallet. Ha, yeah, I lost my wallet on my way home from the Hitler play two Sundays ago. Good times, but everything was in it besides my 10 lbs or so, and I am fine with that! I am just glad to have everything back!!

I was going to head to Camden Town to get some earrings I had seen the other day when we were there getting pierced, but I decided that sleep was calling me. My feet hurt too bad to go anyway; I wore my black tennis last night, and they have no support or cushion left! I came back to the flat and took a long nap… slept until about 4pm. Then I got up, made pizza, talked to KP, took a shower (what a cure all!), went to Tesco with Mac, typed up some notes, and called my buddy from this summer Justin. We ended up talking for a good hour! He’s quite the rambler, but it was nice to hear how he is doing. He is pretty sure he nailed an interview for a job/internship for this innovative company that could very well be somewhere that he could stay for 25 years or at least get a great jump start on his future career! I was very happy for him :) Then I started watching Moulin Rouge with the girls, but I had a bad angle and missed the first 10 minutes, and decided that I would just type this out instead! Now I think that I’m going to go to the internet café, top-up, and call people, then maybe go to bed early. We are going to the Blenheim Palace tomorrow. It’s the only palace that is not lived in by royalty. The queen gave it to this Duke or something. Anyway, it has this huge outdoor maze, chess game, and butterfly house. It should be a blast! I’m pumped :)

Link for Pictures

I tried to upload some photos into my blog, but they were too big. I tried to simply add a page to my poetry site, but the picture became pixelated! So, finally, I decided to just make an album in facebook and put the link to the album in here, at least for this first chunk. Once I make the pictures smaller, I may be able to put them in my blog. Anyway, the link to look at my photos is: http://smumn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006313&id=173300088&l=e0225.

I'll wait for a couple more days to pass until I update on this week :) I hope you are all doing well!! Cheers!

Update on Week One & Two!

Sorry that this is so incredibly long! You may want to read it in parts :) It's practically a novel!! I'll try to update this more frequently, but I still hope that you enjoy it!

Saturday, Sept. 9, 2006: I left O’Hare Airport at around 5pm with Mackenzie, Lindsay, Erin, Brookly, and our new friend from Lewis University, Melissa. Although I had originally thought that meeting at 1pm was way too early, it worked out for the best; I ended up forgetting my purse at home (and Mel forgot her iPod and phone charger), so we had time for our parents to bring our belongings. While we were waiting for our parents, Mel and I had a great bonding experience. She is awesome!! We all completely love her enthusiasm, her energy, and her passion. She rocks!

The actual flight wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have bad earaches or popping, and I was sitting right next to Lindsay, who was sitting across the isle from Erin, and Mackenzie was behind me. Good times with good friends. I didn’t get very much sleep. (I think I’m like you, Dad; I can’t sleep well on planes). I may have just been too excited, but I couldn’t get comfortable either.

Once we landed, we took two cabs (three girls each because we had so much luggage) to our flat. It was only 8:30 or so in the morning. We had until noon for Bob to get there. Ish. We ended up splitting up. Three of us explored for a while, so that they could walk around, while the rest of us watched the luggage, and then we switched. My group found a delicious bakery and got some coffee and danishes. Once we got back, the other three girls started freaking out, telling us what we’d missed. I guess that the landlord, Andre, let the girls in to the theatre boys flat to put their stuff in there and be able to wait inside, but when they went out to get more luggage, the front door closed behind them, leaving them locked out again!! It was hilarious. We were all laughing and freaking out, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, comes this Italian woman’s voice: “Silencio!!” She was a little upset… I guess we were being stupid Americans already :) We realized later that it was one of the students that was moving out that morning, so she had probably been up late the night before, enjoying her last night in London, and being woken up early was not exactly pleasant for her.

Finally, Andre let us in again at about 10am. We were too tired to try and explore anymore, and we just chilled in the flat until everyone else got here around noon. Once Bob informed us of the itinerary for the next few days, we headed out in search for food. After that, we unpacked relatively quickly, considering none of us really brought all that much. Next, grocery shopping. That was a trip! Luckily we have figured out a shorter way to take since then!!

For our first night in London, we went to a small pub called Live & Let Live. It had a very calm atmosphere, and they loved having ten or so random people in there. (Yet we were ten people who each bought a drink, so of course they liked us :)) We wanted to dance though, so we found another bar, called the Famous Three Kings. It’s a sports type bar, with many big flat screens with many different games playing at the same time (American football, soccer, tennis, rugby, etc.). We’ve gone back there a few times. The owner enjoys talking sports with us and sharing information about London; Richard, such a nice guy and true lover of American football. OH! And I got carded at Three Kings for the first time. That was fun J I felt nice and young looking, and I couldn’t help but smile because I knew that when I get old, I will still look young :)

That night I was so wound up about being in London (my chest even gave me a little grief) that I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned until about 5:30am, and then got up and had a croissant (the food I have been having a love affair with…). I noticed that Lindsay’s light was on, so I decided to see if she was awake. She had actually fallen back asleep, but she woke up for me, and we spent the next hour and a half talking. It was wonderful!!

Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006: We began the day with a brisk walking tour with our director, Bob. He’s a skinny, older man with glasses and gray hair, and he is AWESOME! Bob rocks :) We found a whole bunch of places to shop, parks to relax in, tubes stops to use, etc. One of the parks that we went through, called Kensington Gardens, was the park that became filled with flowers up to your knees after Princess Diana died. It was quite exciting. At the end of our tour, we stopped at one of the Wetherspoons (chain of restaurant bars), and Bob bought us all a cold drink (Guess what, Chris? I had sparkling water!!!). After having lunch at Wetherspoon, I got a new SIM card for my phone. Then I came back to the flats and learned that I needed to have my phone unlocked, leaving me with a still useless cellphone. That night we all went back to Three Kings. At about 11pm, most of the people caught a tube to downtown London, while Skjerven (my friend Matt) and I stayed and watched a Rugby game on one of the flat screens. Yet with only 2 minutes left in this close game, they turned it off! The football game was still going, and maybe even the soccer game, but the rugby game and the other TV in that room were turned off! Although a waitress tried to get someone to turn it back on, we got impatient after about 5-10 minutes and left. Once we got back to the flats, I spent some time talking to Lindsay. I love that girl :) Then some of the theatre boys popped up, then the rest of the girls got home, and we all laughed late into the night.

Monday, Sept. 11, 2006: At 8:30am, we met Bob outside the flat to go to the college we’d be using a classroom in. It’s a public, secure (have to show IDs twice to get in) college/university. Most of the kids are in their 12th and 13th year of high school (what they call college), so I feel kind of old there (except I look so young, so I guess it’s not that weird). The school is kind of low on the totem pole as far as quality is concerned, but there are a wide variety of ethnicities and nationalities, and I love it! It’s so awesome to be surrounded by so many different people. When I get back to Winona, no one will seem to stick out, except maybe the fact that St. Mary’s is running amuck with Caucasians. Oh well, they are different parts of the world; I’m over it (if you are – *cough cough* Kasey). At 1pm, I had my first full class: European Business. We actually went the entire 3 hours!! It was an interesting lecture, but a little daunting for the first day of class! The professor, a friend of Bob’s named Paul, is also an older man. He’s just a hoot. After class, Brookly and I went grocery shopping. We ended up taking the wrong way, and walking a lot more than we needed to, but it was still fun. We were definitely ready to sit down by the time we got back! I can’t remember what I did that night… OH! I think that was the night that the theatre boys were being really loud (their flat just echoes a lot), and I went down to tell them to zip it, but ended up hanging out with them until like 5am!

Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006: At 10am, we met at the National Gallery for our Art in London class. Our professor, another friend of Bob’s, Oliver, is such a great man. He’s actually coaches an under 18 rugby team, the London Exiles, so Skjerven completely loves him! He’s a very smart man, who has been educated in both art and philosophy. I know that I’m going to learn a ton from him. Actually, I feel like I’m going to go learn a lot in all of my classes. Although they are very relaxed classes, they interest me, and it’s a lot of new information. I’ll also be learning so much from just hanging around London though. After the National Gallery, Bob gave us our first food stipend (which we were supposed to get earlier). It was glorious!! Brookly and I took that money and… went shopping! No, it wasn’t really with that money, but we did go shopping. I found a jacket at Esprit for -relatively cheap. It was on sale – wonderful! That night I worked on my presentation (yeah, I had a presentation the first day of Theatre in London) for a while. Organized everything into an outline, got it all nice and perfect, and then went out to celebrate Pat’s 21st birthday. A big group had left earlier to look for a club they had found in a London tourist book called the Black Widow, but when they found where it was supposed to be, they realized that it had shut down!! They ended up going to another place called Settle Down. It was a fun little bar and Kris, Lindsay, Erin and I took a bunch of fun pictures when I finally got there.

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006: Possibly the worst day of my life. Okay, not really, but it felt like it during certain parts of the day. I was supposed to give a group presentation in my Theatre in London class at 9am. Well, Andrew and I decided that we would go to Shiraz, a café with free WiFi, at 8am to finish up some small things quick, and then I’d go to the GoggleBox (aka: GoogleBox – an internet café) and print out my outline. Well I learned the hard way that the GoogleBox doesn’t open until 10am, and I had to run to make it to class on time as it was. I was just going to have to use my computer for my outline. Lucky me, I grabbed someone’s converter (which did not include an adapter) instead of my converter/adapter combo, and I couldn’t plug in my computer during my speech. I hoped that I’d have enough battery to make it through my presentation. Turns out… I had enough for my attention-getter. Ouch. I had to give the rest of my presentation completely from memory. Joyous day. I did relatively well, since I typed out my outline the night before, but I was still so disappointed that I didn’t have an outline to keep me able to flow well. Overall, our presentation was very mediocre. I was a little disappointed, but I was proud of myself for getting through it, and after the presentation, I had a great discussion question that was pretty perfect for what we’ve been learning in other classes as well (and I didn’t even know that when I decided to use it in the States).

That evening we all met at the Globe Theatre to watch Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors (the play I had given my part of the group presentation on). It was amazing to be in the Globe!! Being surrounded by that history and knowing what it must have been like for the original audience members was so cool! We were in the yard as groundlings, which is all standing room. Yet we made sure to get to the Globe plenty early, so we were in the front of the queue (aka: line) waiting to enter. We ended up with ‘seats’ right against the front of the stage. Front row!! Whoop whoop! The best part of the night was when it started to rain… If you didn’t know beforehand, let me tell you that the Globe Theatre is an open theatre, open to all the elements… There is an overhang over the stage and the seats, but not in the yard. Being right next to the stage, we had a little bit of protection with the overhang over us, but otherwise, we just stood in the rain!!! Luckily it was relatively warm. During the intermission people were able to put up their umbrellas, but once the performance started again, everyone put them back down.

After the show, we all wanted hot chocolate, so we went to one of the many small convenience stores around the corner and bought hot chocolate mix. I had this really really good mint hot chocolate. Mmmm… Anyway, it was hilarious because Mel could not decide for the life of her what else she wanted to buy. She was so completely indecisive that it was just hilarious! I’m pretty sure we all went to bed early that night. Oh! I think I actually talked to Chris that night :) Yeah!

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006: We had Global Issues with Bob at 9am, but it was over by 10:30am. It was sooo short, but we still learned a ton. Bob is such a great man. After class, I went on a book run to Piccadilly Circus with the theatre people (Skjerven, Walt, Mike, Andrew, Katie Simon and Katie Schares). We ate lunch at this great pub, with this really cute waiter (sorry Chris… no worries!). I’m pretty sure he had an Australian accent. Simon, Schares, and I discussed him every time he left the table. He called everyone ‘mate’ (typical in London), except right before we left he called me ‘lass’ or ‘love,’ and I almost died. Not really, but it was just fun to joke about. Around here they say ‘Cheers’ instead of ‘Thank you,’ ‘No worries’ instead of ‘You’re welcome,’ and ‘mate’ and ‘love’ quite frequently. It’s wonderful! That night Walt and I tried to rush tickets (get cheap tickets at the door an hour before the show starts) for this play called Hitler Wrote 20 Pop Songs… Have You Heard Them? We ended up needing to go out to the edge of Zone 2 (don’t worry, that’s just tube talk), and then take a bus for 10 minutes until we got to the BAC, where the show was being performed. We got there late, and the tickets were sold out :( We decided to wait until Sunday to go. I ended up calling them Friday and getting four tickets (Simon and Schares came with as well).

Walt and I were going to meet one of his friends from high school, who is also studying abroad in London, but she was at a party in her flat, and neither of us really felt like hanging out with a bunch of NYU students that we didn’t know, so we just stopped by The Moon Under Water pub (which is part of the Wetherspoon chain that we went to the day of our walking tour – Bob keeps promoting them). After a while, we went back to the flats and hung out with his roomies and Simon and Schares, and probably Zak and Nina (the only couple on the trip) as well.

Friday, Sept. 15, 2006: We had our first day trip: Cambridge. It was an amazing little town. The history there is… mind-boggling. We split up into small tour groups and got to see a bunch of the different colleges, all under the head of Cambridge University. After our tour (we had the nicest older woman named Susan) Kris, Brookly, Lindsay and myself went to the top of the Great Saint Mary’s church by climbing a few stories of spiral staircases. It was quite the hike, and our legs were burning, but it had the BEST view ever!! You could see all of Cambridge: the colleges, the churches, the market, the stores, the restaurants/pubs. For lunch, we ate at The Eagle, which is one of the oldest pubs in Cambridge. During the… first? second? world war, American troops in Cambridge used to come to The Eagle to eat and relax. They burned their names with candles or lighters in one chunk of the ceiling. Luckily no one has painted over that since, and although you can’t really make out each name, they are all still there. Hmm… what else… it was my first fish and chips experience! That was cool!!! Oh… HA! One of our friends from home (Tim Usselman) told Kris that all he wanted from London was fish and chips, so what did we do? Wrapped up my leftovers very very well and mailed them to him! I know, gross huh? He didn’t think that she’d actually do it, but… she did! I’m proud to have been able to supply the fish and chips :) At Cambridge we also went to the market where I found a very cute scarf for only 2 or 3 lbs and a sweatshirt/hoodie to wear under my jacket during the winter. One more fun thing: taking picture of Kris in her ‘Where’s Waldo?’ red and white striped shirt in random places! To show you one such place, I will put up a photo.

The funny thing is that the guy in the last phone booth was totally random! After our Cambridge trip, we hung out in the flat, getting ready to go out. We ended up sitting in the entryway in a little square area between the bathroom/toilet, the front door, and the hallway to the rest of our flat. We actually do that quite frequently. It’s pretty hilarious! I’ll put up some pictures of the flat as well, so you can get a better idea of what I’m taking about. We ended up whipping out an American and UK Cosmo and reading stories in it. Walt came up and joined us, only to get suckered into reading out loud to us all. Finally, a bunch of us went to a dance club/pub called Zulus. It was really really fun. We all had a blast being able to dance for the first time. We just went nuts, which is usually how it works when I dance with a group of people!!

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2006: I went shopping with Skjerven, Walt, Mike, and Andrew in Piccadilly Circus to look for rugby jerseys, which we found on sale for less than 5 lbs! For lunch, we went to Pizza Hut (I know… it’s my one American meal for the month), and the pizza actually tasted different! I really like it! There wasn’t much sauce, but it was sweeter, and the cheese was slightly different as well. MMMMMM! Zak and Nina met up with us, and we (Zak, Nina, Walt and I) ended up breaking away from the others to go girlie shopping :) I don’t think I actually got anything, but I found some things that I liked and will probably go look at later. Walt and I were thinking about rushing tickets for Les Miserables, but we all ended up going to the Thames River Festival instead. It was like a fair right along the riverbank; there were lots of little ‘shops’ (I found a coin purse!), people covered in metallic paint pretending to be statues, fun little activities (the maze water fountain – where I got quite wet – and the orchestra boxes – where you’d sit on a box and be able to hear exactly what that instrument was playing within the greater song). Once we got home, the four of us hung out. We were totally craving Jell-o, so of course we had to make up a batch of that. We all just ate it straight out of the casserole dish we made it in with the massive soupspoons that they have here. It’s been weird not having normal spoons actually; I have too small of a mouth for these big tablespoons!

Sunday, Sept. 27, 20006: I went with Walt and Skjerven to the GoogleBox to check my e-mail for about an hour, went back to the Thames Festival for a little while to get some journals that I had seen the night before, then headed to Hitler Wrote 20 Pop Songs…Have You Heard Them? with Simon, Schares, and Walt. The show was amazing! It was a political satire that used hip hop songs to emphasize their point, which was to show Tony Blair as a crazy man who followed what Hitler’s ghost told him to do. It was super creepy in that way, but it was sooooo good. It was in a black box theatre, with the front half of the room as the stage and the back half as chairs on risers for the audience. It probably only fit around 50 people, which made sense why it was sold out on Friday.

After the show, we headed back to the flat. We all hung out in the guys flat with the other theatre boys. I ended up falling asleep a couple times while we were all talking, and I guess I started snoring really loud!! Embarrassing!!!! I guess that’s what London has done to me: made me develop a snore!

Monday, Sept. 18, 2006: I had European Business at 1pm, figured out some goofy stuff I was confused about, and then enjoyed a taco dinner made by Lindsay and Kris. It was a great night with the flatmates. We were all really tired and giggly… what more can you ask for?

Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2006: We went back to the National Gallery for Art in London. Oliver broke us up into two groups, sending the first group off to the National Portrait Gallery and taking the second group through the art gallery for the lesson. I was in the first group… I agree with Oliver… It’s hard to discuss portraits. You just look at them, and they look right back at you. Not much else happens! There was a Beatles exhibit which was kind of cool, and I also saw a bust of Virginia Woolf (who wrote To the Lighthouse, a book we read in Literary Imagination freshman year) and a portrait of Vaghn Williams (I can’t remember his first name for the life of me, but he wrote a lot of the pieces we played in band throughout high school).

It was a little hard to concentrate on Oliver during the second part of our class period because I was so excited for what was to come. The night before, Erin and I had decided that we were going to go get pierced! Kris, Lindsay, and Brookly decided to join us as well, and Mackenzie was going to come along for moral support. Another flatmate experience :) Well we researched and found a place with a great reputation called Cold Steel in Camden Town. Mom, Dad, please don’t get mad at me… but I pierced me lip! I know, I know, it’s a little much, but the thing is that I can put in a tiny stud (it looks like a nose ring stud), and you can barely see it. Right now I have the starter stud, and in a few weeks I’ll go back and get the little one and a ring. I really like it! (And that’s what matters, right??) :) It was all sterile, and the people were very very nice.

Later that night, Kris, Brookly and I went to Wicked. We payed a lot for the tickets, but they were amazing seats! And the performance was indescribable. There were a couple original cast members, one being the main character (who supposedly turns into the wicked witch of the west) who is an absolutely phenomenal singer. I would go see that show over and over and over. I am super excited to read the book! It felt like the best day yet. Being at Wicked, in London, with Kris Perkins was the most ultimate moment in London! Love that girl :) Brookly’s awesome too!

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006: I had Theatre in London at 9am, then Mackenzie and I went to Kensington Gardens to read (I ended up taking a nap :)). It was Neil’s 21st birthday, so a bunch of people went out to Three Kings for fish and chips (Mackenzie and I made supper in the flat together, and it was delicious!). After supper, we went to Piccadilly Circus to find a club, so we could groove out. We ended up going to a bar called Cavanaughs for a little bit, but it wasn’t really our thing. There were tons of people in business suits though and that was relatively entertaining. We left Cavanaughs only to find a man handing out free passes into a club called Cheers. What a fun place!!! We went nuts on the dance floor! On a water break, Kris and I met two guys from Germany (who Skjerven met first) named Toby and Kevin, who were just dolls. It was weird though because after talking to Kevin for awhile, I realized that he looked just like Chris’ roommate Aaron! It was so crazy!! *Sigh* After a great night of dancing, that felt like the best night in London :)

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006: Had Global Issues with Bob, took a nice long nap, went to an internet café with Kris for a couple of hours (stopped at Café Nero and had this AWESOME minty drink). When we got back the rest of the girls were watching the end of Bend It Like Beckham (a girlie soccer movie set in London). The rest of the night was filled with me trying to start this update while having an uber fun time with the girls, laughing hysterically until about 11pm. We were all completely ready for bed by that point!

Friday, Sept. 22, 2006: We had our second day trip; this time to Canterbury. My tour guide’s name was Martin, and he was a wonderful older man who knew a lot about the town. He was a little cranky, but still fun. The highlight of that trip was the Canterbury Cathedral, which was incredibly gorgeous. We also learned the true story of the murder of Thomas Becket, who was the Archbishop in 1170 and became a saint shortly afterward. Good ole Christopher Marlowe the playwright was born in Canterbury, and a lot of things are named after him. They have incredibly old buildings all around the town, some of which are being used as museums or by the college. After our tour, Lindsay, Mike, Andrew and I went to the Roman Museum, which was dedicated to teaching visitors about Canterbury during the time when the Romans occupied it. Early archaeologists discovered the buried Roman town right beneath their feet, while wartime bombings of World War II, I believe, barely missed the Cathedral, but uncovered a Roman house and many mosaics. We also saw what remains of the gates that used to be a part of the wall enclosing Canterbury during the second Roman occupation. We could have climbed the gate and looked out over the city, but Lindsay and I decided to go look at old houses and shop instead. I found some cute shirts, along with a new pair of black shoes that won’t kill my feet. That night I went out with Skjerven, Becky and a new friend of ours who lives in the flat next door and is from New York, named James. Yeah for dancing!

Saturday, Sept. 23: Kris and I went with the theatre boys to the Imperial War Museum in London. Oh wow, was that an amazing experience! They had replicas of tons of different missles, bombs, planes, submarines, along with exhibits on the world wars, D-Day, the Holocaust, etc. We were there for nearly 3 hours, but I still didn’t make it all the way through the Holocaust exhibit (don’t worry, I was looking at other thing as well). It’s a free museum, though, so I am definitely going back. That evening Kris and I check our e-mail, and then met Andrew and Skjerven for a movie. We went to The Black Dahlia, and although the tickets were ungodly expensive for a movie (10 lbs… aka: $20!), it was completely worth it for that movie! I may have to get it for myself. Mom, I recommend renting it! It was set in 1947, and they did such a great job with it. After the movie, we came back to the flats, and I went to Live & Let Live with Katie Simon. We just hung out and chatted with the bartenders there. It’s Simon’s favorite pub, so she’s been their frequently, and they all know her :) It’s like K-Bob Café in the sense that it’s such a warm, comfortable environment and everyone is like family, but it just happens to be a pub :)

Today: I am going to go to a café and post this update, do laundry, get groceries, read, etc. Get this… I am going to do laundry by hand in the bathtub! Wish me luck!!! I haven’t done laundry yet because it’s so expensive, but I really need to… I’m smelly :) Hopefully you took this entry in parts and didn’t read it all at once. Sorry it’s such a long one!

London is AMAZING!!!

I know, I know... it's taken me a long time to post a new entry! I am actually just posting this one to say (a) I love London! (b) our internet in the flats in non-existent (c) I forgot my jump drive with my update written out on it at home and (d) I miss and love you all!!! I will put my update on within the next couple of days.. it's going to be a LONG one, so get ready!

Cheers!

The Night Before

In only 15 hours and 45 minutes I will be leaving my dad's house with him to go to O'Hare Airport. Although my plane doesn't leave until 4:45 p.m., I am meeting the other girls at 1 p.m. I am almost all packed. All I have left is to look over my backpack; my luggage is done. My dad pretty much packed my luggage for me :) He's the expert, and it shows! I don't think I could have done as well as he did on my first try! I have a great base for packing on my way back, though.

Everyone is either really excited, really nervous or both. I am... neutral. For the time being anyway. I'm trying not to think about it too much. I'm not sure why. I guess I don't what to be freaking out tonight when I'm trying to sleep. I hope I can sleep! I haven't been able to much the last few days, so I'm already tired now! Yeah, it's 8:22 p.m. It's like I'm in middle school!! I used to be able to go to bed so early... ha! Not in college!!

I have most of my presentation done. All of my research is compiled, and I have a basic idea of what I want to talk about. I'm just worried because I don't know if it's Monday or Wednesday. I guess it really doesn't matter, but I just want to know! We'll find out our final schedule when we get there. The one they sent us a few weeks ago was tentative, and in the e-mails she sent us, Dr. Flanagan talked about the first class being on Wednesday. That would be pretty nice :) It would give a couple of extra days to put everything together. *Crossing my fingers* Either way, I'm not too worried.

Alright, time to go watch some more Grey's Anatomy with my dad and Barb. I better soak up these American shows while I can!!!