homework. homework. homework.

So I had a fun weekend, but payed for it Sunday and Monday night with all the homework I had to do. It was actually really frustrating to learn that I had to do three different write ups for the production of Merry Wives, for three different classes with same professor. And it was really funny when that said professor's husband canceled the mid-term for his class and just moved up the final one week. You would think after almost forty years of marriage he would rub off on her.
Saturday night Kinsey, Adilene, and I took our new friend Marcos to get frozen yogurt and then we all walked around for awhile. He is from the Canary Islands and left Sunday morning, but had never had frozen yogurt. We may have talked it up too much for him, but he still liked it. We also found out he had never had cookie dough. Which brought us to the discovery that England doesn't have premade cookie dough!! We went into Tesco's and the guy looked at Adilene like she was crazy when she asked. That really amazes me, and saddens me. Again, Sunday was a homework day and Monday was a tired day. (though I got an A on my intro to theatre mid term!) Oh and Sunday night I got to skype with Melinda and last night with Joana. :)
Tonight I went with the Shakespeare class to the Globe to see Comedy of Errors, which was quite hilarious. When I cam back into my room I noticed that my desk was organized, my bed made, and my clothes picked up off the ground and organized in my closet. I guess that's what happens when you have an OCD roommate with not enough homework. (Jessica, not Kinsey). Hey, I don't hate it. We'll see how long it stays that way. I'll probably try for a day or so just because that's mean if I didn't. Well it's off to bed for me. Only two more days of classes for the week!

Picture: At Yog with Marcos, Adilene, and Kinsey

Like I always say "A night isn't good unless it ends in a dance party." *

So tonight was definitely my favorite night on this trip so far. We went to the most amazing play, Fuente Ovejune, that turned into a dance party at both intermission and the end. And the crowd were literally in the play. Yes, we were the towns people but it was more than that. We chanted, sang along, threw murdering stones (water balloons), claimed the murder, and celebrated our freedom. It was amazing. The music during the play consisted of modern songs, ones of which I knew the words to sometimes and we were encouraged to sing along. We laughed, got angry, felt disgusted and the atrocities happening to our fellow townspeople. I think one of the most powerful scenes is when a girl comes back on stage from being raped. She's sang a part of Damien Rice's song "I remember". It was so sad. Then ended it all with a great dance party that lasted quite a while. And let me just say that the rest of the audience (the whole audience was probably only 5o people) would not have joined in the dancing had not the crazy American girls gotten up and started dancing with the cast. California Girls- We're unforgettable. But after all that description I'm guessing you want to know what the plot of the play was. Fuente Ovejune is a town in Spain and the Lord over that town is abusing his right of owning every thing they have by raping all of the women. He takes a the mayor's daughter right after her wedding and tries to rape her. That was the last straw for the towns people. They then plot to murder him. After murdering him the King and Queen send a judge to figure out who is to be blamed. When asked who killed the lord, we all answered "Fuente Ovejune did it." Then the King and Queen were told of the things he did to us and we were free from charges (hence the fat dance party at the end).
I could talk about the rest of my day before this, that consisted of going to Canterbury and eating the best scones ever, but it's midnight and I'm sweaty and smelling and tired. Time to take a shower and go to bed. I have to get up for breakfast...it ends at 9.

Picture: Alyssa and me eating tea sandwiches (more like teeny weenie sandwiches...)
*I've never said that before.

The Globe Theatre:me as Blockbuster:Rhonda (libby)

So blogging is becoming more and more sporadic and less and less of an every day thing. This is why: WE HAVE SO MUCH HOMEWORK/ plays to see/ places to go. Yesterday I was really dreading the whole day because I literally had no break from 9 am to 11pm, but in the morning God really blessed my day by giving me a great devo time with him. He gave me 1 Peter 5:7 to get me through. "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." And so what could have been the worst day ever, was actually pretty enjoyable. Minus two incidents: 1) my conversation with Aimelle at breakfast-
Aimelle: "good morning"
Me: "...mornasdfsln.."
Aimelle: "(jokingly) fine don't respond"
Me: "I said good morning!!"
For those of you that have experienced me in the morning you know I mean no harm in my grumpiness. I was actually taken back my own response, but luckily Aimelle is the type of person that found it funny. If it was Wendy, she probably would have thought I hated her and never talked to me again. Just this morning Aimelle said to me "are you just really tired or haven't woken up yet?" "Neither..............I mean..both"
2) The other incident is referenced in the title of this blog and if you don't get it then you can ask me...I may or may not tell you what I mean.
But the moral of this story is that God is freakin great and if you ask for help, He comes through.

Other things that have gone on since the last time I've blogged:
Seen a couple plays (Merry Wives of Winsdsor and The Habit of Art)
Starting working on Chelsea's b day gift which will be revealed to her and the public on her birthday, the 27th.
Got invited to a couples house for lunch after church on Sunday. Alex and Susan Ferguson.
Though, according to Ronda and Carl, Alex is a "american junky" and gets a little controlling.
Way to put a damper/creeper alert on our excitement of finding new friends.
I bought the new Sufjan EP for 5 bucks and it's amazing, so go buy it.
Bunch of us bought round trip night bus tickets to Edinburgh for Sept 16-19 :D.
umm...that's it. minus all the homework that has been assigned and done. (more assigned then done of course).

Picture: me attempting to climb a wall to see the changing of the guard a couple weeks ago. Don't worry, I eventually got up. And no you can't see my butt crack. You can zoom in and see that it is just my pants.

oohhh eemmm ggeeee

What a week it was. I have the most homework in the whole wide world. I'm going a bit insane. But even though I have so much to do, it hasn't stopped me from having a little fun. Yesterday made my whole entire week. If you haven't seen on facebook already, Kinsey and I happened upon the premiere of Going the Distance with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. We had to go back to the movie theatre that was the street next to it because Kinsey forgot her ipod in it when we watch a British indie film earlier that afternoon. We had to wait till another movie got out so we went and waited where everyone else was thinking "well maybe we'll get to see Drew Barrymore and Justin Long". Not only did Kinsey get her ipod back an hour later but only a half hour after that did the actors show up. We were right where they drove in and they came back to where we were after being dropped off a little ways off. It was insane. I video taped and Kinsey took pictures. I was closer than arms distance from them. I hate to be a crazy star struck person, but I was not planning on that when I woke up that morning. And it was so cool.
The movie that we saw that afternoon was called Four Lions. And I hated it. It was the darkest comedy I have ever seen. The movie was funny, but it was like "I shouldn't laugh at this". Some parts were genuinely funny, but at the end of the movie I felt so uneasy. It was about these four guys trying to be terrorist bombers and get a fast track to heaven. Every group of people were portrayed as stupid. The bombers, the police both. The main character that had some sense was the one that wanted to die the most and he had a wife and kid. All the guys end up blowing themselves up in the end and I just walked away thinking "What the heck were they trying to say with that movie?" People said it was realistic and I'm like how do you know that is realistic? Are you saying that the Muslims that aren't as strict really do want to be "martyrs" cause I really hope that's not true. The one thing I could see as a message was that it was ironic that the police ended up taking into custody the Muslims that looked like Muslims (the long beard and hat), and they were the pacifist Muslims. I just really didn't like it.
But again that was redeemed with seeing Drew Barrymore and Justin Long later that day. haha.
Also last night after all that Laurel, Kinsey and I went to tesco and bought milk and oreos (kinsey already had peanutbutter) and ate them whilst watching the Parent Trap. It was wonderful and horrible.
Now back to homework. I have read a play and written two play write ups. I have to read another play, part of Great Expectation, parts of Beowulf, an intro and answer some questions, and write one more write up on a play. Yeah. oh and tomorrow I need to go to a place that has colonization information.
So little time, so much to do. I'd rather spend my day with you. (some mk&a theme song for you there). here's drew.

And so it begins

Today was the first day of classes. Just going through the basics pretty much, but classes are a lot longer here, because at the most they are only two days a week and we have a shorter semester. Needless to say Intro to theatre was painfully long (2hrs 15min long).
Note to self: take some sort of snack or at least a water bottle to class so you stay awake.
But we had to get on the tube and go to the Learning Institute of Contemporary Christianity. I thought that would be cool to be like real student and go somewhere to school, but it's kind of just a pain. But it's ok, it's right around a shopping area. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. I bought a head band for a pound today. And 12 post cards for only 95 pence. Now that's a deal. (granted some of them aren't that cool).
We also began a girls Bible study with our group tonight. It went really well, some people just shared their testimonies and we'll hear the rest next week. I think that will be a huge bonding part of the trip for us. It will make us way more open with each other and make us more like a family.
Tomorrow is my busy day. The only day of the week I have three classes. The rest I only have two. But I am looking forward to British writers: 1) cause it's with Carl, 2) we are having it in a Costa coffee shop in Tesco (which is like a Safeway)...and tesco has the best chocolate chip cookies. But Laurel and I decided to only have dessert three times a week. And I had it tonight. which means if I have it tomorrow I would have to wait all the way till Sunday (cause the good stuff is on Sunday). Oh no.

It was magical.

I just got back from running around in the forest with Oberon, Puck and the whole crew. We went all the way out to Cockfoster to go and see A Midsummer Night's Dream in a park. But in this play you walked from place to place as the scenes went on. So after the beginning the small audience is pretty much following Helena as she follows Demetrius, who is searching for Hermia and Lysander. All the while stopping and seeing scenes unfold. When we emerged out of the forest area we walked into the field at dusk with it covered with mist. It was like emerging from a dream. It was beautiful, fantastical, and magical. The mist on the field with a few trees made me think Mr. Darcy was going to come up any moment and say "You have bewitched me body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you." The play was hilarious and so well done. I have seen two polar opposite kinds of plays in two nights and both were the best plays I have ever seen. It's almost like well I think I've seen it all, time to go home. I really can't imagine seeing multiple plays every week from here on. It's amazing. I am so blessed to be here.

On a less exciting note, but still cool- we got to tour Parliament this morning. It was really interesting to begin to understand how the government works here and the history that goes with it. It is Saturday today too, so that meant lunch at Lee Abbey. I think it was the best meal yet, but I was also really hungry. Tomorrow we are going to church at St Barnabas, which is just about a 15 or so min walk from here.
I'm seriously just so happy still from that play. What a great night.

Hamlet. House of Horror.

So I just saw the best play I have ever seen tonight. It was a rendition of Hamlet, described as a vaudeville-musical version. It was a little longer than an hour so they cut a lot out and the script was changed a bit. But it was amazing. We were packed in with no more than 50 people in the second story of a pub, watching this play. The music was performed with no more than two maybe three instruments at a time and the characters singing. And the songs were composed and written by the director and two of the actors. I love the play Hamlet anyways and this rendition was amazing. I wish I could watch it again and again. The music really made it. The gravedigger was funny, just like in the play and philosophical as well. It on the whole was actually pretty philosophical, like Carl was talking about after. There were things mentioned about death and what happens when you die. Ultimately the ending was changed with the mother living. Carl said something interesting about that- he said that she was left in utter misery with everyone she loved dead. And she could have done something about it, if she wasn't so eager to keep her power, to marry Claudius, to not listen to Hamlet. Again it was great and I can't stop raving about it and I wish there was somewhere I could get the music from it.

On another note I went to go see the changing of the guard today and it started raining pretty hard. Not to mention a police made us get off a wall we were sitting on to see right before it started to we couldn't see that much. After I went to John Wesley's chapel and house. That is the site that I have to do presentation on. It is seriously so boring. I mean the history is interesting, but the actual place is boring. It's free so you don't waste your money, but kind of your time. I don't know what I'm going to do for my interactive presentation. Luckily that isn't until the fifteenth of September.

Hello. yes we are incredibly cramped on this tube. Yes I am reading over your shoulder.

I have noticed that the most common past time on the tube is reading. Whether it's the paper or a novel of your own, most people are reading. Also many times, people are really crammed in at certain times. So since I haven't yet started bringing my own book- I read other peoples. Once I read a couple pages of twilight with a middle aged asian man, who I think may have had a cover over the title (I would if I were him too). Yesterday I had the paper on one side of me and a book about the Buddha's view on love on the other. Needless to say I was quite educated on that tube ride. We were sitting down then too, so I'm pretty sure they noticed that I was reading over their shoulder. I wonder what they were thinking. They didn't move so I assume they didn't care, but if they didn't care I think they should have moved the book/paper over a bit so I didn't have to crane my neck.
Also last night there was nothing to do. Well there is always something to do, but after going on a tour of BBC and listening to a minister talk about politics for a couple hours we were tired. What resulted in that tiredness may or may have not been an a Capella that sang Stand By Me and Beautiful Girl simultaneously-while dressed up in funny hats with drawn on mustaches. Yes we did tape this, and yes, I did put it on face book.
The tour of BBC was really cool to see, though one of our tour guides was a bit of a Westminster Crabby (yes that is a joke from Winning London). He seemed to not like Americans that much. But then again he did tell us the story of J Lo having to be driven across little court yard place with the fountain to her room. Only the queen and J Lo have done that. I told him, "but she is still Jenny from the Bronx". Apparently she has been fooled by the rocks that she's got (or locks..both make sense).
Today I recorded Laurel being a tour guide in the Natural History Museum for her project, then we went to Tescos and got lunch and ate that said lunch while watching What A Girl Wants- another very fitting movie. I started back up on my gossip girl watching again today. Once you start you can't stop, I tell you!

Successful day.

It rained all day today, but it was really nice to just sit inside and do some homework (which I guess I did that yesterday too but I liked that it was rainy outside). I finished reading a play that we have a quiz on next week and wrote a write up on the play Welcome to Thebes for another class. Then a group of us watched the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie "Winning London" because we thought it was very fitting, and it was. It was cool to be able to know where a lot of the places they went are. And to see that it would be impossible for Mary Kate to run from Buckingham Palace all the way to Kensington Gardens to the Peter Pan statue in pants and a jacket in five minutes. Also there is just something about watching a movie while it's raining outside. Anyways after that all of us got to go watch a British game show be filmed. It was really fun. The game was called Pointless and they would give the contestants a category and options. Whoever picked the most obscure option got the least points and the object was to get the least amount of points. It was a celebrity version, but we didn't know any of the celebrities. They were newscasters and people like that. After we went to Frog and got fro yo :). It's becoming a habit, but hey it's healthier than the fro yo back home.
Tomorrow we go on a tour of BBC and then something else that I remember being interested in, but forgot what it was.

Many things.

Sunday we went to the 10:30 service at Hillsong London. It is in this big theatre where during the week the musical about Queen called "We Will Rock You" plays and then on Sunday Hillsong has it's services. It was really good. I mean granted worship was like a concert, but I mean it was Hillsong so it was still really cool. The speaker spoke on Esther and living in the moment and how God is not once mentioned in the book of Esther, yet it is obvious He is present. The message was really good, and his approach was a more conversational kind of speaking. The only critical thing would be that he stumbled over what he had to say at times. And I almost hesitate to criticize that because who really cares as long as the message is strong. Then after the service Adilene, Kinsey and I went to find out if we could some how get involved with the youth ministry. It ended up taking a long time to talk to the "youth" pastor (they don't really call him that I don't think..but that is what he was) just because we had to go through a couple people. But everyone was so nice and they never left us hanging or anything they would always stand there talking with us while we waited. We met this guy named Johnny who works with the youth and he had been at Hillsong for four years. He had been in London for 12, but he was originally from Colombia! So that was exciting to hear. I told him my mom was Colombian. He asked if I spoke Spanish and then told me I needed to get on that. Also while we were waiting we met a girl in the band during our service (she was friends with Johnny). She got Kinsey's name for Facebook and said we should go to coffee sometime. If she does actually get in touch with us that would be super cool.
We finally got to talk to James, the youth pastor, but he said that because we were only staying for four months it would be really hard to get connected. And actually I think I respect them more for that. He said it would be different if we were staying for four years, because they really try to push the personal relationships with people. I definitely understand that and he seemed like a really cool guy and seemed like he had a really good heart for the youth in London. Anyways they suggested we get involved with the young adult group which meets on Fridays. We have Fridays off too so that would be cool if we did start to go.
After for talking that long we had missed Sunday lunch at Lee Abbey and went straight to Speaker's Corner where everyone was going after lunch. Speakers corner used to be a place where before the news or even newspapers politicians would come and talk about there beliefs and platforms. Now it is just a place where crazy religious people come and yell at every one. From the crazy Christian, American, Cowboy (figures right?) to the crazy Muslim man, and little old singing Jewish man..it was an interesting spectacle to say the least. It really just got annoying and frustrating to listen to the "Christian" and Muslim yell back and forth. The only comic relief came with a funny homeless man piping in some comments. ("Did you say "piece of cod that passes understanding?"....-talking about working to get to heaven/grace- "you don't like to work either? We have that in common!")
In the evening we went to Holy Trinity Brompton a church pretty close to where we are staying. All of us (at least the people that I talked to after) really liked this service. To me it was kind of a mixture between church at home and first church in SD- it felt like home. The guy talked about John the Baptist and how what we say matters. The way he spoke is what made me criticize the guy from Hillsong. Just because the way he spoke was just a lot smoother. We talked to someone about getting involved and Adilene got some information about emailing someone because the weren't at that service.
Today was just a study day. Read the first six chapters of Great Expectations, two and a half ish acts of Merry Wives of Windsor, and some of my British Culture book. But tonight John Neiemeyer had a lay over in London for the night so him Kinsey and I went out to eat and to get some fro yo. We had no idea where to go eat so we just went to where the fro yo was and ended up eating at Pretz. Kinsey and I got a salad that was so good! It was so refreshing to not have a carb overload. Then fro yo of course was amazing.
It was also really nice to be able to talk to John and hear some of his crazy stories. From his 28 day adventure riding motorcycles through Africa and his amazing stories about Bob Goff and what Restore International is doing to what food we need to experience when we go back San Diego. It was a really good night. And tomorrow besides some more homework, we get to go watch a show on BBC being filmed! That should be really cool to see.

oh some other exciting news...a guy from Hungary that works here happens to have a bunch of television series on his hard drive..and happens to have season three of gossip girl!! woohooo cant wait to finish it :) I know I know..I'm ridiculous.

A day at the Market

This morning Laurel, Wendy, Alexa and I went to Portabello Street Market. It was an easy tube ride to Notting Hill and then we just followed the crowd. And the crowd was huge. It was so crowded there, but there was also a lot of cool things...and good looking food. It was impossible to stay together as four so we ended up splitting into twos. Laurel and I stopped to buy a strawberry and nutella crepe (and Laurel had a banana in her purse so we put that in it too). That was delicious. We bought some dried fruit as well, but every time we passed something else we said "oh I want to get that next time". I'm not sure how many "next times" that will take. We both bough scarfs and then decided it was time to leave. The sun had just come out and it was getting hot, not to mention the crowd was just tiring. We got back around 1:30, just when all the other girls were leaving to go. A nice nap, some reading of Merry Wives of Windsor, and dinner- we were off to go see Don Juan in Love. It was...ok. The ending was kind of weird. And Don Juan had really nasty teeth. Also he kissed a random lady in the crowd! I still can't get over that. If it was me, I would have cried. After that we walked across the London Tower bridge and took pictures.
Tomorrow is Hillsong!

Busy day.

This morning after breakfast a bunch of us took the tube to King's Cross and took pictures with the little shopping cart at Platform 9 3/4. By the way to make it more accessible for tourists, we assume, it is actually between 8 and 9. Needless to say we couldn't find it at first. And it was apparent because some worker asked the five confused looking girls if we were looking for Harry Potter. When we said yes, he directed us to the right place ("take a left, then a left, then a left"). After we finished our mini photo shoot, gryffindor scarf and all and lent out the scarf to a Harry Potter loving stranger, who returned the favor by taking a group picture, we walked to the British Library. In the library they had archives that anyone can go see, which included the Magna Carta and, my favorite, Jane Austen writings and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. The book was open to the conclusion of Jane Eyre and I could make out some of the sentences. It was so cool to read and remember reading it in high school! Call me a nerd, but I was excited.
When we got back to the Abbey we were already tired, but had to leave in a half hour to go to the Imperial War Museum (which by the way Dad, if you are reading this, you would love it). Actually it just made me pretty sad. We went through this thing about the children in the war and were able to ask a lady that was a girl that was sent away three times during World War I. After walking through the WWI and II stuff, we went through the Holocaust part of it. It was a pretty big one and I ended up just feeling devastated and sick. We left after that because we didn't think we could handle going to the social injustice exhibit after that. When we got out of the museum, Laurel spoke the first words saying "ah group hug". And actually that was what I needed, corny or stupid as it may seem.
After dinner, because it is Friday night and wanted to go out but we were super tired and not up to going to Buckingham Palace and walking around with everyone else, a few us looked up a place to get some good FroYo. We found three places- Snog, Yog, and Fog. We went to Yog cause it was open the latest. We took the tube and figured out how to get there all by ourselves. We were pretty proud with only one or two mistakes (two if you count almost losing Courtney as she got on a tube and we didn't). All of them were like Pink Berry, if you have ever heard of that, with two flavors: Natural and Pomegranate. It was only 110 calories, skim milk, gluten free, 100% organic yummy goodness. We decided to have FroYo Friday and to try all three of the places and decide which is best.
Tomorrow we are going to Portobello Market and then in the evening Don Juan in Love! A full weekend ahead in London.

Welcome to Thebes

Tonight we got to go see a play called Welcome to Thebes at the Royal National Theatre. We "hoofed" it there, as Ronda would say. And by hoofed she meant practically jog. We looked all nice before we left and arrived all sweaty...and I wasn't the only one, I swear.
Full of feminism, politics, social justice, the play ended in emotional exhaustion. But it gave the audience so much to think about. It was about the impoverished country, Thebes, who just got out of a civil war and had an election and were asking the big, wealthy, democratic nation-Athens- for help. Sound familiar? It was a modern play with Greek names and twists. The women had won peace in Thebes and were in charge. It was actually a really sad play though because everything just kept going wrong and through the whole thing I just kept wanting something to work out. In the end, the first citizen of Athens (who as one commenter said, was a mix of Obama and Tony Blaire and was definitely correct in that statement) agreed to help Thebes and have another conference in Athens about their situation. But it ended with Tiresius (another Greek twist thrown in...he is a prophet of the gods in many Greek tragedies) speaking a warning that Athens would also have its end. I came out of the play emotional exhausted and just tired. But I did enjoy it. We bought a few books in the book store that we needed for class and then since everyone else had left- Jessica, Laurel, Wendy and I found our way back home on the tube.
Late night and tomorrow Laurel and I and whoever else are going to Kings crossing to take turns wearing her gryffindor scarf and taking a picture at Platform 9 & 3/4! Then in the afternoon we are off to the Imperial War Museum. But it's Friday so who knows what a Friday night in London will bring!

It's not just the yellow ones that don't stop.

If I'm going to get injured while in London, or die here, it's going to be because I got hit by a car. Apparently pedestrians do NOT have the right a way. And let me tell you: those cars don't stop. I have a minor heart attack every time I cross the street. But it makes it exciting right? And it definitely keeps me from even being tempted to j walk. You wait for that little green guy! Not to mention Carl told us a few horror stories, one of him seeing a guy get hit and a bunch of him close lining people to save them. Though he is pretty tall so if he tries to close line me I'm pretty sure it would go over my head...or hit me in the face. But that's better than getting hit by a car. I now practically run across every crosswalk.
I had nothing to do today and yet it was a pretty productive day if I do say so myself. Laurel, Adilene and I went shopping this morning after breakfast. We went up to high street (where most of the shops are in Kensington) Laurel and I bough a planner, which I will use. I will, I will, I will. (I tend to buy planners and never look and them..and then forget things). I bought a really cute journal from Oxfam (a fairtrade store that the proceeds go to help different things. Like my journal helps women in Bengal). I bought one because I forgot (like I tend to do..hence the planner) that we have to journal every day for our British experience class and Carl checks to make sure we do, so I don't really want to use my devotional journal for that. We then went to shop for a bag for me and comfy shoes for Laurel. I was in luck and found a nice bigger purse that I can take to my classes not at Lee Abbey and to museums and stuff. It would be a pain to always have to take my big back pack. Unfortunately we didn't find Laurel shoes, but did look in a TK Maxx (equivalent to TJ Maxx) and learned the difference in UK shoes sizes (they are three sizes smaller than ours. So I would be a 3 1/2 instead of a 6 1/2). Now that was all done by noon. So we went back home, got some homework and set out for Caffe Nero with some others in tow now too. Did some h dub, drank some coffee, got lunch at the convenient store across the street, and then came back for a nice nap (Laurel and I weren't feeling well). Unfortunately I still wasn't feeling well after dinner so I stayed behind as Kinsey and some others went to Central London, but Laurel gave me some antiacid so I feel alright now. I'm going to attempt to get organized by writing more things in my planner and then maybe do some reading. I may not have class yet, but I could definitely spend a day or so doing just homework.

First real day at the Abbey

Today my mom and Cindy left to go home. So since they were going to the airport and Kinsey was arriving I went with them to bring Kinsey back. I got there right before she bought a tube pass to leave with out me because I was running late. So Kinsey and I rode the tube back to Earl's Crossing (the closest tube station to Lee Abbey). Kinsey was a little late to her class, and one of her wheels on her big suit case broke about a block away from the Abbey, so she carried it. She went into class and I put her suitcases into storage. While most of the students were in the com class, those of us that weren't went to the Natural History museum (most of the museums here are free!). It was pretty crowded though so we only stayed for a bit. We then went to a grocery store bought some lunch and just hung out in the starbucks in there eating lunch and talking. We got back to Lee Abbey waited for a little and then got our keys to our room and started unpacking. We then had a meeting for our British Experience class and took a little tour around Kensington. Because I'm not in the Com class I have two weeks to get a jump start on homework (which is necessary) and to have fun experiencing the area. I'm really excited that it is actually starting, and a little nervous to about all the work I have to get done.
I got to skype with Erin and Megan tonight though and that was really great, but made me miss them.
Tomorrow Laurel and I are going to get a few thinks we need. And then maybe work on homework. We will see.

London

4 am came all too soon this morning. We got to the airport around 5:30, but it turns out the Air France stuff didn't open till six ish and they weren't in a hurry. Our flight took off at 7:10 and since London is an hour ahead we ended up at Lee Abbey by like 9. Unable to check in till three we stored our luggage and just hung out. We were tired and didn't really feel like doing much. I did some laundry saw some people from our group that have arrived yesterday. When we got into our room we reorganized bags and stuff. After dinner we took a walk. Lee Abbey is in the Kensington area and it's really nice. There is a park near by and also some good shopping (urban, american apparel etc.). Tomorrow I'll take the tube, drop off my mom at the airport/ get Kinsey. Class starts at four.

And so it begins.

Au revoir Paris

Today was our last day in Paris. We woke up really early and got to the Eiffel Tower by 8:45. We were the first in line for the stairs and we did the whole thing in a hour and a half! We climbed the stairs too..all 675 of them. You can't take stairs to the very top so we took the lift and then rode it all the way down after we were done. After that we headed to the Louvre. It is the first Sunday of the month so all the museums were free today, which is cool except that means that all the museums are freakin crowded today too. So we got to the Louvre relatively early (like an hour after it opened) and took the entrance from the metro as opposed to the pyramid entrance. We headed towards the Italian sculptures, up to the Italian paintings saw some Da Vinci's, including the Mona Lisa. Which I gotta say, isn't that impressive. I mean it's a good painting, but I liked some of his others better. But then again I'm no expert on paintings...at all. After that we saw the Venus di Milo, and a bunch of others that I don't remember the name of. When we decided we had seen all we needed to see (because it was crowded and we didn't really want to just hang out in there) we headed to a little cafe and had a salad..surprisingly paleo I know. Though bread came with it. It comes with everything. We then went to a Starbucks because mom and I were dragging and we needed one. Shopping in the Louvre shops came after that and then we headed to the L'Orangerie museum. I think that was my favorite because of the Monet collection they had. The Monet paintings were by themselves in two plain white round rooms and stretched across the walls. Monet's whole idea for his painting was to relax people. So that was really cool to see. We walked back to the hotel where I, pretty much instantly fell asleep and took a nap, only to wake up and go to dinner. We went to a place close to our hotel, again recommended by Rick Steve. He said in the book that it had young waiters, so Cindy said she thought of me when picking it. There was one pretty good looking one, and ours was really nice and spoke perfect English, which is always a plus. Dinner, again, was amazing. I'm thinking that this should have been just a food blog. Well ok the food at dinner was just ok, but the dessert. My mom and I both had the mi-cuit chocolat. We saw chocolate and were like, I think we want that. (We asked the waiter what it was too, just in case). It ended up being this round little chocolate cake with melted chocolate in the middle. It came with strawberry ice-cream, but we had seen coconut ice-cream on the menu and so we switched it out for coconut. Seriously, so good. Mom said she thinks it was her favorite dessert. I can't say I disagree. Now don't get me wrong, I used to think the chocolate from Germany was the best, and it still is amazing, but I think France takes the cake (no pun intended...ok intended).
Tomorrow may be the earliest morning yet. Our cab is coming at 5 am. So I got to make sure that I'm packed and showered with my clothes out so I can wake up at 4:30 and be ready in time. Au revoir Paris, I will for sure be seeing you again. Tomorrow London and Tuesday....school.