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.