Super American Tourist Day

Our flat shrunk considerably while we slept last night; four of our flatmates left for weekend trips leaving just Ashley, Jenn, and myself holding down the fort in the best flat, flat 8. We started the day with french toast for breakfast, delicious. We decided to dress up in our most American Touristy outfits and headed out for an adventure to find a place where there was supposed to be a bunch of people celebrating 40 years since the Beatles last live concert together. We walked for a long time and did some shopping, but eventually found the place. There was supposed to be a cover band playing on the roof, but because of fire regulations that was cancelled. There were some people still hanging around, including a news camera guy, but there were nothing going on so we left. We found a cool cafe close by called Sunflower Cafe and had lunch there. It was a cute little place and they had good food. After lunch, we headed to Abbey Road to take pictures. Jenn and Thor are chasing this guy across the street. It was not what we expected; Abbey Road is a busy street and you almost get run over while you walk across the street to get your picture taken. We returned to our flat and Ashley made chocolate cake. Here we are ready to watch Chocolat and, appropriately, eating chocolate cake. It was delicious.

La Casa D'Italia

We had more sunshine today, which meant it was clear and cold. Everyone was tired from staying up late to write our first paper which was due today, so we took naps after school and had a chill afternoon. I read a lot in Oliver Twist, the book we are working on for our literature class right now. I'm enjoying the book, Dickens is so sarcastic and it cracks me up. Ashley, Jenn, Alicia, and I went to La Casa D'Italia for dinner again, it's the same place we went last Thursday. I had pasta with shrimp and pesto sauce and it was tasty. I have some left for tomorrow too.

The Phantom of the Opera

Our field trip today was to the Tate Britain, which houses a collection of British art from 1500 to the present. Unfortunately, none of us wanted to go because we were tired and had a lot to do. My flat at least just went and saw what we had to see for our assignment and then came home. The assignment was to write about a piece from the modern collection without looking at the description and make up our own description about what it meant. To get to the modern section of the building, you had to go through a room that had a curtain of bamboo around it. You entered one side through the bamboo and found yourself in a square surrounded by bamboo, then went out the other. It was cool and made a lot of noise. That was my favorite part. Our evening was much more exciting. I took a quick nap when we got back and worked on my paper, then had some dinner before it was off to see the Phantom of the Opera. I was super excited about this, my first West End theatre experience and a story I know I like. The show was at Her Majesty's Theatre and has been playing there since 1986, but the place was still pretty filled and the performance got a standing ovation! It was amazing. The actors all did a wonderful job and the stage and props were impressive. I felt the live show was even more heart wrenching than the film version. I would definitely go again. Rebecca and I were waiting for the show to start. The seats were comfortable, but if we sat all the way back in them, neither of us could touch the ground with our feet. That wasn't a problem during the performance for me because I spent the whole show leaning forward and to the left in my seat so I could see around the person in front of me. Thankfully, there was no one sitting on that side of me and I was able to lean over on my arm rest. I would have just moved over a seat, but the seat next to me was right behind a pillar. Anyway, by leaning I got a good view and I'm sure I would have been on the edge of my seat anyway. Here are Kim and Ashley waiting at the Chancery Lane Tube station. The trains were so packed that a couple of the girls didn't get on the train we were on, so we waited for them to catch up with us at the station after we got off. Chancery Lane is one of the two Tube stations that are close to our flats. Whenever we go to the Chancery Lane station, I get the Candy Cane Lane song from one of our Christmas decorations stuck in my head.

Worthy of a Post of Its Own

I got a package in the mail! It made my day and what timing, we were tired from a late play last night and then walking around afterward, plus today was a busy day and it was gloomy and drizzly. The package was from Jaime and Michelle and opening it was like discovering a treasure chest. There was peanut butter, beef jerky, peanut butter M&Ms, trail mix, my watch (on the day my alarm clock stopped working), a new pair of earrings, popcorn, and other delicious treats. It was wonderful. Ashley and I made PB&J, the best I have ever had, and Charity did a taste comparison with the peanut butter she found here. It is difficult to find peanut butter here and what you do find is not the same. Needless to say, Jif won. This taste of home was just what I needed and I very much appreciate everyone who filled the package full of goodness. I miss all of you.

London at Night

We finished the play tonight and our teachers decided we should walk along the South Bank of the Thames. It was beautiful with all the city lights.

Big Ben at night.

Walking across the Thames. Then we went to a pub for a drink.

Laura and Ashley with their drinks. I wasn't planning to get anything, but there was leftover orange and cranberry juice from making Ashley's drink, so I drank that and had some of Charity's drink.

The outside of the pub we went to. We decided to take the bus home, it was a double decker.

We rode on top in the front. Charity and Ashley were British drivers.

Darrin and I were American drivers. It was a fun night, but we got home late, almost midnight.

Tuesday Activities

We had another writing assignment in class today. We had to ride the Tube for 15 minutes then turn around and come back again and while we were riding we had to pick a person and write about them descriptively. It was interesting. I thought I might get motion sickness when we started, but it didn't end up being a problem. I didn't have enough money on my oyster card so I had to put more money on and the machine wouldn't take my card so I had to go to the counter and talk to a person, but he gave me a hard time because he thought I wasn't in queue (line). But I finally got through. The sun came out today and the walk back to our classroom was wonderful, it was the first time since we have been in London that I felt the warmth of the sun. This is the door to Anglo American, where we go to school. One of our teachers, Shane Moreman, is sitting on the steps. Tuesdays are the day our flat gets cleaned so we had to make ourselves scarce in the afternoon. Ashley and I walked back to school to go to a larger grocery store that we saw this morning. They actually had shopping carts! Then we decided to go to McDonald's to get McFlurries and read Oliver Twist. We finally saw a good play tonight. It was called, "Every Good Boy Deserves Favor", and was at the National Theatre. The theatre was hard to find, we were running around the south bank and barely made it to the play on time, arriving out of breathe and sweaty. The theatre was neat and there was a full orchestra on stage with the actors. The play was about Soviet Russia and talked about sane people who were put into insane asylums. It had a lot of dry British humor that was funny and I appreciated it. Overall, it was well acted and had a strong plot.

V&A

Our field trip today was to the Victoria and Albert museum. It was an eclectic mix of paintings, sculpture, photographs, jewelry, stained glass, clothes, textiles, and just about everything else that might be in a museum. I was excited to be able to take pictures finally. In the main entrance, there was a crazy glass sculpture that weighs almost 4 tons. There were some neat things there. My favorites were a mosaic of a tree made of pictures of the tree, a reproduction of Trajan's column which was huge, and a sculpture by Bernini. Trajan's column was in a room full of reproductions, it was crowded but cool. Most of the museum went pretty quickly. We came home afterwards and Darrin made a delicious lamb dinner. He and Charity got things started soon after we got back. We had leg of lamb, roasted potatoes with onions and sausage, green beans, and sauteed mushrooms. Juan added mashed potatoes and Jenn contributed wine. Everything was fabulous and we enjoyed every bite. Ashley made molten brownies for dessert. She wasn't planning to make them molten, but our baking situation is no good, we only have one small round glass pan to bake in and the oven doesn't bake evenly. So, it is quite a challenge. However, the brownies were delicious.

Sunday Evening

Our flat made taquitos for dinner tonight, they were chicken and potato. They were so good, I had five and we all ate a lot. Then we went to St Peter's Italian Church and barely made it. The service ended up being in Italian, but the church and the service were beautiful. When we got home, we had cheesecake for dessert. It was bought from Sainsbury and was vanilla flavored, but was actually pretty tasty. X3 was on TV so we watched that while my flatmates tried to finish reading Moll Flanders and everything degraded from there into a nonsensical mess of ridiculousness.

Laundry Days

We have been doing laundry this weekend, as evidenced by the clothes all over our room. We can't dry our clothes, so we have to let them air dry which takes more time and space and results in wrinkly crispy clothes. But our washer is working again and we are glad about that. Here are some of our clothes hung to dry. We are thankful to have a heater and a dehumidifier in our room, without them it would take probably take a week to dry our clothes.

Camden Market

Saturdays are market days for us in flat 8, today we went to Camden Market. It is the punk market that has a lot of clothes and souvenirs. I don't like it because it is busy and chaotic, but they have good produce for cheap and that's why I went. I also found some pretty scarves and Ashley and I got yummy Thai food. My good deed of the day was helping Ashley find a styling black coat. But other than that it was cold and crowded. Plus, the Tube system is being renovated in preparation for the Olympics so on the weekend many of the lines are closed which makes the other lines crowded. All that to say, we spent 5 hours in crowds of people; bumping, shuffling, jostling... blah.

Westminster Abbey

We thought we were going to be late today for our fieldtrip to Westminster Abbey; and we were, but most of our group was even later. We went into Westminster as a group, but we didn't get a tour, so we walked around on our own. The cathedral was amazing, the architecture was beautiful and they had arches like I hadn't seen before. I want to find out what kind they are (I need Mrs. Sullivan). Unfortunatly, they wouldn't allow photography either, it is frustrating. I don't know how much more I can take. We saw where a lot of people are buired, like Isaac Newton, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots, Charles Darwin, Jane Austin, William Wilberforce, and others. It was neat, but I was disappointed about not being able to take pictures. It was cold and rainy today, so we were all chilly walking around and were glad to get back to our flat. Ashley and I went by the Fryer's Delight to get lunch; I got scampi and chips, delicious.

Italian Food

Our doorbell rang this morning right around the time we were waking up, as a side note, the doorbell is extremely loud and annoying. It was our new flatmate, Jennifer. She went to the inauguration of President Obama so she just arrived to join us in London. We had class in the morning then studied in the afternoon. Juan, our new flatmate Jennifer, Michelle, Alicia, Ashley, and Shannon. Kaelyn had made reservations for us at an Italian restaurant that they go to on Thursday nights, so almost our whole group, including our teachers, went there for dinner. It was fun. The place is owned by Italians and it was a cute place. They were friendly and the food was delicious, Courtney and I split a pizza. It was also fun to see a menu in Italian because it reminded me of Tazzaria. In the middle of our meal, the chefs and our server turned up the music and came out to dance with us. Then as we were leaving, they held the door for us and gave everyone a kiss as we went out. We had a great time and it was fun to enjoy a long meal together as a group. Afterwards, we went to the Hat and Ton and hung out some more.

The National Gallery

We got to go to the National Gallery today for our art class. This time we had more of an introduction and we all met at the gallery and got audio guides. We had a list of images that we had to find, but we got to wander around. There were some amazing paintings there, including pieces by Botticelli, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Monet, Seurat, Cezanne, Manet, and Van Gogh. Unfortunately, the Arnolfini Portrait by van Eyck was out of the gallery and we were disappointed. When our teacher told us it wasn’t going to be there, a moan ran through the room; Ashley said the reaction was like someone was killing puppies in from of us. The other thing I was upset about was that they wouldn’t let us take any pictures, even without a flash. That almost ruined the experience for me, I didn’t feel like I could appreciate things without being able to take pictures and take some of it with me. Anyway, here’s a picture of the outside of the building at least and a fountain in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery.