i don't mean to overwhelm you

Dear faithful readers,

May I offer a sincere apology for leaving you hanging. Our internet here at the London Centre has been quite sub-par this past week and I finally am getting some service here, so I'll try and catch you up the best I can!

Love, kylie in london

tuesday (cinco de mayo):

A couple girls in my room and I went around all day wishing everyone a happy cinco de mayo, which was funny for some reason. Maybe it's because we're in England. I don't know. Either way, happy cinco de mayo! Today we had our British Mysteries class and had an interesting discussion regarding the book we read for class: The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. I really like my class; it's interesting, it's fun to discuss literature, the professor is great, and we're in London.

After class, I spent the morning and some of the afternoon doing reading for next week's class. We're reading Northanger Abbey for next week. Then, a few of us went and bought tickets to see a show...

Yes, yes, that's right! I saw WICKED!!! I have all the songs memorized thanks to the CD that Mom and Dad bought in New York a few years ago, but I have never seen it myself...until now. And you know what? Everyone says this, but I loved it! I thought it was so fun and the performers were incredible! I can't wait to go back and see it again....yes, I think I will. Our seats were awesome, too - ten rows back, smack in the middle of the row. Lucky day? I think so.

Another exciting announcement from Tuesday: since we haven't had hot water the whole time we've been here, Dr. Durham said that because we've been such troopers, they were going to pay for all of us to go on the London Eye!! Yay!

wednesday may 6

This morning I camped out at the Centre to read more Northanger Abbey before several of us went on a another one of our Walks. This particular walk took us to the Chelsea area of London. It was a long, exhausting sort of walk, but exciting to be walking around London, just admiring the history around every corner. And enjoying taking pictures of streets where fictional people live...James Bond perhaps....

After getting back from the Chelsea walk, we ate dinner (always SO good), and then ventured out once again for another walk, this time on the South side of the Thames. Good times in London, tonight:

This is our gelatto stop in Leicester Square, which is a happening, busy place in the nighttime, so we got our treat and sat outside and just chatted and people-watched. London is the best place to people watch - it's even better than the HFAC! :)
And we decided to have another grand adventure after our gelatto, so we found the theatre and the stage door and waited for this guy:

This is picture of James Mcavoy (he's in Becoming Jane, Wanted, Atonement...) was taken by yours truly! We got there early enough to be right in front when he came out of the stage door and we were right in front of him. He signed a scrap of paper I had and I said "thank you" and he smiled and said, "Thank-you. Cheers, darling!" Yes, James Mcavoy said it to me. He was super personable and made sure he signed everyone's papers and said thank you to every person for whom he signed.

Good day.

thursday may 7

Today was another class day -European Fine Arts. This class consists of discussions such as "What is good art?" and then assignments to go to the main museums in London and fill out assignment sheets. A good class? The answer is yes! My group has to present on the Imperial War Museum, so we went to check it out today. We spent an hour in there, splitting up the museum by floor. I had the basement floor, which was about the two world wars. I found it to be very interesting. Very sobering, but very interesting.

After the Imperial War Museum, I met another group at the National Gallery. The National gallery is gorgeous and HUGE with SO MUCH ART!!! I spent nearly two hours in there, and I know I have to go back to catch the rest of it. I LOVE art museums and just to spend my sweet time taking in all of the amazing pieces. I love seeing the pieces in real life after studying it from a powerpoint presentation. Can't wait to go back to the National Gallery!

Following dinner, our group traversed across the Thames again to be about as legit as it gets; we went to the Globe Theatre and watched a performance of Romeo and Juliet! The real Globe watching Romeo and Juliet! I know! The performance was fun and I loved it! I had another one of those I-cannot-believe-I'm-actually-here-in-London moments during the play.

friday may 8

Today we pretended to be posh. In other words, we went to Harrods. That place is insane, like a museum instead of a store. I wonder that they can stay in business, since no one can afford to buy anything there. It's fun to look, though. The food galleries were amazing, too. I did buy a yummy ham and cheese croissant for lunch and then a beautiful raspberry tart. Nearly the only place in the store where I felt like I was allowed to touch anything was the childrens' book section, where I had to buy the Bloomsbury edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I just love it! It is the original way that Harry Potter was published, with the original cover art, as opposed to the new stuff in the other bookstores. I'm so happy about my Harrod's purchase!

Following the Harrods adventure of the day, we came home to eat our yummy foods, since eating in the store was absolutely out of the question. After that, I took my first warm shower in two weeks!

It was bliss!! I have been taking ice cold showers since we got here and to take a long, warm shower was one of the best feelings ever!

Our adventure for tonight:

We sat front row balcony and I loved it! It was so so so so good and Enjolras won the prize for being my fav at this performance but Jean Valjean and Javert and Eponine were closely tied. I love that musical! Seriously, musicals are up there on my fav things ever list. The music for that one starts and I get the chills. There is good theatre here. Of course.

May I just go on for a bit? Thank you.

I am in love with this city. I love nearly everything about London. I love the atmosphere, I love the Centre, I love the sights, I love the tube, I love the Thames, I love the skyline, I (mostly) love the Londoners, I love the people in my program, I love the gardens, I love the wrong-side of the street driving, I love the pubs on the corners, I love the accents, I love London!
I LOVE LONDON!!!

saturday may 9

Saturday is market day! So, we went to Portobello Road to grab a bite to eat before heading down to Westminster to catch a ferry. Getting to Westminster was tricky, since the Circle Line of the Underground is out of service this weekend, but we made it there and got on our ferry up the Thames to Greenwich (up the "teh-ms" to "gren-ich"). Our ferry driver was a delightfully sarcastic fellow and we got some good pictures whilst riding up the river.

Just so you know, you can check out more pics on Facebook, but loading pictures on Blogger takes like forty hours (gross overexaggeration. really, about two minutes per picture.) So, I choose carefully. Anyway, our charming ferry took us to Greenwich, which is famous for being the place of the Prime Meridian.

This is Greenwich. Super quaint!

We visited the "Queen's House", which was a let-down, except the cool architecture and beautiful views it offered. It was built for royalty, but hardly any royalty ever lived in it. It's full of art of military victories. From there we hiked up the hill to the Observatory where the Prime Meridian line is. For some reason, I found it to be really fun to stand across the Prime Meridian. I mean, who chose that spot for the world's time to start? I dunno....

Pretty views, though.

After spending some time (haha, i'm so funny) there, we went down to the Greenwhich market and bought lunch before heading back to London.

After we came back to the Centre, I ran my laundry in these awesome dryers that actually dry my clothes! Love that! It's been a while since my clothes have come out a dryer fully dry! It was a day to catch up on normal life stuff, such as laundry and chatting with the fam.

For dinner we went to a pub a little way down the block and I finally had fish and chips, which I find to be a delightful meal. Finished it off with gelatto and that makes one very happy girl. Good thing we walk so much...a line from You're Got Mail comes to mind: "[She's] a fat guy! Yep, [she's] a fatty!" That's what would happen if we didn't walk so much.

Tonight we watched a movie up in the classroom and then a few of us gathered on the stairs and read the first chapter of my new Harry Potter book aloud to each other. All in all, it was a great day.

I LOVE LONDON!!!

whew! and that catches up the week you've all missed. I apologize for the lack of Greenwich pictures...I am unable to upload them now. A picture of me astride time will come at some point. Hopefully the internet won't be so sporatic this week and I won't have to overwhelm you with so much adventure at once! :)