Sooooooo
yesterday
was
basically
AMAZING!!!!!
It was such a good day. Got up in the morning and went to class. We watched "A Hard Day's Night". Not bad, but definitely not as good as I had hoped. Discussion afterwards was fairly interesting - Prof. has a great way of keeping things flowing and holding my attention, so that's good. After class, we had a bit of time to grab some lunch. I got a baguette at Tesco the night before (along with two of the most amazing chocolate chip cookies ever - that didn't make it to the morning!) so I ate that for lunch. It was sooo good - I ate it completely plain, which is unusual for me. Normally I want at least butter.... but, this was good as is! While I was eating lunch, I got to talk to Peter for a little bit. He's doing well, although I think he is a bit homesick already.... he doesn't have friends there/lots to do to keep him busy so he's kind of starting to feel alone. I think he'll be fine - he loves the food at least! It was good to talk to him though, and it really made me realize that this London trip is just what I needed to get a bit more independent and..... more myself. Learning to make choices and decisions for myself without depending on others has done HUGE things for me. anyway.... enough of that. So yes, got to talk to Peter. yay!!!
We then had to take a bus to the BFI since the tube was still on strike (annoying!). The bus ride was actually not too bad though... we got there in decent amount of time but had NO idea where to go when we got off the bus. We all thought the BFI was the round building where the IMAX is... boy were we wrong. It's actually a building completley different and about a block away. We finally found it, though, and met prof and mrs. prof inside the lobby. We had to wait for a little while before the 'tour' was ready. Amanda ran to the bathroom like two seconds before the tour started (she didn't know) so I waited for her and missed the first little bit of the tourguide's talk. Apparently, though, I didn't miss much. The tourguide was horrible. She had the thickest scottish accent - thus making it hard to even understand her. She really didn't know much of what she was talking about either - prof asked her a fairly easy question and she had no idea. We watched a short 10 minute film on some various clips in the archives. Got a 10 minute tour of the different cinemas and then she basically handed us off to the computer archives and told us to 'explore'. That was it. BAD. Leo, Jenna, Jess and I watched a Monty Python Flying Circus episode... also not that thrilling to be honest.
AFTER the horrible BFI tour, however, we went on the most AMAZING tour of the National Theater EVER!!!!! Our tourguide was fantastic. First, we went into the Olivier Theater - MASSIVE and lots, lots lots of lights (thought of kev and the crew from home). They were doing sound checks - GORGEOUS accoustics!!! After that, we went into the Littleton Theater (the National Theater has a total of 3 theater's in the facilities). In the Littleton Theater, we went backstage and GOT TO GO ONSTAGE!!!! Totally stood in the spotlight..... AAAAH!!!! They just did Caroline or Change there (thought of Peter). Then we went backstage through the shops - amazing amazing amazing! We toured the last theater (a smaller blackbox but still amazing). Jess and I literally died throughout this ENTIRE tour.... it was phenomenal. There was even live jazz in the lobby when we were walking out..... how much more perfect can a theater be?
After the amazingness that was that.... we walked on the southbank of the Thames - past the Eye and the Aquarium at sunset. It was so beautiful seeing the sun going down behind Parliment (Big Ben, etc.) and reflecting in the Thames. I couldn't take enough pictures!!! We walked around for a bit and then got on the bus to head back to Chelsea area. The bus ride was INSANE - packed and crazy (rush hour during a tube strike SUCKS). Even the bus driver started yelling at people!
It was Amanda's birthday, so we made her pick what she wanted to do/eat/ etc. for the rest of the night. She decided to eat at Made In Italy - an italian restraunt right down the block from IES. We got the most delicious food - I had a 'margherita pizza' - basically a plain pizza but italian style and to die for. There were 11 of us - it was fantastic!
After Made in Italy, we went to Cadagan's - the entire gang! it was so much fun!!! we were there for about an hour and a half. got a couple of drinks (i had my first smirnoff ice - very very good). Cadogan's closes at 11 so we decided to walk around.... we basically ended up having a tipsie walk all over chelsea until about 12:30am. it was fantastic!!!! we laughed hysterically! We finally made our way back home - after a great and memorable night of birthday celebrating! Jess and I died on our beds and were gone until the morning
Now..... this morning/today.... MUCH less whirlwind and fantastic as yesterday. Which, on one hand was good because I needed a break from the amazingness. Class this morning - we watched "Local Hero" - a Scottish film. It was fairly good and decently funny.... discussion after was good... long but good. I really love prof. - he's an awesome teacher and is so much fun to be around - so knowledgable but doesn't make you feel stupid at all!!!! After class (which ran really long considering we had to be somewhere by 2) we ran upstairs, quick grabbed things and headed out for the tube - luckily no more strike/no more bus riding! YAY! We were running kind of late so we had to slightly book it... not too horrible, but... keep moving kind of thing. Once we got to Maryleborn station, we met our tour guide. The best way to describe this woman is to say that she was intensely over dramatic. She talked with, if i wasn't in london, an accent that i would call fake and so sloooowly that i could have said 10 sentences for her 1. She was boring too... told stories that we really didn't care much about and put us down for being americans and not knowing random beatles facts. It was frustrating. She refused to stand in front of the actual spots she was showing us because it was too noisy (what with the traffic and all.... which... was not noisy.) so we ended up goind down these sketchy alleys and other weird places. I dunno..... maybe if i was a bigger beatles fan i would have loved it, but i feel like for the 2.5 hour tour.... we saw basically nothing. After that, I had hoped to go to see Harry Potter at the IMAX (for the Harry Potter fan in me and because we have to see an american movie for class) but Leo and Dave didn't want to because they were tired.... so we ended up just coming back to IES. We spent the night in. Which, looking back, is actualy something i really needed. I needed a crash night to catch up on doing nothing. That hasn't happened for over a week and..... after the week we've had.... it's been more like a month (all things considered) so yes... Jess and I made very delicious spaghetti/pasta stuff (it tasted like home.... so good). We're attempting to start make plans for our week off..... the plan, as of now, is to go to Paris for 3/4 days and Rome 3/4 days..... we'll see how that goes! For now... I'm to bed before I completely fall over!
