I'm going to Italy!

I've been SO busy with mid-terms that I haven't had any time to update this, but I want to catchup before I head off to...Italy!

Saturday
I got up early so that I could eat breakfast and get started on one of my papers. Then I went for a run and went to the store and then worked feverishly on my paper again. After talking with Patrick briefly, I got ready to go to the Mendelssohn concert I had tickets for. It was a really nice concert. (Our program director Martin was in it.) I really enjoyed just sitting and listening and thinking about stuff...choir music is really nice "thinking" music. :) It got out pretty late and so I got home really late. oh well.

Sunday
This day was basically a "writing paper" day. But I did go on another run.

Monday
We had a surprise mid-term in Shakespeare class (it was supposed to be on Thursday). Then I worked on my papers until my Novel class. And that was basically what happened. (Except for more paper writing.)

Tuesday
I had my Novel mid-term and turned in my paper and worked on my other paper and started packing. That was pretty much is it.

Wednesday
This day was sooooo loooong. We had a three hour theatre class (which was a lot of lecture again) in the morning. Then, after only a half hour break, we had a longer than three hour Britain Today class. We did get to go the the Churchill Museum and the Cabinet War Rooms, which was pretty cool. And then (after dinner--I had Thai!) we went to see King Lear. A three hour and forty minute version. I was so tired. But the play was really good. It was the first time we've seen a Shakespeare play at a fringe theatre and (thankfully!) it was much better and more engrossing than the last time I saw it (which was a couple summers ago at Cal Lu). It was amazing. And weird. And gross. There was SO much blood. :P But I still really liked it. And Pete Postlethwaite (King Lear) and John Shrapnel (Earl of Gloucester) were in it, which was cool.

Me in front of an important looking room at the Cabinet War Rooms.

Thursday
Today I had my last class and turned in my last paper and my theatre journal! YAY! Then I went on some errands. I got a card and gift for my Dad's boss (Borge) and his wife (Jytte) who we'll be seeing in Italy. Then I treated myself (for finishing mid-terms) by going to Hyde Park. I didn't stay for long, but it was nice to walk around for a bit. Then I got some euros and headed home, where I showered (yay!) and took a nap (double yay!). And now I'm going to finish this so I can get ready to go to the airport. eek! Bethany and I are going to get there tonight, because our flight leaves early in the morning. I'm so excited that I'm going to Italy!!!! First we are going to Rome, then to Caprese, Michelangelo (where Borge and Jytte have a house), then to Florence for a day, and then to Venice! It's going to be some Spring Break! :)

There are daffodils everywhere! I found some lying on the ground on my way home one day. Aren't they pretty? It's beginning to look a lot like Spring time!

Great Expectations is blowing my mind!

Today I just did homework (reading Great Expectations) and correspondence (talking to people on facebook and gmail). Not exciting. Don't judge me.

Great Expectations is CRAZY! (I've never read it before.) I'm almost done. It's just one thing after another in Pip's world. Seriously. I mean I've had Dickens-phobia for a while, so I'm proud of myself for pushing past it and getting through this thing, but now I couldn't stop even if I wanted to. All this stuff is happening! And it has these weird horror-like moments. And all these connections between everyone! Crazy! There are a lot of sick, twisted characters in there and all these cliff-hanger endings (which makes sense since it was written as a serial story in a magazine). I've called so many crazy twists before they're completely revealed and I've had so many squealing, trying-not-to-laugh/scream moments (Mom and Hanna, you know what I'm talking about). I'm exhausted. ;)

Oh, and I have an interesting fact for y'all today. Dave (our home-stay dad) is related to the woman who wrote The Indian in the Cupboard. (She's his aunt!) And his cousin (one of her sons) is named Omri. cool, huh? (And I just realized, after googling her and seeing her name, that she's written a lot of other books we loved reading, like The Fairy Rebel and The Farthest-Away Mountain. wow. Now I'm even more impressed than when when they first told me.)

This is Great Expectations blowing my mind. heehee. :)

I like plays...

Tuesday
I did homework in the morning and then went in for class. We talked about Great Expectations for the first part and then went over to the Dickens Museum/House place. It was pretty neat. I started to get goosebumps when I realized I was looking at the same desk ornaments that Dickens looked at when he sat there writing his works and letters... I don't know why, but it gave me the shivers. Oh, and we also got to go in the room where his sister-in-law died. That was a bit creepy if we thought about it too much. (btw, there are some interesting facts about his family life--including his sister-in-law--that I had not been aware of...) ;) After that, Bethany and I went to an electronics store and I got new headphones. yay! Then I went to the store and then headed home.

This is the only picture I got of the museum. There was a lot of rain. And French students. Maybe I'll go back and get a better one sometime.

P.S. Anne got tickets for us to see Waiting for Godot (with Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian Mckellen)!!!! PLUS, she got tickets for Madam de Sade (which I've never heard of before) starring... Dame Judy Dench!!!!!! SO excited! XD

Wednesday
Another busy Wednesday. Theatre class was alright. Lunch was bleh. For our Britain Today class (after figuring out which bus to take) we went to the Imperial War Museum. It is a really cool place. We were definitely not able to see all of it in one go, but we did go over the whole lower ground floor (which had the WW I & II exhibits), glanced at the Large Exhibits Gallery (it had lots of large equipment, such as submarines, canon/gun things, etc), and saw most of the Holocaust exhibit (which covers two floors). I'd like to go back (maybe with Patrick) to at least finish looking at the last part of the Holocaust exhibit, because it was really powerful and tragically fascinating--very educational.

Afterwards, Bethany and I went to a pub near school called The Swan (cool, huh?) and then headed over to the theatre to see Duet for One. I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that one of the two stars was...Juliet Stevenson!!!!! She is such a good actress! And she is just as amazing on stage (if not more) than she is onscreen. It was such a good performance--powerful, disquieting, thought provoking...amazing. It is definitely one of my favorite shows so far. (On top of that, the theatre was right on our line to go home so we got home...around or before 11pm, I think. Yay for not having an hour-plus tube ride home!) :)

Thursday
Shakespeare class was okay. We got our papers back and talked more about King Lear (which we'll see next week). After that I did a bit of homework reading and email checking. Then I went on some errands. I got tickets for The Lion King for when Patrick's here (I already got some Spring Awakening tickets for then, too). I finally got some boots (I haven't tried them out for long distance yet, so hopefully they'll be good. They weren't super expensive, so I'm not expecting perfection.) :) Then I got some sandwich making material and went home. I spent a lot of the evening booking train tickets for after the program. I just need to go to Kings Cross to pick them up.

Now, I'm going to read some more of Great Expectations (I'm in the last third!) and hopefully motivated myself to work on the papers I need to write...eventually. :P

Oh, and I took this to make Dad happy. (See? Picture!) :P (That play was SO good!) :)

I have stood in a room where Shakespeare stood.

We had a great discussion about King Lear in Shakespeare class. It's a crazy play (I mean it does have a real madman, professional madman, and a pretend madman). At our weekly meeting, we talked about trying to get a group together to see Waiting for Godot (which opens April 30 with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart!) for cheap, but it looks like we'll just have to get our own tickets (we're going to try for May 3). But it will be worth it. oh yes it will. :) After that I talked with Martin about my paper for his class (he is so nice). Then I checked my email and went to mail my postcards. The craziest thing happened on my way back. I was just walking along and then I ran into someone I know from PLU! (She was in my year, but moved to London at the beginning of last semester.) It was so random and crazy! And definitely one of the weirdest things to happen to me yet. For our novel class we went on a "Dickens walk." We walked around and saw places where Dickens would have gone and places that he wrote about (especially those connected to Great Expectations). She also pointed out other places to us. We went into Middle Temple Hall where Shakespeare's company performed Twelfth Night--I got to stand on the platform where they performed his play!!! SO exciting! By this time I was really hungry so I stopped by a Cafe Nero for a muffin (blueberry--very tasty). Then some of us went back to AHA to have our small class thing-a-ma-bob for Britain Today. After that, Anne and I came home and had a very filling dinner (provided by Ros!). And then I wrote this--yay for me!

I love Spring Awakening!

This post will probably be really boring, but I'm just going to briefly say what I've been doing and focus on the few cool parts. You can skip over stuff. I won't mind. :)

Last Weekend
I mostly slept and did homework. But I did go for two runs and get to the store for groceries! yay for me.

Monday
Nothing super exciting happened on this day. We had good discussions about The Taming of the Shrew in Shakespeare class and about Great Expectations in my novel class. I worked on my Shakespeare paper in between classes (which I was very proud of myself for). After class it was basically home and dinner.

Tuesday
This day I got up, did homework, got ready for school, etc. Then, after a short Dickens discussion (which was very interesting), Bethany and I went to visit Evelina!!! (Evelina, for those of you who don't know, was Beth's roommate last semester. She's from Sweden and is really, really nice.) After that I met up with people and we ate at this cute little restaurant called Small & Beautiful by that night's theatre (which was called the Tricycle). The play we saw was called Damascus. It was...interesting, but a lot of us didn't particularly like it. It was a bit choppy and too long. And we got home really late. :P

Me, Bethany, and Evelina!

Wednesday
And then we had another looong Wednesday. Our theatre class was alright. It's still a lot of lecture and hardly any discussion, but oh well. But to break things up a bit, we all got to go to Greenwich for our Britain Today class! It was so cool. We went to the National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House, and the Royal Observatory. I loved it, but we weren't there for long, so I definitely want to go back. I got to straddle the Prime (Greenwich) Meridian. woohoo! That night we went back to the Novello (where we went to our first play) and saw The Taming of the Shrew. It was very...um...interesting...peculiar? The play isn't my favorite Shakespeare to begin with (to say the least), so it already had a handicap, but it... yeah. Just imagine a first act consisting of over-the-top humor (with actor's not trusting the script and instead going for the easy, lewd jokes) and a second act that quickly becomes a tragedy (but still with manages to fit in the lewdness). If you need more details, let me know. It had a very powerful ending and was a really unique take on the play, but overall it wasn't a good show. But, hey, we got home late again! oh wait, that's not fun. :P

Me standing over the Prime Meridian!

Thursday
This was the day our papers where due. (So, of course everyone was a bit sleep deprived. hehe.) But we all had lots of things to say about the play from the night before (we kinda tore it apart...). Afterwards, Anne, Jamie, Danika, and I started reading King Lear (our next play) outloud. It was quite fun and we got through a lot, which was really nice since we have to have it read by Monday. Then I went on an errand for Tom D., which was not successful. :( And I walked around and saw Piccadilly Circus. Then I got to come home, take a shower, and finally relax. aaahhhh.

Friday
This day I slept in (I really needed to) and did some homework (finished King Lear!). I went to this really nice place nearby called Kenwood House. It's this beautiful park and museum, but I didn't go inside the house that day. I'll have to go back so I can see the artwork and the rest of the grounds.

Saturday
Yesterday Anne and I (and Nicole) went to see...Spring Awakening!!! It was AMAZING! It's just...I can't describe it. It's this great mix of musical and rock and alternative/simplistic theatre. It's great! Now I really want to listen to the music all the time (and I just got it from Anne, so I'm very happy). Then Anne and I took a walk and saw Buckingham Palace (so pretty!) and then we went over to Big Ben and all the surrounding (amazing!) buildings. (So pretty in the evening!) I don't think there are many things more beautiful than Big Ben all lit up at night. (I started having images of a boy in green flying through the sky.) :) Then we went to o'neills for dinner. And then came home. It was a very successful day. XD

Yay for Spring Awakening!

That's Buckingham Palace behind me! :)

Today is Sunday and I'm just doing homework, writing postcards, talking to people on gmail, and thinking about Spring Awakening! :)

P.S. We saw this when we were walking around on Saturday--I thought of you Patrick! :)

An umbrella wouldn't work in Edinburgh...

Wednesday
To start off our trip to Scotland we met at Kings Cross to catch a 9am train. I sat with Bethany and saw lots of pretty scenery. I so want to visit the country. (I really don't belong in a city.) We got into Edinburgh at 1:38pm and went to our hostel to drop off our bags. (By the way, Edinburgh is COLD!!!!! And windy!!! and cold!!! and sometimes wet, too. hence the title.) Then we went to the Edinburgh Castle! It was so cool--made of stone and old and so...Scottish. It was kind of funny, but because of these mannequin things it kind of reminded me of a theme park. Then we went back to the hostel and had dinner at 6pm. I had bread and soup, then curry chicken with rice, and then ice cream with chocolate sauce--it was yummy! After this I wanted to rest, but my room (I was bunking with seven other girls) wanted to go out. So we went to a pub (called The Black Rose). I didn't get anything (actually only one girl ordered drinks) and we didn't stay long. But when we got back to the hostel I did get some apple pie--it was tasty! Then it was off to bed. Yay for sleep!

Me in front of the Edinburgh Castle!

Thursday
We started off this day with a big hot breakfast (I ate so much!). Our first trip was up a very steep hill to the National Monument (which was left unfinished by the way). It was SO windy. While we were there, we got to climb up the Nelson monument--it was very, very high (I felt very brave, considering my fear of heights). But there was a great view. It was beautiful. It's the closest to the country I've been able to get to. Then we went to a museum, which was pretty cool. It was really tall and basically had the Scottish historical timeline going from the basement to the top floor. The not-so-cool thing is that right after got there the fire alarm went off and we had to wait in the cold until they let us back in. :( After Bethany and I got all the way to the seventh floor, we went off the have our lunch that the hostel packed for us. :P Whoever came up with cheese and onion sandwich does not deserve a prize.

Then we went to the Scotland National Gallery. It's a really nice museum--not too big, not too small. My favorite exhibit was the Three Graces statue. It is SO pretty. and marble. and reminds me of Lucy, Hanna, and me. Afterwards Bethany, Aubrey, and I visited the Writer's Museum. It's cute and in an old house on a hill. It had exhibits on Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott and a few more. Then we went to some shops, the post office, and back to the hostel to rest before dinner, which wasn't so tasty. Then Martin took some of us went to an acapella choir sing Renaissance church music. And then some of that group went with Martin to a pub and bought us drinks (I got a big cup of hot chocolate! yum!). Then we headed back to the hostel (by the way of an ice cream shop) and then to bed!

Me and a view from the top of the hill we climbed (in the middle of the city!).

Beth and me in front of the (unfinished) National Monument.

Now we're on top of Nelson's Monument looking down on the National Monument. (soooo high up!)

Friday
For our last day of Scotland, we visited the Scottish Parliament. The building is really new and beautiful and nature themed. After that we rushed to St. Giles Cathedral, which is very old and beautiful with vaulted ceilings. Then we hurried to get our bags from the hostel and then to catch our train. (On our way to catch the train we saw a man in a kilt playing the bagpipes! So cool!) Our train ride home was loud, but otherwise uneventful.

Overall, the trip was amazing. It's a beautiful place and the people there are really friendly (plus there's always the cool accents). I would love to go back some day. And take people. Lucy, Han, Patrick--you guys would love it! Scotland rocks!

P.S. I forgot to say that I saw this cool giraffe statue, which made me think of you, Grams! :)