So sorry I haven't posted in a while. So tired and crazy busy. I'll go back and add pictures when I'm done but for now let me just get it all written down while I still remember. Currently I am at the Heathrow Airport in England waiting for my flight at 10 am. And I've been here since 6 pm.. I finished filling up my Amazing journal Erin gave me for my birthday. I love it. I can't even close it its so full of tickets, post cards, pressed flowers and other junk. It's been crazy fun journaling.
Anyways, so we get to London and what do I do the first night there? See a show of course! After being in paris that morning, leaving at 6 am and taking the longest worst train ride ever to london, having to carry our suit cases up more flights of stairs that I knew I had the strength for. It was crazy.. so once we get in our hotel, some of us go to Leicester Square to see what shows were playing that night. We got really good deal on Singing in the Rain for that night so we bought them, did our assigned walking tour of London with my class, ran home and dressed up all fancy and went to a show! Longest day ever but it was 100 percent worth it. The audience in the first 10 rows got completely drenched from Don Lockwood's tap dancing and I sat on the balcony with Katie laughing at them with the binoculars I borrowed from Maddie. So great. More than worth it.
So we visited many of the famous art museums including British Museum, Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Wallace collection, Victoria and Albert museum, and of course the National Gallery. They were amazing. Sad to see some of the Ancient Greek stuff here in London though.. It belongs in Athens. GIVE IT BACK TO THEM! Anyways. So many amazing things to see. First of all I love my professor James. Not only was he super chill in London about time, museums, and journal assignments, but he made the museums extremely interesting and enjoyable. I love that he doesn't just tell us facts and random things we'll forget tomorrow. He gives us a reason why artworks are so important and has them relate to us now. Also he's hilarious. He laughed and congratulated me at the
British museum when he caught me fist bumping an extremely old Egyptian statue of a fist that I was
not suppose to be even touching. Also at the Tate Modern we came across a mobile sculpture and he had every one of us blow on it at the same time to see if we could get it to move. He's like a big little kid that I respect. A girl in our class named Angela even made a tally of every time he said the word "evocative" or started talking about a painting with "alright folks.." Haha so great.
Ok so I'm surprised I've gone this far without referencing a movie! Well first of all, this whole trip has felt like a movie. Can't believe it's over. Feels like Greece was a year ago. My professor James said at the beginning of the trip that every day will feel like an eternity but the end is coming like a train that can't be stopped! So true. That's how everything is. Working at Disney was the same! I cannot even believe that was two years ago. Feels like I was there just last summer.
Ok anyways. So I also got to see Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. I bought phantom tickets for myself because that was the one I REALLY wanted to see. Besides les mis of course. So I bought my ticket that afternoon and Caroline dropped me off and took a picture of me wearing my masquerade mask from Venice. And my seat was pretty darn good for paying so little. Christine's voice was perfect. Everyone was perfect. Never been so satisfied with everyone's voice in a broadway besides when I saw wicked for the first time. And then Caroline picked me up like a good friend and roommate and we went home together, with the condition that I wear my mask all the way home! Haha fun times with that chica. Got several stares and a few giggles on the tube. And of course Les Mis was a dream! We got to upgrade our tickets the night of the show and we had pretty good seats before but after we upgraded we were literally in perfect seats. And then when Maddie went to upgrade hers she got her ticket later she she originally had a balcony seat, she got to upgrade to FRONT ROW! She could see the tears on Marius's face when he sang Empty Chairs! And the fog machines were all around her. So cool. She was so excited haha. That was really cool. And we all dressed up with our new Dorthy Perkins Dresses. We looked HOT for wearing the same clothes for 40 days.. Haha.
Last super cool thing I got to do was Harry Potter tour!!!! This was the thing I wanted to do most and I can't believe I almost didn't do it. First of all, I cried. Jaime Christensen, the girl who can count on one hand how many times I've cried, cried in the Harry Potter tour. Now I didn't cry in the whole thing. Just the part when they showed the castle in its entirety that they use for the zooming out scenes of Harry Potter. So it's not actually that big in real life. But it's pretty big! They have this beautiful room all lit up and blue walls to show the different lighting they use to get the time of day correct. I didn't see it coming. We were walking through the real set of diagonal ally and then I go through to the next section and there it was.. BAM. And I cried and walked around it again and again. And I watched it turn from day to night 3 or 4 times. It was truly magic. So besides me crying, we got to see some pretty amazing things in this museum. The first part you walk through the actual doors of the great hall, see Harry's first set of robes, the first Dumbledor's clothes, Dobby, the Griffindor common room, the wands of everyone, moving paintings, Harry's first snitch, the horcruxes, the ministry of magic, the night bus, revolving staircases, private drive, Godricks hollow, hogwarts bridge, night bus, flying car, and even the chess pieces. And so so so so so much more. Like an infinite amount of stuff more. Once Maddie loads her pics I will put them on here. My camera ran out of space so we used hers haha. It was amazing.
So everyone's flight left that Friday morning except mine which actually left Saturday morning so I had a wonderful day on my own on Friday. Being with 30 girls an one boy 24/7 was great but I sure missed my alone time. So I woke up Friday, said goodbye to people leaving for the airport, checked out of my hotel, paid for my bags to be left in hotel closet, and headed for the city of London on my own :) my main goal of the whole day was to find Jude Law. There is actually a pretty good song by Brand New called "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad" that John showed me before I left. Haha it also is pretty convienent that Jude Law is my favorite male actor/celebrity crush. So when I met all my friends while on study abroad I told a few people that I plan to celebrity stalk him when I get to London. Then my friend Katie told me that when she lived in London with her family she lived right down the street to him. And he sill lives there. So what was I going to do on Friday by myself in London? Walk up and down Jude Laws street/neighborhood. It was awesome. Didn't ever see him. Didn't look like anyone was really home but yes I did see his house. And no I did not take a picture because I felt too much like a creep. But it is forever in my memory haha. The rest of the day bymyself I spent taking a nap in Hyde park, going shopping a little for my family, and eating frozen yogurt at this place called Snog. Which had a giant sign in the front window that said "snogging is 100 percent all natural." And not only was this Snog good, it was the best Snog I ever had! Plain yogurt with raspberries. So yummy.
Headed to the airport that night around 6 and spent the night there laying on my suitcases with my eye pillow. Hearing construction workers work on something in the airport all night. For abou 3 full hours of sleep. Then I checked in that morning, got on the plain from London to LA. 11 hour flight. And now I'm home and my adventure is over but boy did I learn a lot! Best thing I ever did! I'm so gla I did it while I am young and not married. I've been so blessed in my life and I have pretty much done everything I want to do before I'm married so I guess that's the next thing on my list. Gonna have to work on that haha. Well, back into the dating world of provo :/ I hope I post more in the future about my life! Bye!
