The Last Post

For anyone who wasn't aware...I AM HOME!

And that is a miracle in itself. I know you all heard about the terrible delays and cancellations going on at Heathrow Airport in London. The basic story is, on Friday and Saturday, London was prey to some pretty heavy snow. It was bad enough that Heathrow was closed for an entire day. I heard tons of horror stories about people I know whose flights were cancelled more than once and were now stranded in London until who knows when? Naturally, this all caused a bit of stress for me. By the time Monday came around (my last day in London) only about 1/3 of the flights were still scheduled, which included mine....BUT that could always change, and at any moment. I was anxious nearly all day and I think I checked our flight status about 300 times. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, we were still right on schedule so Matt and I left for the airport at about 6:40am, for a 10:15 am flight.

Heathrow was sheer madness. There were masses of people standing OUTSIDE of the airport. That's right, people weren't even allowed into the airport unless they were on a flight that was actually leaving. At this point, Matt and I were already counting our blessings. However, we hadn't even reached the beginning of our good fortune. If anyone remembers, Matt and I both used our parents' American Airlines Advantage Miles to purchase our airline tickets. (Thank you, parents!!!) This worked out wonderfully because, of course, we didn't have to pay, but we also were able to fly home in business class.

Let's talk about business class. Keep in mind that I have never flown in anything besides coach up until yesterday, so this was quite the experience. First of all, we were able to wait in a separate, shorter line to check our baggage. We zipped through security without any waiting. We boarded the plane first. Then we sat down in our beautiful, big, roomy seats that reclined almost all the way back. The flight attendant handed us our MENUS for the meal we would be eating on board. Champagne was served at takeoff. We were handed the most wonderful pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones to wear throughout the plane ride. We each had our own TV screen, which came equipped with about 60 choices of movies and TV episodes to watch (I chose Cyrus, Inception, Up in the Air and three episodes of The Office.). Our meal started off with warm, salted nuts, accompanied by your choice of drink, followed by a salad and bread course and then the entree (I had salmon, Matt had chicken) and finishing it all up with a fruit and cheese plate. It. Was. Heaven. And it will probably never happen again in my life.

Thankfully, oh so thankfully, we landed in Chicago without problems and our flight to DFW was only delayed by about ten minutes. That flight was pretty quick, and then, before we knew it, we were home. We were greeted at baggage claim by family and friends and after a slew of hugs and picture taking, we retrieved our bags and went home. After some Mexican food, of course.

It has been a crazy few months. Some people say that experiences like this change who you are as a person. I don't know if I would go that far, but I know that I will always treasure the time I spent abroad. I have been able to see four different countries and partake of different lifestyles and cultures. I also learned things about myself and found a new appreciation for my family and friends, who I dearly missed while overseas. I am overjoyed to be home. And on that note, I have some people to thank.

To all of you who gave me advice and tips about studying abroad, thank you! I took your suggestions to heart!

To the Tracy family, who I babysat for once a week while in London, thank you for giving me a job which simply consisted of playing with your adorable girls! I looked forward to babysitting every week!

To Andrew and Annie, our gracious and fantastic Irish hosts, thank you for letting us stay with you and showing us around your city! You are both wonderful!

To Mike, Anita and Grace, thank you for letting me intrude on your Thanksgiving, showing me around Amsterdam and cooking wonderful meals for me! I had such a great time that weekend!

To Matt, my fabulous travelling buddy, the Harry to my Hermione, thank you for putting up with me for three and a half months. I'm so glad I was able to go to London with one of my best friends. We sure had some good times, didn't we? From our first day in the city, to standing at the original site of The Rose, to every horrible play we saw, to getting up at 3:30am to go to Paris, to playing with ducks and squirrels in the park on our last day....you are the best. Thank you.

Most importantly, to my parents. Thank you for letting me go on this adventure. Thank you for letting me use your advantage miles so I didn't have to pay for a flight. Thank you for sending me packages and hiding cards in my suitcase and giving me encouragement when I was having a bad day. Thank you for not spoiling me by simply paying for everything, like many other students that I met. Thank you for teaching me how to be smart, resourceful and giving me my innate sense of good direction, which certainly came in handy on this trip. Thank you for being you and always making me laugh and loving me no matter what. I love you.

And lastly, to you, if you have stuck with me throughout this whole trip and read each and every one of my scattered blog posts. Thanks for the comments and the e-mails and thank you for coming on this journey with me.

Soapbox

Tonight Matt and I went to church.

We went to a church right down the street from our dorm that was hosting a Christmas service that they called, "Alternative Carols." Yes. It was awesome. There were hundreds of people there, mostly younger people in their 20s and 30s. The atmosphere was, as Matt said, like being at church camp. Loud music from the band, lots of smiling and laughing, cool lights, the works. We sang several Christmas carols and a few "worship" songs and then a man (who had the same hair as Dr. Walsh, I kid you not) spoke for a short time. His message was fantastic, very anti-religion, pro-Jesus. Which I like. However, his message was not the part of the service that stood out to me. One of the songs we sang was "O Holy Night," a song that I have heard probably thousands of times throughout my life. But tonight, one particular part of the song spoke volumes to me.

Truly he taught us to love one another

His law is love and his gospel is peace

Chains shall he break

For the slave is our brother

And his name, all oppression shall cease

He taught us to LOVE one another. His law is LOVE and his gospel is PEACE. How often do we completely disregard these lyrics? How often do we treat each other with hate and, rather than seeking peace, do we stir up trouble? The slave is our brother. No one is better than anyone else. We are all the same. In his name, ALL oppression shall cease. Then I thought about the Senate's recent repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

*steps up on soapbox*

I didn't vote for Obama. I wouldn't really consider myself a liberal. BUT, I think that this repeal is a step in the right direction. I think the concept of DADT was ridiculous to begin with. I think if someone wants to serve their country, they should absolutely be able to, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation. I think if someone is uncomfortable with a soldier being gay, they should probably just get over it. We are all working towards a better future here. I think that DADT was, shall we say, oppression...and a very poor example of love and peace. I'm not saying that I have all the answers. I'm not saying that I exhibit love and peace at all times, because, believe me, I don't. However, I think that all of us should be continually striving towards a goal of mutual love, peace and respect. Because otherwise, we are just screwed.

*steps off of soapbox*

Thanks for reading. :) One other thing...I would really appreciate some prayers right now. Specifically that my flight on Tuesday will be able to leave at 10:15am without any complications or delays. Please pray that any bad weather will hold off until later and that I will be able to go home with no problems. All kinds of craziness has been happening in London as a result of bad weather; airports closing, flights being cancelled, but supposedly, things should start getting back to normal tomorrow. If you wouldn't mind saying just a teensy little prayer for me, I would so greatly appreciate it! Thank you!

Merry Christmas, friend.

I'll be home for Christmas

I'm dreaming tonight of a place I love

Even more than I usually do

And although I know

It's a long road home

I promise you

I'll be home for Christmas

You can count on me

Please have snow and mistletoe

And presents under the tree

Christmas Eve will find me

Where the love light beams

I'll be home for Christmas

If only in my dreams

That is, if our flight isn't delayed or cancelled because of snow. Which is in the forecast for this weekend. Tuesday, the day I leave, has a 30% chance of precipitation right now, but that could change. Let's just hope and pray that around the hour of 10:00am, the skies are clear enough for my plane to take off. Let's also hope and pray that things are clear in Chicago, which is where my connecting flight to DFW takes off. But Chicago should be fine, right? Don't they deal with snow all the time? Wouldn't they know what to do? Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Today I turned in my final papers for each of my classes and I am FREE! It's one of the best feelings in the world. Now I can spend hours online or walking around a park without feeling like I should be doing homework. To celebrate, Matt and I are going to see the movie Burlesque tonight. I am way too excited.

Dreading packing....

Daniel Faraday and Prince Hamlet

Glory to God in the highest, I finally got over my sickness! Good thing, because I did not want to spend my entire flight home coughing up a lung. That would royally suck.

I've done some pretty cool things since last we talked. I'm sure you're intrigued by the title of this post. First of all, Matt and I went to Oxford this past weekend. We kept saying that we were going to take a day when we had nothing to do and just go, but the trip was put off time and time again. Finally, on Sunday, we boarded a train and an hour and a half later, found ourselves in the land of Lewis Carroll, J.R.R. Tolkein and Daniel Faraday. Daniel Faraday is a character from LOST who taught at Oxford. (I've recently noticed that I make a lot of references to both LOST and Harry Potter in this blog. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. But that's only because I really, passionately, with all of my heart love both of them. Really, when I finished the last Harry Potter book, I thought I was going to cry. It was like watching my childhood end. When LOST ended, I went into mild depression. Not really. But it was devastating. And I HAD to mention LOST in this post, because my very favorite episode in the whole series has a scene at Oxford! It's called "The Constant" and it is completely centered on Desmond, who is such an awesome character. He might be my favorite, but maybe not, because I love Sawyer too. And Charlie. And Hurley. Such a hard decision...Wow. This paragraph quickly gave way to my ridiculous rantings. Let's get back on track, Laura.) So anyway....

Like I was saying, Matt and I went to Oxford. We had no agenda for this trip, except for the desire to see as much of Oxford as we could. Once we arrived, we walked from the train station straight into town and after a quick lunch, we ventured down to Christ Church College, the most well known building on campus. We were able to wander all around and inside the building, taking in the sheer grandeur that is Oxford. It is an incredible place. The buildings are huge and magnificent and the length of time that they have been there makes them all the more beautiful. One of the first things we saw was a staircase. But this wasn't just any old staircase. Not only was it large and intricate, but it was also used in the filming of one particular scene in the movie (can you guess?) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone! Look, I fit both LOST and Harry Potter into this post! Being the huge Potter-maniacs that we are, Matt and I were ecstatic. We posed for pictures on the staircase and then immediately headed into the Great Hall. The Great Hall is the dining hall in Christ Church and also served as the model for the Great Hall in the HP series. More excitement! More posing for pictures! More marveling at the splendid architecture! It really was beautiful.

After we were done exploring Christ Church, Matt and I walked all over the rest of the city, stumbling onto some very interesting shops. One called Alice's Shop which sold exclusively products that had to do with Alice in Wonderland and the other a bookstore in which every single book was on sale for two pounds. I bought two books. Soon we realized that outside of the actual Oxford campus, there wasn't a lot more to do in Oxford, and we had seen what we wanted to see, so we decided to leave. A day well spent.

Now on to the other part of this post's title, "Prince Hamlet." Last night I went to the National to see a production of Hamlet. Normally, this would go under my London Theatre posts, but I don't know if I'll be seeing anymore plays in the five days I have left in London, so that would be quite a short post, which is why I'm about to write about the show here. As I've mentioned many times, the National produces amazing plays. This production of Hamlet had been getting stellar reviews, so I was very much looking forward to this play. As usual, I was not disappointed. Hamlet is known as the greatest of Shakespeare's plays, which pretty much makes it the greatest play ever written. I don't know if I would say that this production was the greatest play I have ever seen, but it was certainly amazing. I don't need to explain the plot, do I? If you don't know the plot of Hamlet, shame on you. And if you don't know the plot of Hamlet, watch The Lion King. (Betcha some of you didn't realize they were the same story, huh?) What made this production different was that the director chose to stage it in present day, something that isn't usually done when putting on one of Shakespeare's shows. It worked beautifully. Instead of grand palaces, the action took place in a stately home, probably what the prime minister's home or the White House looks like. Instead of regal gowns, the characters wore business suits. Instead of swords, the guards carried guns. Rory Kinnear, who played Hamlet, was fantastic. Actually, everyone was fantastic. I don't think there was a weak actor in the cast. I could talk about this show all day. It was that wonderful.

Five days left.

Just finished my hardest paper.

With every passing day, I get closer and closer to home.

Closer to seeing my family and friends.

That's what I'm most excited about.

But I'm also excited for some other things.

I'm really looking forward to going home to a house completely decked out in Christmas decorations.

I am stoked to get to drive my car again. We've been apart for far too long.

Tex-Mex food and I will have a grand reunion the day I get home.

After eight months of not being involved in a show, I will finally get back into theatre. It's been a painful separation.

Luckily, oh so luckily, I am going home to a part time job. A job that I am very excited about and one that works perfectly with my schedule. I love having connections. Even if those connections consist of my mother.

After spending a couple of weeks with my family, I'll be moving into a new apartment with one of my best friends.

It will be nice to have reliable internet again.

It will also be nice to have access to stores that are open 24 hours a day. (God bless WalMart.)

But I will miss this city.

I'll miss the cold weather. Yes, I am one of those people that genuinely loves cold weather.

I'll miss the free time.

I'll miss the tube.

Stress will be introduced back into my life. I've had such a relaxing semester, save a few random instances.

I have really enjoyed being able to walk everywhere here. I'll miss that too.

I'll miss the English accents. It's just so darn charming.

I'm really NOT looking forward to packing everything again.

And the sickness perpetuates...

I think I'm dying.

Not really. But I feel like it.

Remember my last post when I was feeling sick? That turned into a full fledged, all out, absolute worst cold of my life.

I can't breathe.

I can't stop coughing. And sneezing. I'm that annoying person who coughs her way through other people's oral presentations in class.

I have gone through so many tissues in the past few days.

I'm taking Sudafed and it's doing NOTHING.

I'm sucking on cough drops like they're candy.

I'm eating a lot of oranges. I'm drinking a lot of hot drinks.

The cold weather does nothing to help, of course. Damn you, London!

Finals are upon us, folks. The library is crowded and there is a general sense of stress and panic in the air. However, things are different here in London than they are in the States.

No one is studying. That's because my school clearly has no idea what a test is. All finals are composed of a paper or a presentation. In fact, in every single one of my classes, my entire grade for the class is comprised of one presentation and one paper. That's it. For the entire semester. If you mess up, you're screwed. Comforting, isn't it?

So far, I've given three presentations. They've all gone swimmingly. I have one more to do on Thursday.

I have four papers due in the next ten days. One of those papers will be the easiest assignment of my life and will probably take me about 42 minutes to do. Another paper is merely a continuation of the presentation I gave in that class. No big deal. The other two papers will actually require some effort, but 1800 words is nothing, so I'm not worried (That's for my women's lit class, the other essay has no word count requirement, but should be around 1500.).

I've been listening to Glee's version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" on repeat lately. What are your favorite Christmas songs?

19 Days

I have spent the majority of my day lying (laying?) in bed. It's not very fun, folks. This morning I woke up and, like every other Thursday, began my trek to the Regent Street campus of my school. And it is a TREK. It takes me around 30-45 minutes to get to class and longer if I stop for coffee, which I did today. Once I got to class and sat down, I realized how tired I felt. This is unusual because most of the time, once I'm up in the morning, I am up! I'm awake and ready to go with no sign of drowsiness. Not so today. Every part of me felt like I might be coming down with something. It's that hard to describe kind of sick. When you don't really want to eat, but you don't feel nauseous, and you have fever-like symptoms, but you don't have a fever. It's weird. Following class, I went straight back to my room (after snapping a few pictures of the snow) and finished up a power point presentation that I have to give on Monday. I still wasn't feeling good so I decided to curl up with a movie. I settled on The Band Wagon, a 1953 film, starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. It wasn't bad. But I prefer Gene Kelly over Fred Astaire any day. After the movie, I thought I was feeling better. Then I stood up. Nope. Just an illusion. Time for three Gilmore Girls episodes in a row.

I'm ready to go home.

Granted, these past few months have been a blast, and maybe I only feel this way because I don't feel good and there are loud people in the hall, pre-gaming before a night of probable debauchery which will end in even more late night yelling,..

I'm not a big partier. I don't really enjoy "going out." To college students, especially those studying in foreign countries, "going out" means drinking, going to a club/pub/bar to drink some more, dance a little, drink some more and then head home. That's just not fun to me. Every once in a while? Fine. But not every week. And not multiple times a week. Call me lame, call me boring, call me what you will. That's fine with me. However, as a result of my dislike of "going out," I haven't made a lot of friends here. I'm usually a pretty social, friendly person, but when the only opportunity I have to make friends involves spending money that I don't want to spend to watch people that I don't know get wasted....I'd rather not. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that that's the only opportunity I have to make friends. You see, the dorm I live in is not connected with my school. The people I take classes with are not the same people I live with. I only see my classmates once a week, for about two hours. Not a lot of time to make lasting friendships. Along those lines, the people in my dorm are only around in the evenings, when they like to "go out," and apparently, that's the only thing they can think of for entertainment! *sigh*

I'm not sure what the purpose of this post is. I'm just lonely. I miss everyone. I miss everyone a lot more than I thought I would. I thought I wouldn't want to leave London when the time came....guess I was wrong.

I think I'll finish up this night with Meet Me in St. Louis. I could use some Judy Garland in my life.

"I definitely want to go to Amsterdam."

Scott, this title is for you. Get excited. I'm not going to explain the title to the rest of you because it would take way too long, so you're just going to have to live with a little mystery.

This past Thursday I left for Amsterdam. As opposed to my other trips, in which I left at insanely early hours of the morning, this flight left at 6:00pm. I wanted to make sure that I was actually IN Amsterdam on Thanksgiving, and thankfully, everything worked out wonderfully. I landed in less than an hour, Mike met me at the airport and we drove back to his house.

Now for those who don't know, Mike and Anita are some of my parents' closest friends. Not only that, they were also my children's pastors when I was about 9 years old. AND, their daughter, Grace, is my sister's best friend. As you can see, I know this family pretty well, so I was more than excited to spend the weekend with them. Mike and Anita are working as missionaries in Amsterdam right now (although technically, they live in a city called Leiden). They're in the middle of a four year period in the city and in 2013 (I think), they will return to the States for one year before moving back to Amsterdam again. Oh, you should probably understand one more crucial thing about Mike and Anita. They are some of the funniest and most sarcastic people I know. It's true. In fact, they are the only people I know that love Seinfeld as much as my family. And that is saying something. I knew it was going to be a good weekend.

The night I arrived, it was too late to do any sight seeing, so we just sat around the kitchen table and talked as I ate leftover turkey and stuffing. We talked about London and Amsterdam, old memories from way back when and our favorite episodes of The Office. The next morning, Anita and I took off towards the city. She determined that the best way to see the city was to take a boat tour. This is something quite similar to a bus tour that can be taken in London or New York, but Amsterdam is full of canals, so taking a boat instead of a bus allows you to see much more. The tour was only about half an hour long, but we were able to see nearly all of the city. Amsterdam is so interesting looking. It looks older than the other cities I've visited and although the buildings are all lined up next to each other, each one of them has a different design. I suppose the best word to describe it is quaint, which is ironic in itself. I say it's ironic because Amsterdam is one of the most liberal cities in Europe, or perhaps the world. Gay marriage is legal. Prostitution is legal. Drugs are legal. In fact, you can pick up some marijuana in any number of coffee houses in the city with absolutely no problem. Now, since I don't particularly feel the need to light things on fire and inhale the contents of said product, I was perfectly happy to just see the historical side of Amsterdam. And I sure did.

Following our boat tour, Anita and I grabbed some lunch and then headed toward the Anne Frank house. Confession time. I have never actually read The Diary of Anne Frank. I know, I know, I have to read it, it's so good, I'm a terrible person for never reading it, blah blah blah. I promise, one day I will read it, but I still wanted to see her house. The museum is really fascinating. Visitors start off on the ground floor of the Frank's house and proceed upstairs through a maze of rooms that were occupied by the people Anne wrote about in her diaries. We were able to see the bookshelf that covered the entrance to the secret annex in which Anne and her family and friends hid from the Nazis. At the end of the museum, Anne's actual diaries are seen on display and it is truly an amazing thing to view.

Next up was a visit to The Rijksmuseum, a museum holding hundreds of pieces of art done by Dutch artists. Most notably, many of Rembrandt's works are seen here. Sadly, I didn't know most of the other artists very well, but I always enjoy looking at art, no matter how great or small my knowledge of the pieces. By the time we had explored the museum, it was getting later and Anita and I decided to head back home. Earlier that morning, Anita had parked her car in a parking garage and we took a bus into the center of the city, so of course, we had to take the same bus back to the garage at the end of the day. When the bus arrived, Anita hopped on while I turned to throw something away. By the time I turned back, the bus doors closed in my face and took off down the street. I motioned to Anita that I would just get on the next bus as I laughed at the situation. Luckily, I am not one to easily panic, so I just waited a few minutes, hopped on the next bus and met Anita at the next stop. No big deal, although I did tell Mike later, "Your wife deserted me today!"

That night we went out to dinner at a great restaurant that serves pancakes. Well, not what Americans think of as pancakes. These are more like crepes and they can be served with any number of toppings. Anita and I shared one with ham, cheese and mushrooms and another with apples, cinnamon and sugar. DELICIOUS. After we got home, we all relaxed on the couch, catching a bit of various football games on TV and eventually we decided the watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving episode. It was almost like being at home! It was so nice to be able to sit on someone's couch and eat good home-cooked food, rather than leaning over a desk in a cramped room and discovering vomit in my kitchen sink.

The next morning, Mike showed me around Leiden. The neatest thing about this town is one of its churches. You may not think it looks that remarkable, and true, it does look like the classic cathedral, but this church is special. Back in the 1600s, before journeying to America, the Pilgrims found refuge in Leiden and attended this church. There's even a special plaque dedicated to this small group inside and across the way you can see one of the houses in which the Pilgrims lived. I remember learning about the Pilgrims in first grade and knowing that they spent some time in Holland, so it was amazing to be able to see exactly where they walked spent their time.

The rest of the day was devoted to a true Thanksgiving feast. Mike and Anita had invited about 20 of their missionary friends over for a potluck lunch and we spent hours eating and talking and eating and talking, etc. etc. etc. The food was fantastic and I was able to talk to some truly extraordinary people, some who have spent more than 20 years serving overseas. We ate until we could eat no more and after all the guests were gone, all the dishes were washed and everything was put away, we sat down, discovered that The Muppets' Wizard of Oz was on TV and proceeded to watch the entire thing. Yes, three adults, laughing our way through a Muppets movie. Don't judge.

This morning, I flew back to London and was reminded that I have only three weeks left in this splendid city. I feel like there are still things I haven't done and I'm worried I won't be able to fit everything in. I also have final presentations and papers coming up, which just doesn't excite me at all. But I suppose my semester of pleasure has to contain at least some work, right? Yuck.

Cue non-stop Christmas music for the next month.

Europe doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving.

Isn't that sad? All these Europeans are being deprived of a day to do nothing but eat. But Thanksgiving is a strictly American holiday and most Europeans aren't even sure what the purpose of Thanksgiving is. So tomorrow, when I would normally be lounging on the couch in my pajamas, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I will be sitting in my theatre class, ranting about the horrible plays I've been seeing lately. Later in the day, when I'd usually be taking a walk around my Grandma's neighborhood with the women (the men in my family prefer napping...Grandpa, Chad, Ben, Dad, I'm talking to you), I'll be on a plane to Amsterdam. On Friday, when I'd usually be pulling boxes of Christmas ornaments out of the closet in the game room, I will be exploring Anne Frank's house. It will be a fun weekend. Slightly strange, but fun.

I have a lot to be thankful for. I'll make a list.

First, I'm thankful for my parents. My wonderful parents who allowed me to go on this adventure, gave me money, hid cards in my suitcase, give me advice and encouragement and never stop loving me.

I'm thankful for my brother and sister, who I do miss. We don't always get along, but I love them a lot.

My friends are a wonderful group of people who are diverse, unique and fabulous at all times. I miss them.

I'm thankful for freedom, music, laughter, theatre, food, sleep and a thousand other things too numerous to list here.

But this year, most of all, I am thankful for opportunities. 99% of people in this world are not as lucky as I am. I realize what an amazing opportunity I have been given these few months. I am currently living in one of the most interesting cities on the planet, making new discoveries about myself and others around me, seeing new things and experiencing a different culture. And for that, I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

London Theatre: Part Three

Ok folks, we've got a rough round.

But 15 shows isn't bad, huh? I am loving life.

Or You Could Kiss Me (The National)

Puppets. Extremely realistic looking puppets. You might think this sounds like a children's show, but believe me, it was not. The plot of this play was about two elderly men who have been in a relationship together for about 40 years. I don't remember if they were technically married or not....Anyway, one of the men is extremely ill and nearing the end of his life and most of the plot involves the two characters trying to deal with this fact. The cast was comprised of several men, all wearing the same basic black suit. Two actors provided the voices for the characters, as well as assisting other actors in moving the puppets around the stage. Two other actors played the two men at younger ages. One woman acted as a sort of narrator, but she also played the men's housekeeper and lawyer. It's hard to describe much more about this play without actually seeing it. The puppets used in the play are not the typical Sesame Street/Avenue Q puppets one automatically thinks of. They were made of wood and looked so.....human-like. Rest assured, my inability to describe these things does not reflect a poorly done show. This production was wonderful. It was beautifully done in absolutely every aspect. The National delivers yet again!

An Ideal Husband (Vaudeville Theatre)

This play was written by Oscar Wilde. You've heard of him, right? He wrote The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray. He's quite well known. Well, this play is about blackmail. A woman threatens to reveal the secrets of a man she knows, which would most likely cause him problems in his job as well as his marriage. The problem with this play was that I never understood why she cared. What's the point of the blackmail? Sure, she wants a little something in return, but why make so much of an effort? I also wasn't sure whether this play was supposed to be a drama or a comedy. It had elements of both, but the comedy wasn't very funny and the drama wasn't that interesting. The costumes were beautiful and the set was atrocious. When I see a play, I usually wind up loving what I saw or hating it. With this play, I honestly felt neither. I walked out of the theatre and simply said, "Meh."

Hungry Ghosts (Orange Tree Theatre)

One of the worst plays I have ever seen. It was about Chinese people and Nascar. How those two related in the play, I really couldn't tell you. Here's a sampling of how bad this play was. The main character was Chinese. Apparently, when he spoke "Chinese" in the play, he spoke without using an accent, in his normal English dialect, but when he was speaking "English," he used a strange, really stereotypical sounding Chinese accent. Confusing? Just wait. His sister was also Chinese, and spoke to both English characters and Chinese characters in "English" and "Chinese," respectively. But did she ever change her accent? NO. I don't even want to write about this play anymore. That's how bad it was.

Billy Elliot (Victoria Palace Theatre)

So far, this is the only show that I've seen in London that I have already seen before. And I was more than pleased to view it again. Billy Elliot is my favorite musical. It's based on the movie of the same title, about a young boy growing up in the 1980s, during the miner's strike, who wants to take ballet. I previously saw this show in Chicago over spring break, and although this performance was not as good as Chicago's, it was still the same old Billy, so I loved it. The dancing is phenomenal, especially when you take into account how young most of the dancers are. These are some seriously talented children. The music is wonderful, the show isn't terribly long, the story is interesting....basically, it's a great show.

Joseph K (The Gate Theatre)

Bad. BAD. Badbadbad. There was no point to this play. Lots of things happened, none of them made sense. A man named Joseph K was arrested on his birthday. Why? I don't know. Why doesn't he have a last name? I don't know. Bad things happened to him for year. His lawyer has a china doll collection. His lawyer has had the same intern for six years and won't let her leave his house. Joseph K talked to homeless people on the street who can apparently help him. Someone was being beaten in the office next to him and the audience thought it was hilarious. Strange pop music, including "Don't Stop Believing" by the cast of Glee, was playing throughout the entire opening scene. Why?????? I DON'T KNOW! None of these questions were answered. Nothing was explained. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Thus concludes my third London theatre review.

The joys of dorm life.

The title of this post is meant to be extremely sarcastic. Let's face it, there is nothing joyful about dorm life whatsoever.

Let's start with The Incident. The Incident, as I have decided to name it, occurred on Sunday and has thoroughly shaken me and caused me to lose all faith in humanity in general. I woke up on Sunday morning, after a horrible night of sleep (we'll get to that later) and after a few minutes, I walked across the hall to the kitchen to get something to drink. For those who don't remember, my roommate and I share a kitchen with two other girls and one staff member who lives in this building. The kitchen is rarely up to my standards of cleanliness. Yes, I have high standards and I am proud of them. Dishes sit in the sink or in the dishwasher for days at a time, which annoys me to no end. Just wash them off, dry them off and put them away, people! There always seem to be crumbs everywhere, or spilled....stuff. It's just annoying. Well, all of this is mere child's play compared to The Incident. As I was saying, I walked into the kitchen to get something to drink and immediately turned to the sink. And there before my very eyes, splattered inside the sink, down the front of the cabinet wall, and on the floor was.....puke. Dried puke. Someone threw up in our kitchen sink and did not bother to clean it up. I'm going to type that sentence again, in all caps, to get my point across. SOMEONE THREW UP IN OUR KITCHEN SINK AND DID NOT BOTHER TO CLEAN IT UP! I......just.....you.....really?????? I can't even formulate words to describe how completely disgusting and unsanitary it was. What kind of person does this??? I'll tell you, drunk people. It was awful. I couldn't stand to be in the room a second longer, so I went back to my bedroom and my roommate and I shared our equal disgust. I decided that something had to be done. So, in true Laura fashion (because really, who else would do this?), I wrote a note. The note said this...

To whoever THREW UP in our kitchen sink and didn't bother to clean it up, please do so. That is DISGUSTING. Thanks.

I taped the note to the door of the kitchen and prayed that the culprit would wake from their drunken stupor soon and take care of their mess. A few hours later, the sign was gone, and the puke was too. However, I am still squeamish about using anything in that kitchen. What is wrong with people? Has all decency been lost? Are people that stupid, careless and ridiculous? Apparently so. I am an advocate for class, at all times and quite frequently, I find myself thoroughly disappointed in my generation. *sigh* But what can you do? Not much, I've learned.

But on to other things. As I mentioned up there, the night before The Incident, I had a terrible night's sleep. And now I've had about four in a row. I'll go to bed and spend literally hours tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. I don't know what's wrong. A lot of people say that when you can't fall asleep, you should just get up and do something for a few minutes and then try to fall asleep again. Well, I can't do that. I have a roommate who sleeps three feet away from me and I, unlike others (ahem), am a considerate person. I can't turn on the light to read and I can't really do anything that causes noise for fear of waking my roommate. So I am left to simply lie in bed and hope that I fall asleep soon. Any tips? I'm desperate.

I need cheering up. I'm going to watch The Office.

The Harry Potter premiere deserves its own post.

Last spring, when Matt and I originally chose to study abroad in London, the first thing we decided that we absolutely had to do was attend the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows .

Let me explain a few things first. I have been reading the Harry Potter books since I was 11 years old. When the final book was released, in the summer of 2007, I read the 700 page book in less than 12 hours. All of my friends at TCU are completely and totally obsessed with the series. In our freshmen year, two of my friends took it upon themselves to sort each of us into houses, like they do in the books. I'm a Ravenclaw, if you're curious. We were among the first to discover A Very Potter Musical, which became a Youtube hit. When we went out for sushi one night, we ended up having wizard duels in the parking lot with our chopsticks. In short...we really love Harry Potter. Which is why going to this premiere was such a big deal.

Unfortunately, I awoke this morning to a torrential downpour. My friends and I began texting back and forth, trying to decide if we wanted to brave the rain as well as the crowds. Finally, the rain stopped and we decided to go for it. We would meet at Leicester Square and hope for the best.

I arrived to find the place completely swarming with people. I'm pretty sure the entirety of London had gathered in Leicester Square. I found Matt and together we stood as close to the red carpet as we could...which wasn't very close. We made friends with some fellow Americans and began discussing Glee. 'Cause you know, what else is there to do when you're standing around waiting in the cold? We had a clear view of the red carpet, but after a while we still hadn't seen a single actor, although the frequent screams of delight we heard from the other side of the square indicated that there were definitely famous people present. The security guard standing near us was a very friendly man who was telling us about the other premieres that he'd worked at, most notably Transformers 2. After a while, we decided to move somewhere else. We found our friend, Devon, who was standing behind a random fence in a spot that, surprisingly, wasn't too crowded. Little did we know, Devon had struck gold. For we were standing about 30 feet behind a huge platform. And on that huge platform, the actors were giving interviews. And after they were done, they went down some stairs and went to sign autographs. AND as they went down those stairs and made their way to the first crowd of people, we were treated to a pretty decent view of them. Devon spotted the first celebrities, which she made known to us by screaming, "THE TWINS! IT'S THE TWINS! AAAAHHHH!!!!!" Yep. The boys who play Fred and George Weasley were right there. We let out a cheer and everyone pulled out their cameras. Except for me, because mine had died, much to my dismay. We continued standing at our wonderful little place by the fence for a while. Enough time to see the actors who play Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Cho Chang, Professor Flitwick, Fleur and who we think was Dumbledore. After all of that, we determined that we had seen more than we ever expected to, and decided to go ahead and leave. We were perfectly satisfied.

I knew I chose London for a reason.

A post for no particular reason.

This week has seemed to go on forever.

It's been a slow week.

Not much happening here.

A friend of mine got cast in GLEE. No big deal.

Yesterday was Guy Fawkes Day. He's the guy who tried to blow up Parliament. For some reason, this is now a national holiday. Yay, terrorism and anarchy! Let's celebrate with fireworks and bonfires! Seriously, that's how the day is celebrated. I don't get it either.

Regardless, the annual watching of V For Vendetta occurred, so I am happy. If you haven't seen the movie, you won't understand why we watch it on Guy Fawkes Day. And if you haven't seen it, you need to. Watch it now.

I also went to the Imogen Heap concert last night. THAT was awesome.

Have you heard of Imogen Heap? You probably have, or at least heard one of her songs.

If you've seen the movies Shrek 2, Garden State or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, then you have heard an Imogen Heap song. In each of those movies, she sings the song played during the end credits. And you know the Jason Derulo song "Whatcha Say?" The "Mmm whatcha say" part is from Imogen's song, "Hide and Seek." Anyway, unlike most musical artists, Imogen did not have another musician open for her. Instead, she conducted a full orchestra that played several orchestrations that she wrote herself. Because she's a badass. After a half hour break during which the stage was changed, she came back and sang 12 of her songs. She played every song I hoped she would, including "Let Go" which she sang when she was part of the band Frou Frou, "First Train Home," and the extremely well known, "Hide and Seek." I've been listening to her music since I was a junior in high school, so listening to her songs bring back a lot of memories. Most include cold, February nights, driving my new, red car to Starbucks to hang out with my friends. I barely speak to some of those friends anymore. Others, not at all. Hmm...it's funny how things change, isn't it?

Sometimes I miss those days. Most of the time I don't. But the occasional moment does arise when I wish that I could go back to high school. In high school, you have so little to worry about. Everything seems to be a huge deal, but it's really not. You don't worry about money, or what classes you should take next semester to ensure that you graduate in only four years. In high school, you think you know everything. You think that your friends are the most important people in the world and, sadly, sometimes you don't care what your parents say. Then you grow up. You become an adult. You head off to college. And then all of the sudden, you wake up and you're in London, navigating your way around Europe, managing your own money, planning out the next few years, worrying about what you need to do next summer, what jobs to apply for, what internships to consider and you no longer have this strange idea that your parents don't know anything, because, hello? They obviously do!

I was never a rebellious kid. I never had an urge to go out and party and get drunk and pierce my lip and get into screaming fights with people. But I think every teenager does have a time when they just want to grow up and get out. Right? Didn't everyone feel that way? I wish I could tell that 16 year old version of myself to slow down. That's what everyone told us. Not to rush growing up...but we didn't really listen, did we? We were young and stupid.

So listen up, teenagers! I know you won't listen, but I'm saying it anyway. Don't grow up too fast. The world does not revolve around you and it will not cease to spin should things not go your way. The friends that you have right now will very likely not be in your life in two years time. You'll make new, better friends. Don't blow off your parents and do not disregard what they say. Figure out what you love in this world, and make it your passion. Be your own person. Calm down. Slow down. And please, I beg of you...stop wearing leggings as pants.

This has been "Teenage Advice With Laura." Tune in next time to hear Laura discuss her thoughts on the recent victory of her school's football team. Preview: they go something like this, "WOOOOOO!!!!!"

"Girls like you always get to see Ireland..."

The title of this post refers to a line from the song, "Ireland" from the musical Legally Blonde. Yeah, it's a musical. And yes, I do have the soundtrack. Don't judge.

Like our weekend in Paris, our trip to Dublin began early. However, this time Matt and I were up and at 'em by 5:30 instead of 3:30! We're improving! We took the tube to Victoria station where we boarded a train that would take us to Gatwick Airport. Once there, we got on our plane and after only one hour, we landed in Dublin.

If you all remember, Matt and I weren't just going to Dublin for kicks, we were also visiting our friends, Annie and Andrew. Now, Andrew had given me instructions on what to do once we got to Dublin. The instructions went like this:

"When you get off the plane, walk out to where the buses are and get on one of the big green ones, 747 or 748.

Get off the bus after it passes the river.

Then call me. "

Hmm.............ok, sure. We got on the bus and about 15 minutes later, the bus stopped. At a bus station. No river in sight. We called Andrew, who directed us toward the river and then gave us these directions:

"After you cross the bridge over the river, turn right. You'll pass a Heineken building, turn left. There will be a fork in the road, go to the right. The road will curve to the left and you'll see Trinity College. Wait for me there."

Hmm.............ok, sure. Just like Dora the Explorer, we went over the bridge, turned right and saw a Heineken sign. Not a building. We had no clue if that was what we were looking for or not, so we went ahead and turned left. We came to a T in the road. Not a fork...a T. So we went right. The road curved to the left. We saw a building that looked like it could be Trinity College, but of course, there was no sign to tell us if we were right or not. So we waited. Oh! I forgot the best part! During all of these shenanigans, it was raining cats and dogs. And it was very windy. Brilliant. Finally, Andrew found us (turns out, we were standing in front of Trinity College after all!) and we made the long trek back to his house. The LONG trek back to his house. IN THE RAIN. Matt dropped off his stuff and we journeyed even farther to Annie's house. My goodness, I've been spoiled by the London Underground. Dublin, technically, is a walking city. They have a bus system, but in terms of public transportation, that's about it. I thought we walked a lot in London, but nope, we've got nothing on these Dubliners. They're insane.

Our first day was mostly spent getting situated. We grabbed some food, made a game plan for the rest of the weekend, bought tickets to a rugby game (more on that later) and ended up back at Annie's house for the night. And yes, this is a house. Not a dorm room. Annie lives with three other girls, she has her own room and they have a kitchen, two living areas, two fireplaces...the works. How is this fair, I ask you??? They get a house and I have the world's smallest dorm room that is occupied by two people! Ugh!

Anyway, the next day we spent some time at a very interesting prison, called Kilmainham Prison. This prison was used to house many Irishmen (and women) who fought for Ireland's freedom against England. Ironic, isn't it, that they were put in jail in their own country by outsiders? Not one of England's finest moments. Afterwards, we went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, which was a beautiful building surrounded by tons of trees, all with leaves colored yellow, red and orange. Then we went to the rugby game.

Let me preface this by saying that I have never seen a rugby game before in my life. All I knew was that it was slightly similar to American football. Ha! Similar to American football....rugby players would destroy American football players. They are just as rough, if not even rougher than football players and they do everything without pads. These are just about the manliest men in the world. It was awesome. The teams playing were Leinster (a county in Ireland) and Edinburgh. Naturally, we cheered for Leinster. And they won! Side note: Irish fans are much classier than most American sports fans. They are quite passionate about their team, but there was far less drunken, Texan accent yelling, obnoxious old men at this rugby game. Like I said, it was awesome.

Following the rugby game, the boys decided to go out, while Annie and I stayed in for some much needed girl time. Handfulls of pretzels, two drinks, one home video, two TV episodes (LOST and Gilmore Girls) and lots of laughter later, we were wiped out and gladly went to bed. We slept in on Sunday morning and after lunch, we met up with the boys and headed over to the Guinness Storehouse.

The Guinness Storehouse looks like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. But for adults. The museum part consists of a self-guided tour through floors showing the process through which Guinness is made as well as a lot more information about advertising and distribution of Guinness. It sounds boring, but it really wasn't! The whole thing ends with a free pint, which can either be obtained from the Sky Bar at the very top of the museum, or it can be poured yourself...the right way. Yes, there is a "right way" to pour Guinness. It's very precise, but not hard and it was quite neat to see how it's done. We sat down with our pints and drank to our heart's content. That makes us sound like alcoholics, doesn't it? I promise, we only had one pint each! Except for Annie, who doesn't like Guinness.

Later that night, after a delicious meal that we cooked for ourselves, the boys and I hit the town, determined to have a fabulous Halloween. And we definitely we did. We were a couple of dancing fools and I would not have it any other way. We didn't get home till laaaaatttteeeee and Matt and I had to be up at 5:30 again the next morning to catch our flight back to London. Needless to say, it's been a heck of a weekend.

On the way back to London, I thought about how glad I was to have spent a few days in a city so different from the one that I've become accustomed to. Dublin is a lot more easy going than London. While London is very "GO! GO! GO!" Dublin takes its time. But you know what? I still love London the best. There is something about this city that makes me so content. I just want to give it a hug. Then I thought, if I gave London a hug, what would I give Paris? I decided that a curtsy would do. A pretty little curtsy, for an elegant, posh city. And what about Dublin? That's easy. Dublin gets a high five.

17 days until HP. Yessssss.

London Theatre: Part Two

4 were amazing. 1 was terrible.

Are you ready?

Broken Glass (Tricycle Theatre)

I'm a strange person. I can usually tell within the first few minutes of a play if I'm going to love or hate whatever I'm about to see. This play was no exception. There Matt and I were, sitting in the front row of this small theatre when all of the sudden, all the lights shut off, we hear a loud noise and BAM....the play begins. I turned to Matt and said, "I love this play. I already love this play." Broken Glass was written by Arthur Miller, one of America's greatest playwrights. It's not one of his better known plays, but no matter. The plot centers around a married couple, in their 50s, in the late 1930s. They are living in New York and news of the Holocaust has just begun to make headlines. Sylvia, the wife, has lost feeling and control of her legs. Basically, she spends all of her time in bed or a wheelchair. However, doctors can find nothing physically wrong with her and determine that her inability to walk has to be psychological. This play was fascinating. There was not a bad actor on stage and the script was just so gripping! What was even more fascinating was the design of this show. The set consisted of walls, making up three sides to a room, which were covered in peeling paint, and several bare, hanging light bulbs. Every scene change was perfectly choreographed and accompanied by live cello music, being played by a musician, sitting on a platform at the back of the stage, lit by a single spotlight. The dark, ominous music played while the actors took their time during the scene changes, always staying in character, never rushing off into the wings. It was beautiful. Everything about this play was beautiful. If you can't tell by this long paragraph, I LOVED THIS PLAY.

Design For Living (The Old Vic)

You'd think that a play involving adultery, cheating, lying and polyamorous relationships (relationships between more than two people) would be a sickening, awful play to sit through. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Design For Living, written by Noel Coward, was the first pure comedy that I've seen since arriving in London (The 39 Steps doesn't count, because it was a farce) and my goodness, what a show! I haven't laughed that hard during a play in a long time. Like I said, the plot centers around three people, two men and one woman, all in love with each other. But it's not a love triangle. Gilda loves both Otto and Leo. Leo loves both Otto and Gilda. Otto loves both Gilda and Leo. Is that confusing? Well, that's the play. What's so interesting about this play is that it's written in such a way that you couldn't possibly dislike any of these characters! Yes, in essence, what they are doing is terrible, but the whole plot is so darn enjoyable! Noel Coward is a genius. The director of this play is a genius. The play was three hours long. Three acts. And not once did I glance at my phone to check the time. Not once was I bored. That is a true testament to how wonderful this play was.

House of Games (Almeida Theatre)

We knew that eventually, the day would come. The day we would see a bad play in London. We knew our streak of good shows couldn't last forever, and sadly, it ended with this one. This play is an adaptation of a screenplay written by David Mamet, who is a very good playwright. This just goes to show that you should not mess with a good thing. AKA, don't adapt Mamet! Yuck, yuck, yuck. That's what this play was. It was just bad. I didn't like any of the actors. The script was extremely predictable. I knew how everything was going to play out in the first scene. In contrast to Design For Living, this play was barely over an hour and a half and it seemed to go on forever. Do you want to know the plot? Well, listen up LOST fans. Do you remember that episode where, in a flashback, Sawyer meets and attempts to con a woman, but she catches him, asks to learn about conning, so he teaches her, and ends up conning her in the end anyway? That was this play. But bad.

Deathtrap (Noel Coward Theatre)

We almost didn't make it to this one. Matt and I were riding the Piccadilly line (the tube) to Leicester Square and at a stop on the way, we hear an announcement that someone has been pushed onto the tracks and been run over by a train. Awesome. Our train was stopping here, and all trains on the Piccadilly line were being terminated so they could take care of this incident. The problem was, we were still several stops away from our destination. The only thing to do was get out and take a bus. However, everyone on the Piccadilly line had the same idea. The buses were as packed as sardines, but we managed to squeeze onto one and rode all the way to Piccadilly Circus (during rush hour too). At this point, it was 7:15 and the show started at 7:30. We finally agreed to get off the bus and run. This would have been a brilliant idea, had I not been wearing HEELS. Not just any heels, the Ralph Lauren stilettos that my friend, Dalton bought me for my birthday. So we've got Matt, thinking he knows where he's going, about 6 feet in front of me and we've got me, running like Elle Woods mixed with Carrie Bradshaw, yelling at Matt that he's not going the right way. FINALLY, we found the theatre, tore through the lobby, about four minutes late, were lead to a room with a monitor to watch the first bit before they could seat us, and eventually collapsed in our seats. And out came Jonathan Groff.

Jonathan Groff plays Jessie St. James on the hit TV show, Glee. He was also in the original Broadway cast of Spring Awakening. In short, he's a hunk. Estelle Parsons was also in this play. She won an Academy Award for her supporting role in Bonnie and Clyde and played Roseanne's mother on the old TV show, Roseanne. We were in the presence of celebrities. But enough about that, let's talk about the actual play. We'd seen dramas and we'd seen comedy, but now were seeing a thriller. And boy, was it thrilling! Deathtrap is about murder. It involves an older playwright, so desperate to keep a good reputation and publish a new play, that he would kill for it. This play had a big twist, one that I did not see coming at all. The script was smart and the actors were spot on. Very good play.

Prince of Denmark (The National)

I saw this play this afternoon, rather spontaneously. Today was the last show and I woke up and said, heck, why not? I went to the theatre, only to be told that the performance was sold out, but I could wait and hope that someone wouldn't show up. Luckily, a man heard me ask for a ticket and very kindly gave me one of his, telling me that his friend wasn't able to make it. I reached for my wallet to give him the 5 pounds that the ticket cost, but he protested that I didn't need to pay him. What a nice person. And more free theatre!

If you haven't already guessed, this play was about Hamlet. As a teenager. Played by teenagers. The play was produced by The National Youth Theatre and the plot was centered around Hamlet, Laertes and Ophelia about ten years before the play, Hamlet, takes place. Everyone in the cast was under 18. I was a little wary going into the play, thinking I was about to see a lot of awkward acting, but of course, The National can do no wrong. These kids were awesome. The boy who played Laertes really impressed me, and it was very cool to think that these kids are going to be the next big stars in London. Hooray for kids in theatre!

Thus concludes my second London theatre review.

Don't you just love New York in the fall?

I don't know. I've never been to New York in the fall. Meg Ryan clearly loves it, so I'll make it a priority to go at some point in my life.

HOWEVER, I love London in the fall. About two weeks ago it became necessary to start wearing a coat while outside. Many people would probably frown at this change, but I love the cold weather! In fact, we had our first seriously cold day this past week. When I say "seriously cold," I'm not exaggerating at all. It was 28 degrees at night. Fahrenheit, not Celsius. I decided right then and there that if it was going to be this cold, it was time to pull out the Christmas music. My mother will disapprove, but I don't care. I needed Josh Groban singing "Silent Night" and I needed it right then!

This past Wednesday night, Matt and I went to a concert. Months ago, we found out that one of our favorite musicians, Jay Brannan, would be in London while we're here and we had to get tickets! The concert was so enjoyable. It was in a bar in Camden, an area of town we hadn't previously discovered. It was a pretty small concert. There couldn't have been more than 200 people there, which made the whole experience so much more enjoyable and relaxed than concerts usually are. Jay Brannan is a singer/songwriter who writes very chill, acoustic guitar/piano tunes and he puts on a great show! We were lucky enough to be able to meet him and snap a quick picture before we left. Definitely a night I won't forget.

Remember how I complained in my last post about London lacking good Mexican food? Well, fear not, readers. I have found a solution. I have found...Chipotle. CHIPOTLE. IN LONDON. It's sad how exciting all of us Americans were over this discovery. Last night, we hopped on a bus and went down to Tottenham Court Road to partake of some Mexican deliciousness. And it did not disappoint. True, the portion sizes were probably about half of what they are in America (This is why we're so fat, people!), but it was Chipotle! Spicy chicken, pico de gallo, guacamole...etc. etc. And I didn't even mention the margaritas. It was heaven. We left completely satisfied. I didn't think my night could get any better until I came home and found out that Imogen Heap will be doing a concert in London on November 5. I whipped out my debit card and immediately bought tickets. There was no way that I was passing up an opportunity to see that wonderful musician in concert!

Apart from concerts, Chipotle trips and several theatre excursions (which will be talked about and reviewed soon), I've kept pretty busy with classes. I already told you about my "Intro to Arts and Culture" class, but I never mentioned anything about my other classes, did I? On Monday I also have "Reading Women: Gender and Genre." It's about different genres in literature that are typically dominated by males and how these genres are approached by women. For instance, right now we are reading a novel called "Lady Audley's Secret." It's a type of sensation fiction. The class is....interesting. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. It requires a lot of reading and so far, I haven't enjoyed the novels. Let's hope it gets better. On Wednesday I have my favorite class, "Writing Contemporary Britain." This class involves exploring the works of modern British writers, as well as a few modern British playwrights. So far, every play or novel that I have read has been fascinating and we haven't even reached the titles I'm most excited about yet. "London Theatre in Performance" is on Thursday. This class sounds right up my alley, huh? Go see a play, come to class and talk about the play. That's the entire concept of this class. Doesn't it sound amazing? Well, it would be if the people in the class, as well as the professor, actually knew anything about theatre. I've come to discover that should someone have an opinion that is different from our professor's, she will give said student (usually me or Matt, because no one else talks) a condescending look and continue to spout her own opinions. It's quite annoying. I truly don't think that she has ever studied theatre. I think she's just seen enough theatre to consider herself an expert. She also comes to class in jeans, a t-shirt and Converse. It's very unprofessional. The upside to this class is that most of the plays we are required to see are at smaller, lesser known theatres, and had I not been taking this class, I would not have seen some of the amazing shows that I have been able to see. Like I said, I'll be updating my theatre reviews soon. I've got some amazing ones coming.

I wish I could watch the Rangers game tonight. And I don't even like baseball.

One Month Down

I've been in London for exactly one month, folks.

It has been a whirlwind month. I've seen a lot, but I still have a long list of things to do and see.

I'm going to Dublin, Ireland in two weeks to see Andrew and Annie. We'll be spending our Halloween partying it up Irish style.

Annie and Andrew are coming to visit us in London in November. Three words: Harry. Potter. Premiere.

Then I am flying to Amsterdam on Thanksgiving to spend some time with a very dear family who I have known for many, many years. I'm glad I'll be spending my first major holiday away from home with people I consider family.

Now that I've been here for one month, I feel entitled to do some sharing. Here are some neat lists that I made...

THINGS I DON'T LIKE ABOUT LONDON

-Tube strikes. This happened a couple of weeks ago. It was terrible. The streets were jam packed. It was like the apocalypse had happened.

-Nothing is open 24 hours. Grocery stores close fairly early, which is a problem when I realize at 9:00pm that I have no food for dinner.

-The complete absence of Mexican food. I've made up for this by cooking my own.

-It costs me 5 pounds to do laundry. That's $7.50.

THINGS I LIKE ABOUT LONDON

-Public transportation. It's great. You always have a way home, no matter what time of day it is.

-The weather. It's been very cool this week, with temperatures in the 50s during the day, which I am more than happy about. The rain hasn't been too terrible either.

-The amount of culture that has been packed into one city.

-THEATRE. ALL THE TIME. And free theatre, because the English government wants younger people to be cultured. Woot!

-The drinking age is 18. I really don't go out to pubs a lot, because I'm trying to save as much money as I can, but it's still cool to be able to do it. Along this line, England has cider, which is like beer, but tastier. It's girlie beer.

-People here say, "Cheers" instead of, "Thank you." Awesome.

-There is always something to do.

-I only have each of my classes once a week. I have a lot of free time.

-It's beautiful. The architecture is astounding.

FUNNY ENGLISH WORDS OR PHRASES

"Cheers"....Thank you

"Trousers"....pants ("Pants" is underwear. Don't get them mixed up.)

"Quid"....pounds (English dollar)

"Lift".....elevator (I've picked up on this one, for some reason.)

"Queue".....line (It's both a noun and a verb. While Americans say they are "standing in line," English say they are "queuing.")

"Bin"....trash can

"The States".....USA

"Chips"....thick french fries

"Fries".....skinny french fries

"Crisps"....chips

"Biscuits".....cookies

OTHER INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT LONDON

-Some cafes (like Starbucks or a sandwich place called Pret a Manger) will charge you extra if you want to "eat in," rather than "take away." I just always tell them I want things to go and then eat there anyway. No one has ever told me not to.

-Instead of popcorn, theatres sell ice cream at intermission.

-People think that it's strange not to add milk to tea.

-Fresh food expires rather quickly here. For instance, if you buy a loaf of bread, the expiration date on it is usually only a few days away. We either have to eat our food fast or freeze it all.

-There are no sales taxes. Well, technically I think there is, but they just go ahead and include it in the price of whatever item you're buying. So when something is priced at 12.00, you pay 12.00.

-If you don't hustle in the tube stations, you will get run over, pushed out of the way, or scolded. I have become one of those people who will not abide slow walkers. Actually, I've always been like that.

Barbara Billingsley died today. RIP, June Cleaver.

This has nothing to do with London.

Like the title of this post says, the following has absolutely nothing to do with London. However, I had something that I wanted to write, to be preserved forever, and I must admit that I just really like blogging. I've tried to keep a journal several times in my life and have rarely been successful. Typing is more fun. Plus there are pictures.

One of my friends wrote a note on Facebook listing her top 15 favorite films. I've seen a lot of people write the same note and I wanted to do it too...but with a little more flair. After a long and painful process, I finally narrowed my giant list of favorite movies down to 15, including my favorite quote from the movie and a picture, because it's fun. The movies are in no specific order, although it should be noted that the first will always hold the number one spot.

Finding Neverland

“Porthos dreams of being a bear, and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he's *just* a dog? What a horrible candle-snuffing word. That's like saying, "He can't climb that mountain, he's just a man", or "That's not a diamond, it's just a rock." Just.”

Dead Poet's Society

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

A Single Man

“A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.”

The Breakfast Club

“We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all.”

An Affair to Remember

“If you can paint, I can walk! Anything can happen, right?”

When Harry Met Sally

“I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

An Education

“The life I want, there is no shortcut.”

Singin' in the Rain

"Make 'em laugh!"

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around every once in a while, you're going to miss it.”

500 Days of Summer

“This is a story about boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story.”

White Christmas

“Vermont should be beautiful this time of year. All that snow.”

Garden State

“If nothing else, it's life. It's real and sometimes it f*ckin' hurts, but it's sort of all we have.”

Love Actually

“If you look for it-I've got a sneaking suspicion, love actually is all around.”

Pride and Prejudice

“You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I...I lo...I love you.”

Beauty and the Beast

“Tale as old as time, tune as old as song. Bittersweet and strange, finding you can change, learning you were wrong.”

Enchiladas for dinner tonight. :)