Tuesday Two weeks left

Today was our last class period with Cecelia. Unfortunately it was a REALLY long day. We went for three hours, and Cecelia was sick the entire time, so had to sit rather than stand, and almost lost her voice. The last hour was rough for concentration, but we persevered, and now have to take our final exam this weekend.

After class we went to grab lunch at Pret a Manger and came back to work on our final essays for Martha until our earlier dinner at 5. We ate early because tonight we went to Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe. We got to be groundlings, which meant standing for the entire 3 hour production. My knees hurt desperately afterwards. We were warned beforehand that there might be some questionable content and were given the option to not attend, but also told that it wasn't anything worse than a PG13 movie. Well, it was a great deal raunchier and much much much more inappropriate than any PG-13 movie I've ever seen. It was definitely modern, but overall it was worth going. I can't say I approved of it at all, but I also don't think I would have approved of Shakespeare in his time. Since the Bard was famous for his lewd jokes, I can't blame the modern Globe for continuing the tradition.

It was also raining all day, including during the performance in the open theatre. That was "fun" :)

Not many pictures from today, but tomorrow I go to Dover, so expect a picture overload.

Monday: last day of Martha's class

We had our normal class at 9, except that this was the last time Martha is teaching in the class room. We went through the more modern art movements before heading to the National Gallery to go through examples. We split, and half the group went through the museum, and Greg took the other half to the British Library, which I had done on Saturday.

We all went to lunch together at Garfunkel's, then headed to the Tate Modern where we looked at examples of modern art.

After the Tate, we headed to Wafflemeister and got waffles. We went to Hamley's toy store. And came home.

Tonight we had our FHE Talent Show, which ended up being pretty dang spectacular.

Sorry for the incoherentness of this post. Today was a long day, but a good one. :)

The Weekend

Saturday I got to sleep in before we went to the restaurant at Kensington for tea. Unfortunately, we had to sign up for 11:00 so it wasn't afternoon tea, but it was still tea and waffles. :) It tasted delicious and was adorably cute!

 Then we went to the Natural History Museum, which was beautiful architecture and fun to walk through!

 Then, off to the British Library for our site visit. I got to see the Magna Carta this time! Also, can we just talk about the 5 floors of beautiful old books that I can't access. Also the 5 floors of reading rooms that I also can't access? Almost as depressing as being in a book store. ;)

 Then we walked down a couple streets to find the place where they film Sherlock! Jacque and I enjoyed ourselves, though the sub shop was closed :(

 A subway stop away was the REAL Baker Street, where the Sherlock Holmes Museum is. We didn't go in, just took pictures outside.

 We walked through Regents Park, which was full of birds, so Annie hated life. The roses were in bloom which was pretty, but Annie and Kyle STOLE SOME FLOWERS and basically I am not very happy with their antics.

We walked down to where we stayed last year, near green park, and stumbled on the London Lauderee! I will be back :)

 Then we headed home, with a short detour via the Tardis, which has been painted and redone in the last year, because it is shiny and glossy and the inside has a sink and a first aid kit. :)

Then we went to Byron Burgers again, which is delicious, and home to watch Thor 2.

Sunday we went to church in two groups, and I gave the opening prayer in sacrament meeting! :) After church I worked on my essay for Cecelia's class, ate dinner, went for a walk in the park with Annie, skyped my family and played poker and King's corner. All in all a very good weekend. Prepare for a crazy busy week this next week, because last week of classes means lots of things to do!

Friday Poker Night

We started off today a little earlier than usual, as we had a 9am appointment to go tour the Houses of Parliament! It was really fun but not quite what I was expecting (I don't know what I WAS expecting but it wasn't quite it) We also weren't allowed to take pictures in most of the inside, but that's okay.

Then we headed to boroughs market, which was fun. I got a bratwurst, and Apple Pear Mint juice, both of which were excellent. After we all ate, we headed to Foyles, the book store, which as always, I just get depressed because one of my parents raised me with a healthy love of owning books, and the other one raised me to not spend money on books, so I am always so conflicted. Also there are SO many books to read and I'll never get to them all, and that's sad :( But I still like to be surrounded by books :)

the remains of my juice

Then we came back home and worked on homework/planned our activities for the next week until dinner, and after dinner poker night began.

I had bought two bags of skittles in place of chips, and we played Texas Hold Em, Blackjack, 5 in the hand, and BS. We ate the skittles after Texas and 5 so the rest we just played. We also played Heads Up, and Cameron showed us his magic tricks. Successful night. :)

Annie called all in on the first round, so everyone went all in, knowing literally nothing and Jacque happened to get a full house, and claimed all the skittles. (She was kind enough to re-divvy them out after)

Thursdays are for Homework

I spent the morning working on my weekly paper for Cecilia's class and starting in on my final paper for Martha's class. I was fairly productive considering we were also jamming out to Disney music. After that we went to Leon's for lunch and went to the Sky Garden. Can I just say: wow. I seem to be one of the few people who didn't really love the London Eye experience, but it is not because I don't appreciate the view, because I sure appreciated this view. It was so great, and we got a 360 degree view of the city. As always, overload of pictures to follow:

You can hardly see it, but it's there!

Miles and miles of buildings

The sky garden itself

After finishing our hour in the garden, some of us went to Saint Dunstan's in the East, which is an old church that burned down and was converted into a garden. It is really pretty, but watch where you step as the birds like to hang out there too. (I learned this the hard way)

Then we walked over onto tower bridge and down the other side of the river. The amount of pictures I have of that bridge is ridiculous, but I can't help it! It is picturesque from literally every angle.

The amount of just random pretty buildings in london is ridiculous

This, ladies and gentleman, is the real london bridge (kinda boring which is why Tower bridge is better known)

 Then, we spent the afternoon getting things in order for our trip to Ireland in 2 weeks. After a dinner of high class Mac and Cheese, a bunch of us went to see 10 Things I Hate About You, as it is based off of Taming of the Shrew, which we saw last week. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the movie over the play. :)

My days in London are running out which is so sad. I still have so much I want to do, but mostly I just want to stay here for ever and ever and ever.