Sorry Faith, I think I'm going to go ahead and use this title...:-) But anyways, sorry to disappoint, but i won't have any/many pictures in this post. You know what they say, a thousand words makes a picture! I think...
Now, back to our regularly scheduled (?) blog post:
Okay, so its been a while since we last ran. Since my last post I have not once stepped into my athletic gear. We have seen the signs. Felt the urges to go running...but ah...the Haagen Daz ice cream. Good thing its all natural! Yeah, I know, its terrible... terrible that we couldn't share with you guys! Literally, tonight at Phantom of the Opera, we caved in and got this three-pound tub of Cookie-N-Creme. Oh, before you judge, though, I meant it cost three pounds, and was no larger than the circumference of a monocle and about the length of a film canister. It was still worth it, because you just can't beat quality! Now, if only there were a good way to beat the calories...
Russel Square sure looks beautiful, especially when people remember to clean up all the horsey-poo! I wish I was kidding: today there was a nice mound of it at the mouth of the exit to the park. Needless to say, we were perturbed. I never doubt the valid statement that London is magical (and mysterious), but I was worried that we had traveled back in time to the land of horse-and-buggy! But, that's not why we didn't run. Sleep: lack of sleep, to be precise. When people stay up until 3 am banging around the bathrooms and people outside commence construction at 7 am, you begin to realize just how valuable this commodity is! I begin to wonder if it is indeed prudent to purchase ear-muffler thingies, as my dear, slightly-more-hassled friend.
However, we must move on! To the updates! It has indeed been a mellow week, aside from unusual amounts of homework. Islam class presents us with TWO essays due, and there are also TWO books to read for Dicken's class. We must commence with the book Our Mutual Friend, and grin, bear it... oh, I'm so tempted to say burn it, but I musn't (how horribly improper would that be!). But, alas, today's class was interesting. We went to the British Museum to participate in the Hajj Exhibit: It was a walk through Mecca, a walk through time. I learned so much about the pilgrimage to Mecca and how there was a man who never converted to Islam but participated anyways, as well as the first British Woman Moslem convert. We were not allowed to take pictures, sadly, but everything there was beautiful. *(I started writing this post Wednesday, BTW)
Speaking of time travelling, I shall recap from Sunday onward! Tally Ho!
Faith and I high-taled it to the British Library to get there early enough to find a spot to sit and simultaneously obtain a power source for our laptops. We stayed there a good, long while, and got a lot done! I think. I mean, it was good bonding, and we read for Islam, and figured out the next steps for next semester. God is just so good. I think we must have gone to Camden after that, to go to church at GU. What was awesome was that we finally met the family that Faith's friends told her about! These people were sort of the reason why we knew about GU, so it was cool to meet them in person. AND! Andy played guitar, beautiful worship songs, of course, but we were inside of the actual St. Martin's sanctuary, if you will. The acoustics were marvelous and we nearly cried at this one song, something like "At the foot of the Cross" by OnehundredHours band. All together I think we had about 14 or so people, which was a very large service to us! I just love the Church! As we walked back to our hostel we could not help but notice someone we knew... Dr. Hooten practically screamed when she saw Faith! It was an incredible reunion. I was so happy inside, to see my dear friend so happy. Of course, I was super excited to see her as well!
Monday proved to be interesting. We had British Life and Culture at the British Museum, and it was interesting. I really don't actually remember much of what we looked at. Huh. So apparently it was not the most memorable of our trips, but we certainly learned our lesson to not get separated. We turned our backs one second and then all of a sudden it was just Faith and I, and a few of our other professors visiting the program, and we took about 15 minutes trying to find them again. But, it was all okay. Then, I made a spontaneous descision: what was a girl to do with her free time?
I got a haircut. Yeah, two inches, British-style, lop it all off in one go, add some "fringe" (bangs) and make it "graduation" style. The guy who cut my hair was from Hong Kong, and his hairstyle was totally epic. If I were a guy I might do what he did: shave all the hair on both sides and have longish, feathery hair swoop down over one eye. Really London-y.
Tuesday: Super cool day, I got up early and went to Kew Gardens with the Biological Science-y class that usually has one person in it besides the teacher. We tried to keep up, but got distracted at the sensory garden which had many plants that smelled like vanilla when you passed them collectively. Mmm! We saw flowers like Birds of Paradise, Orchids, Snowdrops and more! I mean, the sky out was dreary (and apparently a few centuries ago this same sky would actually be considered "sunny" because back then the air was made of foggy-pollution), and not many flowers were in bloom. Alas, we will have to go back on a better day. What reeeaaaalllly made it fun was being with my best mates Faith and Carson, and we took the most goof-ball-like pictures ever! If you want to see pictures, link to her blog, here: http://london21calling.blogspot.com/
I brought my camera but forgot to charge it, so it died after 3 pictures... none of them were any good, anyways. BUT! Major hilights:
1). I saw my first ever Canadian Goose! How cool! Honk Honk!
2.) Carson taught us the magic of "Flapjacks". If you think that means pancakes, you are wrong, unfortunately. Its more like a naked Reeses cup made with super healthy granola. Amazing.
3.) I got to see my friend totally leap into this Zen garden like a ninja-- and then we saw the sign: "Do not walk in gravel". Lol oops!
I guess this post is just getting long and boring now so Ill give a few short other recaps:
1.) Tuesday I kind of had a little meltdown at lunch, but God has given me such a faithful friend. We hung out and went to Covent Garden for a bit of girl time. I came back and had coffee with my friend Carson, and it was really fun, and I tried something called a "caramel macchiato". I am not a big coffee fan, so Im just learning the lingo, k?
2.) WE SAW PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!! Soooooo gooood! I was mezmerised by it all. The opening scenes were electrifying! The singing, the staging, the lighting, the suspense!! So breathtaking... and it was acclimated by watching the expressions of Faith and some others, who were bursting out of their seats with excitement! Wowie-zowie, what a show! Needless to say, those lyrics still ring in our heads... In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came...
3.) Wednesday night we saw "Hay Fever", which was a delightful comedy about this eccentric family who ends up scaring away the first guests they have had in a long while. I loved it, absolutely, and the stage was probably my favorite so far! Atmosphere is everything!
4.) After that... these 4 guys we saw sitting ahead of us in the theatre came up to us and asked us if we wanted to hang out. So some friends and I got to talk with these rich preppy boys from Boston, and it ended up being quite fun because it was nice to get away from the big group for a baby-bit.
5.) For Theatre class we had this amazing set designer come in and talk to us about what he did, which was fabulous, and he also knew the girl who designed all 900 costumes for "Phantom" and did it in 8 weeks flat! How crazy!
6.) Finished "Catching Fire"! FINALLY! I mean, I loved it, but I tooootallly called the ending. Still... maybe I will read the last one, haha. It really was not as bad as I thought it would be. I recommend reading them!
Thursday's update will be good too. Today was Dickens' class, and we had a quiz, and all got A's because it was 5 questions that we went over together anyway. Love our teacher. He let us have a 15 minute break to go get Starbucks too! Of course, not liking coffee, I got a banana and a bottled drink instead! Today I wore my cool thrift-store skirt and shirt and braided pigtails. Apparently I looked like Dorothy today, haha, which was fine, because I have always been a fan of dressing up. I spent most of today skyping with family and figuring out crazy Paris train tickets. Its still not working out yet. But everything is going to be okay! I mean, someone gave me banana bread today, how could things not be okay after that ? :-) Tomorrow we go to Greenwich! And Im about to fall over in tirednesss.....sss...zzzzzz...
Over and out, Cubscout!
Cheers, my dears:
Diana
No comments:
Post a Comment