Floorcakes and Hot Cross Puns

There are so many things to do in London, so little time to do them!
I keep telling myself to make a schedule from Google Calendars, but my internet connection up in my room on the fourth floor is no good. It is still not any easier to trek up there all the time-- its a good workout though, and I am sure that when I get back to the US I could jog up any flight of stairs as easily as if I was an ice skater scaling a downhill slope. Okay, that may be taking it too far, but Im a dreamer, remember?
Basically there's a "Bucket List" I keep making when I have a chance. My timeless ones include the following:

Go to the Harry Potter Warner Bros. Museum and Studio Tour (note that this is the first on the list)
See my friends in Sheffield
Go to Paris or Barcelona (I think I am actually going to Paris for real!)
Charles Dickens Theme Park
Sherlock Holmes Museum
Eat real pancakes *harder than you think! Its all crepes here
Go to Camden Market again (I was almost pick-pocketed las time!)
See Cecil Court bookshops
Eat Ice cream
Make delicious Sopapilla Cheesecake recipe with friends
Jog in the park... more than once
Get a phone (I lost mine three weeks ago. Way to go)
 London Eye
See Les Miserables
Eat Sushi
Discover something new

You can see how the list could keep growing. In fact I just now found out they have a Dickens Theme Park! How odd, right? I must inform our Dickens professor... Okay! Now onto what's been going on for real!

This past week has been incredible for me: one main lilight for me was getting to know Faith, a sweet-hearted girl with an amazing story of her passion for Haiti and a deep, unrestrained love for Jesus. She may read this and think I'm romanticizing it, but I can't help but see the amazingness of God in her and it is so very encouraging just to be with her!

We started out going to GU Church together (Glorious Undead for those who missed the last blog ;-0) with Caleb, another good guy we have been getting to know on this trip.  But for a few weeks I had been feeling lost and homesick and very much out of place on this trip. Everyone had their circle of friends, and people they always did stuff with. Not bad, except it is just hard when you're on the outside looking in, and you're feeling like you are left on your own in a foreign country.

What really brought us together was Dicken's class, in my eyes. In one of our class conversations she mentioned something that really struck me, and I was determined to find out more about her. We started talking a bit everywhere we went, such as on a bus, at a restaraunt (I finally spelled it right, Lindsay!), &c.
It was not until I tagged along with her, Rachel, Jackie, and Heather on a grocery trip to Waitrose that we finally got some real hang out time! We started cooking together and it was so fun! Its just way better to have someone to share things with...food, life, music, taste in clothing...
Basically we just have a lot of fun together! I am so, so thankful for the gift of Faith as my friend.

The past few days were quite interesting. Faith and I were actually doing a full-day fast together, and we drank so much water! What was great, though, was getting to pray and worship together in the morning and afternoon.We went to St. Paul's Cathedral; this made my day. It was so beautiful! Christopher Wren was the architect, of course, as he is famous for many of the buildings here from the 17th Century after the Great Fire of london in 1666. He initially built a model of St. Paul's cathedral with a modern style, which many did not like, so he built another. This model was the traditional Gothic style which he abhored, so he compromised: he revealed the version we have today once he was done. Lo and behold, he combined the two models! It is abso-lutely gorgeous!!

ST. Paul's Church...breathtaking

I loved walking through the cathedral here; it was so much more light and open. Not as cluttered, dark, or gothic as Westminster Abbey and the like. Apparently Chris Wren had a penchant for light, and therefore there was a lack of stained glass, but that did not matter. We ended up climbing the two hundred shallow steps to the "Whispering Gallery" where we could turn to the wall, whisper, and have your friend right across the dome hear you! Alas we had no way to go up to the other two galleries: they were closed.

Tuesday brought about interesting events. First of all, Faith and I broke the fast with a breakfast of crepes and eggs! It was fun because Faith was not only an excellent cook with the crepes, but she was an entertainer too-- she forgot to put the lid on when she shook the batter in the cup and we suddenly found ourselves with 5 crepes and a floor-cake. Fun indeed, she will not forget that, haha! The night before, we had all discussed the play we were scheduled to see "Tis Pity She's a Wh*re", which was writen in the 1600's and it was very gorey apparently. We freaked each other out as we discovered more and more what the content was.... in the end, after a whole lot of thought, prayer, complaints, tears, and discussions...I ended up going. It was not as bad as I thought; there was a lot of scantily-cladness going on, and gore near the middle and end (well I covered my eyes!), but the acting, story, and choreograhy was great!!

Me and Ethan reading lines from "Tis Pity She's a Wh*re" in class

Faith and I on the bus to meet our demise...

 Earlier we had Theatre class which prepared us for the play, and honestly I don't think I would have gone had we not discussed it. It was a spiritual battle and a moral one at that; but I think I made the right descision to go because I now know what other people think of when they see something "good" in the world's eyes. If I had not gone I would not have been able to tell people in generations of London-goers to come if it was worth it or not to see. Indeed, some people stayed behind without seeing it, and I don not blame them, but I do not believe it was so bad as to say no one should ever see it. Okay. Enough of beating a broken drum, let's move on to interesting things, like giant crepes.

Faith helping me eat a Jumbo Crepe from My old Dutch

Wednesday was Islam and the West class, which was probably the looooongest class Iv'e been in so far. Its interesting, but it was just a long lecture. Faith and I promptly went to the British Library to study for four hours...fun. Bleh! Reading took a lot longer, we had a hard time concentrating, but we ended up going to check out My Old Dutch, an amazing pancake house! Thats still a loose term here: its a jumbo crepe! Since it was the last day of my 30 day fast, it was hard to resist the ice cream they put on the side of my fruity crepe (I asked for cream and they thought I said Ice cream!!), but I did it. Now, we are sitting in the Common Room after class for Dickens has long passed. We talked about iced tea, country dancing, and poptarts in class, as well as Bleak house.



Study break and muffin at the British Library



Thursday night we went to see WICKED!!! It was the best! Of course it was: it was unanimous that it was one of the best musicals we have ever seen! So much depth and plot, and the costumes and wigs and backgrounds were incredible. When Glinda sang "Popular" she of course pronounced it like a Brit and it just sounded funny to us. "Populah".



Megan, Faith and I (and Lindsay photobombing) at the Apollo Theater to see Wicked



So as you can see, we had a full week! I will post soon about our adventures in Oxford, because there's a whole lot to talk about! So!

Until the butter flies,

Diana