"What are men to rocks and mountains?"

As all normal humans know, this last week there was a highly commercialized holiday allegedly dedicated to love. I call it an excuse to eat massive amounts of chocolate and watch Pride and Prejudice and all things Sandra Bullock. Before we get to valentines day however, I will pick up where I left off in my ever expanding story of London.

Sometimes I don't feel as social as others, on these days I take walks in Hyde Park by myself. On this particular day (last Tuesday) I realized I had a ton of data left on my O2 pay as you go plan so I took my Skype chat with my mother on the go. I felt very posh video chatting from across the pond sitting a stones throw away from Kensington Palace.

Yes this is a selfie, but really, what can you do when you are by yourself in awesome lighting?

Then on Wednesday I took my friend Ellie out to buy her some New York style pizza because her best friend left on a mission to New York. Having said goodbye to my best friend on February 4th of last year, I know how she is feeling. During this chat, we realized that my best friend is in her home mission and they probably know some of the same people.... small world!

Thursday was a fun filled day. Becky and I queued for day tickets to the musical Close to You and got tickets... that sat us ON THE STAGE!!! Literally the actors were making eye contact and smiling with us. One even talked to me. Not real life. But after we bought our tickets, we went to Hamley's toy store which is 4 stories of fun. 

I met the royal family and hung out at the royal wedding.

Then I saw this and knew my nephews would love a massive Lego x-wing fighter plane.

Complete with navigational droid

Cause we are cute

We went home and ate food and such and then got to our show. It was a jukebox musical that felt like 7 friends jamming on state to Burt Bacharach's music. If you are saying, "I don't know any songs by him" you are wrong. Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, Say a Little Prayer, I'll Never Fall in Love Again, and On Less Bell to Answer, to name a few. There were 30+ of his songs included in some form or another. During Close to You, the main guy played a guitar that was hanging on a girls back while they hugged?!?! Talk about talent. Each cast member played at least 2 instruments one guy played both forms of the bass, the cello, the guitar, the piano, and a ukulele and sang and danced while playing each from memory. Ugh talented people.

See the poor peasants in the regular crowd?

Our view.

Also did I mention we weren't sitting in real seats... they were couches!!! Most comfortable seat in the house guaranteed.

Friday as a group we went to Greenwich where all time zones start from, because the British thought they should be the center of everything. It was beautiful and while still kind of in the city, it was a nice reprieve from the highly metropolitan London we mostly stay in. Now we have gotten good at using the transport, Greg and Martha give us directions so we know where we are going in case we get lost. Because of who I am as a person, I left as soon as they told us too with about 4 other girls. They told us to meet at the observatory so that's were we headed. Some of the other girls wanted to wait at the train station and I said they were more than welcome to but I was headed up to the meeting place. They came with me and weren't very happy when we sat in the windy cold for an hour. Come to find out later they thought we had missed the train and went to the other site first while Greg waited at the train station for us. Um nope, we beat you there. Our professors were all on my side saying we did exactly what we were supposed to by leaving on time and heading to the meeting place, One day the people here will trust my navigational skills to know I don't get lost easily. I know what I'm doing.

Looking down at the Naval college and other city stuffs

From inside the observatory grounds for a different city scape view

The Prime Meridian... which is actual not accurately placed but...

Painted hall, where everyone went while they were waiting for us and we froze on top of the hill. (As seen in the new live action Cinderella fencing scene.)

Last but certainly not least this week was Galentine's Day. Similar to the over hyped Valentine's Day, Galentine's focuses on love, of your gal pals. For my holiday, Kate and I queued in the freezing cold to get front row center seats for the musical Kinky Boots. I doubt there is a better way to celebrate a weekend of glaring singularity than watching a show about drag queens. We hit an Italian restaurant and then enjoyed a two and a half hour, sassy masterpiece. Seriously, who knew Cindy Lauper could compose a good musical?

Front row babes

Pre-show set selfie

I have to put in a little blurb about the regular holiday, as students we set up a secret valentine and drew names, mine gave me a bag covered with cats (love) and a bunch of chocolate (love even more). But the best present arrived on Friday from my beautiful mother. She didn't sign the card so people would think I had a man... now you all know why she is my best friend. 

They came with chocolates and I made do with my water bottle for a vase. The buds weren't open when I got them so each day since it has been fun to watch them bloom and become more and more beautiful.

All you need is love,

Kemarie

A Day in the Life

I will start by saying, I love the city of London. It is vibrant and historic. I have already grown accustomed to living here. So much so that I have started acting the way I do at home. Laying in bed and looking at a computer screen to see the world. I know, I know not the best use of my study abroad money, but I'm pretty happy with it. I do force myself to leave the Centre at least once a day though so here is my week.
Day 1:
     I went out of the Centre to go to class in the National Gallery. We talked about early and true renaissance art. Here is a picture from my notes for reference.

This is early northern renaissance. You can tell because of the golden halos that were utilized heavily in the mid evil period but have now been tilted to give the painting some dimension, but the faces are still stylized (look all the same ish) so it is still early in the renaissance.

Day 2:
Today I went to lecture then left the Centre to do my homework by visiting the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum. I also returned a shirt I bought at Primark that didn't fit like I wanted it to. Sorry no pictures this day, if you want, google the Elgin Marbles they are pretty impressive.

Day 3:
I had my religion class then I went after dinner to the play As You Like it at the National Theater. It was a modern production of the Shakespeare comedy that was incredibly well done. I was concerned during the opening monologue by Orlando because I wasn't understanding any of it, but after a while I caught on to the old English and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Day 4:
I spent most of the day inside napping and doing homework, but mostly napping. After dinner I went to Selfridges and got a passion fruit cupcake from Lola's which was divine. Kate and I weren't ready to go back to the Centre and it was a warm and not windy (we are rarely blessed with no wind) night. As we walked down Piccadilly Circus, we found a happy store of the Disney variety.

Me and my favorite Avenger.

As I was taking this picture a lovely Disney employee walked passed and decided Kate and I needed one together and proceeded to instruct us on how to stand and our faces. Google Photos then combined these pictures for me in a fun way.

Notice how we start so serious and then the man gave us instructions to be more fierce and we lost our edge.

Also I need to be in Star Wars

Day 5:

This day we were tasked with visiting the Natural History Museum and it had this awesome meteor that you rode an escalator through that felt like Space Mountain.

Exibit A

Exhibit B

Inside the meteor

Well that's all for tonight folks. Good night and don't do anything I wouldn't do...

Sitting on a corn flake,

Kemarie