night in London...a fitting end to the semester!).And so far, the bucket list has exceeded our expectations (and trust me, they were pretty high). Here's what we've been up to:
- Picnics: Regent's Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, and St. James Park are all perfect spots for a picnic. Plus, London has been having some beautiful spring weather, so Friday afternoon has become picnic time for us. Lying on a blanket in the sun is the perfect way to end a busy w
eek and get ready for a busier weekend. And its quite the contrast to our Friday afternoons earlier in the semester, when we were running around from place to place trying to fit in all the sites and sounds of London. And the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Park plays a big role in the movie that is the namesake of this blog, so I got to have another "Winning London moment."
- Markets: the world-famous Portobello Road was the perfect spot for some retail therapy after the disappointment of my family not visiting, and I picked up lots of great souvenirs for people. And I loved going to the market that is featured so prominently in one of my favorite Disney movies of all time, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Brick Lane is the famous Indian market in Londo
n, but it also happens to be the best place to get basically any kind of ethinic cuisine imaginable. So the day we went to Brick Lane, I had some Sri Lankan chicken and rice for lunch. Yes, me. It was called chicken 65, which makes it seem a little less exotic, but its pretty cool to say that I've eaten Sri Lankan food. I picked it partially because it looked yummy, partially because Kelly ordered it first and let me try a bite of hers, and partially because Sri Lanka was the country on the map in my elementary school history books that fascinated me. Weird and random, yes, but it got me to try something new, so it's all good. - Theatre: All semester long I said that seeing great theatre would be the one thing that I splurged on this semester and I have been trying to cram in as much as possible before we leave, because there are just so many great shows in London. A few weeks ago, the Dans and I saw Billy Elliot, about a little British boy in northern England who wants to be a ballet dancer, much to the chagrin of his miner father. It was a funny show, with absolutely amazing dancing. A lot of the British cultural references went over our heads, partially because of their accents and partially because we just didn'
t get it. And the fact that we were literally in the last row of the theatre may have had something to do with it. It was kind of comical to sit there and just look at each other confusedly as the entire theatre cracked up. But the tables were turned when Dan and Kelly and I went to see Avenue Q last week, because we got all the American jokes and references to New York that went over the British audience's heads. Avenue Q is a hilarious mockery of musicals starring puppets and we laughed literally every second of the show. It was a little "off-color" (as my mother would say), but still funny. We loved the "bad idea bears" that convinced the main character to make poor decisions, often involving beer and girls, and have been quoting them nonstop ever since. Tomorrow night we are going to see Les Miserables (despite the fact that I have two finals on Friday...but that's study abroad for you. Gotta take advantage of the city while I can!). I also took a class on London theatre as part of my fine arts requirement and got to see five amazing shows. Favorites were The 39 Steps, a mockery of Alfred Hitchcock films where four actors play all the parts; Taking Steps, at an intimate theatre in the round in beautiful suburban Richmond, Ruined, a play about women in Africa, and London Assurance, a hilarious play starring Fiona Shaw, who plays Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter movies! And who could forget the best performance of them, the Dans and Kelly starring in the Playing Shakespeare class' adaptation of Twelfth Night. Their take on the play was utterly hilarious and we got to see Millenium Bridge and Shakespeare's Globe to boot. - Going to Hogwarts: Ok, not really. But I came pretty close when Megan and I wen
t to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross, which is only about 20 minutes away from our flats. They took this little nook near platform nine in the National Rail part of King's Cross station and created a Platform 9 3/4, complete with a luggage trolley that looks like it is halfway through the wall and on the way to Hogwarts. Basically the cheesy Harry Potter tourist's dream. So naturally, we were in heaven. - Booze Cruise, otherwise known as A Wholesome Boat Outing, as Dan M. dubbed it. It's a London Programme tradition to have a cruise on the River Thames at the end of the semester, and it was definitely one of the best nights of the whole semester. It was a blast to be with everybody, all dolled up and dancing on a boat on the Thames. Definitely a "what are we DOING right now!?" moment, as we like to call them. It actually felt a little bit like the prom, silly as it sounds...a fancy event at the end of the year, where everyone gets all excited to get dressed up and go out and hav
e fun. And you can't beat the views...I don't think I'll ever forget sailing by Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament or underneath Tower Bridge. And of course spending an awesome night with all my friends and everybody in the program.
- Brighton: On our last Sunday in the UK, Dan M., Kelly, Megan, and I journeyed down to Brighton, a cute little town on the ocean. Unfortunately for us, the streak of
beautiful weather ended just in time for us to go to the beach...it was rainy and probably around 50 degrees all day, which put a bit of a damper on our fun, but we made it work. We wandered along the pier and the shoreline, found every cardboard photo-op cutout in the town, window-shopped, and checked out the Brighton Museum (modern chair art alongside ancient Egyptian artifacts, wacky but cool). And then we found yet another Free House, our favorite chain pub, as well as this pub called The Evening Star, that is known as the best pub in the UK. And I loved it because they had delicious cherry beer like in Brussels!
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