We haven’t had the internet at all since Thursday- which is fine in a way, but also just another excuse to procrastinate- as if I need another one. Thursday morning, Hannah and I went to the British Library to check out their “Out of this world- science fiction but not as you know it” exhibit. It was pretty sweet. There were all these books displayed focusing on different subgenres of sci-fi, a flying saucer model, a screen where you could draw your own alien that was then displayed gigantically (you can bet Hannah & I had to do that, and also can guess what it looked like), and you could listen to all of these samplings of sci-fi based music.! That night, we all went to The Globe Theater (.!) to see Much Ado About Nothing. I was just really excited to see a play at the Globe. The theater’s an open-roofed replica, and though there are seats, we were all standing RIGHT in front of the stage, which was different but awesome. It became THAT much more awesome when who should walk out on stage but the man playing Leonato- Joseph Marcell- AKA Geoffrey from Fresh Prince of Bel Air.! EVERYONE went crazy.! It was really surreal and fun to unexpectedly spend the night with Geoffrey on stage 3 feet in front of me. Unfortunately all of the theater employees were camera Nazis, so I don’t have any pictorial evidence. O_o There was a super tall, friendly, attractive Austrian guy standing right by me and I had to explain to him why everyone was screaming and excited about Geoffrey on stage. He did a double take and said “Wait- is he the original actor? He’s the original?! Geoffrey!!!” During the intermission, Sara found out that after the show the actors sometimes hang out at an adjoining bar. The Austrian guy said he would find Geoffrey with us but after the show everyone was crowding out and he disappeared. So Sara and I ran to the bar, dragging along Hannah, Kat, and June. Lexi was already there with her Dad, who is from London. He bought us all drinks, and Sara and I kept nervously excitedly staring at the door and freaking out every time anyone walked in. Sadly, Geoffrey never showed up. We did talk to most of the other actors though- Sara told one of them that he was so good he should be a professional actor. YeahHhhh. We started talking to a group of German guys walking across the Millenium Bridge, back from the Globe. One of them was French so Sara wanted to speak French to him, but for some reason he wouldn’t talk to anyone. We yelled at Kat because she was Germanically connecting with one of the teenagers. Hah. Then, getting off the tube, Sara decided to slowly crawl up the escalator, hanging onto the side, SCREAMING the song “Forever young.” In order to fully envision this scene, note that the tube station was deserted other than a few people going down the escalator, one man in particular staring at Sara incredulously. That happened. Hahahaha. Then we all chilled in the basement for awhile. Apparently later that night Tom puked all over the girls’ bathroom, and then sat on Dan’s bed and peed off of it..no good..Anyways, glad I don’t live in the basement O_o. On Friday, Hannah and I went to visit Buckingham Palace. We got to tour the Royal Mews, the State Rooms, and the Queen’s Gallery. I sounded like such an idiot when I went to pick up my ticket. I haven’t set up my computer so I can use our collective printer yet, and the (super attractive, patient, nice British) guy working at the ticket counter couldn’t find me in the system. I couldn’t remember which phone number I’d put online, and he got a blank stare when he asked for my postal code. Anyways, it ended up okay. It took us about 3 ½ hours to see everything with an audio guide- hundreds of paintings and sculptures in the gallery. Of course all of the rooms that we saw were beautifully ornate, gigantic, and incredible. There’s 775 rooms in all, which is INSANE. Kate’s wedding dress was also on display still, as well as a replica wedding cake (made up of 17 cakes.!) which I appreciated stylistically. As Hannah and I stepped outside of Buckingham Palace, we enjoyed the varied wildlife found in the massive backyard gardens as our audio guide urged us to do. (Varied wildlife consisting of squirrels and pigeons.?) Later that night we all hung out downstairs and went to a nearby pub for a bit. It wasn’t too exciting though. Lexi ordered some nasty mixed nuts that tasted like ham, so Sara kept telling me I broke my vegetarianism. They were gross. O_o. Saturday, Hannah, Kat & I had a nice chill day shopping and walking around. We checked out Hamleys (a seven-floor toy store) because Hannah heard they had a Harry Potter section. They had hundreds of different wands you could buy, as each character has a unique one. They also had a Marauder’s Map, but I think it’d be a lot more impressive if it actually did anything. I got a blazer, cute red flats, and a few shirts from H&M, and bought a knit hat. We watched Bridget Jones’ Diary back at the flat, enjoyed some Colin Firth. J That night I didn’t feel like going out OUT because I felt kind of sick, so Hannah, Sara & I took the tube to Piccadilly and walked around. Sara and Hannah were hungry and Sara had to go to the bathroom so we went into a Pizza Hut- and that’s WHEN EVERYTHING WENT WRONG.! Hah. Granted, Europe is not typically excellent in the customer service department, but it’s always an ordeal when Hannah and I are anywhere together..always a story. Never boring though, so hey. Our waitress was more than awful though. After telling her we were ready to order, we still waited for half an hour with her just standing there doing nothing. All of this was even more amusing when we saw an Italian couple walk in and their orders taken literally before they sat down. Sara & Hannah ordered nachos to share and had to wait an obnoxious amount of time to get them, and when the nachos did come out, they were cold and pitiful looking. Basically chips topped with four little shreds of melted cheese and doused in an egg-based chive sauce (which Sara could tell since she’s allergic). They asked for more cheese, and 15 minutes later, the nachos had two more shreds of cheese on them. Then when the bill came, they were charged extra for sauce when they were told they wouldn’t be. Sara started to write a letter on the receipt about how “everything went wrong.” And that the waitress was “flippant and unnecessary.” The best part is that as she was writing this angrily, a nice waiter walked by and asked if he could do anything for us, and so Sara hid the receipt most inconspicuously. Haha. Hannah & I taped it in our sacred book because it’s so great. We walked around for awhile with sketchy happenings and had to wait a long time for a bus back..next time I don’t feel good, we should probably just hang out at the flat. Sunday morning we had to go to Speaker’s Corner for Media & Politics class. Speaker’s Corner is a section in Hyde Park that highlights the right of free speech- anyone can say WHATEVER they want. That includes one obnoxious, ignorant man who was repeatedly yelling “F*** America/ns,” calling all of us awful names, talking about the current(.?) draft in America, the Bush family, and told Sara to go back to Africa. Also, all natural disasters are America’s fault according to him, including the fact that Arizona has deserts and Chicago is “uncommonly cold.” Yes. Of course he wouldn’t take any response anyone yelled back at him, and as one British gentleman put it, “he obviously wasn’t educated.” On the other side of things, there was also a man speaking about the love of God and to love everyone. He was taking advantage of his cute little daughter though; she waved a British flag in his face the entire time as he held her. There was also a pair of Christian and Muslim speakers. After the Christian spoke, he let the Muslim have his turn, and as soon as he stepped on the box to speak, his foot went through it and it broke. Our professor was trying to figure out one of our hugely enigmatic nicknames for a girl in our class (TF). That’s all I’ll say. Oh Tancred. That night I went to Hillsong again with Hannah, June, Casey & Alex. I went upstairs on the balcony though because I just wanted to be alone- felt kinda smothered, yet alone in such a crowded place. It was good, I’m just full of a lot of anger..needed to be by myself. Walked around for awhile outside, then watched the original Fever Pitch (Ooh Colin Firth.!) with Hannah, Kat, Lindsay & Lexi. As we were watching it, we noticed a man standing in his lit window seemingly peering down at us from his building across the street. Then he got out a camera and was definitely taking pictures.. O_o Hannah got her camera and took a picture back. Not sure what he was actually taking pictures of..? but it was scary..and he stayed standing there so we closed the blinds. Definitely the stuff scary movies are made of.
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