my life is no longer interesting.

Today, I went to work.

I have no pictures..

I saw no celebrities..

I think something is different.

oh what a night!

Late december back in sixty three... ok. well maybe not.. but mid december here in london 08, "the girl who borrows" and I went to ROYAL ALBERT HALL for a CHRISTMAS SING-A-LONG! Surprise! Not all Christmas carols are sung to the same tune. We found that out the hard way.. BUT, some are, and it was STILL AWESOME! We also went on an adventure before that included taxis (to avoid the very wet walk) and went to the one and only whole foods for dinner. (i know.. it's american, but it was the cheapest and fastest place to get food). and then, we sang our hearts out and listened to some great christmas carols and some great british jokes.. that were only somewhat funny...

Here are some pictures of the night!

Eating at Whole Foods:

it's not her fault. no one can resist hugh jackman.

The same night that I went to Les Miserables, right before it in fact, a couple of us London students went to see the Australia premiere to see the lovely and VERY NICE Nicole Kidman and the "world's sexist man" Hugh Jackman. It was quite fun! We had a WAY better view than the one for Twligiht, and the crowd wasn't full of teen love crazy girls.. phew.

Here are a couple of the pictures that we got!
Feel free to click on them to make them bigger!





ps. we also saw elton john? yes.. yes. we did.

why it is my favorite show.

I would almost say that I have no words to describe the amazing performance that I saw tonight, but that would be stretching the truth.. I have many words.. all of the deepest adoration and gratefulness for its absolute brilliance and my opportunity to see it.

You would think that the third time is the charm with anything, but tonight, the 4th time was the charm for seeing Les Miserables. We were sitting sixth row center. I don't know how it did it, but it changed my life again. Every time that I see it or even listen to the music, I fall in love with a different character or a different line from the show. (Michael... a newly converted Les Miserables fan compares it to the BoM in that way.. you always find something different whenever you experience it.. haha)

Tonight was no exception. It was outstanding. When I saw it the first time here, I was unsure about the Jean Valjean (he was good, but looked a little too young and was too harsh with people), the Fantine was off pitch a lot, the Cosette and Marius especially were nasily, the Eponine was the understudy and a little awkward... I still loved the show, because it is my favorite show, but I had my stingy complaints that I always seem to be able to come up with. Even when I saw it on Broadway summer 2007 I found reasons to be upset (mainly the Jean Valjean again.. he still looked too young then..)

It was the dream cast. Literally. I previously had said that I wanted to see it only if Marius was the understudy.. and tonight when we got there, he was! There has been a new Jean Valjean here since November 10th, and he is fantastic. He was exactly what I have always envisioned that character looking like and sounding like. He had the emotion, the love, the change of heart. He encompassed him completely from the beginning to the end. The Eponine was the real one, and she was great! I'm glad that I got to meet her on the tube before I saw her.. it made it more interesting. haha. The Fantine was the same as before, but she had a great performance. She acted it well, and was rarely, if at all, off key. Marius had a GREAT voice, and his acting and performance in "Little Fall of Rain" in conjunction with Eponine literally made 2 big fat tears roll down my cheek (I had brought tissue, I was prepared). The fact that tears actually leaked out of my eyes is something... I usually try to hold those suckers in at all costs... Javert was amazing. A great low voice, and surprise! After the show we waited at the cast door, and he is young and quite attracitve. Did NOT see that coming... Enjorlas (the best singer by far when I saw it the first time) was still amazing, but he was actually rivaled by the rest of the cast this time.

Basically, there was not ONE weak link in the entire cast. It was magic.

I love this show. So much. It expresses every human experience and emtion that occures in life with the utmost honesty. It inspires empathy and love and a greater appreciation for family, a greater respect and understanding of individual worth and life, and it illustrates the immense amounts of faith that our forefathers had to have to fight for what they believed in.

Still my favorite lines: (I have them memorized) (from the Epilogue/Finale)
"Take my hand, and lead me to salvation.
Take my love, for love is everlasting.
And remember the truth that one was spoken:
"To love another person is to see the face of God."
Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the Earth there is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!"

And that is just a small summary of why this is my favorite show.

not to be outdone.. thursday!

Today started off a little bit slower than yesterday. But, let's be honest, it's kind of hard to beat everything that happened yesterday.. oh! I also forgot to mention that I got my job back for Christmas break yesterday too! yay!
Anyways...After religion this morning, we got in a large group and went to Abbey Road!
It was awesome! We recreated the magic of the Beatles.
Don't worry, I got a picture of me doing it personally, but I don't have a camera, so I don't have quite as quick access to them. I also had to stand in the middle of this busy road so many times to take this picture, even for this old guy with long straggly gray hair in a ponytail who wanted me to take it on his phone for his album cover. No Pressure!
We signed the wall, took more pictures. It was good.

Then Annie and I went to Sherlock Holmes' house! Where was it? Oh yeah, 221b Baker Street.
It was actually way more fun and interesting than I thought it would be.
After dinner, a group of us went to the Christmas Tree lighting at Trafalgar Square! There was a big choir there and a band, and they were singing and playing christmas songs as the crowds gather. The tree has been cut down and brought from Norway since 1947 as a sign of thanks for England's aid in WWII. We all got singing, there were some speakers who were actually quite entertaining for, you know, world leaders...

Oh yeah, I was there!

Happy Christmas to One and All!

london at its finest!

You can't even believe the amazing day that was the 3rd of December here in London.

One Word: EPIC.

The day started with sleeping in, and watching the Opening of Parliament on TV.

Quite a lot of history and pageantry all rolled into one.
We figured she would do a good job, I mean, it was like her 54th time.
It's a shame that it's not really HER opinion, but she sure is a cute little old lady!

Then we went to the War Cabinet Rooms.This is where Churchill and his leaders met and made all of the
military decisions under ground protected from bombings.

Then I went to the Bank of England for my history class.
It was interesting to see the history of the making of money and
the way inflation affects the economy. I even had the whole place to myself!
Plus, I got to hold a gold brick! A whole 28 Pounds!

Then I went home for a quick dinner, and
remembered that the premiere of Twilight was that night.
Now, I didn't go to James Bond to see the Princes,
I didn't go to see Leonardo DiCaprio for Body of Lies,
I didn't go to physically see the queen ride by in her carriage for the opening of Parliament.

I decided it was absolutely necessary to go and see Robert Pattinson.
I am not even a huge fan of the books.
However, I am not going to lie;
It was awesome!

And a fun fact confirmed by all the other girls that went:
He is WAY more attractive in person!
I went by myself, and made a British friend there!
It was way fun!
Also, I saw this overview of the whole thing on a website, here is the link!

Premiere of Twilight!
At second 15, I was behind the
girl on people's shoulders
next to the girl in the white
holding her camera.
Sadly, I probably had just hopped down
off of the barricade in the back
because the lady cop was pretty strict.
I guess that it was bigger than the one in LA. That surprised me, but I've read it in a couple of different places. Luckily, he came in the last 2 minutes that I could stay so I got to see him!

Favorite Quote:
Random Passerby: "What's going on? Who are they all screaming for?
Bobby (cop): That one guy who got killed off in the 4th Harry Potter. He's in this Twilight movie thing."

I could only stay till 6:30 though because I was also heading off to see
Handel's Messiah performed by The 16 at The Barbican theater.
I loved it! There were 4 great soloists, and a smaller orchestra.
Because of its smaller nature, the music was much more nimble,
and each note played was crystal clear. It was great!

After that, we came home.. but was the night over yet?
NO! There was MORE!

We heard that J.K. Rowling's new book was coming out at midnight.
Oh yeah. We went! To the Waterstones at Piccadilly Circus.
We were excited! HP trivia going around.
But it was closed.
We were confused. We had checked the internet, it should have been happening.
We walked from there across Leicester Square
where they were taking down the Twilight premiere,
walked down to Trafalgar Square,
and went to the Charring Cross Waterstones.
It wasn't there either!!
I guess you had to have a 'wristband' or some such nonsense to get in and get it.
But don't fret! I got it today! Only 3 pounds!

But there is even MORE!
On the tube ride back, Michael noticed that the girl sitting across
from him was non other than the actress who plays
Eponine in Les Miserables!
Sadly, when I saw it, I had the understudy, so I didn't know her,
but he got a picture with her, and he frolicked around for hours after.
(He's kind of a big fan of the character and her)
plus.. she gave him a kiss on the cheek! <3.

So basically, we all had a GREAT day.

I'd say that was close to London at its best!


I'm going to miss being here a lot.....