Big Ben and British Men: This is WAR, peacock!

Religion class is always exciting. It's also always a great opportunity to blog. So, here I am, not listening to Dave... reminiscing back upon the last few days...

Wednesday was yet another day trip. I was on kitchen crew, so everything was extra stressful, but lo and behold we eventually made our way to our first destination, Warwick Castle. Warwick Castle was basically a medieval disneyland because they had tons of attractions surrounding the castle. There were people dressed up, a moderate haunted house type of thing called the London Dungeon, the Princess Tower (dont get too excited about this unless you're 8 or younger), a peacock garden, etc. I definitely did not dress warm enough so I was pretty much freezing the entire time...however, I had a good enough time regardless.

at the very very top of a tower at the Castle

Peacocks!!!

After Warwick Castle, we drove to Anne Hathaway's house--not the actress, Shakespeare's wife. We took a tour through the house and I got an adorable mug there that I'm really excited about. After we hopped back on the bus, we arrived in Stratford-Upon-Avon, which is where Shakespeare was born, and took a tour around Shakespeare's actual house. It was pretty interesting, however, once again my experience was plagued by the freezing weather. Nonetheless, it was a really cute little town and we looked around some of the shops before making our way over to the Nash House. After hearing an incredibly exciting dictation of information from an old man there, Emma, Caitlin and I settled down with some hot chocolate in Starbucks to pass the time before seeing King Lear. At 7:15 we arrived in the theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon and settled down into our seats for the production. I was happily surprised with the play--we had seen Twelfth Night the week before and I hated it, however, King Lear was a really great and capturing experience. The acting was great, but the set was really what impressed me the most--everything was really realistic; they had real rain and when Gloucester got his eyes stabbed out, it was so believable that I was cringing the entire time. After the play, we drove back home (where I completely passed out sleeping) and went to bed.

Anne Hathaway's house

Calvin and I in front of the house Shakespeare was born in!

Thursday was a class day, and after classes we decided to get some homework done and go to Samuel Johnson's house for our English literature class. However, I had no desire to do my hair that day, so my friends and I dressed Euro-Chic. For everyone who doesn't live in London, Euro-Chic is a style adopted by every young female in the city ages 16-25, where you mix and match all sorts of strange combinations of clothing (this mixture almost always includes a chunky scarf, flats, leggings, and some sort of sparkly or sequin accessory) with extremely messy hair. Think grungy/high fashion. If you still can't picture it in your head, here are some pictures to illustrate this peculiar style:

Yesterday, (Friday), we woke up early, had breakfast, and then had a meeting with this important guy from the Kennedy Center, and then left to go to John Keat's house in Hampstead and then Kenwood house after treading through the heath. My shoes weren't happy about this experience. After, we went to Camden Market where I got really good chinese food and a donut, and a really cute vest. We came back that night and I watched a movie for my Shakespeare class and then spent the rest of the night hanging out with people from the centre. It was a really fun day.

the gorgeous view from Kenwood House

this picture is an excellent representation of the amount of sleep that I get here in London...

**note, I didnt actually finish blogging during religion, so I'm picking up from where I left off. It's now 1 AM.**

Today after class, Emma, Caitlin, Macy and I went to get tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace. Well, by the time I got there I wasn't really feeling like tea (herbal, of course), so I ordered a lemonade (which was as natural and tart as lemonade can get) and a slice of carrot cake, and then we all shared some cute finger sandwiches.

After, we walked over to Cool Britannia in Picadilly Circus to get some candy for friends/family (and maybe we ate some of it, maybe we didn't), and then we went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum! I wasn't really excited because I've already been to the one in New York, but let me say that I was absolutely not disappointed! It was so much fun! There were so many celebrity figurines that I hadn't seen before, plus this one had a little Disneyland type of ride that took you through the history of London AND it had a haunted house in it! We didnt quite realize the haunted house part was an actual haunted house with people who pop out and scare the crap out of you, so we were unpleasantly surprised when we realized that we had to go through the thing with no way of escape. Despite how terrified I was, it ended up being really fun and it was actually nice to relieve some tension via screaming. After the museum we went to TopShop and then got dinner at Tortilla and then came home! Tonight I started Wuthering Heights, watched the newest episode of Grey's Anatomy, and finished a paper for my English class. It was a really fabulous day!