so no one told you it was gonna be that way...

Well, this is it! My last day in London. It's so strange, I've spent so long looking forward to tomorrow and counting down to it, and now that it's basically here I'm thinking "no, that's ok, I can wait a bit longer"! Maybe because of all the work I had, but still. I really do love this city, it's just so vast and amazing. Yesterday I went to the National Gallery with Liz and we talked art - it was SO great. Then Liz, Sarah, Nathan and I went to dinner on the embankment (Giraffe, so yummy!) and THEN Liz and I went to see Les Mis. The perfect London day folks, right there. Today I have no real clue what I'm doing. I think the plan right now is to go to St. Paul's with Blair and possibly Sarah and Nate, and then maybe (hopefully? finally!?) Hyde Park. I have to give my computer (Del) back today, and finish packing. And hopefully make my peace with leaving this wonderful city for an indeterminable amount of time. Maybe one day I'll come back.

So, to anyone out there who read this, or even skimmed it, thank you. I hope you enjoyed visiting London through my eyes, and, if I know you, I hope this blog helped me seem not so far away.

Ta!

I can't be as sorry as you think I should...

Holy crap, I haven't updated about Scotland yet?! The days are just running away with me, I'm trying so hard to squeeze in all the things I want to do before I fly home. On WEDNESDAY. Wow. That came up fast.

In one word, Scotland was AMAZING. In many, it was funny, and beautiful, and a great opportunity, and historic, and cultural, and exciting, and, and, and! Just so great! I went on a bus tour and we started in Edinburgh and travelling up into the Highlands hitting up places like Glencoe and Loch Ness, and drove even further North to the Isle of Skye, which was so pretty and actually reminded me a lot of Canada! Our tour guide was this small young Scottish woman named Debs who was this hilarious spritely girl who doubled as our bus driver! And Dianne and I made friends with these two Aussie girls, Louise and Hannah, and now I'm really tempted to go to Australia (as if I wasn't tempted already with Ryan being down there). I learned so much history and random facts about Scotland, Nessie, clans, and whisky! I bought a little souvenier for myself and a small bottle of whisky to try! All in all, a fantastic trip - I can't wait to go back!!

Now I'm in packing/sightseeing/soaking-up-London mode. I went on a huge walk from my res, down Baker St, across Wigmore, then down Regent to Oxford, then across Oxford (CRAZY CHRISTMASY OXFORD - so many people!!!) to Marble Arch. That's a looooooong walk for those of you who don't know the area - about 3km! Ok, I know, that's not a whole lot, but it is considering I didn't plan any of that. Yesterday Liz, Sarah, and Sarah's boyfriend Nathan and I saw Natalie off (so sad!) and then went Christmas shopping at Whiteleys (very posh mall in Notting Hill) and then to Oxford Circus, then to Picadilly/Leicester to see about getting theatre tickets. We couldn't get any for last night so we'll go back today and see about getting some £20 tickets to Avenue Q. So then we grabbed dinner and went to this pub I've been meaning to go to since I got here. Then we went to Vic and hung out for a bit. Long day, but a good one!

So today our foresome (aptly named Remainder Four) are hitting up the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, and then hopefully the Christmas festival in Hyde Park, and also hopefully Avenue Q tonight. Should be a good day if everything goes as planned!

deck the halls...

Well hello! My time here is almost at an end, I only have ten days left. It's starting to feel really wierd. I'm excited to go home and have Christmas and see my family and friends, but I'm also kind of nervous about it after being away for all this time. Things will be different, I will be different. They won't be the same as they were the last time I was there. That makes me kind of sad, and nervous for the homecoming.

This week was really really good. It was the last week of classes, and since we don't have exams over here it was the last week of everything pretty much. So there were a bunch of final things to see and do, and lots of photo taking at every oppotunity. Photos taken of every class and with most profs, and lots of fun photoshoots wherever we were because we knew our time together was short. It was really good though, the people here with me are pretty hilarious, and great to be around.

I went to a panto on Wednesday night at the Hackney Empire. BEST SHOW EVER!!! It was part looney tunes, part slapstick, part vaudeville, part Disney movie, and all fun! Tons of audience participation, tons of songs and laughter, a whole bunch of current and regional jokes added in, and two of the main characters were cross-dressed, including the main male hero who was played by a women. Amazing and hilarious! I wish I could see it again, I didn't stop smiling through the entire show, and I left feeling as giddy as a six year old. Pantos are where it's at.

OH! AND, Ian McKellen was in the audience! So we all had fun ogling him a bit. Good times. Brings my celebrity sightings up to two!

People have already started to go home. People already ARE home. It's such a weird feeling. I've still got a trip to Scotland and Chantelle coming to do/enjoy before I go home, and people are already there, reminicing about their time in the UK. I feel like I spent so much of my time over here waiting to go home, and when I get home I'm going to spend so much time and energy on thinking and missing London and this semester. Why is the grass always greener on the other side?

I should go, I leave for Scotland soon (eeeee! so excited!) and I haven't even packed yet!

out in the night, into the water...

So this week definitely picked up since I wrote. Thursday night was really busy. I saw Rachmaninov and Dvorak performed by the London Symphony Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall (my last concert for music, tear!) which was really amazing! Then a bunch of us went to ISH for what was one of our final stints at karaoke. It was a good time, typical of any time we our group gets together.

Friday was good. A little laid back I think, considering I can't remember it really. I think I worked. Oh, and I think I watched The Return of the King. Yep. Good times. lol

Saturday was busy busy! I was woken up at 9am by Erin to go to Covent Garden market because I hadn't been yet. So I was up, dressed, and out the door in about 10 mintues! The market was really cool, I think I especially liked that it has a permanent structure creating the market, unlike the other markets I've been to. Anyway, we ended up seeing a random line-up and joined it to get stand-by tickets to see Jewels at the Royal Opera House! It's a ballet based on the music of three different composers, and it has no plot, so it's pure unadulterated dance set to music. It was really good! I especially loved the middle part, Rubies. And then on my way back home after the show (with Erin, who came with) we ran into Dianne who told us that a bunch of people were going to the Canaidan bar, The Maple Leaf, so we quickly changed and headed there to meet up with everyone. So, long story short, I was in Covent Garden three times yesterday - so much! It was really good though.

Today I worked. Finished Walking Tours and Theatre - two courses done!! All I have left now is music and art. Here goes nothin'!

Also, 17 days 'till Canada! Weeeeeee!

I'll follow you into the dark...

Hey! Look at me, posting, and it hasn't been a week since my last one! Although, I hate to break it to you, not much has changed since my last post. School is still dictating most of my actions, but I'm at a point now where I can take breaks from it like watching Grey's, going for walks, watching movies (I watched Bridget Jones' Diary tonight!) or going to ISH bad trivia! So it's nice to not be doing one thing all the time, my brain kind of gets fried when that happens.

Talked to my mom for about an hour tonight on the phone, it was so good! We talked about tons of stuff, and it was just so nice to hear her voice again. I'm getting stressed over here so it's nice to hear an accepting voice.

I don't know what else to say. I'm seeing a concert on Thursday for music, Rachmaninov and Dvorak, I'm looking forward to it. I'll let you know how it is!

Back to the grind I suppose, until next time!

under the blacklight...

So, I can't seem to go less than a week before updating. I'd love to update more, but the weekdays feel so jam packed that I either don't get a chance to or don't even think of it. Oh well, though, I'm not even sure anyone actually reads this, so it's probably just me writing to myself. Which I can do in my paper journal. Right. But I'm posting anyway! On the off chance one of you Canadian peeps are actually stopping to see what I'm up to.

So what have I been up to? WORK! This felt like my hell week, so much stress and so many things to do. I managed to get a good chunk of things done, and now I only have my four final projects due, which I guess is like having four exams, and they're mostly not due 'till December 5th, so I think I'm doing ok. I hope! I could wake up tomorrow and realize I forgot a bunch of stuff or underestimated the amount of work something will need. But right now it's ok.

This week I saw a play at the Soho theatre called Joe Guy. It was a really good play, basically about the main character, Joe, and how he felt he had to stop being himself in order to suceed in life, which he them failed at. It's also kind of about the tensions between African blacks and Afro-Carribean blacks in London (or Britain in general, I guess) so that was really interesting too. And, the best part in my opinion, it starred Abdul Salis from Love Actually! (That's who the picture is of) For those of you not familiar with this amazing movie, he plays the friend of a guy named Colin Frissell who, after being rejected one too many times by British girls, decides to move go to the US where he will become instantly irrestitable. Anyways, Abdul Salis was amaaaaaazing and I'm so glad to have seen him in that show. Very very cool.

Not much else happened this week, besides a lot of stressing over work. The roomies are gone again. They went to Spain on Tuesday and get back tomorrow. Oh, and I've been slowly falling more and more in love with Rilo Kiley as of late. I always had their album Take Offs and Landings, but I recently got Under the Blacklight and really started liking it. So then I went and got More Adventurous because it already had three songs I liked on it. So yeah. Lots of Jenny Lewis happening in my room right now!

I guess that's all. I'll try to update BEFORE next weekend.

Oh and PS - 26 days and this is all over! Not sure how I feel about that... I'll get back to you.

we'll do it all, everything, on our own

My roomies are both away this weekend, leaving me with a big ol' empty room. It's been a little lonely, but a little amazing at the same time. I forgot how nice it was to have some time for yourself. I also got out of the room a lot and hung out with other London Semester people who I don't spend as much time with. I tell you, being in a triple definitely makes you socially stunted, especially when all three of you are on, for the most part, the same schedule. Same classes, same assignments (which means same busy and quiet periods) and we all know everyone so we all basically have the same social schedule. It's good, because there's always people there, but it's mindless because there's always people there! I'm enjoying it actually, but I think I'll also be glad to go back to my regular social habits.

I've been really stressed about my workload lately, and also getting homesicky because I was having troubles calling home or talking on msn or anything (no phone and no computer make meg something something). So I had a minor breakdown about that on Thursday night, and, to my relief, my friend Blair said she didn't know how I was doing this semester without a computer. It really justified my frustration, and the breakdown gave me the push I needed to do something about it. I talked to my friend Liz, who's also going through this sans CPU, and we decided to split the cost of renting a computer for our last month here. I'm really happy about it. This way I can get all my work done guilt-free, and connect with home a LOT more often.

Last night a bunch of us went to this Canada themed bar in Covent Garden called The Maple Leaf. It was so cool! It felt so stereotypically Canadian. It felt like a log cabin, there was a stuffed bear, hockey memorabilia all over the place, aboriginal art, and Canadian beer! They had Sleeman on tap, and they sold poutine! So of course we indulged. Oh! And they do pitchers, that's virtually unheard of over here! So it was a really good night. :)

I suppose that's all for now. Things are good. :)