Tower de London

I am getting behind on my blogging, sorry you great followers. Yesterday was Monday, right? Okay yes. So Monday morning we had classes, they go from 9-12 at the Hyde Park chapel and they are fabulous! Our professors are just the greatest and I really feel like I am learning so much. It is fun to be able to discuss all of the different accents and the many differences in the dialects we hear then go out and experience them first hand. We all packed up our backpacks with lunches because we left right after class for a little field trip to the Tower of London. It was fun being back with the whole group again! We walked around the Tower of London for about an hour and a half. It is more like a castle than just a tower. My most favorite part was the Crown Jewels section. There is a building that you go into that begins with a very big vault door and inside are tons of beautiful diamonds and other amazing jewels. You can see all of the different crowns the different kings and queens wore on their coronation. One had a 253 karat diamond on it. I don't think I would like that weighing down on my head for three hours. Kate Middleton's wedding dress is supposed to be on display there starting the end of this month! I just barely missed it! But, I did get to see what Queen Elizabeth II wore on her coronation day, it was beautiful! After our tour around we made our way back to our flats to set our school stuff down and then go grocery shopping. We ended up sitting down and didn't get up for another hour. My sleep schedule isn't the greatest here haha. After we finally got up we headed to the grocery store, which by the way is an adventure all its own. The grocery stores here are always SO crazy. We just needed a few items (bread, diet coke, milk, and such) and we grabbed them as quick as we could then headed back home. By the time we got home we were all ready for bed so we got to sleep a little earlier (11pm). It was a great start for the week!

Mind the Gap!

The days here go by so fast and are all a blur. I find myself asking Cydnee what day it is most days. I wish it would just slow down because I am having way too much fun.
Friday we woke up later than usual (9am) because we were so exhausted from our Harry Potter-a-thon the day before. We did our laundry (see mom, I do laundry I promise!) and headed out for a quick lunch and looking around. We found a little Italian place that had a student special, we LOVE those. We found out after we ordered that it was only for "take away" (to go) and it was raining, like it so often does here in London. Luckily they had one table outside that we were allowed to use and it was covered by a little awning. So we enjoyed our pizza and diet coke outside safe from the rain. After that we took the tube to Leicester Square where there are a lot of half price ticket stands and it is pretty much the center of the theater area. We scavenged for some cheap theater tickets but after a few hours came up empty handed. The good news is that we got to explore a lot more of London and found some really cool little shops I will be going back to. After that we decided to head home because we were still feeling it from HP.
Saturday morning we got up early and headed out in hopes of getting tickets for Legally Blonde. They give out 10 for 10 pounds and 15 for 15 pounds right when it opens. But since we are working with five girls, a lot of hair and makeup time, we ended up being a little late. We still got cheap tickets just not as cheap as we were hoping. We got them for the matinee showing and we were in the third row! After we bought the tickets we had a little time to kill so we wandered around china town checking out the little shops and found a delicious chinese place for lunch. We also stumbled upon some very tasty candies that I will be stocking up on before I leave. While we were out looking around we decided just to try and check on wicked tickets for that night even though the whole week they had been sold out. We found a half price ticket lady and she had three seats open (just what we needed!) in the second row on the left. She said it was restricted view but not too bad and they were the cheapest we had heard so we jumped on them! After that good luck we decided we would check for Les Miserables, which has been sold out because there are apparently two famous British people in them this month. When we went to the theater she said she had 3 tickets for only 15 pounds!!! They too are restricted view but she said if we lean forward we can see everything. It was a great day for theater! Legally Blonde was so cute and funny we were all smiling and dancing the whole time. It has always been one of my favorites and the theater version of it was just as good! Wicked that night was AMAZING. That was my fourth time seeing it and it still felt like the first. Wow, that sounds cheesy. But really, I was loving every second of it and it was so cool to see it that close. We were singing the whole tube ride home.
Pictures: the typical tourist photos (mind the gap and red phone booth), legally blonde, and wicked!

Last batch!

I can barley hold my eyes open and I feel like I have been beaten up. Which I sort of have, mostly by the crazy Brazilian people next to me. So...I am just going to sum this up with saying that I am so glad I went and that it was the coolest thing I have done. Standing for seven hours and having my toes crunched was actually worth it. Would I do it for any other movie any other time? NO WAY. But Harry Potter 7 part 2 was well worth it.
ENJOY!!
Lupin, Snape (I think I put that one on), Harry of course!, JK Rowling (looking as fabulous as ever!)

More more more!

I am getting too tired to even write anymore. I am sure everyone knows who these people are! Emma Watson looked like a princess, her dress was so beautiful and classy! Voldemort was actually pretty friendly and Snape's blonde hair really surprised me!
Here you go!

More Premiere!!

Here are some more!! We stood outside for 7 hours! SMASHED. The stars showed up about 5 hours into it and the caged us in for another hour and a half after to make sure the stars were safe. We felt a little bit like wild animals. It was amazing to see everyone though! It was such a cool experience! Especially the end when Rupert, Emma, Daniel, and J.K. Rowling all went up on stage and talked.
I think this is Bill Weasley, Ginny, Luna, Tonks, and I can't remember who else I put on here. I am sure you know though!

Premiere Pictures (take one!)

Here are some pictures from the premiere! I got so many but I can only post 5 at a time!! Just to give you a little background we were so close. Catie and I pushed our way to the front of the bars and made friends with the girls around us. We got there at around 12:30 and the girls around us had been camping all day. They were ganging up on everyone that said they got there that day and making them move so naturally Catie and I agreed it would be smartest to say we had been there camping out as well. Once they knew this they became our great friends and had our backs while we were being pushed and shoved into the barricade! I can't remember which pictures are on this post (my ipad won't let me see!!) but I am pretty sure it is one of Catie and I, Ron, Fleur, Fred and George, and Malfoy!

HARRY POTTER!!!

Okay just a real quick post. Today we went down to Trafalgar Square (where the World Premiere of Harry Potter 7 is tomorrow) just to see if we could get a wristband to get into the area near the red carpet. Without that wristband there was NO WAY we would be able to see anything. But, when we got there the line was hours long and they said they were already out. So we went on our way. We got tickets for Phantom of the Opera (way cheap by the way!) and we went to Buckingham Palace (more on that later). On our way to the show at around 630 we saw a line of people and the guards that were passing out the wristbands. I suggested that we just jump in line even though there was probably no way there were wristbands. We got in line and they were handing out the last few broken ones that they could fix! We got so excited but then when there were just two people in front of us they said we really don't have anymore. NOOO! However, since we went to the blarney stone (remember? gift of gab?) we told them that it was one of the girls in our groups birthday tomorrow (oh p.s. there were four of us). Don't worry. It really is her birthday. He reached into his pocket and gave her one!! People around us were going crazy! Then we proceeded to sweet talk the other guard into giving us three more!! Right after he gave them to us they packed up and got out of there because people were getting real angry! We also scadaddled out of there and headed to our show so happy! So, tomorrow we will be out at the red carpet premiere 4 hours before it starts! WOO WOO!!!

Here are a few pictures: the place where they are setting up for the premiere (we will be in that gated area!), our wristbands, and us at phantom!