2 days!

I come home in two days HUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAH!

Its very bitter sweet but, I am ready to come home. I love London, and hope to return for Grad School but right now I just need to see my Mom, Dad, Friends, Aunt Pam, and Chris.

This weekend we went to Bath and checked out the Roman Baths and Fashion Museum, and had wonderful strawberries at Dr. Webb and John Roses house.

Then after the theatre majors, cathy, Lisa, and Jo had dinner and I picked their brains about grad schools all night.

Saturday, we went to the Science Museum, I did a bit of shopping for people and then in the evening we went to see a preview performance of Streetcar named Desire with Rachel Weiss (will include picture). And afterwards waiting to stage door guess who comes out of the audience, James Cromwell! I almost peed myself, I love London you see people in the oddest places (will include picture)

Yesterday, Cathy, Amanda and I went to church at Westminister Abbey, visited The Tower of London for a bit, and then Carlene, Lauren, and I took in a show at the Globe of Troilus and Cressida. After that we rested our poor feet and did homework till I couldnt keep my eyes open.

Today, Amanda and I are hopefully going to do a tour of the National, and then I hope to check out Harrods and go to Notting Hill again. Tomorrow, I think I am going to go to the V&A which is a big museum, and PACK! Then in the evening we are all doing a big excursion to the London Eye, to close out our trip.

For all who care, my flight is American Airlines. Direct flight into RDU at 2:40. Be there or be square!

CIAO
SBC

LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN: 6 DAYS

6 Days left on the rollercoaster that has been my life for the last 2 months, cant believe I am this close to coming home.

Anywho, yesterday was a big day in Sara-land. Amanda and I woke up at 4:30am, to get ready and grab the first tube from High St. Kensington to Leicester's Square to rush for Hamlet. We decided to forgo a trip to Brighton to do this, because A) It was our only chance to go without having to miss class and B) we both weren't really up for spending a day at the beach when we can go to the beach in 6 days when we get home. All you previous study abroaders will probably be mad at me for this but, ah well. Anywho, when we got there a bit before 6th we were 8th and 9th in line, which guaranteed us a ticket. So our ass-crack of dawn wake up call would not be in vain. After making friends with the people before and after us we settled in (literally we sat on the sidewalk) for the next 4 hours till the box office opened. During which time I searched the illustrious morning coffee and breakfast for us, we read newspapers, regaled (sp?) of our trip to our line buddies, and caught up on some journaling. After FOREVER on the sidewalk and one very cold bum later we got our tickets around 10am. Amanda and I scored again on two box tickets stage right, which would later prove to be pretty darn good tickets for only 25pounds. I am really amazed at the seats we have gotten for shows this summer, pretty much 80% of them have been AMAZING and the not so amazing ones werent that bad either.

Anywho, we came back after our excursion took a well needed nap and then toured about town for awhile and went to shops and sights we have missed so far. I also got an extra duffle for all the gifts I have bought on this half. I am serious I have done some SERIOUS shopping for people. I have a huge itemized list of all the gifts I have purchased people, its ridiculous.

The show was pretty good in my opinion, and Jude Law definitely didn't dissapoint. But it was sort of the Jude Law show, and I felt the supporting cast could have done a lot more to back him cause the dude was onstage for 90% of the show and some of the other characters were just a bit lacking. Really (and I hate to say this because I love me the ladies) but the women in the cast were just lackluster, and the men were really dragging them along most of the time. I felt like Jude and the actor that played Laertes were the best in the whole show, and Laertes was really the only character that stood up to Law's level throughout the show. Ophelia was pretty eh too, I thought she could have projected more because I was pretty close to the stage and had a hard time hearing her and her crazy scene was a bit too un-crazy for me. But even though some of the supporting cast were not up to par Jude Law made up for them massively. That man had to have worked off at least 10 pounds during the show, and this was a two day show for him, so I can imagine that is how he stays in such good shape. And for inquiring minds, yes he really is that cute in real life too. He did an amazing job at Hamlet though, he had intention and projection, and his physicality was what amazed me the most. That man was up down, standing, sitting, miming, fighting, crying, screaming in seconds and each movement was fully understandable. It may from this write up seem like I didnt enjoy the production, but I did . No production is perfect, and yes Hamlet had its shaky bits but in the end it was totally worth rushing and waking up crazy early to see this interesting take on a classic.

Today, I went to cabinet war rooms and the Churchill museum which was really neat. And tonight its back to Leicester's Square for dinner and roaming about. I also have crazy homework to do! hehe
6 days
CIAO
SBC

Sunny Monday

Hooray for the sun, its been a bit overcast these last few weeks so its a great change to actually see the sun come out for more than ten minutes. I am feeling a bit better today, finally got some good medication that has been slowly battling this cold away. Its our last full week in London can you believe it? Today we are having class, and then headed to the British Silver Vaults which should be neat, hopefully I can see a lot of stuff I cannot afford but I guess there are some areas where you can buy some of the silver from the vault, and then hopefully trying to make it to the Tower of London later on in the afternoon if my cold holds out.

So this weekend we were able to see two shows, first War Horse on Friday and A Little Night Music on Saturday evening. A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim was great and the vocals of that cast were amazing but I have to say that War Horse by far has been the best production I have seen in London so far, which is saying a lot because pretty much everything we have seen has been fabulous.

This production was INCREDIBLE, and the highlight of the show was the puppets that were used throughout the production, in particular the horses themselves. These horses were lifesize so they were HUGE, and we were sitting in the FRONT row and I swear a few times the horses galloped towards us and I backed up in my seat because they were so close. The horses were very lifelike too, you could actually see them breathing and it took 3 puppeteers to man the things. Two men were visible under the horse moving his legs and tail, and one puppeteer was at the front moving his head and making all of the horse type noises. There were also small bird puppets, a goose, vultures, and this INCREDIBLE tank puppet that you can see in the image gallery that was wheeled out during one of the scenes on this immense trolley. I have no idea where all these puppets were stored behind the scenes because all of the puppets were incredibly large.

The story is about a boy named Albert Naracotte and his horse Joey during the first great war. Albert is 17 and cannot join the Devon military yet to fight the french but unknowingly his father sells Joey to the military to become a officers horse for 100 pounds. After a year of remaining behind waiting for Joey to return Albert runs off and joins the army himself to save his horse. Along the way Joey meets another horse Topthorn and the production is basically about the trials and tribulations these two horses encounter during their journey in the war, and their fight to return home. It was a really touching production and gave me a completely knew insight into the plight of animals during wartimes. It was also a bit of a history lesson because I learned during the first world war about a million horses were sent into battle and only about sixty two thousand were ever brought home, pretty sad when you think these animals had to fight a war that they had no part in.

Anyway this production was just amazing and the acting and puppeteering were awesome. Hopefully you guys will check it out and see for yourselves.
Have a great Monday!
SBC

TGIF!

Hey there,
Its the second day of our "travel break" and I have decided to remain in London again, because I really have no need to go anywhere else hehe. Although we are doing some day trips to see outside the city, because I hate to admit it but London is not the only place in England. hehe So yesterday the four of us who are staying in London decided to take a day trip and visit Oxford. We didnt plan out our trip all that well and by the time we got there (mid afternoon) most of the real "sights" had closed. But, I really didnt mind it because we just walked around and got lost in the buildings and shops that line the streets of Oxford. We saw a lot of college buildings and the Radcliffe camera (no Melissa not of any realtion to that Radcliffe ;) the Bridge of sighs, the new Business building, and the Oxford Castle. It was a really neat town, and I am hoping I have time to visit again and be there when I can actually go in and explore these places. I'll include a picture of the camera, cause I thought that was probably the neatest thing we saw there.

Afterwards, we came back to London, had dinner, I did some homework and tried to get a lot of sleep to beat this stupid cold I have.

p.s I finally got my phone figured out and if you know my us virtual number you can now call that and contact me. Sorry it took so long, piccell wireless is not the most speedy company out there.
Anywho, hope everyone enjoys there friday 12 days!
Sara

AHHHHHHH!

I totally met Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart last night!!!!!! We stood outside Waiting for Godot after their evening performance. And after an hour or so of standing outside in the rain, they came out and could not have been nicer. I actually had a conversation with Sir Ian, ekkkkkk!
We also got to meet Simon Callow, who was also a perfect gentleman.

If you are not sure who these guys are (which would be a true shame) I will include some picturesSo here is Sir Ian McKellen, he was in Lord of the Rings, X-men, and pretty much everything else on the planet.

Here is Patrick Stewart, he is best known for his role as Jean Luke Pacard in Star Trek, but he is also a well known Shakespearean and classical actor.

Ugh, I just love London!

More of the weekend

Well its monday, so I thought I would update you on how the rest of my weekend went.

Friday, Amanda and I spent literally 5 hours in the Imperial War Museum. 5 hours! My feet were killing me by the end of it, and we didnt see all of the exhibits either! That museum is well put together, and I really enjoyed touring all the old machinery and learning all about the British point of view in the first and second world wars. My favorite exhibit I think though, was the Holocaust exhibit. It was two floors and covered from beginning to end about the holocaust and how we may continue to remember it in the future. It was interesting too because no matter where you were in the exhibit you could hear accounts of survivors describing their lives at that time, we walked through a cattle car, and saw a huge model of Auschwitz. What got me the most was the section of clothing and trinkets that were taken from the Jewish victims on their way to the camps, just to realize that these are real shoes of victims was quite jarring. I also got to overhear this touching moment between a young boy and his father. His father was basically telling him who Adolf Hitler was and all of the monstrosities that occurred during the Holocaust, and he did a great job explaining to him and answering all of his questions.

So Friday night I decided to lie low and catch up on some homework. Saturday we went to Portobello Market which was BONKERS! I have never seen so many people packed into such a small street before. Portobello Road is beautiful street in the Notting Hill section of London. Its lined with all these multi-colored houses and every Saturday they hold a big market filled with antiques, jewelry, clothing, and other knick knack type stuff. They also have musicians on each corner playing music: I saw a guitarist, a stand up base, and steel drums on alternating street corners. I actually picked up a new leather bound journal there because I am almost through with my first one, and it was neat to check out all the interesting stuff that was being sold. Though, at times it did get a bit too crowded and I felt like a sardine.

After that we went to the show that I have been waiting for since we got here Waiting for Godot with Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, and believe you me it did not disapoint! First off the set was gorgeous, and so was the Theatre it was in. The set looked like a dilapidated theatre with a second proscenium arch and two boxes on each side, then the stage was raked up with large holes in the floor, and a tree growing from the floor boards. The back of the set was a large brick wall with a small wooden slatted door that was closed shut and they actually used some of the interior of the Royal Haymarket Theatre to be included in the set. The Royal Haymarket Theatre was gorgeous! It was very grand and was covered in ornate sculptures, marble columns, and a big elaborate ceiling, so a vast contrast from the set. The whole cast was incredible, and found moments and relationships in the show that I had never seen before.

Waiting for Godot is a Beckett play from the absurdest portion of theatrical history so basically the plot is (and get ready for it, its a duzy) Two men waiting for someone or something named Godot, THATS IT! They really do nothing the whole play, except for two other additional men come and visit with them on two different occasions. The men have no sense of time and during the whole play one of them constantly says "we should go" and the other one says "no we cant we are waiting for Godot." People try to find new meanings in this play but really its just two dudes waiting for something that never comes.

Now that all of you will never see a Beckett play, I have to say this production was just phenomenal and Stewart and McKellen together had wonderful on stage chemistry and I loved the relationship between their two characters. They were like an old married couple, with Patrick Stewart nagging at Ian McKellen about everything from his shoes to eating carrots! We were so lucky too, because you could tell that Patrick Stewart was coming down with a cold. He ended up not coming out to stage door because he was leaving and his understudy would be stepping in for him for the evening show, so our timing couldn't have been better.

So after that Chip, Amanda, and I decided to go to the National to see what was playing that evening, and we ended up seeing Time and the Conways. I have just decided that everything the National produces is just awesome. The National is this huge complex of theatres of the river Thames that is one of the last government subsidized theatres. Anyway, Time and the Conways was about a family in 1919 and then you see them in 1939 and then at the end back in 1919. The family consists of 2 brothers, 4 sisters, and a widowed mother. The lead character in the play is named Kay and when the play opens its her 21st birthday, she is also the character that ends up having these visions and thats how we fast forward in time to see what the future will be like for this family. The play was a bit confusing to follow, but interesting none the less. I actually thought this would be a great play for Meredith to do, because it had 5 women and 4 men, and all the conflict is balanced on the female characters. The COOLEST part of this play was was the design elements, especially during Kay's visions. The first vision we saw ended act 1, and Kay was seated in the living room reading a stack of papers and her sister Carol was upstage twirling a scarf in the air. At one point Kay took in a big gulp of air and then time appeared to stop on stage, the whole set rotated and everyone froze. And when I say everyone froze I mean Kays stack of papers that had shifted when she took in her breath froze in the air, not touching the ground by in the midst of falling, and Carol and her scarf froze in mid air. IT WAS SO COOL! It took me completely off guard too and for a second I thought I had either fallen asleep or passed out, it was just too cool. The second vision involved this elaborate ensemble they brought in for this one scene. This time Kay is almost 40 and at the end of this large family argument she walks to their fireplace and turns on a light. When she does this time stops again and the set pulls away from her leaving just this fireplace, then ten or so identical fireplaces come into view set diagonally away from her, and ten identically dressed Kay's step up to the fireplace just as she did. Then they did this elaborate dance where the first Kay would start and each of the ensemble would dance in succession, it was just so neat to watch. Then at the end Kay and her brother Alan did a dance as well but behind a hologram screen and they actually danced with each other as young people then as their older selves. I just cannot begin to describe how cool this was, and this write up probably doesnt do it justice at all.

Yesterday, Amanda Chip and I hung out all day in Leicester Square and then an neighborhood in London called Angel where we saw a dance play called "Dorian Gray." In the morning Amanda and I grabbed breakfast, and then we met up with Chip around noon. After we got to Angel and picked up our ticekts for the evening we went back to Leicester Square and roamed through the National Portrait Gallery for a bit. We saw the Gay Icons exhibit which was neat, and the National GP Portrait Awards. After that we walked through Covent Garden for a bit before getting Dinner and seeing the show. I don't think I had ever seen a whole play just in dance, and I really enjoyed it. Dorian Gray is based on the Oscar Wilde book, and revolves around this devastatingly handsome man who suddenly is thrust into the public eye. Lets just say that Dorian Gray throughout the play was also quite lucky with the women and the men in his life. Its actually quite a tragic tale at the end, but the dancing was phenomenal and all of the male dancers were quite easy to look at for two hours, and thats all Ill say about that ;)
Anywho, today I am giving myself the night off because I did way too much this weekend, and I am quite pooped. Sorry I droned on again, but the theatre here is just too good not to describe. Love you all!
SBC

Plays, Plays, More Plays, and Changes on the Horizon?

Hey there, I think I have figured out this public computer thing. The key is to wake up at the crack of dawn because everyone else is asleep and therefore you have the computer for as long as you want, which is what I am doing today. Yesterday, today, and this weekend is our first "travel break" but since I love London so much, I decided to remain here and also save money that I would have been spending to go elsewhere. I sort of wanted to go to Ireland on one of our breaks but we checked and the tickets are like 2oo American dollars just to get there, so I decided Id rather stay here, take in shows, and experience London more in-depthly (blah blah blah...)

So lately I feel like my life has been consumed with seeing theater shows, which I couldn't love more. Two days ago I got to see a matinée and an evening show (I was a busy girl). The matinee was a show called Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. Its a show about two time periods first is a Victorian time period, and the other modern. Two of the characters Hannah and Neil are trying to figure out a mystery of a supposed "murder" and who committed it, you find out through your time with the Victorian period that most of Hannah and Neils assumptions are in-fact in wrong. Really the show has sort of this message that the more time/things change the more they remain the same. I really enjoyed the show, although there were a few points when I was thinking, now what the heck is going on I am so confused! lol There were also a few cool moments when Stoppard put both time periods on stage at the same time, and some of the modern characters were dressed in Victorian attire for a party and one of the Victorian characters was working on a schoolbook behind a present day laptop so she appeared to be in the modern times, talk about keeping your characters straight sheesh! The cast was awesome too, and laden with cute boys which only helped the production in my opinion hehe. And for all you Harry Potter fans, I got to meet Collin Creevy (aka little blond boy who took lots of pictures of Harry in Order of the Phoenix.) Believe you me, colin creevy is not a little boy anymore ;) lol, but off of my ever present boy watching...

The next show I saw that night was Jersey Boys, which was AWESOME! I have to say this was one of the most fun nights of theater I have had in a long time! For all, Jersey Boys is the musical story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, its the story of how they formed into a band, and what happend, before, during, and after their success. Really the show is more like a rock concert than a West-End Musical, but man I didnt care what it was, it was just fun. The four guys sing some of the most popular Four Seasons hits like: Walk like a man, Sherry, Big girls dont cry, Oh What a Night, Beggin, Dawn, Cant Take my Eyes off of you, Rag Doll, and Who Loves you. This show was also technically amazing, I have not ever seen people change scenes like that in my life. Cast and crew were essentially running from scene to scene in a blink of an eye, I cannot imagine how tired everyone was at the end of the night. There were also things being constantly flown in from the ceiling, brought up from trap doors, being slid on, or wheeled off. They also had live feed cameras attached to some of the props that fed onto huge monitors to show the real cast performing in black and white, to give the appearance that they were on American Band stand, or the Ed Sullivan show. It was just such a well thought out piece, and to top it all off all the actors were British; so not only did they have to sing and run amok the whole show they also had to speak in Jersey slang the whole time. I was completely convince they were all American born but when I met some of the after the show (more on that later) I was shocked to find they were all British, so cool! The actors were great too, and the vocal pipes on the man that played Frankie Valli were incredible, I just cannot see how he can sing that high night after night. We actually got to see the original London cast of Jersey Boys except for one lead that was played by a very cute swing, because the show to my surprise has only been open for about a year.

During the show, I found an ad for an acting school that one of the members of the cast (actually the cute swing I was telling you about) had recently graduated from. Which has gotten my thinking that maybe London is the place for me after school, and perhaps the reason I love this place so much is because its where I am meant to be to continue my studies in Theatre. I have spoken to mom and dad about it and I am hopefully going to continue to look into schools here, and try and find out all I can about international studying and what sort of postgraduate programs they offer. Who knows what will happen after I graduate, but this summer in London wont be my last...

Anyway, last night the 7 of us who decided to remain in London got cheap tickets and saw our first show at the National, which was All's Well that Ends Well by William Shakespeare. The basic premise of this play revolves around Helena, who cures the king of an ailment and the king rewards her by allowing her to pick any man in his kingdom for her husband. You see Helena has been a ladies maid for Count Rosillion all her life and she has developed quite a crush on her son Bertram so obviously she picks him for her hubby. Bertram is none to please about this so he goes off to war and leaves her a letter that says, A) if you can get my ancestry ring off my finger, which I never take off and B) If you can get yourself pregnant by me than I will love and accept you as my wife ( I know real gem isnt he?) Obviously this appears to be impossible since he is in a war zone and she is in France, but for Willy Shakes anything is possible and in the end Helena does do both these things (sorry if I ruined it for you). This production was really cool, and their set was probably the coolest set I have seen in a long time, and the production was heavily laden with cute boys again so you cant go wrong. I just still cannot get over the set I saw last night, they used every inch of that stage for set and it made everything look so grand and immense, very neat. They have this large barricade type thing that forms one moment and then a second larger mountain behind that in the set and two large castles that are flown in, and behind all that is a large curved projection screen from which they project seasons changing, aninmals, weather and all other neat type things. They also had a lot of neat effects dropped from the ceiling (like rose petals at the end of the show, very romantic.
If you want to see more about it, here is the National's website. They have a trailer of the show which I am sure is really neat, but I cant watch it here cause this computer is crapt so let me know what you think! http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/49017/alls-well-that-ends-well/about-the-play.html

Ok, now that i have utterly bored you about my theatrical escapades, here I need to go in the search of breakfast. Today we are hopefully seeing the Imperial War Museum and the Cabinet War rooms, and then tonight its another play yahoo!

Sending you all my love!
Sara

A London Update

Sorry I have been so bad about updating this the last week, we JUST got internet at the Assumpta center, and its also been hard to get a decent spot on the computer to think out what I am going to write about.

We have done TONS since we got here so I wont bore you with all the details, but so far we have done: The Foundling Musuem (which was a hospital in the 1700's created for destitute women to come and give up their children if they came upon hard times) The Charles Dickens House (a bit too small for my taste, plus while we were there a HUGE group of middle schoolers were also touring and they were smashing about the entire time) The British Museum (HUGE! but really neat they have historical artifacts from every country imaginable), St. Pauls Cathedral (we went for a service which was really neat), and Parliment (which we toured today). I have also been able to see A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse with Cathy, Bill, Chip, and Amanda which was such a good show. If you are familiar with the X-Files the woman who plays Scully named Gillian Anderson played Nora and she was awesome. I am also about to see a matinee of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard which looks to be a really neat production that mixes time periods, and after that we are seeing an evening performance of Jersey Boys, which we were able to score some amazing tickets that should have been 60 pounds for 25, thank you student i.d!!!

The harry potter premiere was last night as well, and it couldnt have been a worse night for a movie premiere. Daniel Radcliffe stayed out for an hour or so braving the terential rains to greet fans and sign autographs and I hope the poor guy doesnt catch pneumonia. We also heard that Rupert Grint was just coming off a bought of Swine Flu so he was escorted through the handicap gate, but some of the girls got an AWESOME picture of him upclose. I unfortunately, decided not to brave the rain. But I did go and stayed for a little while to take pictures and see all the whoopla. I have been having some trouble with my right calf, and I thought it was probably better for me to rest it than stand there for four hours trying not to keel over.

So far, London has been amazing. I love the sights, the sounds, the people, and the general feel of this city. London has such a rich history I feel like I could just get lost for years soaking it all in. Plus, the people here are SO NICE! I was in search for a gift for one of you, and was having the hardest time finding it until I asked this nice lady who ended up giving it to me FOR FREE! I couldnt believe it, and when I did try to pay for it the woman absolutely refused my money and said it was nothing. The other thing that has been really great is all the Theatre I get to see while I am here, I could honestly see a show a day and not crack the tip of the iceberg at everything that is available here in London, granted some of it is a bit weird but neat none the less. Its also been nice to have Cathy's family here, Chip and I got to catch up and we spent the first night gabbing over digestives and milk (lol digestives are their cookies and to answer your question no, they dont stimulate your digestion, thats just the word for them I guess) it was wonderful.

We have our first travel break this week and I have decided to just stay here and spend more time exploring the city. I plan on going to the Tate Modern tomorrow, Imperial War Musuem Friday, and hopefully the Globe sometime this weekend. I am also seeing WAITING FOR GODOT on saturday with PATRICK STEWART and SIR IAN FRIGGEN MCKELLEN! I am so pumped its not even funny, I am going to try my damdest to get both their autographs if its the last thing I do, I am sure it will be brilliant (hehe). I am also hoping to see Dorian Gray this weekend, and if I am lucky Hamlet sometime soon.

I wish I had more time to explain everything we have done so far, but it would probably be pretty long and boring hehe. Miss and Love you all!!!
Sara

p.s. only 21 days left on the trip as of today, can you believe it?

LONDON!!!!

So sorry about how long it has taken to post, we havent had internet since I got here and I finally found a decent Internet Cafe today. So we are now officially in London, and I LOVE IT. We arrived on Monday from Paris on a Eurostar train and immediately I felt settled, calm, and relaxed here. London just seems to be a quiet fit for me and I adore it completly. Our accomodations here at the Maria Assumpta Centre (now Hethrop College) are incredible. I literally feel like I have died and gone to heaven. I have my OWN ROOM! It felt so good to spread out all my things and organize the room to my likings, and not have to worry about inconviencing anyone else. This trip has truly allowed me to appreciate the little things in life, and having my own room is definetely one of them. We also have breakfast and dinner at the Centre which to this point has been pretty good. I love the breakfasts in Italy but its been nice to get some cereal back into my diet.

So our first day, we had classes and then a bunch of us set out to figure out the tube system and went to Leicester Square and picked up tickets to Billy Elliot. Let me just tell you if you have the chance to ever see this show, GO! No matter what you have to pay its worth it. The play is about a little boy named Billy who is forced into boxing lessons by his father who is a miner in Durham, England that is on strike during the Maggie Thatcher political period. By a series of hilarious events Billy falls into a ballet class and discovers his love and raw talent for dance. This show made me laugh and cry and cheer for this tiny titan that is on stage for pretty much 95 % of the show for almost 3 hours. This kid does tap, ballet, jazz, hip hop, and some CRAZY acrobatics, the boy that played billy could not have been more than 9 or 10 and has more talent in his pinky finger than I have in my entire body! We got to meet him backstage after the show and I was just in awe of him before his dad whisked him away. I did some research on this show and apparently their are three billies that share the role and are only allowed to do the show 3 times a week because of child labor laws and how taxing the role is on their young bodies. Like I said they are on stage for almost three hours dancing pretty much the entire time, it was incredible. One of the best musicals I have ever seen. I am not usually left speechless but after the first act I just sat there with my mouth open trying to take it all in, I am already planning on seeing it again hehe.


Anywho, yesterday was low key. I went for an early morning walk with Amanda and Cathy through Kensington Gardens which was beautiful. It was also Princess Di's birthday so we got to see a bunch of cards and flowers left for her to celebrate. Its incredible to me just how much the brits appreciate and idolize her to this day, she truly was the peoples princess I guess. Its nice to think that her memory and legacy lives on, and that people still celebrate the milestones in her life. Its funny to think she would have only been 48, she was far too young.

We also went to the National Gallery yesterday and I got to see some Van Gogh's and Monets, which was really neat. I have truly been blessed to see some of the most awesome pieces of artwork this summer. I still cant believe, I have been able to see some of the paintings I have. We spend about 2 hours there, and also we got to be in Trafalgar's square on Canada Day, which as you can expect was quite a sight to see hehe,

Today we had classes, and in a few hours we are seeing Calender Girls. Which is a stage remake of the popular movie, and we have awesome seats, 3rd row center for 27 pounds = amazing. I hope it will be as good as I think it will be, stay tuned I guess.

Anywho, Miss you all
Sara


P.S
will post address soon, hopefully tomorrow! Thanks for your ongoing support this summer, its been great to read your posts. They truly keep me going when I am gone, I have the best friends and family in za world!!!!