Shall I put the kettle on??

This past week has been full of performances, tea, and getting severely lost in London.  Ahhh where to start....

Last Saturday I met a friend, Claire Horton from home for dinner which was nice to have that connection to home.  Unfortunately halfway there, I realized that it was a Saturday.  On the weekend certain tube stations are closed so they can work on them.  Of course the ones I needed were closed.  So I got off my first tube, and couldn't get on another one, so I was basically stuck and had little idea where I was.  So I went up to the street, found the first bus, got on and prayed that it took me to the right place, or just in the right general direction.  And by some strange twist of fate, it dropped me off exactly where I needed to be, and I met Claire at that same bus stop like 3 minutes later.  I doubt I'll ever be that lucky again.

However, after getting lost and an amazing dinner at Pizza Express, I saw Matthew Bourne's dance production of Cinderella.  I won't go into all the details, but basically it was amazing.  The choreography was so innovative and instead of a fairy godmother there was a male dancer that portrayed an angel.  Basically, if I could dance any role that I've ever seen performed, it would be that.  I also saw the show War Horse with the rest of my class here on Monday.  The story was very touching, I have to admit I even cried once or twice.  But the most incredible thing was the puppetry.  The story was based on the relationship between this boy Albert, and his horse Joey during WWI.  There were 3 people responsible for the movement of each horse and it was so intricate and believable that I found myself completely neglecting the actors controlling the horses and just looked at the puppets.  The wheels are already starting to turn for Circus in Winter.......

This week I also visited Camden town, Greenwich and Chelsea.  Camden is kind of the punk area of London, with really great food and interesting markets.  And I found a great boots for 20 quid.  But no worries family, I do not have any new tattoos or piercings. While visiting Greenwich I stood on the Prime Meridian and went mudlarking.  Mudlarking is basically where you go on the beach and look for interesting artifacts.  All we found were some rocks and what looked like animal bones.  But it was still fun.  I also went to Trafalgar Tavern, where Charles Dickens was known to hang out and write.  I didn't do too much in Chelsea, but found a great cookie shop called Ben's cookies where my roomate and I split some amazing cookies including double chocolate, triple chocolate, cranberry & white chocolate, & milk chocolate & orange.  And I'm sure whoever reading this knows my love of all food!!!

Also one of the highlights of this week was taking a jazz dance class on Thursday at a studio called Pineapple.  The class gave me a great workout and was perfect to start getting me back into shape.  Plus I'm still feeling its effects today.

Oh yeah, I've also been actually taking classes and studying this week too! In my British Life and Culture class, I learned how to make a proper cup of tea and also ate some traditional food including Jaffa cakes, Victoria sponge cake, and Black pudding (which is pig's blood, I'm not a big fan of this.....but I still tried it).  I also spent an entire class listening to the music of The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and The Kinks, not a bad way to spend a Tuesday in class.

These next few weekends are gonna fly by.  Next weekend I'm going to Portugal to visit my cousins Josh & Amy and am soooo excited to see family!!! Followed by a weekend in Dublin, and then my spring break which is still yet to be determined. 

I've heard that it's been a little cold in the States, it's even gotten down to around 30 degrees fahrenheit in London, which is cold for here.  Why not sit down and have a cup a tea?!