Thursday: I had class until 2, but after class Rhonda and I hit the town. We first got sausages from the vendor outside of the British Museum. Then we walked along Oxford street for a bit, and made our way down to the National Portrait Gallery. There was a painting there that I really wanted to show Rhonda, and an exhibit on Pop Art is now open. The exhibit, although kind of small and pricey, was spectacular. I love pop art b/c it really is art (compared to modern art where there is just a line of paint on a canvas that is called "art"); the artists combine their skills with modern clippings and happenings to really say a lot. An entire secti
on of the exhibit centered on Marilyn Monroe and how she lost her personal identity when she became famous. Who know pop art had so much to say!? After that we went to Westminster Abbey for the evening service. We wanted to go and see the boys choir, but again, they weren't singing (that was my third attempt to see them). Regardless, the choir that was there was fantastic and it was cool to go to yet another service at Westminster. After that, we headed to the sports cafe for £3 wings. 
We went earlier than I had been before, so the service and the wings were much better this time. (Sports Cafe, you are my friend again.) Then we explored Leicester Square a bit, played some air hockey, and stood outside the Odeon Theater where a new movie was premiering...and saw Adrian Brody leaving the red carpet! Woo hoo! We ended Thursday by meeting up with Andrew for a couple of drinks.Friday: Phew! Busy day. I had class until noon, so soon after we made our way to "Neal's Sandwich Shop" for the highly recommended (per Daniel Stover) cranberry, bacon, and brie sandwiches. I'd actually had them before, but they were just as good the second time ar
ound. Then we explored Covent Garden a bit, got some delicious gelato from Scoop, and made our way to St. Paul's. Rhonda has been here before, but St. Paul's was apparently completely hidden by scaffolding, so we went to check it out (really just the outside...it costs $16 to get in, and because its an Anglican church, the draw to explore isn't as great as some other churches.) Then we made our way over to a cute little market called the Borough Market. This market was only food, and if you want an idea of what it looks like, think of the scenes in the Harry Potter movies where they try and enter the Leaky Cauldron....they shot those scenes right near the market. We picked up some food for dinner, and came back and made some AWESOME mushroom, garlic, white wine chicken.The big event of the day, however, was finally getting to see WICKED. It was absolutely fantastic. For those of you who aren't familiar with the show, it's the story of how the Wicked Witch of the West (from the Wizard of Oz). The music is incredible, the actors were incredible, and everything about it was just incredible. It was also incredible how they tied all the little elements of the Wizard of Oz together, filling in pieces of the story that you never thought about before. You leave seeing the characters in the story in a completely different light than before; nothing is as it seems. For those of you who aren't musical theater people, my testament to you is this: several of the people who went with us were skeptical of musical theater for one reason or another. All of them came out with huge smiles on their faces and really enjoying it. In other words, if you ever have the opportunity, you should go see Wicked.
Saturday: Since Rhonda and Kristen had both been to London before, we were able to do a lot of little random things that you don't necessarily do on your first trip to London. We started the day at the Portobello Road in Notting Hill. We saw "The Travel Bookshop" from "Notting Hill" and grabbed some lunch there, but didn't stay too long b/c it was REALLY busy. So then it was time for Abbey Road (yes, THE Abbey Road.) Of course we attempted to re-create the album cov
er (Andrew even took his shoes off to imitate Paul), but a lot of photoshop work needs to be done before it will look anything like the album. (Expect that around Christmas.) Kristen wanted to get some Christmas ornaments (and I wanted to visit), so we made our way to Harrod's. Before leaving Abbey Road, we thought it would be a good idea to make our way there via a walk through the park to see all the colors. Because of all the colors (and we're all picture freaks), we took a bunch and had fun doing so; We took a picture where we were jumping in mid-air when the shutter clicked. The picture turned out awesome, but Andrew's pants took a beating, ripping in the crotch. That whole situation was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. :)We eventually made it to Harrod's, explored a bit, got a few gifts for people, and then made our way to Greenwich (with a detour for the loo and cookies in Covent Garden). The Prime Meridian (the line where longitude begins and separates the Eastern Hemisphere from the Western Hemisphere) is in Greenwich, and of course, we straddled to technically be in two hemispheres at one time. :) Then it was time for church and after that, fireworks in Victoria Park. Monday is Guy Fawkes day, and to celebrate the man who unsuccessfully tried to burn down Parliament, the whole country puts on some pretty amazing fireworks displays. This one used more than $2,000,000 worth. We were exhausted at this point, but we still had a few more things to accomplish: Kristen and I tried to to a Harry Potter tour around London every time she was here and always ended up pushing it off. Because of that, we knew we couldn't push it off again (and because of the fact she won't be back here), we had to do it. But we decided to truncate the tour; we already visited many of the spots, but just didn't ID them as HP spots at the time. The main thing we needed to do was get to platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station, and after fireworks, we finally made it there.
And just when we thought we couldn't do anymore, I took them to a place where we could eat American food (BBQ in particular) and watch football. When we arrived, we found out KU had stomped all over Nebraska with a 76-39 win. It was a great ending to a great weekend with great friends. (Kristen and Rhonda left this morning, and I headed to Stonehenge and Bath with my program. I'll write about that later.)
