Oh chocolate gelato day...you make my world.

Well, I have a new favorite museum type place in London: the National Portrait Gallery. It's really not as boring as it sounds. The museum, the building which is art itself, contains painted portraits from queens and kings from hundreds of years ago to photographs of today's royalty...both real and celebrity. The oil portraits are cool because so many spectacular artists do a fantastic job of really making the oil paintings look real. I love the photographs because good photographers can really capture the essence of a person and reproduce them on a sheet of paper. I didn't get through the whole museum, but that just means I get to go back. Plus, there is a new Andy Warhol exhibit that is going to open next week that I want to see. (You're not supposed to take pictures in the gallery, but I got this one before they yelled at me. I like it b/c you can see Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, and me all in one shot. Who knew that would ever happen!?)

The museum was yesterday, and today was a day trip with the Tulsa program to Oxford and Blenheim Palace. We stopped at Oxford first and toured one of the 36 (I think) colleges: Christ's Church. I've visited Oxford before, and ironically enough, Christ's Church. The last time I was there, it was before the Harry Potter movies came out, but after I had read the first couple of books. The way the dining hall was set up made me imagine that if Hogwarts was a real place, that's what it would look like. Come to find out, the sorting hat scenes from the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie were actually filled in that room. :) After walking briefly through the college, we had some time for lunch. I have a minor obsession with C.S. Lewis and while he was a professor at oxford, he and J.R.R. Tolkien and several others met at a pub called "The Eagle and Child" to philosophize and discuss things. Because of this minor obsession, we had to go there. :) It ended up being cheap enough and quiet enough where we got to eat there as well. It was lots of fun.

Our last stop of the day was to Blenheim Palace. This is the only palace that doesn't/ didn't originally belong to a Queen or King of England (no one other than the royal family is allowed to have palaces, but they made an exception for this one). It was given to the Duke of Marlborough (formerly John Churchill) in the early 1700s and has been in his family ever since. Today we learned that Winston Churchill's uncle and cousin were Dukes in this line. Princess Diana is also a member of the Churchill line. (Someone Churchill somewhere married a Spencer from which Diana came). I've seen quite a few palaces since I"ve been here, so I wasn't all that excited about going to this one, but I was proven wrong. It is a spectacular palace with even more spectacular gardens....a great end to a great day. (P.S. that's my new coat!!)

I just really don't like when Clark wears that maroon jacket!

Yesterday we got to tour Parliament. Apparently it was originally a palace, so its decorated ornately in accordance with that. They took us through all the different houses where the laws of the UK are made and told us all about the idiosyncrasies of the Parliament. For instance, the way they count their votes. Rather than standing up and voicing "yea" or "nay," each member of the House of Commons (the house made up of elected officials similar to our House of Representatives) must go into a chamber and physically be counted. They only have 8 minutes to get to the chamber, and the time begins when a bell starts ringing. If they aren't there at the time the bell stops, the are locked out and their vote doesn't count. They also have some crazy traditions in their interactions with the House of Lords (the appointed by the queen and of more financially affluent) and their "disgust" for the other side. All in all, the tour was okay..not that informative or interesting (even with me being a nerdy law student). The saddest part...we weren't allowed to take pictures at the really beautiful parts. I did get some at the beginning and the end, so that's what you see here.

Other than that, not a whole lot exciting. Tried Chinese food for the first time here last night. Pretty good. However, in the process of walking to and from the restaurant, I decided I absoltuely needed to get a coat. It is just too cold...and it's going to get colder...so my worn-out dirty North Face fleece won't do anymore. (Side note...I have a nice coat at home that I was planning on bringing. I even wrote myself notes so I would remember it. but of course, I forgot it anyway.) So, today I went coat shopping. After literally about 3 hours and trying on about 50 different coats, I stopped in one last store and of course, I finally find a coat there. It's blue with a pretty English collar. I'm sure you'll see it in pictures here soon, but I'm very excited
to have it and feel very good about what I paid and the coat I got for my dollar. The end. :)


UPDATE: I found a picture of my coat online. And pay no attention to the price...I got a discount! WOO HOO!! Here you go! Emily's sweet new coat.

What are they doing? A spoof on a spoof?

The past couple of days have been pretty lax. I finished another part of the STM tour. This time I went to the area of town where he was born, went to school, and studied law (on the left). It was kind of a bust...the plaque commemorating the approximate spot of where his house was was hidden under construction, the church he went to was closed, and you couldn't see the school he went to couldn't be seen from the street. I also thought it was a lot closer than it was, so I got an unexpected tour of another side of London as well. Shoot. I was able to help my roommates find a bar they were going to because I had just been on the street....that one element saves the walk from being a total bust.

My friend Andrew also showed up in London last night. When I say showed up, I don't mean unexpectedly. He's also studying here this semester, and because he's studying at one of the British Universities, he hasn't started yet. Last night was his first night here, and it was again great to have someone around that I know well. We went for a drink and caught up on his travels around Greece and Italy, and my happenings here in London. Hopefully I'll get to see him a fair amount this semester as I don't often get to back in the states.

Today was lax...class...run...job search. Anyone want to write cover letters for me? PLEASE? I left the cover letter writing session to enjoy a Spanish Tapas restaurant. It was very yummy albeit a little expensive. Still..lamb in honey sauce type stuff = awesome.

This small is larger than the medium I got on Friday.

Today was a really fun day. I met Kristen, like I said, for Mass at the Brompton Oratory. It was the weirdest mass I've ever been to. During the Eucharistic prayer, the priest didn't go behind the altar...eh said all the prayers in front of it, often with his back to the rest of the congregation. Then for communion, rather than going up in a single file line like every other Catholic mass I've been to, we went up to the edge of the altar and knelt down and waited for the priest to come distribute the Eucharist to us. This is not to mention that the communion process, in ALL of Europe is crazy...there is no way of filling up to altar in an orderly fashion...it's every man for himself. That's not to say any of these things are bad...they are just much MUCH different than I've ever experienced at home.

Then we went on our St. Thomas More journey. As I mentioned yesterday, Sir/St. Thomas More (STM) is the patron saint of lawyers. He was a lawyer (obviously), a statesman, and a loyal adviser to King Henry VIII. But when Henry wanted to separate from the Catholic church and make himself the head of his new church (now the Church of England), STM said now. His famous words were "I am the king's good servant, but God's first." Because of my impending cold (which has dissipated a bit today, fortunately) and Kristen being tired of walking, we really only did one of the four areas around London. Because the Brompton Oratory is in Chelsea, we decided to do the sites there. We first went to find the old library. After first thinking we missed it, we found it was right under our noses. The library is supposed to hold a couple of famous pieces of art work of More and his family, but since it was Sunday and an antique show was going on, we didn't get to see them. The road which the library is on is also supposed to be the northern border of what was More's estate.

The next stop was to find Old Church, the parish More attended during his adult life. Odd enough, the church he went to, which still has a statute of him in front of it, is where his first wife is buried (and I think his daughter, too), and apparently often does things to commemorate More, is part of the Church of England. (I understand that the Anglican church has saints an is very similar to the Catholic church in many aspects, it seems odd to me they would recognize a man who is canonized in the Catholic church in large part because of his fidelity to it. But that's neither here nor there....) There was a communion service going on inside the church, so we didn't get to go inside, but the outside is just beautiful.

The final stop for the day was the Tybrom Convent. Many of the people who died defending the Catholic church during the reign of Henry VIII were hung from the Tybrom Tree not far from this convent. The convent was supposed to have a tour which they give every week. Every week except for this one (of course!). I'll probably try to go back, especially because I think (although I need to find out for sure) that many of the trials of those accused of treason were also held here.

Tybrom is at the opposite end of the Kensington/Chelsea Borough, so we had to walk through Hyde Park to get there. On our way there I realized that today is Sunday, which means Speaker's Corner. Speaker's Corner is something that I've wanted to see since my Grandma Friedman told me about it before my first trip to London in 2000. Basically it's an opportunity for anyone who wants to to stand up on anything they can find and talk about anything (and everything) they want. Most of them, of course, are about highly contentious political subjects. Discussion of salvation is a close second. It seemed the speaker getting the moat attention today was the man who we heard say, "I'm not anti-semitic just because I support Hezbola." (He didn't get a lot of applause for that one.) I'd like to go back again to hear what other topics are brought up and to listen a little more.

It was great to have Kristen all day and to do these things with her. We made it back to my flat (after a slight detour for some amazing gelato) and she stuck around for dinner. I'll probably get to see her again in about a month when she comes back to London to hang out with another friend of ours that is visiting at that time. It's just nice to know that someone I know and enjoy is really so close. :) After she left, I spent the evening re-learning how to play euchre with some people from my program. Overall, it was a great day. Hopefully tomorrow will bring equally as fun but different adventures.

Here is a link to some of my newest pictures (some are already posted here, but there are more if you follow the link.)

I tabbed my map book, and it's beautiful.

Remember how I asked you to pray that I wouldn't get sick? Well, pray harder! I'm pretty sure that I'm coming down with whatever my roommates had. This morning I got up at 7:30 to go to a market (which I'll talk about below), and when I got home at noon, I was exhausted and had to take a 2 hour nap. (Background information: I NEVER take naps..and I often get up that early to do stuff. I'm one of the odd balls that really likes mornings. I think I get it from my mom...) After my nap got up, went running, was only able to run 1.9 miles, and had to come home. Now it's 9:11 p.m. on a Saturday night and I'm exhausted, despite the fact I got 8 hours of sleep last night and had a 2 hour nap this afternoon. Now, I'm no doctor, but I think that means I'm fighting something. Grrrrr....

Okay, now about that market. Val and I went to the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill. Its the same market you see a couple times in the movie Notting Hill. And just like the movie, it's incredibly charming. When you first get there, it starts as an antique market where you can find almost anything you want. I'm not much of an antique person, but it was still fun to look and see all the fun old stuff. There was also a lot of jewelry for sale and it reminded me of digging through my Grandma's Jewelry box when I was little to see what fun things I could find to dress up in. After you get through the antique part, it turns into a food market. And this food is fresh and delicious and cheap. I got a lot of really yummy food..some of which I haven't had since I came to London because they are just so expensive (grapes). I also found POPCORN which I will be popping within the next couple days. After the food market, it turns into a market like the one I went to last Sunday, so Val and I didn't spend a whole lot of time there. I didn't get anything other than the food, but Val found a couple of cool glass pieces. I have a couple of pictures of Portobello Road, but I haven't uploaded them yet, and since there will be picture taking tomorrow, I'll upload them later.

I'm gonna head to bed. My friend Kristen is still in town and I"m meeting her tomorrow (the last time for a while) for mass at a church that is supposed to be really cool. Then we're going to be nerdy catholics/ I'm going to be a nerdy law student and find a bunch of the sites where St. Thomas More (the man for all seasons) lived and worked around London. Hopefully I won't get too exhausted before we get most of them in. I'll fill you in on more about STM tomorrow when I have pictures to go along with it. :)

Excuse me professor, but for the 100th time, THAT INFORMATION IS ABSOLTUELY NOT IN THE BOOK!

Such sad news...English Diet Cherry Coke tastes NOTHING like diet cherry coke from home. :(

Again, not a lot exciting going on. Yesterday was ANOTHER birthday which meant ANOTHER birthday party. However, because everyone celebrated with me, I feel like it's only right that I celebrate with him. Plus the guy whose birthday it was just lost his best friend in a car accident, so it was necessary that we be there for him. :)

Tonight my friend Val and I went to one of the casinos in town. AWESOME. Apparently she really loves slot machines, and well, I went as moral support. I came home as moral support and £4 poorer. It was pretty swanky, but not outrageously priced. Plus, the amazing thing is that because there is no smoking in any public place in London, there is no smoking in any casino in London.

Sorry these recent updates haven't been all that exciting...I'm in a 'taking it easy' stage. They'll be more later. Oh...also...all 4 of my flatmates are sick. Pray that I don't get it, too.

You can move mountains...you just need a bigger spade.

Warning: this entry epitomizes me as a musical theater nerd.

I just got back from Mary Poppins, the Musical, and it was fantastic. To be truthful, I was a little skeptical after the first act. At the end of it, Mary Poppins leaves the Banks home. What, you say? Yes, it sounds uncharacteristic of her...and it is. (A little history for you-- P.L. Travers-- author of the Mary Poppins book-- was very concerned about letting Walt Disney produce the book into a movie Walt had to approach her for a good number of years before she allowed him to make it into the movie. There had to be the right actors, right songs, right everything.... I wonder if she would approve that deviation in the story line.) Quite frankly, I wasn't happy with her leaving, but it all eventually resolved itself. Right before that, there is a scary scene where the toys in the nursery come alive and talk about spoiled children. And it's not come alive like they do in the movie to go back to their places in the nursery...it's come alive and freak us out. But the second act redeemed the whole thing and now I'm again on a little musical cloud number nine.

There were some deviations in the plot from what we're all used to in the movie: they didn't develop the character of Bert as much, there was more of a love interest between Mary and Bert (although not enough to really make you angry. I guess a deep mutual admiration is the best way to say it), Mrs. Banks is more disgruntled with her life situation, and they develop why Mr. Banks is as cross and unhappy he is (a bad nanny when he was a kid). That nanny actually comes back into the plot line to take over for Mary just after she leaves and before she comes back. There were some things, odd enough, that were more true to the book: The name of the lady that walks outside the house, and the name of her dog; there being a male and female housekeeper (rather than two females). Okay, so not TOO many things...or at least that I can remember right now.

The new songs weren't all that great. I mean, they are fun, but nothing that will be caught in my head for the next week. The staging was cool, but nothing spectacular. Of course Mary flies, and some other characters do some pretty cool and unexpected stuff (I won't tell you so that you will be as delighted as I was), but the nature of the story itself is just so wonderful that it succeeds with mediocre songs and atmosphere. But oh..supercalifragilisticxpalidocious was awesome. Just awesome. Step-in-time was great, too.

I'm particularly disappointed in the lack of development of Bert because of who was playing him tonight: Gavin Creel. I'm familiar with Gavin b/c of his role in the revival of Thoroughly Modern Millie...he played the lead male "Jimmy" there, and the summer after my freshman year of college, my friends and I memorized the soundtrack. (I remember listening to the CD while at work at Baskin Robbins one time. I told Mindy, the cake decorator, that his voice was positively my favorite male vocal voice...ever. That was about 4 years ago, and I still hold true to that today.) Needless to say I was excited to see him, regardless of the role. While the role didn't showcase his vocal ability as much as it could have, the role of Bert was as jovial and lovable as ever.

There were some kids behind us that chomped on chips (theater here is much more relaxed...you eat and drink [alcohol eve] in the theater and it's no big deal. the theaters, in fact, sell the refreshments just like a movie) and talked the whole show that got my group pretty frustrated. But, they were quiet during most of the important parts and became kind of endearing when they sang along to certain songs. Kind of.

The weather outside -- cool, and somewhat rainy, the wet pavement reflecting the lights -- combined with going to the theater and being 100% enchanted by it made this my quintessential London night. And it was a good one. :)