I met Megan and Leonard at their hotel at 11:00 and we went to Covent Garden. The Covent Garden market is just fantastic. I bought the most beautiful amber ring - my most expensive impulse purchase since arriving in London - and two photographs of a famous graffiti artist's work. We wandered around the Oxford and Regent Street area for the rest of the day. When we came back to my room we bought tickets online for a Derren Brown show. Leonard was absolutely geeked - he loves Derren Brown.
15 June 2009I woke up even earlier because I was meeting Megan and Leonard at Regent's Park by 10:00 - we were in a bit of a time crunch because I had class at 13:30 and we wanted to go to The Globe and lunch beforehand. While Megan and I toured The Globe Leonard went to the Big Ben area and took pictures.
The Globe was amazing. They were able to replicate it almost exactly using personal accounts from people alive at the time and by extrapolating from what little of the foundation they were able to find. It is called The Globe because they have designed the stage in such a way as to represent hell, earth, and heaven - and the theatre encompasses it all. They even used the same materials that they would have used "back then". All of the props and costumes for the shows are made by hand using processes from the time period the play would have been taking place.
After the tour, while eating a panini, I rushed to class to learn about British newspapers - what a waste of three hours. Afterward, I met Megan and Leonard in Leicester Square and the Transformers 2 premiere was going on. I've got pictures of a gigantic Bumblebee, Shia LeBouf, Josh Duhamel, and Tyson Beckford - so exciting!
The Derren Brown show was brilliant. He is an illusionist. I have no idea how he does what he does and am at a loss for words to describe it. It was unbelieveable! We said goodbye to each other on the train home before I got off to go back to my room.16 June 2009
Tuesday meant more work. The day went by really fast because I was going offer letter after offer letter, all day long. After work, I took the bus to Piccadilly Circus because I had a ticket to see "Waiting for Godot" with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. I got dinner on the way to the theatre and went to take pictures outside before the show. Ian McKellen is hilarious - his comedic timing is perfect. It was a really good show.
17 June 2009
Wednesday was boring. I was doing more of the same, except I've finally got a log-on name and an email account. I've also filled out the paperwork to get a name badge. Once I get it I will finally feel like I belong. In the afternoon I was told that next week I am going to start training on the ESR system so that I can work with employee records and I'll be starting a rotation around to the different areas of human resources! They even said that I might get to sit in on interviews and disciplinary meetings. I ended the day dreading work on Thursday because I knew it would suck knowing what was coming the next week.
I went grocery shopping after work and then we started booking weekend trips. So far, we're planned trips to Ireland, Scotland, Amsterdam and Paris. I also booked a solo trip to Liverpool so that I can start doing research for my paper. We also want to go to Barcelona and Italy.
18 June 2009
Work on Thursday was fantastic. I met the HR manager and he invited me to attend a training that he was giving and told me that I would be sitting in on a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday. After the training, he sat down with me and we discussed how it went and he wanted my input. It was nice to do real work. I'm really looking forward to next week.
19 June 2009
It was nice to be done with work for the week and to be going something fun on Friday. In the afternoon we went to Buckingham Palace. I had been there before, so I knew what to expect, but I think I had more fun this time and I got better pictures. There was a fountain around the monument to Queen Victoria and Maggie had me position myself in such a way that it looked like I was throwing up in the picture that she took. Mel was showing Maggie the tattoo on her lower back and someone honked at her.
We walked along Princess Diana's walkway to get to Trafalgar Square. It took us alongside St. James Park. It was beautiful. There was a lake and it was neat to see all of the people just out enjoying themselves. Trafalgar Square was an absolute madhouse when we got there. It is one of the tourist-y areas in London, so there were tons of people. We dared Mel to climb one of the lions on the monument there. She couldn't get up by herself, so a nice young man jumped up there first and pulled her up - what ensued was fantastic hilarity.
The National Gallery was kind of boring. We weren't allowed to take pictures and there were only a few artists that Mel and I wanted to see. Naturally, Monet was among them :) After the gallery we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus to see if we could get tickets for "Priscilla Queen of the Desert"...and we did!
The show was super funny. I love the movie, so I have been really excited about seeing it, and I think the show was extremely well done. They did an excellent job of adapting it to the stage and adding music. The costuming was almost spot on with the movie, so that was great. Afterward we waited by the stage door and I got the autograph of the man who played Mitzy.
20 June 2009Saturday we woke up early and went down to Victoria to see if we could get tickets for "Wicked". We were able to get really good seats for only 25 pounds. Mel and Maggie have both already seen it, but they loved it so much that they were willing to go see it again which was great for me because I've never seen it! It was by far the best show I have EVER seen. The music and the costuming were just great.
In the late evening we went to a gay bar with a couple of guys that Mel met at ISHbar. Both of them are students and fantastic and they wanted to show us a good time. We were able to get in free with fliers that they gave us. It was a bizarre experience. We had to wait in a queue for almost 45 minutes to get in, so by the time we actually made it into the bar it was almost 01:00, but it was totally worth it! I had the most fun that I have had in ages going out and the music was awesome. We didn't go to bed until almost 04:00 by the time we took the bus home.21 June 2009
Sunday was a really relaxed day. Because of the lateness of our bedding, we didn't wake up until 13:00 and didn't leave the room until 16:00. Mel and I did loads of laundry and went to Harrods. For a majority of the evening, I have been working on my blog and then I am going to write up a couple of go-see papers.
