Consider Yourself...

hey there! As always our weekends are packed full of activities so here's a run down of how we fared this time!

Thursday night we ventured out to O'Neill's again, and to meet up with Molly and some of her coworkers. After getting slightly lost, we found our mostly American fave bar. This time the third floor was open and we saw some really great live music! Molly and I left fairly early (2am...) and had a cab drop us off 2 blocks away from home, because that's where Burger King is.

Molly and I


Friday morning we started with our wonderful seminars from EUSA, this time the subject was culture, or as they would say it in a British accent- cultcha! After the session we headed over to Barbican to the Museum of London. We also peeked in Molly's internship to say hi since it was so close. The Museum of London was not my favorite, but they had a lot of really interesting artifacts and exhibits. I think my favorites were the sections about the plague and the great fire of London.

All day we couldn't contain our excitement for seeing Oliver that night! We decided to go to Chinatown for dinner, since it is near most of the big theatres. It was really hard to pick a restaurant because they all look good, and we had no recommendations to go off of. Finally we chose one and it was delicious! Afterwards we got ice cream (My 2nd ice cream of the day) and headed to the theatre. It's obvious how much the British love Oliver seeing the amount of people and especially children at the Theatre. Although our seats recommended "must lean forward" we could see easily and we didn't have too many nosebleeds. The show was amazing, and all the kids in the show were adorable. We were lucky to see two broadway vets, Russ Abbot and Kerry Ellis in the show as well! The four of us sang our way back home and hung out with some friends in our building for a while before heading to bed.


Chinatown


Oliver Stage


Unfortunately we had to wake up very early Saturday for KU's day trip to Stonehenge and Bath...but it was worth it. After a two hour bus ride we arrived in Bath, an amazingly beautiful city. We began the day with the tour of The Roman Baths which was incredible. I loved seeing the history behind these baths, and imagining who would have been there so many years ago. We spent the afternoon strolling around and eating lunch.

In Bath



We hopped back on the bus and headed towards Stonehenge, about an hour away. It is literally in the middle of nowhere but you can't miss it, especially with hundreds of cars and buses around the area. Immediately we all joked that there is no way humans made it, because it is just so big and the wheel wasn't even invented yet! It was really cool to see a sight that is so popular worldwide. Although we felt extremely touristy, it was fun to see and I'm glad we got to see it.

Stonehenge!


After arriving back home, Rachel, Kelsie, and I met up with some other EUSA students from Chapman near their housing, and watched the US match at the Big Chill House. However disappointing, we had fun watching it there. Exhausted from Stonehenge, we went back home and relaxed.

Sunday was so much fun, because Kelsie and I went to the Hard Rock Calling music festival in Hyde Park! Thanks to a certain family member, I got two free tickets and guest passes to the festival. Kelsie and I checked out the festival grounds and squeezed our way to the front for the first acts. First up was More Than Me, a group from NY that we hadn't heard of but really enjoyed.




Second was Josh! Although I've seen him many times in the States, it was really fun to see him again and in London.




We stayed up in front for some of Elvis Costello's set as well.





After that, we wanted to check out more of the festival so we wandered around, checked out shops and the food venues. We went back into the Guest Area where there was a flat screen and watched some of the England Match. Coincidentally, Josh was there too so we were able to talk and take some pictures together.




Kelsie and I chilled out in the Guest Area for a while and laid out in the sun during Crowded House's set. We grabbed some burgers and set up camp for Paul McCartney. We decided to sit further out, rather than try and squeeze our way through the die hard fans. We caught the end of Crosby, Stills and Nash which was awesome too. Finally Paul McCartney came on and it was amazing! Although I wasn't familiar with some of his music, he played a ton of Beatles faves (All My Lovin, Ob La Di Ob La Da, Let it Be, Something, Live and Let Die, Blackbird, Back in the USSR, A Day in the Life, Eleanor Rigby, Day Tripper, Lady Madonna and More!). He also dedicated some songs to George, John, Linda and his family.



He Ended with Hey Jude which was amazing and the crowd loved it! Kelsie and I returned home absolutely covered in dirt and just general nastiness considering it was the hottest day yet in 2010 in London.

This week I'll continue work and hopefully do some fun stuff during the week like check out Wimbeldon or other London hot spots. This weekend is our first real trip, to Paris!

cb