Oh man oh man...there is so so so much to talk about about. I think this has been one of the best and most expensive few days that I've had whilst here. SOooo....After I wrote to you on thursday....Stefanie and I got together and went to Sainsbury's to pick up supplies so that we could make Alison dinner. In exchange we got to sit at a real kitchen table and watch MTV... We put together one of hte best meals ever! We made chicken with a cranberry-apple-mint glaze and Olive Oil Saute-ed Sweet Potatoes, as well as cranberry-chestnut stuffing. It was super delicious...i think we out did ourselves.....perhaps it was the cooking show earlier in the week. After that we watched Bridget Jone's Diary. I might be betraying my womanhood...but i've seen the movie before and even now, i don't really like it. Oh well, i had fun identifying london landmarks....when i get back, that's all i'm going to do: watch London based movies. You're all free to join in. Stefanie and I took the bus back and packed for our trip the next morning...
Bright and early the next morning (actually quite late because the bus was late) we headed off to Warwick Castle.
Warwick was very cool, a little commercial feeling with all of the wax figures, but I have to say that Joe and I took some hilarious pictures with all of them. Then Joe and I climbed all the way to the top of the towers which as always was well worth the climb. We then decided to be rebels and I jumped across the rope barrier to get a picture on a pageant wagon. I'm such a troublemaker for theatre history. After that we hopped back on the bus and high tailed it to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Now for those of you who don't know, this is the birthplace of William Shakespeare and me being the theatre major that I am....was in heaven. I went to his birthplace which was awesome....litttle known fact: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams visited the site together when they were in England....I was walking in the footsteps of giants....let me tell you. After that we all went to see a play at the RSC (royal shakespeare company)'s Swan Theatre. The play 'Believe What You Will' was not actually Shakespeare, but one of his contemporaries....still very good. I think i really like Elizabethan theatre.....cool beans. Anyway, the swan theatre is exactly and I mean EXACTLY like the Chicago Shakespeare theatre. I seriously forgot where I was for a second. After that a few of us went across the street to the Dirty Duck pub which is like the most famous pub in Stratford. All the cast was there. We stuck around talking about music with our director Ryan....Certainly lots of fun.
I have to add that between the Shakespeare's Birthplace gift shop and the RSC gift shop I bought WAY too much Shakespeare paraphenalia.....darn theatre majorness......
The next day we were off to Oxford to tour the colleges that make up the prestigious university. We went and visited one of Stefanie's friends that is studying there and who works at the Gap and walked around a cute french market. Again with the more spending I bought two shirts...but they are quite cute, so its worth it.
After that we made our way home just in time for....BONFIRE NIGHT!!!!! also known as Guy Fawkes day. It was so much fun!!!! Stefanie, Grant, Jess, Brian and I hopped on the tube all the way to Alexandra Palace where we and 80000 other people watched the fireworks. The cool thing was we didn't just see the main display...we saw every firework display in the city...and they were everywhere!! It was like a pretty version of what war must be like, with explosions everywhere. It was really undescribable...SO SO SO SO much fun. It was one of hte most amazing sights i have ever seen and I'm sure it will be hard to match up to.
As we were leaving that, I got a call from Alison who was at the other director, Leslie's house, which is apparently pretty darn close to the Ally Pally...soooo.....off we were to a party at leslie's where we met all of her british friends and had a grand old time singing jazz standards and what not. I braved the bus system and led everyone home and it was a good time had by all.
Tonight was the Harry Potter World Premiere and it was CRAZY!!!! There were so many people all around Leicester Square. We ended up right where all of their cars drove in, so I got to see all of the people coming in....SO SO SO SO cool...and i'm not even a big harry potter fan...i mean, i've never read any of the books and I've only see one movie. It was cool to say that i've been there. After that we warmed up by having the lovely holiday offerings of Starbucks and I learned a long hard lesson about my bodie's inability to handle caffeine...i'm so so so so jittery/hyper right now...i dont think i'm going to sleep tonight. After that, Stefanie and I went to see the Corpse Bride...not a bad movie. Not as bad as my mom played it out to be. Definately not comparable to 'Nightmare before christmas' though. Anyway....This weekend was amazing!!! Its sad that I dont have that much time left in London......its certainly ticking. Tomorrow, me and some people are going to TRL London because I snagged some tickets and then we are going to go out for our friend Grant's Birthday. We're going to a jazz club....should be lots of fun!!!!! I guess i have to fit some contacts (meaning museums) in there somewhere......