"Always look on the bright side of life!"

So, on Friday I saw Spamalot, the musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The musical, as advertised, pretty much ripped off the movie completely, but after the boring, stuffy plays we've been forced to sit through, this riduculous Disneyfied and circus-like musical was just plain fun, fun, fun!

The Palace Theatre--Leister Square, London

Big, show stopping tunes lightened my mood considerably and the ridiculous antics on stage reminded me of something I’d see during a rowdy Vaudeville performance. It was entertaining to see the proud British ridicule their own romanticized history. However, the absolute best thing about Spamalot was the amount of audience participation. The ‘holy grail’ was actually hidden underneath one of the seats in the audience; on the day we saw the play it had been hidden beneath the chair of a boy who looked to be about 10 years old. King Arthur and his knights brought him up on stage, sang a song about him and made that little boy feel like a ‘king’ for a few moments. Everyone in the audience clapped and cheered for him; everyone was laughing and smiling.

Galahad (aka Dennis) and The Lady of the Lake in a Phantom of the Opera parody.

Everything having to do with West End/Broadway theatre was made fun of; the songs were hilarious. I particularly enyoy the Diva's Lament (Whatever happened to my part?), Find your Grail and I am not yet dead!

"He can finally come out and say that he is G-A-Y-M-C-A!" This was probably one of the funniest songs I have ever heard. I thought my ears would start bleeding I was laughing so hard.

Sir Robin and ensemble in the final act.

Spamalot ended with the cast leading the audience in one last rousing chorus of” Always look on the bright side of life!” complete with karaoke-style words projected at the top of the stage so no one would have an excuse for not singing!

Here's a video to give you a taste; Tim Curry plays King Arthur in the American version. The guy that plays Bradford Mead in the TV show "Ugly Betty" played King Arthur in the play I saw! How cool is that?

Sometimes life is like a day in "The Office."

My new favorite TV show! What's not to love about Jim and Pam? They're probably the most realistic, down to earth, true love couple on any show right now. Me and my roommate, Marika, are completely in love with Jim. He's the perfect guy, and cute to boot!

So anyway...

The other day a group of us skipped the first morning class to go out for a classic English treat--pasties! I hadn't had one yet and was dying to try one.Mmmm. They were so good; I got one filled with apple stuff and raisins. So, I'm sitting in class trying not to burn my tongue eating this huge pasty; even after blowing on it for half and hour the apple glue stuff inside was still lava hot! I decided to go for it and took a huge bite. While the bite was good and very apple-y, it caused the remaining apple filling to overflow onto my shirt.

How embarrassing...

Everyone was like, "Ewwwwww!" because the front of my shirt was covered in apple filling. I dashed to the bathroom where I stripped off my shirt and washed most of it in the sink. I came back into class with the entire front of my shirt wet. I displayed it to my roomie Marika and said very seriously, "I think I saved it."

She busted out laughing and we realized that whole scene was like something right out of the "The Office," and my line of "I think I saved it" was totally something Dwight would have said. Ah ha! We're still laughing about it.

Fact: I spilled dangerously hot pasty filling on my shirt.
Fact: Due to quick thinking I was able to save it.
Fact: There is no longer a stain on my shirt.
Question: Have I learned my lesson about eating pasties?

You tell me.

The other day, I was bored and decided to take pictures mimicing characters of "The Office." I think my hard work paid off...or "that's what she said!"

Dwight.

Pam-a-lama-ding-dong!

Kevin...

JIM!

Only 8 days to go...and so little time!

So, it’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog, and that’s mostly because I’ve been absolutely swamped with homework! I feel so overwhelmed, but with only 8 days to go until I fly home, I’m hoping I’ll be able to muster some sort of ‘oomph’ and finish the things I need to do. I'm still having to put up with my whore of a roommate. So annoying...
That said, I’ve still been trying to see some things before I go before I have to return to California. I’ve sliced this blog into four parts, each one concerning a brief summary of a fun little adventure I’ve had during the last week.

Part One: The importance of being earnest…and cute.

Last week we went to the Museum at the Docklands for a lesson about the slave and sugar trades in London. We took the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) out there and it was a pretty cool day.

Marika and I have become pretty good friends with the movie guy at the Blockbuster down the street from our flat. He’s very funny and we get a lot of laughs from talking about the differences between British and American lifestyles. He even drew me a lyger. It didn’t look anything like a lyger—more like dragon with wings coming out of its legs—but it was the effort of it I appreciated.

We finally found out his name is David, though he prefers ‘Dave’ or ‘Sly.’ Whatev, he’s still cool like that.

He’s taken off our late fees, which was awesome! I went to take movies back one time and spent the better part of an hour talking with him. He seemed really upset that I’d be leaving; I got the vibe he wanted to ask me out or something. I’m glad he didn’t; that’d be awkward. I mean, he’s nice and funny, but definitely not my type. =0

Anyway, he went on to say he really enjoyed our conversations. We exchanged emails, a parting hug, and I told him if he ever came to California I’d take him around and show him stuff. I’ll definitely miss him, even if he tried to get a little too friendly with me. =]

Part Two: Weaver?!

So, one of my best friends from junior high has shown up here in London. Apparently, she’s the cousin of one of the dudes across the hall, and she came over to visit him for about a week. It was so weird when I opened the door, saw Zach pointing to a girl standing beside him and I probably blinked a couple times (I’d just woken up) before I asked in a shocked and incredulous voice, “Weaver?”

Yes, it was Megan Weaver from Immanuel Junior High. Wow. I haven’t seen her in 7 years! And of all the places I would meet up with her again…London? I have sudden desire to start singing, “It’s a small world after all!”

The entrance to the Cheers Pub and Restaurant.

The street sign, obviously!

Tuesday night I went out with Zach, Chelsea, Megan, Josh and Quincy to the “Cheers” pub at Piccadilly Circus. The original plan was to go out for a drink or two and then head back (we’re all pretty tired by this point), but a short night out turned into taking a late night stroll through Chinatown and paying a midnight visit to the Tower Bridge. Unfortunately we didn't stop to grab a late night bite at the "Crispy Duck" take away place, which was a big let down. But it was a great time to reconnect with Megan. I was surprised to see she hadn’t changed that much and she filled me in on most of the old junior high people I’d forgotten about. Fun, fun!

Megan, me and Josh at the entrance of London's Chinatown.

Random street performer jumped into the picture!

Tower Bridge at night.

Part Three: The Natural History Museum

Tuesday after class, Marika, Josh and I hopped on the Tube, walked through the subway and made our way to the Natural History Museum.

This is what a 'subway' is in Britain.

Natural History Museum entrance.

This was definitely one the coolest museums I’ve been to on this trip. I love animal science, and it was so neat to walk through all the many animal exhibits. The big exhibit was about dinosaurs—I’ve never seen so many fossils in one place before! There were at least 12 complete dinosaur skeletons.

RAWR!

Cool shadow effect!

RAWR again!

Wow. Amazing! There was even this robotic (*cough* “real”) dinosaur that I got a video of. Most of this museum was geared more for a younger audience, so it was a nice change from all the pompous, intellectual places we’ve been.

What are we made of?

There was another interactive exhibit we walked through about human biology. This was definitely an exhibit you’d never see in America. Although it was geared towards kids, they definitely did not shy away from sexual things. There was one interactive exhibit which had a 3-D model of a human vagina and your job was to push various buttons to see how “successful” the traveling sperm was.
0_o Definitely awkward. I felt perverting looking at it! Hahahaha.

Is this what our brain are like inside?

What's your brain like: a leaky bucket, a computer, a sponge, a diary, a camera or a maze? I'm definately the maze. =]

There was another section about human birth, complete with an 8 foot tall baby. Ew! After reading and seeing those pictures, I’m seriously considering never having kids. =] Later there was a section about newborns and how they develop motor skills, hone their senses, etc. That was really neat. There was a section about optical illusions and one funny one about the menstruation cycle. I thought the title was funny.

I hope they were kidding, because the cycle is anything but beautifully balanced. Pffffft.

Interactive magic!

Funny mirror.

How many triangles do you see?

Having enough of the human body stuff, we moved on to the large living and extinct mammals exhibit. They had a life scale model of the Blue Whale, which definitely makes you feel small and powerless, and I got some awesome pictures of some elephants, camels and things.

Kitties!

Rikki Tikki Tavi!

E is for Elephant...

We quickly walked through the Fish exhibit and the gift shop before leaving the museum.

Creepy deep water fish.

This made me want to throw up.

Museum cafe.

I could definitely go back and spend a lot more time there; the entire building reminded me of the museum in the movie “Night at the Museum,” complete with the huge dinosaur displayed in the entrance hall! I wonder if everything comes to life at night…

Part Four: Hampstead Heath

Hello from Hampstead!

On Thursday, after meeting with Dr. Denbeste to go over Fathers and Sons, Josh and I hopped on the London Overground train traveling northeast to Hampstead, a nice little residential area on the outskirts of London. This was definitely a very poshposh place to live. The houses were beautiful and the streets were lined with Jaguars, BMW’s and Mercedes. Hamptead had a very Carmel-ish feel to it and I really enjoyed walking about and marveling at the rich people live.

Main Street!

My dream house!

The best part of Hampstead is the enormous park known as Hampstead Heath. The park is full of green lawns, soft sprigs of dogwood blossoms, ivy clad trees and lovely, winding paths. It was wonderful to walk around, pet the doggies and appreciate nature. I’m definitely beginning to understand the British people’s fascination and undying love affairs with all things green and growing.

Hampstead Heath

Josh hiding.

View from the top of the hill.

Interesting trees.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to lately, plus thte homework. Tonight I’m off to see Spamalot, the Monty Python musical. I’m so excited. I really don’t have any idea what it’s about, but I hope it’s funny. I could really use a good laugh.

Tah-tah!

Like a family...love, hugs and drama!

Fresno State London Semester 2008: The Group.

For some reason, I got stuck front and center. Oh well...yay for my blowy model hair!

Ah, Paris...

…such a beautiful and romantic place.

I’m so happy I was able to visit the city, even for a short while, but I’m beyond happy to be back in London. Marika and I found a great deal on the EuroStar train (which is very expensive to travel on) early in the semester, and booked our tickets through a company that also provided us a hotel, also at an extremely cheap fare. We were so happy telling everybody we’d books a train and hotel to France for only 76 pounds when everybody else was paying between 140 and 180 pounds on just the train ticket.

Day One

As it turned out, our EuroStar train departed from St. Pancreas International at the beautiful hour of 5:25 am. We needed to be at the station no later than 4:40am. This poses a problem, as the Underground and normal bus systems don’t work that early in the morning. There is a night bus system, but as Marika and I discovered in the wee hours of the morning (along with the drunks who kept trying to help us), is that the bus stops are irregular and often times a 20 minute wait is normal.

Marika and I hardly ever take the buses anywhere, so trying to figure things out was a nightmare. Running out of time fast, we hopped off the bus at Marble Arch and hailed a taxi that literally rocketed towards St. Pancreas. Crazy British drivers! We ran through the station like crazy and barely made our train. WHEW!

We arrived in very cold and rainy at Paris’ Gare du Nord Station around two hours later and were greeted by another problem. As we studied the Metro (subway) maps, and Overground train maps, we discovered that this hotel we’d reserved was not in Paris at all, but in a small town outside Paris. I began to panic because, like the Underground, Overground trains do not run 24 hours. Our return train left Paris at 8:07am. We had no idea how long it would take to reach our hotel, or of we could physically get to Gare du Nord in time to catch our return train. We made an executive decision and began hotel hunting down the roads around the station.

Unfortunately, being the weekend and EASTER weekend at that, nearly everywhere was booked solid. Luckily, we found a very large hotel about a 10 minute walk away from the station called Hotel Mercure. It sort of reminded me of a Holiday Inn or Best Western.

The lady at the front desk was very helpful and we gritted our teeth and booked a room for two nights. It cost us a whopping 155 Euros each. Ouch. But we were in a safe location, close to the train station and there was a free breakfast involved.

Hotel Lobby and Cafe.

By the time we booked our room, it was around 10am. We called Josh and Gurinder, who had arrived a day earlier and we planned to meet at the Eiffel Tower at 12 noon. After another helpful conversation with the Front Desk Lady, we hopped on the Number 48 bus and began to make our way to the Seine.

We got off the bus near the Palais Royale and the Louvre. It looked like a do-able, pleasant stroll along the river towards the Eiffel Tower.

This is one of my favorite pictures I took. The guy in the black coat was way cute. I was tempted to just follow him around. Haha!

Another shot of some buildings along the river. While it was pleasant and pretty and very Parisian-feeling, the walk was forever long and by the time we arrived at the tower, Marika and I were sore and tired.

We saw this Tube station on the way to the Eiffel Tower. I thought it looked like something out of a video game. =]

Walking along the Seine.

Then we finally arrived at the Eiffel Tower! Wow, it was so cool!

Whew! Finally made it!

It was a whole lot bigger than I’d expected it to be and at first I was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of it. Amazing! We spent the better part of three hours around the tour—taking pictures, walking in the gardens, etc. Marika and Josh decided to hike up the stairs to the first level of the tower; Gurinder and I decided to take a break and have a coffee.

It was really blow-y.

We had to walk quite a way to fit the whole thing into one photo frame.
We met up with Josh and Marika again and walked, yes walked, to the Arc de Triomphe.

Me and the Arc.

I like the girl on the left posing for me. I don't even know her. =D
On the outside the Arc looks average, but the inside is what makes that building incredible. Just the ceiling alone is worth lying on your back to study the patterns.

Inside architecture.

Another shot of the inside.

A very dramatic sculpture. It appealed to me.
There was an eternal flame lit for the unknown soldiers of the various wars and plaques dedicated to the servicemen. Also, did you know that you can climb up to the very top of the Arc? When we were walking up to it, Marika said, “Oh, look, there are people up there!” I answered, “No, Marika, those are pigeons.” Well, they actually were people, and I just have terrible eyesight. =]

...I still say they look like pigeons.

Later, we rode the tube up to see Le Moulin Rouge. I bought a Nutella and banana crepe from a vendor and it was probably one of the best things I've never tasted. Yum yum!

Around 6pm, we were all tired and decided to head back to the hotels for a break. We rode the Metro back and I must say the Paris Metro sucks compared to the London Underground. Josh said he liked the Paris layout better, but the London Tube does not have any graffiti, potty smells or trash. AND the British people wear deodorant, which is wonderful.

I collapsed when we got back to the hotel. I have never been so sore in my life. Even after walking half of Italy, I had never gotten as sore as I was that day. My hip joints ached so bad I couldn’t walk normally, so I had to physically think to move my leg out to walk. Josh and Gurinder came by later and said they wanted to go back to see the Eiffel Tower at night because it lights up and sparkles. At that point, nothing in the world could have gotten me out of bed—not even a sparking Eiffel Tower. So Josh, Marika and Gurinder left, leaving me blissfully content in my little bed.

Really, really tired.

Day Two

Streets around the Louvre.

The next morning we slept through our alarms and got a late start. Saturday was Louvre day and that was an experience. We probably waited an hour just to get into the museum, but we got to go inside the big, glass pyramid for that, and so it was nice. The Louvre was Disneyland crazy and crowded!

In the courtyard...

I'm a pyramid!

Inside the Pyramid. It's way big!

It’s really hard to be introspective and appreciative of a piece of art when someone’s jostling you out of the way to take a picture, so the four of us just decided to see the ‘highlights’ of the museum—the winged Niche, Cupid and Psyche, Venus de Milo, La Jaconde (Mona Lisa) and the Raft of the Medusa.

Down a hallway.

The Winged Niche. This has always been one of my favorite pieces of Roman sculpture; I was so excited to see it!

Inside the Roman Antiquities Gallery.

Definately wished I had wings on my shoes at this point.

Josh being...well, Josh.

I wish I could have ceilings like this...

"Damn cell phone! I can't get a signal in here!"

This pair actually looked real...it's amazing how sculptors can make something so alive.

The timeless Venus de Milo. She's a lot bigger than I'd expected. She really is extremely beautiful.

The Grande Gallery.

If you look closely, you can see the reflections of me and Josh in the mirror. =]

This was a picture I took while going down a staircase...it sort of reminded me of something you'd see in Beauty and the Beast.

The floor of the Italian Painters Gallery.

You couldn’t even get close to Mona! You would think Brad Pitt or Steven Spielberg had just walked into the room, what with the way people were shouting and pushing and trying to get a picture. Wow.

All the peeps!

More crowds!

After emerging bruised from the Louvre, we ate lunch at a café across the street called Rastignac’s. Supposedly, the café was where Cyrano de Bergerac ate lunchies or something. I got a chicken and mushroom quiche and it was delicious!

On the way to the cathedrale: a Metro station and flower vendors.

We walked along the river again to see Notre Dame. The line to go inside was ridiculously long—it was Easter weekend after all!—so we opted that just touching the old stones would be good enough for us. And we took more pictures.

Notre Dame and Me.

Touching the old stones...

Across the street from the cathedrale.

Some of the sculptures one the exterior freizes.

By this point, Marika and I were so tired that we headed back to the hotel for a nap…

...but not before finding this awesome two story carousel!

Our quick nap turned into a very long nap…which turned into us not meeting up with Josh and Gurinder again and having dinner by ourselves at the café across the street from our hotel around 8pm. It seemed like we were the only customers there eating, but I think the waiter liked us (because we’re cute), so I felt a little special. =) I had a Croque Madame, which is a ham sandwich with toasted cheese and a sunny side egg on top. It hit the spot just right and we hung out there talking and drinking our gourmet coffees until around 10pm.

For some reason, all the TV channels in our room were in French, which got really annoying. Haha! Actually, the one channel that Marika and I found really entertaining was some German music channel. It was all about bright colors, spunky sounds, 90’s music and weird outfits. It was great. These people even had the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” song on their Top Ten List. And all the songs were in English, too. American artists are still big over here, but more of the older ones like Seal, the Spice Girls and the like.

We also saw some clips from the German American Idol—the contestants were singing American songs in English, not German. Their accents were…ridiculously good. Weird. Marika and I were like “WTF?!” All the hosts were really obnoxious, especially this one girl whose hair looked so stressed that I was afraid she’d turned her head too fast and all her hair would come flying out. Tee hee! But hands down, our favorite host was Ross Lieblingshits. Yes folks, that was his name! Ross Lie-Bling-Shits. I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a girlfriend.

So that's where my Activia went. =)

Ready to head back to London!

Then this morning we came back to London. We met Grant and his visiting family at the Paris Station and I was like, “Huh? I didn’t…what is he…I’m confused.” Anyhoo, now I’m sitting in my flat, cozy and looking out the window at little flurries is snow. Now, I think I’m going to go made some tea...or take a nap.

Au revior, mes amies!