The next day was a professional development day meaning no "school," so I was able to work on lesson plans and homework. Then Jenn picked up all of the OSU student teachers and took us to her house to get ready to go out in Cambridge. Our friend Corey who is a 2nd grade teacher for Feltwell invited us and some other friends to his house to cook out and then go out afterwards. And when I say house..I mean PENTHOUSE SUITE. Goodness gracious his place was amazing. Here are some pictures from that night.
LuLu, Micaela, me, Corey, Kim, Kali, and Joey
It was an extremely fun night. Maybe too much fun. I think we have all decided we are too old to be living/partying like college kids anymore (which is sad because most of our ages range from 21-24). We left on Saturday around noon for London, taking the train into Kings Cross. It was then a small journey to our hotel to put our bags down and a take a quick nap. We then made it out to shop around for a few hours before heading to a Mexican restaurant to eat. I was surprised at how yummy it was, although they did describe the queso as "Texan cheese sauce." Silly british people. Afterwards we headed straight to the hotel to succumb to exhaustion.
On Saturday, Kali, Kim and Micaela went to Oxford to support Kali running the Oxford half marathon so Erin and I stayed and explored more of London! We "slept in" til 9 and then left by 10 to take the tube to Baker Street. 
We made our first stop at a official Beatles store that contained lots of merchandise and cool Beatles-y things. 
Right next door was the Sherlock Holmes museum so of course we had to go! I love Sherlock Holmes..the movies..the BBC show Sherlock is incredible..the books..just in general. The museum was set up to be like the house Sherlock and Watson lived in..each floor was set up as different rooms with various things that would they would be known for. At the top floor there were life size wax characters from his books, including Watson, Sherlock, and Irene Adler. 
After the Sherlock Museum, Erin convinced me to try Indian food for the first time. I'm always open to try new food, but Indian food has always intimidated me. However, Erin and the owner of the restaurant gently guided me into the world of Indian food..and made me a believer. It was all delicious and the perfect amount of spice for me. I had a small quail and some various vegetables, and shared some of Erin's scrumptious food.
We then spent most of the afternoon shopping and popping in out of interesting shops. We went to this humongous, fantastic store called Liberty that we both fell in love with. It was 4 large stories of almost everything you can think of. A chocolate store, perfumery, stationary, scarves and accessories were on the first floor. The second floor was all designer clothes..including vintage designer clothing!!! I was touching Prada, Chanel, The Row, Alexander McQueen and more..I couldn't believe it. (I kinda felt like Carrie Bradshaw). The third floor was all things Christmas, including trees, ornaments, advent calendars, and cards. The fourth floor was furniture (kitchen, living, dining), bathroom stuff like scrubs, candles, lotions, and carpets and fabrics. I would go back to that store in a heartbeat..absolutely fabulous. While I wanted everything in the store..I settled for some cards to send to loved ones back home. After coming down from that cloud 9 experience, we made a quick stop for Argentinian ice cream and then popped into the national gallery in Trafalgar Square before meeting up with the other girls. Once we joined them, we grabbed some italian food and strolled over to look at China town. We took one more look at Trafalgar Square as the other girls hadn't been over there, and then made the trek back to our hotel to crash after the long, amazing day.
On the last day, we started bright and early to see as much as we could before seeing Wicked that night. We made it to the London Tower (which most people think is the London Bridge..its not. The London Bridge is actually a normal, average looking, concrete bridge. The London Tower is the large, impressive brick bridge with blues and turquoise railing). We toured the inside and learned some interesting facts and saw the engine/boiler rooms. Pretty cool stuff.
After the London Tower we made the very long, roundabout, scenic walk to Shakespeare's Globe. I think Micaela's gps had it out for us..it took us the longest way possible. Kali and I decided not to go in as it cost a pretty pence and I was hungrier for food rather than prose and poetry. Its actually not Shakespeare's original globe either..the first globe burned down when Shakespeare (in all of his brilliance) wanted to try and shoot a cannon in one of his plays.. and one of the blanks caught the thatch roof on fire (good going!) This globe was designed by another gentleman who died before even seeing his creation completed. Ah well, here it is.
We grabbed a yummy lunch at Pizza Express (which sounds bad and fast foodish..but its actually amazing) and headed to see Kensington Palace. This was also a long, roundabout journey (again, I blame the gps). We somehow ended up taking a back alley that led us to the street that has all of the Embassies on it. I doubt we were supposed to be there, but it was cool to see each country's embassy! We then made it to Diana's Memorial Park (I think), which then led us to Kensington Palace. I'm not sure what we were expecting..maybe something very grand and elegant like Buckingham Palace, but we were surprised when we finally found it.
I mean its beautiful, just different than expected.
A little history lesson: In 1689 King William III and Queen Mary II bought a large house on the edge of London and had it renovated to be their house (Kensington Palace). The Palace is divided into two, the historic state apartments which we visited, and the private part where some of the Royal Family live (William and Kate!) We saw The Queen's apartments and closet (where Queen Victoria, Queen Anne, and Queen Mary II lived) and the King's state apartments (including drawing rooms). Lots of history and beautiful artifacts.
We were also lucky enough to see the new exhibit that opened this summer featuring dresses worn by more recent royals such as HM The Queen, Princess Margaret, and Diana, Princess of Wales. 
Princess Margaret in the 60s
Princess Di in the 80s
the stage (from our seats)
Yes, I'm cheesing pretty hard..I was just so excited
HM The Queen in the 50s
I loved this exhibit. So interesting and personal. After this tour of the palace, we had to jet off to get our bags from the hotel and get to the theatre in time for WICKED. This was my favorite part of the day, nay, the whole weekend. Now I loved musicals before. You can ask my family, I'll watch Newsies, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, White Christmas, Phantom, Les Mis, you name it I'll probably watched it 100 times. But there is nothing..NOTHING like seeing a musical on stage. You might as well have opened Pandora's Box when I saw Wicked because now I can't get enough of them. The soundtrack has been on repeat in all of our rooms since Monday night. The seats were great..pretty close to the stage. Micaela said she actors having british accents in their speaking and singing bothered her a little..but it didn't bother me in the slightest. I just can't emphasize how fantastic it was.
The play started at 7:30 and ended at 10:30. We made it back to the tube to get to Kings Cross and then had to take a train to Cambridge, only to be picked up by a cab to take us to the Filton. We didn't get back to our dorm til 2 am.. and we still had school the next day. Oh but it was worth it!!
I also forgot to mention that I bought this children's book at the London Tower to use in my future classrooms. And as a memento of the places I've been. I may try and add my own pictures to the places I have been in this book.
For example:
Hey! I've been there!!
Well I apologize for the long post..but I had to go into detail about this amazing weekend. Please continue to send your love to this happy hearted teacher. I've been lucky enough to not get very homesick, but I sure do miss the little things every once in a while. Like being able to call up my mom or dad anytime I want, pop over to Jordan's or my friends houses to hang out, Homecoming at OSU (with walk-arounds, the orange fountain, tailgating), etc. But I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.
Always love love love
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