2 weeks feels like 2 months

Have I really only been here for two weeks? Time is moving so slowly - I’m not complaining, but it still blows my mind that UO hasn’t started school yet or that I was in Portland two weeks ago. London is starting to feel like my city; like a home and not just a destination I’m touring for three months.

Lots to report on, and we all know I like telling stories, so I will try to share just the highlights.

Last Saturday I went on a major walk with two friends. We hit up Soho for lunch and walked along Oxford Street, which is a major shopping destination, ending up in Hyde Park.

We wandered along the edge of the park to Green Park and then, boom, Buckingham Palace emerged.

 

We walked through St. James Park to get to the river, and walked through the Thames Festival to cross Westminster Bridge and see Houses of Parliament and hear Big Ben strike 5:00.

You can’t be that close to Westminster Abbey and not stop by, so we ended our trek there, chilling on the steps and watching two different wedding parties take photos in the wind (thanks, Hurricanes Irene and Katia).

Sunday, I went to the local church and we sang my all time favorite hymn. I spent the evening at the Thames Festival where I made a poor choice of food cart and watched the weirdest, least cohesive, most brightly-lit parade that I have ever seen.

Wednesday, my London Bio class climbed 311 steps to the top of The Monument to see our beautiful city.

Wednesday and Thursday evenings we went to Shakespeare’s Globe to see the most amazing theatre productions I have ever seen. Wednesday night we saw “Much Ado About Nothing” as “groundlings” who stand on the floor like the lower classes of Shakespeare’s day.

It was amazing. Seriously hilarious and incredibly well acted. The butler from “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” was in it, as well as some other lesser-known film and tv actors, but I didn’t even realize that until afterwards, I was just so enthralled; the actors played with the audience and looked like they were having so much fun. Julia’s London travel tip #1: it’s only £5 to be a groundling and it’s so worth it; unless you have a super tall person in front of you (see that super tall guy in the photo above...yeah) the people standing have the best seats in the house and it’s so fun and engaging that you forget you’ve been standing for four hours.

Thursday night I managed to get an extra ticket to go with the theatre class to see Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus” and again, it was just so good. This time we sat, so I could watch the actors and the audience (I’ve been people watching like none other on this trip.)

Also happening: my internship, discovering an awesome food market, and generally forgetting to do schoolwork (don’t worry mom, we just don’t have any to do). Things are super busy, but I do like being busy, so it’s suiting me just fine. xo