Days 65- 71: Wicked Witches and Magic Wands

Monday- Tuesday:

I think this was the first time that "getting back into the groove of things" wasn't as nice. After all my other trips, I had a kind of yearning to return to the London house and see everyone and jump back into "school" but after Switzerland I definitely had a sense of longing for home and a complete lack of desire to go to class or do any sort of work. So, naturally, when all of our assignments were, well, assigned, this new mentality wasn't the most helpful. Regardless of such, I managed to comprehend the massive amount of papers that were due (we finally were given work- craziness. It's like we're in school or something...) and go on with the day, finishing up with group dinner, gym between classes, and some hanging out. Tuesday was met with a little bit of sleeping in, a trip to the gym, purchase of a few apples (because I have absolutely no food in this house and really need to run to the market and buy some), convo, a museum visit, an early trip to Byron's for dinner before Wicked! Yes, a large group of us decided to see the amazing musical, and although I saw it with my family a few years earlier it was still absolutely fantastic to see again. I can't wait to get a few more shows in next semester!

Wednesday:
Wednesday was probably my most productive day this year. Of course, that's not saying much considering the fact that I rarely have any sort of work to do... but let's make it sound like it's an accomplishment. Again, class, gym, more class, and then a veto on group dinner since I've been to Beirut Express a few too many times this semester. Instead, I made a delicious dinner of... well, scrounging around and eating whatever food I could find. I'm pretty sure it ended up being something along the lines of an English muffin, an apple, and some almonds. Right... maybe I should have gone to group dinner. Oh well. Dinner was followed by that large bout of productivity I mentioned earlier. Earlier in the week, we were given most of our final assignments. For me, that meant a paper/quick presentation comparing and contrasting a medieval piece of art with a renaissance piece of artwork, some intense questions on the movie Paradise Now, a 1500 word write up on an artist of choice (within the given eras of study) and a piece by him/her, a 1000 word write-up on an art exhibition we've seen this year (I chose the Grace Kelly one), and a project in which we choose an art piece and make a presentation on how it was inspired by religion or politics. So, Wednesday night, I sat down and decided to just get everything done and finished with so I would only have to worry about my finals come the last week of classes. And, I actually accomplished such a feat! I'm kind of excited about this factor- it wasn't even that painful writing on everything, especially considering many of the papers were based on topics of choice, so I had some interest invested in the pieces I was writing on. Anyhow, got all that work done, finished rather late, but I finished!

Thursday:

Thursday I got to go riding in Hyde Park once again with Carrie. And it was a lovely day! Rainy in the morning, but the sun was out by the time we began our walk over to the stables. I swear, we've had such good luck with our riding days. Anyhow, once I got to the stables I was assigned my favorite horse in the barn- Zack, once again, who is normally ridden by the trainer. Yes, I did feel special being given the trainer's horse. What can I say? Anyhow, Carrie and I were allowed o go off on our own once again and trotted and cantered the trails of Hyde Park. I swear, it's still kind of surreal... I can't believe I'm doing all these amazing things this semester! I've definitely done more in the last 2.5 months of my life than in the past 2.5 years. After riding, I got back to the house, took a small break, hit the gym, then relaxed in the house until a few of us decided to go back to the Rocket. We were only there for a bit until the Lausanne kids arrived, and so we left the Rocket and met up with them at their hostel. It was kind of cool seeing a bunch of people (that I normally meet up with in other places, such as Paris of Barcelona) in my own home city! We ran around for a bit that night, showed them the London house, and then retired for the evening.

Friday:

Harry Potter with my Twin!

Friday I got to sleep in for a bit, until some of the Lausanne kids appeared at the London house and I was assigned a your guide position. So, I took them through Piccadily Circus and the more touristy areas (which are really quite a fantastic sight to see) before we headed off to the Odeon theater for Harry Potter! Yes, Harry Potter in London... such a fantastic thing. It was great standing in front of the theater and seeing the crazy amounts of people from different programs that arrived. I got to see so many friends that I haven't seen since I left Pepperdine last April! And the movie itself was absolutely wonderful! All in all? A fantastic experience!

After the movie, some of the groups split up to do a few museum visits. Considering that I visit museums on a weekly basis, I headed back to the house and got in my gym visit. When the Lausanne kids arrived at the house again, I took a group of them our to dinner, which ended up just being a random trip our where people bought food from a variety of places (the pub was way too crowded to get our large group in for Fish and Chips). After this, we met up with the rest of the group in the park, where they'd been hanging out for quite a while already. So, the groups split again as group 1 decided to head off to a bar and the group I'd taken out wanted to chill in the park for a bit more. We hung out here for a while before we headed out to meet the other group at Freud's. Here we split off again, me going home with a few people (and losing my scarf. So irritated that this happened... I swear, how does a scarf fall off without me noticing?!). Apparently the rest of the group did some massive bar-hopping and didn't get back til about 4 in the morning. Honestly? Woo, way too late for me after all the moving around we'd been doing the past two days.

Saturday- Sunday:
We started off this day on a slower manner, considering the late hour that so many people got in. After watching a movie and enjoying the raining morning, some more of the Lausanne people came back and wanted to grab fish and chips and go to Camden. So, why not? Kalie and I got back into tour guide mode and took them to the Black Cap before exploring Camden for a small amount of time. After this, the Lausanne kids broke off to go to their play and Kalie and I returned to the house. We hung out here for a bit, watched a Christmas movie and got giddily excited for Christmas (regardless of the fact that it hasn't even been Thanksgiving yet), and then hung out with the Lausanne kids when they came back from their play. At this point it was already around 11:30, so I stayed and hung out in the kitchen with Nick and enjoyed the most fantastic pasta that he made for a very late dinner while Kalie went back out with some of the Lausanne kids. They all returned and partook in the consuming of Nick's pasta (seriously... that kid knows how to cook), we enjoyed some conversation, before they all left to go back to their hostel. After saying our goodbyes, I decided to crash out.

It was a weird sleep... Kalie came in like an hour later, then some random chick popped in way too early in the morning. I think she must have been a DG from the way she and Kalie were conversing... lots of excitement for such an early hour. We both crashed back out after the girl left and didn't end up waking up until WAY later than normal. After I finally pulled myself out of bed, I grabbed some lunch, headed to the gym, edited my middle east paper, watched the movie 21, did laundry, hung out in the kitchen and helped Nick while he prepared this amazing chicken piccata for a few of us hungry kids, then headed back upstairs to finish off my movie while waiting for a Breaking Bad session with Craig. All in all? A pretty awesome day, and definitely a nice way to finish off the weekend!