Whoa, it's RECAP time

Boy, I have gotten lax in blogging lately. Maybe because less has been going on, or its all beginning to seem normal and un-blog-worthy now. I will, however, try to recapture some of the fun of the past month or so, and not complain about losing my wallet even once (maybe once).

As I put up a couple of posts ago, when Sinead came to visit we went to a "Glow" themed party, where we had to wear neon things. Here are some more pictures from that night, just because they're so colorful and great:

Sinead hard at work after arriving at 11pm from France. I watched.

Lookin' good!

When we walked in the door and got ushered into the bathroom so Natalie and James could do our make-up, Sinead was ready with the camera to capture James and I arguing about which shade of blues and pinks should go where.

Then Sinead jumped right in and helped Natalie and I paint Jen's pants.

Sinead also made fast friends with Rupert and Ellie- two of the coolest Brits!

But no one is cooler than Carl, winner of Best Costume, not to mention Best Accent and Best Overall Brit when Cassandra and I are in charge.

Look at those tights! Cassandra (far-right) and I with our hosts, Rhiannon and Lauren.

Okay, moving on. After Sinead's visit and St. Patrick's Day (I told you about that, right?), things settled down a bit. Well, more than a bit. The weather turned atrocious for the rest of March, and all of England seemed to hide indoors. One minute it would be sunny and 70 and you'd be venturing outside and then next second the clouds would roll in and you'd get pelted with hail. Literally, look:

Okay, well its not big hail. But it was sunny outside TWO MINTUES before I took this picture, which is why I was in shock and ran to the window with my camera.

Next up was Easter, which was mildly depressing since I was so far away from family (and... since my wallet was stolen the day before). But Cassandra and I made the best of it, and she took me out to Brunch and then we went to Mass and then I feasted on chocolate. The weirdest thing about the day was that no one in England even noticed it was Easter. Sure, we got off school for a week, but honestly, half the kids didn't go home, and just slep till 2 like normal on Easter Sunday and then went to the Hayfield at night. Brunch was almost all Americans, and Church was 1/3 full with no singing, no sign of peace, no one even saying Amen. Besides the huge Cadbury Eggs in the windows at Marks and Spencer, you would never have known it was Easter Sunday.

The week after Easter was fun though, as it brought about the annual Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race. It's been going on for something like 150 years, and the score is roughly Cambridge 79, Oxford 73. Each year the losing team has to send an invitation to the previous winner for a rematch, and so it keeps going. It's a huge event, and students, alumni, and everyone else in London comes out to watch. Even if its pouring out.

We picked the halfway point in the course to go and watch. It was like 15 people deep to get to a place where you could see the river.

The first order of business was buying the official drink of the race- Pimms- from the official bar of the race-- a boat house.

Best pub in London.

Next order was to find shelter. Under a bridge. And warmth, from the Pimms.

All of our taller friends (umm... everyone?) scooted in front of me, but I reached up and managed to take this little shot of the 2-inch part of river we could see. And we were actually in a pretty good position, relatively.

Here they come! All of the boats here are actually just part of the fanfare, but the real ones were coming fast!

And there's the tip of one now! Can't tell whether its Oxford or Cambridge, but everyone was shouting Go Oxford! So we did, too. Look across the river at the crowds there, too.

As soon as the boats pass, everyone makes a hasty retreat to the pub to watch the finish on the big screen. And to drink more Pimms.

Oxford by a mile!! At least we were rooting for the right team. The whole race takes about 18 minutes, and I was freezing just watching it that long. I have no idea how those guys do it.

Emptying out of the pub and celebrating that Oxford won!

The week after that piped up a bit, as the weather broke and it hit 75. The final week of lectures came out of nowhere, and kids wore shorts to their final classes and talked about summer plans. It really could have been June for all I knew. The week brought about some serious work for everybody though, as all of our term papers were due by Friday (we then have a three week break, and then a six-week exam period.... tough life). Since almost all of the kids we hang out with our freshmen English majors, they (and I) had major Shakespeare essays due. So it was a sunny, happy week with everyone putting off work until Thursday night and then killing themselves to get papers done-- just like at home!

Unfortunately, that wasn't all that happened. As I was rushing to finish my essays Friday morning, Cassandra called me and, laughing, told me she was in the hospital. THE HOSPITAL! After my papers and last class were done, I headed over to see her. She was just chilling with some 90 year old women in the ward near the OR, but she looked pretty sick. Turns out she had borderline appendicitis, and almost went in for surgery. She had to stay over night, and Mrs. Stabbert flew here first thing Saturday. I was glad to see the hospital and doctors seemed good, and that in case of emergency, things wouldn't be too bad. Poor Cassandra, though, she was supposed to leave for Stockholm and Oslo Saturday morning, but had to cancel the trip.

As for me, Saturday night meant a big theater night out. My friend Will got four 5-pound tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company, so I went with him, our other friend Tom, and their other friend (girl whose name I can't remember) to get dinner and go see Henry IV Part 2. It was fantastic. I've only been to undergraduate and graduate performances of Shakespeare; I've never seen it done professionally. It was really astounding. The play was part of a cycle of the history plays, and when the cycle first debuted in Stratford (Shakespeare's hometown) Judy Dench and Ian McEllan starred. Our performance had different actors, but still cool! Then we went out for one of the British kid's birthdays. Here's a pic of Tom, Will, and me that I'm putting up so you can see who they are. They're meeting Sinead and I in two cities on our big travels, so now you can see the riff-raff I'm hanging out with.

On the left is Will, from Miami, goes to Cornell, is living in NYC this summer, and in the middle on the top photo is Tom, from LA and goes to BC.

Unfortunately, I woke up on Sunday morning and, hearing a lot of voices for early on a weekend, looked out my window and found this:

That's right. 74 and sunny on Friday, snow on Sunday. The Brits were so ridiculously excited. Snow! Snowmen! Ahhh!!

And last but not least, last week I got the super VIP treatment and got to take a tour of Parliament. I'm telling you, not just anyone can do this. They screen you to make sure you're really good looking. Yeah.... or, alternatively, you can have a friend named Henry who interned there for the semester and had his security badge for one more week. Either way, I got to take a tour of Parliament! Like, where Big Ben and the Prime Minister are! Look!

The lobby of Poritculis House, where all the Members of Parliament have their offices, and where you enter to take a secret tunnel under the street and into Parliament itself.

This picture is from inside the courtyard of Parliament looking towards the Big Ben part. Over behind that yellow car, the part of the building that is taller than the rest, that's Big Ben.

You can't take many pictures inside Parliament, but I snapped this one because it's where Winston Churchill lay in-state and that's everything from morbid to creepy to cool.

As close as you can get, pretty much!

From the very inside looking out to the rest of the world. When you regular tourists walk by Parliament from the outside, you look in and see this courtyard and walkway. I WAS IN IT.

Like I said, you can't snap many photos when you're actually inside. But we got to go into the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Every Wednesday, the Prime Minister comes to the House of Commons for Questions, and everyone stands and yells and boos and they all are completely ludicrous and inappropriate and great. You can sometimes catch this on C-SPAN at home (I'm not telling you how I know that). Anyway, I got to sit in on all of that, though the yelling and harassing was to a lesser degree because it was a Thursday and Gordy Brown wasn't around. Its also important to note that Parliament has VERY GOOD FOOD, and for a very affordable price.

So that's been my life lately! Some fun stuff, some regular stuff, some not fun stuff (hail & homework, mainly). But now the term is asbolutely finished. Most British kids are home for what they call the holidays, but really is just our break. Most Americans are already off travelling. So campus is quiet and I've been off adventuring through London and seeing the really obscure things still left on my list to do. I bought my first souvenirs the other day-- a mounted picture of the Brick Lane road sign and another one of a Banksy painting. Two things that really were my favorite discoveries and parts of London life. I got them at the Brick Lane Sunday market, which it took me this long to get to, but I absolutely love love loved. If Notting Hill Market was Disney World, Brick Lane Market was Studio 54 in its heyday. But, well, more sober, because it was daytime and all. But seriously so cool- I had Ethiopian and Brazilian food for lunch, with Japanese green tea to finish it off. And saw some realllly cool tshirts I'm going to have barter with someone to get for cheap. Okay, I'm rambling.

Anyway, I'm really just killing time until MOM AND DAD COME FRIDAY, which, clearly, I'm really excited about. I feel like I've been waiting FOREVER for them to come, and wandering around the city going "ooh I can't wait to show them THAT" and now its finally time! So then it's London and Paris with the folks, and back here for two days to say a quick hi to the British kids (they'll be back by then) and then off on world travels with Sinead. Something like five cities in two weeks, and meeting up with 5+ other friends on the way. Study abroad is pretty sweet like that. And then, finally, back here to... well... to finish up? I guess? And my expected date of departure is May 20. So, I'll either update again soon, or see you again soon! Cheerio!