LOVE LONDON Weekend

This weekend was a "Love London" weekend that is put on by SU London. There were a bunch of activities for all different interests, including a football game (...aka soccer...), Harry Potter walk, and beachcombing by the Thames. Thursday night I went to the Philharmonia Orchestra to hear some Berlioz and Tchaikovsky, which was great. Our seats were interesting - the "choir" section behind the orchestra (guess that's why it was free....) but the interesting part was that we could see the conductors face.. something kind of unusual but very entertaining. Friday we were supposed to go to Windsor Castle but accidently missed the bus.... whoops. No worries though, Jenni and I walking around some of the Royal Parks and checked out Buckingham Palace - which doesn't really look like the palace. We didn't even know we were looking at it at first - looks like any building in Washington DC. But still cool. We also brought along our cameras for our photo class so we got some good shots. The royal parks are beautiful, we walked through James Park and Hyde Park and saw lots of birds. Not only do they have weird trees in england, but they have a variety of birds I've never seen. Also the squirrels are very friendly - we saw on more than one occasion people feeding them off their hand! Later on we went to a local pub with friends, O'Neills. 

Saturday morning I signed up for a bike tour with Jenni (if you haven't gathered by this point she's one of my roommates...) which was very cold, but really fun. There were about 30 of us and we were led on a tour around London by a guy named Gunter. We went through Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, through Chinatown (which was disastrous - it's the Chinese new year), through Leicester Square, past Westminster Abbey and along the Thames. Pretty scary though at parts - we had to bike along the main roads, even over a bridge, while riding on the left hand side. Crazy! As the buses went by you could practically feel them passing you. 

After the bike tour I came home and got ready quick for the ballet, then headed over to a friends flat for a pasta dinner. We went to the Royal Opera House and saw three smaller ballets in one show - Seven Deadly Sins, Carmen, and "Danse a grande vitesse". I hated the first one - too theatrical and I not much dancing, but the second one was humorous and was very modern. I saw a lot of variations of moves Ive done in class so I could follow it. The last one was probably the best, it had more classical routes but also had a different twist. The costumes, lighting, and set were really cool and the dancers were so good! Very well worth 10 pounds. After, a bunch of girls and I went to a gelato place in Leicester square, which was really good.

Sunday I got up early and worked on a group project for one of my design classes before heading to Cirque du Soleil, Quidam at the Royal Albert Hall. The theater was really cool - round with a circular stage that could rotate. We were high up but had a good view. The show was amazing - indescribable, with a combination of dance, singing/music, and acrobatics. Some of the performers had to be under age 10. Very cool though, would love to see another Cirque again sometime. After that worked more on the group project, though I have to say - fitting in school is very inconvenient when there are so many more interesting things to do than sit in front of a computer! No worries though, we had a snow day today so we didn't have to present anyway! We also just got an email that class might be cancelled tomorrow too. 

Big news - just booked flights to Rome and Florence for March 27-29! Not that expensive either so that's good. We are also trying to plan Greece for spring break and then signing up for an adventure weekend in Wales that includes sea kayaking, mountain biking and hiking. 

Found out a new way to post pictures -- wait for it...