“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

Today was a day of trying to see just a few last things before leaving. And we were successful. First, we had our closing program at King's College, where we received our letters of congratulations for completing our courses and all that stuff. So we are official alumni of King's. Pretty awesome. Afterward, we headed to this place for lunch, like I said we would:

I had steak pie. It was incredibly delicious.

And, they had Sherlock photos and fan art decorating the walls:

The food was delicious, and the atmosphere was lovely. And then, of course, had to take a photo outside the door.

So that was a success. Been meaning to get there this whole time, and I finally made it. This afternoon, I went to Portobello one last time, did some final shopping, and got a large jelly donut. Good decisions. Then, we headed here:

More Sherlock photo opportunities.

It was exactly like it is in the show, it was fantastic.

This evening, I spent almost an hour in our garden. I've been putting off packing. I guess you could say I'm in denial. So here's where I'm going to get kind of sappy, just wanted to give you fair warning. I've successfully avoided this type of thing this whole week, but it has to be said. Here goes.
These past three weeks have been positively surreal. I have loved my time in this beautiful city, and this beautiful country. I didn't know that it would be this hard to say goodbye. I am incredibly excited to get back and see all of you back in the States, that's the great part of it all. But the sad part is that, with that, I have to leave this place that has been my home for the past three weeks. It's been all too long and all too short. Long, because I feel like I have been here for a long time, I'm not a tourist anymore (despite some of my photos), but, at the same time, the time has gone by at lightning speed. That probably doesn't make sense, but it makes sense in my head, so we'll go with it. I never thought that I could feel this much at home and this level of confidence in a country other than my own. This has been such an incredible adventure. And I am grateful for the sadness about leaving, because that means that I truly got everything I could out of this experience, and had a fantastic time. I'm going to miss many, many things about this city, and this country. But, if I didn't have to say goodbye, I don't think I would appreciate its full value. The above quote is from Winnie the Pooh, and I think that it pretty much sums it all up.This has been the experience of a lifetime, and I am so grateful that I got to have it. Grateful to all my family and friends who supported me in multiple ways to help me have this grand adventure. Grateful for my time here, and all the wonderful friends I have made.

In addition, I am incredibly pumped and excited to see all of you. I really am. Please don't mistake my sadness at leaving London as sadness for coming back to you all. The thought of seeing you guys makes me incredibly happy (like, Pharrell Williams happy). And, I will want to tell you all about my adventures, and you'll soon want me to shut up. When that happens, just drop me a subtle hint and I'll stop.
So, I think this is my last post. Thank you to all of you who have stuck with me these past 26 installments of my daily life. I enjoyed keeping you all up to date, and I hope you enjoyed reading. I'm afraid this all seems rather anticlimactic but the truth is, I don't really know how to leave off. There's someone who always knows the right thing to say:
"Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow."

Soaking up the City

Well, one more day to go. But I'm not going to talk about that right now. Today was great! I woke up early and finished formatting and proofreading my paper, and then I submitted it. So I am completely finished with my class. Then, I went on a solo tour of London this morning, mostly in search of book benches. But, as I was only a few steps from this place, I couldn't resist.

I wanted to get food there, but I had just eaten breakfast. And I figured I would be returning with the rest of my Sherlockian friends. Which is what we will be doing tomorrow for lunch. Anyway, book benches. I had a lovely time wandering around London. I had originally planned on finding quite a few, but then I ended up just settling for two. The Importance of Being Earnest:

And, Sherlock Holmes:

I also found the Pride and Prejudice one, but someone was sitting on it. Rude. But I saw it, so that's all that counts.
Then I went and walked around down by the Thames:

And I still had time before my class, so I went to Caffe Nero and got this:

Every time I walk past this place, there's a sign outside advertising the Coconut Chocolate Frappe Creme, and it's always so tantalizing. So today, I got one. Heaven on earth. Probably a good thing that I only just tried it for the first time today, because otherwise I would have been spending money on them this whole time!

We had our final class, which was weird, it all went by really fast. Anyway, so, after class, we attended a film premier. My first film premier. It was for Guardians of the Galaxy:

There were quite a few famous people, it was pretty awesome!! Most importantly, we saw Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt (Emmet from The Lego Movie), both who are actually in the movie. And, since it's a Marvel film, they had one of the Avengers there. Thor. Chris Hemsworth. It was pretty amazing. I didn't get a good picture, but my friend Katie got one that's not too bad:

Mark Hamill was also there, probably because of it's being a space/sci-fi movie. And a bunch of other movie stars. But those were really the notable ones.

And that was that. I came back and spent some time in the garden, and here I am writing this now. It's been quite the eventful day, quite a nice day. Only a couple more posts on here. Night night!!!

Perfect Nonsense

It is currently 36 minutes after midnight here, and I am sitting here eating chocolate biscuits. I have worked on my Jane Austen paper probably a total of 5 1/2 hours today. And it's almost finished. Still have to do a final proofread, and double check my citations. I may do that after writing this post, or I may heed the call of my pillow and proofread tomorrow. At the moment, it could go either way.

Anyway, today was a fantastic day, despite the hours of slaving away on this paper. That was basically my morning. This afternoon, for class, we visited Sir John Soanes' house, that has been turned into a museum. Now, John Soanes was the architect who designed St. Paul's Cathedral, and the original Bank of England, and quite a few other things that are no longer in existence. His house was basically a lot of his experimenting with different designs and styles, so you end up having Rococo and Gothic styles in the same room sometimes. He also collected countless artifacts and art pieces, so his house was literally chock-full of interesting things, such as a genuine Egyptian sarcophagus. The whole place reminded me very much of Nana and Papa's house. It was fantastic. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but here's a picture of the outside, but it doesn't really give much of an idea of what's inside:

Afterward, we went to the nearby Royal College of Surgeons Museum, which was absolutely amazing. It's basically a lot of jars with various old medical and zoological specimens, everything from a diseased kidney to a walrus fetus. It was pretty great, but most of our group found it pretty gross too. Thankfully I'm not squeamish.

And, this evening, I attended my third theater performance. Jeeves and Wooster: Perfect Nonsense at the Duke of Yorke's Theater near Trafalgar Square:

It was fantastic, everything that I had hoped it would be. My cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing pretty much the entire time. British humor at its very best. One of the things I'm definitely going to miss is the theater experiences here. People attend live theater here in London like we would go to the movie theater in the States. There are countless shows to choose from every day, with reasonably priced tickets, and small theaters that make any seat an incredible experience. And the acting is of the very highest quality. I love it.
I returned from the theater, and have been working on my essay ever since. It has been quite a lovely day, really, despite so much school work. Tomorrow is the last day of classes, which is shocking and hard to believe. To be honest, I'd really like to not believe it. But there it is, all good things have to end. I'm just going to savor these next two days, and get as much out of them as I can.

Greenwich and the Thames

This morning was spent mostly working on my essay, and it is slow work, let me tell you. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but, unfortunately, none of the essay topics provided by my tutor appealed to me. So I chose the one that was the least-uninteresting to me. Still not exactly what I want to write about, but not terrible either. It's coming along fairly well now, still have a good ways to go. I would be a bit easier in my mind if I knew what to expect on the grading end, because I have no idea. But, I think it will be alright. I have faith in Jane Austen.

On the more fun and interesting side of things, we had our ISA "Farewell Dinner" today (the title is sad, I just ignore the "farewell" part). We took a boat on the Thames down to Greenwich. The weather was absolutely beautiful.

The Thames is just about the same color as the Mississippi River. Some people were surprised, apparently that's not how most rivers look. But it's pretty typical for me.
In Greenwich, we got the opportunity to see the Royal Navy College, which also happens to be an important filming location for Thor 2, where it kind of gets destroyed.

 Then, we went to a lovely Mediterranean restaurant, where we had, among other things, baklava, which was, of course, delicious:

Afterward, we walked up to the Royal Observatory, where the view is amazing:

And, of course, the Prime Meridian is a thing:

We also saw the Cutty Sark, the famous tea clipper:

And we returned to our flat, and I've been working on my essay ever since. Which is why this whole post may be a bit scattered and incoherent; my brain is threatening to shut down as I type. I think it's because it's summer, and my brain thinks that I shouldn't be doing school work. False. I will be finishing this paper tomorrow morning, whether my brain likes it or not. I actually just bought a ticket to see Jeeves and Wooster: Perfect Nonsense at the Duke of Yorke's theater tomorrow evening, so that will provide a good incentive for the successful termination of this essay.

Also, as today was our final ISA event, I wanted to say a few words about this organization. International Studies Abroad, is what ISA stands for, in case you didn't realize, or in case I already told you and forgot that I told you, and you forgot that that is what I told you. Anyway, they have been incredible. Before I left for London, they had already sent me extensive and complete information on what to expect, what to pack, what the experience will be like, etc. So I felt pretty well prepared for whatever was going to happen. Upon reaching London, they showed us how to function as non-tourists. For example, they told us which side of the escalator to stand on, and which side to walk up, in the Tube. This may seem unimportant, but it can really save a lot of trouble, and having a lot of people angry and impatient at you. Standing on the left side? Big no-no. You leave the left side clear so people who are in a hurry can walk up the escalator. Other students who didn't come through ISA were not so well-prepared, as we saw when we went on excursions for our class. ISA also showed us how to buy and top up our Oyster cards to ride the Tube. Where to get groceries. The quickest way to get to class. And tons of other things. Plus, they took us on incredible adventures in and outside London. Truly invaluable. I am so thankful that I chose to study abroad through them, because they have really contributed towards making it all so memorable.

And that's all I have for today. My contacts are making my eyes angry, so I think I'm going to head to bed. A prayer or two towards the success of my essay wouldn't go amiss. I am determined to finish it tomorrow morning. It shall be done. Night night!!

A quick update before settling down to work

Today was Monday. Which meant back to class. It's still kind of weird going to class in the middle of the summer, but it's not bad, especially since it's a subject I thoroughly enjoy. And, after class, I got a picture with this philosopher guy. He lives in the foyer of King's College.

And after class, we finally took those typical, must-have London photos. Such as, Big Ben:

And Big Ben and Parliament and Audrey (and random people in the background-ignore them):

And that was about it for today. I'm afraid this post is super short, mostly because I have to get to writing my essay, I'm sure you'll understand. School is school, after all, and grades are grades, even when you're living in London and it's July. Tomorrow, we have our "farewell dinner" with ISA, which should be fantastic. Ta ta until then!!

Audrey, Sherlock Holmes, and Cider

And when I say Audrey, I mean, of course, St. Audrey. Not me Audrey. That would be pretentious. Anyway, Jessi and I attended Mass at St. Etheldreda's Church today, hence my mentioning St. Audrey.

And the inside:

 As you can see, it was beautiful. And it was beautiful getting the opportunity to attend Mass in the church of my patron saint on my birthday. Easily the experience of a lifetime. And this is easily my favorite of the churches I have been to during my stay here.
After Mass, we came back to the flat and walked around Portobello Market. I feel like I probably talk about that every day, because we go there pretty much every day. They've got everything there, and the atmosphere is fantastic. Today, we got waffles. For lunch. Birthday waffles:

This afternoon, we all (Jessi, Meredith, Kelli, and I) went somewhere I've been wanting to go, well, pretty much my whole life. Since I was around 9 years old, anyway, when I started reading the stories. 221B Baker Street. Also known as, the residence of Sherlock Holmes. Currently being used as the Sherlock Holmes Museum. We waited about an hour and a half, but it was completely worth it! The Baker St. Tube station was even awesome:

And I got an awkward picture with the policeman-who-wasn't-really-a-policeman standing outside the museum. I felt like the ultimate tourist, especially with the deerstalker, but no matter:

 The inside was fantastic. The place was actually a lease building during the late 19th century, so it is a legitimate representation of where Sherlock Holmes would have lived. If he'd been a real person, that is. They had the rooms set up with such precise detail, taking everything given in the texts, the sitting room, and Sherlock Holmes' room. And upstairs they had set up different scenes from the stories, like "The Speckled Band", "The Hound of the Baskervilles", and quite a few others. I was basically living the dream walking through that place. It was great!
After that, we were hungry, and it was time for supper, so we found a lovely pub near our flat, called The Castle. I had Fish and Chips, and my first official alcoholic drink at a pub/bar. They carded me. The legal drinking age in Britain is 18 years. Thank God that, in my old age, I still have my youthful looks. I had a hard cider, and it was quite delicious:

And, the actual meal:

I think this was probably the best Fish and Chips I've had thus far, crispier and more flavorful than the others I have had.

And then, later this evening, I had a lovely talk with the Fam- specifically Mom, Daddy, and Jimmy. Trudy was there too, but she didn't have anything to say. She was too distracted with worrying about missing her dinner, and/or trying to get it as early as possible. But really, getting to talk to them was another addition to an already fantastic day. They are the best.

And this has been my 21st birthday. Completely different from any other one I've ever had, but incredible nonetheless. Thanks to my amazing family and friends, and the awesome new friends that I've made while here in London! God is very good!

"England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself..."

I am currently in a state of unreality. Just a couple hours ago, I saw Richard III. (That's where the quote is from, by the way.) With Martin Freeman. I still can't believe it. I got out of the theater and traveled the Tube home in a daze. Thankfully, I came to my senses enough to switch lines and get off at my stop. It was incredible. Incredible. Utterly transfixing. All the acting was superbly arresting. I came in not knowing much about the story of Richard III, and I was on the edge of my seat for quite a lot of the play. Exciting, startling, frightening, funny, even. I was sitting on the stage. In the front row. Photos weren't allowed, but I couldn't resist just one.

You might think, "That looks nothing like the set of a Shakespeare play." This one was set in the mid 1970's, hence the scenery. I thought it fit rather well. But my seat? Incredible. On the stage, it was like I was part of it, I was so close. There was a lot of blood, but none got on me, so that's probably good, especially considering I was wearing a sweater borrowed from Marya.
Here's the ticket:

Getting to the theater was super interesting. There was some kind of protest against Israel going on today, and wouldn't you know, the march started at 1pm, and went right in front of Trafalgar Studios. Didn't prove to be too much of a problem, though, just wove through the crowd to get to the other side of the street. But this is Trafalgar Studios, taken after the play, when the protesters were gone:

And, of course, the poster. Which I bought a (smaller) copy of. Plus a program. All to immortalize this great event of my life.

And, earlier, while I was making my detour around the protest:

Happiness.

And there's something special about tomorrow, I just can't seem to remember what it is. It'll come to me. Eventually.

Oh right! It's somebody's birthday! Whose birthday? Well, mine, of course. My 21st birthday. The next time I write in this blog, I will be 21. No big deal. Until then, cheers!

A quiet(er) day and a few words on dogs...

Only two pictures today, I'm afraid, and both of food. Thought I'd give you fair warning. But that doesn't mean today was uneventful, not at all. Today was the the first free day we've had, no class, no planned excursions, so it was kind of a nice change. There were also only two of us here at the flat today; my friend Meredith and I. Our other two flatmates were both gone, one for the entire weekend visiting relatives, and the other just for today on a trip to Paris. So we went and walked around Portobello Market this morning. That place is wonderful, so many things to see, so many stands with food, clothes, antiques, you name it. I love just wandering around. And it's literally a block from where we live. This afternoon, we took the Tube to Camden Market, which is another market, quirkier than Portobello. I think I prefer Portobello, but Camden was an interesting place to be. And all these food places have extensive displays in the windows, so it's always tempting walking down the street. We took a few steps past one bakery, stopped, looked at each other, and immediately turned around and went in. They had so many things, it was hard to decide! But, I did decide (finally); this cheese, potato, and onion pie, which was completely delicious:

And this, which they called a "Truffle", but I don't know about that. The rest of it is sitting in the refrigerator right now. I haven't made up my mind about it yet. It's chocolate, but it's got raisins in it. And you know how I feel about raisins cooked in things. Anyway, I'll probably give it another try later this evening:

So I'm currently attempting to get some work done on my 3,000 word essay that I have to write for my class. That wasn't working so well this evening. So I went for a run. Didn't get lost, so that was an accomplishment, I thought. And then I spent some quiet time in our garden. I think I'm going to try and do that every evening. It's a great place to sit quietly and think, or meditate, or pray, or just enjoy the smell of the roses and the quiet. I love it.

This is slightly out of place, but I have been wanting to say a few words on British dogs. Which is important, I think, as someone who has spent extensive amounts of time around these creatures in the past, and as England seems to be a hub for dogs and dog-lovers. There are dogs everywhere. Everywhere. Now, there are lots of dogs at home. But American dogs are completely different from British dogs. First of all, the breeds here are very different than what I'd see at Petco everyday. Very few of these fluffy little shih-tzu/designer fluffball things. Lots of terriers, which is an automatic plus in my book. Terriers are one of the best types of dogs, in my opinion. They have brains, which is helpful. Large terriers, small terriers, smooth-coated, wire-haired, purebreds, mutts I've seen veritable herds of them around here (literal herds, I saw a guy walking 5 dogs the other day). The second important point about British canines. They are very typically British. Meaning, they are polite, keep to themselves, and comport themselves in an admirable manner. Many people walk their dogs without leashes around here. The dogs will sit outside the supermarket while their owners shop. When they are on leashes, there is none of this pulling and choking business. Well, for the most part; there are a few belonging to a particular German hound breed that I have seen that don't follow this pattern. But that is to be expected of them, as you well know. So that is my short dissertation on the Dogs of Britain. I am well pleased with them, and with their owners.

And that is all for today, I'm going to go work on my essay now, and hopefully make some headway with it. Thank you for staying with me on this adventure, you all are in my thoughts and prayers!! Ta ta for now!!

Not only about Jane Austen

Today, we went to Bath, on the train. I have decided that travelling by train through England is one of the most delightful forms of transportation. We arrived at Bath and had an extensive tour that included pretty much the entire perimeter. We saw the Royal Crescent, and toured through the Number 1 house, which was pretty much the fanciest residence in its day. We also saw this Church:

This is where Jane Austen's parents were married, and her father is buried here, and we saw his grave. This is also the church where William Wilberforce married Barbara Spooner.

Afterward these Austen-significant locations, the class went our separate ways, and we had lunch at a lovely pub:

I had sausages and mash again, so delicious. And, we chose a table at random, and when we looked up, there she was:

Jane Austen herself joined us for lunch. Bath also has some wonderful shopping opportunities, which we took full advantage of. I treated myself to a P.G. Wodehouse book, and it's one I haven't read, which is even better! We also went to Marks & Spencer, which is a fancy department store, but also a supermarket. They were selling four jelly donuts for one pound. I've always stayed away from jelly donuts, I don't know why. So I got some today. My life is changed. They were amazing.

We also saw this bridge in Bath:

Look familiar? This was one of the filming locations for Les Miserables. Russell Crowe jumped off this bridge. Pretty awesome.

Today was also sweltering hot, if you're going by British standards. Mid-eighties. So not very hot by Missouri standards. But, very few places here have air-conditioning, so it was a bit warm, particularly on the train home. But, it was beautiful and sunny, so it was worth it.

And that's that. I'm afraid I've been rather brief (although that's probably a relief for those of you reading this), but I figured it would balance out with the novels I've been writing on here these past few days. Love you all!! Cheers, and all that!

Also, almost forgot, very important:

Beware the Ides of- well, you know

It is currently 11:25 pm here, and 5:25 pm at home. The whole time difference thing still throws me off. Anyway, just got back from the Globe. But I'll get to that soon enough. Must begin at the beginning, which would be this morning. Except not much happened. We did go browsing in the shops and stands in Portobello Market, which was very fun. The fashion here is very Audrey, so that's always nice. Then we had class, of course, and today we gave our oral presentations. Usually, I do quite a bit of practice and preparation for speeches and such, this time, well, that didn't happen. But, I think it went really well. It was supposed to be at least 5 minutes long, and those of you who know about my speeches for my Communications class this past semester know only too well that this would be no problem for me. I actually finished, feeling like it was rather short, in fact, shorter than 5 minutes. But lo and behold, 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Typical Audrey. Once you give me the floor I am loathe to give it up. And I do have a video of the presentation, it's just a little rough because my head is basically cut off (would've been appropriate if I were speaking about Henry VIII, but not so much William Wilberforce). So if anyone has a burning desire to see it/ hear it, I can post it here later. Anyway, so first Uni assignment completed!

But, most importantly, today we went to Shakespeare's Globe theater to see a performance of Julius Caesar. However, first, we had to summon all our London smarts to reach our destination. Basically, we got to the Tube station, got on the Tube, and then had to get right back off, they were closing it down for maintenance. So, we had to find an alternate route to the place where we were meeting everyone to go to the play. We figured out which station we needed to get to, and how to get there, speed-walked the entire way, worrying we were going to be late and they would leave with out us. Got there 20 minutes early. Needless to say, we were pretty proud of our achievement. Anyway, tangent over. The Globe:

We had floor tickets, which meant that we stood for about 3 hours straight. But it was SO worth it!! We were so close, it was like we were really part of it! And the acting? I couldn't believe how incredibly talented each and every one of the cast was. And being so close made it that much better! It also meant that we got splattered with stage blood when they killed (the innocent) Cinna the Poet, thinking he was Cinna the political figure. Pretty awesome. Probably the best theater experience I've ever had.

And here's the outside:

Also, super exciting, I found out that my camera has somewhere around 20 different settings, which means I can now take awesome night photos, museum photos, and pretty much everything else. Took me three years, but I am now ready to usher in a new era of better photos! Also, St. Paul's Cathedral at night, from across the Thames:

While we were walking past St. Paul's, I was idly humming "Feed the Birds", one of the best songs ever. And then, a couple steps ahead, I saw this!

The Mary Poppins book bench!!

So that was today! Shakespeare in London! And tomorrow? Off to Bath, to spend more time with Jane Austen! But for now? Shower and bed. Night night!

So Many People!!

Today, we were supposed to visit Dr. Johnson's House in London, with our Jane Austen class. He was Jane Austen's favorite author. Anyway, although we boarded the Tube on time, some kind of weird time warp thing happened and we ended up getting to our meeting point late, and the class had already left without us. Sad. But, we had two hours until our actual class, so we decided to go to the British Museum. Which ended up being a bit farther away from campus than we had originally thought. So, as it turned out, we had about half and hour to spend in this enormous museum completely packed with people:

And the number of people in this photo is very small compared to how many people were actually there. Still, Kelli and I succeeded in seeing some of the most important things. The Rosetta Stone, for instance:

And this guy from Easter Island. Didn't ask me for any gum, though, which was slightly disappointing. I even had a pack of gum in my bag:

So, the British Museum in half and hour. I thought we did rather well, considering the amount of people there. It really is a gorgeous place, I feel like we didn't do it justice with our time constraint. I'd like to go back sometime and spend all day wandering around, it's chock-full of awesome artifacts. But, had to get to class. On the way back, though, I found the Agatha Christie book bench! Illustrated from a story I actually have never read (I know, shocking, right?), because it was part of a manuscript that was only recently discovered. Greenshaw's Folly, it's called. I need to pick up a copy of it. Someone was sitting on the bench, so I had the get a picture with the back of it. In the upper left corner you can see the James Bond bench as well. Pretty cool stuff.

After class, we headed to Oxford Street, which has tons of stores for shopping. It, also was absolutely packed. It reminded me of being at the Plaza in Kansas City, only about 5 times as many people. It was a lot of fun, though, and we got some good deals. They also had a Disney store, where we saw the queen!

Well, more like Minnie Mouse dressed like the queen. Still pretty awesome, in my opinion. I also had an impromptu karaoke session because they were playing the Frozen soundtrack and I, of course, know all the words to pretty much every song. It was great.
Tomorrow is my oral presentation, which is finished, for the most part? There's a question mark because I still need to run through it and see how long it takes me. Also tomorrow, ISA is taking us to see Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the Globe!! Which will be awesome!! Hope you are all doing well! Cheers until tomorrow!!