Well, I always manage to find and be surprised by new things every single day here in London. Today was full of many more of these! We had class in the morning and then were given a bit of time to go out and about to cause mischief. I went to the Coronet theatre and bought my ticket to see The Dark Knight Rises. They had tickets for only £3 for next monday. Though it will be hard to wait a bit longer to see that movie, I am excited that we get to see it for so cheap! A bunch of us will be going and shall make a party out of it!
The group got back together so that we could go out to see the Kew Gardens. Britain has a National Garden (but lack a National Bird), the Kew Gardens. It's over 300 acres of land with so many different kinds of plants to be seen. For a garden there weren't that many flowers, but it was still very beautiful. I decided that I wanted to explore them by myself, and I spent most of the two hours we were given wandering about. I found a bench underneath a giant tree and sat down and read Persuasion. It was amazing, and I got some of my assigned reading done! I didn't take too many pictures because I really just felt that so often the pictures can't even compare with actually being there. Plus as I was all alone there wasn't a way to take them with me in them either. I really enjoyed having some quiet time to myself and being able to explore such a cool place. I found a giant greenhouse, a walkway that went up above the trees, a pagoda, a lily pond and lots of other things. For being such a big place, I still managed to run into some of the people from the group a few times. I was sad to leave after only having been there for a few hours, but I think even if I had a whole day I wouldn't have been able to explore everything offered there.
On the way back to the centre I stopped by a bookstore and could not stop myself from buying a Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials compilation (the Golden Compass trilogy). I haven't been buying many souvenirs, but have been making up for it in books. Shocker, I know. We had dinner at the center which was Indian food tonight with some delicious chocolate cheesecake for dessert. SO MUCH GOODNESS! Have I mentioned that the chocolate is amazing here? Because it is.
In the evening I went with Lauren, Valerie and Celeste to see Antigone at the National Theatre. We bought tickets to the show a few months ago because Christopher Eccleston, an actor who portrayed the Doctor in Doctor Who, was in the show. The theatre was massive and so cool! The stage was huge and didn't have a curtain, but would turn to create scene changes, similar to Les Miserables. I was not actually familiar with the story of Antigone and I actually really liked the show. It was really well done and had great actors! It even had the actor that portrayed Dean Thomas from Harry Potter in it. After the show we went to the stage door and met Christopher Eccleston as he came out to leave. He was in a bit of a rush so he wouldn't take photos with us, but he signed our programs! He was very nice about it all and it was SO COOL! We waited a bit longer to see if more of the cast would come out and while we were waiting a lady in her 40's approached us and started talking our ears off. She is apparently a huge fan of Christopher Eccleston and has come to see his show several times just to see him afterwards. She was very.....peculiar. She told us about her knitting blog and asked for our emails so that we could be her friend (we dodged that one by asking for her blog address). Before leaving us, after talking for about twenty minutes, she said she was a hugger. She hugged the girls, but when she came to me she said, "But the boy gets something special" and totally came in for a kiss on my mouth! I turned my face as fast a possible but still got smooched on the cheek. It was........odd. Very odd. The girls thought it was hysterical though.
On our way back we stopped by a carnival. They had rides, a freak show and anything else you could ever want at a creepy carnival. We didn't have time to do anything tonight, but there was a ride that Lauren really wanted to go on, so we may be back. We crossed the bridge as we made our way back to our Tube station to go home and I just had to stop and stare across the waters of the Thames for a bit. We were right by the London Eye, Big Ben and Parliament. Sometimes, as weird as it sounds, I have to remind myself that I am really in London. We keep so busy and do so many things that I don't know if I really take it all in. As I sat there on the bridge looking out I felt such a peace come and I was just so content and happy to be there. It was a beautiful sight, another that I wanted to capture, but I knew that a photo couldn't do it justice. We eventually made our way back to the center though.
And thus ends another day from across the pond. Just wanted to finish by wishing Leisl a very happy birthday. We were able to FaceTime a bit in which I sang her a song! Happy Birthday friend!
The large greenhouse at Kew Gardens.
The bench where I read.
Self taken photo. Reading. Yeah.....
Walking across the treetops with Abby.
Treetops.
Pagoda.
My ticket and program to Antigone. Christopher Eccleston signed his photo!!!
Glad you got a little bit of time to yourself to read . . . and in a beautiful spot. I know that's you're favorite thing to do. And luck followed you again right to the stage door of Mr. Eccleston. Pretty amazing! Kayla is very jealous of your Dr. Who experiences. I'm so glad that every day is wonderful for you! Is it okay, though, to say that I miss you terribly!???
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