Coming Home

Finals are over and now it's just three day's until home!

Andrea just sent me this link to the song Coming Home by John Legend "It's by John and it talks about going home...needless to say, it touches the soul"

I love Granada more than anything, but although Paul Childs once said "Home is where we are" I have to politely disagree.

But now it's time to celebrate! Maybe the construction men outside my window (they've been banging there for 2 weeks now) would like to join me for a little celebratory drink.

I have also come to the conclusion that converting my money will be such a pain and I will ultimately loose money by changing it to dollars. Therefore I have devised a plan to solve this problem: time to go shopping

Parting Ways

On the last day in London, Tyler Sarah and I bought tickets to go see Wicked at the Victoria Theater. Of course it was raining, so before we headed to the play, we stopped in the National Portrait Gallery to avoid the bad weather.

A small precursor if you will...

My sister and I grew up learning about art and artists of all kinds; my mom would convince us to go to the Met or MoMA by playing games and scavenger hunts in the museums. But one artist we knew better than anyone else was Monet. My sister had the water lilies strewn across the walls of her room, and I played with the pop up books of his home in France.

I had no idea what art was in the National Portrait Museum, but needless to say, when I stumbled upon this painting, I started to cry

I think it's time to go home.

But first! Wicked!

By far one of the BEST plays I have ever seen! Now I have "Defying Gravity" on repeat; Carmen and Alejandra probably think I am crazy.

So goodbye London! Don't worry, I know we'll see each other again soon.

The Downside to Being a Tourist

So we decided to go see the Changing of the Guards, like every other tourist, and thought it would be a good idea to arrive a little over an hour early to make sure we had a nice spot to see all that is "the changing". Well it turns out, everyone had the same idea, and it was practically standard to arrive at least an hour early.

The amount of people that showed up was absurd. And I'm almost certain 50% of them had no idea what was going on, because they could not speak English. Normally I do not hold this against people, but when a police officer tells you to move you should not take that as :

- move back and up into MY grill

-walk away and return when the police officer is not looking, and assume he won't recognize you

- stare blankly

And may I just say kudos to the British Police Force. Never have I heard a police officer say please and thank you every time he asked someone to do something. So classy. So not New York City...

So a word to the wise, if you want to see the changing of the guards, may I suggest befriending the Queen to get prime seating. Otherwise, you are on your own. And here's a video of what you might get if you follow in our footsteps... (UGH messed up the video. The first portion is out tour guide Paul an our trip to Stratford -upon- Avon. Feel free to fast forward)

La La London

While in London, I managed to see the usual tourist sites. It was only fair...

Trafalgar Square

National Portrait Museum

A useful reminder

Hello Mr. Ben

Parliament

London Eye

A view from the top

Westminster Abbey

Changing of the Guards

Stonehenge

Bath and Stratford -upon- Avon

Bath

Home to Jane Austin and Gainsborough

Stratford -upon- Avon

Home of Shakespeare (left)

Notting Hill

Portobello Market