From Summer to Fall

Waking up Wednesday felt like waking up to a perfect summer morning.  The entire day turned out to be absolutely gorgeous, which made going to class all the more difficult.  Despite our wishing to be outside all day, we spent our afternoon being studious and working.  Finals are only two weeks away and this coming week is full of presentations, papers and studying for both of us...joy!  Even with all of our looming due dates, we still had to at least make the most of our night, so while Lauren met up with Katie, I joined our friends Ashley and Maggie and saw Les Mis.  We lucked out with student rush tickets again, and got amazing seats in the front stalls for about a quarter of their regular price!  I don't know if they do this on Broadway and I just don't know about it, but this whole student system is absolutely amazing, we feel like we have the theater world at our fingertips!  Now I'll be honest, I wasn't dying to see Les Mis; I had always heard that it was amazing, but the whole French Revolution thing just didn't do it for me.  After seeing it, I can completely see why people love it so much; it is so moving and the music is spectacular.  I enjoyed how the entire show was sung, I had never seen anything like it before but it made it a lot for interesting.  Although I was wishing the Nick Jonas was still playing one of the male leads (missed him by just a few weeks, shucks), all the performers were amazing and had incredible voices.  All in all, I was so glad I got to see it; it is truly a classic!
Since seeing a couple shows so far, we've noticed a couple differences between West End and Broadway shows.  Best difference: they sell the small cartons of Haagen Dazs ice cream at intermission...genius.  I got a chocolate one and it was probably the best ice cream I've ever had.  And the best part is, pretty much everyone in the theater gets one, so you don't feel bad being the only person with a plastic spoon in their hands.  Worst difference:  no programs!!  We are people who loves to read thoroughly through every cast bio and show synopsis, but here you have to pay 3 pounds to do that!  So needless to say we're missing our playbills.  Despite the differences, whether it's Broadway or West End, we love love love seeing shows!

-------------

The weather outside our window Thursday morning was pretty much the opposite of what we had seen the previous day: dark and soggy.  Welcome to London.  It had to happen at some point, but we were just hoping to put it off as long as possible.  At least it made sitting in Harrington Gardens for four hours a little cozier, until of course you realize that this is the one morning you forget to bring an umbrella to class...love life.  Anyways, we had our last classes of the week before heading back to Courtfield in the pouring rain.  Lauren and I enjoyed lunch together until it somewhat stopped raining.  Later in the afternoon, Lauren went to a BC tea (jealous!) for all the school's students studying abroad at a hotel downtown.  While she was there, I decided to go out and explore a little bit.  Since the rain could start again at any moment, I stayed pretty close, walking over to Knightsbridge and down Sloane Street.  I walked by the Cadogan, and into Sloane Square, checking out Peter Jones, another quintessential London department store.  By the time I had made my way through the store, though, my feet were killing me, so I hopped on the tube back to Gloucester.  After reuniting with Lauren back in our room, we made a light dinner and chatted with one of our friends who had been to Oktoberfest last weekend.  A bunch of our friends are there now, and apparently it's quite the event; we wanted to go but prices were just so ridiculous, and we would rather spend it on other things (aka food and clothing) :)  After dinner, we went to O'Neil's, a pub/club downtown, for a short bit until we came back to Courtfield to call it a night.  Despite the rain, we ended up having a fun, relaxing day.  Unfortunately, it looks like this weather is here to stay for a while, but we'll hope for some sunshine soon!
    xo Carolyn