of art, shakespeare, and crossing the street

So crossing the street here is really hard, and I am not joking. I will turn my head to the opposite way I need to be looking and so I am met with honking horns and swerving cars. Hopefully I will get it down soon so that I make it back to the states alive...

We saw "Children's Hour" with all of these famous people in it (I don't feel like listing them). It was an awesome production. But it was kind of funny because their American accents were not very good, especially Keira Knightley's. She would slip in and out of it and it messed with her acting. But when you're Keira Knightley, I guess those things don't matter as much. Even though there were all these famous people in the cast, the best part of the show was the woman who played Mary. Supposedly she is 26, but she was totally convincing as little girl. We waited at the stage door to get autographs and stuff. Keira Knightley ended up writing half her autograph on my King Lear book, whoops...

We did some sight seeing, and I am not going to talk about that, because everyone has been a tourist and knows how those things go. I've been trying to cook, and it is hard living on your own and buying all your own food. So far I have cooked chicken, pasta, and frittatas. Things have gone well so far, I guess. Here are some pics!

 chicken with rice and beans in garlic

veggie and cheese frittata!

this is a really terrible pic of Keira Knightley, but it's the best I've got!

We've just started classes this week. My art history class is great! We go to museums and sit down in front of paintings and discuss them, fabulous! Shakespeare is Shakespeare and so therefore it is awesome. My voice teacher is really cool and I think she really knows her stuff. That's all I feel like writing and I don't feel like making it fancy because I am tired and want to go to bed. So, goodnight!

Chapter 1: Welcome to Europe, Loser

I could feel real adventure at the tips of my fingers. Finally, I would be free from my very predictable life. Finally, maybe I could have adventures like the ones I had read about in so many novels. I watched the sun rise from the plane window over England, and call me a cheese ball, but I had tears in my eyes. Here was the place where so many of my favorite characters had lived and adventured: Elizabeth Bennet, the Pevensie children, Ransom, and of course Harry Potter himself:)

When the plane landed, the first thing that I noticed was the silence. As we got off the plane, a hush settled over all the passengers. As we waited in line for customs, there was no music playing, there were no ads playing on TV screens, no announcements on loudspeakers, no shouting or calling out. If this was the European way, my distinctive giggle and I were not going to fit in...
Ally and I made our way to the tube station and got on the Piccadilly line. The train quickly filled with passengers, mostly people on their way to work. People crammed into every possible available space on the train. Ally and I could no longer stand next to each other as they continued to file in. As we neared our stop, Ally mouthed to me, "Next stop". I thought she meant South Kensington, which was a stop after Gloucester, which we were approaching. When we reached Gloucester, she began to get off and I realized that sadly, she did not mean South Kensington. But it was too late. 
"Excuse me!" I shouted, but no one was moving out of the way. 
"Sorry, the doors are closing," someone replied, half heartedly. But the doors were totally not closing! Even though, by the time he had finished saying that they were, of course, closing. As I watched the doors slide close, I thought to myself, "Welcome to Europe..."
So there I was, in a foreign country for the first time, alone, and without a cell phone. I stayed on the train for one more stop, and then tried to go back to see if Ally was waiting for me. As I reached the other side of the platform, I saw a man with a purple bag try to squeeze into the train at the last minute. Unfortunately, he was a little too late and the train was a little too full. His arm was caught in the door, the purple bag dangling from his wrist. Also caught in the door, was his nose. The man winced, and I tried to look away to save him from further embarrassment, but I was riveted. He managed to squeeze his nose from out of the door, and tried to act as if it were perfectly normal to have your arm wedged between two doors, your purple briefcase gently swinging side to side on your wrist. I gave him a knowing look and continued my search for Ally, who I did not find. I even had her name announced on the loud speakers, but she did not show up. I decided to continue to the hotel and hope she was there.
The first thing I saw when I stepped out of the train station was a KFC and a Starbucks, not exactly what I expected on my first visit out of the U.S. I tried to cross the street and quickly jumped back to the side walk as a cab swerved right in front of me. The cars were driving on the wrong side of the road, the stoplights did not make sense, and there were no street signs where they were supposed to be. I eventually figured out how to make it across and continued on with my suitcases and backpack toward the hotel. I did not realize that the street signs were placed on the sides of buildings, rather than on poles, so I ended up missing my street. I walked all the way to Harrods and back (which is quite away!) before I finally found my street. I dragged my bags up the stairs and inside, panting and sweating, just as Ally was coming down to look for me. Finally, I made it!

We took a nap and then began exploring the city. We ended up walking quite a way and I was completely exhausted. On our way back, we were stopped by a volunteer for the red cross. His name was Anthony. When he realized that Ally and I were only visitors, he still continued to talk to us. He told me I reminded him of Solange, which seems a little far fetched to me..."See you later, Solange!" He called out as we left. Weird, but Ally and I both agreed that we had never been hit on in a more pleasant way.
That night, we both woke up in the night around 2am, hello jet lag! We ended up eating nectarines and listening to David Sedaris before we finally fell asleep again.
The next day, we continued sightseeing. We had a traditional english breakfast at a pub which was pretty good. You pretty much take a bunch of stuff and put it on toast. 

 We saw Marble Arch, Piccadilly Circus, and Buckingham Palace. For lunch, we stopped in Shepherds Market. We had a delicious three course meal for only ten pounds. We began with a soup, I'm not sure what exactly was in it (shame on me:( ) but it was good!

Then we had a lamb hot pie, which was pretty much just shepherds pie. It was amazing! You know that part in Julie and Julia, where Julie says, "Is there anything better than butter? Think it over, any time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say 'what's in this?' the answer is always going to be butter." There was this extra something in the pie, something that just made it that much more delicious, and that something was butter.

We finished with a blackberry and apple crumble. That special butter element was in this too, and it was to die for! Even though I burned my mouth a few times trying to scarf it down too quickly, ouch!

While we enjoyed the food, we also enjoyed the view as well. There were so many well dressed guys there! We were both stunned. We had never seen so many good looking, well dressed, people of the male persuasion at one time!
The next day, we moved into our quad. It's beautiful--large windows, high ceilings, new furniture, and our very own bathroom! or I guess WC as the Brits say...definitely don't want to come back to LU after all this;) 
Later, we were doing some shopping on High Street. There is the best store ever called Argos. You pick the items you wish to purchase out of a catalog and then you tell the clerk and then the items just appear on this conveyor belt and you take them. The best part is that everything is unbelievably cheap! We got a hair dryer for 3.97, my kind of place:) As we were walking back, who should we see but our mate from the red cross Anthony! "It's Solange!" he said to me, and he shook both our hands. He introduced us to his friends. One of them tried to do an American accent for us. It was pretty good, if he was gay and from the deep south...I tried out my British accent on him, and apparently it would not pass! This was a most distressing realization as I always thought my British accent was halfway decent. I have since vowed to perfect my accent before my stay in London is over. 
Gosh this is really long! Good for you if you read it all the way! My next one will be shorter promise! I have internet now so I can write a little each day. Yup...so that's it...for now...:)