Hyde Park Walk

London Walks II: Hyde Park Walk
 First of all, this is so beautiful. I cannot believe that this is on my doorstep.

This is Marble Arch. This has been moved around the city a little bit. Notice how the doors are shut? Only select few (like members of the royal family etc) are allowed to cross under it. Also, right close to here was where they would kill people ... grotesquely. Like, hey let's tie a horse to each of your limbs and run them in different directions. Ouch.

This is me (in the cute hat from my mother) in front of the Triumphal Arch that is in honor of the Duke of Wellington's victory at Waterloo. He is a huge deal in England. I'm thinking it's like, for us Americans, George Washington status. It is huge and so neat-o. See Victory on top? She's in being drawn behind four horses and has a torch in her hand. She's rad.

Duel photo! The statue kind of in the foreground is the statue of the Duke of Wellington. Across the street is the Apsley house. We went inside there earlier today. This house is so interesting. Basically, when the good Old Duke took Napoleon down he took a ton of portraits from him and a statue of him etc etc and put them all in this house. It is a gorgeous house. I cannot get over standing inches away from a Velásquez or a Caravaggio and I think that I like that. It's incredible. My words are insufficient.

We were on the Diana Memorial Walk. So says the plaque. And it does a lovely lady justice. This walk was beautiful. Again, my words seem lame in comparison with the actual experience.

This is the Serpentine at sunset. I love all the swans in all of the lakes and ponds and rivers here. They come right up to you and they are beautiful. (To Annie: "Odette!!!!") This is the place where the first Mrs. Shelley drowned herself. The story goes that she found out that young Mary Goodwin (a teenager at the time) had a child by her husband so she loaded her pockets with rocks and drowned herself. How sad, huh?

What did I tell you? BEAUTIFUL doesn't cut it. I'm in love with this place.

Theatre Walk

This is the first of my 'London Walks' posts.

How gorgeous is the Sommerset house? And those fountains?? Love.

cute place just right outiside coventry gardens. loved there. good apples for cheap.

Courtyard of st. pauls church. Let me just say, I LOVE GONE WITH THE WIND and VIVIEN LEIGH. 

I love these old statues because of the bombing damage. it's so cool. like this one, see how charred he is?

trafalgar square is bril. look at the crazy good weather we are having?

one of the golden ladies atop helios' horses.

picadilly square. loved.also, this is the funniest thing- that is a staue in the square of george washington, and he said he would never be on English soil, so they brought American soil and laid it underneath the statue. funny, us funny americans.

to love another person is to see the face of God

So the last couple of days: whaaaat? They have been crazy. Today was incredible incredible incredible.
here are some pictures:

Mom, this is for you! It's not Holland, but it's beautiful beautiful florals.

So this is a sphynx. It is right next to the 60 foot tall 'Cleopatra's Needle' that was  a gift to england from Mohammed Ali [not that one]. But... there is scaffolding around like 30% of the entire city and the needle happened to be included in that percent. The sphynx was way cooler though, right?

on one of our walks last night we walked down Drury Lane! ... the muffin man had apparently vacated the premises or already gone home for the night so let me just say that it was pretty ... lame... ish.

These are some early weapons found in the Museum of London. The whole time I was there, I thought of you, Jony. I took a thousand pictures for you but they are unfortunately not as cool. You're just going to have to come and see it for yourself, I guess.

From there we walked just down the street to the Cathedral of St. Paul. (as in "feed the birds, tuppence a bag....") and I have awesome pictures from all over the place. see up at the tippy top just below that wonky cross? That is where I was. Yeah. Best view ever. These next pictures are from the top below the top. still cool, just 152 stairs lower.

Okay, now get ready for it. The BEST part of the day ... ready???

 AHHHH!!!!! So good. So, so, SO good. I was giddy. Eponine (Brit's dream role) and Jean Val Jean were phenom. seriously. I leaked a tear... kind of. It was impressive. I can't describe it well enough. 27.50 pounds WELL SPENT.

Carly, Me, and Whitney at Les Mis. I just love these two already.

So that's all i'm going to write tonight. Tomorrow is homework day. fuuuuuun. But with these characters, I'm sure it will be.
See you soon.
love, from London

This is what I watched on the plane from Minneapolis to Heathrow.
HOW. PERFECT. Seriously, even if I wasn't on my way to England, I would have loved it. But I was on my way to the UK so I really really really loved it. In fact, I almost cried. I'm buying it when I get home. Definitely.

The plane ride. Let me just tell you that I sat by a 60-year-old man, Paul, who within in the first ten minutes told me that he was going to London to propose to his special lady. Obviously I had the best ride ever. Seriously, I loved Paul.

like london, london, london

I am officially too tired to post much tonight, but I'll put a few pictures up from the day and explain more about them tomorrow.

** so... I fro-ed my hair. on accident. basically i looked like a queen all day long yesterday. but it was okay, because i am in England and I hear they really like queens over here....

We took the TUBE from the airport. How bold are we?

this, plus me, was our DL 40 group. We had a party. Until we got out of the underground and could not find the Center. Totally in the wrong direction, without street signs, and no body knew where "Palace Court" was. Seriously, people, don't you LIVE here?? shouldn't you KNOW what the streets in the one mile radius around you are? But don't worry, we found it. After a prayer. Seriously, we pulled over (we had a caravan of 6.5 50+ lbs suitcases) and said a prayer. Within 3 minutes, bada-bing!

This is the view from the TUBE. How quaint is my new home??

This is a river, from the tube. Notice the sign - they have the greatest signs here. The little stick figures are so much more animated here. It's great. 

This is the view I see when I turn around and look out my window. Rad. 

This is the view from our back patio thing. I am in love with my neighborhood. 

Who is in this picture... Jenny is first and foremost, and Whitney. Back there there is Jared, Mark, Charlie, Stephen, and I think you can see Kate too. There were more of us - we went to see Big Ben. ....

This seriously was so cool. I went cause I was trying to NOT go to sleep and wasn't too excited about the actual site. But, guys, BIG BEN IS WICKED COOL.  My flash made it super dark, but it was light and beautiful. And at nine-o'clock (the same time that Peter and Wendy take off from the clock, I am pretty sure) we were the bridge right next to it looking at the Eye of London (dark picture below, with Jenny again {hey girl!} as well as Ryan and Jared) while it chimed. I already love London. I will blog later about the plane ride maybe cause that was a blast. Gotta go to a meeting now. Hasta luego.

love, from London

tomorrow

Tomorrow, I will fly to Minneapolis at 5:15 p.m. 
Tomorrow, I will also fly from Minneapolis to LONDON, England, United Kingdom, Europe at 9:something p.m... !!


I might be excited, can you tell?
There are people from class on my flight - huzzah - and I will be taking niquil because this LOVELY cold has decided to park on my face. Just in time. awesome. 


So I am now Jillibean [in london town] in honor of the great Buble. 


Let me just say that I have the world's BEST family and the world's FINEST friends. And I will miss you all. 
... but I am SO beyond excited. Next time, I might be in London Town. Yipi-ki-yay.

whoa oh

FREEDOM!!
is mine. and i know how i feel
it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life


and i'm feelin' 
good.


in other words- done with finals!! yeah yeah!