Mission: Take over Harlaxton and London

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't been on in a very long time. Everything kind of happened in a whirlwind and I'm finally in England, done with my first week of classes and made it to London and back over the weekend.

The first couple days here were a little nerve wracking. Not knowing people, and not knowing how you're going to be accepted is just like kindergarten all over again! But as it turns out the manor is absolutely amazing and I love it here! Everyone gets along pretty well so far and I feel like we've been here for months! My roomate and I get along great and we even bonded over our last names. Hers is Potter and mine is Holmes. We are the most British roomates in the whole place! :)  There is a group of theatre kids from University of Evansville and they are a blast to hang out with. A group of us went into town to go to a pub or two and actually ran into some locals and they invited us to tag along! They were celebrating a birthday and were all dressed like golfers. It was amusing. They were great fun and even invited some of us to join them for pub quiz (which we failed at) and bingo the next night. Soon they will be coming to the manor and we are teaching them beer pong and flippy cup. I'm sure they will teach us a few things too. Like how to say squirrel and mirror properly :)

Classes have been ok. It's hard to pay attention in Brit Studies because there are 128 more people in the room and the rooms are so gorgeous that listening to a soothing British accent for an hour puts me right to sleep or I end up just looking around the whole time, not even realizing that I'm missing the lecture! Thank goodness for seminars and note sheets! My art class is hell. I hate it, as does everyone else in the class. It's basically art history, which would be fine, but he assigns SO MUCH HOMEWORK! Everyday we get a multiple choice worksheet and then have to answer, in 1 1/2 pages or more each, 2 essay questions. Then he'll add stuff on top of that. This weekend, for instance, he added a "found art" project and we were required, while in London, to find 5 pieces of art and write up essays on those and how they fit into the qualities of a creative person. It's ridiculous.  It's very obvious that my favorite class will be Shakespeare. We read a play a week and discuss it in class. No lecture. Now that I can do.

As I mentioned I went to London oiew ver the weekend. We did A LOT of walking and got to see all of the typical touristy things. Did some shopping and actually found some pretty fabulous deals. Boots for 20 GBP? Yes please! The best part of it all was going to see the play Deathtrap. It is still in its preview stages and was absolutely amazing! Never have I seen a show that made me jump from horror and laugh hysterically. Not to mention the fact that Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening, Glee) was in the show! The quality of his performance brought up my respect for him even more. It was believable in every sense. Everyone in the show was just fabulous. Afterwards my friend Mary Ashlyn and I decided to stand by the stage door just to see if he would come out. He did! He looked so surprised to see people waiting for him and he took the time to sign and take pictures with everyone there. Respect up 20 more notches. Overall it was an amazing experience.

I'm adding a link for all you non-facebook users (*cough* mom and grandma) Here you can view all the pictures I took in London and I'll put a second link with pictures of the manor and our night out. Highlight, copy and paste them into the address bar if they aren't clickable.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2823085&id=8643848&l=78b9150d20


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2766156&id=8643848&l=e4c09bd995