In the meantime.. take one!

I think what I wanted to do in one post, I might need to break up into three or so... Please stay with me. Some stories and fantastic experiences need to be shared. I wish so much that various people could be here in London with me and seeing the things I have seen. At a number of different museums, galleries, monuments and events, I typically think of people specifically and wish so much that you could be here.

To catch you up briefly on events in my life during the last week, here is an unexplained list: futbol (England v Ukraine), work, bollywood, buckingham Palace/Changing of the Guard, Churchill Imperial War Rooms, work, St. Paul's Cathedral, Oxford Circus, left behind, work, futbol (England v Italy), class, musical tickets, Scoops, sickness, work, Tomasz' last night, work, British Library.
To add on what will be on this list by the end of the week: work, futbol (Portugal v Spain), Dublin, Jameson Factory, Guiness Factory, Galway, class, Les Miserables. Yes. Be jealous. I'm jealous of myself!

Last week, a few of the other students from our Stevens Point group decided to head to an English pub to observe the futbol match, England v Ukraine. Fortunately for us, we found the best place. A little place called The Globe, just off the corner of Baker Street and Marylebone Road. We had a wonderful time singing the songs along with the locals about "England, England, England" (sung to the same melody as in 'A Knight's Tale', "Licktenstine, Licktenstine"), and "Oh, Britania, Britania, Britania rules the world"and took in every second of it. Here is a link to the video I took shortly after England's goal: Celebrations at The Globe. You can hear them starting to chant "Rooney, Rooney" towards the end of the video, he is one of their midfielders and scored the particular goal they were celebrating. We had such a fun time, we decided a week later when England played again, we would get there two hours before the match, eat dinner and enjoy the game.

After the game was over, I returned to my room to see what my roommates were up to and I found that they were hosting a Bollywood party, in honor of our friend Jivitesh who was leaving the UK to return to Indian at the end of the week. They had celebrated by going to eat Indian dishes and then everyone was to bring their own wine and come back to our room to learn Bollywood dancing and listen to the music! Without consulting those involved, I will include a picture for your benefit! :)




By Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I was having a rough week, some homesickness may have been encroaching on my experience and I needed something out of the ordinary to lift my spirits. At this, a friend of mine from Australia, Fred, offered a spare ticket to tour the Winston Churchill Imperial War Rooms with him. He needed to use these tickets and the day they were intended for he could not go, and offered to take me. Included in our class schedule, we will be touring it again, but upon the suggestion from my Grandmother that I needed to go, I figured seeing the museum and exhibits twice would be worth it. On our way to the museum, Fred asked me if I had seen Buckingham Palace yet. I said that indeed I had not, because the day we tried to go see it, was of course during the Jubilee and it was OFF LIMITS! :) On our way to the museum, we took a small detour and stopped at the Palace, just so happened that we had come at the right time! We were able to see the changing of the guard! I took many small videos on both my iPod and camera, Fred took many as well. Unfortunately, my camera died and he has majority of the pictures. Here is a picture I took of the marching band (I could see and hear them, not so much the actual changing of the guard, also I am a musician with priorities).
















This is all for now, but I have so much more to share! More of the list from above that I know you want to know all about! More later!

Cheers!
Sarah Marsh