London Calling

I've made a few trips to London since coming to England. The first time was on a bus trip organized by Uni for the newly arrived international students. In our free time my friends and I went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Had we gone to the museum just a few days later it would have been Inauguration day and we would have gotten in free with our U.S. Passports! Despite having to pay to get in we still had a great time. The museum has changed so much since I had last been there (in 1999- 10 years, yikes!). Looking more and more like an overcrowded red carpet complete with silhouettes of paparazzi flashing their cameras at you as you walk from one room to the next. Initially it was a little unnerving just to walk up to wax versions of such superstars; though it didn't take long to get over the awkwardness; especially when the figure of David Beckham is SO realistic! I got a good laugh watching large groups of teenage girls dressed like they're going to a semi-formal, running from Leonardo DiCaprio to Colin Farrell to Johnny Depp. Maybe the only thing separating those girls from us girls was our more informal wardrobe and about 6 or 7 years. The young girls flew right by Paul Newman and Robert Redford while I nestled right in between the two for a photo opportunity- maybe it was an American thing, maybe an age thing... I'll never know. The real highlight of our trip was seeing President Barack Obama!!! There was of course a line to take your picture with him but we were glad to wait. While in line we struck up a conversation with some of the employees. They were happy to joke around with us about our incumbent President and his past competition- they said they had a model of McCain (just in case) but after the election they melted him back down; though they kept the model of Palin just to beat around after a hard day's work (sorry to any Republicans reading this)! We had a good laugh with them and they gladly snapped our photo when it was our turn. 

With my favorite British talk-show host: Graham Norton.

(Fun fact: Graham is actually Irish, born in Dublin and raised in Co. Cork)

The fab four with the Beatles (some things didn't change at the museum- these guys have been and always will be on display).

Just chillin' with the boys- Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

The Commander in Chief with his new cabinet (we wish).

Amelia, Tiffany, Myself and Katie on the Millennium Bridge

(with the London Eye and Parliament in the background).

Just a few weeks after the first London trip my friend Pelham and I got tickets for a weeknight showing of Billy Elliot the musical. Pelham had already seen it but he enjoyed it so much that he was happy to accompany me. It's so easy to get from Brighton to London, about an hour by train for which we get a student discount. The show was phenomenal, easily up there in my Top 3 alongside Phantom of the Opera and Wicked. I was curious to see how they would turn a rather heavy film into a musical comedy, but of course, with Elton John writing the music you know it's going to be good. The stage performance was able to dive a lot deeper into the more political issues in the story (the miner's strike) and there was a perfect balance of humour and somberness among the musical numbers. Pelham's favorite was the Christmas Pantomime scene right after intermission, complete with a giant puppet of Margaret Thatcher. It's so hard for me to choose a favorite but I loved the scene where Billy discovers his best friend Michael's passion for dressing in his mom's clothes- they did a fantastic tap number dancing alongside oversized dresses! I also loved the duet between young Billy and Billy's older self. At several points I was brought to tears, the story was so touching and the music was absolutely beautiful- Sir Elton has outdone himself once again. When I got home that night I immediately bought the soundtrack off iTunes. If anyone is looking for a show to go see, I have high praise for Billy Elliot- you won't be disappointed.

My most recent trip to London was originally to attend an afternoon tea hosted by Mount Holyoke alumnae living in the UK. Unfortunately my 1-hour train ride took 4 hours due to "technical difficulties" and I missed the entire event. Luckily my friend Amanda (who rows on the MHC crew team with me) is studying at King's College in London this semester so I was able to meet up with her for dinner. We walked around for a bit and stopped into a pub around the Oxford Circle neighborhood for dinner. It was nice to catch up with a fellow "Mountie" (as my mom likes to call Mt. Holyoke girls). We shared stories about adjusting to life and studies over here, gossiped about rumours passed on from Mt. Holyoke friends and talked about our travel plans for Spring break. It was a sweet, albeit short visit, but we made plans to meet up again when we both had more free time.

These are just the first of my trips to London, certainly not my last. There's so much to explore in and around the city, it's just a matter of finding the time. My friend Abbie's boyfriend lives in London so we've been talking about taking some weekend trips up there for an "insiders" look at the city- local markets, chic second-hand clothing shops and unique museums. Plenty more London stories to come soon!