PDA: Photographic Displays of our Adventures: Life in London, Sparknotes style

Thursday marked the first two weeks we've been in London! The time is really flying by. We've had such an amazing time so far! We've seen and done so much, and yet it feels like there is still so much left. I think you could live in London your whole life and never make a dent in all there is to experience here. But we're making our best attempt, so here is a little re-cap of all the major stuff so far:

We moved into Flat 22, 90 stairs up, as Sarah told you. We quickly became friends with our flatmates Sarah, Ellie and Shauna...they are the best! We've spent a lot of time exploring the city together.

Classes started the Monday after moving in (more on those later!), and that night we went with the whole study centre to see Blood Brothers, a musical at the Phoenix Theatre. It was a little slow-going the first half, but the talent was incredible and the second half was really good. All in all, a great first experience of London theatre. We see WICKED on July 19th!!

We took a little flatmate field trip to see the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square. There are paintings from almost every period, ranging from Leonardo di Vinci and Michaelangelo to Monet, Picasso and Degas. The building itself is beautiful, and seeing these incredible works of art was really a neat experience. The best thing about the museums in London is that most of them are FREE! I can't imagine just walking right into such a place in the States.

World Cup madness!! Not being a big soccer (or football, as they say here) fan, I was surprised at how caught up in all the craziness I've been! Sarah and I watched all the games while traveling around before London, and we've been hitting up some really fun pubs with some of our friends for the games here. Last night was the Spain v. Germany game, and we watched at a place called Montagu Pyke. It was jam-packed, probably hundreds of people there! Everyone is so into the World Cup, so it's been a cool part of European culture to experience.

Last weekend we took a trip down to see all the major London sites with our flatmates. We took about 10,000 pictures of Big Ben (which Londoners actually refer to as the clock tower AND the houses of Parliament), and then went to Westminster Abbey. Oh my gosh...what a beautiful place. My favorite part was, of course, Poets Corner. It's a corner of the Abbey filled with memorials and tombs for famous writers and artists, beginning with Geoffrey Chaucer. But Westminster in general is such a moving, historic place. The architecture is incredible, especially considering it was built almost 800 years ago.

Throughout this past week, we were busy with class and seeing as many sights of London as possible. We took a daytrip with our program to see the reconstructed Globe, where Shakespeare's plays have been performed since the 16th century (not at that specific location). We also visited the Tate Modern, which is a museum of contemporary art across the Thames in Southwark. The collections there are incredible! Definitely a huge difference from all the classical collections we've seen at places like the National Gallery, but modern art is so interesting and London has a great support for it. I can't wait to see more exhibits!

Well this has been a major Cliff Notes version of our first two weeks, but there is so much to remember even for myself that I wanted to get a blog up before anymore time went by! Stay tuned for a blog about classes, and our weekend in progress. We spent the day in Stratford-Upon-Avon yesterday, and today went with some friends to see Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace...get ready to see some amazing pads!

Here are some photos to get you through until the next post: