Hello everyone! I’ll do my best to catch you up on the past week.. We’re trying to get last minute things done since we’re winding down here in London.

After we got back from Scotland we went to see Wicked. We were both super excited about it! Due to some complications in travel we were about 20 minutes late to the show. We didn’t miss much, but the British accents threw us off too. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best performance we’ve seen, but still great! We also went to the Tower of London last week, so we got one more sight checked off the list. Ashlyn, Scott and I went and saw everything from the Torture Chamber to the Crown Jewels.

This past weekend we went to Cornwall and Bath which was a trip included in the program. We left London early Thursday morning and first stopped in Glastonbury where King Arthur is said to be buried. It was a little town with lots of witchcraft stores- very odd to say the least. We then went to Tintagel which is the castle where King Arthur was born. There are just remains now, but the views on the water were absolutely beautiful! We then made it to Newquay which is the surfing capital of the UK. We got our fix of Mexican food for dinner and visited one of the local pubs before crashing in our hostel for the night. It was so great to be able to see the beach in Newquay. Some of the group went surfing Friday morning, but we decided not to try and conquer that. We then took to the bus to Land’s End which is the southernmost part of the UK. They put on the sign how far we are away from Tallahassee. And it’s quite a long way! We then went to a show at the Minack Theatre. This is a theatre built mostly by just one lady and the seats are in the side of the cliffs with the ocean as the backdrop. It is a really cool setting. We all had picnics with bread, cheese, grapes and wine as we watched the show. It was a comic opera, which wasn’t our favorite, but it was an experience.

Tintagel

Newquay

Minack Theatre

When we left Newquay on Saturday morning our first stop was at the Eden Project. It is a project to raise awareness to protect the environment and our surroundings. They have these big biomes where they have built different ecosystems. When we went into the rainforest, we about couldn’t breathe. Let’s just say this- we are not looking forward to the Tallahassee humidity!! We also visited the Mediterranean biome. Both of these have crops that grow there any all the natural elements of each. It is a very cool place; we wish we had more time there. We were then on our way to Bath with a quick stop in Dartmoor. This is where the thousands of wild ponies run. We saw a few from the bus window, but were not able to get close pictures of any. We finally made it to Bath and went into town to visit the Roman Baths. These were a place for the Romans to come socialize and there was also a temple to pray to their gods. It is just so hard to imagine that all those pools are so old! We really did have a good time just wandering around Bath that night and the next morning as well. On the way back to London, we stopped at Stonehenge. And as we all know… It ROCKS! ;)

Eden Project

Roman Baths

Stonehenge

As you can tell, we had a busy weekend. We made so many stops that it is hard for me to put it all in writing, but I did my best! Yesterday was my last day of regular classes; Ashlyn had them today and then on Thursday. So we spent yesterday in photography putting together our pictures for the exhibition we have next week.

Today I went to Wembley Stadium which was so cool. It is a super nice stadium and even though Doak is obviously different, it got me super excited for football! Even though football (soccer) isn’t a sport I know tons about, it was still very interesting to me to see this stadium. Here are a couple facts for you: It holds 90,000 people, it was completed in 2007 and cost 757 million Pounds. There are over 2500 toilets in Wembley and they change the signs depending on if there will be more men or women at an event. So on game days it is usually 70/30 men to women. That was kind of interesting. And the last fact for you.. You could fit the London Eye under the arch that is on top of the stadium. On the tour I got to go in the changing room, the VIP room (where the royal family is on gameday), the press room, on the side of the field, and sit in the Royal seats. Needless to say, it was a really great tour! After that, I took the tube on the Jubilee line almost an hour and met Ashlyn in Greenwich. So we have officially stood in two hemispheres! And last but not least of the day.. I went to the premiere of A-Team. That’s right I saw Liam Neeson, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, and the rest of the cast. It wasn’t quite as successful as seeing Leo a few weeks ago, but I still had some sightings.

Wembley

We're in two hemispheres!

all the guys... Jessica Biel came later.

For those of you who care.. here is Bradley Cooper's eye! haha. Sorry it's not better...

We’re off to Canterbury and Dover with the program tomorrow and then Paris this weekend, so we’ll have an update at the beginning of next week. We have less than two weeks left in London, so we’re winding down.

Thanks for reading!

Sarah