Starry Night: A WICKED Night With The Rolling Stones

I have been so busy the past couple of days! That's probably why I feel almost dead today. I really need to start getting more sleep! I made the mistake of taking a nap today, which made me even more tired as usual. I usually avoid taking naps for this reason. I had to though because I was literally falling asleep standing up. So here I am blogging, and I thought I would tell you what I've been up to this week.

On thursday I went into London with one of my flatmates for the day. It was tons of fun! We ran around seeing the sights and taking loads of pictures. Typical touristy things haha, even though she lives in England. A nice man made us bracelets while we were walking around down by the London Eye, but then of course expected us to tip him. He said since we were English that he wouldn't charge his usual price and we could pay whatever we wanted. The entire time I was thinking "Christina just keep your mouth shut an he'll never know you're American!".

We went to the Camden market, which was amazing. I get so sucked in by markets and I seriously wanted to buy everything! I'm definitely going to take my mom and sisters there when they come to visit, because they would love it! I managed to restrain myself and only buy a few things and some of them were gifts. I'm not very good at haggling, but I didn't pay the asking price for anything so I would consider that a success! I'm thinking about doing a clothing and accessories haul of the things I've purchased here so far, but I'm still on the fence about the whole haul thing. I absolutely love watching/reading them, but I still feel a little weird about doing one myself.

We ended up in the West End later on and just happened to stumble across a movie premiere! It was so exciting! We saw the crowds of people and the red carpet, so we asked one of the security guards and it was the premiere of The Rolling Stones documentary, and guess what? They were going to be there! It was everything you would imagine a movie premiere to be. There was the paparazzi section flashing like crazy every time somebody strutted their stuff on the red carpet. When a couple cars pulled up at the end of the carpet and The Rolling Stones emerged, the crowd went mental! I was being pushed from all directions because everyone was straining to get pictures an video. I didn't manage to get very good of either.

Some of the stones getting out of their cars

We left the premiere early because we had to make our way to the theater to see Wicked the musical. I have been wanting to see it for so long, and now I finally have. Just another one of the many things I've been able to cross off of my bucket list since I've been here. It was spectacular! The acting and singing was amazing. Rachel Tucker who played the role of Elphaba was a phenomenal singer. Her voice seriously gave us chills. It was so strong and powerful. I loved how the story was set so you figured out more about the characters you thought you knew. It gave a whole new perspective on the Wizard of Oz and I completely loved it! I knew all of the songs before I went because my friend let me borrow her CD once, but the actors added their own little quirks to it. Plus, they all had accents ;) It turned out to be such a great day. It was one of those days that you just think about afterwards and smile about.

Yesterday I had to go into the center of the city again for one of my classes. I'm taking a class on British life and culture, so we get to go on field trips. I was a little nervous because we had to find our own transportation for this trip and get there on our own, but I figured it out. It was my first time taking the train and the underground on my own, but I am really proud of myself for figuring it out and not getting lost! I was even able to help some other people with directions and how the underground worked. I felt so accomplished. I did have to figure out a different route than I had planned because of the huge protest that was going on. I decided to avoid it by walking the long way around it, only to end up having it blocking my way again. I managed to get to my next destination after I started to panic slightly. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't had a certain time I had to be there to meet my class. The field trip was a tour of parliament and the globe theater, and let me just say, they were both beautiful, but especially parliament! I had already seen to globe, so I wasn't as impressed as I was with parliament. It was so detailed and decorated to beautifully. I set off the security sensor when I walked through so I was seriously patted down. I have never had to be searched like that in my life. I don't actually know what set it off, but I was wearing earrings, a watch, and a belt, even though they said I didn't need to take those things off. I was sad that we weren't allowed to take pictures inside of parliament, so I'll just have so say that it looked pretty much how it does in the movies, except more opulent.