Day 46: We had a BALL!

In prep for our English final coming up on Monday, we had a great review session this morning taught by our awesome TA, Paige.  I always have mixed feelings about reviews.  My thoughts go something like this:  "Wow, I didn't realize how much we've learned.  I remembering all of this...  Hmm, I vaguely remember this... Uh oh, did we learn this stuff?"  Basically the review was good and bad at the same time.  But I didn't stress about it because today was the big day.  THE day that I had been looking forward to for a long time.  Before I came to London I decided I was going to do things I wouldn't normally do.  I was going to have fun.  I wasn't going to worry about money.  I was just going to put myself out there.  And today I did just that exact thing!

A few weeks ago Kelsey, MaCall, Amanda and I purchased tickets to the Summertime Ball Concert.  What is this you ask?  Only the biggest concert known to man!  Here's a list of the artists that played:  JUSTIN BIEBER, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Carly Rae Jeppsen, Jessie J, Usher, The Wanted,Ed Sheeran, Example, Kelly Clarkson, Flo Rida, Pitbull, Cover Drive, Conor Maynard, Lawson, and Rita Ora.  Yep.  ALL of them in one concert.  And to make it even better they all played in Wembley Stadium!

We stopped at Paul Rhodes (a yummy bakery near the Centre) to get some lunch/snacks/dinner around 11:00 AM.  I was standing in line waiting to order and the man next to me started a conversation.  Whenever people talk to us it usually starts with, "Oh, you're American?"  So it started this way just like any other.  I was very happy and smiled because I love talking to new people- especially here.  He asked if we were students here and what university we came with.  I was very surprised that he recognized that we were Mormon when I said Brigham Young University!  Most people (even in the U.S.) don't know what BYU is.  He said, "Wow, we don't get many Mormons around here.  What are you studying?"  So I told him about our study abroad and how BYU has a centre here in London.  Then he surprised me again by asking, "So have you all been on missions?"  Again- what?!  Random question!  I just explained that we hadn't and that it wasn't mandatory for girls in our church but that it was something on my mind.  Our conversation had to end there because it was my turn to order.  Going back and thinking about it I feel like that conversation could have gone so much better!  I've NEVER been asked about being Mormon- ever.  Go figure, I've always lived in Utah and I go to BYU.  I've traveled all over and everything but I've never really been asked questions about my religion by a non-member.  I should've said something like, "How do you know about BYU/ Sister Missionaries?" or "It sounds like you're familiar with our church.  Can I ask how you know about it?"  But nope.  It was one of those moments where my mind couldn't think of anything substantial to ask or say.  This experience just taught me that I need to be more prepared for missionary moments no matter how or when they arise.  I was analyzing this scenario with Trent, one of the boys in our group, and he thinks I did the right thing.  He said, being an RM, that just having a normal conversation is sometimes the best kind of missionary work.  It's good for people to see there are nice, normal members of the church instead of always being pushed to join.  Having that perspective makes me feel better about the situation but I still think I should prepare the best I can for moments like that if one comes again.

Anyway- we grabbed our lunch and took the tube to the Baker Street station.  I've been wanting to go to this station because it's close to the Sherlock Holmes museum and decorated with Sherlock tiles.  I never went to 221b Baker Street because others in my group did and said it was a little silly.  Apparently it's a little difficult to create a museum dedicated to a fictional character.  But I thought the station looked really interesting!

Then we transferred and took our train out to Wembley Stadium.  We brought flashcards to study while we rode and waited in line but let's be honest, we were too darn excited to focus on anything except for the fact that we were getting physically closer to Justin Bieber than we had ever been in our whole lives.  We arrived and had the first of many freak out sessions.  We got our pictures taken in front of the stadium and then headed up to wait in line for hours.  Did I mention the concert didn't start until 6:00 PM?  Yep, so we sat in line, had some great girl talk, and took turns going to buy our concert T-shirts.  I guess that our accents kind of make us stand out everywhere we go (I should be used to that by now) so the girls in line next to us started talking to us.  They thought we flew all the way from the states just for the concert.  We quickly corrected them and got into a good conversation.  Something I've learned on study abroad is just to talk to everyone and get to know them.  I normally wouldn't have talked to these girls (they looked like Blaze from The Last Song) but they were actually super nice and interesting!  Kelsey is a good example of loving everyone and starting conversations so we all kind of followed her lead and ended up talking to them for quite some time- which helped it go by faster which was good. 

After hours, we finally got to get up and make our way into the stadium.  We had standing tickets and so we wanted to get in quickly and find a good place to stand.  After speed walking ("No running" as we were told a thousand times by employees) to find a spot and trying to avoid tall people and people that had alcohol, we found a great spot on the left side of the stage where we could see the whole stage and screens clearly.  We then had a lot more waiting to do so we took pictures and watched the music videos they had playing of all the artists that were performing.  These were broken up by several more freak out moments from us.  

FINALLY, after a long time waiting, the concert started.  It opened with Coldplay!  They really know how to entertain!  The moment that I really got into it was when they played "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall" and they had the crowd all jump and the exact same time.  It was one of those moments of connection where I knew thousands of people around me where feeling, seeing, hearing, and experiencing the exact same thing I was.  It's hard to describe but at that first jump I thought, "This is going to be the best night EVER!"  And it was definitely an amazing night.  We all felt the girl power of Kelly Clarkson, Carly Rae Jeppsen, Jessie J, and Katy Perry, we swooned (not as badly as the lady that passed out in front of us) when Flo Rida and Usher took off their shirts, we danced to all the popular British artists we didn't even know, we fell in love with the cute boys of The Wanted, our hearts literally melted to Ed Sheeran's songs (one of my new favorite artists- everyone needs to listen to him!), and almost had a heart attack when we saw our man......

(Here's a few of the 300+ pictures I took!) 

JUSTIN.  BIEBER.  He really put on a fantastic show!  He sang our favorites, Baby and Boyfriend, as well as some of his old and new songs.  It was so cute when he sang One Less Lonely Girl.  Our hearts were broken that we weren't her but at the same time we were almost crying as much as she was because it was so cute.  We didn't want to stop watching him.  The entire stadium was going crazy.  When you watch the Never Say Never documentary you see girls sobbing when he comes on stage, screaming non-stop, trying to get on stage, etc.  I thought they just showed the most extreme cases but I found out first hand that that is how EVERYONE reacts as soon as he comes on stage until he leaves the stage.  It was complete pandemonium.... and I participated. :)  Yep, I'm now a legit Belieber.  It's fine.  I think if the concert would have ended with him then the streets of London would have been overtaken by thousands of insane, Bieber-crazed girls.  To calm the crowd down, they ended the show with Katy Perry who seriously is one of the best performers I have seen.  I am really against listening to a lot of her lyrics but seeing her perform and the literal show she put on made me like her a lot more.  When we sang California Girls, all four of us screamed "West coast represent, now put your hands up!"  We got entirely into the whole thing.

After it was over we couldn't even move.  We had been standing for around 8 hours, had very little to eat, had to go to the bathroom like crazy, lost our voices, had pounding headaches, and yet... we had never been happier.  It's an experience that you can't describe and can't understand unless you were there.  We couldn't wipe the gianormous smiles off of our faces even if we tried.  When we got back to the Centre I was SO out of it that I couldn't even talk to anyone about the concert.  I just had to go straight to bed with that big smile still on my face.

It may have been a little irresponsible of us to blow of a whole day of studying in order to go to this concert but you know what?  I don't regret it one bit!  It was a once in a lifetime event and I had SO MUCH FUN!  We really had a ball at the Summertime Ball Concert.