Day 10: Rain, Rain... Come Again!

I'm sorta kinda freaking out right now!  Ah!  I need to organize my thoughts and stop being so excited.... Let me start out with this morning.


We had history this morning for three hours.  Did I mention that's how long our classes are?  It's a little hard but it's nice because I walk down four flights of stairs from my room and then I'm in class!  I'll never have a better living situation again as far as proximity to school.


I worked on an assignment and then I went with Kayley, Amanda, and Jared to do a walk through the heart of London for our London Walks class.  It was great to see a large part of the city.  We started out at St. Paul's Cathedral and made our way through the financial district down to London Bridge. I saw this cool little market on our tour, as well as a few churches that were beautiful on the inside.

(cool little indoor, outdoor shopping center)

(a painting in the shopping center)

Our walk ended at London Bridge.  Since we were absolutely starving and our walk was done we thought we should hop on over to... Borough (borrow) Market!  Yes!  My favorite place ever!  This time I explored new vendors, tried as many cheese samples as possible, tried as many olive oil samples as possible, bought something I wouldn't normally buy, and made friends with the vendors.  It was wonderful to just kind of do my own thing!  I made friends with the guys selling candied nuts and Turkish delight.  They let me try as many samples as I wanted because I was being nice- it was great!  I really like talking to real Britons.  I also made friends with the fruit guy.  I told him I loved the raspberries last week so much that I had to come back to buy some more.  He told me about how he picked the raspberries that day and how they were a different batch from the week before, and recommended the strawberries.  He was such a nice older gentleman.  I bought a lot more stuff this time and took less pictures.  It was cold so I got hot chocolate (a.k.a. basically straight melted chocolate- so rich and so good!), an "uber brownie" (a.k.a. a large brownie that is the BEST, most moist, most chocolaty brownie I have ever had), an almond croissant for breakfast tomorrow, cinnamon-chocolate covered nuts, chocolate covered honeycomb (like Crunchie bars from Canada- they have them here too), raspberries, and strawberries.  Don't worry, I brought them home to eat throughout next week.  For lunch I bought myself this sandwich that was so wonderful!  It was on foccacia (spelling?) bread which was fresh and amazing!  It also had a light brushing of olive oil in it, fresh mozzarella (the best I've ever had), and some sort of meat.  I didn't know what the meat was and so I wasn't going to get it, but I decided that I should go out of my comfort  zone.  I'm glad I did!  I think is was prosciutto... that's my guess from the knowledge I've gained on food network but I don't really know.  Anyway... I loved it!  It was a filling lunch.

(my yummy sandwhich)

(THE best hot chocolate known to man)

Something I have to mention is the best thing I have ever eaten in my entire life.  I found it today.  At the same place that does the grilled cheese I got last time, we discovered that they have these things... I don't remember what they're called... but it's basically a cheesey potato on crack.  

(Amanda and her potato)

(It might not look that great but it is AMAZING)

There was a wonderful baked potato that was baked perfectly.  They took these giant slides of raclette cheese and put it under a broiler.  The cheese melted quickly and got all bubbly.  They then scraped a TON of the cheese (which by itself already is like heaven in my mouth), put on sea salt and pepper and served it.  You could also get it with pickles but who would ruin a good thing like that with pickles (probably my mom- but she probably wouldn't eat that in the first place)? :)  It might not sound very delicious but it truly was the BEST THING I EVER ATE!  Grandma- you would absolutely love it.  What's sad is Amanda is the one who ordered it, not me because I had my yummy sandwich.  So I only had two bites of this masterpiece but it was the best two bites my mouth has ever enjoyed.  YUM! :)


I wasn't hungry for dinner when we got back to the Centre so I didn't eat dinner there.  Instead I came back for devotional, talked to some people, and then left the Centre again for something wonderful... something amazing... something I have been looking forward to for a long time.... Singing in the Rain!

(Kayley and I singing in the "rain")

(the whole group for tonight)

I went to see the stage production of one of my most favorite movies of ALL time!  That means I have seen five plays in five days!  What?  Who does this sort of thing?!   We didn't have any tickets before we went but a group of six of us went about 45 minutes before the show started to the box office.  We asked for some tickets for our group and they had AMAZING seats for us.  There were three tickets on the sixth row with an obstructed view and three tickets on the very front row for the same price... only £25 pounds for tickets that are normally £65-ish.  What a great deal is that?!


In between buying tickets and watching the show, we took a little walk to Ben's Cookies.  My friend Kennedy had already been there once and she absolutely loved it so she drug us back to try it.  I got a dark chocolate chip cookie and a white chocolate chip cookie... dark chocolate was better and I'll definitely be going back to eat one again.  I accidentally dropped half of my white chocolate chip cookie on the sidewalk because it was so soft.  I was a little sad about that...

(Kayley, Jared, Paige, and Kaylie enjoying their "cookie monster" cookies and ice cream)

(Kayley, Jared, Myself, Kaylie with our treats)

(So sad my cookie dropped!)

(The newest fan of Ben's Cookies)

We chose tickets at random and decided to switch after intermission.  I picked the sixth row ticket first.  I was slightly disappointed at first because I wanted to be right up front for all of the main musical numbers.  Did I mention that they flood the stage with real rain?  So I was thinking I'd miss that.  What ended up happening is I could see the whole stage (with like a slightly obstructed view of the side of the stage where nothing happened) for all of the main numbers and when we switched I could be close to all the actors.  

(A four story theatre- you can't really see but it was beautiful)

(Kaylie and me- trying "not" to take a picture of the stage since it's now allowed)

(Illegal picture- don't tell!)

It was hard to get the movie out of my mind the entire time because I've watched it so often and fallen in love with it.  However, they did a good job and the two songs they added were really fun!  My all time favorite song from both the movie and play is "You are My Lucky Star" and that's what they ended on.  I was so happy because I felt like I was part of the production (even though it's hard to compare to the movie) and so I clapped for the bows with a smile.  Cosmo, Cathy, and Don came out in their yellow rain gear to take a bow- so iconic!  The stage went dark and I almost got up to go but then the whole cast came back on.  They all had their rain gear on and my first thought was "No. Way."  And then the water started and it rained again!  My jaw dropped and I almost started crying.  The whole cast performed the "Singing in the Rain" all together and it was even better than the first time.  Since I was on the front row I got soaked!  Everyone else on the front row put their jackets up so they wouldn't get water on them but the two girls and I soaked in every drop!  Our mouths were hanging open (we were basically drooling) and we were so happy.  The actor playing Cosmo looked at us and got this huge grin... We probably looked ridiculous but we were like kids in a candy shop and we were reacting to it the most out of anyone around us.  That was probably the best moment.  I was hoping more than anything that we would walk out of the theatre and it would be pouring... the one time that I wanted it to rain- it was good weather!  So ironic, but I guess I can't always have it all. :)

(Paige, Kaylie, and me soaked and smiles!)

(Just thinking about Gene Kelley and hoping for rain!)

I loved feeling like I just lived through Singing in the Rain!  I HONESTLY don't know how things just keep getting better or staying amazing, but they do!  It's hard to describe all these feelings I have but I just feel so HAPPY!  Life is good. :)


P.S. Aren't my long posts so much more tolerable with pictures to break it up now?  You're welcome. :)