Catch up blog...yes, it's been a month.

Well blog readers, I've let you down. Majorly. But I'm hoping this next post will put you in good spirits and restore your hope in me. It's a bit ambitious for one fast-paced, catch up blog, but I believe in the power of the blog! So here goes! Now, I've decided that to catch you up on things that have happened daily for the past MONTH (yeah, I'm a terrible person. I get it.) would be insane, at least it would be if I did it in the same format as before. So now I present to you the condensed month of February:

St. Paul's
We had class, went to a church service, and listened to a concert at the famous building. I definitely feel like the expert now! We also climbed the 537 stairs to the top, in preparation for the 700+ at the Eiffel Tower we will conquer in two weeks. I mainly did it, though, to justify the tasty burrito I would eat after. But more on that later.

Ice Cream Adventures
Now my favorite British candy bar is the Crunchie bar, which is essentially chocolate-covered honeycomb. So when I encountered a crunchie mcflurry, I HAD to indulge. I owed it to candy lovers everywhere! The other ice cream on the list was a sticky toffee pudding burger king shake. Sticky toffee pudding is by far the best dessert the Brits have to offer, and we've had it on several different ocassions, but never in ice cream form. When we saw the signs for it on the tube, our journey to devour one (or two) began! The only hitch in the plan was that ALL of the Burger Kings we encountered were either closed just when we were craving ice cream, had broken ice cream machines for weeks on end, or ran out of the sticky toffee pudding flavoring two customers before us. Not. Fair. But finally, one magical night we took a ten minute hike, found an open, functioning BK, and got our tasty treats. And I must say, this country knows how to do ice cream!

Famous people
Danny Boyle - on a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Theatre
Prince Charles - at the concert at St. Paul's (so, I didn't actually spot him, but we stood up for him twice, so that counts.)
John Rutter - at HIS concert at St. Paul's
*Conclusion: I'm basically famous myself!

International food
Living in an international city, it's hard to not justify eating every tasty "cultural experience" in sight. In the past month I've taken advantage of the food of the nations quite a few times:
Indian twice, Thai twice, and Burritos thrice! I also participated in Poland's Donut Thursday last week, because I really felt like chasing down the various Krispy Kremes around the city would enhance my understanding of that great Eastern European country. I'm not sure if it accomplished that much, but my stomach was definitely happy. And really, what more can I ask for?

Plays, Plays, Plays
Being in a London theatre class, we see a lot of plays. Some favs from the past month: Wicked, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Julius Caesar (seeing it live is DEFINITELY better than that awful tape recording we listened to in sophomore year), and, finally, Frankenstein. Maybe you're saying "Why would you want to see a play about a monster," like I was the day before we saw it. But let me assure you, that play was AMAZING! Danny Boyle directed it, and the acting was particularly amazing. Also the events surrounding it made memorable as well: 1) We woke up at 5am to obtain our super cheap tickets to the sold out performance. Now that's dedication! 2) My friend David was in town and was able to come and see it with our group, which was great! So, I've seen some great plays, but I'm definitely ready for another month and a half of more!!!

Exercise
Yes, even I exercise abroad. 3 months is a long vacation. But the exercise here is all in good fun, for example: Belly dancing!!!! Yes, it happened. I came home from class one day to find a note from Kaitlyn in the kitchen informing me of the free belly dancing class she had signed me, her, and Kristen up for that night. There was no way to escape! But we definitely got a workout, if not through doing the moves correctly then from laughing hysterically at our ridiculous-looking selves. Also, I've gone running three times in the past month, so that's something. But mostly, we WALK every-freaking-where, so that's my main exercise plan. But not to worry, the triathlon training is waiting for me when I get home :)

TV
Glee, The Office, and The Tudors - at least one of them I can justify with my surroundings.

Death
Murder trial, Jack the Ripper, and the Plague, oh my! During one of our classes, we got to sit in on a murder trial. Did you know that British lawyers still wear wigs in court? Yeah, it happens! How unreal. The trial process was really tedious, but it was interesting nonetheless. Another night we took our Jack the Ripper tour. Yikes, that guy was brutal! Our class on a different day learned all about 1665 and the great plague epidemic. Those were nasty times. Glad to be alive in the 2011!

Rocks
We spent some quality time at Stonehenge last weekend, but it was a bit disappointing because it's roped off and you can't touch the rocks. So our favorite Irish bus driver, Paul, said he'd take us to some old rocks that we could both "poke and hold." His words, not mine. So we got to climb, touch, hug, poke, and hold some really old rocks, to satisfy our nature-loving sides that Stonehenge failed to address. All in all a quality day with some old rocks.

Hills
Ugh. Walking all over the mostly flat city is one thing, but climbing a hill to get somewhere is another thing altogether. For one play we had to walk a solid twenty minutes up a 45 degree incline to get to the playhouse. All of the walking was done because our public transport passes only cover a certain area and the playhouse was outside of that. Only a week later did we learn that the zoning restrictions don't apply to buses, so yes, the walking up the hill took place in vain! The other hill that nearly defeated me, and did at another point of my life, was the hill at Greenwich, which houses the Prime Meridian. 3.5 years ago, when my family came to visit my brother, we did all of the sights in one loooooong day after almost no sleep on the plane. At about 4pm that resulted in me falling asleep standing up in this awful museum and wanting nothing more than a warm bed and sleeping mask. So when we stepped outside to do our final task before going back to Josh's flat, climbing this "tiny" hill as my brother promised me, I broke down. I know, embarrassing for a 15-year old to break down and cry on her mom's shoulder at the sight of a hill, but it happened and I'm really not ashamed. Because that is a massive hill! I have to admit, I was really worried upon returning that I would see it in an un-tired light and find that it wasn't a big hill after all and I truly was a pansy. But thankfully that was not the case: the hill is HUGE, but I conquered it this time around and stood on that stupid line and showed the hill who was boss! More recently, I climbed a mountain, but I'll save that for next week's post!

Movies
I'm taking a film class this semester, which means I get to watch a movie a week! We've seen some great ones so far: Tsotsi, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Bridges of Madison County, Innocent Voices, Frozen River, and my favorite has been Dead Man Walking, but I definitely recommend them all. And then somehow we saw two Matt Damon films at the cinema in one week! Both Hereafter and Adjustment Bureau are great films!

Well I think that's the month summed up. Thanks for not giving up! The past month's been fun, but currently I'm in the middle of a ten-day tour of the UK. We're in the midst of mountains and Scottish accents and I couldn't be loving it more. So be on the lookout for an update soon, definitely before another month is up. Cheers!

PS - the internet's being spotty, so uploading pictures here is nearly impossible. Hopefully at some point though it will be strong enough to upload some to Facebook. So check there for some great pictures of the past few weeks and a sneak peak of our current trip!