London = Palm Springs

Well, I guess I'm no longer gallivanting in London, but rather in Palm Springs. I've been told by multiple people that I have to start blogging again to tell you all my adventures in the old, hot town of Palm Springs. Well the "old" part isn't that true, I've seen a lot of youngins already so I guess the geriatrics haven't completely taken over. As for the "hot" part... that has not been embellished one bit. The only time it has been under 100 degrees is when it's three o'clock at night and my air conditioning is on. So getting used to the hot weather has been quite a task. I've never been so grateful for air conditioning in all my life.


The job itself is fun. I'm an administrative production assistant at the Palm Springs Follies, which basically means that I work in the office in front of a computer screen for 10 hours a day. It's not too bad because I work with some really fun people and it makes the day go by fast. I'm hoping once the show starts running, I'll have some more hands-on with the theatrical side of the theatre.

As for my apartment... pretty swank if you ask me. Two televisions, fully furnished, a hide-away bed in my couch (for any visitors who want to experience some warm weather this winter... *hint, hint) and it's all to myself. No messy or loud roommates to keep me up... just my own dirty, noisy self.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures and I doubt I will because 1) I don't have a digital camera, 2) I can't steal pictures from any of my friends like I did in London and 3) I don't really have that much time to blog. You are lucky you are getting something now. But we'll see.

Anyway, I'll do what I can to blog to keep you all updated on my boring office job and the excruciating hot weather, but for now, I hope this will suffice.

The long walk home

It's my last night here in London, and like all my last nights in England--there was no absence of tears. I woke up and packed up all my clothes and souvenirs to come home. There's two things that I hate... packing and leaving England... and this was both. So you can understand how I could be a little bitter this morning. After we had a pre-checkout, we went and did the last few things that we still wanted to do whilst we were here. My friend and I checked out the Peter Pan statue cause she really wanted to see it; I bought myself enough chocolate-covered hazelnuts that will last me the plane ride over the pond (I'm hoping they last that long); we became dorky tourists and sought out Platform 9 3/4 (from Harry Potter) and took stupid pictures; we did some last minute shopping at Camden Town; and then we rode a double-decker bus home. That sufficed for me.

Then tonight, I went to a Relief Society/Young Women activity at church. It was the coolest, most creative activity. It was basically like speed dating, except you weren't trying to find a date. Basically, the Relief Society woman sat on the inside of the circle and the Young Women sat on the outside and we basically took about 5 minutes talking to one another before we switched seats and began talking to another person. It was such an awesome activity! I learned so much about the older women here (even in 5 minutes) and they were so fun to get to know. Every time they would introduce themselves, they all talked about how long they had been members of the church and how important the gospel was in their lives. And they would go off telling spiritual stories and what a blessing it has been to have been a part of the church. I hope the Young Women gained as much from this activity as I did, because I thought it was ingenious, as well as memorable. I'm truly going to miss the Lea Valley Ward so much. They have made such an impact on my life and to feel their spirit each Sunday was truly a great blessing. I hated saying goodbye because I don't know if I will ever see them again. It's not fun having to make friends, only to have to leave them in a short amount of time. It's so hard.

Walking home from the tube station tonight was probably the slowest I've ever walked home. I reflected on my time here and that's when the tears started to flow. I wish I could explain how much this place feels like home to me. I remember the very first time I came here in 2000 and being at the airport about to fly home. I remember looking at the English sky for what I thought would be the last time, and having my heart just break. I sat in the boarding area of the airport with my mum and just cried my heart out. I've never had anything hurt so much as having to say goodbye to a place that I had barely come to know. But I knew then, that England was a special place for me because only things that are the most important can make your heart ache so much when you have to leave them. My time here has been a very enjoyable one and I'm sad to see it end. I know I will probably come back here yet again... but there is always the foreboding feeling as if it may not happen, which is what scares me the most. It's like Robert Frost's poem, "The Road not Taken," where you have to chose a certain path and "...knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back." I just hope that whatever road I ever end up taking, still has a detour that will lead me back to my home--England.

I'M FINISHED! (mixed emotions)

I am officially finished with my college career.... AAAAAAHAHHHHHAHAHHHAHA! What a relief it was to take my last final and know that I will never have to study for an exam again; I will never have to write another 8 page paper again; I will never have to pull all-nighters for a class again (all-nighters for other purposes may still happen however). I had to seriously refrain myself from skipping down the pavement on my way back to the flat. What a glorious feeling! However, reality sort of came creeping in when I realised that I have no idea what I want to do with my life and now I don't have another semester to fall back on... I actually have to get a life. Weird! Anyway, those thoughts didn't bring me down too much because I'm done with school!

As a reward, I went to St. Paul's Cathedral for tonight's evensong. You know, the multiple times I've been here, I've never once gone to St. Paul's. I recall stopping the coach there on my first trip around, but I was so infatuated with the coach driver, I never even stepped off the bus. Then, on the other occasions, I remember peering at the building from across the Thames as I was going to the Globe Theatre, but never actually walking over to it. I didn't even take the time to at least go up the steps and sing "Tuppins a bag." How pathetic! I now realise how much I've been missing out these past 7 years I've traveled over here. This building is absolutely beautiful! There are gold-platted paintings all over the ceiling and everything is so ornate. One of my favourites was that going into the building, we walked through a revolving door that basically said that this was the entryway to heaven... who knew heaven was so easy to get into? And that it was in London? (actually I knew that latter one already). Aside from that, it actually was a great building and hearing the choral voices echo through the nave was beautiful.

I went to Avenue Q again tonight (just to get some perspective on life--yes, it has a great message for newly college graduates. The first line of the show is, "What do you do with a B.A. in English? What is my life going to be?" Pretty applicable if you asked me).

So this is my next to last night here before I go home and I have mixed feelings about it. Yes, I'm excited to see my family again, but this place honestly feels like home and I hate having to face the homesickness when I head back to the States. Each time I come, it's a completely new experience and I learn so much about life and about myself. I make new friends which I hate having to say goodbye to, but I guess that's part of life... a season, a reason, and a lifetime.

One down, one more to go

So I took my Shakespeare final today and that was a relief to get over with. Actual, the best part about it was that we had a take home essay that we had to write and turn in before the exam, so turning in my last paper of my college career was one of the best feelings ever. When I clicked the 'send' button, I was all like, "Yahoooooooo! No more papers!!!!" It was quite the happy dance that followed afterwards. But I still have one more final to go (that will basically last 12 minutes... literally. We are given a topic, have 6 minutes to prepare our presentation, and then we present our argument to our teacher in 6 minutes. How's that for getting a final over and done with. I'm just not looking forward to preparing for it--thus, why I'm writing my blog instead of studying). Don't worry, the teacher loves me, and if I've learned anything from university, it would be the art of B.S.ing (yes Dad, that is what your hard earned money has helped me to learn these past 6 years). So let's just say I've honed in and mastered this technique very well in order to get passing grades... and I don't see myself losing this art any time soon (*she says now... but lets see if she actually passes the final tomorrow). Anyway, I probably should get back to studying but just one more thing;

So as a fitting requiem to my Shakespeare class, I went to go see The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged, by the Reduced Shakespearean Company. I have seen this show a couple of times before and it never ceases to make me laugh and have a constant smile on my face. It's basically these three guys who take all of Shakespeare's 37 plays and perform them in about an hour and a half. I can't even paint the hilarity of it all. Now granted I knew most of the jokes already (but they're hilarious jokes which always make me laugh), but their improve was outstanding. There was a part in the play where they cut off Macbeth's head (which is basically a ball in a canvas sack with a little happy face drawn on it), and Macduff ends up hitting the head out into the audience with a golf club (cause it's a Scottish play and all). Anyway, it goes flying out into the audience, which was funny in and of itself. But then the dumb British audience member threw it back onstage and one of the guys yelled out, "See, this is why you don't win the world cup... you're supposed to keep the ball!" That had the audience roaring with laughter, myself and Ashleigh being the loudest ones in the bunch. Speaking of Ashleigh's laughter, there was a part where it went completely silent and Ashleigh had been laughing so hard before, that she was trying to catch back her breath and basically she let out a squeak. It was so funny, because the guys in the show, just looked up from what they were doing and gave us a confused look saying, "What the crap was that? Do you have a balloon out there?" which basically made Ashleigh and I laugh even harder. We had a difficult time composing ourselves after that, but it was so funny. I love nights where I just have a smile on my face and I can enjoy a good show... until I come back to my flat and realise I have a final tomorrow at 10 am and then my night is shattered with the dread of studying. The only glistening item of hope is knowing that in less that 10 hours, I will never have to take a university exam again and I will officially be a college "gradimicate!"

As promised

Which one is the real falconer?

The importance of good seats

So I went to see Wicked again tonight, except tonight we had okay/horrible seats. We were on the second row, but totally on the right side of the theatre. Which meant that most of the time the chorus members were standing right in our line of vision, so there were a couple of scenes that I couldn't see at all. A little bitter about it all, but I was mostly bitter because it didn't have the same effect on me as it did before. And I realised it was because of where I was sitting. I was right in front of the speaker and the show just didn't capture me at all...probably because I kept getting removed from all the spectacle. That doesn't mean I don't like the show anymore, it just means that I'm not flabbergasted with it like I was before (I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing). The one highlight of the show though was the Scottish actor who played Boq. He was so fun to watch and listen to, and he was often at the side of the stage where we were sitting, so that made me watching him that much more easy to do. So I guess that is at least one redeeming quality of tonight. But this is just my plug for theatre in general--if you want a great experience, make sure you pay up the bucks to get the good seats... it makes all the difference in the world!

I totally forgot

So I realised when I woke up this morning that I totally forgot to blog it up last night. It's not that nothing happened yesterday (cause it did), but I just got off the phone with my family and then went off to bed because I was tired. And then when I woke up, I checked my e-mail and didn't have any comments on my blog... which is when I realised my mistake. Oh well, I'm sure you didn't go through too many withdrawals.

Anyway, yesterday was a very poignant day for me. It was my last day at church and it was so hard to say goodbye. It's amazing how close you can get with people in only 6 weeks. The two men on the left were always enjoyable faces to see every week(Cliff and Joe). Cliff was the usher who greeted us on our first day and always made sure that he shook every one of our hands at least 3 times every Sunday. He was also quite the stickler with time, making sure every one was in class and not lolly-gagging out in the foyer. He also made sure classes ended on time and we kept everything on schedule. Joe was our token Irish comedian, always cracking jokes and making church enjoyable. He would also give us math puzzles for us to figure out each week. I'll miss them greatly--both the math puzzles and the guys. But, everyone was so kind when we were leaving. They gave us gifts and exchanged e-mail addresses with us. One of the primary girls said that if any of us got married, she would be a bride's maid. How cute is that?

It was especially hard to say goodbye to the Young Women of the ward. They are such wonderful spirits and I am glad I got to be a part of their lives for a short period of time. Granted, they may have thought my teaching skills were a little extreme (well anything I did was pretty extreme for the reserved Brits), but they just smiled at me and figured it was just because I was an American. But they were wonderful to work with and I wish them all the best in their lives.

After church, we went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey. I love the voices of the young men sing the psalms and hymns in such a beautiful structure. It is quite overpowering. Plus, the sermon was great, teaching us to go out and help our fellow men, rather than only be concerned for our own welfare and spiritual safety. It was a nice service and I'm glad I was able to go.

P.S. Thank you for all the birthday messages yesterday, you made my day very special from 5000 miles away (even at 4 am in the morning too ;)!