London London Londontown

IS SUCH A WONDERFUL PLACE OF MAGICAL AMAZINGNESS!!!!

This is going to be a doozy of a post, so just embrace it and mentally prepare yourselves ;) Also, doozy is totally a word. Stupid spellcheck. Also, I'm declaring spellcheck a word. Stupid spellcheck.

OKAY.

When we stepped off the train into the famous St. Pancras International Train Station, I almost died with excitement: I WAS IN LONDON!!! When we made it out into the streets, already bustling with Friday night activity, a ridiculous smile stretched my face beyond the capacity of my skin. I had waited 20 years to be in this city, and there I was, ready to explore and conquer.

That night, Danny, Aaron, and I had a little "guys' night plus Amy" at the local pub before getting dressed up to head out to the clubs for the night. We ended up at "The Zoo" -- appropriately named based on the number of people present that night. All was fun and games until we couldn't quite find our way home and I realized I had to go to the bathroom so badly that it might be a better option to rip my bladder out of my body than wait the fifteen minutes to get home. Luckily, we did make it in time, and I slept incredibly well after alleviating the excruciating pain that was tearing its way through the walls of my bladder. Oof.

The next morning we went on Alison's Literary Golden Mile (a literary tour of the homes/workplaces of famous authors throughout our corner of London). It was the perfect day for a tour -- sun shining... traffic chirping...? I don't really recall any birds, except massively huge ravens. Ugh. The tour ended in the British Library (for scholars only!) at an exhibit of the original works of famous authors, musicians, and theologians.

I. Almost. Cried.

I saw Jane Austen's handwriting scribbling through pages of her original journal -- some of her first works! I saw the original copy of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. But what really moved me, not surprisingly, was the music section. To see with my own eyes original copies of music created by Henry Purcell (many of whose songs I have practiced in previous years), Handel's Messiah, Schubert, Beethoven's tuning fork... lyrics from the Beatles scribbled on envelopes and scrap pieces of paper. Seeing their edits was like watching the creative process unfold in front of me, something I am well familiar with in my own pursuits of original musicality. I felt so akin to these famous musicians and composers, yet so incredibly small in my endeavors. Handel wrote his Messiah in TWENTY FOUR DAYS. Pure genius, in twenty four days. INCREDIBLE.

After eating the biggest blueberry muffin in the world (which was really more like a cupcake with a clump of blueberries in the middle, not objecting!), we headed to the famous British Museum to visit the mummies and Greco-Roman sculptures.

The highlight of the day, however, was going to the Barbican Theatre to see the London Symphony Orchestra perform a three part concert. Oh. My. Word. There is nothing in the world that speaks to my soul like live classical music. I can close my eyes and let my imagination run like fire. Classical music brings me straight back to the arms of my family -- to a mother whose piano music has embraced the walls of our home since my childhood, to a father whose love for classical music inspired my love for it in the first place. I felt so at home, and so inspired to never let my music go. Music is in everything that I am. Music fills my head when I walk down the street, covers my dreams at night, wakes me up in the morning, and pumps through my veins when I dance. Nothing will ever hold my attention like music.

After the spiritual high of Saturday, Sunday had enormous shoes to fill, and fill them it did! We headed to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (unfortunately, only a replica as the original burned down centuries ago) and saw Henry IV Part I in a setting much akin to the theatres in Elizabethan time. As I stood by the stage (the true way to see an Elizabethan style play), I was taken back hundreds of years to a time when getting a standing spot at a theatre cost one penny, 1/6 of a day's wage. Aside from the Northfaces and beer bottles, I would have easily been fooled into believing I had certainly stepped into another time. What a fabulous and priceless experience it is to be able to let your mind fall backward in time, and to awaken only to realize that that kind of history certainly does exist. That those people did exist. Hundreds, thousands of years ago. They were there. Our country is so young....

So that was London. And it was WONDERFUL! I would be so incredibly happy to live there (minus the added expenses of living in a big city), but I will be perfectly content living in Nottingham for these 9 months. After graduation, who knows where I'll end up. Not knowing the future is kind of exciting, isn't it? :)