<3 London.

For the record...

Things are really starting to wind down--everybody is busy with final projects and papers and getting some of the last quintessential London things done before we leave in less than 2 weeks. This weekend was our 'love london' weekend, where there are lots of activities that the school puts together for all of us to do. On Thursday night it was a trip to the theater to see Billy Elliott, which was great. (Though quite long, and the Victoria line was closed for repair--go figure, so getting home could have been easier.) Then on Friday it was a tour of the Tower of London, and then a little detour by myself to Brick Lane on the (sketchy) east end for some browsing of the vintage shops.

And yesterday we all headed over to the QPR vs. Charlton 'football match' as they say. We were cheering for QPR and then won 1-0. I really don't get how these Europeans can be so into watching soccer. I mean it's fun to play I guess but 1-0? I can count on two hands the number of shots on goal there were in the entire game! They were basically just headering (I don't think that's a word) the ball back and forth.

It was cold and rainy, but a lot of fun. This is apparently the 'family friendly' league, although i have never heard such vulgarity out of the mouths of children under the age of 10 before. We also got an e-mail from our program director saying that Gisele Bundchen had been spotted on the arm of 'her boyfriend.' These British...in the U.S. we'd say Tom Brady was spotted on the arm of some Brazilian skank! (Or that's what I would say anyway.)

And last night it was over to O'Neills in Leicester Square to see a cover band play AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, etc. (This however was not an organized school activity, but it was a lot of fun.) We got ourselves a semi-circle booth and immediately regretted that decision when we noticed a big pile of puke on the floor in the middle of the semi-circle. We investigated from afar for a while, trying to figure out what it was (even though deep down, we already knew.) Then some guy came over to claim his coat from the booth and stepped in it...to a chorus of our "Ohhhh Goddddd"'s. Even the employees would stare at it as they blazed on past--nobody wanted to deal with cleaning that up. Finally, someone came over with a mop, and was eyeing the boys suspiciously to try to decide who was responsible for it. They all blamed it on each other.

And now today it's work work work.

I am getting excited to go home, but I'm going to miss London so much! I haven't seen most of my family in over 3 months, which is the longest I've ever gone without seeing them. And, I am excited to start out the summer, figure out internship stuff, go to Vegas in 2 months! But meeting people in London and traveling all over Europe has been one of the best experiences of my life so far.

I've always said I want to live in a big city when I'm done with school (namely Chicago, but there are a lot of places that would be nice.) Still, I had only ever lived in suburbs before this and I had been wondering if I could really pull it off. But this proves it: it's been great--day to day life is so much more exciting when you're living somewhere that's the center of so much activity. (This also may play into me deciding whether to intern in Burlington, VT or NYC this summer...)

The time really has flown by here, and leaving in a week is going to be bittersweet. But I'll always think of London as one of my homes from now on!