i'm back!

I'm back.

Its so depressing because all the excitement is over.

This trip that I've been looking forward to since the beginning of time (well, i tend to exaggerate just a little bit) is over and done with.

But I can say that I had a BRILLIANT time!

It was amazing really, I loved almost every minute of it.

Except for the 14-hour flights that got me cramped up and numbed in different places.

And I'm suffering from jet lag, since I'm typing this post at 3.30am.

Accomodation:

Six people to a room in youth hostels. That was fine I suppose, except for the fact that there wasn't much living space and by the end of the 10 days our stuff was strewn everywhere. If our moms had caught sight of our room! Girls, too. Whoever said that girls were supposed to be neater? My favourite hostel was hands down the one in Stratford. It was so quaint and out in the middle of nowhere, and the common toilets were actually more comfortable to use than the personal toilet we had in each room in the London hostel. There was also a tv room where we encountered this hilarious science experiment comedy! Sulphur+champagne= Sulphagne. Right.

And the other British comedy with this wonderful line: "Stay out of my bastard way forever." Haha. There were these polite 'gangster' guys who came in after that and asked for permission to switch to the sports channel. It was so funny, cos the guy who was asking us for permission was so awkward about it. Then after a while we decided that it was getting weird so we left the room. And Rannald, our wonderful macho man, left us there alone with the guys. Nicholas doesn't count.

Performances:

Well, the best musical was really Les Miserables, though we didn't manage to catch the first part of it because we were late. I had horrible seating where I had to lean forward for the entire show and I was so tired that I couldn't really concentrate on what was going on. Oh and the whole left side of the stage was blocked off for me. So I just had to imagine what the actors were doing on that side of the stage. Bleah. If only they hadn't put that on like the second night. The first few days were damn tiring and we were all exhausted by the time we got to the musicals at night. Wicked was pretty good too, though in a different way. Les Miserables had a brilliant plot and very impactful songs while Wicked was more, well- funny. Both had a strong cast I believe because the acting and singing didn't fall short of my expectations.

The other two performances were not really my kinda thing. It was by the London Symphony Orchestra and The Royal Ballet (Sleeping Beauty). Amazingly, I didn't fall asleep throughout either of them because irritatingly, those were the ones where we managed to get reasonably good seats. So the stage was right in the centre and it was hard to fall asleep with the light glaring in your eyes. Plus the last few days weren't exactly tiring, we didn't walk as much. I suggest if you're not a very musically inclined person, stick to the theatre (i.e. plays and musicals). At least that's what I'm gonna do.

Sites:

Since we visited so many sites, I'm just gonna pick a few of my favourites to talk about. One of the places that really took my breath away was the Globe Theatre. It was amazing, because I had read about it and seen it in so many pictures that I was just so awed to be actually standing in the place itself. Shakespeare and his troupe( Lord Chamberlain's Men) had apparently stolen the theatre and re-built it to keep it going. The guide was telling us the whole history of the place and though I can only vaguely remember it now, it really captured my attention. But imagine stealing a building! Dear, dear, one can only imagine such a thing. William Shakespeare is so inspiring.

Another one of my favourites was defnitely the Westminster Abbey. There were memorials of many famous people such as Franklin Roosevelt, Clement Atlee, Jane Austen, T.S. Elliot, William Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Coleridge and lots lots more. It brought out in me a feeling of deep respect for these great people and I was just so overwhelmed as I stood there. Oh yes, not forgetting the tombs of Elizabeth I (Mr See's favourite Queen), Mary I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Apparently Elizabeth and Mary were arch-rivals as they fought for the throne. It was so interesting to engage in such history and at the same time visit the elaborately-designed memorials because it just made it all so real. It was no longer something that was out of reach or out of mind because I was there, living it all and being a part of it, even though it was all more than a century ago.

The Stonehenge was another particularly intriguing place that we visited. There are a lot of unexplainable mysteries about the place, as apparent in the commentary given by the audio guide. It was filled with "We THINK" and "It MAY be" because really, no one knows how or why the stones came about. They have a lot of theories about it though.

Food:

Well, we had sandwiches almost every day. Occasionally there was pasta and one of the nights we had a Chinese dinner. Dining in Oxford was a brilliant experience. Just sitting there amongst the long rows of tables made me feel respectful. It was apparently the place where the Great Hall in the Harry Potter films were shot, though it looks quite different in real life. There were portraits of the different kings and queens hanging on the wall around us. The Oxford students came to join us later and dinner was served. The students treated the place like it was their home( well I suppose it was in a way) while we were being formal and rather stiff in comparison to them. Haha. The food was alright, though the humus served at the beginning was erm, to put it quite crudely, gross. The pasta was good though, and so was the dessert. Some banana cake thing with syrup and vanilla ice cream. Yum. Though I was so full I was ready to burst halfway through it.

Transport:

We took the tube on most days and the coach on others. Oh let me tell you about the brilliant adventure that Andrea, Nicholas and I had. We had gone to London Dungeon together on that day (Liz, Rannald and Dinah had gone to church) followed by Oxford Circus. On the way back, we were supposed to meet at Barbican station and we happily took the train, feeling quite confident of ourselves. Then after one stop, Nicholas enlightened us that we were in the train that was going in the wrong direction. We wanted to get off then but then we decided oh heck- why not just go to the next station instead of rushing for the closing doors. So we sat in the train for about 10 minutes or so; we had no idea that the next station was so far away! It actually skipped zone 3 and entered zone 4. And so we arrived at Wembley Park. We called the teachers to inform them of our momentus feat. And Mr See kept making fun of me after that! Hmph. Its not as if I was the only one there ok. =P

Okay I guess I have a lot more to say but I shall stop here for now. Shall add more things when I remember them. My sis is coming back from Taipei tomorrow! Yay. Can't wait to see her. Oh yeah, and we shopped a lot in London. I used up all the money I brought there. Tsk tsk. So much for not spending much. =/

I went to watch Happy Feet today with Soef, Mira, Lizzy and Jason. We didn't know Jason was coming! Haha. Soefie only bought 4 tickets. Luckily there was an empty seat beside the row of seats we had bought. The movie was really funny, I enjoyed it. It got a little draggy at parts but mostly it was good. Hilarious and touching at parts, while trying to send across a message that goes something like: Dare to be different. Haha. I love Mumble. He's positively adorable. Yep, yep, then we all went our separate ways. I fell asleep around 9.30pm just now and woke up around 2.30am. Tried to get back to sleep for about an hour but couldn't so finally gave up and decided to use the net. How did I end up blogging? Hmmm.

Goodbye for now! (=