Crunch Time

It's the final countdown. Five days from now I will be done with my hilarious, amazing, informative experience at the London Centre and welcoming some family into the great city of London. Only two papers and two finals stand in my way. At first it seems such a bummer that amidst all the fun times and breathtaking sites I have to focus some of my time on studying. However, as they said in class today, this was not just a seven week vacation but a learning experience that will benefit us for the rest of our lives. So I plan on buckling down and doing well. I have it good because most everyone else is trying to cram all the things they didn't get to do yet in this week as well but I have next week too. I am really happy about that.
Last week we went on a week long trip to the Lake District, Hadrian's Wall, and Scotland. I LOVE SCOTLAND. I couldn't understand their accents, ate two fried Mars Bars, saw the Tatoo (a military band concert), saw The Elephant Castle restaurant where JK Rowling started Harry Potter, toured Scottish parliament, went to an Olympic football match, and was lucky enough to be there during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. World famous for its variety and uniqueness, I couldn't help but believe it walking down the Royal Mile, the street all the actors go to advertise their shows. In full costume, employing gimmicks from frozen people to walking around on stilts with noise-makers, I turned down more fliers than I can count. I saw three shows. Sarah, Janie, and I were offered free tickets to Midnight at the Boar's Head (which was actually at 8:15). While waiting for it to start we ran into some Elders from New Jersey and China. They seemed a bit overwhelmed to have three rather energetic girls talking to them. The show was Shakespeare with songs. Weird. The stage was a small riser in the corner of a small room with no more than 20 people. We got some free beer out of it and Janie got to be a part of the show. She was part of the army, named Simon Shadows, and armed with a party hat and a spray gun. Sarah and I busted a gut laughing at her. It made sitting through an hour of the weirdness totally worth it.
The second show we went to was the single best thing I have ever seen in my life. Called Hi-Kick, a Korean company portrayed the story of a rag-tag soccer team earning their right to play at the soccer field with the good team. Picture a Chinese game show plus soccer plus dancing plus slapstick. At one point I was hyperventilating. I'm pretty sure the only English the actors knew was their lines, "I love football" and "pass" and "sorry". Oh it was brilliant. At one point they invited audience members to play volleyball on stage and then we all hit around beach volleyballs. It was the most random, weirdest, dumbest thing I've ever seen but so worth it. The little boys in front of us thought it was pretty funny too. A few girls in my group were a litle miffed that we spent money to see it but I thought it was awesome. Later when we ran into my professor and his family, he congratulated us on really embracing the Fringe. And when we described the hilarity of Hi-Kick, he, in all seriousness, stated, "I really would have liked to see that." Good times, good times.
The last show we saw on our own was some stand-up in a bar. I was a little nervous about the inappropriateness of it (just being me, ya know) but it was actually very funny. And it was free! Three acts went and then the headliner, who was Canadian! And funny! Made me proud to be Canadian. At night we went to the Tatoo. It was so awesome. I took a lot of videos to show the fam. I really can't explain it in a way that doesn't make it sound lame but it was tres sweet. You'll just have to believe me. Earlier in the day we had our first deep-fried Mars Bar. Janie's sister-in-law served a mission in Scotland and told us we had to get them, so we did, and we loved them. The Tatoo started at 10:30. We did not get out until 12:30. As we walked down the street back to our hostel, we noticed our fish and chip place was still open! So in all spirit of that ever popular phrase YOLO we treated ourselves young. Two deep-fried mars bar in one day equals what we like to call Death by Mars Bar. They've already delegated me to bring Mars Bars down to Provo and we are having a deep frying partay. Our hostel in Edinburgh was very nice and each room had private showers and bathrooms. So great compared to some other places we've stayed. The day I just described was Saturday. Sunday we drove 8 hours home on the bus, stopping at Durham Cathedral for the Eucharist service. We made it home by 10 pm and I've just been working on homework, laundry, classes, tidying and gearing up for the week ahead.
I realize I have been slacking on the blogging thing but I have been keeping a great journal! I know, I know, it's no excuse but I would really rather just be out doing things than typing on a computer. And I added pictures to facebok. A picture says a thousand words. So don't expect anything special but I'll try sometime to talk about my trip in the Lake District, Cambridge, and Hadrian's Wall sometime this week.