Being a Londoner

5 Phases of taking the Tube:
Phase 1, the newcomer: "Shoot. What did the voice say? South Kensington? I'm on the right line right? Where's the map. Which way am I going? She said South Kensington, right? Just a few more stops. Okay. Mind the gap. I'll be careful."
Phase 2: "I know I know. Mind the gap. Next station Notting Hill. Wow that recorded voice gets annoying really fast. I wonder if Londoners get homesick for it."
Phase 3: Imitating with exact timing, "The next stop is: Bond Street. This is a Central Line Train to: Woodford via Hainault."
Phase 4: Getting off. "Did the voice even announce this station? I didn't hear it."
Phase 5: At my regular station. "How did I even get here? Oh look, lost tourists."

I discovered that I got so used to living in London that I never posted the quintessential tourist pictures such as Big Ben. I will attempt to rectify that. Just know that I loved living in London. I'm not a city person and that was hard, but I loved being close to so many museums and being part of such a diverse city. You can find people from every walk of life and they all blend together into a beautiful, colorful collage of life.

Whitehall Palace

St. Paul's

Reconstructed Globe Theatre

These little faces are called "grotesques." I thought using it in the drain was clever.

 The Little Pickle. You can see the Big Pickle in the picture above.

Tower Bridge. This is what they guy in Arizona thought he was buying. In actuality he was buying the first London Bridge, which is quite boring and ordinary.

 The Tower of London

Wandering the West End

I cannot do justice to the plays and musicals I saw while I was in England. It's not often you get to live next to one of the biggest theatre districts in the world. I had a marvelous time and was very impressed by everything that went into these plays. Some of them I saw purely for entertainment, others were to rekindle a love of Shakespeare so that I can teach it better in the future. I loved them all, but I think The Lion King may have been my very favorite. Of course, it was also the last, so that might also be why. I have posted pictures and trailers for you so you can get just a little taste of what I saw. It almost made me miss pit orchestra...


Wendy and Peter Pan:

Tinkerbell and Michael


The Crocodile


Michael and John


Wendy and Mr. Darling


Peter Pan


Tiger Lily and Wendy                                                       Peter explaining where the dead go to Wendy

Henry V:

Henry V


French Court


French princess





Wicked:

Elphaba and Gah-linda.


Professor of History



The only good picture I could find of the Elphaba and Fiyero I saw. He's much cuter than the other Fieros. =)

Measure for Measure:























Isabella and Angelo




Mistress Overdone and Pompey



War Horse:

Hamlet: In case you were wondering, Benedict Cumberbatch was worth all the hype. He did a phenomenal job of interpreting Hamlet.

Laertes


Ophelia


Gertrude and Hamlet


"Alas, poor Yorick!"

The Lion King:

Raffiki the baboon and lead singer of "The Circle of Life."


Scar and Mufasa



Nala and the lionesses


Simba