Channeling a Screech Owl. Left my snowy white coat in London with the rest of the magic.

My flatmates are a big part of the reason why I can't currently think of Newcastle fondly. They and the rest of the college students here are stunning sometimes.  One of the reasons I came here was to escape the superficiality of my generation but now that I'm here I'm stuck in this everlasting *facepalm* moment. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of the British kids I have met from around up here. And I still love London and spending the last week of my Spring Break there with my grandparents rekindled my flame for England herself. Maybe it's the New Yorker in me that will always be more taken in by the big city and sophisticated image. I would still love to live in Leicester Square one day, spend my days wandering through Covent Gardens ad my nights musical-hopping. Despite the way the rest of the college students here seem perfectly gung-ho about turning the best years of their lives into one large chug of a treble and a fist-pump, my favorite way to spend an evening is by going to see what happens when ordinary people with extraordinary voices step onto stage and become larger than life. Especially if the experience is anything like Jersey Boys at the Prince Edwards theater.

You guys, this performance was INCREDIBLE! When I got to London, my grandparents were like, "hmm maybe we should see if we could get tickets to this." They knew it was about Frankie Valli and the Four Season whose music they love. I knew even less than that, just that it was about a quartet, that it was acclaimed, and that my mom has been trying to get tickets to it for about two years now. So I was all, YES! because I love musicals, because my grandparents have a record for taking me to see shows that are off the charts! (ex: Best performance you could EVER see of Les Mis at a small theater in Mesa, Arizona) and because I love everything I know about the fifties. 

Little did I know that I was going to see the best performance I've seen to date. So good I started to get sad a little ways into the second act because I knew it would be over soon and as my ears perked to the sound of the awesome music, and we laughed at the practically flawless script (and laughed uncomfortably AT the guy playing Gyp DeCarle who just had a ridiculous Jersey accent that made me have a flashback to the January showing of Footloose when my friends and I left the theater going: Where could they have been from?! He sounded like he was from Boston and then at moments he was sort of British except when he was Irish...) I was already plotting the fastest way to see it again. In the SECOND ROW. My grandparents rock ya'll.

Perhaps the most startling thing was that we didn't see the regular lead, or even the understudy apparently! Instead we saw Frankie played by this guy named Tom Oakley, and judging from the star power he had I am literally weak in the knees imagining what the usual guy is like. To add to my delight, my Grandfather also loved it and said it was one of the best he's ever seen. My grandfather has lived so it always makes me excited when he seems as jazzed about something we experience together as I am.

Other highlights of my fabulous sojourn in London include, but at not limited too:

1) When I ventured to Portabello Road for the first time and my Mimi bought me the BEST MOTHEREFFING SHOES on the planet! They are from this fabulous little shop that sells stuff that plays on a vintage theme but looks shiny and brand new. I want to live in this store:

It's actually just off of Portabello Road. And unlike a lot of what you'll find at the market, it is not cheap. And yet my Mimi who is amazing and kind of a hippie spotted these shoes in the window, encouraged me to enter the store, encouraged me to try on the shoes, and agreed to buy them without blinking an eye at the price because she said they looked so London!-they do!- and that every 21 year old should own a pair of shoes like these. She shops like I do!!

 So without further ado: 

Can't decide if the tissue box makes it artsy or cheaper looking.  I don't know! It's  my first time trying for a fashion-y photo ok? 

Aren't they just wild?! I make inappropriate NnUGH! sounds when I look at them and they look SO good on. And I suppose some people would think these shoes are par for the course with the fashion scene in England but you would be wrong because what I generally see the trend being are strappy fuck me shoes with really really high heels and platforms all in one solid color. And those are fine- hot, whatever- but they are not fashion ladies and gentleman. With finds like these, you never forget where you were when you saw them for the first time, how your heart raced and your hands got all sweaty, and then the trickle of disbelief and ecstasy when you realized that they were going to be yours, all yours. You look at them and you're transported back to, in this case, London, April 2011 when you were 20 going on 21 and had the world at your feet. Or should that be on your feet? 

As we checked out, my grandfather facetiously held up this card:

That's all I'm saying! 

But just to clarify. I'm not saying purchases like these have to be expensive. Things can be cheap and still let you have that moment. This particular moment just cost a bit more. 

And that moment continued into the next day when I pranced them all about Covent Garden and into my favorite jewelry store, Accessorize. It's an awesome, awesome chain- chique, funky Modcloth style for half the price- and I am ecstatic that a store just opened in the mall near my house in New York. One of the reasons that store makes me so happy just to be inside of it is that the girls in there have good taste. For instance, when I was trying on sunglasses in there (and btw England, what is WITH the sunglasses in your chain stores? None of them settle on the face right. I had this problem in H&M too) the girl behind the counter scampered over to me and said, "Excuse me, I just have to tell you that your shoes are absolutely amazing. Where did you get them from?" and then a few minutes later another salesgirl tapped me on the shoulder and laughed, "I was listening earlier. Where did you get those shoes from again?"

After I was oohed and ahhed at as we checked out, we happily made our purchases (great flip flops for my grandma who didn't realize they are not commonly $30 - they were her first pair!- and this guy!!

for me! I collect owls because I'm an owl! See?

Tip for those living in England for a while:  buy a change purse for your big pound and two pound coins along with all the crazy different types of coins you'll pick if you decide to travel on the continent. I bought one and had to replace it with this one because it was too small! The owl is a good size)

2) After checking out, we made our rejuvenated way over to this little cafe in a secluded, downstairs area of Covent Garden where we met my Gampy for glasses of wine and where we were treated to an excellent performance by a troupe of goofy violin players called Oopsie who made the funniest expressions while they played, had choreogaphy thrown in there, and best of all, played to the children. We had two adorable little kids, an older girl and her brother, drop change into the group's case and pull up chairs next to us. The 5 payers surrounded them and played sweet songs for them and one of the guys made heart eyes at the girl causing her to giggle uncontrollably. We bought their CD but I wish there was a DVD too! 

3) Hamlet at the Globe! The lead was great! 

The only downside was this poll was in our way = /

4) The Tower of London where we had a fantastic Beafeater for our tour guide. I've been to the Tower three times and it remains one of my favorite things to do in England. Those stories do not get old and it is impossible to remember all of them so a refresher is always nice. I knew about the death of the two little Princes by King Richard III in the bloody tower, and about Anne Boleyn but I DID NOT know her execution story. Apparently, her executioner's heart wasn't really in it because she was supposedly quite beautiful and non-threatening. On her execution day, a resigned Anne walked up Tower Hill to her execution spot, clasped her hands in front of her and started to pray. Her executioner, wanting to quell her terror by catching her off guard shouted "Where is my sword!!" and swung. Apparently- I don't even know if this is possible- but when he held her head up the crowd gasped. Anne's eyes were still moving back and forth and her mouth was moving in silent prayer. 

Goosebumps right? That's just the story I remember the most. There are so many other great ones. I really want to see The Other Boleyn Girl with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson and read all of those books now! The English monarchial tradition is fascinating.  

I also saw a Tower Raven! They're ginormous! 

My Mimi actually joined me in hypothesizing what the other, normal sized birds think of when they see these guys for the first time. Something along the lines of, "Oh my god! What's that." "Just be quiet, wait for it to leave" "It's not leaving!"

She's so great. 

5) And at the Tower, I accidentally ran into Natasha Bedingfield. I'm not a huge fan or anything but this is notable because these types of things never happen to me. If I meet a famous person, it's usually the culmination of months of planning, saving, and persuading my parents to let me go and then convince my best friend to "just COME to the PATD show at Jones Beach. I will physically pay for you to stand there with me and hear good music and see my favorite piece of eye candy. BRENDON URIE for FREE woman!" 

So we're standing at the entrance to the Tower and all of a sudden this woman starts singing "Unwritten" and its jaw-droppingly good and I couldn't imagine a cover that good and I could only see her from behind but she was blonde and had great shoes and there were a ton of people watching her so I asked someone. I asked, "Is that Natasha Bedingfield?" and they said "Yes" so I was like "OH MY GOSH..wait...could I..maybe I could" and I bantered a bit with the security guy who finally let me out with the promise that yes, I would take less than five minutes,yes, and then I ran over to the gate where other fans were standing so I could get a picture of her on stage but the song was over = / but then she was walking towards me : ) and then she was IN FRONT of me taking a picture with the fans next to me and then this happened!

She's very pretty in person. And she seemed sweet.
A bit harried but nice. 

6) I'm gonna do a lump sum here cause I'm tired and this is getting long. Spinach and Mushroom crepes outside of St. Pauls, visiting the Cathedral with my Mimi who was seeing it for the first time, trying turkish food for the first time and best god-darn hummus I've ever had.

View of the Millenium Bridge and St. Pauls from the Globe. 

Yes, when my Gampy and Mimi travel they like to luxuriate in food and culture which is just another one of a hundred reasons why they are two of my favorite people on the planet! This trip has been in the making for years as they've told me mouthwatering travel stories that made me itch to do it for myself, but I have also always wanted to do it together, to see it firsthand. My Gampy hadn't been to London in 40 years. My Mimi hadn't been for a long time either. And I was really proud and honored, after all these years of having them introducing me to beautiful things in the world, to be able to show them some of my favorites.

So yes, I was living the good life during that time in London. And then I was on the train home and I spotted the neon of the life center sign and my shoulders hunched, the sense of unease rising slowly. Then I came back to my flat where I barely talk to my flatmates, where I've spent the last few months not feeling very well, in a city where there isn't much to do. And well, I won't ramble. I'll just post this. I wish it was more of an exaggeration. There are a few diamonds in the rough but her description of how she acts on a night out, and the way she looks, is pretty close to the norm.

http://www.mtv.co.uk/shows/geordie-shore/video/geordie-shore-sophie-interview

Yep, that's my current city. Oh and my flatmates would rather watch THIS than "Glee". As if they could ever actually "watch" anything at all though since they still haven't managed to ascertain the proper way to act when watching something in the living room. Even when we got along back in the beginning of the year there was a night when Elizabeth I came on and they proceeded to talk so incessantly and so loudly that I finally had to point out that I was watching the movie. And then, the other day one of my flatmates and I are watching Wifeswap, two other flatmates enter, and I could not hear one more word anyone on screen said. The baffling thing about it was that they were laughing and commenting on the show. I wondered how this was possible when they surely could not hear what was going on. And then today I'm watching "Glee" and the doorbell rings. I let my flatmate's dentist buddies in who apparently came over to watch the premier of "Made in Chelsea". My flatmate enters the common room. Glee is over for me. I am sitting two feet away from the screen, the actors and actresses are singing, but the meaning behind their moving lips is no longer accessible to me. I give up and go to make soup and laugh awkwardly as everyone talks over Chris Colfer belting in the background. Chris Colfer has a beautiful voice especially in "As If We Never Said Goodbye" but I don't think there can be a more awkward form of background noise. My flatmate commented on it. She said, "Oh my god, I don't get it. It's so embarrassing. Why would you just belt out a song out of nowhere?"

Um, because it's Glee, and there's a format to Will Schuster's lessons and the kid's performances, and I doubt he anticipated that he would have your skittish and unappreciative attention?

I wandered back in for "Made in Chelsea". Ask me how it was. I couldn't tell you but maybe they could seeing as there was, again, an awe-inducing running commentary on the show they weren't watching. I mean yes, it's reality TV so its bound to be awful but whatever small amount of plot was there was pretty much incomprehensible. Then one girl goes, "Have you ever seen Remember Me with Robert Pattinson. Oh my god we have to watch it!" I left before I burst. "Watch" it! Ha! That's a laugh!

I'm not answering the doorbell anymore.

Newcastle makes me tired.