crazy weather and hectic flights

Too much has happened over the last two weeks to simplify into a few paragraphs, but I'll try. The last week of our stay in London was hectic to say the least. Each student had to do a final paper for each class on a topic of his/her choosing. For John, I picked a purely academic topic - the analyzation of rebellious children in the plays we'd seen, using The Woman Hater, The Homecoming, and Henry IV, Part 1. However, in my other paper, I wrote about the development of Leicester (pronounced Lester) Square. Both were pretty interesting to write, but typing on my computer wasn't exactly my dream for the final days. Then, there were the tests. The theatre test was the traditional pick 2 essays from a suggested list, but Sarah's final was a monster. There was a section of random multiple choice questions, three brief essays, the identification of two church floorplans, and an entire page full of items (i.e. corinthian order, pedimental sculpture, and stippling) and our objective was to say where in London they could be found (Chiswick House, British Museum, Wilton Diptych). It definitely wasn't easy but everyone seemed pretty surpised at what they were able to remember. Afterward, we had a few hours to relax before meeting at the Prince of Tech, a local restaurant for a little end of the course celebrating.

We were all very relieved to have the semester over on that Wednesday, and even more glad to have two free days in London. On Wednesday, we took our second trip to the Cheshire Cheese, which is one of the oldest pubs in London, I think. It was converted from an old monestary. I'm not really sure on the history. It has a Wickepedia page, though.

We spent the last two days relaxing and packing, for the most part. Friday, was the busiest though. We caught luch at the Borough Market and I bought what is probably my last bottle of delicious apple juice from fruit grown in Kent. Then, we did the tour of the Tower of London. Forgetting it was Easter weekend, though, we were confronted by an excessive amount of tourists. Terrible. Otherwise, the tour was interesting and our Beefeater tour guide was funny. The weather was a different story, though. Even though it had been nice for the entire day, it started sprinkling after we got our tickets and then rained off and on throughout our whole tour. Then, when we were waiting int the unbelievably long queue to see the crown jewels, it started to hail. It was so miserable. Finally, Maggie and I warmed up with a trip to Harrods with Heidi. It was more elaborate than I could have imagined and wished I wasn't so tired when I went. The last part of our evening was a trip to the Stockpot which is a nice, plain English restaurant with really delicious food.

Saturday meant leaving London behind, though. We were all sad but excited for Amsterdam. We toured the Ann Frank House, visited the Van Gough Museum, took a canal boat tour, stopped inside the church with the largest nave in The Netherlands (which is no Christopher Wren by the way) and got an eye-blistering veiw of the red light district. It was so nice to be in a country where I didn't have to feel guilty for speeking English. The people were very nice and the city was beautiful except for one thing. SNOW, oh yeah, and HAIL. I guess I have nothing to complain about to everyone in WI but it was pretty painful having left my winter coat in London. Luckily I brought my wool hat and scarf. Sadly, I didn't even see real tulips up close.

Today I arrived in Barcelona, though, where it is sunny and 60ish. Our hostel is right next to the beach, which is amazing. It really was a great day, except for dragging 75 pounds of luggage through two cities. First of all, I thought I left my A/C adapter for my computer in Amsterdam because we left our dark room at 6:30, but it was sitting on top of my clothes when I opened my suitcase. Secondly, I didn't get charged by the sketchy Clickair airline for having baggage that was 10 kilo over the limit. It was spectacular. Now I'm tired and ready for bed, but I have to read a little Harry Potter Book 6 because it is not coming to Florence.