I just want to be a sheep baa baa ba baa

Friday March 9^th was primarily spent doing homework and trying to be productive. However, we decided that we wanted a dinner and a musical for our nighttime activity. So, around 5, KJ, Katie O, and I went to buy Matilda tickets…however at the box office they were 60+ pounds. No thank. So we hit up Leicester Square discount box offices. Yes, plural. I think we went to four? Anyways, somehow we ended up with only one Matilda ticket, so the Katies got back in line for Legally Blonde tickets (since I had already seen that musical in the states). Long story short, that’s how I ended up going to go see my first London West End musical on my own…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

After buying tickets we met up with Neenz and headed into Chinatown for dinner. We ate dumplings at Dumpling’s Legend. How original. Anyways, Katie O & I really liked ours. Neenz liked hers okay but then felt sick later. And KJ had some serious trouble eating hers, spraying the juice everywhere, and didn’t even like it very much… So needless to say dinner was an experience.

After dinner, Neenz walked me to my theater while KJ & Katie O went to go see Legally Blonde. Now I love the Leicester Square/Covent Garden/Piccadilly Circus area of London, it really feels like London to me, but at 6:45/7:00 everything starts to look very very familiar. So we walked in circles before we finally (and I mean finally) found the Cambridge theater at about 7:25. Barely on time, but I made it.

Now Matilda was great!! I wouldn’t rave about the skills, but the cast was made up with 10 or 11 children, so that was impressive in itself. The music was just so much fun as was all the choreography with ABC blocks, scooters, and swings. The plot line stuck to that of the movie too, so it was so much fun to watch that be played out on the stage. I actually had really good seats too; first row of the balcony with barely any visibility issues. Yeah sometimes the musical additions were a bit corny, but the musical was just so much fun!! So that was really my first solo London experience! I’m quite proud of myself actually, even getting home on the Tube by myself.

Saturday, March 10^th was a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath!

            I’m glad we did these two together, because even though Stonehenge was great to see, it wouldn’t be worth an individual trip. So our bus/guide brought us to Stonehenge first which is quite impressive, mainly to me by the size of these rocks! After walking around we decided to explore the fields and got awfully close to some nasty sheep….They really kind of are gross animals grazing in the fields…

            Next stop: Bath, which is just another quaint (but busy) England city. I’m really growing to like these areas like Canterbury and Oxford and now Bath. Of course our tour started us looking at the Roman Baths which is what the place is famous for! So that was cool, basically what you expected to see at least in my opinion. After that we just explored! We stumbled upon a Market (where I may have bought a scarf or two…), walked through the Abbey, found sweet shops, a store where Bath Aqua glass jewelry is made and sold, and walked around and around and around. There is still more to see there like the Fashion Museum & the Jane Austen Center, but even though we did have a few hours there I at least felt a bit too pressed to try to make it through museums. Oh I forgot about lunch! It was such a beautiful day out today with the sun and blue skies, we got our food from a little place (I ate my first pasty!) and picnicked on the parade gardens. So relaxing. 

            This seems like a pretty short blog for the day trip, but we really just explored the town by walking around. I really liked Bath, and I bet I could enjoy another day there to go into more cool places.