First Full Day... Emphasis on the "Full"

Today has been nothing short of amazing. Truly.

I woke up at 3am last night and freaked out because I REFUSED to be jet-lagged for more than one day. After a lot of coaxing my brain agreed to go back to sleep and I woke up well rested for classes at 8:30. We have classes in a nearby (I'm using the term "nearby" somewhat loosely... we don't have to take the Tube.) church building. London Theatre and Shakespeare (a brilliant combination) until noon. We had nothing else scheduled for the day so I finally got around to doing some grocery shopping. That's right, I am now able to eat and it's a wonderful thing.

We carried our groceries back to our flat and trekked back past the grocery store we had just come from to get to the underground station. Then we went exploring!

"We":

We hopped on the District Line and followed it to Westminster. As soon as we exited from the Underground station we saw this:

(Seriously, that's the view from the Underground station stairs)

Beautiful, isn't he? Pictures really don't do justice to how amazing these buildings are. We spent a good hour staring at the architectural complexities of the Parliament building... and then I took a million pictures that all look the same. One of my favorites angles is from a bridge on the Thames:

But it basically looks good from any view point:

Big Ben's photogenic like that.

After we ooh'd and ahh'd at Parliament and Westminster Abbey for awhile...

(Here's Westminster Abbey for you:  

)

We walked through some gorgeous parks:

 and then followed the Thames around past the London Eye:

all the way to the National Theatre.

We eventually caught the tube and a bus back to our flat where we quickly grabbed dinner and reconvened for a spontaneous trip to the West End to see Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre!

We arrived 30 minutes before curtain and were lucky enough to still get amazing seats (and at a 50% off student discount  rate).

I took this picture without zoom from my seat. That's the stage right there. RIGHT THERE. We were so close we could see tears in Marius's eyes during "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables". Such a great experience.

The theatre was small, but it was by no means a small performance. The set construction and the special effects were fantastic and the acting was nothing short of incredible. They all gave very moving performances. I was particularly fond of Javert's soliloquy scenes and the casting of the student rebels. Just wonderful.

Tomorrow my class is going on a Shakespeare walk... and I'm not entirely sure of what that entails. Then we're headed to Borough Market and have tickets to "Othello" that night. Maybe somewhere in between all that I'll have time to check out Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens... since they're across the street from my flat.

Such a great day, but I'm exhausted!