July 16th, 2009:
We woke up today and got a lot of errands done- Jenny and I that is. After English class, we met up with everyone at the British Academy of Music museum. A lot of great instruments were there,
but when our personal harpsichord performance fell through, we were allowed to leave. We were in close proximity, so Professor Simpson led 22 of us to the Abbey Road crossing at Abbey Road Studios. We all jumped and took a bunch of Beattle-esque pictures at the crossing.
A select few of us left swiftly after to head to Westminster Abbey for the Evensong Performance.
Again, there were questions of us making it there in time, but I kept pushing us-- saying that we would make it. About 6 of us did make it just in time for the start of the service, which was actually pretty cool. I hadn't been to a mass since I was a teenager and I found it interesting that not only was the service in English, they also, several times, made prayers directly to Queen Elisabeth II. A choir from America led the responses and sang the requiems. I was excited because I was able to write my extra credit report on this concert whilst attending.
Everyone stayed there by Westminster but I tubed it back to the hotel to get, yet again, my camera charger. I raced back to St. Martin in the Field's cathedral and just perfectly made it in time for the performance.
I wasn't the only one to make an entrance though:
fresh out of hiding from the abyss that was her quarantined hotel room, Rachel too showed up at the performance!!!
I was really happy to see her. She didn't stay long, but it kind of gave us all a glimmer of hope that the three swine flu victims would be ok.
After the performance, we had run out of our stash and so it was time to see our fabulous friend Richie again. This time, he sent his lovely girlfriend to meet us and while we were waiting, it started to rain. It really started pouring down crazy hard and Me, Iggi, Yasmin, Mikey, Jenny, and Julia got soaked. We ran through the rain to the nearest tube stop, but it was closed due to flooding! We kept running from awning to awning trying to not get any more wet.
Finally, we stopped in at a pub for a drink and the warmth of their heater. We all had talked about the only bad thing about the trip was that we hadn't talked to or met any English friends. Of course right as we were talking about this, an English guy was trying to sell us fake tickets to a Mars Volta concert, so that really warmed us to the thought of making friends! We all wanted to make friends here so that we would have people to visit when we return. Then again, I am sure we will all be friends for a long time and may even end up meeting up again later on in life like the ending of some Charles Dickens novel.
