As we wait in this winter storm, so we snuggle close in the darkness & keep each other so warm

So its a little dorky how excited i get when i find the most perfect lyric for the titles of my blogs :) but seriously you would be excited too because this one was just SO perfect!

First of all, its by owl city who we SAW in LONDON last thursday! ehh no big deal..its not like it was even good or anything............JOKES! it was seriously soooo amazing!!! We left on the 9:45 bus & I spent the entire ride there with every owl city song on shuffle and trying to take a little nap :) We got there around 12:15ish and by that time we were pretty hungry (both of us not surprisingly woke up later than we should’ve and chose to spend more time getting ready than eating breakfast) so we ate in the coach station at one of the fast food places. The night before, I had checked the weather and it said that there would be rain until noon and after that it would be pretty warm and partly cloudy. I told that to Brittany & we both decided not to take umbrellas since they were kinda hard to fit in our purses anyway. Bad idea. It was raining the entire time we were there. When I tell people this and expect some sort of pity or at least an “aww”, instead I get “you do realize that you’re in England right?” I know I know, I should have expected it to rain, but I guess I just wanted to have a little faith in weather.com. So, we walked in the rain to the station where we could buy our underground tube tickets because the club where the concert was gonna be was on the complete other side of the city. I’m so lucky that Brittany pretty much knew how the underground system worked & how to read the tube maps because to me, they just looked like a confusing maze of pretty colors and dots ;) We finally figured out how to get to the closest station to the club and after switching trains a few times, we to the right side of the city. Let me just say that I am not a fan of riding trains or subways, theres just something about them that creeps me out. Plus im always so scared that the doors are gonna close on me and im gonna get stuck at the station all by myself :( Fortunately that didn’t happen! When we got to the other station, we then tried to read our map (very much looking like tourists) and find the Electric Ballroom. We wandered around this busy intersection for a bit until we saw this HUGE sign for owl city! The club was literally right down the street from the station! That was so great :) The really funny thing about this part of the city was that it was basically where the punk rockers are. I felt like I needed a Mohawk and bright colored clothes to fit in haha there was a piercing and tattoo place on every corner and each store was full of neon and plaid outfits…definitely not my thing ;) So we went to the club to pick up our tickets and the very tough looking security guard pointed at this random girl awkwardly standing on the sidewalk and said, “theres the line”. Okay, so this is at 2:00pm and the concert doesn’t start until 8pm..and there was already someone waiting in line! In the rain! We were shocked and sorta didn’t know what to do because he said that we couldn’t pick up our tickets until the doors opened at 7. So we found a place to eat and dry off and then we went and shopped for a little bit. There were lots of street vendor-type places that had lots of cute clothes so Brittany and I both got scarves and dresses :) (mine actually turned out to be a shirt..wayyy too short to be a dress!) Around 4:30ish we went back to the club and realized that there were about 20 more people in line, so we decided that we should get in line too. At this time, it was raining pretty hard and very cold, but in order to get a good place near the stage (there wasn’t assigned seating) we had to wait. We kept ourselves occupied by watching the interesting people walk by and the funny guys with Mohawks try to advertize their tattoo parlor with big signs and flyers. It was hilarious to watch people’s reactions when they tried to hand them the papers..im not sure if I would take anything from them either! So we waited. And waited. When it was close to 7, it started to feel like I was standing on a block of ice and I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore. You know that feeling when you’re super cold and it starts to hurt really bad? Yeah that’s where I was. Finally, after 2 & a half hours of waiting in the rain and getting soaked (note to self: peacoats are NOT waterproof..they are pretty much sponges) it was finally time to go in! I have never been so excited to go inside a club in my entire life. Once we got in, we went to the ticket office, picked up our tickets, & then ran to the stage to get a good spot. We were about three people away from the stage & right in the middle :) I took our coats and our bags to the coatcheck counter but by the time I came back, there were so many more people that I couldn’t find Brittany anymore! I really hate those people who try and shove their way to the front at a concert, but I had to be one of them. I felt so awkward trying to make my way to her and I thought that I was gonna get beat up! Haha not really but I still felt really bad! ;) Anyway, I got up to her and that’s when my personal space became veryyyy small. Everyone wanted to get near the front obviously so they were pressing in on all sides and I could barely move! If you know me at all, you know that I have a very large personal space bubble and don’t like to be very close to people. Yeah, that was a problem. I literally had my feet together and my arms folded the entire concert haha I have never been so close to people in my entire life. But it was SO worth it because the concert was AMAZING! The opening act was a girl called Lights, who ive never heard before but she was really good. She was sorta like Owl City because she was electronic-y and had pretty interesting lyrics. She played a couple songs & then it was finally time for OWL CITY!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! He was so great! He played all my favorite songs and was just so adorable and quirky :) I felt really bad though because you could definitely tell that he was sick, because he would cough during some of the instrumental parts and during one song he held a cup of tea :( I just wanted to give him a hug! We had such a great spot in front of the stage, and I got some amazing pictures. It felt like he sang for two minutes because it was over so fast! I could have listened to him sing all night. After the concert, I was so excited to just be able to move my feet & my arms and have my personal space bubble back haha But after standing in the rain for 2 & a half hours and then standing during the 3 hour concert…it really felt as though we were hit by a truck! I was completely exhausted but somehow we made it to our bus station again. We both instantly fell asleep on the bus back because it was about 2:30 when we got back to Cheltenham. Im really surprised that I didn’t write about this sooner because it was such a GREAT day! A little wet, but still great :)

I spent the rest of the weekend working on a paper, yes i actually do work here! ;) I had a hard time getting a hold of the book i needed though, well, i put a hold on it but the previous user never brought it back :/ So i desparately asked my friend emily for her own copy of it and thankfully she let me use it, but then i only had one day to write the paper! So all day Sunday i worked on it and finally got it done :) Here, turning in an assignment is such a strange process..you dont just hand it to your professor. You have to put this confusing cover page on it and then go through this maze (okay its not really a maze, but it sure felt like one!) to the assignment room, where someone signs off on it and places it in the box with the right class name on it. soo weird. I guess the whole thing is just to make everything anonymous (haha it took me so long to figure out how to spell that!)..we don't even write our name on the paper!

Anyway, this is getting pretty long so ill wrap things up. I turned my paper in early on Tuesday because Wednesday a bunch of us were going to london to see the show WICKED!!! It was me, bethany, greg, brittany, kelly, & Danielle...all American students :) we got on the 9:45 bus again and of course, listened to nothing else but the Wicked soundtrack the entire ride! We got there and went to the theater to get our tickets & then found a great place to eat. We were all dressed up because i think its sorta an unspoken rule to get dressed up for a broadway show so we ate at a pretty fancy restaurant called Ha Ha :) After lunch, we headed over to the theater again because it was almost about to start. Our seats were soo good! we were on the floor (not literally on the floor, we had seats ;)) so we could see everything perfectly! From the moment the music started and the actors came out...all 6 of us had our mouths wide open. I literally had chills because the singing was SO AMAZING! I loved everything about it..the set, the costumes, the attractive lead character ;), and especially the music! If you dont know the story, its basically the story before the Wizard of Oz, like how the Wicked Witch became wicked and everything like that. I knew the entire soundtrack by heart but i was absolutely blown away by the talented singers! It felt like you were up there on stage with them and part of the story :) The show went by SO fast though, i never wanted it to end! It has always been a dream of mine to be on broadway someday and that show just made me want that even more :) After the show, we got some dinner and then caught the bus back home. When we got back, everyone convinced us to go out to Boogie Lounge with them, so we all just changed our clothes and went back out. It was so fun! I love just dancing like a crazy person with everyone..its definitely one of my new favorite things to do :) We actually went out last night (thursday) too! haha

Tonight we're having a murder mystery dinner & we all have fun characters to act out so check back here later & ill tell you all about it :)