The Final Goodbye

I don't know if anybody will be checking this anymore, but I felt like I needed some closure to this blog, so here I go.
I never got to write about my last day (which seems SO long ago now), so I guess I should touch on that.
Our last day started off with a meeting for checkout and just kinda hanging out with everybody. Sister Hall came to our flat and just talked to us for a while which was really fun, I miss her. :( Haha. Once we got ready Josh and Caitlin and I went to the British Library- a must see that we still hadn't done! It was soooo so so neat. It had manuscripts written in Shakespeare's own hand!! And TONS of other things too. Lots of famous authors were represented, and my favorite was a copy of Charlotte Bronte's JANE EYRE in her own handwriting! WOW. For those who don't know, Jane Eyre is my very favorite book of all time. I would tell you about the page that was open, but it would give away the story to those who haven't read it, so I'll just say it was totally romantic and I LOVE that book. ;)
In the music section they had handwritten scores by Mozart, Beethoven, Vaughn Williams, Schubert, and even Handel's Messiah!! The page open for that was "The Trumpet Shall Sound," and it was just so inspiring to see the actual score! I enjoyed seeing the difference in cleanliness and shape between Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. It was really exciting.
After the British Library we headed over to the Globe Theatre for MacBeth. It was really well done, but I personally really didn't like it. I felt like it was R rated and wanted to leave. It was really gorey and just had some stuff that didn't need to be done that way. It was a neat experience though because we got to be the "groundlings." If anybody knows what the Globe theatre looks like there is a section of the ground floor that is for people to stand. These tickets were only 5 pounds so thats what we did. It was crazy though because they had this big black tarp stretching over the place where you stand, with holes for your heads so just your head is poking out and you can't see anything below you. This is because they have these crazy little witches that run around underneath and scare the life out of you!! Haha. Creepy.
Here are a couple pictures from the event.



The play took a while and then we headed back for food and then off to our last concert. We saw the London Philharmonic orchestra at Royal Festival Hall. They started off with Brahms' violin Concerto in D Major which was super impressive, and then played the Symphony Fantastique by Hector Berlioz. I've studied the Symphony Fantastique but never heard it all the way through so this was a treat! I really enjoy orchestral music- there is such a power and beauty in it. The concert was really enjoyable, and afterwards we all partied by hitting up McDonald's together for the last time. ;) We went home and should've started packing... but didn't. It was our last night and I just didn't want to leave these people! So we all just hung out for quite a while, and then I finally started packing at 2:30. We had all decided we weren't going to go to bed because we had to get up so early, and it would help with jetlag. Which it did. So yeah, I finished packing a little before 5, our taxi picked us up at 5:15, and then we were on our way! I don't want to go into details because its boring and disgusting, but from the time the taxi picked us up to the time I got home last night I was traveling for a total of 26 and a half hours. GROSS. And by the time I got to bed it had been an exact 48 hours since I had woken up Thursday morning (my most recent night of sleep). I had a couple small naps on the plane, but not too much. Plus, my body had had enough and I got sick. Haha, so it was really exciting, and now I'm home! :) Its good to be back... right? ;)
Well thats about it. This trip has been aboslutely incredible, I couldn't have asked for more. Its taught me so much and I feel like such a better and stronger person because of it. I have a new sense of independence that I hope never leaves, and I'm ready to take on the world! ;) I'm really grateful that Sarah told me to keep a blog- not only does it serve as an incredible record of my experiences, but it has helped me make each day so fulfilling (I had to have good stuff to blog about) and helped me to always look for the good in everything (I didn't want to sound like a Negative Nancy)! Both of those things are HUGE in living a happy life, so I'm really glad that this blog has helped me do that. :)
Thanks for reading everyone! Talk to you soon!
:)