Cultural Events Of All Sorts

Yesterday was the day for all kinds of events. At 4:15, Callie and I stood in line for the 5 o'clock sign up for Session C cultural events. For this set of three weeks I am going to go to: 1. A Karaoke Party to celebrate the 4th of July, 2. Antony and Cleopatra at the Globe Theater, 3. Les Miserable, 4. Leeds Castle and Canterbury daytrip, and finally 5. the Harry Potter walking tour. All, except for the karaoke party, occur next week. This weekend, July 7-9, I will be going on the Paris weekend trip with the AIFS program.

After buying all of our tickets, we quickly ate our dinner and then hurried to Leicester Square. Why? Well, The Pirates of the Caribbean premiere of course. I knew that it was going to be packed. In fact, to actually get a spot at the fence where you can get an autograph from the stars you'd have to be there at 6 AM or even earlier. It was a mad house by the time we arrived. We stood in the massive crowd in front of the large screen TV that showed the red carpet.

I got a picture of Orlando Bloom, but more importantly, I got a picture of Johnny Depp, both on the big screen before they turned it off. Still trying to see the stars in person, we walked to the another part of the square to a corner that no one really came to. Though I must say, being a good sport for all of his fans, I did see a glimps of Orlando Bloom. It was very cool. I would've loved to Johnny Depp in person. Anyone who knows me well enough will understand this!

After a while we decided that there wasn't any remaining chance for us to see the stars, plus we had to meet some of our other friends at the pub The Brewmaster. Today we were celebrating Jessie's birthday. We sat around with our own drinks (mine was water - as always) and talked. Then the group of guy friends of Jessie and Christine's came. It was fun, though I didn't really talk to anybody.

Around 8 PM my back began to hurt. It was a mixture of everything imaginable: the heat, my posture, the way I carry my satchel, sleeping on that bed, riding the Tube so many times I think I have permanent whiplash, having people push you from all directions as they desperately try get to the fences to see any movie star at the premiere and so on. So once the group left the Brewmaster and we were going to head for the next pub, I headed back to Kensington.

In my PJs and doped up with pain meds, I laid in bed from 8 to 10 listening to the entire soundtrack from the musical The Secret Garden. Then I officially got ready for bed and lay back down.