12/05/2016 - 28/06/2016

• being calmed by quiet train rides through the countryside
• crying happy tears when our guide at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour said "Welcome to Hogwarts" and pushed open the doors to the Great Hall
  • spending hours combing over the sets, props, and costumes
  • deciding that I would never again let anyone from the group get in my way or make me feel weird
  • shedding many happy tears because Harry Potter
• entering Canterbury Cathedral and being in complete and total awe of the place
• climbing the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in the rain with the bells clanging and the organ music playing and feeling as though I was on a very important quest
• my day in Dover
  • navigating the town with confidence and ease because I asked for directions when I needed them and never allowed myself to panic
  • getting my feet wet in the freezing water of the English Channel
  • eating lunch on top of the cliffs as I gazed across the channel to the French coast
  • frolicking down the cliff paths, singing cheerful songs and pretending to be Bilbo Baggins on an adventure
  • lying in the grass on the edge of the cliffs for a good half hour once the sun came out, watching the boats and the clouds and feeling completely at peace with the world
  • exploring every nook and cranny of Dover Castle and getting spooked in the medieval tunnels
  • watching the sun set over the English countryside as I took the train back to London
    • it was a long route because the train made frequent stops in tiny towns
    • I didn't mind because I got to eavesdrop on so many conversations between English people discussing their lives. And it was so surreal? I felt like I was one of them, and I've never felt that way about a group of people before. I listened to four teenage girls talk about their troubled love lives and smiled because I don't think they knew how much more they have to look forward to. I got these little intimate snapshots of so many lives on that train ride, and it was all bathed in the beautiful golden light of sunset. "Photographs" by Ed Sheeran and "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac bring those moments back so vividly in my mind.
• haunting stage doors after plays to get actors' autographs
  • getting Richard Madden's, Jesse Eisenberg's, and Kit Harington's autographs
  • making eye contact with Richard Madden and losing the ability to can
  • Alfie Allen coming out early and asking "Do you mind if I have a smoke?" and then proceeding to make small talk with my little group
    • watching Alfie and Jesse run away into the night together
  • always the same gelato place afterwards
• THE PLAYS
  • every week a new musical with Olaf and his equally sassy partner
  • learning the difference between "tasteful nudity" and "distasteful nudity"
  • watching Kit Harington bathe in a pair of tight undies
  • seeing Kit Harington's bare ass
• celebrities in general
  • being within spitting distance of Emilia Clarke, Matthew Lewis, Jenna Coleman, Richard Madden, Kit Harington, Jesse Eisenberg, Alfie Allen, and Kunal Nayyar
• Taylor and MeMe meeting J. K. Rowling in Liberty
• REID HALL
  • the serial shitter
  • construction workers singing Adele and Ed Sheeran outside our windows at 6 AM
  • those paper thin walls and their incompatibility with the second-floor sex den
  • girls using the hand dryers as blow dryers
  • those damn hand dryers rattling the walls all night
  • the shower stall with the broken water temperature gauge, resulting in two shower temperatures: "hellfire" and "God's wrath"
  • those God awful mattresses and the sheets that never fit
  • "Ave Maria" playing every day around the same time, source undetermined
• long walks around Regent's Park
  • spying on the animals in London Zoo
  • watching little ones at cricket and football practice
  • so many cute dogs
  • finding couples making out on hidden park benches
  • the pungent smell of duck shit
  • Brits sunning themselves in rental lawn chairs
• Baker Street
  • Wok to Walk
  • passing the Sherlock Holmes museum every day and seeing the tourists
  • the very pregnant lady that stopped at Baskin-Robbins every week to get her big bucket of ice cream
• the Tube
  • fuck the Circle line, honestly
  • the Jubilee line barreling down the tracks like a bat out of hell
  • that one time I got stuck next to a drunk couple at rush hour and they would not stop making out and stumbling around
• finally feeling that I belonged somewhere