Wales: Day 39 Best Day Of My Life - Part 2

I left you when Anna, Anders and Zoe took off to get food and meet everyone else for Wicked. They asked me about a hundred times if I would be ok by myself, if I knew where I was going, how to get there, not to talk to strangers, etc. etc. I'll admit, I was a little nervous. London is really big, and if I got lost and missed Phantom I'd have to throw myself in front of a tube train, so maybe it was best for me to just go sit outside the theatre until it started. But no. I was feeling independent and adventurous, and wanted to see Leicester Gardens and Piccadilly Circus on my own time.

I bid them farewell, plugged in my headphones and set about looking for something to catch my interest. There is so much to see that it really isn't hard to get completely wrapped up in a matter of seconds. I checked out touristy little shops (I got a pair of London Underground boxers, suckas!), used book stores, little art galleries and any other stores or attractions that caught my eye. I loved it. I was in a huge city, on my own, 20 years old and completely confident in my ability to function and enjoy myself.



Around 6:15 I walked down to Her Majesty's Theatre to pick up my ticket. I couldn't be risking anything here. You guys know how important this is to me. Once I had it in hand, I realized how hungry I was, and walked down to Piccadilly Circus to hit the Tesco Metro. I got a Diet Coke and some dried mangoes, because nothing else looked good. I honestly think I was giving myself crazy anticipation anxiety about Phantom. I was so jittery. I think I checked my bag for my ticket every 30 seconds. Once I had my food I went and hung out in the square on the steps of the Statue of Eros. Legend has it that if you stay at the fountain for at least 1 hour you are guaranteed to see someone you know. We also heard that since Eros is the god of love, throwing coins in the fountain would bring you true love or something cliched and gay like that. Anyways. I hung out here people watching and getting progressively pumped up for Phantom for half an hour or so.



Around 7 I headed back to the theatre to try to catch Talia & Kelsey, or Kayla and her mom who were all going to be in the same showing as me. By 7:15 I hadn't seen them, so I headed in. I HEADED IN. Finally. To be seated. To see Phantom. The only thing I've ever really wanted to do before I died. It was surreal. I bought a program and a shirt (completely unashamed of my nerdiness at this point) and by the time I made it to my seat I was STRAIGHT TRIPPIN.

Seriously, I can't remember ever feeling like that. Who knows if I'll ever feel it again? I was jumpy and fidgety, which is not like me at all. My entire being seemed oriented towards the the stage, every cell in my body was yearning to hear the first notes of the overture. My seat was actually really good. I paid a little more for it, but obviously it's worth it to me. I had a seat just off center on the first balcony, and my view was great. (The last photo is dark but you can barely see the stage and the chandelier covered in a canvas.)


The lights went dim. Instantly my heart started to pound. I felt the adrenaline dump in my system and my heart battered away at my rib cage, to the point that I almost couldn't sit any longer. As the first notes rose out of the pit, I honestly felt my heart and soul kind of seize up. I really was losing control of my body. The first scene, the auction, is very quiet, but when the chandelier lights up and the orchestra starts blaring the theme I completely fell to pieces. I was CRYING. Crying you guys. I could barely breathe. I have never been so emotionally moved in my life. I highly doubt the ability of anything else to ever do that for me again. This really nice lady sitting next to me I'm sure thought I was crazy. Before it started we'd been chatting (she's a Kiwi - a person from New Zealand), and I communicated to her how much Phantom meant to me and how crazy I was about it. So maybe she got it. I don't know.


Phantom was amazing. I mean, the music speaks (sings?) for itself. One thing the movie can never duplicate though is the fantastic use of props and scenery. The decor for the underground lair, the boats and candles, was breathtaking. I often felt like I didn't know where to look because there was just so much that I wanted to drink in.


My heart didn't stop pounding the entire time. Masquerade and Music of the Night were way better Broadway-style. Each person was perfect for their role. The orchestra sounded fantastic. The props, as mentioned, were elaborate and fascinating. The entire experience filled me, lifted me, raised the dead in me. It was honestly one of the high points of my life. As I walked out of the theatre, elated, I had a sad moment of wonder.

Will I ever top this? What else do I have to live for? I guess that remains to be seen.


I quickly jogged down to the tube station, hopped on the train to Paddington Station (again, by myself. Loving it.), and caught the train with minutes to spare. I was delirious. Everything I've ever wanted came true that day. Anyone who knew me in 9th grade has a very good perception of what it meant to me. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Even the anxiety of late night tube riding by myself, with the risk of missing the train back to Cardiff couldn't keep the bounce out of my step. I was exhausted on the train ride home, dozing in and out of Phantom dreams. Unfortunately we had to walk home at 1 in the morning, with plenty of "hen parties" and gross drunk Cardiff men downtown, but when I crashed into bed around 2 am in my Phantom t-shirt, I was content knowing that Phantom had exceeded my expectations and breathed new life into me.

Wales: Day 39 Best Day of My Life - Part 1

The big day finally came. Wednesday, August 11, I woke up bright and early at 6 am, already crazy excited. We walked to Cathays station (about 20 minutes away, and in a quite ghetto part of Cardiff. Which is saying something.), and caught the 7:15ish train to Cardiff Central. A quick breakfast and then we boarded the 8:25 train to LONDON!!!! I love train rides. They're so smooth, quiet and comfortable compared with cars and especially huge packed vans. Gillian and I listened to some Dane Cook standup, which was delightfully entertaining to our tired and excited minds. Then we slept for the rest of the ride. That's really why train rides are the best - sleep.

We arrived in London around 10:30, got our tube passes and then ventured out into the city! Our group of about 8 or 9 went to Leicester (the theater district. All of the big Broadway signs line the building facades) so most people could get their Wicked tickets (I already bought my ticket to Phantom. I was too excited to wait or chance it.) then we grabbed some pizza from a little street vendor. Probably the weirdest pizza I've ever had, but I was starving and it was decent. Anna, Anders & Zoe were interested in seeing Les Miserables, so clearly I jumped on that bandwagon. We walked down to that theater and got tickets for the matinee. I was straight trippin' at this point. Two legit world-renown musicals. In London. One Day. Couldn't have been more excited.




We had about an hour until showtime, so Jessica, Gill, Sam and I walked around Leicester and Piccadilly Circus (kind of the downtown of London) in search of sights and a delicious treat. Come on. We get ice cream in every city as a tradition. Piccadilly Circus is my favorite area of London. I just ate it up. We walked down to Trafalgar Square which is one of the coolest areas of London without being too touristy. The architecture there is fantastic. We grabbed some chocolate ice cream outside the National Gallery and hung out people-watching for a while.



I love that people just hang out in the square. Such a cool vibe. I wish we did that here.



Jess, Gill and Sam went into the National Gallery, but I had to be back for Les Mis, so I bid farewell to them and headed to the Queen's Theatre. I was slightly nervous about walking back to Leicester from Trafalgar by myself, but I was happy to see that I knew where I was and where I was going, and hopefully I didn't look like too much of a tourist! haha.

Les Miserables was INCREDIBLE. I loved it. I'd heard the music before, but never read the book or seen the musical anywhere. I fell in love with it. I was completely captivated. The actors were so talented, stage effects and props were awesome, and it was all-around amazing. I'm so glad I finally got to see it, and in London, no less.


After Les Mis, we walked through Leicester Gardens (seriously this is the coolest area of London. People who focus on Big Ben, Parliament and all the touristy stuff don't know what they're missing out on), saw some pretty good break-dancing street performers, Anna got hit on, and then Anders, Anna and Zoe headed off to get food and go to Wicked.



You may be thinking, "Wow. That day sounds awesome. Borderline perfect." And you're absolutely right. It was. But it got even better. From this point (approximately 4 pm) onward, this day was 100% perfect for Danica Budge. Everything I could want or need. I knew that I would have a lot to say about my evening, and that Phantom deserved a much more thorough treatment, so stay tuned for another epic, emotional, exciting chapter in the London adventure.

Wales: Day 38 Am Iddo Beidio, Jessica!

Tuesday, August 10 we woke up and took the "final," which was essentially just providing feedback for the program, and only took about 20 minutes. I worked on my textbook, did some dongling (if I haven't mentioned it before, the USB stick that provides our internet is called a "dongle," so we fondly turned that into a verb for convenience), and then took a short nap.

In the afternoon, we headed off for Jessica Sloan's surprise birthday party! Sam and Gill got TONS of cake and ice cream, and 57 was decorated with balloons (shaped like crinkle fries!), streamers and posters. We quietly snuck out, and Jessica headed over later thinking she was meeting her cohort to work on their group project. The surprise was flawless and awesome.

Such a great party. The camaraderie was just fantastic. I remember looking around the party as we ate our Tesco cake and ice cream, thinking "I can't believe that a month ago I barely knew or cared about these girls. Now I know most of them very well, and I am good friends will all of them." We had inside jokes, great memories, positive influence and feelings of protection over one another.

One of the biggest things I learned from this study abroad was that I don't really know anything. I would say 80% of these girls wouldn't have received more than a passing glance, maybe a polite, friendly smile for me if we had passed on campus or had a class together. Even if they had been in my ward or my roommates, I would not have really tried to get to know them or develop a relationship with them. I make friends easily, so I tend to not seek them out. I don't exert myself to get to know people, especially if I make instantaneous judgments about their personality or character (which I do. All the time).

And you know what? Where have those prejudices got me? Sure, I've never really had any adverse consequences, but how much have I been missing out on? I'll never know. These girls are awesome. At least one element of personality, character or just plain coolness in each individual girl stood out to me. Usually more, but at least one thing, and I really feel I learned from all of those "one things." I lived and loved more in that two months than I did the entire year leading up to the trip. It's something I'm still learning from. I'm trying hard to be more open and loving, more accepting of other people and more friendly.

After the party we came back and worked on our crap, had dinner and hung out. Around 9:30 Anders came and picked us up to play "smurf"at 57. "Smurf" is a game where you choose one person to be "it." They leave the room and then everyone picks a verb to replace with "smurf." The "it" person comes back and asks questions about "smurfing" to determine what verb is behind "smurf." For example if you chose "brushing your teeth" for "smurf," the person could ask questions like "Do you smurf by yourself?" "Do you smurf every day?" etc, until they have a good idea of what it could be. The ensuing conversations are hilarious.

We played until about 12 and then Anders brought us home to get ready for our London trip!!!!! I could barely sleep I was so excited. Great day.

Wales: Day 37 Communist Cardiff

Monday, August 9, 2010 was a nice lazy day. We woke up to another random 2let2 employee walking into our house (2let2 is the company that lets - leases - our housing). I guess because we were leaving soon and they needed to find some new people to move in, and they were taking pictures and showing our house. They just walk in without knocking all the time. And they're super sketchy.

So besides our free day in London on Wednesday and then traveling home on the weekend, we had nothing to do all week. We were expected to use the time to work on our big project - the textbook. We were expected to create a textbook on ten major periods, including information from our expository text and brochures from locations, as well as pictures we took when we traveled around. It's a pretty hefty project. Everyone was actually really pissed about it, because it's essentially regurgitating our huge textbook and inserting pictures with formatting. We also needed to finish our 2 books by the end of the week, so we had plenty to do. After some breakfast I set about reading "Princesses of Wales" which was actually really, really cool.

I walked down to the business district to get lunch and groceries. My favorite sandwich shop that is only a couple streets from Penylan is called "The Sandwich Story." I get the hummus & salad (lettuce, carrots, corn, diced tomatoes, etc.) baguette with potato wedges and sweet Thai chili sauce. So delicious. It's my favorite. So I go walking down there (it's a Monday around 2 in the afternoon, mind you), only to find that it's CLOSED. CLOSED! What the? Completely unacceptable. Prime lunch hours and you're closed? No sign, no explanation, no holiday, nothing. I walk to another juice and sandwich shop down the street. I walk in to see them wiping down counters and putting away chairs. Surely they wouldn't be closing, right? I turn to look at the menu board and the waitress walks up to me before I reach the counter with a "Sorry!"

Me - bewildered, hungry expression.

Waitress - "Sorry."

Me - still bewildered. Brow furrowed. Confused.

Waitress - "We close at 2:30 today. Sorry."

Me - open mouth gaping. Nod. Turn on my heel and walk out.

Problems with this situation:

1. Really? You close at 2:30? Isn't that kind of arbitrary? Why not 3:17? 12:42? Why would any restaurant close at 2:30?
2. Ok. You close at 2:30. Well. It's approximately 2:10 at this point. Is making me a sandwich going to take you over 20 minutes? Because my clock and my stomach both hate you right now.
3. Is this Communist Russia? Do businesses just randomly close whenever they feel like it on a random Monday? Did they run out of bread? They just felt like taking a vacation day? Who says you can do that? God bless America.

Hungry and pissed, I walked down to the Tesco Metro to get a replacement lunch and some groceries and then came back to catch up on my blog and email. After showering and reading some more I fell asleep for a few hours. I love the liberty of that. Some of my roommates were surprised that I'd walk through Cardiff by myself. I really liked it. It took me until my last week to feel 100% comfortable with the city, and though it'd be another thing entirely to be walking it in the dark, an afternoon food-and-groceries run was fully within the boundaries of my comfort zone. It was really cool. I felt like an actual adult. Weird, I know.

We made chicken noodle soup for dinner, hung out and complained about our textbook assignment and then trudged back to our rooms to work on them. We needed to email the textbook assignment to Tom the following Monday, and at that point I had 2 1/2 of the 10 chapters done. So almost done, right?

.... Sure.

My motivation for this SUCKED. Seriously. I was the Michael Jordan of finding things to distract me and I spent so much time just daydreaming about going to London and then going home at the end of the week. I think I did almost nothing that day. I kept thinking "Well I have tomorrow, Thursday and Friday to work on it, plus my long layover in Minnesota will be boring so I'll probably work on it then too...."

Well. This story has a somewhat-happy ending, so stay tuned.