now THAt right there my friends, was a damned good weekend. i left on thursday for london (thank god for english classes, because they have reading week which allows you to leave school!!!! and as much as i adore my classes, sometimes getting away is just amazing) anyways, i caught my plane to london, promptly calles my mate areta (who is AMAZING) to meet up with ehr and throw my stuff at her place before heading out to sightsee a little and stuff....and promptly ran out of phone minutes. with the one phone carrier that dosn't have any stores outside of ireland. whoops. so long story short, i wandered around king street for a while, ooked at the amazingly pretty shop windows and finally found a pay7ohne and phone card and met up with areta, snuck me into her res hall ( yes i am hannah kramer..*cough**cough*) and went out to see the world premier of The Lightning Play. this was unbelieveable. like really, holy shit gave me goosebumps..it's about what people don't say and the interpersonal connections that make up our life, especailly our connection to ourself that is so ofton severed and..just..WOW. okay, so that was amazing, next day woke up and wandered around the city via the undergorund which is the coolest thing EVER!! i'm pretty much obsessed with mass public transit, not gonna lie. i went to see St. Paul's cathedral and well, it was....just unbelieveable. i wasn't allowed ot take any pictures inside, and iw as actually happy about that, but it really is alot bigger than you'd think...
as you can see...and even cooler..they weere putting in this little carnival right beneath it with a dragon roller coaster and everything..






it made me really happy...so i walked around the long way, cause i generally do things the long way it seems and saw St. Peter all tall and gold








He was right next to a (temporary) monument made for all of the soldiers dying overseas today.




so i kept on walking and found myself - to my delight - face to face with the steps from mary poppins!!!! you know the steps in the song feed the birds? well, i coud totally be wrong, but the steps in front of St. Paul's looksed EXACTLY like those steps...so of course...i took a picture....




see? okay, so more people, but the same damned pigeons who i had to havea rumble with later to keep them from eating my hotdog...but i'm getting ahead of myself. St. Peter's...it was...really deeply holy. i know this sounds a little obvi as deidre would say, but really, ive seen so many monuments and so many chapels, adn this one really was just...holy. i walked in to the room that they had set aside and i sat and prayed for a while. really prayed. that's something i've been doing for the first time in a really long time since ive been here. being moved by religion, the honesty of it, of how it is practiced here moves me, it's slowly restoring my faith. there is alot that i don't agree with the church on, but sitting in St. Pauls surrounded by commisions made years ago by men who not only believed but really loved their god, it stirs something. i lit a candle for Carrie, and not because i was sad, but because i could feel something there something incredibly rare in my life, i noticed tears were running down my cheeks. i lit the candle and said a prayer for her, and for Grandpa who is happy where he is, and for Uncle Jack, because i knew it is something mom would do for her irish catholic uncle and wandered thorugh the rest of the cathedral. everywhere, there were mosaics, gold foil, paintings all made in reverence of a man who touched the hearts of so many people that even today they bless his name and create monuments to that incredible love. i paid my respects to the statue for John Donne, to the monument for the american soldiers who lost their lives fighting in britain during the second world war, then climbed the 400 something stairs up to the whispering room where a whisper to the wall will travel across the open space fo the great dome and osund like you're talking right next to the person across from you, where the stone is worn into deep grooves by so many feet, then up to thye very top of the dome, another, what 200 ish stairs or so to where you can look out all over london. and as the sun was going down it was simply breathtaking. then i ran over to the british museum to eat a street vendor hotdog and almost punched out a pidgeon who was trying to take my damned food, i began to understand how hitchcock could make a movie like the birds, those buggers are vicious bastards! i'd believe they could go homicidal. anyways, i wandered thorugh the museum and spend a good couple minuets paying homage to the library room, dear god...so...many...books...!!! old mustysmeling books fo goodness, almost worhty of belles library. if there is one thing i want to have some time in my life, in the home i have one day, my dream home....it's belle's library. i couldnt tear myself away from that place for a while...eventually i went over to look at the egyptian and polynesian exhibits...incredibly cool, but also brought up for me that question...about the importance of preservation and edification for many versus the desanctification and clinicalization of a cultures sacred objects...i'm still stuck on that one to be honest.....then met Areta, who really is one of my favorite people, to go over to see another museum whose name i trgically can't remember in trefalger square where i oohed over the fountains and ran up to sit between the enormous paws of a big bronze lion around the obelisk, and then into the museum to see face to face works by VanEyek, Bottocelli, DaVinci, Raphael, Seurat, adn Van Gogh. we actaully stood inches away from Van Gogh's sunflowers..it was...just...unbeliveable...all of them, looking at davinci's work, looking at the artists i studies photos of last semester and seeing them in person, was just so exciting...next goal is to find out where carravaggio's work is and see that in eprson, as he's my favorite..we saw alot of works inspired by him, but not his as he tended to work in really large scale and on walls rather than canvas if i remeber correctly....and get run out of town rather frequently.....anyways, then we went over to Brick Lane , the Indian district and haggled for our amazing (and cheap) indian food...sooooo gooooood..haaaaappy...then over for some italian ice creme (no not gelato...sad face, i'll get that when ig o over to venice ^_^) and watched the notebook which i have been alittle sceptical about but really, is not in my top five list of movies. i now need to buy it, just for those nights when i want to happy cry, or need something to believe in...good times. then i went home, in a very roundabout way as i kind o missed my plane a little..or rather came in 5 minutes too late to check in so go rerouted to dublin and found a train station that would get me back to cork. crazyness, and now my fingers are turning into icicles, so i need to get back home to my hot toddy (seriously, really good with nutmeg when you wanna get all warm fast) and grey's anatomy, cause my brian had been crammed as full of french as it will take today.

love. Peace.