A good read

"Feminine mystique is the steady, unyielding strength and confidence that flows from knowing our Prince intimately and protecting our relationship with Him at all costs. A young woman with feminine mystique is not merely set apart for her future husband; she is first and foremost set apart for her Prince, Jesus Christ. A young woman with feminine mystique does not protect her inner sanctuary on the condition that she will one day find a man who will appreciate it. She does not ask, 'Is this sacrifice really worth it?' Instead, a young woman with feminine mystique--who jealously guards her heart, mind, and body from the pollution of the world--does so as a natural outflow of her passionate love for her true Prince. To her it is not drudgery, but joy, and she is not shaken by the criticism of the outside world."

Authentic Beauty, Leslie Ludy

Dang!! This is how I want to live and what I want to instill in my small group girls next year...

So nervous about leading.

Wicked

I saw Wicked in London today and it was absolutely amazing! I always heard from people how good this musical was but I never really thought anything about it because I never like musicals much when I see them as movies. But it is completely different seeing a musical live. The stage setup, the performers, the costumes, the music... everything was perfect.

After today, I have officially fallen in love with musicals.

Like last time when I watched Avenue Q, we got to London early and had two hours of free time...


We had dinner at these Portuguese chicken place. It seemed reasonably priced but when our food came out, the portions were really small...
Carla, Amy, Fang.

Paula and I... she's so pretty!

Right before the show.. I'm so excited!!!


I like this picture of us. =)

Dannng, my ticket was worth 60 pounds ($120!)
But I got it for much cheaper than that...

Here is the inside of the theater.

We had really good seats near the front. Except... I had to keep moving around during the performances to get a good view because there were some heads in my way. It's okay though.

I took a bunch of pictures and videos during the first 15 or so minutes of the show but then the usher saw me, took my camera away, and deleted all my pictures. Sigh... oh well, it's my bad.

The performance was so good though, especially the girl who played Elphaba (the main character). Her name is Alexia Khadime and I read in the program that she used to play Nala for the Lion King musical. She's seriously really talented.

Here is a clip of one of the songs:

It's pretty good but can't compare to some of the other scenes she did. I just can't find good quality videos of those scenes... oh well.

Oh, and the guy is handsome huh? All the girls back home keep asking me if I've seen any "hot British guys"... let me just say, British men are overrated. This is probably the first good looking one I've seen.

Anyways, I could talk on and on about this musical but it would probably be really boring to read. So if you want to know more about it, just watch it for yourself!

EARTHQUAKE!

July 29, 2008
11:43 AM, PST:
There was an earthquake in Southern California... and I caught it on my webcam!

HAHAHA... wow, I know this is not a laughing matter, but look at Annie's face.
I could see her moving up and down and the papers on her wall shaking when it happened... crazy!!

Friends back home- be safe!

Glasgow

Our last day in Scotland, we went on a short city tour around Glasgow...

BFF's.

Wooow, look at Fang's forced smile!!! She's so happy to be near me...

We stopped here to take a picture.

...and the rest of the hour, it was just a bus tour of the city. Fang and I were so sleepy, we fell asleep for the entire thing... dang, such a waste.

Afterwards, we had two hours of free time to explore and eat lunch (that sounds like a lot but to see the biggest city in Scotland, it's not nearly enough!)

This is the Gallery of Modern Art, called "GoMA" I think.

I don't know why, but it smelled really bad here, like pee...

The lobby of the museum.

Going back to Brighton...
I really like this picture of Fang! I was trying to get a picture of her sleeping but then she opened her eyes.

Some views from the window...

Those "Happy cows come from California" commercials are really misleading. I'm sure the happiest cows come from Scotland. There are so many of them in the fields, and all they do is eat and sleep all day...

I really love PINK so I made the trees and grass pink using color swap on my camera.

Yeah, I was super bored...
I only fell asleep for about 2 hours of the 12 hour bus ride back!!

When I got back to my dorm at midnight, I knocked out.. who knew sitting in a bus could be so draining...

The Highlands

The second day in Scotland, we went on a tour of the Highlands.

To sum everything up, I made a video of it:
I never knew how fun it is to make videos until now...

Edinburgh & Glasgow

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND. This past weekend I went on a group tour to Scotland. I don't know how else to describe Scotland except that it really is as beautiful as people imagine.

The ride there and back was super tiring. I went on a group tour and the bus picked us up at 9:30 PM... we got there at 9:00 AM the next day. In that time, I could've been back in Irvine by plane...

After arriving at Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, this elderly Scottish lady took us on a tour around the city.

The first thing she did was she take us up on this hill where you get a 360 degree view of the entire city. This was super sad for me because I took a bunch of pictures there but right when we were about to leave, I accidentally erased all of them!!

So I quickly took two pictures before we left...

The monument in the back with the pillars is supposed to be a copy of the Greek Parthenon but the city ran out of money before they could finish it. I climbed up there and took pictures but they are all gone now... =(

That lady was our tour guide... she's so cute!

Yeah, I didn't write anything under all those pictures above because I already forgot what everything was...

Anyways, after the tour we had a couple hours of free time in the city.








Going towards the National Art Gallery...
Here it is!

This was one of the rooms inside... I wasn't supposed to take pictures in here..




Then we went to buy souvenirs.

Fang had no clue she was wearing this hat backwards... hahaha.. she would do something like that.

She finally figured it out later!

We got quick lunches and other snacks at Sainsbury's and ate it here at the park.


...then we got back on the bus and rode two hours to Glasgow University, which is where we stayed for the two nights we were in Scotland.

All I really know about Glasgow is that it's the largest city in Scotland.

This was my room... I guess it doesn't look like much, but I was so happy and excited when I saw it. It's hard to get your own room when you're traveling in Europe unless you're rich... usually you end up staying in hostels.

Everything was nice here except the bed was pretty gross. There were period stains on the sheet and the pillows and comforters smelled like B.O. and pee... I ended up sleeping on top of the comforters with my hood on.

After settling in and taking a quick nap, we went to the city for dinner.

We took a cab there, which is cheaper than taking the bus if you split the fare. This taxi fit six people!

Here is Glasgow...

They had a bunch of these statues in the center of the city, and all of them had a bunch of bird poo on their heads. I don't understand why they don't clean them!

For dinner, we ate at this cute bar & restaurant.




The group, minus Erly and Eseul.

It took over an hour for our food to arrive!! Dang, service is not very good there. So by the time we finally ate it was about 9:30 PM...

Fish & chips... they wrapped it in newspaper.. cute huh?

The girl sitting next to me ordered a sticky toffee pudding for dessert because she said it's famous in Scotland or something... so Fang and I shared one too. It was so good!!

One of our tour guides told us that Scottish people love eating sweets... dang.. I think I'm meant to be Scottish..

The place we ate at. By the time we finally got out, it was already around 10:30 I think...

The city is so pretty at night!





Here is a video of the central area of Glasgow, called George Square.


Back at our dorms... we were so excited when we realized this...
Fang lives in the "F" hall... F for Fang!

Eseul, Erly and I live in the "E" hall.

Funny, huh?
Or maybe we're just easily amused..