I’ve done some fun stuff since I last blogged for you.  One thing to love about London is that there is always something to do.

A couple Saturdays ago I went to see Jersey Boys on the West End with my friend Andrew. Before the show we went to dinner at Jamie’s Italian, a super affordable restaurant by celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver (you may know him as the Naked Chef?).  It was super fun and delicious.  

Then we made our way a couple streets over to the Prince Edward Theatre to see Jersey Boys, which was amazing and so much fun.  We were able to get front row seats for only £20, which is a total steal despite the fact that we had to crane our necks due to the height of the stage and we couldn’t always see what was going on.  But hey, the seats right behind us were like £69, so whatever.  We were close enough to see the weird mics that the actors have on their foreheads, which look really strange, and the ace bandages that some had to wear to hide their tattoos!  An intimate look at stage acting.

Like I said, the show was so much fun.  It’s about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and how they came to be.  So some super fun music and some funny Jersey accents - which were even more funny the few times they slipped from Jersey to England, SUCH a difference!

This past Friday, Andrew and I went to this thing called Zoo Lates at the London Zoo. We got a deal on Livingsocial.com for the admission fee, which was nice.  Basically the attraction is that they keep the zoo open late, it’s adults only, and there’s drinking, food, dancing, games, and cool animal demos and stuff.

It was really fun, aside from the fact that the zoo is soooo small!  We were able to see all the exhibits in like an hour and a half of being there.  And it’s really not the nicest zoo, but it’s certainly not the worst.

But we had some Pimms and I found a stall that was selling funnel cakes - which had no line due to the fact that no one here knows what it is.  I took it with me to wait with Andrew in his line for real food, and the girls behind him were like “WHAT is THAT? it looks so good!”  So sad not to know what funnel cake is…

We also got to watch one of the zoo keepers feed the giraffes, which was pretty cool. We were up on a bridge at about giraffe eye-level, and she was holding branches out to them.

Here I am being a turtle at Zoo Lates:

And then today I went with Andrew and Amanda to go on a walking tour of the Olympic Park (in case you’re living under a rock, the 2012 Olympics will be in London).  First of all, I’ve got a bone to pick with British weather; don’t tell me it’s going to be 70ºF and sunny and then stay at about 57ºF and rain on me.  

And second of all, sort of a boring tour - and people brought kids, who must have been suuuuper miserable.  I knew we wouldn’t be able to go into the site because it’s all under construction and whatnot, but I thought we’d see more than we did.  It was mostly a talk about the history of the games and taking us around the neighborhood the park is in and telling us about the plans for it post-Olympics and for the revitalization of the neighborhoods. Then we ended at a sort of look-out point right by the main Olympic Stadium.  A little underwhelming, especially when we realized that we totally could have gone on our own, without paying £6 for a tour.  Oh well, it was a unique something to do.

Here I am looking REALLY awake at the Olympic Stadium, with my sunglasses sitting there as wishful thinking:

After the tour, we ended up going to a pub for a bite to eat and to try to start a project for class.

I guess the other pretty important thing I’ve done since I blogged last was see The Hangover Part 2 twice now.  I saw it opening day with Amanda and Andrew, and then again yesterday with Sarah.  It is hilarious, in my opinion.  Others may disagree, but they are silly.  And it’s fun to watch such an American movie here because you get to be the only person who laughs at jokes about PF Changs, IHOP, and Long John Silvers.

Oh yeah, and my class was on BBC Newsnight on June 2.  Since you can’t watch it online in America, here is a screencap I took as proof: