Em & m's Road Trip: Merry Christmas!!!!

Yes, I know it's only the beginning of November but you'll see why that is the title of this post at the bottom.

Yesterday, Tuesday, November 3, was a great day.

I went to the Bank of England Museum where a nerd like me who's worked at a bank for so long thought it was great. (The people I went with weren't nearly as interested.) But the big attraction of this museum is the fact that you can pick up a bar of gold. Not kidding. You really can touch and pick up a 28 lb. bar of gold worth 259,552 pounds!!!!!! There is a guy who doesn't take his eyes off of it and its not like you could run very fast if you did take it but it was way sweet.

British Life & Culture was a tour of the Imperial War Museum. In the words of Dadda war sucks and it was pretty depressing but it was totally worth going to see.

There is a piece of the Berlin Wall outside the museum. This was the East German side of it and it always amazes me how plain it is especially compared to the Western Germany side where it was all painted and drawn on.

Now, a note on the British: they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here so after Halloween there isn't a major holiday till Christmas. (There is Guy Fawkes Night, which is tomorrow actually, but it's so close to Halloween that they sort of run together.) Now, a note on London: as it is a capitol city and a pretty important place for most cultural genres, there is always something cool going on and they quite often involve famous people. Like movie stars. Like movie world premiers. Like last night!!!!!

Disney's "A Christmas Carol" had its world premier last night in Leicester Square which is about a half a mile from school. So of course I went. They were trying to break the Guinness World Record for most participants in a sing-along and it was cool to be a part of it. (The record was broken, by the way.)

There were Christmas trees all over and fake snow and it was neat to sing some Christmas carols. It really felt like Christmas cause I didn't have to pretend to be cold. It's November in London so that just came on its own.

The Theatre where the premier screened.

Now, this is a very short version of this story. If you want the whole story, wait and ask me when I get back home as it will take a very long time to type up (my journal last night was about 3 pages if that gives you an idea.)

They had the schedule to light up Oxford Circus (by Jim Carrey), Regent Street (by Colin Firth), and St. Paul's Cathedral (by Bob Hoskins) with the sing-along being led in Leicester Square by Andrea Bocelli at the same time last night. Now, I had the dilemma of where to go. They're sort of close to each other but not easily accessible with as many people as were expected to attend. My initial reaction was to hear Mr. Bocelli so I went to Leicester Square. You needed a ticket to have any hope of a spot where you could see the stage. But, in wandering around looking for a spot, I passed a nice looking red carpet and I said to myself, "This is a nice red carpet that is probably not blocked off for no reason. Someone will be walking here." So I camped out on the red carpet. Yes, I know how that sounds but it was so much fun I don't care.

I didn't get to see Mr. Bocelli, which was sad (I could hear him though and that voice was amazing), but while we were all caroling they brought Mr. Carrey, Mr. Hoskins, and Mr. Firth to Leicester Square for the premier, which I didn't know they were going to do. So then I hear all this screaming and there's Jim Carrey with Jenny McCarthy (his girlfriend) coming down the stairs!!!! he walked right up to where we were standing!! It was great. He said, "Hi guys! Merry Christmas!" before walking inside. Then, a little later, Bob Hoskins walked in but he took the inside track not coming near us crazy fans and almost wasn't recognized. And then, (swoon) Colin Firth came down the red carpet!!!! Like a true English gentleman, he signed everybody's pieces of paper, notebooks, or whatever before going inside. And he looked right at me!! I have it on video cause I know you don't believe me. (I have video of all of this but it was dark and, mob mentality, everyone was surging forward so it's pretty rocky and it would make Momma sick. And the size of the video if I do post it is tiny. But I do have them and I will happily show you when I get home.)

I opted to video rather than get an autograph but one of the girls I met there who is from the BYU London Centre here (ask for longer story for more explanation on this) got it and let me take a picture of it.