After a delicious night's sleep (and it was delicious!), I awoke feeling refreshed and invigorated and ready for a fun, fun day with Kristine.  I cleaned my room, packed all my last-minute things, snapped a few sentimental photos of my room and window view (nothing spectacular, but ah--the memories!), and checked in my keys.  I was supposed to meet Kristine in front of Madame Tussaud's at 10:00, and since I was a little ahead of schedule, I decided to drop by Westminster Cathedral one last time.  I never really got to look at the gilding and the mosaics in depth, and they were absolutely beautiful.  I left the building and was about to head to the station when I suddenly remembered that I hadn't said goodbye to Maria!   I rushed back to my apartment and up the stairs to her room.  No one answered when I knocked.  I glanced into the nearby kitchen window as I was was leaving the hall, though, and caught a glimpse of her eating breakfast!  We talked for awhile, and she asked if we could meet up for lunch one last time (she gave me her phone number so that I could call her on Kristine's cell phone once we were ready to eat).

I was so glad I had seen Maria before I had to rush off.  I hurried to the Baker's Street stop and met up with Kristine and two other girls from the ward who Kristine had invited along to Madame Tussaud's. I thought we would all be able to get vouchers online for 15 pounds or less, but instead, they were 20 pounds a piece.  What a rip off!

The first room we entered was full of celebrity wax figures.  I knew quite a few people of the famous people in the room, but both Kristine and I were absolutely clueless when it came to identifying most of them.  :-)  We did get our pictures with Julia Roberts, the Star Trek guy (?), Will Smith, and Brad Pitt, though.   I have to admit that it was fun posing, and the figures looked so real!  In fact, they were so life-like that it was really hard to tell who was alive in the room and who wasn't!

After that, we wandered into the most crowded room of all--the room containing the wax figures of the main characters in "Pirates of the Carribean."  And yes, even though I've never seen the show, I had my picture taken with Kiera Knightly, Johnny Depp, and. . .shoot!  What's his name?  The guy that all the girls are head-over-heals about?  Hmm.  Anyway, I was actually fairly excited about Kiera Knightly and Johnny Depp.  They play the main characters in two of my favorite shows ("Pride and Prejudice" and "Finding Neverland").  After that, we walked into a room where we were able to snap pictures with Spiderman, Oprah, Whoopie Goldberg, Robin Williams, Elvis, and Marilyn Monroe.  :-)   That was fun!  I was really hoping they'd have some older movie stars on display (Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn, Shirley Temple, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable), but they didn't.   I know why, though; the place is so obviously meant to tug at the heartstrings of modern tweens and exploit the whole idea of celebrit worship.   Like I said before, it was a complete rip-off, but Kristine and I were determined to make the most of it!

The next room was, I think, my favorite of all.  Here, I was able to have my photo taken with Mozart, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, George Bush, Tony Blair, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, JFK, Queen Elizabeth I (hurrah for someone who's paler than I!), and Queen Elizabeth (the current one!).  Kristine and I also had our pictures taken alongside the two princes.  I really don't remember their names, but I think they're supposed to be heart throbs.  Charles?  William?

After that, we descended into the creepy depths of the Chamber of Horrors.  I took two steps inside, clinging to Kristine's arm, and then ran right back out as soon as I was startled by a sudden noise.  I do NOT deal well with haunted house type attractions.  Kristine tried to convince me just to give it a try (I'd paid two extra pounds, apparently, to have the Chamber of Horrors incldued in my ticket), but I just couldn't do it.  So Kristine marched in bravely by herself.  I waited for her at the exit.  After about a minute, I heard a blood-curdling scream, and saw her hurl herself through the exit, wide-eyed and shaking.  It took her a few minutes to recover.  I'm so glad that I didn't go in there--I never would've made it out alive!  I would've had a heart attack and collapsed on the ground in a lifeless heap, and Madame Tussaud's would've been sued for ridiculous amounts and then would've gone bankrupt.  So there!  It was for the good of all.  :-)

After that, we walked through a few rooms showing gory guillotine scenes and the likenesses of serial killers.  It was not my cup of tea.  ;-)  I was so glad when we finally emerged back into the light to take the "Spirit of London" tour.  Now that was fun!  Kristine and I were directed into a taxi cab and then taken on a tour of London's history (the Elizabethan Era, the Black Plague, the Great Fire, etc.)   I thought we had finished our Madame Tussaud's experience after that, but I was wrong.  A lady ushered us into a room with a stage where a man was teaching the audience how to look, act, and walk like a celebrity.  He asked for volunteers to come and strut their stuff on the runway.  Kristine and I looked at each other, grinned, and raised our hands.  And guess which two girls the man asked to come up on stage?   It was such fun!  Kristine was given a pink feather boa and dubbed "Champagne."  I was given a celebrity puppy and the name "Marshmallow."  (I know--Marshmallow?!?)   We really enjoyed ourselves, though, and we got a kick out of calling each other "Champagne, dah-ling" and "Marshmallow, love" the rest of the day.  :-)

After that, we were all instructed to pretend like we were celebrities attending a movie premiere.  We went into a huge theater with a dome movie screen and watched a short film about celebrities throughout the ages.  Afterwards, the guide complimented Champagne and I on our marvelous interpretations of celebrities and sent us off.  It was such fun!

That, finally, was the end of our Madame Tussaud's experience.  I still think the place is a rip-off, but at least we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and got some great pictures!   At this point, we headed directly to King's Cross station where we found the platform where the "Harry Potter" movies were filmed (Platform 9 and Three-Quarters). Then we went to the British Library and spent two hours looking at all the incredible documents.  I didn't think the experience would be as profound as the first time, but it was!  I had completely missed the sections of original documents by Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci, Elizabeth I, etc.  Wow, wow, wow!  I also had plenty of time to just stand in reverence and awe before the composer manuscripts.  Kristine was just as thrilled with the place as I was.  Didn't I tell you we were kindred spirits?  We were both equally awed in the presence of such history and culture.

We emerged from the library at last around 3:00 and spent twenty minutes trying to find a payphone where I could call Maria.  (We'd tried using Kristine's phone, but apparently, Maria's number is a German one, and Kristine can't call out-of country.)   When we finally found a booth, though, the number wouldn't go through, no matter how much money I inserted or how many times we tried to guess how I could've punched it in incorrectly.  I felt awful.  I hope Maria doesn't think that we just forgot about her!

We finally gave up and headed for the Handel House Museum.  I was craving a smoothie for some reason, but every smoothie shop we passed was outrageously priced.  I finally ended up just walking into a grocery store and buying a bottled smoothie which, of course, is nothing like a fresh one.  :-)  It still managed to hit the spot, though, and it gave me the energy to spend a half hour looking for the museum.  We kept taking wrong turns, and we finally began just stopping and asking for directions every so often.  It's a good thing that we did, because the Handel House Museum really blends in with its surroundings and doesn't have any sort of signs or markers in front of it.

Kristine and I had about an hour-and-a-half to explore the building, and we had the whole place entirely to ourselves!  We began by watching a film about Handel's life, and then we wandered through Handel's bedroom and music room and sitting room and, finally, the room where he composed "The Messiah."  It was incredible just to stand in that space and imagine Handel scribbling furiously near the harpsichord.  Wow!

The final rooms held some interesting exhibits and a fun costume room.  Kristine and I really went to town!  I put on a little blue dress that I soon discovered was meant for a little girl about five times smaller than I, and completed the image with a big, floppy hat.  :-) Kristine dressed herself in a big, heavy, golden gown and white wig, and then we started snapping pictures.  It was a little tricky; if I stuck out my arm and took the picture myself, the images were too close and a little washed out.  But if I used the self timer, it was difficult to position the camera correctly so that it would take a decent picture.  We giggled so much and wasted so much time in the costume room (Kristine ended up wearing a man's coat and wig and posing with me as her wife!) that the museum began to close before we had returned to the 21st-century.  :-)

After that adventure, the two of us were famished, so we went into a nearby mall and purchased bagel sandwiches.  I got a chicken sandwich with lettuce and cucumbers.  Delicious!  We wandered around looking for a place to sit and eat and finally grew so fed-up with the endeavor (apparently, Englanders do not encourage relaxation!) that we went into the tube station and ate there amidst the craziness of people pressing past and trains whizzing by.  :-)  By this point, it was time to head to our production of "Jane Eyre."  I was so excited!  I figured it would be the perfect way to end our day.

We found the theater without a problem and were thrilled to discover that our seats were front and center.  Wow!  The set looked a little gloomy and barren, but I was sure that the production would be exciting enough.  Well, the show was very exciting, but not in the way I'd expected. The lights came up on Jane Eyre (who was reading a book in an annoying little-girl voice) and a crazy lady (who was leaping and writhing and pirouetting around the stage).  It was SO strange!  I had no idea that we were in for such a modern interpretation of my favorite novel.  Poor Kristine kept shooting me confused looks.  All the children were played by adults, and there were only about nine characters in the cast (meaning that, for instance, Adele and Helen Burns were played by the same lady.)  As the show wore on, I started becoming a little more accustomed to the way they were dealing with things, and I thought that Mr. Rochester was perfect in his role, but Jane herself drove me batty.  And that, my friends, is a problem.  :-)  You've got to be able to sympathize with a story's heroine!  This actress' speech was funny and stilted, and she kept twitching her body and acting like she wasn't quite well mentally.  I felt badly that I'd dragged Kristine to the show and given her this impression of the beloved novel by Charlotte Bronte.  :-(  I made her promise to see the musical version of "Jane Eyre" with me sometime.

The show dragged on for three hours, and afterwards, Kristine and I both needed to end the night on a happier note.  :-)  So we went to Tesco and bought blueberry muffins and then ate them in front of the National Gallery where we had a gorgeous view of the fountains and statues and Big Ben in the distance.   We sang Broadway songs, took a picture or two, and then made our way to the tube station and said our final farewells.  It was so hard to leave Kristine and know that I wouldn't see her at least until December!  We've had so many wonderful, exciting experiences together.  I was feeling a little down-hearted as I rode to Woodford Station and caught a cab to Richard's house.  When I turned the key and entered the hallway, though, I found the sweetest note from Nicole.  She gave me directions to my room and told me to make myself right at home.  I found the room without a problem and had a wonderful night's sleep on the air mattress bed.  Truth be told, it's probably the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on, and it was covered in a feather comforter.  Ah. . .

(I'm sorry that so many of my entries end with me sinking into a blissful sleep!  That's how the days always end, but I'll try to be more creative from now on.  ". . .And then I defied sleep by dancing around my room 'til dawn!")