Here we have a lady Tony Stark and myself as Black Widow.
Some more Tony's...
And then some awesome cosplays.
It's a Loki!
And a Captain Jack Harkness!
A fourth Doctor.
An Iron Man with a costume that actually lit up.
Another Loki, in a different version of the outfit.
Obligatory I-swear-I-went-to-pubs-occasionally pics. Here are some of our friends, but neither Tea nor myself. (To be fair, Tea didn't go with this evening, since I went to meet up with them after the convention. This was Friday night.)
Then on to Saturday at the convention, where I successfully lost Tea for something like nine hours and didn't manage to find her until we were on the Tube back home (Actually, she ended up finding me.)
Here's a Spock.
If you aren't staring at this while quickly scrolling down you are living your life wrong.
I ended up meeting up with one of our classmates who was dressed as Belle from Once Upon a Time, and while we were standing in line for an autograph from one of the actors from the show, some other OUaT cosplayers showed up!
Another Loki, very well done.
Jareth and Sarah!
A magnificently done Lady Loki!
A more low-key Loki. (...I'm sorry. I just honestly couldn't resist.)
Kids at cons are always adorable!
And then it was Sunday and I dressed as River Song.
He looks very much like Matt Smith!
The only guy we saw wearing the eleventh Doctor's new outfit. It looked great!
Lady Avengers and Loki!
This one was just so great!
Naturally River must pose with the TARDIS.
This went something like:
Me: "Hello Sweetie!"
Female Eleven: "Oh hello!"
Jenny: "Hello step-mum!"
Me: "Hello step-daughter!"
We may have gone back in our own timeline.
Well obviously there are zombies about.
And look, a Rumpelstiltskin!
The Universe could barely handle River Song and Jack Harkness in one place!
Ah, these ladies were lovely! A Ten and an Eleven, and the Eleven even included me in her Vlog! Wonderful girls!
Always a pleasure to meet other fans!
Obligatory Sherlock character picture!
Then it was a few days later and the class had been on another on-the-street session. On the way back we passed through Earl's Court, and I jumped off at almost the last possible second. One of the other girls saw me and followed me, and we hunted down the last Police Box in London!
Some nice fans agreed to take a picture of us after I took one of them.
Well, two, since we had to make a run for it into the TARDIS.
Then it was some time later and we have some nice pictures of Museums...
...and the Royal Albert Hall.
And the Albery Memorial.
Here are some more pics of St. Bart's.
This is the phone booth right near where Sherlock jumped.
These next several have to do with the place of the original Globe Theatre.
There was also the time we went to Brighton and three of us actually went all the way into the Channel.
I came in my bathing suit, and the person in the pic below with the black and pink shorts is me...
...getting into the FREEZING water...
...but lots of fun, and I dunked myself. "Think of it as a baptism!" or something along those lines is what I was told, to encourage me. I dropped to my knees in water up to my waist, then headed back to shallower water...
(Here's our classmate, dipping her feet.)
...and me trying to get Tea, who was taking all these photos, to come down to the water.
She eventually did, but refused to get in the water. Just so you guys know, these rocks went several feet into the water before reaching a foot or so drop where it was almost entirely soft sand. (I did not wear the flipflops in the above pics, they didn't work well in water. Just needed them to walk on the rocks!)
There's loads more pics of me in the water, but this isn't a bikini blog so I'm not putting them up. Instead, you get to see views of Brighton!
Some touristy photos for us!
Then the four of us in the previous picture headed to Oxford - the next day, in fact, a Sunday.
It's beautiful, as you can tell.
Oxford and books - yeah, like we were going to stay away from the exhibit! We spent over an hour in there!
And then saw a procession outside.
C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien often went here together. We didn't have time to stay, but we popped in for a moment to look around.
And now we're at the end of the program. Here you can sea a Tea in her natural habitat. Or the London version of her natural habitat, anyway!
Those suitcases are packed...and all those clothes on the chair plus the many items still around the room still needed to be packed. (For those who don't know, we each ended up checking two bags and taking on a carry-on plus overloaded personal bags and some things we ended up carrying in our arms because there was no other room!)
But before we left, we had a day of half class, half Finals!
So, this is here because of the reflection. Where we were standing, no matter where you looked around you, you could not see the church or its spire. It was all purposefully reflected off buildings to end up like this - amazing architecture!
This building corned was the same thing. Couldn't see it, but there it was!
Naturally, there has to be a picture of the Gherkin!
This is just a cool building. That was on our architecture Final.
And then it was Thursday night and our professors threw us a good-bye party that none of us will likely forget. Here's a group of us getting a picture with the British Professor we fondly refer to as Britain (due to him calling us as a collective 'America'. Oh, what good times we had!)
And us getting a picture with the other British faculty, Peter.
And with UW Professor John Webster.
Last but not least, some of us with UW Professor Anise Bawarshi.
I forgot to send her this photo, so now she can get it here!
I don't generally do selfies, but this was a special occasion.
Some shots of our classroom needed to appear eventually too! This is the next morning, our last time in the room. My god, the memories.
Don't mind the double Tea, she does that, it's totally not my fault.
And at the corner of the building, Cafe Nero, where we spent more hours than I can count, hanging out and chatting or working on homework and drinking amazing hot chocolate. The workers were cool with a bunch of Americans coming in every day. Props to them!
And a final look down the road toward our classroom, which is just a bit down and to the right.
And I know lots of you have been waiting for this, so here: the morning Tea and I left, we took a moment to whip out all three of my Sonic Screwdrivers and posed with our other roommate...and our host parents. This couple took three college students they didn't know in and let us live in their home for nearly three months. They talked to us, gave us advice, listened to our excited ramblings, fed us, and just made us feel incredibly welcome. They treated us like family, and I know that for Tea and I, by the time we left, they were a part of our family. The daughter that lived there while we were there wasn't there the morning we left, but she was awesome too, and we all adored her too. We miss them all.
This is from Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Here's Tea herself, on...Sunday, I believe this was.
Some final photos of River/River and River/Jack.
And so we're at the end of the trip. The Piccadilly Line was down at one spot, and Tea and I got to lug four pieces of luggage each on and off the Tube and buses several times before getting to the airport where I, in a desperate attempt to not have to pay an extra baggage fee AND and overweight baggage fee, spent a panicked twenty minutes re-packing in the middle of the baggage check area.
We made our way through security, popped into a tourist shop for a few moments before realizing our gate was up on the board, and then rushed through Heathrow Airport to get to it.
Tea and I had a long flight home, but we spent it surrounded by many of the students we had spent three months with and the two UW Professors who'd gone with us. It was sad, leaving the city we loved so much, the city where we both learned so much about each other but more importantly ourselves.
We made many good and great friends on that trip, and now, a year after it all started, are still friends with several of them. We get together every now and then, and to this day, London is brought up at every get-together, lunch, tea, and study-session.
Tea and I often remember random things and text each other - just last week I was walking across campus to work when a squirrel ran past me and I couldn't help but fondly remember that day when a line of American college students muttering "squir-rel, squir-rel" followed the Professor we called Britain through Hyde Park.
For many of us, London got under our skin. Tea, myself, and several others are even now trying to find realistic ways of returning, of living there longer. We will, of course.
And then a new adventure will start.
Sincerely, Crumpet
