From Holland to Holland: Wicked Cool

As Todd mentioned in his last blog-crashing post, I spent the weekend in London. I had been asked by the admissions office at GVSU to host a table at an event. The event was a college fair for UK students interested in studying at American universities. It was a 2-day event, held on Friday evening and all day Saturday. So Friday morning I hopped the very quick flight from Eindhoven to London.

My flight over left early on Friday morning, which meant I had a few hours to roam the streets before I needed to report to the fair. The fair was being held in the district of Kensington, known for being quite posh and also the home to some royal residents. It was fancy pants. I peeked in the window of a real estate agency that had flats for sale posted in their windows, and not a single one was going for less than 2 million pounds - yikes! As I strolled, I checked out some of the great shopping on Kensington High Street and then I walked through the Kensington Gardens and saw Kensington Palace. I kept an eye out for baby George, but he must have been napping.

Street across from the palace.

Kensington Palace.

It was the perfect way to fill a few hours. Later that afternoon, I headed over to the Kensington Town Hall where the College Day was being held.

The event was massive, with about 200 US colleges and universities tabling and around 4000 high school students attending. Here's some photos from my spot in the room:

Go Lakers!

Overall, I think I had success at the event. It's a little tough for a regional school like GVSU to attend these events since we don't have the name recognition of say, Harvard. However, I was surprised by the number of students who came to speak with me saying that they had already been researching Grand Valley as one of their top schools. And for the students who had never heard of us, I tried my best to tout the benefits of attending GV, which really are numerous (and I'm not just saying that because I work there). It was a fun, yet exhausting two days of talking my face off. The students were fun to chat with, and it was amazing how many are interested in attending "uni" in the US.

Since there were no flights back to Eindhoven later on Saturday, I needed to wait until Sunday to fly home. This turned out to be great since it afforded me the time for other fun activities. Due to the fact that I was by myself, I tried to think of things to do that are still fun alone. Viewing a musical in the East End seemed to fit the bill. So after my work was done late Saturday afternoon, I took the Tube in to the Apollo Victoria Theatre and bought a ticket to Wicked. I have had this musical on my must-see list forever, so I was thrilled to get a decent seat for the show just two hours before it started!

The show was incredible, and it made for a very enjoyable three hours. The cast was very talented and they really knew how to put on an impressive show.

On Sunday, my flight didn't leave until later in the afternoon, so I was able to go downtown again and check out the Tate Modern. The Tate is chock full of fantastic modern art, which was very easy to appreciate. Then, I ended my time in London with, you guessed it, lunch at Chipotle. Oh barbacoa burrito, how I love you.