Bonjour,

How are you? Personally I'm unbelievably tired and school is pretty stressful, but I can glimpse the Christmas holidays on the horizon which gives me hope. Of course, I've got exams the second week back in January so the break isn't going to be work-free by any means, but Christmas is one of my favourite times of year so I'm going to try and enjoy it as much as possible.

Last Wednesday was really exciting, as the English classes in my year went to London for the day! The whole point of going was to see the play Electra, but we also went to the Imperial War Museum which was brilliant, especially as the whole theme of war is very relevant to the periods we're studying in History this year. We went through the Second World War bits, but we spent the most time in the section on the Holocaust which was really intense and harrowing - I think I actually started crying watching some of the witness accounts.

After the museum we took the tube to the area the theatre was in, and had some time to go off and have lunch. My friends and I went to Wagamama's, which was divine, and then we wandered round the Christmas market on the South Bank and drank hot chocolate and inhaled a lot of mulled wine.

The play was brilliant, it was actually a Greek tragedy but obviously translated into modern day English so it was really easy to understand, more so than Shakespeare. It was interesting to see a Greek tragedy performed though, because in my advanced English class we did a lot on the tradition of tragedy and read Oedipus Rex and Medea in class so we have the background and were able to pick out the typical characteristics and discuss it in detail afterwards.

Then we had some free time in St Pancras Station, which was really lovely as it was all Christmassy with lights and garlands and whatnot. Most of us went to Marks & Spencer for food, as is kind of traditional, and wandered around window shopping. Then it was back on the Eurostar and home in less than a couple of hours!

I also got a sneaky few books in a discount bookshop (of course). I already have a copy of Dracula, but it's hardback and quite big so I when I saw there was a '3 classics for £6.99' deal I jumped at the chance and got Dracula, Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Possibly not what you might expect, but I'm half planning on analysing some examples of gothic horror fiction for this year's extended essay in advanced English, so I thought I'd better invest in a few relevant works (obviously I'm not counting Dorian Gray in that, ahah).

Every time I go to London, I realise how much I love it. Even though I'm not technically from there and I've only been a handful of times, I feel such a connection with the whole city - for instance, we were walking down the pavement on some random street in the dark, looking up at all the bright lights of the Christmas decorations and I just felt so exhilarated and happy and just completely at home. Maybe it's the history or or the culture of just the anonymity, but I just felt completely at ease, and I definitely want to live there at some point later in life.