Bonfire Night

So yesterday was Guy Fawkes' Day, which is the guy who tried to blow up Parliament.  They have a big celebration every year, and do fireworks and stuff like that on the Saturday closest, so today.  I went to it once before with my dad in London, but this was totally different.

First of all, you have to buy tickets to go see the fireworks.  (I know.)  But there is a fair and everything, so we figured it'd be fine.  The fireworks were scheduled to start at 6:45, so we got to the fair at 5:30.  Yeah...  First of all, there was no alcohol.  Normally, that would be okay, but there were two reasons why that was not at all okay in this instance:  first of all, it was cold.  I was wearing my winter jacket, but apparently that wasn't enough.  But, the main reason that alcohol would've helped was the (ahem) talent show going on.  The Oxford Teen Talent Contest Winners were singing.  I was actually offended at some of them.  Here is the list of songs sung (among a few I had never heard, and hope never to again):

-I've Got A Feeling, by the Black Eyed Peas
-To Make You Feel My Love, by Garth Brookes
-I Feel Good, by James Brown (and she kept getting the lyrics wrong)
-I Broke A Window In Your Car
-Use Somebody, by Kings of Leon (this was song as a ballad...yeah...)
-Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams (she also got half the lyrics wrong)
-Rude Boy by Rihanna
-The laugh from "Thriller", which got us all excited, but that was all there was of it
-Halleluja

I can't even begin to describe the pain of listening to these songs, most of which I'm a fan of.  So yeah, alcohol would've been nice.

Anyway, then, finally, at 6:45, we were all really excited and ready.  At 6:55 we were all really excited and ready.  At 7:05, we were all excited, ready, and a little annoyed.  At 7:15, I was cold and ticked off.  FINALLY, at about 7:20, the fireworks started.  Luckily, the fireworks were fantastic.  They were just great.  So that was happy.  But then the other part of Guy Fawkes' Day came into play.

A tradition for the British is to burn replicas of Guy Fawkes.  As in they have little kids build dolls in school and they throw them into bonfires.  Yeah...  Well, in Oxford, they burn a giant wicker woman, and as she burned, her face burned off and became a really creepy mask.  Yeah...  So we stayed for a bit of that, but at that point, I couldn't feel my feet or my hands, so we left to get a drink at a pub.  Unfortunately, by the time we got to a pub, got a drink, and sat down, we were all exhausted.  It is 10:30 right now, and I have uploaded pictures onto facebook and typed this because I refuse to go to bed before 10:30 on a Saturday night.  I have now made it, and can go to sleep.  All in all, though, it was a really...memerable night!!