Well, my first week in London is officially coming
to a close! (we don't have class on fridays) There's still so much to soak up,
and I can't wait!
On Monday we had a group orientation with Cindy to
the house and what to expect for our British Seminar class, and then had the
rest of the day free. Jenny and I went to get our phones worked out at Orange
and the two salesmen there were really friendly, we talked about a whole range
of things from American politics to the fake platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station.
We headed back to the house and then got lunch with Kate and walked down to
Regents St. then took the tube to Hyde Park and walked around until about
dinner time. I was wearing my new boots (which hadn't been broken in yet) and
my feet are still a little uncomfortable from all the blisters!
Tuesday was more low key. In the morning I had my Performing Shakespeare class with Professor Totten (Cindy - the one from Eckerd). It's definitely going to be a fun class! We are going to do monologues, scenes and lots of reading aloud from Shakespeare's plays. After class we got some lunch at a little sandwich place (so far the food has been REALLY unimpressive... shame) and then I ended up taking a nap through dinner and woke up with a big group of the girls going to The Court, which is a bar on Tottenham Court Rd. so I quickly showered and met up with them. Then Stacy and I were going to meet up with Kate and Jenny at this "America night" at a bar - which apparently turns into a sports bar and Kate's british friends go there to make fun of the americans that go there - but they stopped letting people in by the time we made it from one bar to the other. So Stacy and I walked around Leicester Square listening to the live music and finding a bar to have another drink. We found this pub called O'Niels which was booming with live music! We went to the second floor, where the stage is, ordered a couple beers and then had a ton of fun dancing to the side of the stage for the next hour or so.
Wednesday I woke up late, then had my theatre class
for a few hours. Surprise! We were going to see Singing in the Rain THAT NIGHT!
Along with 14 other plays throughout the rest of the semester! (Complete
list of plays we'll be seeing: Singing in the Rain at The Palace Theatre, Chariots
of Fire at Gielgud Theatre, The Judas Kiss at Hampstead Theatre, Shakespeare:
Staging the World at the British Museum, Three Sisters at the Young Vic
Theatre, Five Truths at the National Theatre, Richard III at Shakespeare's
Globe Theatre, The Curious Incident of the Dog and the Night at the National
Theatre, Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House, Much Ado About Nothing at the Noel
Coward Theatre, All that falls at the Jermyn Street Theatre, Red Velvet at the
Tricycle Theatre Kilburn, The Dark Earth at the Almeida Theatre in Islington,
and Kiss Me Kate at the Old Vic Theatre)
The professor was really cool, although she went
into some dry details about each play (which I'm sure were all relevant). That
night, we headed off to see the play. After getting off the bright red
double-decker bus, I realized I had forgotten my ticket! I'm an idiot, I know,
because she had handed them out in class and told us to bring our tickets.
However, I was lucky enough to have the box office write me a new ticket and
got in just as the play was starting. It. Was. PHENOMENAL! I love the original
Gene Kelly version, but we were sitting in the second row, and this rendition
of the play used 14,000 gallons of water during the "Singing in the
Rain" song, so it was much more of a real life experience. The actors were
all incredible, with my favorite being Lina and Oswald (? not sure if that's
the right name, but the main guy's best friend). During intermission the lady
behind us said we could pick up free ponchos for the second act - after we had
been splashed quite a few times by the star of the show - and I'm so glad we
did! The final song had the whole cast dancing and splashing around awaiting a
standing ovation.
Yesterday was another adventure. We woke up early and headed off to the
Museum of London for our required course, the British Seminar. The museum is
split between two levels, the exhibits on the top floor displaying artifacts
from the roman era until the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the bottom floor
showing anything from clothes, clocks and replica shops from the 1700s to
today. Both were really interesting, but I was most amazed at a HUGE dollhouse
from the 19th century that looked like a London townhouse and a scaled down
replica of St. Paul's Cathedral that burned down in 1666 (pictures below).
Last night we went back to Picadilly at night and went dancing! Lots of fun and the details are hazy but we came back all in one piece! Today has been a recuperation day - went to lunch across the street from the British Museum and then came back and watched the Paralympics before dinner. That's all for now!
