What A Crazy First Week!

Well, I'll start with Thursday since my last entry left off Wednesday night. That makes sense, or something. After class a group of us went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, which was pretty good. Not incredible, but definitely worth seeing, especially on the big screen. After that I grabbed a quick bite to eat and my theatre class met to head over to the Globe to see Midsummer. Just our luck - no show that night. So now I'm going Monday.... hopefully! Anyway, the Professor said he was going over to the West End (London's Broadway equivalent) to see if he could get a last minute ticket to anything tonight. My friend Azeema and I decided to tag along because hey, we were expecting to see a show! And I'm always up for seeing a show, doesn't matter what it is (almost.) So we managed to get tickets (great seats) for Chicago about twenty minutes before curtain. Awesome!! It was fantastic. The girl who played Roxie was fantastic. So was everyone else, but she really stood out, as did they guy playing Billy Flynn.

On Friday, class was pretty awesome. Our Professor does a lot of stage combat and fencing/swordfighting in particular, so we got a fencing lesson! It's a lot more fun than I expected. I would like to do it again if I ever get the chance. After class we were going to go to a museum or something, but everyone was too exhausted. I think we all ended up napping... I know I did. So then we decided to try to get show tickets for that night instead of tonight, I can't remember why now. But we saw Spamalot, which was incredible!! The Lady of the Lake just blew me away. Wow, what a voice! Our seats were alright, but a bit far. But they have small binoculars on the backs of the seats that you can rent for 50 pence, which is just brilliant. I don't know why they don't do that in the states. I'm just in theatre heaven here. I wish I could see shows every night! Ha, I would be out of money REAL fast.

Today we decided to hit up some museums. First we went to the Tate Britain, an art museum. About half of their galleries are dedicated to art from 1500-1900, then the rest is 1900 and on. There wasn't enough time! I made it through about half of the galleries (my favorite half, 1500-1900. There was a great portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, and Waterhouse's Lady of Shallot, and one of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey.) But I felt too rushed, and completely missed the second half of the galleries. So I definitely intend to go back. Then we took the ferry across the Thames to the Tate Modern, which is all modern art. They had some pretty cool events going on since this weekend is a bank holiday weekend. We saw a performance art piece where this woman and her team of chefs made a GIANT salad and fed it to the whole crowd! (Over 300 people.) There was a bridge over the space, and on the bridge was where they chopped up all the ingredients, then they threw them over the side of the bridge where they landed on a tarp. The tarp was shaken up, then everything mixed up with a rake. They shoveled it (literally) into bowls and then served it! The salad was actually quite tasty. We didn't look around the museum very much. I'd like to go back if I get the chance, but I don't think modern art is really my thing, so it's ok if I don't. We had dinner at Wagamama's tonight, which was quite delicious. The veggie/noodle dish I had was great, but the dessert -wow! I had coconut ice cream with a mango drizzle on it. It was heavenly.

Tomorrow we're getting up bright and early to go to Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn's family home where she spent some of her time when she was younger! It's a small castle.... but the appeal for me is in the history. :) Also, the gardens are supposed to be beautiful. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be rainy. But hey, that's England, and that's what umbrellas are for.

Azeema and I outside the globe.



















Fencing! (I'm on the right.)














Waiting to cross the Thames. It was quite windy.














Giant salad.