Some History, More Shows, and Literally Freezing Bar!

Wednesday morning we got up early for a program sponsored field trip to Parliament. What a beautiful building! Not just on the outside. The inside is full of statues and paintings and amazing architecture. We went in through the Great Hall, and I guess I didn't realise that the Parliament building used to be a palace up until Henry VIII decided he didn't like it and handed it over to Parliament. The great hall was this huge open space where they used to have banquets and such, and lots of famous people have lain in state there. It's the oldest part of the building, because the rest of it has burned down a few times, like every other historical building here. Our tour guide took us through the building, including the areas for the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Queen isn't aloud inside the House of Commons because of a precedent set by Charles I. Actually, there are a lot of customs in Parliament in general that are there for no good reason at all except that there was some sort of historical precedent. It's quite funny, and makes for good stories to tell tour groups! In the House of Commons, the government sits on one side and the opposition sits on the other. Shortly after we were in there, they had Prime Minister questions, which is basically when the MPs ask Gordon Brown (the current PM) questions, or rather, rip him to shreds. We saw part of it on a television while we were in the cafe for lunch a bit later. It was entertaining. Anyway, we also saw the House of Lords, which people are appointed to be in. Their area in Parliament was much prettier than the House of Commons, and much more decorated, and the Queen is aloud in.

After the tour and lunch in the cafe, we went into a conference room where we got to talk to Graham Brady, a conservative MP. It was quite interesting. I did learn a lot about Parliament from him, but also about some of his personal beliefs. This guy could talk for ages. Apparently he was one of a handful of MPs, even in his own party, who didn't like Tony Blair.

That evening I was bored, so I walked to Holland Park. It's a beautiful park, and it has an outdoor opera theatre. There was an opera playing, but I had already missed an hour of it. I plan to go back and see a show there sometime this summer. But there were benches throughout the park, so I picked one in front of the theatre where I could hear the music and I sat down and read my book. It was lovely.

Thursday was crazy. After class, a group of people from my Theatre class went to see Lord of the Rings: The Musical. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. A couple of the main actors sucked, which was kind of disappointing, and the script was really awkward since they had to cut so much. But the music was great, most of the actors were great, the set was great, and the costumes were great. I can understand why it got bad reviews, but really, it wasn't horrible. Oh, and Sarah Kelce will appreciate this (if she's still reading my blog): The guy who played Sam was the kid in the 10th anniversary concert of Les Mis who played Gavroche. I got really excited when I read that in the program. And he was definitely one of the best people in the show!

After that we had dinner at a little Italian place, and then met the rest of our class, our Professor, and his family at the Old Vic to see Pygmalion. What a great show! I'm quite familiar with My Fair Lady, which is based on Pygmalion, but I'd never actually seen the play. The first scene especially was just like My Fair Lady, almost word for word. I kept expecting Eliza to burst out into "Wouldn't It Be Loverly". The actors, sets, and costumes were all just amazing. I am getting so spoiled with all this great theatre over here!

Last night we decided to go out to celebrate Azeema's last weekend here. We went to the Absolut Ice Bar, which was expensive but completely worth it! It's a bar made entirely out of ice, and they have you wear these capes and gloves to stay warm, and they send groups of people in for 40 minutes at a time. Great drinks, too! I'll post some pictures, of course. We made friends with three Londoners there, and talked to them for quite a while. They seemed excited to meet people not from here, and we were excited to meet people who are. On our way to the Ice Bar, we saw a pair of street musicians. One was playing the tenor sax, and the other was playing a drum set made out of various buckets! He was really good, too! I just wanted to mention that because it was awesome.

Tomorrow I'm off to Greece! I'm not bringing my computer because we're staying in hostels, so I won't be updating for the next week. I should be able to check my email in an internet cafe once in a while though.

A statue outside Parliament. We weren't aloud to take pictures inside except in the Great Hall:



















This was in Holland Park, and I thought it was hilarious:















Sitting in an ice chair at the Ice Bar:















Brrr!