Lovely London
The Lovely People of Theatre in London '08
Thursday
We went to our first museum of the trip, the National Portrait Gallery near Leicester Square. It is a tremendous building filled with portraits of everyone important in British history. Kings, Queens, actors, authors, the famous and the infamous. I enjoyed seeing the famous portrait of Shakespeare up close. The really well known photo by Karsh of Churchill was also hanging. I have assignments to complete for both my classes based on what we saw at the gallery. For my theatre history class we have to go back to the gallery on Tuesday and teach the rest of the class about the three portraits we were assigned. Thursday night we went to the English National Ballet. It was great...the second piece especially. It was a little more modern and was very emotionally charged. It had the most obvious story to me so it wasn't just watching people move on stage (which was also very cool, but I prefer some meaning).
Friday
We went to the British Museum, which contains the Rosetta Stone and Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, among other really, really cool and geeky things. There's a crystal skull that's pretty cool even though it's most likely a fake. Also a statue from Easter Island. Some mummys. There was so much to see there and since it's free to get in, I'm thinking I'll go back there in my free time. I don't want to miss anything! Friday evening we went to the South Bank once more to Shakespeare's Globe to see his comedy the Merry Wives of Windsor. Before the performance the artistic director for the theatre cam on stage and told us that the actor playing Ford (one of the leads) wouldn't be able to perform that night...his wife was giving birth! So the show's director would squeeze into his costume and perform the role with script in hand. He totally rocked it out. And the cast had so much fun with having their director on stage. It was by far the most fun I've had at a show in a long time. It was more genuine that way. A really really funny show. Afterwards we went back toward our place and found a really cool bar to hang out at called 101. We got some drinks (I started out with a raspberry and lime drink that turned way sour and then swapped it for a banana-heavy colada.) chatted at the bar, and did a little dancing. It was a fairly big group of us that went out together...maybe 10 in all. It was a great bonding experience. We turned in at around 2am.
Saturday
My friends Laura, Alli, and I went to do some sightseeing. The changing of the guard ceremony happens at Buckingham Palace every morning at 11. We went and got a pretty good place in front. The fuzzy hatted men marched around, played instruments, and changed it up. It was pretty cool to see. We walked around the grounds for a bit before getting on the tube to the infamous Tower of London. We took a tour with a Beefeater (Yeoman) and visited the crown jewels (OMG) and the Bloody Tower. Very cool. After that we got a call from Vinnie and Hazen who invited us to a comedy show in Leicester Square. It was really great, even though I got made fun of for being a "ginger". Afterwards I was pooped...we'd been going for 10 hours by then. I started some homework and turned in early.
Sunday
I haven't done much at all today. I decided to ditch the alarm clock and sleep in. When I woke up I continued where I left off last night on my homework. Some of it isn't due until Tuesday but I'd rather not have things pile up. I did go to the grocery store (where I found "American style" cookies) and to Hogwarts. Not really, though. Just to Platform 9 3/4. Either way, it made my day. There are a few more geeky moments to be had in the land of Potter, I'm sure. There are some film sites in Oxford that I'm looking forward to. Today it my mom's birthday so I'm going to call home soon. Also, my dad leaves for overseas tomorrow. The three Tomeks will be on three different continents at once!
I'm just gonna throw this picture in...it's in front of St Paul's & it's the best picture I've taken so far:
