Spamalot and Parks

Okaaaaaaaay, it's been a while, I know. Don't be angry. I'm just going to write about things as I remember them.

In theater class last week, we went on a tour of the National Theatre, and it was really cool. It is actually a theater complex, with 3 theaters inside. They can wheel around different sets to each theater, and everything they use in their productions is produced in the building. (http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/) That night we saw 'Women of Troy' there. It was ... interesting. It's about the fall of Troy, and 12 (?) Trojan women are all that's left, and it's basically about their suffering as some get taken away by the Greeks and such. It was super intense, and I was really annoyed by the woman who played the main character, Hecuba. It was also turned into a more modern take on the story, they were in a warehouse in evening gowns, and there was random swing dancing. That made it hard for me to follow, because it's a Greek tragedy, but not set in ancient Greece ... So it wasn't my favorite play, but I will say that the lighting and special effects were awesome. There were fires, explosions, breaking glass, and water from the ceiling. Our teacher gave us some ideas for other productions we could see that weren't part of the class. And one of the was a production of Othello with Ewan McGregor in it! There were only like 2 more nights of the show left, and Brit and decided to try to get tickets, because we LOVE him! So we went, but went too late and didn't get tickets. As it turns out the people who did get tickets in the line had been there since about 4 in the morning. The woman told us if we wanted tickets for the next day, we should probably get there at midnight the night before, to wait for them to sell at 10:30 am. 10 1/2 hours to wait seemed a little crazy to us, and although it would've been totally worth it, we decided to give up on Ewan. :( I was really sad about it, so we decided to see a musical that night to make us happier.

So we went to a half price ticket booth thing and got tickets to see Spamalot that night for 25 pounds, and we'd be waaaaay up in the balcony, but that was okay. Spamalot was really funny, it basically followed the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie, but was still different enough to not think you were just watching the movie on stage. And, it was a musical, and I was really excited to finally be seeing a musical in London! We were really high up and I felt that if I leaned forward too much I would tumble onto the stage ... but we could still see most everything okay. I just read in the paper that they guy who was Bradford Meade in Ugly Betty is going to be the new King Arthur in Spamalot starting in March, so I should've waited so I could've seen him! Oh well.

Brit, Tianda, and I went to Hyde Park the other day, but we went later in the afternoon, so it started getting dark quite quickly. We walked through to Kensington Gardens, and we saw the Peter Pan statue. We ate at this place called Art Cafe, and I got a crepe with ham and cheese. It was decent. On the way back to Nido, we got McFlurrys, I got the cadbury creme egg McFlurry, because I am in love with it.

The cafe and screening room in Nido are now open, and they play a movie every night at 8:00. I've gone and watched 2 already. The cafe is cool, there's two levels of it, and on the upper level are foosball tables and pool tables. They have TVs in there which usually is showing some sort of sport. They have American things for sale like Oreos and Kraft, but they are expensive, I believe the Oreos are 4 pounds (that's $8!). Not worth it.

I did my laundry for the first time the other day, and it's really expensive. 2 pounds a load, and then 50p for every 15 minutes of drying. I think I spent a total of $10. I'm going to handwash stuff as much as I can, and only use the washing machine when I absolutely need to.

After my Art in London class the other day, Brit and I walked down the Mall to Buckingham Palace (our class had met at a gallery really near there). We walked through St.James Park, which we decided we liked better than Hyde Park, it was prettier.

In other news, Ruth is coming to visit me this weekend!!!!!!!! I am so excited! For those of you who don't know, Ruth is studying a semester in Spain, and we both decided we were going to visit each other while we were abroad. I'm really excited for her to come, did I mention that? I'm going to get her from Victoria station tonight. She will be here from Thursday night until Sunday morning. We are going to do a ton of really tourist-y things, because she has never been to London before. We are also seeing Avenue Q, I got us really good seats, 2 for the price of one, since I have an Oyster card.

So right now I have to do dishes and clean up some stuff and charge my camera battery and take a nap so I will be ready for her. Before she comes, some friends and I are going to get wings at a place called Sports Cafe (http://www.thesportscafe.net/home.cfm).

Love ya!
:)