Musicals and Fairytales

Wow, it has been a crazy past couple of days, I don't even know where to start.  I guess I will start with my first day of class on Thursday. I left my flat around 9:45 walking out these front doors to class.

Our classes are held in the Hyde Park church building.  I am taking two classes here in London for a total of 6 credit hours.  The first class discussion was for my British Theatre Performance class.  We discussed theatre and how we can experience it and then turn it into a critical conversation.  Roger Sorenson, my professor read some quotes about how art and specifically theatre touches our soul and we crave it as we do food in order to make sense of life.  That is a very botched up statement but you get the idea.  I loved it because that is exactly how I feel.  Life makes sense to me because of theatre and since I have had tasted of that I crave it.  Some people might think I am being overly dramatic about it but I think I am just extremely passionate about it. We also discussed the criteria for the scene we have to perform which really got my creative juices flowing.

Then we had our Shakespeare discussion on The Tempest.  This is the first play that we will be seeing as a class at the Little Angels Theatre.  It is a children's theatre and the show is done with puppets.  I am really interested to see what that is like.  I personally imagine little sock puppets but that may not be accurate.  I guess we will see.  Anyway our discussion of the play was great. I learned a lot of things from my peers!  I realized that other people got way more out of it then I did but hearing their thoughts definitely sparked some ideas of my own.  I think this will be a great term.  I learn a lot from hearing other peoples ideas and they professors are really trying to set up this program to allow that type of learning.

After class me and a group of three other girls headed to a real grocery store.  By real I mean not like the one we went to on Thursday that had small variety, gourmet groceries, and high prices.  I got a good amount of stuff that will hopefully last me awhile.  Walking home with all those groceries was the worst part.  Seriously, you don't think about it when you have a car to carry your groceries home in but walking 6 or 7 blocks with a bag filled of canned soup is not fun.

Now to one of my favorite parts of this trip so far. My roommate, Katie, and I got an a legit 60's style double decker bus to head down to the Queen's theatre where we saw Les Miserables in the West Side.  Holy cow, I am in love with that show.  Even though I am obsessed with musical theatre this is the first time I have ever seen the show performed.  It was fabulous.  I want to see it again.  I walked out of there emotionally drained in a good way.  What an emotionally heavy show.  I was laughing and crying and laughing a crying the whole time.  I can't think of one song that didn't leave me with chills.  Don't get me wrong, it was not perfect and some off the actors didn't do as great of a job as others but I was blinded by the fact that I was seeing it in London, for the first time.  Ahhhhh. Can you hear the enthusiasm in this text because if you can't try reading it again and think of me saying it with a lot of excitement because that is how it is meant. :) I think I will see it again if at all possible.  The tickets were really cheap, about £27 for ground floor middle right seats.  Here are some pictures.

Then came the crazy decision to camp outside of Buckingham Palace all night to see the Queen and the bride and groom drive past on the way to and from the wedding and then kiss on the balcony. 

There was a group of 13 of us.  We all bundled up, packed our bags with food and headed to the Palace.  We did not get much sleep but we got to know each other pretty well sharing first kiss and embarrassing moments stories.  We then met some imperial guards, a security man, 4 London locals, and a group of teenagers from the outskirts of London.  They were hilarious.  One of the locals is actually a musician, I think me and a few other girls are going to see him perform.  He also gave us some places in the area with good music, hopefully we will be able to explore that. One thing I learned is that I love hearing that accent.There were people EVERYWHERE waving their flags and speaking so beautifully. Here is a picture of me, Katie (one of my Katie roommates) and Camille, camping out in the middle of the night. 

It was freezing so some good bonding cuddling happened. :) The sun came out and I realized I do not handle no sleep very well.  I got a bit grumpy but it was all worth it when Kate and Will drove past in their carriage. I was surprised at how excited I was! They were probably 10 yards away from us and she looked so beautiful and happy.  They both did. It was crazy to see them in person after I had seen them on magazines for the past month.  We got to hear the entire wedding on speakers on the palace grounds.  They came out on the balcony waving and looking so happy and he kissed his bride as the entire country looked on and as the crowds chanted kiss her.  It was so cute. It really made me think about how they are real people in love and it just so happens he is a prince and she is a princess. What a fairy tale? I was there to see it.   Sorry the pictures are horrible, but they are the best I got. 

Well, since I have really messed up my sleeping pattern now, I should try and go back to sleep.  Sorry I am not going to read through this and make sure there are no errors (hopefully I won't regret that when I am really awake in the morning).  I hope I didn't bore you with all the details, I just don't want to forget anything so you get to read everything.  Back to dreaming about my fairy tale wedding and becoming a Princess.