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Week Two--
Our first full week of classes. It was mostly good. We also saw three plays this week. The four Puget Sound Theatre majors went to a play called "Miles to Babylon." It was a tiny fringe theatre performed in a room with 50 folding chairs. It was about Eugene O'Neil's (he wrote Long Days Journey into Night) mother and her return to the convent of her childhood to overcome her addiction to Morphine. It was really quite good and worth the 8 pounds we spent to get in. We also saw Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare's fricking GLOBE!!! The production was fantastically funny. And the whole time I was standing in the yard watching it, I couldn't help but think about how amazing it would be to act in a space like that.
As many of you probably already know, I love Shakespeare. This is largely in part to all the time I've spent at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. It's my dream one day to act at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. I can't think of a more astounding place to act... or at least I couldn't. Having seen a production in the Globe, in the actual city of the original Globe, I can definitely say that it probably doesn't get much better for a Shakespeare nerd like me.
The next night we saw a play by Bertolt Brecht called "Turandot." It was a political play about communism and such... as many of Brecht's plays seem to have been. I actually rather enjoyed it. This surprised me because I read a play by Brecht las semester and I HATED every minute of that reading. It just goes to show that plays are meant to be performed. Reading them is nice, but they aren't novels. The words are meant to be played. There was a man sitting in front of our group who commented very loudly on how much noise we were making. He didn't approve of our laughter. He claims to be a teacer who has taught Brecht for 30 years. I just wonder, having seen the play, why he didn't laugh. Especially if he knows it so well. Maybe he's just studied it so much that it has become far too serious for him. Remember: PLAY!! I sketched him and his wife's backs as they whispered about us. I named my sketch "The Brechtian Scholar or There's Laughter coming from Row F."
On Friday our class went to Hampton Court. It was the most beautiful, most sunny day ever. Hampton Court is a palace that was Thomas Wolsey's before it was confiscated me Henry VIII when Wolesey didn't get permition from the Pope to get Henry's divorce. The palace is beautiful. Just gorgeous. It's along the river Thames and I just can't believe how amazing it was. It was awesome to walk through the halls of so much history. But my favorite parts were the gardens. It was such a nice day and I really took it in. What a perfect day to end the week with. So utterly relaxing.
A cool thing about London is you can get anywhere you want to go. The program provided us with Oyster cards (which get you on all the Tubes and Buses and trains that go out to Zone 6). We got to ride a commuter train all the way out to Hampton that day for free. It's just astounding.
Saturday was a pretty low key day. I went shopping with some girls from the program. I bought a purse (handbag). It's blue and pretty. But I'd never spent that much on a purse in my life. I have to admit though, it does make me feel like a Londoner... every woman has a handbag and skinny jeans here. Very Unnorthwest-like. I went on an adventure with Matthew later. We got on the tube and off at a random station and found dinner. It was quite a fun adventure. London is amazing. I just can't get over it.
Week three will come later!!!
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