Kickin' it in London is the way to go! Just got back late last night from a great couple days in London, and I already miss it. How cool is it to be able to hop on a train or bus, ride for a few hours and be in LONDON! One of the great cities of the world, catch a few museums, musicals, and plays, and then head back home a little wiser for it. We are very priveleged. Nottingham is about a 3 hour bus ride with a few stops in between, and under 2 hours by train.
This weekend was the men's turn to head to London and leave the ladies to their sleepovers, makeovers, and girls night out, and other good times like baking bread, and delicious deserts. Seriously, when I got back, before all the other guys saturday night, they had mattresses strewn across the center of the living room, and were having a cute little slumber party, watching breakfast at tiffanies, and had all sort of party snacks of cheeses and crackers, cookies and homemade mini-cheesecakes. Pretty dang "cute" I guess. Mary went nuts in the kitchen baking apple crisp, five or so various homemade breads of apple, cranberry and other things, and cookies. They also dined well with shrimp and other gourmet finger foods for meals. They sure know how to pamper themselves, I just don't see why they can't do all these wonderfully extravagant things when the boys are around. We would enjoy it so much...and would be most grateful. Needless to say, when I arrived there was not loads of dishes overflowing out of the sink and across the stove as the guys had done a few weeks earlier. What a great gang of girls. They are always impressing you in new ways.
Well, anyway, this was all after I got back. Now back to London itself. Kevin and I stayed with a friend of mine, Irene, who lives in London for the next year or so as a postgrad student in theater. She is studying at a very selective and competitive acting school and undoubtedly is going places. I met her a few years ago, my freshman year in my first college play, "Tales from Ovid". She had done the Nottingham program I am now doing the year before that. It was really great to see her. She picked us up at the bus station and we ate at a portuguese chicken resturant called Nandos chatting excitedly about changes in the program and to hear experiences she had and advice to give in retrospect from her year in Nottingham. We slept over in her flat, and had the pleasure to meet two of her other roomates, also theater majors. Imagine the drama with all these divas under one roof! Actually they were all really nice girls, and it was good accomodations overall, especially since it was free. It's cool to see the power your connections can have around the world. Connections in life are everything, you never know when they may come in handy, so get to know all the people you can.
Irene was great. She helped us the next day, get acquainted with the extensive tube system and took us to Leister Square where we picked up tickets for the show "Bent" that night. Bent is a show about homosexuals in WWII, and is extremely gorey, and very vividly emotional and raw. Some nuditity but was necessary and effective making for a very powerful show.
The next evening we went to the highlight of the whole weekend. The ladies had seen this show a few weeks before us, and I have been hearing about the music from this musical since freshman year. Yes, the new big thing after Rent, Wicked. It was amazing! Absolutely incredible, right up there with Lion King. One of the best shows I have and may ever see. great music and an awesome story. Basically the premiss is the backstories to the Wizard of Oz, focusing around the good Witch Galinda, and The Wicked witch of the West and their lives in school and growing up. Love, denial, twists, and a whole new way to look at the wizard of Oz made it to be so enthralling all the way through, and with the incredible music, I continually had goosebumps through the whole show. It shows how the scarecrow came to be before dorothy found him in the field, or the tin man, and the beginnings of the cowardly lion as a cub. Pretty awesome concept really.
These shows are the main reason we made a trip to London, but we also just wanted to get away from the flat and explore a little. Kevin and I managed to avoid most of the touristy places as we will return with the group for sure in february, so we basically wanted to see everything we could that was free, which includes a lot of museums and wandering the streets soaking it all in. Tate Modern, The National Portrait Museum, and the National Theater Museum.
London was covered in ads all over the "Tube" and posters showed many new ideas, and movies and music that came out, like my new favorite cd, Damien Rice's "9". it is absolutely amazing and is pretty much all I listened to on the long 3 hour ride to and from London. This one I saw quite a few times.
Went walking through Notting Hill. Great area for antique shopping and just a chance to see some of the upper crust of London Living.
West End in London is packed with theaters. there is always one in sight no matter where you turn, meaning there is always the oppurtunity to see 20 great productions at the same time. So hard to choose... but always impressive!
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