Needless to say, we were wrung out and ready for a slower week! The next day was Sunday and we miraculously got to Church on time! Helping with the Nursery was the sweetest part of my day! Two of the little kids tried feeding me their pre chewed cookies..."No, thanks!" It's the thought that counts :) When I got home, I thought, "Oh, I'll just lay down for a second..." *5 hours later* CRAP! I about crumpled to the floor when I got up, because after calculating it, we must have walked well over 10 miles a day. Woohoo!...Yay!...I'm just gonna...Zzzzzz *snore* I'M AWAKE! We had a group devotional about lessons learned form travel week, and this is what we concluded: We need to take in the beauty of the world and the people in it instead of speeding through life. It's so true! Stopping and smelling the roses makes life more meaningful in my eyes!
Day #28: This week has sped by with catching up on homework...BOO! Well, we got to be prepared for our final in 2 weeks, I guess. No way... I'll be back in 2 weeks?! Can't think about that now! Too soon! Besides catching up on homework, this week had some priceless moments :) On Monday night, we saw the award winning Warhorse at West End, and it was PHENOMENAL! So random side note: I've never been a big animal lover, but growing up, I rode horses every summer. They hold a special place in my heart that reptiles, amphibians, and insects NEVER will! The movie version came out recently, but the play version is slightly different...like how there aren't real horses on stage. They're giant puppets! 5 minutes in, I was completely absorbed by the horses (not so much on the actors, but hey! Its WarHORSE!)
Day #29: On Tuesday, we had our Country Walk through the countryside of Kent lead by a former stake president...it was BREATH-TAKING! I'm a flowery, romantic, daydreamy kind of girl (and proud of it!) so strolling (more like hiking! 12+ miles, what up!) through the rolling hills of England made me break into song...no joke!
The hills WERE alive with the sound of music, just in Kent not Austria :P It was an all day endeavor filled with lots of Lord of the Rings/ Hobbit references. We had the film score playing all day from someone's mini speakers, so we felt pretty epic! We picked flowers, wades through streams, bought homemade ginger beer (Not alcoholic! Just really bitter...yuck!), and got a little sunburnt! Bless you sunshine for a beautiful day to literally stop and smell the roses :)
Day #30: Wednesday was spent writing an intense paper on Hamlet :) Yes, that' a smiley face. What of it?! I like complex tragic figure and Hamlet takes the cake on everyone! After watching various clips in class (Kenneth Branagh wins EVERYTHING! Seriously, he was put on earth to perfect Shakespeare. But David Tennant's version was amazing, too) I've come to the conclusion that Hamlet is not crazy! You can't put a label on madness, because what defines madness? How would you deal in his situation? Granted, I highly doubt you'd go on a revenge induced killing spree (its a play, they get special liberties!), but you'd be messed up to. That's probably why we still talk about Hamlet 400 years later- you can't label him! I bet Shakespeare is laughing at our attempts to figure out the method to his madness ;) Besides that, we took a tour of the National Theatre that night before the various shows started. Kinda cool to go behind the scene- literally! Random tidbit I remembered: The theatre has been voted for most comfortable seats and been kept purple since it was Lawrence Olivier's favorite color! No way... mine, too! :D
Day #31: Thursday morning took us on another train ride... to Hampton Court! It's considered the English version of Versailles and what do you know, I was there last week! Known most for Henry VIII living there, it had some pretty depressing exhibits (like "Secrets of the Royal Bedchambers"- TMI!!! However, testing the mattresses was fun... they kicked us out when we started snoring- Oops!) but the gardens made up for the oh so uplifting history secreted in the walls. Good thing I looked up the Ghost stories associated with Hampton court AFTER visiting or I wouldn't have been quite as curious in wandering around. Creepy stuff! There's Catherine Howard aka "The Screaming Lady in the Haunted Gallery" & Sybil Penn aka "The Grey Lady" (Harry Potter inspired??) who've had multiple siting over the past hundred years...yikes! That's all I got too, because then I got the heeby jeebys! Can't handle that stuff (except Goatman's Bridge... shout out to Lewisville, TX!), so we recreated Romeo & Juliet in the gardens...Naturally!
You know what we realized when we got home... we hadn't seen a musical in over a week! London Theatre Study Abroad BLASPHEMY! How spoiled to have so much quality theatre at our fingertips...I'm going to miss that. We made the very wise decision to see JERSEY BOYS = Favorite Musical (besides Les Mis- thats on its own playing field!) thus far! Its got everything: top notch singing, acting, dancing, set, costumes, lighting, depth, theme, etc! I woke up with "Sherry" stuck in my head :) I LOVED IT! We showed up 10 minutes before and got front row tickets! WOOHOO! I could feel the bass guitar from the speakers in the stage! And Frankie Valli did a knee slide right in front of me :D I wanted to cry it was so amazing, but Frankie says that "Big Girls Don't Cry" ;)
Day #32: After class today, we went to a Puppet Theatre show in Little Venice, London for a little change in scenes, and it was...interesting! Props to the puppeteers for not getting the strings tangled, (I would've in 2 seconds! "Why you no work?! Move!" Then I'd drop it and the whole allusion would be ruined along with the innocent dreams of the children in the audience "They aren't real??" Yeah, don't put that pressure on me! Crap... I have to take a puppetry class for theatre ed! Better get tangled! ) but I had no idea what the story was about... beside it including a tap dancing mule! That was hilarious, maybe unintentionally, but it brought a smile nonetheless!
Shortly afterwards, we went to another show! I've counted, and I'm up to 21 shows seen in London! WOW! I'll need to learn how to manage my expectations of theatre when I get home for sure. There is a certain finesse and professionalism in British Theatre that I want to incorporate in my performance and teaching in years to come :) We saw "The Alchemist" by Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, so there were many similarities. Reading them can be hard and confusing, but if the actors know what they are saying, the story is even better performed! It was in The Rose Theatre built in 1587 and the 1st Elizabethan theatre in Bankside... so apparently a big deal, right? Yet another priceless experience in London town :)
No comments:
Post a Comment