Feb. 11

This post is me playing catch up on last week.... :)

In the past 7 seven days I have seen 3 shows which has been amazing. The first, Nation, was in the National Theatre and was a Tarzan/Pocahontas type story. Extremely well acted, great costumes, and some neat special effects. The second show, Gretta Garbo Came to Donegal, was so so. My favorite however was Cirque Du Soleil's Varekai. This show was unlike anything I have ever seen! The aerialists were phenomenal and had me on the edge of my seat scared for their safety the entire time. Many of them didn't have any harness's either! The costumes and scenery took an immense amount of effort and were creative pieces of art. Please, if at all possible- go see a Cirque show. The best part about all of these shows is that they are a part of my Theatre Appreciation class so I don't have to pay for them! Thanks Mom and Dad ;)

In the past week I also went to two museums: the National Portrait Gallery and the National History Museum. The Portrait was my favorite of the two. Our Professor took us through the portraits and it was a great way to illustrate the history of the British monarchy. It also really helped to put faces to names and names to titles and titles to wives, etc. The National History Museum has some exhibits on dinosaurs and other animals including humans.

This week I also had some cultural experiences. One of my Professors invited the girls and I to have high tea at this club. In London, all the "posh" (or classy as we might call them) gentlemen are members of clubs- the Oxford and Cambridge Club, the Naval and Military Club, the Traveler's Cub, etc. At tea we had cucumber sandwiches, scones (with clotted cream!), and of course- tea! It was really fun to be able to have that experience.

I also had an experience with those at the not-so-posh end of the spectrum :) Myself and some of the girls went to a pub quiz! This is basically the same thing as a trivia night in the States, except for one thing- some of the questions are distinctly British. This meant we had to make friends at the pub who could help us with some of the more UK themed questions. So, we met Cassie and Laura. It turns out these 30 something year old women are wonderfully nice and that Cassie is in love with America! She kept asking us to talk because she enjoyed our accents, "They're just like that TV show- Friends!" Sadly though, we did not win the pub quiz-but don't fret- I'm here till May :)