The final countdown

So classes are effectively over. We have two exams on Tuesday, but they’re not going to be all that difficult and we have plenty of time to study. This means that from now until the time we leave (next Monday) is going to be filled with lots of errands and outings, trying to get everything on our proverbial “London-lists” done. I’m excited.

Tuesday night, after a long day of class, a bunch of people from our program went to go see Romeo and Juliet. But of course we weren’t just going to go to any old theater and sit in nice comfortable seats, no. We got standing tickets, at the Globe! We got there early enough and so we were standing right on the edge of the stage and it was incredible. The production was really good, not so sure how much I liked Juliet, but everyone else was phenomenal, but what I liked the best was seeing how they used the theater. The actors were constantly running up and down the stairs, through the crowd of ‘groundlings’, as we were called, and the scene changes were cool because there aren’t any curtains or things like that so the actors would pass each other carrying props out during the change. It was a long time to be standing, but totally worth it.

On Wednesday we went and saw our last play for theater class, Tusk Tusk. This play was written by a 21 year old (when she was 19) and has three children whose mother leaves them because she is mentally ill and they must fend for themselves. It sounds a little dreary, but this was one of my favorite plays we’ve seen thus far. The actors were all very young but they were so incredibly good, and the playwright was in the audience and watching her was really fun.

Yesterday our GST class spent the morning on the deck of the HMS Belfast, a British battleship that rests in the Thames right downstream from Tower Bridge. It was a nice last outing, which have been my favorite parts of this class. We then finished up sociology presentations which was the best feeling in the world. To celebrate the end of classes some of us stayed in to write a remix of “I’m on a boat.” We recorded our new version, “I’m on a tube,” and performed it for everyone. Yeah I bet you wish you were as cool as us. But now I must go because we’re running off to Greenwhich for the day!