Hello London!

Once upon a time there was a girl named Sophie and a paper bag named Greg. These two were about to embark on a fantastical adventure full of magic, music, theatre, food, new sights, new people, and more theatre. This adventure would take place in.... the United Kingdom of Great Britain!


I have never written a blog, but, well, all the cool kids are doing it.... So I decided I would too. To keep people informed on my activities while I am here in Britain. However, I am not very good at keeping a journal, diary, or even sequential pictures. So hopefully I will stick to this.


I've only been here one week, but so much has already happened... Where to start? The beginning!


I got her on January 4th, 2012, and I arrived at the Heathrow Airport.  I took the tube to my cousin's house near Abbey Road. It felt so cool arriving to this awesome place I've never been before and taking control of my trip. I felt so grown up (which is still a relatively new feeling)!

I stayed with my cousin, Jimena, and her husband, Ivo, for a day and a half, but I was half asleep for most of the time I was there. :\ Comes with the jet lag. Then I went to Orientation/Registration. I got my keys, saw where my classes were, got my ID, etc. All that cool *cough*boring*cough* stuff. I'm living in a flat/house in South Kensington with all the other Lawrence/London students. There's only 10 of us and an RLS (like an RLA), so it's a nice, posh, cozy place.


That's me at the tube station for where we live!


~~~~~ Fast forward!! ~~~~~

The picture to the right is me with my first cider in London! We're at the Queen's Arms pub. It was a really nice place.



Well, in that first week, I was mainly getting used to the fact that I was in London. I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, went on a bus tour and a walking tour, went to three different pubs (on different nights), and had one week of classes. 












Oh, and saw two plays. :)

The first show I saw was Pippin. I saw it at the Menier Chocolate Factory Theater, but unfortunately, there was no chocolate. But the play was amazing!! 


These pictures are really bad. The top one was the hallway that led to the stage, and it was set up like a college guy's room. One who was obsessed with movies, the internet, and computer games. Before the show, an actor was sitting at the computer (that blurry light in the left) and playing a game while the audience filed by to get to the stage. 




The next picture is the actual theatre, which I WISH I could have gotten a better picture of. The set was very plain, just grey walls, with a few indents, and then different levels. One thins that made me think of Lawrence was that there was a big, square pillar in the middle of the stage (Chekhov!!). They used it very nicely. They had ladders on either side of it and the actors would climb them while they were dancing to portray different levels. If you look closely at the mess of lights in the second picture, the pillar is outlined by the bright blue lights. And again, sorry for the bad quality.


The whole show was done like it was a computer game. If you know the story of Pippin (or even if you don't)... I'm not quite sure how to explain it... A "random" boy from the audience (called Pippin) is chosen to live out his life on the stage and see how it goes. In this version, he was chosen from the "internet" and was given the chance to play this life-like computer game. I loved it!!


The lighting was amazing. I could go on for a long time about that, but I won't. Actually, I really enjoyed everything about it. And I got the ticket for only £10!


The second show I saw was the 39 Steps, which is a comedy based on Alfred Hitchcock's movie by the same name. It was very funny, and rife with British humor. It was a laugh. But since I've exhausted my attention span on writing about Pippin, I won't put more about the show... for now.


Well, I think that's enough for one post. Hope you enjoyed it, and good job if you were able to get through it.


Cheers!
Sophie & Greg