There's no business like show business

Day 98

Apparently the fact that we're almost out of time has made us realize that there's a lot of shows we still want to see. So Monday we went to see Twelfth Night with Derek Jacobi playing Malvolio. It's one of my very favorite Shakespeare plays, so I was pretty excited to see it. I was surprised by how serious they played it. But the lighting was fantastic. I love plays.

Tuesday I wrote papers all week. Huzzah for finals week! /not.

Funniest quote of the week:

NC: Is that Obama?
TA: No, that's Heath Ledger.

Hehe, because those are the same person... In their defense, they actually were looking at two different pictures, but still.

Wednesday was the last day of classes, yay! I also managed to get sick that day (and still am not quite over it). Probably something to do with being stressed about finals and not sleeping.

We went ice skating in Hyde Park. They have this cool little Winter Wonderland carnival set up with slides, a glass maze, a ferris wheel, carousel, and various beer huts (also a haunted mansion ride--a little unusual for Christmas, but cool). They also have the little outdoor ice rink. I love ice skating, but I've never been outside, so it was lots of fun.
Yeah, not sure where everyone is in this picture... there were like a million people on the ice.

And now for the story event of the week/month/year. My friend David has this awesome job as an agent for classical musicians, so he gets to go to all sorts of concerts, and since his boss was sick he had an extra ticket, so he asked me if I wanted to go. So after a rapid reassembling of my evening and wardrobe, we went to dinner at a nice restaurant near Covent Garden that had like eight pieces of silverware and served baby squid with green bean salsa (???). I decided to be a bit more boring and go for the chicken with aubergine (which is what they call eggplant). It was quite good. After dinner, we ran over to the Royal Festival Hall and saw a concert with a couple pieces by Olivier Messiaen. He's a modern French composer, so the music was all crazy and dissonant. But surprisingly, I rather liked it. Particularly the second piece, Seven Haikus. It kind of reminded me of the soundtracks for those old creepy black and white horror films. David pointed out a couple of emminent British composers sitting near us, so that was pretty cool. Turns out David also has this nifty little badge that gives him backstage access, so we went through a door that totally looks like the wall and saw the backstage area. And apparently, since this concert was part of a festival celebrating Messiaen the French composer, the French Ambassador decided to invite all of the music people over to his house, which apparently includes agents. So we got to take a coach from the Festival Hall to the French Ambassador's House. And by 'house' I actually mean 'small and very expensive mansion'. It was pretty incredible. At the party we didn't really know many people, so we just sat on the couch chatting, drinking tomato juice, and eating strange varieties of fish (salmon, crab, monkfish, and swordfish--definitely won't be tryin the monkfish again). When we were ready to go, we went over to thank the French Ambassador. So I've now shaken hands with the French Ambassador! It was basically the most amazing night ever.
Thursday I studied for finals, and went with some friends to 'Potted Potter'. It's a parody of Harry Potter where these two guys do all seven books in 70 minutes. It was hilarious, we were laughing the whole time. And we got to play a game of quidditch, got sprayed with a water gun, watched a kid judo tackle the snitch, and heard the 7th book turned into a song. It was brilliant.

Friday. Judgment Day (aka: Finals). I had my three literature finals back to back from 9 to 3. Which is highly unfortunate, but now I just have religion left. All in all, it was one of the most painless finals weeks I've ever had. Well, except that my hand was slightly in pain after writing two finals for every test in addition to all the essay and "short" answer questions.

Afterwards I ran over to Harrods, which is like a giant six level mall. I was told that you can buy absolutely anything, and I'm beginning to think it's true. I saw chocolates, sushi, antiques, hair dryers, pet costumes, pet food, junior Armani, jewel encrusted decorative keys, raw meat, perfume, designer clothes and shoes, artwork, glass sculpture, lingerie, children's books, gelato, washing machines, flat screen TV's, washing machines, bath robes, and I don't even know what else. It was quite an experience.
Tonight I went to Warhorse. It's this super amazing play about a young boy and the horse he raises and has a deep bond with, and then the horse gets sold to the war effort in WWI, and the boy goes off to find him in the war, and they each have many terrifying experiences, but in the end all is well. It was really cool how they made the mechanical horse, with two people under the wooden frame controlling the legs, and one person with a pole controlling the head. But they were so good, you forgot they were even there. It was amazing how convincingly they moved that horse. A spectacular performance.

I started packing today.