Whirlwind Week

The end is in sight and there's no slowing down! Last week I had lots of work due (for London studying standards) and this week we have finals! So on days where I didn't do as much, presumably I was working on papers and studying ;)

After my spontaneous trip to Wales where I got to sit on the beach and play guitar, and work on the train ride back, I worked on my paper for Matthew's class about feminism in musicology and practice. It was really interesting but I probably didn't give myself enough time to decently discuss everything in this 8 page research paper.

Wednesday night I ventured to the national theatre with Dylan and our LC visitor from the Munich program, Cathrine (spelling?) who is a lot of fun and we all went to see "The Hour We Knew Nothing of Eachother," which is an hour and 45 minutes long, with absolutely no dialogue, but plenty of interactions and so much content. It takes place on a city street as characters walk by and the whole thing was constantly interesting and really hilarious. So glad I got to see it.

Thursday we had 6 hours of theatre class, all presentations, including mine on Community Theatre which is this cool idea/practice founded by Ann Jellicoe where you get a community together who has never acted or necessarily been involved in theatre and put on a huge production involving hundreds of people in the community, with the help of a handful of professionals (the playwright, and some who teach acting skills, stagemanaging). It was interesting but really exhausting to sit there for 6 HOURS!

After class we raced to the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, which normally might take 45 minutes to get to but the Jubilee Line was closed--I read in the paper the next day there was a power failure and people were stuck on some trains for 3 hours! luckily i didn't leave sooner. I got separated from the group and asked a number of strangers who pointed me in the right direction so I made it just in time for the 15 minute late entrance into this awesome play about immigration into the UK and how challenging it is for people to go through this process with all the many cultural differences. It was SO good. Not to mention before we left, I made a dish inspired by Rachael-- pasta with meat sauce and garlic and deliciousness with red wine and dark chocolate with hazelnuts to follow (I had to indulge after 6 hours of class!).

Friday was beautiful outside! Tessa and I woke up early and I wore my sandals for the first time ever in London. It was also warm on thursday but i didn't get to go outside much. But yes we woke up early and made it 5th in line to buy front row tickets to see Hairspray the musical! We waited for almost 2 hours, and I wrote some letters to my long lost relatives in Scotland while we waited, and we got the tickets! then we bought picnic supplies and back to the flat to pick up my guitar, a few others, and some study materials and went to hyde park to the princess diana memorial with a sheet and laid in the sun and dipped our feet in the fountain and I took a nap and then played frisbee and guitar! It was SO NICE and WARM.

Saturday we took a trip to York, I had another picnic in the museum gardens there among some ruins near the river, and tasted some local brews at a pub, and then went to the open galleries all around town, one of which was in a guys house on Portland street, which was so fitting because it reminds me of first thursdays in portland where they open up all the galleries all over town late at night (except this was during the day). the art was really cool and interesting. i prefer small doses to the intense huge museums i've been going to everywhere! i ended the day going to evensong at the minster, which was a huge huge church, with a crazy painted organ, and a funny choir complete with a 9 year old girl picking her nose :).

Sunday... you won't believe this, but I woke up to HUGE snowflakes falling. In the morning I made a snowman, and went to see the olympic torch go by notting hill gate, and then ate delicious pizza at this italian pizza place in the area. THEN went back to make HOT COCOA to warm up... then we went to see more of the olympic torch, which was wild because the free tibet protests got soo intense they made the torch runner have to turn around and change his course. it was so chaotic with the protestors chanting, people cheering on the runner, police sirens going off, and churchbells of st pauls ringing in the distance, it was really overwhelming and incredible. after THIS dylan and i headed to the globe theatre to see an amazing mix of 5 minute scenes from shakespeare plays-- sooo good! we stood in the pit and it snowed again towards the end, it was absolutely freezing, but so amazing to see a performance in this space. and there's MORE, right after this performance we raced back to royal albert hall for a performance of british classical music. that building is soo beautiful, it was nice to be in big warm comfortable chairs after a day spent out in the cold. by the night the snow had melted, and now its sunny again but still cold.

talk about a weather shift! Today I've been getting some work done, and tonight we have a class performance where I'm going to sing a cappella with the group and maybe play a song on guitar. This is sort of the condensed version, can't wait to show pictures of the snow in hyde park! it was magical, and especially CRAZY considering i had been in sandals and a t-shirt two days prior to the snow!

OH one more thing -- My letters reached the relatives in Scotland and one has responded and is allowing me to stay with her for a night, I am soo excited to meet them! It is my grandfathers cousin and her daughter who I'll be visiting in SW Scotland. More on travel plans to come. I love you all, and think of you often,

Jodi