4.07.2003

all the world's a stage
...and my credit card receipts show it!
Last week I spent nearly nine hours in various theatres. Quite appropriate, considering our lecture on Tuesday was about British theatre. (See, I'm doing homework over here!) Monday our journalism class was cancelled since Professor Stuart Loory was in Israel representing the U.S. at a journalism convention of some sort (the Missouri J-School power players, populartion: Stu). I took advantage of my extra evening by getting last minute tickets to see Mamma Mia!. So Much Fun. I was dancing in the aisle. Literally.
Wednesday, our excursion was to Warwick Castle and then on to Stratford-upon-Avon. We got to see the house where Shakespeare was born as well as Anne Hathaway's home. That night, I stayed in the town with about 45 other students and faculty to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance of Taming of the Shrew. I was a bit unsure about seeing the show, considering that my only real contact with the Shrew is via 10 Things I Hate About You's modern interpretation. I was afraid that since I hadn't studied the play before, I wouldn't understand the plot or the what exactly was going on, but the actors were fabulous and really played to the crowd, making the words obvious in their actions. It was my first live Shakespeare performance and it was simply amazing! (I don't count the high school English readings we did in class.) I loved it and would deffinitely see another Shakepeare comedy.
Thursday, Emily and I went to see Lion King. Amazing costumes. Really. I remember seeing Lion King the animated movie over and over as a kid and it gave me chills to see the opening scene with the African music, the rising sun, and the gigantic elephant costume/pupet walking down the aisle. Some of the dialogue was changed from the movie, but otherwise I had to watch myself to make sure I wasn't reciting the lines along with the actors.
I forgot to mention that while Sarah and Felicity were here, we went to see Ragtag. That was really neat. Very poignent for this time as the characters discuss (in stuggling American accents..hehehe) the good and the bad about America. It was so good. And the little boy in the show, named Edgar, had red hair and look just like the little neighbor boy back home who I babysit all the time, Sterling Edgar. Oh, Little Man.

isn't it so nice
Thursday I leave for a weekend holiday with Elizabeth in Nice, France. Beaches, croissants, Palm Sunday in a French cathedral. Such is life. I can't think about it or else I about pee my pants for excitement. I was talking with Dan last night online and I mentioned that all these weekend trips are going to condition me to travelling on the weekends. I'm not going to be able to sit still in Columbia for more than two weeks at a time!

observations
*A British datebook/appointment calendar is called a 'diary'
*A sweater is called a 'jumper'
*Watching Briget Jones' Diary or Mary Poppins and playing 'catch all the British-isms you didn't know before this semester' is fun
*Lifts (elevators) don't have a button command to shut the door. It starts to shut when you press the floor that you want.
*Not all fraternity guys are alcoholic jerks. (I know that I'm a hypocrit, stereotyping frat boys whilst complaining when people stereotype sorority girls, but to tell you the truth, I hadn't gotten to really know very many fraternity guys before the ones in our programme. For the most part, the few I did spend time with really were alcoholic jerks.)

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