We made our way to meet the group at the Globe Theatre. Fortunately, we got there early, so we stopped by Starbucks, where Erica got her caramel macchiato and I got tap water with ice. We then toured the Globe, which was way more fun than I expected.
At first, we sat outside for about an hour, and right when I was convinced my hands were going to fall off, we moved inside and did a workshop (which was WAY fun and made the whole morning worth all the crankiness I was experiencing). Afterwards, we all got tickets to the Globe Exhibition, which was a complete waste of time and money. We spent a whole 15 minutes there, 
including the time spent at the magnetic poetry board, and then went to Starbucks, where I got a caramel hot chocolate (delish!) and we sat and waited for Erica's Aunt Judy to come find us. When Aunt Judy (aka Aunt Jude arrived) she took us to a pub nearby and treated us (Erica, Eric, and me) to lunch (all three orders of scampi and chips). We then headed to the Tate Modern, where Aunt Jude insisted on getting us tickets to the Pop Culture exhibition. The exhibition was awesome. Full of Warhol and Basquiat and Koons and Herring and Lichtenstein. With the exception of the "over 18" room, all was great. That room, however, was full of images, sculptures, and videos that I couldn't appreciate. I mean - we're all human, we all have sex, get over it. Anyways, we then made our way around two more floors on which I saw works of art by Picasso, Gris, more Warhol, Koons, Cezanne, Matisse, Rodin, Rousseau, Erst, Dali, tons of Giacometti, Pollock, Klee, Monet, and, most importantly, Francis Bacon. Oh, did I mention that with the exception of the Pop Culture exhibition, all of this was free? Awesome! Oh, and we saw a Projection Room by Paul McCarthy. It was one of the most disturbing things that I've ever encountered in my whole life. Not only did I feel disturbed by the fact that I was basically watching porn with about 20 strangers, but I felt like I was in a real-life sexually-explicit Silence of the Lambs scene. After being disturbed and grossed out for a whole ten seconds, we went to the cafe where I had a glass of wine and slice of carrot cake (which was served with sour cream). We then said our good-byes to Aunt Jude, and made our way to the National Theatre. 
There, we had another back stage tour, which was really awesome. We saw two of the horse puppets from War Horse. They're made in South Africa from bamboo and had Amber eyes. The two puppets we saw weren't in the actual show; the mother, Alice, was cut, and connected to her puppet was a baby Joey. It was still so amazing. But then, while the tour guide was showing us props, she showed us a prop of a huge "life-size" crocodile head. and it was huge. and i don't know about you, but i've never seen a real crocodile head in my life (not that i know of). so i go to my professor and say "hey andrea is that really the size of a crocodile head?" and before she could answer me, or even hear me, this kid in our group goes "yes that is the size of a crocodile, lindsay, don't be stupid, don't be dumb, you need to grow up". So, with a mouth wide-open, i turned around, cheeks hot, and eyes full of tears. It was kind of like the orange incident: it happened so fast, and it left me with not knowing what to do. So after me getting in a few stabs as fast as I could and, if i do say so myself, were pretty good for the short notice and lack of preparation, I tried to enjoy the rest of the tour. When it was over, I went outside to smoke a cigarette and cool off. At first, I wanted to just pull my professor to the side and respectfully let her know my feelings had been hurt and that the whole time of the trip I've felt that most of the theatre students (yes, this was a theatre student) had been rude, bitchy, and cliquey, but instead, I cooled off, decided that I wouldn't ruin our show or bother her, and more importantly, not ruin my time in London. My whole thing was: a) I wasn't talking to you or make eye contact with you b) i'm pretty sure our professor heard this go down and didn't say anything c) it wasn't a dumb question d) why did he have to bother to go out of his way to insult me e) my feelings were really hurt. but fortunately, i decided, like i've tried this whole trip, that it is what it is, and i'm going to make this trip what i want. i don't expect 100% of people to like me, and i don't necessarily like 100% of people, but i do expect to be treated with respect, so that means if you don't like me, ignore me, and i'll do the same. i don't know - it really hurt my feelings, but thanks to a couple great friends, I was able to vent without making a big deal or blowing things out of proportion and then move on with the rest of my night. The show "Nation" is horrible. I'll post my review, but it's horrible. Don't waste your time. However, the company with me was hilarious (yes, that would be Erica) and we had a great time. After the show we headed home, and on the way walked over the Thames and had a beautiful view of the city at night.
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Nation
The play showed how people from different cultures react with one another and even though there can be differences, people are adaptable and can come to agree eventually through compromising and by having to meet basic human needs. This show was poorly done. Although the basic story line was okay, I thought all aspects of the show were not up to par. This show was not worth doing. It was basically three hours of a combination of stories to make an unoriginal plot, poor acting, poor choreography, and bad music. At first, I thought I had good seats. But when the white girl showed the tribe the stone statues that they thought were gods, I couldn’t see that at all. I couldn’t see most of the special effects, like when people would swim in the ocean, and I could see the pit, and the conductor on the video monitors in front of the top circle but above where I was sitting. The play had a non-linear structure, and was more episodic with flashbacks to the big wave and to the girls family’s funeral. It wasn’t hard to follow at all, because everything on the stage froze while only the moving parts of the stage were the flashbacks being acted. I did not feel connected to the play at all, so I did not feel intellectually or emotionally manipulated. The play lacked any kind of heart, so I was ready to leave from the beginning. I didn’t think any of the parts that were supposed to be impactful were, and I thought a lot of it was ridiculous. The most successful roles were the roles of the parrot and the role of the old man. I thought the characters that were supposed to stand out the most and do the best (the main guy and main girl) failed epically. The parrot was at least funny, but did get old by the end. The old man was just sweet and did the better job of actually acting. The production employed traditional casting for the roles they were trying to convey. I thought the choices were fine. As for spectacle: if it hadn’t been there, I would have walked out. Although I do think a lot of spectacle was for covering up flaws or scenery changes, I was at least happy to have something to look at and have something to entertain me. The shark was cool, and I liked how when someone would dive into the ocean, someone dressed like him would be pulled up behind the large screens and look like they were swimming in the ocean. None of the design affected me emotionally. I disliked the lighting design because the spotlight followed the main characters wherever they went. I thought the costumes were horrible. Why did the main girl wear panniers with her grass skirt? Other than the grandmother’s dress, there wasn’t much left to costume design. I didn’t really like the scenery design, but I did like the background design, but the designs definitely supported the intent of the play. The one thing that impacted me the most and kept me from walking out was the people surrounding me, and looking at them and seeing how much everyone disliked the play. It made me laugh.
*
Now, we live in Flat 9. We got keys to Flat 5 because our showers and heat weren't working for a couple days. So, when it comes time to umm drop a d-bomb, erica and i head to flat 5. So we get home, and decide to stop off at flat 5. We do what we need to do and rendezvous in the hallway, and just when we're about to leave we hear KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Pause. "Who is it?" terror floods my body. We look around. There are comforters on the beds. "Oh, we're sorry we have the wrong room!" We stand still for a second. We swiftly lock the door and leave, seeing the two girls who had been knocking in the hall as we pass. We ran upstairs. OMG. we laughed and laughed and laughed. yes, both bathrooms in flat 5, which is now obviously occupied, were blown up. Thanks Acorn, for requesting the keys to flat 5 back before people moved in. Great job with the security...
So, we did a few theatre reviews, now i'm blogging. It's time for bed. We have to be up and at class by 9:30, but it's the last early day, and most importantly, last day of class!
I've loved London. It has been marvelous. But we're all tired and exhausted, and I'm ready for that plane to land in NY!
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