Not Much Time

I've got about 35 minutes before I have to leave for class (and somewhere in there I must put on shoes and brush my teeth), but I wanted to give you all a life update. Since last we spoke, I have been to the houses of Parliament, the Globe Theatre (where I was a groundling!), the British Library, Trafalgar Square, the Vegan Festival, the National Gallery (very, very briefly), visited the skeleton exhibit at the Wellcome Museum, and had classes from 9 until at least 5, but often 8, every day of the week.
One might say that I've been busy.
School is definitely wonderful. Our instructors do not coddle us in any way, and we are much more likely to be told "No! See how you did THAT that time, and the other way was SO MUCH BETTER? Do it again." than to be told "Good. Good. Moving on." I like that, because we all learn a lot more, and it's not like one person is being singled out for this toughness. Some people feel the instructors are being unnecessarily picky (especially because some of their comments have to do with our accents, and trying to teach us how to say words "properly"), but I reckon that it's all part of the learning process, and that we will come out better actors. This may be only because we will begin to actually THINK about how we speak, but even if that's it, well, that will be important.
OH. I nearly forgot to mention: While we were on our walking tour to see the houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, etc, we came across a crowd of people all dressed up like animals. I know. What? They were crossing the street in front of us, and (needless to say) we stared. Finally, someone in our group asked them why they were dressed like that. The rabbit turned to us and shrugged.
I guess London is just another big city after all!
Now for some Luna:






Last night I went with Litza and all of her classmates to the Globe Theatre. That's where Shakespeare used to have his plays performed! The original Globe burned down in 1559 and again in 1613, then intentionally destroyed in 1644. It was rebuilt in 1999, and still houses many of Shakespeare's plays. We went to see The Merry Wives of Windsor, and enjoyed it immensely. The language took a little getting used to for me, but it was worth it. Outside, we found this drinking fountain (that's Litza with me). When you pressed a button, the water poured from his pitcher into your cup. I loved that!

This picture is me actually inside the Globe. Don't worry, Litza took it during intermission. It's a bad idea to take pictures during a play... you could distract the actors, and someone could get hurt! We stood up for the whole play, which was almost three hours. People who stood on the ground to watch a play in Shakespeare's day were called "Groundlings". It used to be a pretty messy place-- people would spill food, shout at the actors and at each other, and the ground would get muddy whenever it rained. Apparently things have improved in the past 400 years, because everyone was very polite at this performance, and I had a lot of fun.



A week or so ago I went with Marielle and Litza to the Vegan Festival. Someone who is vegan doesn't eat any meat, dairy, or eggs (or anything with those things in them). That means that Marielle doesn't eat ice cream, most cookies and cake, scrambled eggs, jell-o, cheese... I'm not sure I'd be a very good vegan, even though I like the idea. While we were at the Vegan Festival we made chocolate! It was fun to press the soft chocolate into the moulds, but it was even more fun to eat it later. Yum!

On Tuesday, I joined Litza and her friend Marken at the Wellcome Museum to see the skeleton exhibit. There were skeletons from the year 200 right up until only a couple hundred years ago. It was so interesting to see evidence of the diseases people used to get all the time. Rickets, for example, was what some kids would get if they didn't get enough Vitamin D (that comes from the sun). Their bones would soften a bit, and curve from the weight of their bodies on top. You could also see evidence of arthritis, and some skeletons had even had broken bones during their lifetimes that had healed before they had died. I thought it would be sort of creepy, but it wasn't at all. I learned a lot.

After looking at the skeletons, Marken and Litza shared a beautiful raspberry and coconut cupcake, and they let me have some too. Delicious!

Here I am at the ballet! I went to see "Dorian Gray" with Litza and her class, and was very impressed. Not all ballets involve tutus and twirling, and this was a much more "modern" show. They had very good music too. I wish I could do ballet!

I think this building might be the first thing people think of when they imagine London... it's Big Ben! Big Ben is actually part of the Houses of Parliament, where all the members of Parliament gather to make laws. At the beginning of every session, the Queen comes and sits in a huge golden throne to open Parliament. I wish I could see her in her crown and long robes. It was pretty cool even to see the trone, though. I have never seen so much gold in my entire life!

The flash kind of makes me look like a ghost in this picture, but I had to show it to you anyway. Do you see what is behind me? It's King's Cross station, from Harry Potter! Of course, King's Cross is an actual train station, but all I can think of when I see it is the Hogwart's Express. I really wanted to try to get on Platform 9 3/4, but Litza told me I would bump my nose on the brick divider and get hurt, so I didn't.




Here I am at the BRITISH LIBRARY! I feel right at home with all those books. I got to see examples of lots of famous peoples' writing-- Jane Austin and William Shakespeare, for example. I also saw a small exhibit on the Beatles (the singing group, not the bug), with drafts of their first songs. It's nice to realise that I'm not the only one who has to try my writing a couple of times to get it right!

Here I am on the TOP LEVEL of a double decker bus, with Dana. You can't really tell it's a double decker, but I promise it was. I felt really high up, and like I had an especially good view of the ride. I like sitting in the very front on the top. I kind of feel like I'm driving the bus!