Wicked Hardcore

Using the word "wicked" has become a funny thing for us, mostly because Ruthie is from Boston and uses it sometimes naturally, and because we try to be Bostonians for a sentence or two, and fail. She cringes every time, mostly because we fail. But this is old news. What's new news is that I went to see Wicked last night! Saw it at the Apollo Victoria Theater, and had a nosebleed the entire time (not literally... but we were in the 2nd to last row of the entire theater). The woman playing Elpheba was GREAT. Her voice was the perfect powerful voice for her part, and she had the Elphie-awkwardness down pat. Galinda, however, was not so enchanting. I'm pretty sure she was trying to be Kristin Chenowith, but her voice was not meant to be used that way. Just wasn't impressed. It was also strange to be listening to songs that I'm so familiar with, sung with English accents. Like, really strange. Like, in For Good, it was BIZARRE the way the "better" was sung. Just the word was weird sounding. Anyway.

Backtracking. Yesterday, we went to the Imperial War Museum for class with Susie. Last week, we met with a historian who gave us a general reminder-overview of the causes, players, important alliances etc. of the two world wars so that this week, when we went to the museum, we were familiar with the information we were seeing. The museum was incredible; you walk into the foyer, and there are about 6 different types of planes used in the wars, submarines, jeeps, rockets, boats, think-of-another-kind-of-war-vehicle-used-in-wwi-or-wwii-and-it-was-there, on display, either hung in the air or set on the ground. It was slightly overwhelming, but so phenomenally interesting. You could even walk through some of the vehicles. Really, really interesting. There was an exhibit specifically on the World Wars, but also on the Holocaust, on British spies ("the secret wars"), on childrens' experiences with the wars, and an entire exhibition of soldiers' art depicting the war. After class, I was going to go to Camden Town to look for a cocktail dress (side note: for fall break I'm going to Ireland. For the first weekend, I'm staying with my cousin Patsy. He emailed me the other day and informed me that we will be going to an Irish Ball while I'm there, and that he'll explain further when I get there. !?!?!?!? SO COOL! Will let you know what it is/how it goes), but opted out on the basis of I had a ton of stuff to do before leaving. Fall break starts on Thursday and, as of yesterday afternoon, I only had a flight TO Ireland. That's it. Completely. So I at least booked a flight back to London, and I'm going to wing it from there. I figure I'll survive; staying with Patsy the first weekend, and then probably staying with a friend from high school who's studying in Galway for the semester the second weekend. And in the in between days, I'll wing it. WOO!

So yesterday afternoon I worked on that and made vague sorts of plans for what I'll do during the week. One of the Hendrix girls who is also going to Ireland for the break is going to spend some time on the Dingle peninsula (her last name is Dingle, so this is fitting), so I may well meet up with her and hang around there for a bit. That would be neat :) Dingle's supposed to be gorgeous.

Today, Barnaby's class was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Wish I'd had more time to explore, so I think Hayes and Ruthie and I will be going back to do that. All kinds of stuff there, from "high art" things like paintings and sculpture, to "low art" things like iron working, furniture and teapots. Nice.

Time to cook some dinner and then head to the College Arms for our last nip before leaving for fall break. I'm going to remember to bring my adapter this time, so I'll post next from Derry!