les lions

I've been quite the tourist lately. Sunday, Jenny and I set out bright and early (around ten thirty) to go grocery shopping and run errands. Unfortunately for us, most stores are closed on Sundays, or else open very late. We finally made it to the grocery store, Sainsbury's, around noon and there was a great selection of food, a lot of which was on sale, presumably to move the stock out for Monday's shipments. I'm very excited to cook myself! Last night I made use of my sautee skills and threw together some chicken with rice, bell peppers and spinach.

After Sainsbury's, we had a group meeting about with the hostel manager, Patrick. He told us the history of the Bedford area in a very adorable, very soft British accent. My dream is to organize a study break during finals where Patrick reads us children's stories. Then, Jenny, Rebecca and I set out on foot for an adventure to Trafalgar Square and Big Ben. I am very much enjoying people watching, which is good, as my final project will be heavily based on observation. You can see the effect of this new interest on my photos of the square:

Big Ben and The Eye were so crowded with tourists, all speaking different languages as well as English, which we are all beginning to realize is sort of like a different language here (just for kicks, they spell hummus like "hoummous"). Monday, after our first class with Shuffles, pretty exciting, we all ate lunch in the park, people watched and giggled about Medieval words ("bonerly!"). Dan, Will and my new bud Matt all planned to head over to the British Museum, about five minutes from where we are. Jenny and Lina also tagged along. If Trafalgar Square was uncomfortably crowded with tourist, the museum, if you can imagine was worse because  the museum is free to the public, so locals also hang out around and in the building for social meetings. I even saw a group of students (tourists maybe from Italy), playing cards in an area featuring Greek statues and artifacts. I've never seen so many people, or such an expansive building! We were only able to cover a few exhibits: Greek and Roman art and Egyptian art, and a neat exhibit on the Enlightment, when the British Museum was established and attained many of its first artifacts. But this is only a slice of the place had to offer and I'm sure I'll be back again, next time with a camera.

Monday night was also our first show. We saw "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," an expensive show with an amazing billing: James Earl Jones, Phyllicia Ryshad, two other really famous actors whose names I can't remember... The show itself was rather epic, and I very much enjoyed the acting as well as the technical performances. It was also directed by Debbie Allen (of "Fame" noteriety) and is the first all-black performance of the play, which also was very interesting to me. The audience, however, was worse than any show I've ever seen, even in 4th or 5th grade when I went to the Children's theater to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. That room full of elementary school kids trumped this audience in courtesy and respect. Within the first five minutes someones phone went off. But what's worse is that they continued to go off throughout the show, all over the theater! The audience was also rather noisy, laughing at moments either too raucously, or at innappropriate times, as when Brick is chasing Maggie around the room with a crutch threatning to kill her. The audience intrigued me. I hope the next show will prove to be just as interesting, both performances and people.