First West End Experience

Monday May 25, 2009 - 6:30pm

Chicago
Arrived safely. Starbucks is the way to go right now! I am super excited to get back to the British Isles. 

Wednesday May 27, 2009 - 1:00pm

London-Oxford
Sandwiches for lunch and dinner for pretty cheap at Covent Garden. :)

We're staying in the Regency Hotel in South Kensington.
Chris D. and I went to "Spring Awakening" at the Novello Theatre last night, and it was amazing! They conveyed the emotion so well that I started crying even though I knew what was going to happen.  They had a chair attached to a wall that Melchior stood on and I thought it was going to fall off!  The chair moved all the way to the other side of the stage so it looked like he was floating.

 Spring Awakening Night

This morning Chris, Tegan, and I went to the Peter Pan Statue in Hyde Park.  We almost got lost but luckily we had a map and got back on track.
My shoes got soaked on the walk and I could barely keep them on my feet!  Unfortunately, they are my choir shoes so they are drying on the bus floor.  We are driving to Oxford for our first concert. :)

 Me with Peter Pan

10:23pm

Oxford-London
First concert is done!  It wasn't the best but it was so fun!  People are still tired and snap easily.
Sam E., a 2002 Ole grad, showed us around New College of Oxford (built in the 1360's).  He is getting his doctorate after 7 years and then is going to Harvard.  He got us into the Chapel and bell tower.  It was a HUGE climb and I got tired half way up but the view was worth it!!  Harry Potter used the cloisters of the chapel for a movie and the gate's gold accents were paid for by the movie.  

the view

 the gold gate

To get into one of the colleges of Oxford you have to take a 3-day test and then be interviewed by the professors who can ask ANY question and you MUST answer.  Upside? You can research anything, and everything is paid by college for 7 years.
St. Paul's Tomorrow! :)

Author's Note: Two days worth of posts since the first one was barely a post at all!  Chris and I got tickets for £20  by going straight to the Novello and asking.  The seats were technically partial view but we just leaned forward and saw the whole stage just fine.  I will never forget my first (and so far only) West End Show.  I feel privileged that I was able to see a show that I had been DYING to see.  I got to see the US tour of "Spring Awakening" in 2010 and I'm a little biased towards the West End version.  They were able to do so much more technically speaking because their set was fixed.  Both were amazing though!