Second Star to the Right: Book, Cinema, Theatre (In That Order)

There's an interesting sort of pressure that comes from only having a few weeks to spend in London. You always want to make sure that you are doing as much as you can with the time that you are given. The time flies by so quickly and though you'd like to think that you have plenty of time to do everything on your wish list, but dread not getting something in. Today I struggled with a debate with whether or not I should got the cinemas to see X-Men Days of Future Past, a movie that came out today. Many people in the group think it is a waste of time to see something that I can see when I get home, and I let that deter me for a little while. And then I finally decided, this is my time, and if I want to see a movie, I should go and see a movie. So this morning Ben, Chelsea, and I purchased our cinema tickets.

Before going out, I had to get some homework taken care of, so I read from Antony and Cleopatra, the next play in our many Shakespeare readings. This is probably the play that I have known the least about going into it. I know the ending, as my 9th grade Shakespeare class included the death scene in our "Doomed Lovers" ensemble piece, but the rest of it has been quite a new experience. I feel like the style is very different from the likes of Romeo and Juliet, and almost feel like it is harder to understand. I'm liking it though! I also finally snuck in some time to do some reading for pleasure! I have felt bad because we have been so engulfed with homework and awesome adventures that I hadn't really been reading all that much on my own time. I pulled up The Golden Compass on my Kindle, settled down in our common room, and read for a while. It was wonderful.

Around 2:00 Chelsea, Ben, and I walked over to the local cinema on Fulham road to see the movie. Movie tickets here are usually surprisingly expensive, but we managed to get a pretty decent price with a matinee showing and our student discount. Another interesting thing about lots of these local cinemas is that they are usually housed inside pretty awesome buildings. I've included a picture below of the Fulham Cinema. The outside is gorgeous, and the interior is actually pretty amazing as well. It has many of your typical cinema tropes, and like most buildings in London it also features are bar. It was just fun to smell the movie popcorn and take part in a fun film! The movie was amazing and I was definitely freaking out through a lot of it. For those of you familiar with the X-Men franchise, the series hit a rough patch for a little while, but has been on the uptake recently. This movie actually fixed a lot of those issues from previous outings (yay for time travel) and was extremely exciting. I was glad that Ben and Chelsea seemed to be as excited as I was. They let me go off about it for quite a while afterwards. You know it's a good movie when I became so engrossed with the story that I forgot that I was in London for a while there.

After the film we made our way over to Southbank to see if we could get some food before heading to our next theatre experience. It had been raining earlier today, but as we walked along the Thames it was absolutely gorgeous. We actually ran into some other girls from the program and then went to a place restaurant called Zizzi's. It's a fancy little place that sells really good italian food! I got a delicious martini pizza, which was surprisingly bigger than I thought it would be. The portions here have been relatively small, so I was delighted when my meal was big. I also was excited to get some Italian food, which I haven't had since arriving. No worries, I'll be eating a lot of that when I head to Italy next week!

Tonight our group went to the Rose Theatre to see A Trick to Catch the Old One. The Rose Theatre is a tiny theater that is tucked away just around the corner from The Globe Theatre. And really, this is the smallest theatre that we have been to at this point. It only seats about fifty people, so the the actors are right in your face. The theater is actually built upon the foundation of the original Rose Theatre. The "stage" area is actually just a small portion, while the rest of the room is blocked off by railings that overlook the rocky area where glowing lines depict the foundation. I've attached a picture I found online, because I don't feel that I am describing it well enough:

The actual show, A Trick to Catch the Old One, was pretty fun. I think I found myself zoning out a few times during the performance (X-Men, X-Men, oooooooooh), but it was an entertaining show in a very unique setting. It's been really fun to see so many different types of performances in various different venues. In my previous adventures I was exposed to the West End and the Globe, but this time around I have been seeing lots of different uses of spaces and techniques. Not all are created equal, but I am still glad to participate in them.

After the show, Jennifer was briefly freaked out by a Spanish man who painted his face to be like Charlie Chaplin, and then we made our way back to the apartment. The show we were at actually got out comparatively early compared to other shows, so we had enough time to stop by a local shop and get some milkshakes. The milkshakes here are not as thick as they are in the states, so it's almost like drinking something at the consistency of whole milk. I got a chocolate shake and it was absolutely delicious. If you can't tell, I am in love with the food here. I have been trying to be a little more conservative with my money this week, but it's so hard when there is so much to EAT!

Cineworld Cinema on Fulham Road