Mayerling, Masala and the British Museum

I just got home from the Royal Opera House after seeing the ballet Mayerling with a group of Syracuse students. SU London has this program called the Thursday Alternative for people who aren't traveling on the weekend. They plan something fun to do on Thursday evenings (usually an outing or a show) and offer discounted tickets for students. I couldn't convince any of my friends to go- but that's alright- this show was amazing. Not a typical ballet in the least. It was based off the murder/suicide of the Crown Prince of Austria (Rudolf) and his mistress Mary Vetsera in the late 1800s. Filled with prostitutes, drugs and violence, it was unlike any ballet I've ever seen, but the dancing was amazing (even though there wasn't a tutu in sight). I was WAY up in the amphitheater as I'm sure you can tell from the picture I took of the stage, but honestly my seats weren't totally awful for only having paid £10. Click here for a clip of the show. The rest of my Thursday was pretty uneventful- filled with planning future trips and a visit to the grocery store.

This past weekend Liz's parents were here so they took us to a really great Indian restaurant in Covent Garden called Masala. In London there is a huge Indian population, so the food here is really good and authentic. I had a mild curry and loved it- I need to try the chicken tikka masala before I leave London though- apparently its the UK's unofficial national dish.

Tuesday both of my classes were really interesting- in Interpreting Shakespeare we had a guest speaker come- the director of Troilus and Cressida- one of the plays we had seen at the Globe. He offered some interesting insight into the Globe theater as a performance space and the play itself. My business of art teacher took our class to several commercial galleries in London as well as Sotheby's auction house which was all very new and interesting because I had never seen anything like that before.

Wednesdays I don't have my creative writing class until 5:20 p.m. so I decided to spend some time at the British Museum in the morning. After a quick lunch in their cafe (with sweet tea no less!) I decided to tackle the Africa section of the museum. I'm not sure if I visited the Africa section when my family came to London a few years ago, so it was all new to me this time. I really enjoyed it- I think every Wed. I might try to tackle one section of the museum until I've seen everything. It's literally a 5 minute walk from my apartment, so I don't think it will be too much of a problem!

Tomorrow my photo class has an all-day field trip to the Borough food market and the south side of the Thames river- hopefully I'll have lots of pictures to post afterwards!