A Whirlwind of Theatre Going

Last update I mentioned that we went to go see History Boys. Its a movie adapted from an award-winning play still being performed, and it was really good. One of the boys is played by Andrew Knott, who was Dickon in "The Secret Garden" ages and ages ago, so that was funny. This past week we've gone to the theatre a lot. Monday night we went to see The Alchemist, a play by Ben Jonson. It was difficult to follow, and I dozed off a few times throughout. I was impressed by their revolving set piece though. Tuesday we took a walking tour of Brixton, generally accepted as the neighborhood where black and South Asian immigrants lived from the 50s on. (This is relevant to our classes on the Windrush generation and contemporary immigration to Britain). Then we went to this Jamaican restaurant for some yummy jerk chicken and rice and beans.
Wednesday we didn't have class in order to work on one of our projects, so Nida (my roomate) and I went to Kensington Gardens, Picadilly Circus, and Waterloo Station, because these were all places mentioned in the book we just read, Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon. We liked Kensington Gardens so much that after class on Thursday, it being a nice day, we went back. It is full of giant birds. Ravens, pigeons, swans, you name it, they are larger than they should be. We found a nice little gelatto shop by the tube station across the street from the park, and they had exciting flavors like Irish Bailey's and Turkish Delight. Huzzah for turkish delight. We sat in the park for a while, chased some geese, chatted with a swan we named Fernando (we tried to get as close as possible without him biting us, so we could take pictures for scale), and had a grand old time. We had to be at a play called Bones that night, though, so we left earlier than we would have liked. However, most of our group got stuck waiting for the train that was supposed to take us to the play, and then we were a grand total of 4 minutes late and they wouldn't let us in. It was a really small theatre and you had to walk across the stage to get in, which is ridiculous. Anyway, instead, we decided to go see Marie Antionette and make fun of Kirsten Dunst. And let me tell you, there was a wealth of opportunity to make fun of every aspect of that movie. We kept bursting into laughter throughout, and spent the whole time on the way home talking about it, to the point one woman asked, "I have to know what movie you're talking about, I'll be sure not to see it." DON'T SEE THAT MOVIE. There are like, 5 lines during the whole 2.5 hour movie, and most of it is inane chatter like "Oh I do love those shoes" and "You simply must try this milk." The movie is much like Marie Antoinette's reign - expensive, extravagant, useless, and everyone hates it. If that is what the point was, its the only thing that makes sense. There is a lot about Marie not being able to get her husband to sleep with her, and a lot of her laying around eating sweets. Its total crap, and we were all hard pressed to think of a movie that was worse.
Friday we had to get up and go to a lecture on the Notting Hill Carnival, and afterward we went to Kew Gardens to get pumpkins. The gardens are huge and lots of fun. We tried to get in free by saying we were 17, but turns out its under 17 that get in free. We felt stupid. But, in the general spirit of not acting our age, we climbed a tree, played in the leaves, played Red Rover (which ended with Jamie knocked flat on the ground) and tag, rolled down hills, and got pumpkins. I also got the best chips in Kew, and it came wrapped in paper! Very authentic. That night we had to go to another play, this one called Caroline, Or Change, written by Tony Kushner. It was a musical, and it was quite good, although the lead's voice cracked once or twice, which no one but me and one other person seemed to notice.
Saturday we went to see a football match (read: soccer game). It was lots of fun, because although the teams we saw play haven't been doing too well (it was Fulham vs Wigan), the fans were insane. There are two American players on Fulham, including Brian McBride. It was exciting to see players that were in the World Cup. Wigan won by 1. When we got home we carved pumpkins and made two pumpkin pies. We had to use canned pumpkin puree because our kitchens are crap when it comes to supplies, and we didn't have a blender or potato masher or anything. We rolled the dough for the crust using the side of a wine bottle covered in saran wrap (known here as cling film). Since we didn't have pie plates, we used casserole dishes, and the middles of the pies were somewhat custard-like because they didn't cook through properly before buring on top. They were still really good, though, and we roasted the pumpkin seeds (both salty and sweet) and played card games all night.
Yesterday was sadly all work, since we are leaving this week right after class for our break, and we have a book to read and two essays to write before then.