T Minus 11 Days

First of all, I cannot believe there are only 11 days left! That is so crazy. I still have...all of London to see. I'm really starting to panic about all the things I have yet to see that I haven't had a chance to see. So, this weekend while a significant number of people are in Paris, I am going to get to my list of places to see. Luckily for me, these places can be tackled alone and might actually be more fun that way. The list includes: Covent Garden, The Sherlock Holmes Museum, The Charles Dickens Museum, Camden Market, Portobello Road (the last two are prime shopping locations), Harrods (I've seen the building, but haven't been inside yet), Hampton Court, The British Museum, The British Library, Charing Cross Road (known for its numerous bookstores).
We had classes today. My Jane Austen class dragged on forever, unfortunately. We talked about Mansfield Park and I don't care for the novel very much, and couldn't quite keep awake. However, we got done with that novel and moved on to Northanger Abbey, and were given a pretty detailed introduction to the Gothic novel tradition. It was interesting...the stories of many of the first Gothic novels sound very trashy and silly, but I want to read them regardless. So if anyone is so inclined to get me a copy of The Italian or The Mysteries of Udolpho both by Ann Radcliffe, feel free to do so. Or even The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis. We had vegetable curry and rice for lunch and it was delicious (for those who are familiar with it, it felt a lot like having sambar rice).
My theatre class was the most interesting it has been thus far. This is because we had a very famous sound designer visit us and speak to us-John Leonard (if you google his name, his website should be the first to pop up in the search results). He was incredibly chatty- he went off on an incredible number of tangents, shared many anecdotes, etc. The only thing he did that I am somewhat familiar with is designing all the sounds in the Madame Tussaud's in New York. He has apparently worked some on the sound for the museum here in London as well. He currently has several shows on West End including Duet for One, Calendar Girls and Carrie's War. He mainly goes out to places, records sounds for sound effects and puts clips together for soundtracks for theatre productions. Of course, his job is a lot more complicated than I described it, but that's the gist. Needless to say, most of us were impressed by the celebrities he has worked with- Dames Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren, Ralph and Joe Fiennes, etc. What is even more impressive is that he, and his wife (who is a cellist), have recorded frequently at Abbey Road (of The Beatles fame). In fact, his wife is a featured cellist on the Harry Potter soundtracks- apparently she's playing the strings whenever there are dementors in the scene, so my guess is the 3rd and 5th movies. And it gets better: Leonard's father-in-law was also a cellist, and is actually one of the string players in The Beatles' song "Eleanor Rigby." This, to me, was amazing because the strings are my favorite part of that song. Anyway, he's done a lot of stuff and he's been around people who have done a lot of stuff, so it was an amazing experience.
I decided to take a night off tonight because tomorrow is going to be a long day, with the visit to Bath and then Peter Pan at night. I ironed some clothes I had washed, updated journals for class, and hung out with my recently engaged friends. They introduced me to a British comedy- The IT Crowd. It was pretty funny, and they plan to show me more episodes in the following week. They're going to Paris this weekend to celebrate their engagement (lucky!), so I won't see them for the next few days.
And now on to bed, as I have to leave for Bath at 6:45 in the morning.