Vic and Albert

Today consisted of field trip number 1 to the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. After a delayed start, we reached the Museum to see the Theatre and Performance exhibit, if not more. The Museum in itself is, not surprisingly, very very big and impressive. I don't know that it is the most impressive thing I have seen, but I know that I enjoyed my time there. London is all about theatre and their exhibit proved it. It was divided based on the different aspects of theatre: from costumes and sets to producing and acting. Each section, therefore, had exhibits relevant to it. We saw the original score of Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber as well as the costume design sketches for Phantom of the Opera. The costumes displayed were completely outrageous. Only when I saw the costumes did I realize that not all plays are simple and set in any particular time period. They were big and wide and heavy and I wondered how anyone could have endured that. There were models of some of the theaters around London, as well as a life-size stage front, complete with red carpet and painted sculptures. After that exhibit, we were free to either explore the rest of the Museum or leave. I chose to stay and looked at the jewellery (and it was spelled that way too, not jewelry) exhibit, which had jewellery dating back to the Romans all the way up to the 21st century. Needless to say, the jewellery got more abstract as time went on, my favorites perhaps being between the 16th and 18th centuries.
It was then time for lunch, which we had at the cafe at the Museum (mozzarella and pepper open tart, with new potatoes and bow-tie pasta salad). None of the other girls really wanted to explore the rest of the Museum (why, I don't know), so they stayed in the cafeteria while I explored the South Asian exhibit. It was pretty good. There were articles of Indian clothing, clothing of British who lived in Colonial India, Indian jewellery, carpets, architectural styles and paintings. The paintings and the jewellery were my favorite.
The last stop at the Vic and Albert Museum was the gift shop. It was so difficult to choose just a handful of things to get from the plethora of items. I finally settled on an illustrated map of London which, I figure, will be great to frame and hang. In addition, I bought "A Lady's Calling Cards" like in Jane Austen's time. From what I understand, you hand your calling card to the messenger to let people know who you are when you call on them. Correct me if I'm wrong. Then I stopped by the museum bookstore and a got what looks like a really interesting read- London's Strangest Tales: Extraordinary but True Stories.
After we were done at the Museum, three of us went to King's Cross Station to validate our BritRail passes. The passes need to be validated by an official before we use them, apparently. Needless to say, while at King's Cross, we went in search of Platform 9 3/4. I just went up to an official and asked him where the platform was and he pointed me in the right direction. We didn't know how far to go, and during our walk an officer spotted our confused looks and said, "Harry Potter that way" and pointed us further on. There isn't really much to say about the Platform. It's a brick wall, honey-colored, like in the movie. It says Platform 9 and 3/4 and has a half a luggage trolley sticking out from the wall, giving an illusion of the barrier being crossed. If only.
Having accomplished enough for the day, we headed back to campus. It is 4:40 pm GMT and I'm working on getting pictures uploaded before I have to attend to homework.
Yep, that's me at the Platform.