Wickedness!

As you can probably guess, my night was dedicated to watching Wicked, but more on that when I get to that point in my story.
I woke up this morning, got ready, and left with my friends Jessica and Sarah to go to the Apollo Victoria Theatre to get tickets for the show tonight. We took a bus to Baker Street because the trains were down for maintanence, and then caught a train from there to the Victoria Station. There was already a queue outside the theatre, but we were inside within 10 minutes and got an amazing discount (£25 for a £60 ticket because we were students) and purchased our tickets. The excitement and anticipation finally set in. Sarah decided not to go with us because she had all ready splurged on a ticket to see Phantom of the Opera. Jessica and I split ways, deciding to meet outside the theatre at 7 that evening. Sarah and I proceeded to the British Museum. It was packed, being a weekend, but we got to see some interesting artifacts. The most important thing we saw, without a doubt, was the Rosetta Stone. I had never seen a picture of it and didn't really expect it to be as big as it is.
I'm sorry about the glare. Other people were using the flash on their camera. Anyway, we saw a lot of other Egyptian exhibits. I was very distracted during the visit to the Museum because I was trying to cope with a headache and the possibility of falling sick- some of the people here have started to fall ill and I was afraid it was my turn next. We saw parts of the Parthenon and other Greek sculptures. The big exhibition that the Museum has for the summer is called Garden and Cosmos: Royal Jodhpur Paintings. Unfortunately the exhibit requires an admission fee of £8 and we didn't quite want to invest in that, especially since I had just paid up for Wicked. So we settled for India Landscape exhibit, which the Museum had up in partnership with Kew Gardens. Basically it was a little garden outside the Museum with some plants native to India. It was pretty cool...I was surprised they survived in this weather.
Lotus.













Marigolds.













After the British Museum, we went to the British Library, which is by far one of my favorite places here. We went to the gallery which housed the Treasures of the Library and it took my breath away- I really did choke back tears. In there were original manuscripts of Jane Austen's Persuasion, which was placed on her writing desk, Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre among other things (for a full list, write to me). As if this wasn't enough, they had the pieces of paper on which the Beatles had jotted down the lyrics to some of their most famous songs including "Ticket to Ride," "Yesterday," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and "Help!" My knees about gave way and it took everything in me to keep from bursting into tears. I have a page long list of all the things I saw in there that I recognized and it was a very emotional experience. I also saw the two copies of the Magna Carta that the Library holds, and with that I have seen all 4 existing copies of the Magna Carta: the 2 in the British Library, there's one at Salisbury Cathedral, which I saw last weekend and there's one at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. It is some sort of an accomplishment.
Then I rushed back to campus, got a shower, ate a hasty dinner of microwavable pasta, I was on my way to see Wicked. I had always heard good things about the show, and had been around people that were obsessed with it, but I had never even heard a single song from it. So I went in with high expectations, but nothing that couldn't be adjusted accordingly. I was completely carried away. I was excited every single minute of the show, and I enjoyed every song and every dance. I was amazed at the magnitude of the production. Oliver and Peter Pan don't even come close to having this much money for the production. Lights and dry ice everywhere, extravagant costumes and numerous props to add to the characters and not once did the show seem overdone. It is the first show I have seen here that I would go back to see. I hear it's coming to Nashville this September, so maybe I'll see it as part of a birthday celebration.

This was taken this morning while waiting to get tickets.

In the middle section was where we sat. Really, really good seats for the price we paid.

Stage set up before the show. It's a dragon on top and the backdrop is a map of Oz.

Close up of the map. See how the Emerald City is lit up in green? It was cool.
All in all, an excellent day. Tomorrow is Hampton Court and homework...and then the beginning of the last week here.