These past two days have been very entertaining, to say the least, in more than one way. Yesterday, despite my cold, I decided to go to the second largest street fair in the world...the Notting Hill Carnival (click on the link to learn more). It's an Afro-Carribean street festival that goes on for 3 days and has a huge parade on the last day. Guess which day I went. We got to the festival around 10:30 just in time for the 11 o'clock parade. It was very different from the kinds of parades we would expect back at home. First of all, the parade started off with a large Corona float with most of the participants drinking a bottle or two. Secondly, it seemed more like a parade that you would see in New Orleans. Lots of "showgirl"-like outfits, feathers, glitter, and yes, short skirts (or none at all!). We were most shocked though, by two women walking around in the parade in nothing but skin, some paint and some pasties. These women would have been arrested for public indecency in America, but there nobody seemed to mind. I realized then how conservative America is in some ways, despite our reputation as being a "forward-moving" country. The food smelled wonderful, despite the lack of clothing, and I tried some jerk chicken, a beef pattie (which looks like a beef pasty but was actually spicy) and got a home-made smoothie.
Later on that night we all went to the theatre for the production of Arcadia, by the same man who wrote Shakespeare in Love. The place was really good, mostly about juxapositions and time. It took place during two time periods, 1809 and 1989. It was definitely worthwhile and I believe I either want to read the play or see it again because of the subtle hints that you don't pick up all at once.
Today was an exciting day that was basically centered around the theatre once again. In the morning a Dickinson alumn, Rick Fisher, came and talked with us. He won two Tony award for lighting design and was a very good speaker. From working behind the scenes as a costume manager I could appreciate the work he put into lighting design. After learning life lessons from Rick Fisher, we then ate quickly and ran over to the National Theatre for our backstage tour. This was definitely worthwhile as well and we got to see the three theatres that are encompassed by the National Theatre. After going through the tour, most of decided that we would like to see Alls well that ends well by Shakespeare there. So tomorrow night we will once again be revisiting the theatre.
The best part of my day though, was visiting Platform 9 3/4, which as any Harry Potter fan knows is an essential part of visiting London. It is really cool because between platforms 9 and 10 they have a cart cut in half and placed into the wall so it looks like you are going through it, just like in the book. We all felt like dorks and took fun pictures. Then a few of us decided to make dinner tonight and for 16 pounds we managed to get chicken, wine, garlic bread, pasta, sauce and a salad. Split that between 7 people and it costs you 2 pounds or less.
My friend Brandon had the best picture out of us all.Tomorrow we are heading out to East End and I am really excited for this. More to come tomorrow!
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