Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Monday we didn't do much of anything. Most of us went to a free concert at the Royal College of Music. It was the opening of their term-long series. It was given by the faculty. There was a quartet that played some pieces from Hyden and then a septet played some pieces from Beethoven. I enjoyed it a lot better than the last concert we went to. After that I went grocery shopping... I feel like I go shopping every other day! But apparently that is normal here. I heard from a friend that it is normal for people here to have tiny fridges and to go shopping most days. I mean, it makes sense because it means that all your food is fresher, but it is rather tedious...

Tuesday we had music class and then science class. After that, I had a quick dinner and then we all headed off to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Richmond Theatre. It was a very interesting performance of Shakespeare. It was set in India and they had acrobats that came in on ropes and long reels of cloth. Apparently this is a highly controversial, but it was also a lot of fun. The only thing that I didn't really like was the fact that half the time, they lapsed back into Indian or Sri Lankan. That seemed to take away from the play and even though I had read the play, I was still confused at some points. But overall, I really liked the interpretation.

Today, we had a make up World War II class since we haven't had one yet and couldn't have one at the normal time today since we had a dinner to go to. But our professor is a really funny guy and I think it will be a lot of fun as well as educational. Then we had a quick tour of the British Museum and learned a lot about where it came from and how they got a lot of their collection. It was really interesting. After that we had our Shakespeare class and had a really interesting discussion about the play we saw last night. It was a fun discussion.

Then I went shopping...of course. And after that I got ready for dinner. Tonight we had dinner with the Winstons who gave a lot of money for our building, both to buy it and to re-do the interior. They were such nice people! We also had the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC there. It was a nice dinner and I enjoyed talking to the Winstons and the dean's wife. They were so nice.

I didn't realize how much I missed southern friendliness. Here, when you go to the grocery store or when you go to a pub for lunch, you don't get the same kind of service as in America. In the US, people are told to be nice and to be welcoming and say stuff like "Have a nice day!" and things like that. I didn't realize how much of a difference it makes. But once I got here I realized how different it is. Here, people just do their job. They don't really make any effort to smile or talk to you much. I am not trying to say it's not friendly, it's just very different after growing up in the South for so long. I think I have adjusted to it, but it was really nice to talk to such nice southern people again. :-)

Prayer requests: I am still trying to find a regular time and place to have my quiet time each day. Tracy is much better, still a little sick, but getting better. I am getting more confident in getting around the city by myself so I might try to take a trip to the Aquarium or the London Zoo or Hyde Park soon. :-) The weather just got a little colder and it started raining tonight, but it is supposed to be nice this weekend. So, a praise that it's been so nice and seems to be staying nice for a while yet.