Bloc Party and Twelfth Night

Hello- I apologize for the serious delay in entries (please don't be mad at me Jesse!). So much has been going on, and I promise I'll stop keeping you in suspense and catch you all up to date! Let's see, where to begin?

Wednesday, January 31
Started out as a normal day of classes. Then, at lunch break, a kid in our program came into the lounge area and asked if anyone wanted to buy tickets to the Chelsea football game off of him since he got free tickets to the sold-out Bloc Party concert through his internship. No one did. On my way to class, I passed him on the stairs, and asked if he'd found anyone to take the tickets, and then he asked me if I wanted to go to the concert! (It ended up working out so that I paid £20 for the ticket, he sold the football ticket for £20, and then he was only out £20.) Very exciting. Bloc Party is a really fun band (even though their new album sucks) and the concert was awesome.
My new friend's name is Mike, and he's interning for a company called Traffic, which deals w. music promotions and publicity. So, to get the tickets, we had to work a bit first, which was kind of fun. We hung up posters all around the venue- The Astoria, which is an awesome music club, but is sadly being torn down soon, and then walked through the que handing out pins, which the British call 'patches', and getting people to sign up for the fan club mailing list. We had to do this a bit more once inside, but overall it was a fun time. Mike is a really nice kid as well, so it made the experience a lot of fun.
The band that opened for Bloc Party, well, sucked. They were horrible and seemed to think that playing as loud as they possibly could would make up for the fact that all their songs sounded the same. Thankfully, they only played for about 40 minutes. Apparently, Bloc Party is a lot bigger in the UK than in the US, and as soon as they came on, the place went crazy. The British, as we soon discovered, love to mosh, and the entire floor became one giant mosh pit. Being pushed up against a lot of sweaty, drunk people was actually a lot more fun than it sounds, and I had a blast. Music was decent, but the atmosphere they created was great, and the entire crowd was so into it that the place was one giant dance party.
When the concert ended I emerged absolutely disgusting and covered in sweat, beer and smoke, but very happy. Found Mike (we got separated during the first song) and made our way back to the res hall where I immediately showered. A very fun and unexpected evening!


Thursday, February 1
Thursday night our Shakespeare class went to see a production of Twelfth Night at the Old Vic Theater. I headed over there with Ashley, Lauren, and Emma, and we decided to take the tube part of the way and walk across the Thames via footbridge to get to the theater. The walk was beautiful, and in the middle of the bridge we got a perfect view of Parliament and Westminster Abbey lit up for the evening. Although we had to briskly walk (that may be an understatement) to make it there on time, we did, and had wonderful seats on the floor.
The production itself was brilliant and the actors were absolutely amazing. In the tradition of Shakespeare, it was an all male cast, and if you are familiar with the play you'll realize it only added to the humor. With the exception of one scene, which was horribly misinterpreted, the play was fantastic- the best I've seen in London so far.
Came back to the res hall after to pack for Paris!