Exploring London - Oh the Sites You'll See!

Continuing our first week in London, we soldiered on through the *sunny (read: rainy) British summer! Most mornings, the students spent their time in class with their two theatre teachers, Simon and Abraham. In addition to script analysis, acting exercises, and discussing theatrical theory and history as a group, we also saw our first show of 7 this week! On Tuesday we took a double-decker bus down to the Royal Court Theatre to see White Pearl, a new play by Anchuli Felicia King. Set in current day Singapore, the play dealt with the aftermath of a controversial ad campaign at a cosmetic company and was quite an exciting introduction to the London theatre scene.

In the afternoons, we've been exploring some of London's most famous sites. On Wednesday we travelled over to the Monument to the 1666 Great Fire of London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. We climbed the daunting 331-step spiral staircase to see some exqiusite views of the city skyline.

After making it back down to ground level, we walked over to Leadenhall Market, one of the oldest markets in the city - and also the location of some of the Diagon Alley scenes from the Harry Potter films! There we checked out a few local shops and wandered through the beautiful old architecture.

That evening, undaunted by the perpetual drizzle, a group of us took the tube over to Trafalger Square and then walked up the mall to see Buckingham Palace and the infamous Queen's Guards.

After spending some time watching them march back and forth across their posts, we headed over to the Thames, where we got to explore around Westminster Abbey, the House of Commons, Big Ben, and the London Eye. Even though it was under construction we still managed to fufil our student, Ben's, dream of taking a picture with his slightly larger, more mechanical twin, Big Ben.

As much as it's been raining, it hasn't kept us from touring all over the city!