We took in our first show at the Globe today, which was Romeo and Juliet. We had just watched a scene from Shakespeare in Love this morning in class - the scene where they perform R&J for the first time in the Rose Theatre - and suddenly here we were, in a sense, re-enacting it. We stood with the groundlings, and it was a tightly packed group at the matinee. The opening singers were hilarious, and we enjoyed the "turn off your mobile" song. And we mostly enjoyed the play, but Romeo was sort of all over the place, and he and Juliet had no chemistry, so those parts were boring. 
But the other parts, you know, the parts that aren't completely integral to the plot, worked really well. We liked when Lord Capulet screamed at Juliet, and we clapped afterwards. We liked our adopted friend Phil Cumbus as Mercutio, and especially liked the Queen Mab speech. We also enjoyed the fey Paris, but it was odd how he became suddenly masculine when it was time to duel with Romeo at the family tomb. And we didn't like how it kind of rained on us. But there's no controlling the English weather. We came prepared with hoodies. And the rain didn't last that long. Just long enough to scare all the German tourists out.
Tonight, Mandy, Jason, Sara, Levi and I got to the National "Watch This Space" venue early for some Parkour. What? You don't know what Parkour is? According to a completely unreliable source (wikipedia), Parkour is a discipline that appeared first in France, more similar to a martial art than to a sport, focused on moving from one point to another as smoothly, efficiently and quickly as possible using the abilities of the human body. It is built on the philosophical premise that any obstacle, physical or mental, can be surpassed. Mostly, it looks like some people jumping around to techno music, but I'll watch anything if it's free and if I have a ginormous strawberry cream bun (check and check!) Here's a brief clip of all of their performance, called Fusion:Because we got to the National a full hour before the performance, we got to watch from the big special chairs. That was the whole idea. Seriously, if you want to watch Fusion you have to sit in the big special chairs. Because you have the best view, and also people look at you the whole time and wish they were sitting in that big special chair with you. But they aren't! Because you got there an hour early. And you ate a strawberry bun to pass the time.
And then my friend Kekoa stopped by and allowed us to follow him on his final Thames walk before he heads back to the US. What a chap!
