What has happened the past few days

Sorry that I haven't posted in a few days. I've been dealing with a cold/sinus infection that has been plaguing me ever since I left on Monday. So instead of staying up late, I have tried to sleep as much as possible and get over this cold. I am feeling much better now, so....
Let's see, on Wednesday we went to the British Library and had a tour of their Ramayana ("Epic" Indian Poem of 24,000 verses) exhibit. It featured what seemed like close to 100 small intricate paintings that depicted the story. This was pretty fascinating, and our tour guide was an Indian woman and seemed very passionate about telling the story. After the tour was done, we were free to walk around, and I noticed several sections that featured shadow puppets and dance drama of the Ramayana. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures of any of this! I wish that I could have because I know that Kelly would have found them quite interesting.
After the library, we visited St. Pancras and King's Cross Station (King's Cross is the station featured in the Harry Potter series for any fans out there). We got to see the inside of St. Pancras, but for King's Cross, we took the undergound and didn't see platform 9 and 3/4 :(
In the evening, we saw our first London show: Cabaret. The show was extremely powerful and original in my opinion. Having just performed in Cabaret (and being a fan of the show in general), I quickly saw how vastly different this was from any other production of Cabaret that I had heard of. The arrangement of Act 1 and Act 2 was fairly different, as Act 1 ends with the first "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" instead of the Reprise, and there were small scenes that show the passage of time inserted into the show as well. There was also a little bit of nudity in the show, but it wasn't obscene for the most part (except for the random naked ballet at the end of Act 1). For example, the show ends with several members of the cast taking off their clothes and getting gassed, which left me in tears.
The Emcee of the show was really good in my opinion. He was extremely funny in how he played the role, and on top of that he improvised during much of the show and even tried talking to various audience members. Preston's blog already comments on this, but when the Emcee stopped the show during "If You Could See Her," it was probably the funniest moment of the show, and provided good contrast to the sad moments that had just happened (such as Schnieder and Shultz deciding not to get married). Sally and Cliff were very good as well. The Sally in this production seemed really disconnected with reality, that by the time she sings "Cabaret," you feel sympathy for her. Overall this was a wonderful production, and the only lowpoint I saw was that many of the actors and actresses did not have good accents with their characters, specifically German.
Thursday was kind of a low energy day for me. I couldn't sleep very well because of my cold, and when I got up in the morning I was pretty sick. We went to this orientation meeting that was basically pointless. Several faculty and staff of the University told us practically the same things we were told the other day, so it was pretty boring. After that, I had lunch and took a loooooong nap (like five hours), and when I woke up I felt much better. I then went to see Jersey Boys with Emily, Preston, Kurt, Trevor, Noelle, Greta, and Mal. The show is about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and tells the history of the band through their own songs. This show was phenomenal! First of all, it was so cool that the songs of this band actually told the story in the scenes of the show, they weren't just randomly inserted to fill time. Secondly, the four actors who played the people in the band were amazing singers. Frankie Valli in particular sounded so similar to the actual Frankie Valli, and on top of it all, the four actors had surprisingly good Jersey accents for all being British.
I forgot to mention another great thing about Cabaret and Jersey Boys. In addition to both being great shows, I saw them both for 20 pounds each (roughly 40 dollars), and got great seats. For Cabaret, we got row J of the Stalls (what we call the Orchestra seats), and for Jersey Boys I got the front row! I definitely am liking the student rush ticket discount here, and I hope that I can see a few more shows at this price.
Friday the entire group went to the London Eye to meet Dr. Sharon and Bill Angus, and we went to Big Ben, and then took a boat trip down the Thames River and got off on the Southbank at the location of Shakespeare's London. Our tour guide was really nice, and he always was excited about everything that he had to share about the area. I saw the New Globe Theatre, as well as the original site of the Globe Theatre. Our theatre major group is seeing Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe at some point (can't remember), so I'm pretty excited about that. I also got to see a replica of the boat Sir Francis Drake used to circumnavigate the globe, as well as The Clink Prison (where we get the saying "going to the clink"). We also walked by Southwark Cathedral, where William Shakespeare's brother, Edmund, is buried. So far it has been a very exciting day, and tonight we are celebrating Mal's birthday, and Dr. Sharon is even coming!