Ah! You're in a grave situation now, aren't you!?

I've been kind of absent this week, and for that I apologize. But, I do have some good stories and excuses as to why. The primary of those is that I had a final yesterday for the class I was in that spanned the first half of the semester. I spent a lot of time studying in the library this week which subsequently meant that there was nothing to write about. But, I had some fun the past couple days, so I do have info to fill in.

On Thursday night (yes, the night before my final where I should have been studying. It's okay....I know I passed the class, and I studied a LOT before that night. Anyway...) Andrew and I went on the "Jack the Ripper" walk around London. The walk took us to various spots significant to the famous serial killer and his 5 victims. We purposely went on Thursday because it was dark and misty, and being almost Halloween, we thought it would add to the ambiance of the whole thing. Despite my nerves about the walk, it really wasn't scary at all. It was really cool to see and hear about London-- how it was and how it has changed since then--but not too scary. In fact, I found myself being more of a legal nerd than anything else; there was a witness who found one of the victims lying on the ground with her garments over her upper torso. He, thinking she was passed out drunk, moved the garments back down to cover her lower torso. When our guide told us that, I thought "Oh no! You are ruining the crime scene! Stop!" (Insert ridiculous "you are a nerd" moan here.) They also talked about the autopsy's conducted on the victims and I thought, "hey! I know where that goes and what it looks like!" (For those of you who don't know, I got to witness an autopsy through my job this past summer.) All in all, the walk was good (not great), but definitely worth doing because it only costs £5 (one of the more economical attractions here in London.)

Last night, however, has probably been the most enjoyable night I've had in London. It is again evidence of my musical theater nerdy-ness, but I don't care, it was great. "Tell me what you did
already!" you say? Okay! Val and I went to a sing-a-long showing of the movie "The Sound of Music." (Yes, they showed the words to the songs on the screen, but no, there was no bouncing ball to keep you all together. Surprisingly enough, most of the time, we did okay staying with the soundtrack even though we couldn't hear it over our own voices.) Many places in the US do similar things for "Rocky Horror Picture Show"; people dress up and come to the show, singing all the songs and adding their own commentary to various parts. This is exactly what happened last night. I've never seen so many nuns in one place at one time, and I've been catholic my whole life! There were also people dressed like Maria, and Uncle Max, and one dressed like a goatherd.

Before the show started, a drag queen came out and got the audience excited (like we really needed to be jazzed up...). She also instructed us on different sounds to make throughout the show, and showed us how to use our little baggies of goodies. For example, the opening shots of the movie are all the Austrian countryside. Apparently 4 minutes to be exact. In order to make this time pass, we were all instructed to make goat, or sheep or cow noises. Then when we saw Maria, we were to start waving and say hello. And anytime the words 'The Hills are Alive!' were said throughout the show, we were to stand up and "illustrate" the hills becoming alive using our arms. We hissed every time the baroness came on screen, and barked every time Rolf came an (although I don't quite understand the catalyst behind that action.) We booed the nazi's and "awed" at the children. Included in the goody-bags were little cards with a "?" and a picture of Maria that we held up when we sang "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" We also had invitations to the Captain's ball, and (my favorite of everything we did), were party poppers that we were to use when the Captain and Maria finally kissed for the first time.

People added their own commentary, too. One woman would scream "SEVEN!?!" every time they discussed the number of children, and we all threw our snotty little comments in at appropriate places. (I think I got a laugh from the crowd when I told Maria not to be sad when finding out the Baroness and Captain were getting married b/c the Captain really loved her, and she would get him back!) My favorite audience "add-on" was the scene where the Von Trapp family is hiding in the abbey graveyard and the nazi's come looking for them with flashlights. You can certainly see the beams of 4 or 5 flashlights on screen, and 4 or 5 members of the audience popped up with their flashlights and shined them around the room just like the nazi's would have. And everyone but one went down at the same time the beams died to one on the screen. It was perfect. If anyone ever has the opportunity to do that, I 100% recommend it.

Tonight we're celebrating yet another birthday. This time, I got to bake the cake! (Yeah! My first time baking in London!) We're also having Mexican food. YUM YUM.