Day Ten from Melissa

Breakfast here is kind of a smorgasbord. They set out bread, butter, jam, honey, Nutella, cereal, milk, an array of juices, and yogurt. 

Their yogurt is different. The square ones have a flavored element in a separate corner of the package. You can kind of see that on the package turned on its side in the bottom left corner. Some have chocolate flakes or balls to stir into vanilla yogurt, some have little vanilla balls I stir into strawberry yogurt. That's my favorite. 

Today I tried a rice and strawberry yogurt, where it was all mixed in together. It tasted very nice. Sadly, I couldn't get past the texture. Other than that it was good though. 

Then I bolted out the door with a piece of toast in my hand and honey on my fingers to go with the rest of the girls. A bunch of us were going someplace rather uncharacteristic for me. 

The making of Harry Potter. 

It's a big building composed of three giant areas, filled with sets and props. I'm not a Harry Potter fan, but Miriam and a bunch of girls wanted to go, and I figured I'd go along. After all, I do like movie magic. 

So we went. It involved a subway, a train, and a bus. We missed a station and caught the bus by the skin of our teeth, but we made it. 

Inside was a mass of objects - sets, props, costumes, masks, miniature models, concept art - and all of them were originals. Videos along the way explained what you were looking at, with directors and actors giving their viewpoints. It was very thorough. 

The cream of the crop appeared to be the scale model pictured above, used in all the long shots and swoop-around-the-building-on-a-broomstick shots. Very impressive - it was taller than I am, and extremely detailed. Each shingle had to be put on by hand. 

See, that's the kind of trivia I like. I just wish I was more of a Harry Potter fan, because it would've been absolute fairyland if it were based on a franchise I was interested in. Even so, I found lots to look at. 

After we made it home, we ate dinner and then a bunch of us bolted out the door again, on our way to the theater. 

The Globe theater, to be exact. 

This is us going down the street to the subway stop. We make this walk at least once a day. 

We got off at the stop, and walked across the Thames on the Millenial Bridge. This is me on the bridge, and below is a picture of me looking back at where we were coming from. That area is called the City, and it is the financial district equivalent to Wall Street. 

And here is another picture of the bridge from the side.

Coming around the corner, we suddenly found the Globe. It's in the middle of a bunch of other buildings, sort of squeezed in. I was very proud of Utah!

You see, we had a replica Globe before anybody else did, and England sent people over to look at how we were doing it and to see if it was a manageable idea. It was, so they made their own. 

Inside the Gobe there were signs with crossed out cameras, but no words. I don't read pictograms fluently. So I decided it probably meant no photos of the play, and snapped a picture of the stage. An employee was standing right by me and didn't say anything, so I must've translated the sign correctly. 

Now just imagine being surrounded by a circular wall three stories high, with that taking up one side of the circle. 

The play was excellent. I wasn't fond of some of the director's decisions, but the rest was great, and Portia and Shylock were both fabulous. Portia had the entire audience silent during her courtroom speeches, and Shylock said more with just a look than anybody else. No microphones, but everyone was very good at projecting their voices, and I had no trouble hearing. 

Just like the Orem Hale Center Theater, actors sometimes made their entrances and exits from the crowd. Standing near the corner as I was, I would often hear their voices behind me and move to let them by. One actor (the funny, common character for the peasants to relate to) actually drew people from the audience onto the stage to act as his conscience and personal demon. They played along with him, and it was funny, but I was so glad it wasn't me!

One of the girls in our group looked up the actors. Half of them have been in various movies and television programs. Shylock we have actually seen in something - he was the father in Pirates of the Carribean. He's the one on the picture of the poster. 

This is us sitting on the ground during intermission, to save our feet. We paid to stand - only five pounds a ticket, very worth it. Also, a good view of the stage. We were maybe ten feet from it, and I'm tall so I could see quite well. 

Below is a picture of the Thames as we walked back over it on our way home. And with that, I'll say goodnight!