One Month Left - Lists and Reflections

So it's official, I have less than a month left in London, 27 days from today (Sunday) to be exact. And I realized that my blogs have all recently been about all my trips, which are amazing but I feel as if I am abandoning London and all its amazingness. So I am thinking this post will be about some of the great things I have done in this amazing city. The thing I have come to love most about London is how different each part of the city feels, you can take the tube for 20 minutes and be in a completely different world (ethnically, socio-economically and even just culturally). I have also been to so many amazing markets that I will miss dearly, Borough Market is probably my favorite (all food -- a foodie heaven) but I love Brick Lane, Portobello Market, Greenwhich Market and the awesome vintage market Rachel and I found in Islington that I dont know the name of. I have also been to some incredible museums and my plan to cure the Thanksgiving homesickness next weekend is to go to more but some of my favorites have been the V&A Museum of Childhood (so many dollhouses), the Museum of London, the science museum and the National Gallery. I feel like this blog entry is not doing this incredible city justice but really I love everything.
And in terms of classes they are basically incredible, I have one class where we literally only see a play each week and then discuss it in class. I have two other theatre classes, one acting which has been surprisingly interesting as casting is done so differently here and from a potential directors point of view its good to be exposed to. And my second theatre class, theatre industry is amazing my final paper has the thesis: theatre in elementary education is as important as math. My other class, the non-theatre class is actually one of my favorites, its called Women in London and its a history/womens studies class and I love it. We wander around London and learn about the suffragettes, etc and our professor is amazing, she has written plays and curated museum exhibits.
And my internship is pretty incredible to. Even though the work I am doing is more often than not busy work,  typing things up, etc. the actual work done by Quicksilver Theatre Company is the sort of work I hope to be doing one day. Not only do they produce and write plays, they also have amazing educational programs. My favorite thing they do is this program called Primary Voices, where 10-11 year old kids write plays and the winning plays (2 from each participating school in the area) will be put on in January by professional actors. I love everything about this program, first of all it makes theatre accessible to kids who would normally not get access to it (lower income families). Other than the obvious self confidence boosters this program treats kids as equals, allows them to interact with adult, professional actors as if they are real professional writers. The thing as an education major I love the most though is the fact that this program allowed kids to address real issues in their lives, many of the plays were about divorce and a few were about poverty and being in foster care (so touching). Quicksilver also puts on amazing shows for 3-5 year olds, like Upstairs in the Sky a show about storytelling and also about death -- (dealing with a dead grandparent). They aren't afraid to address real issues with these kids and they are using theatre as an educational tool in a way I hope to do one day.
But in general this week before Thanksgiving has been a really weird time for me. This is definitely the longest I have gone without going home, the longest I have gone without seeing Joey and even though I did see my family not going home for Thanksgiving is definitely the hardest part thus far. Seeing everyone at Beloit's facebook statuses about Thanksgiving break and knowing my family is getting together is really strange. But at the same time I am not ready to leave London yet, there are so many neighborhoods I haven't been to, so many museums and plays and so much ethnic food to eat. I would love to go home for a few weeks but then I would love to come back here, I have officially fallen in love with this city. And I have met the most amazing people here this is the first time in my life I have been an school environment where I honestly like and am friendly with the majority of the other students. And my girls, my friends I have made here, this experience wouldn't be half of what it was without you guys to go on epic adventures with me.
But since I am here for a theatre program I thought I would finish this blog with a list of all the plays I have seen so far.

1.  The Merry Wives of Windsor
2. Today I Live
3. Pieces of Vincent
4. Clybourne Park
5. All My Sons
6. I Drink the Air Before Me (a dance piece so I am not sure if it counts)
7. Enlightenment
8. Faust
9. Ooook (children's show)
10. Or Am I Alone? (forum theatre -- theatre of the oppressed done in a homeless shelter)
11. Parade
12. Hamlet
13. Billy Elliot
14. My Romantic History
15. Deathtrap
16. Upstairs in the Sky (at my internship)
17. Blasted

I was going to write about each show but I have already been procrastinating for far too long. Maybe another time, or ask me about them.  And I have tickets to two Christmas Pantomimes and Glass Menagerie. I will also see the children's theatre piece at my internship. I am hopefully going to see The Ideal Husband tommorow and quite possibly will try to see a few more shows.  Even though this is an obscene amount of shows the majority of them were through my class and my internship and I really want to see some more theatre on my own.
"Going home broke, its the only way to go out." No more money and my pants wont fit but I will be happy and done everything. -- The only problem is homework, why are you getting in the way of my London time?