Beyond the Classroom

One of things that I like most about our trip so far is the fact that we're really using the city as our classroom. Two nights ago, we went to our first musical production- my first opera- and it was great! It was in a beautiful hall in the Barbican center, and I can't wait to go home and get the CD.

Last night, my flatmates and I fulfilled one of the requirements for our theater class by seeing a play outside of the syllabus, Spamalot. We managed to get a really good price and sat in the second row of the stage, perfect to see the actors expressions as they tried to hide their laughter about the play.

And today, we met one of teachers in the National Gallery and spent several hours there as we traced European art from the Proto-Renaissance up through Impressionism. Other art history classes look at books or slide shows to see this kind of art. Instead, we looked at Da Vinci's Virgin on the Rocks, and Monet's Water-Lilly Pond in person. It's been really nice using our classes as way to explore the city in addition to all of our individual trips around town.