Tales #1-8

Hello everyone. Well, I am in London, across the pond, etc., and it is awesome. I got here on January 10th, and since then, we have done a few things. Here is a partial list of my activities so far.
1. Went to 2 plays.
One, called "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour", was a play about a Russian man who was in a mental prison, but believed he was sane. It was interesting, and there was a giant orchestra on stage for the whole show, which was fun. The other play we have seen was called "War Horse", which was a West End play, and was about a man and his horse, and their tragic split during World War 1, and, I won't reveal the ending, but it's really cheesy. This play also had instrumental accompaniment about all the way through, which made them both seem a little more like movies and less like plays. Although it was cheesy, "War Horse" had some awesome puppets in it (the horses), which were extremely realistic.
2. Went to a Swingle Singers concert.
We went to the Swingles at Kings Place, where they were performing as part of the London a cappella festival. A group from Oxford opened for them, which was cool, and then they performed about 15 songs that were all perfectly in tune, very entertaining, and just all around amazing. They did some songs from their new cd, as well as a few old classics, and it was really just a great show. Far and away the top a cappella performance I've ever seen.
3 Went to a Swingle Singers workshop
Today, we went down to King's place again to see some free foyer performances/try to get returned tickets for the Swingle workshop. We did, and the workshop was great. It was kind of simple in terms of actual content, but it was really fun to see them in an environment other than performance. Also, they performed Country Dances, which was amazing!
4 Went to the Brahms Requiem
I went down to St. Martin in the fields last night, and bought a ticket for the Brahms "Ein Deutches Requiem" as performed by the Whitehall choir and the Brandenburg Symphonia. It was an arrangement of the piece for a smaller strings orchestra, organ, and chamber choir, so it was not exactly what I was expecting. It was certainly a good performance for what it was, but it was a little out of place for Brahms. All in all, it was great to hear the piece.
5 Went to a free Vampire weekend concert
We went over to the Sommerset House (a huge old estate with an ice rink in the middle) to go see a free performance by Vampire Weekend a couple of days ago. It was a beautiful venue, but we got there early, it was cold, and they started a half hour late... my feet were actually numb by the end! The concert was good, although the sound stopped working near the end of the performance.
6 Went to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub and the Old Shades Pub
I had my first taste of English food the first night at the Old Shades, where I had some fish and chips. SO good. Also tried a steak pie at Ye olde cheshire cheese pub which was very delicious, and at the same pub frequented by Voltaire and Dickens, among many other greats!
7. Toured a ton of awesome stuff
We have already been on bus tours, walking tours, about every kind of tour really, and seen, at least from the outside, most of the main sights in London. Some highlights: Of course Westminster Abbey and Big Ben are incredibly beautiful, and are so iconic of London. The tower bridge is also really cool. It is an old, blue bridge across the Thames that is suspended between two beautiful old towers.
8. Went Scottish dancing
This was so must fun! We went to a Scottish church this evening, and did 16 dances that were all SO upbeat, and we all got really in to it. We ate some haggis (look it up if you dare!), and just had an authentic Scottish evening. All around awesome time.

Well, that's the Readers Digest version, so yeah, I've been busy, and I may have forgotten important details that I shall add later!

Ethan