so it begins

Now that orientation is over, the real work has begun. Class started today and my internship did yesterday, but suppose I should talk about this past weekend a little before anything about my internship and class.

We spent this past weekend at markets. First, on Saturday morning at Burough Market. More fresh fruit, veggies, cheeses and meats than you could ever imagine. It truly fulfills the definition of cornacopia. In addition to inexpensive, good-looking produce, there was also a lot of hot food you could buy and eat. I had this sausage roll thing (basically sweet sausage in a puff pastery), some cider and a piece of baklava... all fresh and all delicious. It was so fun, we've decided that it is going to become a weekly tradition. Sunday was spent at Camden Market. Holy cow. Tons and tons of clothing stalls. We were there for about 3 1/2 hours and probably didn't see half of it. It was amazing. Serious barrage on the senses.
Photos:

Yesterday was the first day of my internship at the English National Opera. I have a really good feeling about it. The theater is beautiful. It's so ornate, lots of rich blood red velvet and gold with plaster goddess heads on the walls and filagre. It's incredible. I got to take a little tour around the theater and the winding back hallways and got to stand in the orchestra pit and look up. It's going to be really cool. I really love my boss, she's very laid back and I think she's going to make a real effort to give me the best experience I can have. I think I'm going to be doing a bunch of little odd jobs. But yesterday she let me write the text for an invitation to an opera called Satyagraha. It's a Philip Glass opera commemorating his 70th birthdayabout Ghandi. She also had me start working on the invited guest list for the premiere... talk about serious star power. Richerd Gere, Madonna, Paul and Stella McCartney, Ravi Shankar. You name them, they're on the list, guarentee... they probably won't all come, but maybe some will!? And guess who'll be at the premiere too!! ME!

Speaking of famous people: After work I met Olivia and Mandy and our friend Canden who lives in London at the premiere of the new Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore movie, Music and Lyrics. We ended up getting a really good spot and were probably about 50 feet from them. Canden got up front and actually held Hugh Grant's hand. Swoon. It was freezing cold outside, but totally worth the cold and aching feet.

Today was the first day of class, it was only an hour - not worth the commute. I'm taking a class about British imperialism. It should be interesting. The class meets twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesdays we meet for an hour for lecture, then Thursdays are all going to be field trips. We're going to Greenwich this Thursday to the National Meritime Musuem... sounds good!

We're just waiting on lunch to cook now, then I'm off to work again and then hopefully we'll be going to see Wicked! tonight. We're going to the theater to see if we can get half-priced student tickets for the show tonight! Cross your fingers!

More soon,
b