Sunday, February 5, 2012

Two Plays, Two Museums, and Some Other Things

This week has been fairly busy!  On Tuesday after work, we all went to the SC State Society event.  We were required to help out with the event for our program, but we also got to eat some delicious food and mingle for a few minutes before we left for class.  The SC delegation was all supposed to be there, but as we had to leave early and there was a vote close to when the event started we didn't get to see them all.  I did see Rep. Tim Scott and Rep. Mick Mulvaney there, but didn't get a chance to talk to either of them.  There was a gorgeous balcony that had a great overlook of the city that was amazing to see at dusk.  It was nice out so we were out there for a while and had a little photoshoot.
Class was pretty interesting afterwards.  We talked about oral advocacy and focused on one minute speeches.  I was clearly excited since I am a speech nerd!  Then we had to give our own one minute speeches on certain topics from different viewpoints.   I had to give mine as a republican on the federal debt ceiling so that was definitely a challenge and took me a bit out of my comfort zone.

On Thursday, we went to see Hairspray for our theatre class.  It was a bit of a struggle getting to this theater as it was out in Arlington and not really metro accessible.  It was also a pretty big rush to get there on time since some of us work until 6, and we had to be there by 7:30.  I didn't really get to eat dinner due to the timing.  The show was so fun though!  I had seen the movie before and liked it okay, but the show definitely exceed my expectations.  I loved it!  The stage was one that came out into the audience, so people were sitting on three sides of it.  There were also places for the actors to come out from the back corners of the theater almost right next to us.  We were in the second row in front of the stage, so we were very close to the action.  I wasn't expecting that at all so that was a great surprise.  By the end of the show I had the urge to get up, sing, and dance with the cast, and I've had "You Can't Stop The Beat" in my head ever since we saw it.  I think that is what a musical should do to you!  The actress that played Amber Von Tussle is coming to speak to our class in a few weeks, so that will be neat to get her perspective on things.  This show was the one I was most excited about, and I loved it.  I'm hoping the others are just as good though the bar is set high!
Corny Collins Show sign on the set of Hairspray
All of us before Hairspray
Friday, I went out to dinner after work with the intern in my office who is from Australia and all of her Australian roommates and friends, which was a lot of fun.  I was glad to meet more people in the city, and I've always wanted to go to Australia so I am enjoying learning more and more about it.  I've gotta say, I love listening to the accent, too!

Yesterday I decided I would go to the Natural History Museum and the National Archives.  The Natural History museum was neat, but it was definitely geared more towards kids and there were a lot of kids and families there.  I liked the ocean hall and the gems and minerals section especially.  The gems were super sparkly and gorgeous, and they have the Hope Diamond there, too.  It reminded me of seeing the crown jewels at the Tower of London, which was one of my favorite sights on my trip there. Then, I went to the National Archives to see the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence among other things.  There was actually no line for that part so I must have gotten there at a good time.  The Declaration is very faded and you can barely see anything on it, but the Constitution is actually in really good condition I thought.  It is amazing how just some pieces of parchment are something so valuable and historic to our country and have survived all of these years.
Main Lobby of Natural History Museum
Hope Diamond
Before I went to bed late last night, I was trying to think of something to do today.  I was a bit out of ideas, as I didn't really want to do another museum since I've done many of those lately.  I was searching online for things to do in DC and on one of the lists was to get half-priced tickets to a show on Ticketplace.org.  I have been wanting to at least tour the Kennedy Center and maybe go to a show there, so I looked to see what there was in the next couple of weeks.  I saw that there were tickets for Shear Madness, which I had heard was really great from one of my coworkers, and it was today (and only $28)!  I immediately bought a ticket.  A few of my roommates actually wanted to come too so we went out to lunch then headed there for the show at 3:00.  It was really funny.  The play is about a bunch of people who are in a hair salon, and a murder takes place in the apartment upstairs.  The murderer has to be someone in the salon, as no one else entered or left the building during the time of murder.  So they retrace the events of the day to figure out who did it.  They actually get the audience involved, too. We could shout if something was wrong or off in the replay of events.  We also could talk to the detective during intermission and tell him our theories.  Then we got to question the suspects as well.  The main story is the same each time, but there is a lot of improv throughout and the murderer may be a different character from night to night.  Everyone really liked it, so I'm glad I happened to find out about the discount tickets.  It was a good choice.
This week we will have our first leadership seminar, we'll be seeing Time Stands Still for our theater class, and I'm sure I'll go on another adventure on Saturday.  I'll catch you all up next weekend!

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