day 11

Today started out like most other school days, with me not wanting to get up. But up I got and after a quick breakfast I was off to class with a few of my friends. It is just crazy hot over here. I brought all sorts of things to be comfortable in the dreary English weather, but it's just been a week of hot, and it's going to be another week of hot. I guess it's a good excuse to buy some new clothes.

Again we had a new lecturer in class today. I guess it's normal to do that over here. Anyway, today we talked about probability and chance, which was actually pretty interesting. We talked about how people are really bad at rationally looking at the probability of something happening and we should take a step back sometimes and really weigh the probability of something happening. Like in gambling. Every spin of the roulette wheel is independent, meaning they have no bearing on each other. Just because the ball lands on red three times in a row there is no reason at all to expect that it will land on black next. It's a 50 50 chance either way, no matter what. We also learned that if you play the game show where there are three doors and you have to choose one, and then the host shows a door with no prize, then asks if you want to switch or stay, it is statistically better to switch every time to another door. Don't ask me how it's determined, because it will fill up more than this blog can hold, but it's always statistically better to switch. Remember that next time you're on a game show.

I didn't have anything to do for the afternoon until Wicked that night, so I bought lunch at that lovely French place near campus, and I got a tart this time.I do love tarts. My sandwich was a baguette with poppy seeds with chicken, lettuce, tomato, and English mustard. I was going to just eat it in my room, but then I remembered that I said I would always do something cool every day, so I took my lunch to the park near my building and ate it there while reading my school book. I needed to waste a lot of time anyway because we weren't leaving for Wicked until 6:30.

I spent some lovely time in the park, the pigeons getting dangerously close again, then went back to my dorm. I read and wasted time until 6:00 and started to get ready for the show. I was so super excited. My stomach hurt a little I was so excited. I made a sandwich (I do eat a lot of sandwiches here) with crisps then found my group for Wicked. We got on the tube a little later than I had wanted and were delayed a bit because we weren't familiar with that part of the tube. It was a new section for us, but we made our transfer and got to Victoria station, the nearest stop to Apollo Victoria Theater, where Wicked plays in London.

After a little more confusion we got in the queue to get our tickets. I had been told by Eric on Sunday, who is with the company that does our social events and got us our tickets, that I was to go up and say "I'm Michael with Proscenium" and they would give us the four tickets. Well, I did that, and they said they didn't have the tickets. I said "Could you check under Michael Burson?" and again there were no tickets. At this point I was panicking and irate. I called the number on our piece of paper for Proscenium and of course they were closed. So I left a half confused half very irritated message with them. Then we called our director and asked her what to do (API and Westminster and Proscenium are all separate things, probably why this is such a difficult process). Rachel was very much on our side and told us we should get back in the line and try looking under Westminter as well, and that she would call some people tomorrow morning. So I got back in the queue and waited to get to the ticket office again. Half way through the girls came and told me that that curtain had been called and even if we got the tickets now we would have to wait until intermission. And again, when I got to the ticket office and talked to a new person and asked for any name I could connect to us, they had no tickets.

At this point I was pretty much crushed. I have been wanting to see Wicked for years. I've been in love with it sense I first heard a few of the songs on the show's website and fell madly in love when I bought the soundtrack. It seems that just about everyone I've talked to has seen it and never once have I heard anything against it. It's always "I loved it! Wish I could see it again!" I was very much hoping to become one of those people tonight. But nope, not this time.

As we walked from the theater, the girls cheered me up by badmouthing everyone we could possibly think of to be responsible for this serious mix up and promising that no matter what, they would get me to this show. They really made me feel good at a moment I wanted to sit down and cry then get up and scream then punch some people. The girls decided they needed a drink so we found a pub and got an appetizer plate of food I was used to in America: potato wedges, chips and salsa, garlic bread, and sausages. We talked about other things for a while as I drank my Pepsi that was all soda water and very little Pepsi. They wanted another round but I wanted to go back, so I walked back to the tube and made my way back to the dorm.

It's very true that I still have 2 weeks here, and I'm sure that somehow this mess will be resolved and we'll get new tickets and everything will be rainbows in our tea. Mark my words, as God as my witness, I will see Wicked before I leave the banks of this country!! But it was still an incredibly disappointing end to a day that promised so much.

British word of the day: wicked = cool or awesome.