London-third day

1/25/10
Casie:
The Imperial War Museum is by far one of my top museums visited on this trip. There were so many exhibits:

World War 1 and 2
Events after 1945 that covered so many countries like China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Africa, Ireland, etc…
Crimes against Humanity
Holocaust and Auschwitz
Displays of Aircraft and rocket ships

There was just so much and it was all so interesting. We spent about three and a half hours there and it was well spent. I was very impressed with museum and it was free as well! I really liked how they included history of other countries such as Vietnam. I think it is important to realize how war and its repercussions in other countries as well. We saw a video in the Crimes against Humanity exhibit. It was a hard movie to sit through but I liked how it explained a fairly biased view of those who enforce ethnic cleansing and those are suffer from it. It is a frightful ideology but it’s even more frightful how easily we could fall under it.
It is scary to think how things can turn out when we think in terms of “us versus the others”. Many of those types of dictators really believe in a world without harm and the only way to solve that is to exterminate the others.

We were supposed to meet our group at the Tower of London at 2:30 that afternoon. We had stayed at the museum much longer than expected and were in much need of a break. Hurrying along, we found our tube stop and got on, then realizing we were going the wrong way. So off we go, and waiting for our tube stop some more. We were not going to make it on time but instead of being a bum on a log about it, we just laughed and realized it happens. These things happen on trips and all you can do is laugh unless it’s your plane ride home (which I am kind of debating about “missing “ it? ☺). We eventually made it to the Tower and walked around. It is still magnificent from the outside. So we were there, just not in there.

However, the highlight of my day was WICKED, the musical. This was my first performance to see in London. I was jumping up and down like a little kid the whole way there. Finally the songs didn’t come from my Ipod instead from the stage!
It was spectacular!
The sets, actors, and music just blew my mind away. I was still dancing on clouds after that night. This music has songs that I share with my close friends like “For Good” with my B and “Popular” with my music buddy David. We blare them in the car and sing our little hearts out all the time. So it was really special to me.
I still can’t believe I saw it. I had such a wonderful time.

Wonderful theater London.
Cheers.

Becca:
Honestly, today started off pretty badly. I woke up and was incredibly sore and kind of dreaded having to go out into the city on the wet, cold, gloomy day. But, it was Imperial War Museum day, and I love the Imperial War Museum…so off we went.

Once we arrived, we wrangled up a wheelchair so my legs and back wouldn’t have to work so hard against the weather, and set off to explore this gigantic museum that covers all of the topics that Casie mentioned…so much to see. I had visited it last year as well (one of the reasons I was so excited about the London Theatre JanTerm, besides loving the theatre, was the amount of time I would get to have to explore World War II history in the city), but it was great to make it back and see some of the things I missed the first time around.

I think my favorite thing we saw was a Crimes Against Humanity movie. It was very powerful, detailing different types of injustice against people, in a very graphic and moving way. Genocide is a relatively new creation…the 20th century was the first time in mankind’s history that people began to attempt to completely wipe out another ethnic group. We have confronted this issue throughout our entire trip, as we studied the organized massacre of the Jewish people. There was a decisive shift in the allocation of casualties during the last 75 years. In the past, 90% of fatalities were military, with only 10% of them civilians. Now, 90% of deaths are nonmilitary. And interestingly enough, think about the number of actual declared wars the world has been involved in in the past century. We have been in “peacetime” a huge part of it. “We’re making war out of peace…”

Again, this museum took me back to that quote that I heard at Versailles. “The art of government is closely associated to the art of war.” The two are inextricably linked, and the visual that this museum provided of the major wars and conflicts throughout the 20th and 21st centuries illustrated this in a profound way.

After leaving here, I had to go back and lay down at the hotel…London and I have amazing potential to be best friends, but it would have to give up some of its rain. We are still discussing this. I wanted to be feeling well for Wicked…..AH-mazing. I saw it last year on my London Theatre Janterm, but not with Casie. And this is our musical. So needless to say, we were gonna make it happen. It was phenomenal and made my heart swell to bursting. Last day tomorrow.