Before I moved to England I went to see shows about 3 times a year, but in the 5 weeks I lived here I saw 5 shows, explored the city and visited a museum.

On Thursday the 24^th September I went to my first show in London since I moved here. Caroline and Susanne asked me to come with them to the premier of ‘Showstoppers’ in the Apollo theatre and of course I couldn’t say no. It was mind blowing to see how the actors improvised the whole musical and the songs and dances. There was even a real story with a storyline which the audience chose.

The second show I saw was on the 3^rd October. Beth, Chloe and I decided to go and queue for ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ in the Phoenix theatre. It was my first experience of queueing for a musical, which was totally worth getting up really early to get front row seats. I loved the musical, it was unique because of the Indian influences.

To visit something else than a musical, I went to the British Museum with Sophie on the 4^th of October. It was really interesting to see how people in the past lived. Sophie and I decided to find as many things that were dance related as possible. We found quite a lot, for example an acrobat on ancient Greek pottery.

On our way back from ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, we decided to get tickets for ‘Miss Saigon’ in the Prince Edward Theatre on the 16^th of October. This was the saddest musical I’ve ever seen, the story really touched me. Kim’s voice was absolutely stunning to listen to and her voice even made me cry during the second act.

On the 18^th of October Donell, Benedikte, Zoé and I spontaneously decided to queue for a musical. Benedikte had never seen a musical before and since it was her last weekend in London, she decided that she wanted to see ‘Matilda’ at the Cambridge theatre. The kids were amazing, especially the little Matilda, she was able to really touch me while singing ‘Quiet’. I wonder where these kids will be in 10 years.

The last show I visited with Beth and Sophie was ‘In The Heights’ in the Kings Cross theatre on the 19^th of October. I absolutely loved the show, this was my favourite show of the 5 I’ve seen in the past few weeks.

Beside watching that I also went to the ‘Theatre Café’ for Caroline’s Birthday and visited the British museum a second time with Benedikte. I will keep exploring London; in the reading week I will visit Memphis and maybe Cats as well.

It’s so much fun to explore the area where you’re living. I feel so blessed that I’m able to go and see so many musicals and shows. The London Project definitely encouraged me to go and see more things in London, something I never really did in Amsterdam. I mostly used Instagram and Facebook to share my experiences. This was fun to do, because my friends from the Netherlands were becoming interested in the musicals I visited, of which they had never heard of.