Home, I'm Coming Home

I have not very much internet at the moment (15 mins for 50p at the good old hostel) but I had to take a second to just say what an AMAZING day I had today. Lots of details to come but I want everyone to know I am safe and happy and had just one of the greatest days of my entire trip. I do love to go out with a bang :)

See you all tomorrow America, I'm coming home!!

Bright Lights, Bigger City

Okay. I made it. On my own in the big city. It's pretty cool, actually. The hostel is kind of just like an enormous dorm... have plenty of experience with those. I got lunch at this mall a block away, which is very convenient. Then I walked down to the British Museum, which although beautiful didn't actually interest me very much. But I knew I had to go, it's on everyone's like top ten list of things to see in London, so at least I did it. Afterwards I took the Tube (which was dumb, it's not a far walk) to Leicester Square to see the National Portrait Gallery. That, I loved. They had an exhibit called "Glamour of the Gods" that was all old Hollywood portraits. Love it, especially after taking my film history pre-1945 class last quarter. There were some really amazing pictures.

I walked through Leicester Square and considered going to see a musical or something, but pretty much nothing is playing tonight. I had to keep ducking into little shops when it began to DOWNPOUR, but it was off and on so I made it back relatively dry. I also stopped in at Blackwell's, which is a chain bookstore kind of like Borders, and perused the Shakespeare section for a little bit. Good stuff. I got a little lost walking home but no harm done.

Like I said yesterday, I feel like I've started a whole new trip. It is so different being on my own, staying in a hostel, no free Tube (I know, poor me), than the month I just had. On the one hand it's very freeing but on the other it's kind of lonely. Definitely a good test for my independence.

Tomorrow: my last full day! Can't even believe it. I'm going to meet Nicole at Madame Tussaud's to FINALLY use our tickets that we bought like three weeks ago, and then rain or shine I'm heading to the Globe to see Much Ado one last time. I know it's a little ridiculous, but I also know that a month from now I'll be sitting home missing London and probably the thing I will wish I could do the most is go back and see the Globe. And if Much Ado just happens to be playing on my last night, oh well, I guess I'll have to go :)

New city. Kind of.

It was a bit of a nightmare getting over to Matt's flat this morning. Of course the day we have to move they decide to close the Piccadilly line and it rains the hardest it has our whole time here. But we made it, so no harm done.

We decided to take advantage of our last day with an Oyster card and go down to the Borough Market, which is like a GIANT Davis Farmers Market and is right near the Globe (I resisted stopping by to say hello). I had a meat pie, which was on my list of things to do. It was delicious. And the weather cleared up a little for us which was nice. Afterwards we went a little further south to the Imperial War Museum. The area wasn't the nicest, in fact it's the only time I've felt a little uncomfortable my whole time here in London. It also didn't help that the clouds descended right when we got off the Tube. We were together though so we were fine.

The museum was awesome, definitely worth the trip. A little heavy, as you can imagine. The Holocaust exhibit was particularly depressing. But they had some really cool old war memorabilia and some interactive exhibits that were neat. They had one that was like walking through a real World War I trench, and another one that felt like being inside a bunker during the Blitz in WWII. Really interesting. That'd been on my list since the first day so I was glad to finally check it out.

Nicole and Matt went out to dinner with his family so I went and explored the area. It is very odd being on the entire opposite end of the city. It doesn't really feel like the same city, at all. Like I feel like I've begun an entirely new trip. Which I guess I sort of have, just a much shorter one.

Pray that it doesn't rain tomorrow as I move yet again. Not quite that far this time, but still not my favorite way to spend a morning. Still, I'm here!

Kensington, adieu

I'm lying here in my ridiculously squeaky bed for the last time :( I have approximately 2 and a half hours and then I have to leave our wonderful flat forever. Tonight I'm staying at Nicole's boyfriend's--they literally saved me as it seems like the entire city of London is sold out of beds for Saturday night, unless I want to pay like 400 pounds. I move to a hostel for Sunday/Monday nights, and then home Tuesday. I've said most of my goodbyes to my fellow students; a lot of them left yesterday or have been trickling out this morning. It's all just too sad.

Yesterday I spent pretty much all day running around trying to find lodging. I went to the STA Travel office in High Street Kensington and the guy there was incredibly nice and helpful--definitely should have gone sooner and saved the headache. It took a couple trips back and forth but we finally got it worked out, which was a relief. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my last day in Kensington, but that's what I get for waiting until the last minute.

The crew wanted to find a pub called Shakespeare's Head (for obvious reasons), so we trekked out to Oxford Circus to do so. Of course, when we got there it was packed, so Nicole and I got burgers at the most DELICIOUS place, because we were starving, and then met everyone else who had gone to O'Neills, our favorite Irish bar. Then we came back and hung out in the other flat until the wee hours of night, reminiscing and wishing it would never end. I kept feeling like I had something to do, like a paper or reading or something like that. But nope, I'm all done.

The next three days should definitely be more of an adventure than I've had so far. I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to update much, but here's hoping. Here's also hoping that everything goes according to plan with my hostel and the place isn't completely disgusting or sketchy (this is my first time ever staying in a hostel, so we'll see how it goes). At least I'm in an all-girls room. And I am SO THANKFUL that Nicole is letting me stay with her, I seriously do not know what I would have done. But hey, it all worked out.

Farewell, Kensington! I'll miss you!

Not quite goodbye...

Heavens it's late. The crew and I just got back from seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two... that may be the only time in my life I write out that entire title. Too long. Anyway apparently the Brits do not care about Harry nearly as much as I thought they did, because when we arrived to get in the queue (as they call it) at 9 o'clock, there was nobody there. NOBODY. Wait, sorry, there were two girls who went to Boston University dressed in Hogwarts gear and looking just as confused as we were that no one had bothered to show up. We sat there alone until 11:30 when a few people started to gather, but by the time the movie started at midnight it wasn't even full and from overhearing conversations, pretty much everyone seemed to be American.

The movie was pretty great. Maybe it's the lack of sleep but I can't really comprehend that it's all over. Also I didn't cry much, which was unexpected. I think maybe my second viewing will provide more insight. Also: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES TRAILER. Kind of anticlimactic. Except for the quick shot of Bane, which was exciting. But again, maybe it's the lack of sleep.

We had our final dinner tonight as a class with Dobby. That was cry-worthy. It's just been such a wonderful month, and everyone is so great, and Dobby is so great, and I love it. Nikki and Becka leave tomorrow morning early... actually in about 3 hours, come to think of it. I'll miss them dearly. I'll miss this flat dearly. This flat has been very good to us. It's so nice to have a safe little home base to come back to every night.

Last night we went and saw Anne Boleyn at the Globe (I know, I know, back again). Despite how tragic you may think it would be, what with her head getting chopped off and all that, it was actually really funny. And not sad at all. And pretty much the entire cast of All's Well was in it, which was great but also odd. They do that a lot, have a cast (minus the main characters) put on two productions a summer. I just found out that almost everyone in Much Ado (yes, including HIM) is opening another show in about three weeks. I'm terribly distraught that I won't be here.

Second-to-last night in home sweet Kensington. I'm kind of terrified to move out into the unknown land of hostels for three days. Thank goodness I've grown at least a little accustomed to this city. Anyway, I'm trying my best not to stress about it. I'm going to enjoy my last day or so, and now that we've turned in our final and class is done, I am just young and free in England, and that is a great place to be.

Can the world buy such a jewel?

Much Ado Round 2 today, and my goodness was it worth it. That play is so wonderful. I went with Becka and the two of us walked back across the Millenium Bridge arm-in-arm with the goofiest grins on our faces. Top of the world.

But first. I made us book it out of class so we could get there ASAP and hopefully obtain some groundling seats. The short of it (imagine, me, concise): we did. I was thrilled. I had sent Becka to get sandwiches while I waited in line and I went tearing into Eat (that's the name of the restaurant, it's delicious) waving our tickets and smiling like a fool.

So we waited in the next line, the groundling line, and were the fifth people there, which meant one thing: we would be getting great seats. Or, standing spaces. That's what the groundlings do, you stand in this giant pit and get right up next to the stage, literally resting your elbows on it if you want (I wanted). So after waiting in line about an hour and a half we were finally loosed into the theatre and Becka and I went right up to the front, slightly stage left, right in front of the little pool that Benedick would ultimately wash his feet in. No, really, it was great.

Oh, Claudio. In mine eye he is the sweetest man that ever I looked on. I legitimately worried I may faint when he entered. Becka told me I'd better not dare, since then she'd have to leave and all our hard work would be for nothing. Anyone, it was all I could do to look at anything else onstage, but I managed, and was I glad I did because if that wasn't one of the best damn shows I've ever seen. I don't know if it was my heightened level of excitement, our close proximity to the stage, the audience involvement (they were super into it), the fact that it wasn't 1000 degrees as it was the first time I saw it, or that the actors just got a weeklong vacation. Whatever it was, it was spectacular.

It was an entirely different experience than any of my other Globe shows. There's nothing like being a groundling. I think I made eye contact with almost every actor onstage at one point or another (yes, even HIM. But it was painfully short). It's almost a little disconcerting, really. I felt vulnerable, which is ridiculous because they're the ones acting. But when they can see you just as well as you see them, it's definitely a different dynamic. It's also what makes the Globe so wonderful, it is a totally different theatre experience. It's also the best seat in the house, by far (despite it not actually being a seat). You can see every little expression on the actors' faces. You can notice things that you can't from farther away. My favorite: there's a scene where Benedick is eavesdropping on Claudio and Don Pedro's conversation about how Beatrice loves him. He puts on a gardening hat and grabs a hoe, pretending like he's gardening so he can get closer to their conversation. Just then his servant shows up, trying to hand him a book that he requested earlier in the scene before the others show up. He not-so-subtly turns, waves angrily at her, and mouthes f**k off... twice. It was hysterical, largely because it was so shocking, and I had no idea from the Upper Circle. I also managed to grab a souvenir, a piece of gold that Don John throws at Hero after Claudio rejects her and throws her around at the wedding (if you haven't read/seen the play and have no idea what I'm talking about, just don't worry about it).

Anyway, it was all wonderful. I could go into more detail but for those of you who are not fiendishly obsessed with Shakespeare (and I suspect that is all of you), I won't. We have a lot of schoolwork over these next few days, what with class ending on Thursday. We gave our group presentation on Hamlet today. We did a mock trial on whether Hamlet is crazy or not. It was good fun and on the class vote we won for the best presentation. Dobby gave us little Shakespeare's Globe pins. You know I'll treasure mine. Just like I'll treasure... all of this.

Getting the To-Do List Done

The busyness continues. I love it. I feel like with only a week left I'm down to the wire in terms of getting everything done that I want to.

Friday night we went to see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in the West End, which was hilarious. It basically tells the story of Hamlet from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's perspective, who are two very minor characters that we don't care much about in the actual play. The actors were wonderful. It's really fast-paced, really witty--I can't imagine how long that script is. So we had a good time. The only bummer was that I was feeling a little sick (I kept thinking NOT AGAIN) so I couldn't quite enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Friday night I went to bed terrified of waking up really sick, especially because Saturday we had plans to go to Oxford! The good news was I was fine and able to make the trek up to Paddington station to catch the train.

Oxford was in some ways exactly what I was expecting, and in some ways not. The part I was expecting was the reallllly old architecture and beautiful lawns and small-town feel to the whole thing. I kept wanting to see it covered in snow and on a postcard. The not-expecting part was how really touristy it was. I was surprised at how many chain stores there were and enormous masses of people. It was a Saturday, but still. We also found out that it was "Alice's Day," which I guess happens once a year to commemorate Lewis Carroll (who went to Oxford) and Alice in Wonderland. So there were a lot of people dressed as Alice characters, which confused us for a while until we figured it out.

Cool moment: Having lunch and a half-pint (I wasn't feeling well, okay) at The Eagle and Child, the favorite pub of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and their literary group called The Inklings. That was pretty much my number one reason for wanting to go to Oxford, and it didn't disappoint. There were a lot of signs declaring their former presence and we got to sit in these very old booths that looked liked they could have been around when they were. I tried to soak in all the literary magic I could. Loved it.

Not cool moment: Trying to get into Christ Church College, AKA the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies (at least the first one). They had two weddings scheduled for the day and it was closed to the public. The man standing by the gate was amazingly nice about it, though. He was this cute little man who apologized probably five times and said if we came back at just that time tomorrow we could see the Great Hall and all of it. So we didn't feel too put out. We also visited the Oxford University Press and Oxford Castle before heading home. It was a good trip.

Today we really felt the need to start checking some major things off the list, so we started off the morning by going out to Abbey Road and taking our obligatory crossing-the-street-like-the-Beatles picture. Unlike the Beatles, we had to worry about getting hit by the endless parade of cars that wanted to get by. Those poor drivers. There was a mass of probably about thirty people all perched on the edge of the sidewalk just waiting to jump in and get a picture. It was all very amusing.

Afterwards we headed down to King's Cross Station to try to get a picture at Platform 9 3/4. After wandering aimlessly for several minutes, at one point stalking a Portuguese tour group wearing HP7 Part 2 necklaces who seemed like they knew what they were doing, we finally asked and were told that the platform itself was under construction but we could take a picture with the replica out front. It wasn't quite the same, but they had the half of a luggage cart sticking out through the wall so it looked like we were going through. Some jerk had scratched off part of the 4 so it looked like Platform 3/1. But it sufficed.

Then we went to check off a MAJOR to-do, the National Gallery. I was so proud. We had two hours and saw it ALL. There were some seriously famous works of art there. Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" and Da Vinci's "Madonna of the Rocks" were kind of the superstars. There were a lot that I knew from Art History but probably wouldn't have otherwise. Still very famous, though. Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne" (this was one of the first ones I saw and I got a picture of it before I realized we weren't allowed to take them), Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus," Jan van Eyck's "Arnolfini Wedding Portrait," Constable's "Hay-Wain," Turner's "Fighting Termeraire" and "Rain, Steam, and Speed," Seurat's "Bathers as Asnieres," Holbein's "The Ambassadors"... for those of you who are interested at all in art (I'm looking at you, Maddie), or anyone who took AP Art History with me, it was all really cool.

I cannot believe there is only one week left. I feel like it's gone by so quickly, and yet I've done SO MUCH that it also feels way longer. That's kind of what I anticipated I guess. We have a lot to do school-wise this week, with a project on Hamlet due Tuesday, recitation of memorized lines on Wednesday, and final on Thursday, but come on, I love all that stuff.