All's Well That Ends Well... assuming it ends well

Jeez, I miss one day, and it's like I have a million things to talk about.

Okay, briefly, yesterday:

-Watched Shakespeare in Love in class, which I adore. Also makes me wish I had brought Romeo + Juliet because I always want to watch it after I see the other. It all got me very excited for my first trip to the Globe!

-Went to the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is MONSTROUS. I've never seen something so enormous. We thought we could get all the essentials in 2 hours. False. I did see some very cool Medieval Art & searched for almost 20 minutes when I found out there was a Donatello room (he's one of my favorites)--only to find out there was one little Donatello statue and like 20 "in the style of Donatello" things. My favorite, though, were the "Raphael Cartoons," 6 enormous paintings approximately 12 x 15 feet each, that were commissioned by the Pope and depict stories from Acts. They were all alone in this gargantuan room; it was the only place I went to in the museum where you couldn't take pictures. They were literally breathtaking. Also on loan from the Queen!

-Remember the British comedian I talked about from the pub the night before? Yeah, he went on for like 20 minutes about this place called Nando's that was his absolute favorite. It was a restaurant chain, I feel like kind of on par with a place like Chipotle, except only served chicken. Anyway, we decided we had to check it out and see what all the fuss was about, so we went to our local neighborhood one (it wasn't hard to find; they're everywhere). The food was pretty good, definitely a fun atmosphere. Best mashed potatoes (or "mash," as they say) I've ever had. Also I learned the hard way that they do not say chicken filet, like fil-ay, like we do in America, but they say fillet, like skillet. I have so much to learn.

So that was yesterday. It ended with me going to bed at 9:00, thus no post. Days are long here; the sun rises at 4:30 and doesn't fully set until 10:30. With class in the morning and nonstop activities in the afternoon, it's pretty exhausting. In a good way, though.

This morning I woke up at 7:00 entirely on my own for maybe the first time in my life. I finished reading All's Well that Ends Well, which we were discussing in class (our first real class) and seeing tonight at the Globe.

From my reading, this is what I got as the general plot: a girl named Helena is in love with a newly-appointed Count named Bertram, whose mother the Countess practically raised Helena after her father died. The King is sick and Helena, whose father was a physician, promises to cure him if he offers her one thing: the hand in marriage to any man she chooses. He agrees and she does, of course choosing Bertram. Bertram is a total jerk about the whole thing and argues that she is too lowly for him, but the King insists. The two are married and Bertram runs away to go to war, leaving Helena a letter telling her that if she can get the ring he wears on his finger and become pregnant with his child, only then will he truly be her husband. Off at war, Bertram tries to seduce a commoner named Diana, but Helena interferes and comes up with a plot of her own. Diana tells Bertram she'll sleep with him if he gives her his ring; then later, when he goes to her room to meet her, she has Helena there waiting for him instead. Helena sends word that she has died, causing Bertram to regret how poorly he treated her and return home. There, the whole mess comes spilling out, where Diana accuses Bertram of stealing her virginity in front of the King and everybody. Finally, though, Helena shows up, with the ring, and the pregnant belly, and tells him he now has to be her husband. Bertram agrees and the two live happily ever after.

Yikes. There were also all these supporting characters that supposedly turned it into a comedy, but let's face it: it wasn't very funny. In fact, were it not for nobody actually dying, it really could have been a tragedy instead. They say "All's Well That Ends Well," but the way things are left is really not well at all--I don't care if the two are married, Bertram is still a jerk and doesn't love her.

While I pondered all that, the crew and I took the Tube over to the Globe, which happened to be near 2 other pretty great sights: St. Paul's Cathedral and the Millenium Bridge. The Cathedral is beautiful. Unfortunately, you had to pay to get in, and we were feeling cheap, so the inside will have to wait for another time. The outside was gorgeous though. The Millenium Bridge is a pretty cool-looking modern bridge, that I recognized (and got excited about) because it's the one that the Death Eaters collapse at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One. Also on it was none other than Captain Morgan himself (Houseboats!), who was being videotaped for Facebook or something and asked me all sorts of questions like was I a hippie because I was from San Francisco. I had to sign a waiver to let them use the footage; apparently if you like Captain Morgan on Facebook I'll be up there in a couple days.

Next was the Tate Modern, which was... modern. I'm just really not a big fan of the modern art, if I'm being honest. There were some very cool, very famous artists in there--Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Dali, etc--and I liked those for sheer history's sake, but artistically I prefer something like a big Baroque statue or Renaissance painting. I really need to hit up the National Gallery; that's where my kind of stuff is.

After dinner, we headed on over to the Globe to see All's Well. Our tickets were great--the front row of the last balcony, center stage. It was really awesome to see all the actors legitimately interact with the audience. The theatre looked just how it did in "Shakespeare in Love;" awesome. The show hugely exceeded my expectations. It was actually really funny, and really sweet, and to my delight Bertram didn't turn out to be a huge douche after all--he loved Helena, he just thought they couldn't be together because of their class differences. Our professor said he's always wanted him to be played that way but this is the first time he's ever seen it done. Anyway, it was all great fun, and after the show ended (with a legitimately happy ending, unlike my reading of the play), they did a little jig, which is apparently the norm for all the shows done in the Globe--even the tragedies.

To add one more little fun experience, as my roommate Nicole and I were heading outside from the loo, our favorite character Paroles (who had been our least favorite character when we read the show--funny how that works out) was walking inside and held the door for us. We got to tell him how much we enjoyed the show and especially his part, which was a nice little ending to the night.

I truly cannot believe it's been only a few days since I've been here. There's been so much already--I can just tell that a month is going to feel like forever but it'll whiz by so quickly. Apologies for the novel; thanks for reading!

-Charlotte