Shows and Field Trips

So Tuesday night a bunch of us went to go see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe. It was amazing! We were "groundlings" which only cost 5 pounds (10 dollars) and in my opinion, standing is the only way to see a show at the Globe. The set was minimal, as Shakespeare should be. The costumes were beautiful. The performers were fantastic. I'm hopefully going to go see King Lear there next week. It just opened.

Wednesday we got up early for a program sponsored field trip to Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon. I had a lot more fun than I expected at Warwick Castle. I wish we would have had more time there, because there was an exhibit I wanted to see but didn't have time. :( The rest of it was still cool though. In one section of the castle there was a set up that recreated this "royal weekend party" from the really early 1900's (I think) that was hosted by the Earl and Countess of Warwick. Lots of future kings were there, and so was a young Winston Churchill. They had all of the people as wax people. Then a few of us paid a little extra to see the "Ghosts Alive" thing they had - it was SO scary!! Basically this creepy guide took us through a few rooms in the castle and it was really dark, and some actors staged the murder of this guy who lived there. He was fairly high class and his servant murdered him for not leaving him enough in his will, then the servant felt bad and killed himself. In the first room there was this kid (12ish) who burst into tears and had to leave. Actually I think only about half of our group made it the whole way through, it was that scary. After that we spent a lot of time climbing a million stairs to get to this really high tower, where the view was great. Then we got lost on the way down (I have NO idea how) but we spent a lot of more time climbing long, narrow, dark spiral staircases. It was exhausting, but really cool.

Then we made our way to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we went to Anne Hathaway's cottage first. (She was Shakespeare's wife.) I found out some interesting stuff that I didn't know. The Hathaway family lived in that cottage up until 1911. We also went to Shakespeare's birthplace. Since a lot of info isn't actually known about Shakespeare himself, there was a lot of information about the Hathaway family and Shakespeare's family (most his parents and first daughter). It was quite interesting. Then it started pouring rain so we stopped in a pub. Once it let up a bit, one of my friends (Laura Beth) and I decided we weren't going to let the rain stop us from going to see where Shakespeare is buried. I hadn't thought to bring an umbrella or raincoat, but braving the rain was definitely worth it. Seeing Shakespeare's grave was really cool. His wife is also buried there, and a few of his family members. There's a huge old graveyard outside the church, most of the graves are unreadable and even more are unmarked. But apparently Shakespeare's son (Hamnet, died at age 8) is buried in there somewhere.

Then we went to the Courtyard Theatre where we saw the Royal Shakespeare Company do Taming of the Shrew. The actors were fantastic, the costumes were pretty, the set pieces were cool... But they turned it into a dark comedy, which Shrew isn't really supposed to be. It made it hard for a lot of people to follow, and it wasn't funny. Shrew should be funny. It was worth seeing though, and I got what they were trying to do (they did weird things with the time period it was set in, which changed the meaning) but it just didn't all come together right. Oh, I haven't seen the Darjeeling Limited, but apparently the girl in that movie played Bianca.

Yesterday was kind of a lazy day. I did laundry... which really really sucks over here. I spent 12 pounds (24 dollars). All the big washers were taken, so I had to use two smaller ones, which were 4 pounds each. Then I had to buy detergent. I didn't dry most of my clothes, but I did want to dry a pair of jeans and my pajama pants so they would be dry in time for me to wear them, so that dryer cost 2 pounds. It was ridiculous. But we had a delicious dinner at Zizzi's, which is this Italian place down the street from us. Yum!

Today I went with some people to see a 5:30 show of Avenue Q. We got the tickets for a really good price, otherwise that's probably not a show I would have chosen to see because there are others I'd much rather see. But it was a lot better than I expected, and I'm glad I went. Actually, it was pretty awesome. It definitely should not have won the Tony for Best Musical over Wicked.... but it was still good. The two main people were amazing, because each one of them had more than one puppet they had to voice/operate, and sometimes they were on stage with one puppet, voicing the other while someone else operated it. You would think that would be distracting, but it really wasn't.

In other news, I'm going to Greece a week from Sunday!! I found out that our break between session 1 and 2 is a lot longer than I thought, and my friends are either going to be starting their internships or going home, so I don't want to be here with no one to do anything with. My roommate (Emma) and her friends were planning this Greece trip, and I asked if I could tag along. I don't know Emma's friends terribly well, but they're very nice and it's going to be an awesome trip!

That's all for now. Tomorrow I'm off to Stonehenge and Bath for a day trip!

The Globe stage for Midsummer at intermission.















At Warwick Castle, really high up!















View of the castle and courtyard.















Anne Hathaway's cottage.

Hever Castle & Doctor Who

Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day. It was supposed to rain all day, and it was raining when we left for Hever Castle. But by the time we got there, the sun had appeared, and it was warm and sunny all day. The castle itself was beautiful, as were the gardens around it. The gardens weren't there originally, the Astor family did them in the early 1900's when they owned the place.

We got off the train at a small town about 3 miles from the Castle (which is in the middle of the country) and took a taxi there because we thought it was going to rain. The taxi driver was quite friendly. We arrived just in time to see actors dressed up as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn come out and lead the castle visitors to a field where there were "games." More costumed characters demonstrated archery, a few different things on horseback, and exercising birds of prey. It was really cool to watch.

Then we went inside the castle itself, where they have all kinds of furniture, portraits, and various other things from various time periods ranging from the 14th to the 19th century (ish.) We went through what was supposedly Anne Boleyn's bedroom, although I'm not sure how they would know that. Same with a room where Henry VIII would have stayed when he visited. They also had two books of hours (prayer books) that were signed by Anne Boleyn herself, and an exhibit called "Losing Your Head Over Henry" which was about his six wives. It was very interesting. Honestly, I enjoyed the exterior of the castle more than the interior, because it had so many things from different time periods which made it difficult to picture what it would have actually looked like in just one of them. But the outside of the castle looks the same as it did when it was built. (Well, a bit older now obviously.)

After that we had lunch and wandered around the gardens, the hedge maze, the lake, and the water maze. It was absolutely beautiful and so much fun. I took a ton of pictures. Since it was so nice when we left, we decided to walk to the train station where we were originally going to stop, which was in the middle of nowhere and about a mile away from the castle. It was actually a great walk because we got to see the English countryside, and the weather was perfect. Later that evening a few of us went to a nearby pub called "The King's Head" for a drink. They have strawberry beer there, which is probably the only kind of beer I will ever actually like. :)

Yesterday I was exhausted, so I slept till noon. Then I went to see a Doctor Who Exhibition that had all kinds of costumes and props from the show. I think they had something from almost every episode. It was SO awesome. Mandy, be jealous. :) I took lots of pictures. Then a few of us went out to dinner and called it a night. I did book my trip to France for the end of June to go visit Jake, which I'm really excited about!!

In front of the castle.



















View of the castle as you come in.















I met the Face of Boe!



















Aaahhh!! It's a Dalek!



















The real TARDIS.

What A Crazy First Week!

Well, I'll start with Thursday since my last entry left off Wednesday night. That makes sense, or something. After class a group of us went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, which was pretty good. Not incredible, but definitely worth seeing, especially on the big screen. After that I grabbed a quick bite to eat and my theatre class met to head over to the Globe to see Midsummer. Just our luck - no show that night. So now I'm going Monday.... hopefully! Anyway, the Professor said he was going over to the West End (London's Broadway equivalent) to see if he could get a last minute ticket to anything tonight. My friend Azeema and I decided to tag along because hey, we were expecting to see a show! And I'm always up for seeing a show, doesn't matter what it is (almost.) So we managed to get tickets (great seats) for Chicago about twenty minutes before curtain. Awesome!! It was fantastic. The girl who played Roxie was fantastic. So was everyone else, but she really stood out, as did they guy playing Billy Flynn.

On Friday, class was pretty awesome. Our Professor does a lot of stage combat and fencing/swordfighting in particular, so we got a fencing lesson! It's a lot more fun than I expected. I would like to do it again if I ever get the chance. After class we were going to go to a museum or something, but everyone was too exhausted. I think we all ended up napping... I know I did. So then we decided to try to get show tickets for that night instead of tonight, I can't remember why now. But we saw Spamalot, which was incredible!! The Lady of the Lake just blew me away. Wow, what a voice! Our seats were alright, but a bit far. But they have small binoculars on the backs of the seats that you can rent for 50 pence, which is just brilliant. I don't know why they don't do that in the states. I'm just in theatre heaven here. I wish I could see shows every night! Ha, I would be out of money REAL fast.

Today we decided to hit up some museums. First we went to the Tate Britain, an art museum. About half of their galleries are dedicated to art from 1500-1900, then the rest is 1900 and on. There wasn't enough time! I made it through about half of the galleries (my favorite half, 1500-1900. There was a great portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, and Waterhouse's Lady of Shallot, and one of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey.) But I felt too rushed, and completely missed the second half of the galleries. So I definitely intend to go back. Then we took the ferry across the Thames to the Tate Modern, which is all modern art. They had some pretty cool events going on since this weekend is a bank holiday weekend. We saw a performance art piece where this woman and her team of chefs made a GIANT salad and fed it to the whole crowd! (Over 300 people.) There was a bridge over the space, and on the bridge was where they chopped up all the ingredients, then they threw them over the side of the bridge where they landed on a tarp. The tarp was shaken up, then everything mixed up with a rake. They shoveled it (literally) into bowls and then served it! The salad was actually quite tasty. We didn't look around the museum very much. I'd like to go back if I get the chance, but I don't think modern art is really my thing, so it's ok if I don't. We had dinner at Wagamama's tonight, which was quite delicious. The veggie/noodle dish I had was great, but the dessert -wow! I had coconut ice cream with a mango drizzle on it. It was heavenly.

Tomorrow we're getting up bright and early to go to Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn's family home where she spent some of her time when she was younger! It's a small castle.... but the appeal for me is in the history. :) Also, the gardens are supposed to be beautiful. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be rainy. But hey, that's England, and that's what umbrellas are for.

Azeema and I outside the globe.



















Fencing! (I'm on the right.)














Waiting to cross the Thames. It was quite windy.














Giant salad.

First Post From London!

I haven't had a chance to update this yet, so be prepared for a rather lengthy entry. :)

Day 1 (Saturday):
When we got off the plane they had buses to take us to our flats. The flats are in an extremely wealthy neighbourhood, apparently to rent one of them would cost about 1500 pounds per week ($3000). My flat is very small, just one room plus a closet for the bathroom. There are two sets of bunk beds and a kitchenette. There's a decent amount of living room space, but considering that's all there is to the entire flat, it's not much. There are only three of us living here instead of the usual four, so that's pretty nice. Both of my roommates are great.
Anyway, we had just enough time to put our stuff down and then the two RAs walked us over to the Imperial College campus, where we had lunch and they told us some stuff that I don't remember because I was so tired. Then I went with a couple of people to get phones. Turns out since we ordered my phone from eBay and it came from Italy, it was unlocked, unlike most U.S. phones. This meant that I was able to just get a SIM card (which didn't cost anything) and just pay for however many minutes I wanted to put on my phone. Awesome!
That night they took us on an "unofficial" pub crawl. I only went to two of them because I was so exhausted. I could barely even keep my eyes open. But it was fun. I came back to the flat and went to sleep. The beds are horribly uncomfortable, but I'm getting used to it now.

Day 2 (Sunday):
We met outside the flat at 8:45AM to go on a bus tour of London. Our tour guide's name was Trudy, and she was great! She was so funny. I think she was purposely trying to use a lot of British slang. :) The unfortunate thing about bus tours is that they go so fast and you can't see everything from the windows, but I did learn about a lot of places I would love to go visit during the summer. We stopped to see the changing of the guard, which was really cool. First we saw the Malaysian guards (that are being lent to Britain while some of the British soldiers are in Iraq), then we followed them around the corner to Buckingham Palace where we saw from a distance the British guards coming in. Trudy pointed out where Princes Charles, William, and Harry live, and one of the windows was open on the top floor, which is apparently where William and Harry live. Trudy was certain that William was out of the country, so Harry must have been home! :)
The bus tour left us at Piccadilly Circus. A group of us ate lunch together and then did some grocery shopping, then went to the Natural History Museum. They have a fantastic dinosaur exhibit. After that I didn't do much for the rest of the evening.

Day 3 (Monday):
This was kind of an orientation day. They gave us a bunch of talks, we found out about some great travel options, and we had our first class session. This Intro to Theatre class should be interesting... I'm taking it because my first two class choices got canceled. At least it will be easy. I'm the only person in the class with much theatre experience, and the professor knows it. I'm not sure what to expect from this class. We'll see.

Day 4 (Tuesday):
In the morning we had class, then in the afternoon we went to the Museum of London. There were a bunch of galleries about London's history, and it was very interesting. I honestly didn't know much about the fire in 1666. They had a lot of really cool stuff there, including a model of the Rose Theatre.
I've befriended a great group of girls. Most of them (6) are here for session one and an internship, and the other one is just here for session one. After the Museum, we went over to Victoria Station to pick up train tickets to go visit Hever Castle on Sunday, which is where Anne Boleyn grew up. So I'm WAY excited about that. :D I think we decided that Saturday we're going to try to see a show (hopefully Spamalot, although I would be quite happy with We Will Rock You.) Then we had dinner at this great Thai restaurant, which was also very reasonably priced.

Day 5 (Today):
This morning we had class, and our Professor informed us that our homework assignment for tonight was to go see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe, 5 pounds for standing in the pit. Now don't get me wrong, I was VERY excited about this. But tonight was the Manchester vs. Chelsea game for the cup, and we all really wanted to go to a pub to watch it. So since I'm "the stage manager" I talked to our Professor, with most of the class there backing me up, and he's letting us see the show tomorrow. (Which is going to be awesome!!)
I just got back a bit ago from the pub, where we lost. Of course we're Chelsea fans, we're staying in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea! But it was a very intense and amazing game. Apparently the pub we went to was fairly tame compared to the one my roommate went to. She just informed me that at the pub she went to, there were Chelsea fans throwing glasses and breaking them when they lost. Ah, the joys of football. :)

And now for a few pictures.

This one's for you, mom:














This one's for Mandy, of course:


















Buckingham Palace:














Prince Harry's open window:














Well, that's all I've got for now. I'll update again soon. Cheers!

First Post

Hey, this is my blog for while I'm in London! I figure it's a good way to keep my family and friends updated while I'm gone, and I can post pictures too. My goal is to update it every couple of days... we'll see how that goes. :)

FYI - I downloaded Skype, which is basically like a phone for your computer. I can talk computer to computer for free, but I already subscribed so I can call phones from my computer. You can leave me voicemails through skype, but I don't have a phone number for it so if you don't have the program, just send me an email or something. In short, it's kind of like me having a phone card only cheaper and on my computer.

My next post will actually be from London!