The Final Weekend...

It's my last weekend here in London, and I couldn't have asked for a better one! All this week it has been sunny, upper 70s, and hardly a cloud in the sky (most of the time). It has also been surprisingly humid! I suppose that's because we're close to the river Thames...

We make sure to go out and sit in the sun at the park at least once a day, and walking around is a must! The weather is so nice you never want to stay indoors. Too bad it started to be this beautiful one week before we leave to go home!

My only big update is that this Thursday I went with some friends to see "Macbeth" at the Globe Theater (a reconstruction of where Shakespeare originally put on his plays. Remember the pictures from January?) We only paid 5 pounds for our standing room in the pit in front of the stage. This is where the "groundlings" would have stood in Shakespeare's time, and the 5 pounds we pay today is the equivalent of the 1 shilling (1/4 of a penny) they would have paid in Shakespeare's day!

It was a very interesting play, with lots of blood, gore, and murder. Very befitting the plot line! Our only complaint is that they didn't cut some of the boring scenes. Even Shakespeare would cut lines of his plays during production - and it seemed like this director didn't cut enough! But maybe that's just because our feet were really getting sore after 3 hours of standing.

The most interesting part of the production was the director's concept of the audience as the "Underworld". Everyone in the pit had to stand under a large black cloth with only our heads sticking out. We were literally "talking heads"! Of course, not being able to see your feet meant that the actors had a good time running under the cloth, poking, tickling, and popping out to scare the crowd. They even reserved holes for dead bodies to rise out of in the middle of the audience! Naturally you didn't know if or when a body would rise out of the hole next to you. It was spooky!

However, my favorite part of the show was at the end. A few of the actors were hiding next to me in the aisle, waiting to go on for the curtain call. They were supposed to be covered in mud and blood from the battle, but my nose smelled otherwise. As the show ended and the audience started to clap, I whispered to the actor next to me "You smell delicious!" and he laughed and whispered back "Thanks - it's all choc!" (Choc is British slang for chocolate) I guess the fake mud was actually chocolate powder mixed with chocolate syrup for effect! No wonder they all smelled so good...

So that's it, my last "Cultural Activity" for the term. The rest of this week is going to be buckle-down and working on the last bits of projects for final presentations. My last class is this Thursday and I fly home on Friday morning. I'll probably update one more time with a reflection over these past 5 months. Oh how they've flown!

I'll leave you with two pictures from MacBeth, showing the audience in the pit standing under the black cloth:

A Long Overdue Update!

Hello family, I know it's been a while but I've been up to a lot of things. Most of this has been homework (my color theory class requires painting every other night!) and classes. But I have been doing some fun things too...

- My room mate, Katie, and friends Misty and Lauren have dinners or go out to see the sites once or twice a week. We had a delicious Easter Dinner with salad, chicken, mashed potatoes, and tasty desserts! It's great to have a close group of friends to hang out with and spend time doing "homey" things.

- I took a brief weekend trip to visit the boyfriend Stan at his home in Maryland. It was a beautiful spring trip, full of warm weather, sunshine, and fun adventures. We had a bonfire, went hiking, biking along the Potomac, and looked for fossils along the Chesapeake bay. I couldn't have asked for anything more - except maybe a longer weekend! Here's a sunny picture of us at the top of the cliffs overlooking Harper's Ferry:


- My friend (and former GW room-mate) Sam Tamboline is in town for her spring break. We walked around the touristy sites and also attended a celebration of Shakespeare's birthday at the Globe Theater. They had a free "open house" with demonstrations, exhibits, and workshops onstage. The weather couldn't have been better, either: 65 and sunny! I think I'm getting a tan again...

- A lot of you may be wondering about the volcano that's been erupting in Iceland. Here in England the only problems we're experiencing are flight cancellations. I've seen no ash in the sky or on the ground, there's no haze in the air (even on sunny days), and the sunsets are only a little bit prettier - that I've seen. That being said, a lot of plans have been disrupted by the ash in the upper atmosphere. People are stranded in Germany, Greece, and Sweden and have been unable to get rides back in time for classes tomorrow. The tourist industry really suffered this weekend because tourists couldn't fly into the city. On the other hand, hotels are booked up because business people can't leave! Trains, buses, and ferries are all packed with people trying to find other ways of getting out of the country. People like me, who are lucky enough to have nowhere to go, are just sitting tight and hoping that things clear up soon!

That's about it. In terms of school it's coming down to the wire! Mid-terms are almost over and there's less than 5 weeks before I'm flying home for the summer. I'm ready to be home, though, with free laundry, American food (tex-mex!), and a soft bed.

Another Long Sightseeing Update

Life has been going really well here in London. My favorite class has been Building Codes and Systems, because - though I initially had some trouble getting inspiration for our large project - I'm moving on with a (hopefully) great idea. Not to mention the professor is GREAT! He's funny, entertaining, smart, and very helpful. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from him and have fun doing it. My other classes are bearable, and each one has its advantages.

My Internship class meets only on Thursdays at 8:30 in the morning (eew early!). The purpose of the class is to mainly check in with the professor to see how our internships are going, whether or not we've been keeping up with our Internship Journal, and what our research ideas are. Unfortunately the professor likes to talk talk talk talk. So what should take about 20 minutes ends up taking an hour, and we don't get a whole lot of time to ask questions or discuss what we want to. The good thing is that the professor generally talks about interesting things, and is animated enough to keep us awake.

My other class is Historic Architecture of London. I was super excited to be taking this class in the beginning. However, I'm slowly growing more and more frustrated with it. On the plus side, we do get to visit great historic sites in London every week, and learn about the history of the City. But the major downside is that the professor was just assigned to the class for this term, and has never studied the history of London ARCHITECTURE before. In fact, most of the time she gets notes from the brochures or pamphlets at the site we're visiting. The whole class has been disappointed that the professor doesn't really know the material, or what she's doing with the class. It means that we don't get to truly appreciate the great architecture that's around us! (In fact, while visiting Westminster Abbey yesterday, we followed another London university class around on their tour, just because the professor knew lots of facts and interesting things. Meanwhile our professor was simply pointing out the ages or labels of things without any in-depth analysis). Oh well, at least I'm visiting cool places!

Like I said, I visited Westminster Abbey yesterday. It was BEAUTIFUL! Alas, I wasn't allowed to take any photographs. But I did get a few sketches that I might try to post here. It's a breathtaking structure that has had improvements over the years. So parts of the building from the 1200s are in a state of semi-decay, and look ancient. While the additions from the 1700s are much more pristine, delicate, and ornamented. Even the statues on family crypts and memorials span this period of time. It's so odd to see a medieval statue, gothic statue, victorian statue, and 'modern' statue all in the same room! Some areas seem more like "statue storage" than parts of a cathedral. And, of course, the breathtaking ceilings. It was fantastic! (And a little bit pricey for admission, but definitely worth it.) My friends and I are going to try and go back for an Evensong (evening choir performance) one of these days.

Interesting fact: Westminster was founded by Edward the Confessor in the 13th century, after a dream of Saint Peter told him to build a church on that spot. A "minster" is a large, central cathedral to a region. It served as the starting point for the large city of Westminster, which now spans most of the south and central parts of "London".

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Now onto today. I signed up for a walking tour of the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Borough Markets, and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre! Talk about knocking a whole lot of sights out in one day. We started off by touring the Tower of London, a HUGE complex originally built in the 1300s to keep the king's treasures safe. It was then converted into a palace for the royalty to live safely, and then finally turned into a prison for political traitors. So no, it's not a torture chamber or bloody prison for criminals. In fact - it's not even a single tower! It's more of a large complex of buildings from different time periods, used for housing nobility and their goods (and a few ravens!) Nowadays the Governor of London lives in the Tower, along with the Yeomen/Beefeaters (King's personal serving guards), and the Queen's Crown Jewels. Very sparkly. You'd be surprised at the crowns, scepters, rings, and other miscellaneous objects which are kept together. Each item has a very specific usage - for example, one crown is specifically for the Queen Mother, while another is for the Queen Consort (the woman married to the King, but not the ruling Queen in her own right), the travelling crown (when he visits other countries), and the Crown of State (used to open Parliament). Not to mention scepters, rings, and orbs for each function. All the crowns and scepters look very similar - except for the scepter with the Heart of Africa diamond on it. I've never seen a gem so breathtaking! Unfortunately no photography allowed.

We then walked across the Tower Bridge - NOT the London Bridge! I knew this already from my history classes, but the Tower Bridge is the famous Bridge in London. Meanwhile, the London bridge is a much simpler travel bridge that is only important because a) it was always falling down, and b)it has been around, in one form or another, since the Romans in 40 AD. So the London Bridge used to be the main artery of travel into the city. The Tower Bridge just looks pretty.

After that we stopped for lunch at Boroughs Market, a food market that was originally set up by the Romans. It's a great place to find food-to-go, such as pasties, fruit, veg, and roast sandwiches. Must go back there again!

Finally we had a private tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theater, where he premiered many of his plays, including Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, etc. While you kind of need to be a theatre nerd to truly appreciate the amazing work that has been put into this theater (the original has been destroyed, but they rebuilt this one to the exact historical copy of the first, right down to the thatched straw roof). To step into the space, sit in the seats, go up to the stage, and see everything as it would have been in Shakespeare's time... well, it really gives you some perspective. I think this is one of my favorite historical "interpretive centers". While not the original, it's much better than many places which either a) leave the original foundations/ruins and provide some sketches to help you visualize, or b) rebuild the theater but in a more modern, less historically acurate way (or only build part of it). The Globe was perfect for seeing things like Shakespeare saw them. The energy of the theater just made the place feel alive! It's also much more colorful and eye-catching than you might think, too.

Of course, all of these things are best described in pictures. So I'll be uploading those soon! Thanks for reading through this super-long update. I'm just getting so well-informed! =P