The Globe, Tate Modern, Ye Olde London, and Trafalgar Square / Dirty Dancing

I made my first trip into London today with a busload of fellow PKPers. They dropped most of us off at the Globe Theater for a special tour and lecture given by a geekily attractive, not-so-well spoken staff member for the Globe Education project. He was really informative though and I enjoyed the tour (in fact, I enjoyed the tour more than the actual play). After the tour and before the show, I got to spend about two hours at the Tate Modern, and although I'm not a huge fan of modern art in general, I did get to enjoy some Robert Frank, August Sander, and a couple of other cool things, like Monet's Water Lilies and some Warhol and other pop stuff that I liked. I also determined what I don't like. I headed back to the Globe for a production of Henry VIII, which I realized is not very exciting. The acting was overall decent and the costumes were awesome, and all of the pageantry/pomp/procession scenes were cool, but the play itself just was not enough to keep me going for three hours. Interestingly, when the original Globe burnt down, it was during the first (or one of the earliest) performances of Henry VIII, so that was kind of neat. The thing that was not neat was being a so-called "groundling" which meant that I was standing for about three hours watching the play in the area in front of the stage. Had I made the choice myself, I probably would have paid the extra 10 or 15 pounds to have a seat, so that instead of focusing on how much my feet hurt, I could focus on the Shakespeare itself. 

After the grueling three hours, I headed out with two friends to go grab some food at a pub (I had a lackluster Irish stew (beef + guinness likely, although I couldn't taste the guinness at all)) and then we walked toward Trafalgar Square with ice cream on our minds, pleased to find a stand right on the outskirts of the square. We got ice cream (at that point, it tasted like the best ice cream ever) and then headed into the square, which was full of activity, because T-Mobile was doing some sort of thing where they set up a giant screen and projected Dirty Dancing to hundreds of people. They gave out blankets and soda and popcorn and it was all a very bizarre marketing ploy, but it was free and we were tired, so we sat down and watched the movie. 

On the bus ride home, we saw a big cloud in the shape of the UK. We watched it dissolve and fade for a while, like the British Empire herself. But no, London is a vibrant city and I can't wait to go back and check out all the rest of its offerings (the Tate Britain, the Tower of London, etc...I am DYING to see the crown jewels). 

Less than one week until ROMA! 

Ciao! 

Evensong at King's College Chapel

I know I've already raved about the beauty that is the Chapel, but let me rave once more. This evening I had the chance to see (hear?) Evensong in the Chapel, which occurs most nights of the term and is finishing up at the end of this week. According to the King's College website,

the Choir [the one that sang in the Evensong service] owes its existence to King Henry VI, who envisaged the daily singing of services in his magnificent chapel. This remains the Choir's raison d'être, and is an important part of the lives of its 16 choristers, who are educated on generous scholarships at King's College School, and the 14 choral scholars and two organ scholars, who study a variety of subjects in the College.

and these boys were AMAZING. Two in particular stood out, a little redheaded boy whose voice was SO high and an older boy, probably in his late teens, who had a high voice as well, all the more impressive for his age.
My cursory internet search turned up no results for a recording of the Evensong service itself (which the BBC seems to sometimes stream live online), but I did find a lovely recording of the choir singing something else here.
As "students" of the college, we also got special treatment, meaning we got to skip the line and go in early, as well as to be some of the first people to leave the chapel when the service was over. We even had preferred seating--I was directly behind one half of the choir and so could hear their voices clearly. Things got a bit uncomfortable during the very religious moments, but other than that, it was a lovely way to spend 5:30-6:30 PM and I'm sad that I probably won't ever witness it again.

It's finally the weekend (man, what a grueling three-day week this has been, with a walloping six classes) which means that tomorrow I'll be going to tea (how British am I!--incidentally I just ate a scone with some jam, yum!) in the afternoon, Saturday I'll be heading into London for my first time and seeing a show at the Globe (Henry VIII, I believe), and Sunday I'll be going for tea again, this time at The Orchard in Grantchester, which will be really fun.

The other day I was at the Gap and I walked out of the changing room and handed a pair of jeans back to the guy and took a pair with me, and I say thanks and he says "cheers" and then I didn't know what to say back. What do you say in response to "cheers"? "You too?" "Cheers too!" "Right back at ya!"