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! 

England, the Abridged Version

I've finally got internet in my room, which is a vast improvement on me running to the library at random times to check my e-mail. That also means I can start blogging as regularly as my schedule allows. Which is, I think, going to be not very much! For instance, I haven't stopped DOING stuff since I woke up at 8 AM this morning. When I wasn't in class, I was reading Titus Andronicus to prepare for class, and in 20 minutes I have to leave for an information session about my Scotland trip this weekend, and then after that, we're having a "restaurant night"--I chose to go to an Indian restaurant--and then after THAT, I have to come back and read A Midsummer Night's Dream for my Shakespeare lecture tomorrow as well as interview my character (...more on this in a second) for my Short Story Writing class. Short Story is SO much fun. For example, yesterday, our professor told us to write for 10 minutes when we woke up this morning. Then today, in seminar, we were to go through and pick out 7 words from what we wrote and write them all spread out on a separate page. Then our task was to link the words together in story (mine's about an old man dying with some sort of lung disease that makes it hard for him to breathe). Then, she sent us out into the town to follow the first person we saw, taking notes on his movements, speech, where they were headed, what we though they were thinking, etc. When we returned, she had us add this character into our story in some way. It's a lot of fun, forcing yourself to be creative and seeing what comes of it. Which is why tonight, I have to interview my character without planning the questions beforehand, the idea being that each answer will prompt the next question. This sounds weird, because, well, I'll be supplying both the question and the answer, but the point is to become the character, to really get inside his head. Should be fun.
So my classes are good. The social scene is fun too. Last night was our first "formal hall" which is essentially everyone sitting down together in a giant hall (which looks a lot like the Great Hall--there were even four tables) and being served a three course meal. Much fun! We even got to walk on the lawn (this is a subject for its own blog post. I wish to do the inanities of this university's traditions justice.)
There are about a gazillion more things I want to say--so I'll note them here for now and return to them later. They include: vocabulary differences, new friends, my first pub experience, the power of the British accent, the dining hall and food system (esp. in comparison to Yale's), and my room.
Unfortunately, I won't be posting any of my own pictures today as I literally haven't taken any since I got here. However, I will treat you to one of my favorite views so far:

I haven't been inside the chapel yet, but hopefully soon I'll step inside the *wondrous* King's Chapel. 

One final note before I head off. I was reading Richard II the other day for my Shakespeare class, and funnily enough ran across the lines that I quoted in my first blog post. I suppose it was only a matter of time, but still, reading those lines after having actually seen England made them infinitely more powerful: you cannot imagine the beauty of the English countryside or the quaintness of the Cambridge streets until you have seen them for yourself. So the thing I am actually looking forward to next is the bus drive to Scotland and the hike in the Trossachs, where I will really get to see this blessed realm.

Cheerio? 

Erica

Addendum: I can't be positive, as I'm no expert on bird-calls or whatever, but I'm pretty sure I hear owls outside my window all the time. This, of course, leads me to hoping that one of them will swoop into my window holding a letter only about 10 years late. 

One month until departure!

Hello faithful readers, all one* of you!

This blog is as much for my own personal record as it is for my friends and maybe family, if I keep it clean, to keep track of me. I'll post funny stories, details of my travels, snippets of my coursework if it's any good, pictures aplenty, and whatever else I want, because this is my blog and the Internet offers a lot of freedom.

The title comes from Shakespeare, who I'll study seriously for the first time ever this summer, despite the fact that I'm an English major, and he, well, practically invented the language. The line is from King Richard II and the full passage (as quoted on www.allgreatquotes.com; seriously, I've never really studied Shakespeare) reads thus:

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,-
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

Isn't that beautiful? I didn't think anything could make me *more* excited to go to England, and then I read that.

So: you might want to know what I'm doing this summer. Well, about 1/3 of what I'm doing this summer is taking classes at Cambridge. I'll be taking Reading Shakespeare, Short Story Writing, and Avant-garde Literature.

The rest of what I do is up in the air. Traveling is a big goal. I'm already making plans to go to Barcelona and Ibiza before the program starts on June 27th. I'll travel a bunch around the UK (stalking JK Rowling in Edinburgh is on my to-do-list) and Ireland. I'm planning a trip to Paris with two of my closest friends who will also be in Europe this summer, and finally, I'll go wherever else ryanair and easyjet take me. I'm amazed at how many cheap flights there are on these somewhat-questionable airlines. Just yesterday I saw a flight to Oslo for 3 Euro. What.

Anyway, I hope you'll join me from wherever you are this summer. I can't guarantee anything, but I'll try to make it worth your while.

God save the Queen,
Erica

*Hopefully, I'll have more than one reader. But right now, I just have Harry (sadly, not Potter).