after reflecting upon The Phantom of the Opera for the past few days, I've realized that I really didn't like it that much. I love the soundtrack, which I have on my ipod (the Sarah Brightman version) and to be honest, I really do enjoy the movie, even though Emmy Rossum is kind of a pansy. But this show just didn't work. the girl who played Christine over-acted and the guy who played the Phantom had trouble balancing his powerful chest voice with the more delicate, tenor sections, and that made me mad. the set was brilliant though, and there's a scene where the large chandelier that's been hanging over the audience "falls" over the people and into the stage and that was pretty dramatic. probably the best part of the whole experience was sitting next to my friend Wayne (a cappella, ya'll!) because he loved it so much and was so happy that it made me happier.
Tuesday was quite the jolt back into "school" since I hadn't done anything remotely academic in 5 days. first things first, we got the terrible news that our professor, Michael Levenson, broke his ankle really badly running and has to stay off of it for 10 days which means we wont see him until the last day of our program next Thursday :( I was really sad to hear that he got hurt and also that we lost both of our professors. but wait....DA DA DA DAHHH!
My absolute favorite professor of all time, Cynthia Wall, who lives in London with her partner and fellow UVA Professor J. Paul Hunter will be taking over!!!! I'm so excited because I love love loveee this woman. YAY!
we finished the final episode of Seven Up when the kids reached 49 years old. not sure why but these peeps are aging TERRIBLY. it's honestly disgusting. one woman has more wrinkles than yzma (for example, please view the film "The Emperor's New Groove". tony cheated on his wife, half of them were divorced and remarried (and some of them divorced again), and all of the men started balding. can't wait for old age...
after lunch we met up with PROFESSOR WALL!! at the Museum of London. there was a brand new exhibition in 3 galleries about the History of London from the Great Fire (1666) to about 1850, then 1850-1940s, and then 1940s to present. they had some pretty cool stuff. lots of artifacts with tiny little placards that detailed them and some interactives "for kids" but I think we all know that I was interacting with those ones. they had a timeline around the center of the whole thing and it had a quote from one of the poems we read! William Blake, ya'll!
upon departing from the museum we immediately left for Greenwich. this would have been moderately exciting to me except that at this point my cold was reaching peak evilness and my throat felt like 1st year (please contact Daniela Solano or either of my parents for specifics). so I'm feeling terrible and we've got to take a 50 minute boatride to get there. obviously I fall asleep because death is imminent. it takes us about 15 minutes to reach the Greenwich Observatory (RIP Stevie) and then we must climb 10 minutes of the steep precipiceness that is the hill (more death). finally we reach the top-- where you can straddle the western and eastern hemisphere, a nerdy picture is taken, and we climb back down. great!
dinner at pizza express (where ELSE!?) followed by an hour-long tube ride home complete with man sprinting onto the train to catch it and then making awkward "OMG I SO TOTALLY MISSED THE TRAIN" faces.
wednesday we discuss more poetry. I have a new favorite. by david young. from "poem in three parts." favorite stanza:
Once again I do not know
how this can be turned into words
and held steady
even for a moment:
it slides across your eye
and flickers in your mind.
so gooooooood.
we then went to a photography exhibition in Oxford Circus by an artist from Lexington, VA--not too far from Charlottesville, ya'll!!--called Sally Mann. she's considered pretty controversial because her early work was inspired by her three children, in which she photographed them from ages 3, 5, and 8 in the nude. it's fine when they're young but she continued to pose them nude until they were considerably older--I think maybe 13 or something--and lots of people had problems with the exhibition. personally I found the photographs to be totally beautiful and not at all pornographic or offensive. her kids (two girls and one boy) are absolutely beautiful and have this kind of eerie precociousness about them. they have these intense faces in their photos. it was really inspiring. she moved on to capturing images of the Virginia landscape in a surprisingly well-transitioned shift. these were totally beautiful too and makes me miss Virginia (only an eeeeensy bit). we also went into a room that displayed about 8 images she had done of dead, decaying corpses but I'll just say that wasn't really my thing and I dipped out of there asap.
today is the day I start feeling really terrible and realize how sick I am. It has gone from a sore throat and body pain to full blow sinus infection very quickly. but what the fuck else is new, right? however, I decide to man-up because at 3 o clock England is playing and obvi I want to see the game. so we wander around the area for about 15 minutes struggling to find a pub with a television (that doesn't also have some private event for the game) and I end up asking a waitress at a cafe. she points us in the direction of "The Old Explorer" pub, which turned out to be a fine decision.
sadly we got there a little bit too late to get great seats but we squished into couches for the game. the people in our area were super fun and noisy and drunk (even though it was only 3-holler!) and most of them were still dressed in their suits like they had literally taken off from work to watch this game. additionally, Snakebites are offered.
my minimal alcohol consumption has lead to an increase in fatigue and general feelings of death so when we amble over to Kensington to get dinner before our class play I fall asleep in the booth on the restaurant. in my skirt. thanks, Kels for the photo? coooooool so we then make our way over to the play, Sucker Punch, directed by one Roy Williams. go tarheels?
I can't really figure out why exactly I hated this play. I'm going to assign 45% of my distate to my illness, 35% to the abysmal acting, 10% to the existence of the girl who played "Becky", and 10% to the absolutely absurd "American accent" put on by one of the characters. that was just a rough assignment of percentages, but seriously I didn't enjoy it at all and I think it had some serious potential. there were moments where I almost liked it, but mostly I didn't connect to any of the characters, I thought the writing to be rather poor, the actors said their lines too quickly and without the right amount of emotion for the line they were saying, and the plot (racial tensions in 1970s London by means of a white man coaching a black man in boxing) was a bit used, in my opinion. did I mention I was also sick?
****chelsea falls asleep at a record 10:14pm.
by this time I am close to death. i've started taking antibiotics but they haven't kicked in yet and I'm generally feeling that the end is near. much like I shall soon perish. I write the first draft of my will. jk.
Thursday morning I make it up for a meager breakfast and class where we discuss the play for 45 minutes and I contribute one comment with a nose full of snot and depression. the rest of my classmates have to grab a quick lunch on Baker Street because we have a walking tour with the infamous Roger Bowdler of Parliament and Buckingham Palace and the rest of that area but I stay behind.
I realize that this was a sad walk to miss because it's all the juicy, photo-oppy historic stuff but I really needed to sleep. I napped until about 130 and then got my things together, grabbed a quick lunch to-go (or take away, as they say here) and hopped on the Tube to meet Group A for tea and snacks at Professor Wall's flat.
her home is the cutest thing you've ever seen. I've seen her place in Charlottesville (on JPA Extended) and it was totally your standard English professor's house. This then, would be your standard English professor's summer flat in London. the kitchen/living room area is one big open room and then they have a couple little nooks for their bedroom, etc. not the biggest place in the universe but cozy and bright with lots of big windows and book EVERYWHERE. she had made us little finger sandwiches, crumpets with jam and clotted cream (mmmm), the best strawberries I've ever tasted and cherries, and some assorted cookies. also hard-boiled quail eggs which I was not interested in but which were adorable nonetheless.
after tea we came back to Regent's for a little bit and I met Molly and Caroline in the lobby so we could go see MAMMA MIAAAAAAAA AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was a blast I had so so much fun. the girl who played Sophie was no Amanda Seyfried but then, few are. the only thing I was really disappointed in was the opening and closing "I Have Dream" songs because the actress who played Sophie didn't seem to be able to sing softly and high--like she could only belt high. so the thing started off with me being really nervous that I would be disappointed. but the rest was amazing. the woman who played Donna was unreal, she was soooooooooo good. I was also worried that all the little one liners from the movie would just be duplicated on stage but there were fresh jokes in there that were super funny.
That night I came back and, still really sick, tried to go to bed early (around 11pm) but I had consumed some Diet Coke before the Mamma Mia show and caffeine really doesn't work with me if I drink it after like 4pm. so I was exhausted but sleep didn't really come. and it was midnight. and then 1am. and then I think the last time I saw was about 2:30am. AH. both my roommates got up at 5:15am because they were going to Wimbledon and you have to get there really early to stand in line for tickets so when their alarms went off at the crack of dawn, I was up. and never fell back asleep. so I got a little bit less than 3 hours that night. lovelyyyyyy!!
While I was attempting to kill time in the morning I was also gearing myself up for my daytrip to Oxford! I was kind of starting to bum out because I hadn't really heard that very many people were going. The first two weeks of daytrips most everyone went because they were to fun places and why the hell not, but I think since this was the last weekend of the program and the last definite weekend people would be in London they had their own boxes to check off that maybe didn't include Oxford.
People on the trip to Oxford included: Chelsea, Jon and Meg (program admins who organized the trip), Chris Post, and Chris Post's Mom Dr. Barb. woooooooooooooo! crazyyyyy.
But we actually had a great time and it was a completely unique experience because there wasn't so much stress about counting a big group and worrying about who wants to see what or us all fitting and I think in the long wrong we got to do more because it took less time for 5 of us to get in, see things, and get out.
The train ride there was packed and we couldn't get seats until about 15 minutes out so I just listened to Michael Buble on my iPod to destress from lack of sleep.
Then I entered magic world. For starters, the very first pub we pass is called The Wahoo right next to one Glee Club. Ummm....yes? UVA A CAPPELLA FO LIFE! the first, and most famous college at Oxford is called Christ College. Aside from the fact that 14 of England's Prime Ministers attended, it is also, and most importantly, the site of filming for the first 2 Harry Potter films. So I got to see the hall where Harry first meets Draco (You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don't wanna go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there) and where McGonagall comes up to let them into the Great Hall for sorting--here I took a picture on the staircase holding up a pen like a wand...And then we also got to go INTO the Great Hall--where I took a picture with a glass of invisible Butterbeer. Sadly, the pictures on the wall did not move and the floating candles were absent but all in all AN AMAZING TIME!
We then walked back toward the main drag for lunch at the Eagle and Child, a really famous pub where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis used to hang out with their literary groups. I decided to be really adventurous and try to 'Vegetarian Sausage'. got a little scared when Meg suggested that the reason is was taking so long was because "no one's probably ordered it in awhile so maybe they don't know where it is..." EW MEG. but it was realllllllllly yum.
from here we wandered around other colleges, saw the Rhodes House (mansion) where Rhodes Scholars hang out, and went into lots of college's gardens and halls. lots of pretty pictures! we took a nice little stroll by the river and then made our way back toward the center of the town where Chris and his mom went over to see the track where the 4 minute mile was broken (Chris is an insane runner--runs like 15 miles every morning or something) and Meg and Jon and I did some shopping and hanging. I got a navy and dark green Oxford rugby shirt :)
Jon had his heart set on a milkshake from MOO MOOs AND on a cookie from Ben's Cookies so that happened...(meg and I played it safe and not to mention healthier) with some iced coffee.
The train ride back was more comfortable but again, just had the caffeine, so I didn't nap. When I got back to Baker Street ELIZABETHHHHH!!! was waiting for me and she came back to Regents with me while I took a shower and we got ready for dinner and a night out. We got dinner at an Indian Curry restaurant with German-Turk and then went to meet up with his friend James, who I had met the very first night.
2 hours and 34230985093 calls later Becca and Kelsey find us at Commercial Tavern. They are covered in sunburn and are verrrrrry drunk, specifically Kelsey. Becca was also the funniest any person has ever been on this night. I peed myself laughing. but I was the only one. damnittttttt. bar closed at 11pm randomly so clubbing also happened. and it was insane.
Saturday was kind of a weird day. the weather here has gotten so hot that I feel like I'm constantly melting and on the verge of passing out. we got breakfast around 10 and noodled around trying to figure out what to do, ultimately deciding to go to Covent Garden to go "shopping." Instead, we got there and immediately bumped into a table offering free samples of chips and guacamole to advertise for a new Mexican restaurant. umm...jackpot? everything I could have ever wanted. and more.
after some fake attempts at shopping we decided we had to check out the mehicano restaurant. and ohhh did we. 2 orders of guac (the kind they make right at your table) and 1 of chile con queso. i died. had to walk it off. also, I've been desperately trying to do some serious shopping damage but I just can't find anything that I really want to buy. it's very frustrating. and yet somehow the money still gets spent....
we came back with full intentions of Liz going home on the train but convinced her to come back out with us!!! Kels, Bels (Becca), and I had our first shower party (where we all pick stalls near each other and shower, nothing fishy now) and got ready to go out again. we went to Las Iguanas!! this awesome (and also Mexican) restaurant that Kelsey and Becca had been to last weekend. they had an extreeeemely generous drink special that we convinced Liz to join in on because her dad wasn't going to come until after Ghana and USA finished their game. RIP USA :( wee! we went back to the absurd bar from the night before (Commercial Tavern) and were again kicked out at 11pm- no one knows why.
Sunday was spent with German-Turk. we played in the sunshine and then met the girls back at Las Iguanas for continued drink specials and then all 4 of us went back to Camden to watch the
England/Germany game with his friend James. Becca and Kelsey hit up World's End while Selim and I tried to find James at the place he was at--Lockside Lounge. we couldn't find him so watched until halftime at one place. I should have been grateful for this heap of hotness because nothing could have prepared me for how fucked up Lockside Lounge was. it was hotter than the 7th circle of hell and I was fully prepared to die. it was also very funny to watch the boy try to keep his excitement down as Germany beat the crap out of England. RIP England.
never died but I got sick for about an hour once I got back to Regents. heat + drinking = not good. I was forced to rally for once last hurrah at The World's End but I physically could consume nothing but water. I'm gonna miss you, snakebites :(
documentation of Monday and Tuesday later today. gotta take a nap before class. sorry I've been such a lazy piece of sheet.
** I realize it seems like I drank a lot this weekend. and maybe I did. but it was my last real London weekend. and I had to do it right.
LOVE. ck.
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