Brawls, Bacon "Burgers," Bulgogi and Bibimbap

Ok so I'm a bit behind so here is my latest recap:

Friday February 11, 2011: Cinderella

While I have been enjoying my theatre experiences in the West End immensely, I decided it was time to venture out and explore some smaller, less well-known productions. I went to the King’s Head Theatre in Islington with my friend Christine and we saw the opera Cinderella. The theatre was very small and was also a pub, which was pretty cool. A modern take on an old favorite, the show was great and the theatre was small and intimate. I sat front row, about 5 feet from the actors. We were so close that we got hit with glitter from the fairy godfather. The best part was that they kicked us all out into the pub for intermission and as a surprise did the ballroom scene in there! It was funny to watch because a lot of people were just drinking at the pub and were not actually seeing the show and then all of a sudden Prince Charming and his servant are having a drink at the bar and burst into song, the ugly stepsisters are pushing their way through the crowd trying to catch the prince, and Cinderella rides in through the front door on her “coach” (a Barclays bike covered in a glitter). It was a great way to involve to audience and take the show outside of the traditional theatre space and I enjoyed the experience immensely (even if I did jump about a foot in the air when Prince Charming popped up right behind me and started singing at the top of his lungs).

Saturday February 12, 2011
Today I went on my own to explore Berwick Market in Soho, which was a bit of a disappointment as there were only about 4 stalls. However, I didn’t let that kill my adventurous mood and decided to get lost and just start exploring random streets (and for any concerned Friend's and family members rest easy, its a super touristy area middle of the afternoon and a nice area) Somehow in my wanderings I ended up back at Tottenham Court road, which is actually pretty close to where I live. I wasn’t ready to go home yet so I stopped at a pub and finally tried fish and chips for the first time, which was delicious. Another must-do touristy thing-check!

Saturday night I went with my roommate Alyssa to see “The Taming of the Shrew,” which I am slightly embarrassed to say is one of my favorite of Shakespeare’s comedies and, even if it is horribly sexist, I still laugh every time I see it. But the fun started before the show even did- here's the story: Alyssa and I sat down in the second row and there were two empty seats next to us. Two guys walked up and asked if they could sit there and we said that's fine. One of the guys seemed reeeeeally really drunk and was talking/slurring loudly and his friend kept getting angry and telling him to be quiet and was mad because he was ruining the show (which hadn't started yet but was about to). I'll leave out the language for the benefit of my lovely readers with delicate sensibilities but some swearing and heated words back and forth ensued and finally the non-drunk friend jumps up and yells that he is not going to sit there and deal with his friend (again omitting more swearing) and he just storms out and doesn't come back! Alyssa and I are of course SUPER uncomfortable and had no idea how to handle it since there really isn't much you can do in that situation. So, the lights go down and the show starts and it is just Alyssa, me and our sulking drunk companion sitting in the second row. The actors are in the middle of the first scene when suddenly the guy gets up and staggers toward the stage! I am absolutely horrified as I watch him go up because I'm sure he's about to ruin the show and as it turns out HE WAS IN THE SHOW! None of it was real! That whole scene was just two of the actors doing their own little preshow for their own kicks I would assume because Alyssa and I and probably whoever sat behind us were the only ones who saw it. So there you go- I went from highly uncomfortable and mortified to highly amused. Good actors because we were convinced!

The show itself was an interesting production at the very small (seriously, I felt like I was in someone's basement) Courtyard Theatre in Shoreditch because they set the play in 1960’s Hackney in the London mob world. Baptista was a mob boss and the other families were trying to marry her (they made Baptista a woman) daughters in order to get more power in London’s underworld. Petruchio became “Pete” and they interestingly tried to twist the show to make it a tragedy- abusing and killing certain characters that didn't actually happen in Shakespeare's version. It was interesting to see how the staging of a production can completely change the tone because they did not alter the script at all, just used setting and costume to morph a comedy into a tragedy. Tragic moments aside, I still found a lot of the show very funny and on the whole thought it was a great adaptation of one of my favorite plays.

Food fail: After the show we walked around and found this little hole-in-the-wall food place. I asked for a bacon cheese burger and what I got was a bagel with cream-cheese, ketchup and bacon. That's it. I may be an English major but I can handle this much math: Cream cheese + bagel + bacon + ketchup does NOT = burger. Not sure what the communication breakdown there was but there you have it. I ate and it wasn't bad, wasn't good either. I like all those things separately but together...

Sunday February 13, 2011 Oxford
Today Alyssa and I took the Oxford Tube (very confusingly named because it is a bus) to Oxford for the day. I loved the city; there was plenty to see while still retaining a charming feel and was free of the chaos and crowdedness that can occasionally be overwhelming in London. We declined the eager guide’s offer in the Tourist Information Center to join a bus tour, opting instead to explore on our own armed only with a map and two pairs of comfortable walking shows. We walked through an awesome covered market and looked at a few of the colleges (which I was outraged to find want to charge you admission to see; in protest I stuck my camera through the gate and snapped a few pictures anyway). We went to a pretty cool Natural History museum that belongs on Hoarders- there was so much stuff packed into this small area it was overwhelming in an awesome kind of way.

Botanical Gardens Best candy store ever! I got a "cable" that was, as you can see, a GIANT piece of strawberry licorice filled with this sweet white filling. SO GOOD!

Cutest candy animals at the market

Wednesday February 16th

Went to see the "Magic Flute" with my theatre class at the Royal Opera House. We all got dressed up because it was a huge fancy opera production and no one gets dressed up anymore which is a shame so we decided to revive the tradition (and lots of people were actually dressed up so it was nice). The show was completely in German but the had subtitles on a screen above the stage so we got the gist of what was going on. The production started off with a mishap because the conductor fell as he was coming out and they made us all leave the theatre which was a pain with hundreds of people and then 5 minutes later had us all come back in. Poor guy was too shaken to conduct so they luckily had a back-up and the show could still go on. It was good... but REALLY REALLY long. When at intermission they say there are 95minutes left it gets a bit draining. But it was free so I'm not going to complain! I think I like musicals and plays better than operas so far but I still enjoyed it very much.

Friday February 18, 2011

I meet up with Kelly at Trafalgar Square to hear all about her adventures and we got lunch then went to the National Gallery. The place was so huge we could only see a little bit. The best part was I saw at least 5 paintings I had studied in my high school humanities class- nice to see I remembered and even more cool to actually see them live! Failed in my attempts trying to climb the big monument in the middle of the square. I got up to highest spot I could on the monument but was unable to climb the lions :( So I took a nice picture with the lion's butt because that is as far as I got!

We decided to be spontaneous and stop in and see if they did student discount tickets at various theatres and ending up seeing the musical "Shoes." I asked the woman at the box office what the show was about and she said "Shoes." And she wasn't kidding: the entire thing was about shoes. No plot, no characters just incredible/elaborate musical numbers devoted to flipflops, boots, Birkenstocks, stilettos, various designer brands, etc. etc. I got such a kick out of the whole thing and had a blast! Favorite part: Jesus wearing Birkenstocks shepherding the ugg boot wearing folks dressed as sheep. Apparently the critics hated it because nothing happened: I say settle down people; not everyone can do Hamlet and dramatic/ serious plays, sometimes it is nice to just see some witty song and dance all about shoes!

Saturday February 19, 2011

Went out for my first Korean food experience with Changmi (who was nice enough to guide us through the menu so I could avoid the super spicy things), Nina, Christine and Hannah. I got Bibimbap with bulgogi which was this rice/veggie/steak mix in a really hot big stone pot. SO GOOD and I am looking forward to trying more Korean food soon. Afterwards we went to this 50's style bowling alley that is right across the street from my flat. Lots of people were dressed up which was entertaining to see. We went for the milkshakes which were expensive but delicious!

Well, that's all I've got for now, more updates to come when I have more adventures!

Curious George Must Die

This past weekend I visited my friend Maura, who is studying abroad in Galway, Ireland. The ride there itself was an adventure- 15 hour bus ride. Started at 6:00pm on Thursday at Victoria coach station in London. The coach first stopped at a random rest stop in I'm Not Sure Where, England where I had an overpriced burger at Burgerking that was DELICIOUS! Probably because I haven't had a burger since being in the U.S. and was craving it desperatly. Sometime around 1:00 in the morning the bus got onto a ferry at Holyhead (sp?) where we crossed the sea to get to Ireland. The ferry was awesome, basically a cruise ship with restaurant, bar, lounges, cabins (if you paid for them), and movies playing. Was on the boat for 4 hours. Here is a pic of the bar and lounge:

I found a booth so I could lay down and catch a few hours of sleep. Easier said then done because the only bench left was next to a kid's room where they had the cartoon "Curious George" playing on a loop, even though it was 2am and no kids were in there. When you haven't slept all night and you only have 3 hours to actually lay down the last thing you want to hear is all about that damn monkey's shenanigans. I fell asleep after awhile dreaming about how curious George might be to see the bottom of the Atlantic...We got back on the bus, I switched to another bus in Dublin and by 10:30am on Friday I was in Galway! Explored the city with Maura for a bit during the day and had pizza at a cute little resturant in the city center. Took a much needed nap then that night checked out Taffes, which was a pub where they had a band playing Irish music, which was really good. Good time all around and I learned that Irishmen basically as a population are ridiculously good-looking, plus throw in the accents... but anyways raging hormones aside and on to Saturday!

Street in Galway

Saturday we did a day tour of Connemara and Galway Bay. The tour (and I'm quoting from the brochure since I don't remember all the stops) took us along the coast, across the bay the Burren Hills and we were supposed to be able to see the Aran islands but it was raining, which was fine because everything was still very pretty. Went to a deserted famine village, through the "rugged Connemara landscape described by many Irish writers as the real emerald of Ireland." At Maam Cross we saw the replica of the cabin from John Wayne's movie the Quiet Man. Got another burger from a random vendor at a market which was SO GOOD! Went all through the valley, which was beautiful. Saw Killary Fjord, which is Ireland's only Fjord. The main attraction was Kylemore Abbey and Gardens. The Abbey used to be a castle that a man named Mitchell Henry built for his wife. Long romantic story short: Mitchell and Margaret go on honeymoon in Ireland, Margaret falls in love with the area, Mitchell says "Margie Marge my dear, I shall buy these 15,000 acres this instant and build you a fantastic fairytale castle because that is how a man shows a woman he loves her" (taking liberties with dialogue), said castle is built, 9 kids are born, Margaret goes on holiday in Egypt where she gets dysentery and dies at age 45, Mitchell brings her body back and builds Mausoleum on the grounds, Neo-Gothic Church (pic below) is built in her memory in 1877. Oh and somewhere in all that the castle gets some lovely nuns who make it an abbey.

Famous Victorian Gardens on the grounds

View of the castle/abbey

So because it was raining all day my shoes were soaked when we got back to Maura's. I decided to lean them against the fireplace which turned out to be a very bad idea, as shown below. The whole kitchen filled with smoke and the fire alarm went off. These happened to be the only shoes I had with me but luckily there was a mall across the street where I got some nice replacement shoes for around $15. Could have been worse and now I can laugh about it so all is well :)

Saturday night saw more of the pub scene in Galway, which was a blast. Went back to Taffes, which was packed then the King's Head and some other pub whose name I can't remember. All in all had a great! Skipped the Guiness because I don't like beer, which apparently is blasphemy according to one of the Irish guys in the pub. Slept late on Sunday since we were out late Saturday then explored more of Galway before my bus left at 3:30pm. Listened to a random Irish band on the street for awhile that was really good and they played a cover of my current new favorite song "Little Lion Man" which was stuck in my head for the whole bus ride back. The ride back was a little less exciting because I was getting in at 8:30am and had to work that same day and was pretty much a zombie on Monday, but all in all totally worth it!