Spring time in London!

Hello! I've got a lot of updates because I haven't written in awhile as I have been busy with midterm papers and work (there's that pesky "study" part to the whole study abroad experience- pity) so I will just back track by day by day, or at least the days that were interesting. Jumping right in:

Tuesday March 1, 2011- Edward II
Tonight my Shakespeare in London class went to see Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II at the Rose Theatre, which was Bankside’s first theatre in 1587. The theatre itself is on the site of the original, which was pretty amazing to think about as I was watching the show. The place was incredibly small and we were seated about 5 feet from the actors. It was all basically underground; behind the stage you could see the excavation site of the original theatre which was filled with water as they are currently working on it. They could not turn the heat on because of something to do with preserving the site but I thought that made the experience even cooler, no pun intended, well maybe slightly intended. The acting in the show itself was incredibly strong, especially for such a small production and I enjoyed the show immensely.

Wednesday March 2, 2011
Tonight my Modern Theatre and the London Stage class went to the performance of Woman in Black which was much scarier than I anticipated. I figured a play could not be anywhere near as scary as a movie but I very very wrong. The suspense they created through the use of light and sound was fantastic. I nearly had a heart attack in the bathroom at intermission when another woman opened the door too fast- we both jumped about a foot in the air then laughed about it after; nice to know I wasn’t the only one feeling a bit jumpy. I then had a whole conversation with another random stranger in the bathroom about our speculations about what would happen next in the show and how freaked out we were by it, something I take as a sign that the play was really getting to everyone, which was great. After the play I severely warned my roommates that if anyone made any sudden moves, choose to wear black or did not announce their presence before entering the room I was in then there would be hell to pay. Needless to say we choose to walk home in a large group.

Friday March 4, 2011-Sunday March 6, 2011- Visitor from Ireland
This weekend a friend of mine from Stonehill (Maura Kelly for those of you who know her) who is studying in Galway, Ireland visited me so I got to play tour guide in London. On Friday night we went and saw The 39 Steps which was pretty funny. It was more slapstick type humor and was not at all what I expected it to be, but it was funny and we had a good time and the tickets were cheap! God I love student discounts.

Saturday we went to all the big touristy spots like the London Eye, Houses of Parliament, the Globe Theatre and Trafalgar Square. That night we did a ghost walking tour of London in the area around St. Paul’s cathedral. Our guide was wearing a giant black cape when he came over to meet us which I took as a promising sign the tour would be good. It was a nice blend of the history of the city with entertaining ghost tales and was only 6 pounds. We then went to a 50’s style bowling alley for milkshakes which was entertaining as everyone was dressed up. My favorite: a group of women wearing the Pink Ladies jackets from Grease.

Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

Melanie, the Stonehill intern who works at the British Museum, got me two free tickets to see the Book of the Dead exhibit which was great because today was the last day it was open (thanks Melanie!). The Book was not actually a book but a large collection of spells and scrolls and there were explanations all about the Ancient Egyptians views about death and the afterlife. To be honest my knowledge of the subject came solely from the movie The Mummy which I am unashamed to admit is one of my all time favorite movies/guilty pleasures. Despite the fact that Brendan Frasier was not there I still enjoyed the exhibit, even more so because it was free. We then went to Brick Lane to check out the markets. They had every type of food from every nationality imaginable. I was not brave enough to try Ethiopian and stuck with the tried and true Chinese food, but I will work my way up to it eventually!

Tuesday March 8, 2011- King John
Tonight my Shakespeare class went to Twickenham to see King John. First time on the overground train. The show was not terrible... but definitely not one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, which makes sense because it was a history which is not my favorite genre. A few of the actors had to ask for their lines, which I have never actually seen happen before in a professional production. It didn’t detract too much from the performance on the whole. I did feel bit bad because it must be awful to forget your lines, but they all carried on admirably even after making mistakes.

Wednesday March 9, 2011- UNBELIEVABLE
Ok this is the story I am most excited to tell because I still can't really believe it happened. Here's the tale: Today at my internship we had a very interesting guest speaker in the course I am auditing, Responding to Terrorism. He is the superintendent of the London Metropolitan Police and the head of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear division. He talked about the challenges the police face when dealing with terrorist attacks, particularly CBRN attacks and was able to explain how the command structure for an attack worked and who was responsible for responding to what. After the presentation Brooke (my supervisor) invited anyone in the class who was interested to come out for a drink at a pub nearby and ask the superintendent any questions they liked. About five of us ended up going out afterwards and I ended up sitting next to him, which brings me closer in the story to one of the best moments in my study abroad experience thus far: We were chatting about books and movies and how I was enjoying my time in London and the conversation somehow came to how I was taking a Shakespeare course. I mentioned that I had visited the Globe for a tour but was disappointed because I would be unable to see a show there because their season did not start until after I left. At this point he said something to the effect of “I do not mean this inappropriately at all but as it so happens I am on the board at the Globe and have an extra ticket to see a performance of Macbeth there tomorrow night. My friend could not come at the last minute so if you would like the ticket you are welcome come.” (!!!) Apparently there was an event where thousands of UK schoolchildren were allowed to come to the Globe for free to see Macbeth, which was playing for a few nights, and tomorrow was the last night. A chance to go to the Globe and see Macbeth for free- unbelievable!!! He gave me his card at told me to meet him in the foyer at the Globe tomorrow night.

Thursday March 10, 2011- Macbeth at the Globe
Tonight was incredibly exciting because I got to see Macbeth at the Globe Theatre! I was a bit nervous because: 1. I was going with the Superintendent of the London Metropolitan Police 2. I had just met him the night before. 3. He is a good friend of my supervisor’s so I really wanted to make a good impression. I found that all nervousness was needless as he was a perfect gentleman, very interesting to talk to and knew a lot about Shakespeare and the history of the Globe. (And for all you nasty minded people it was NOT a date, as I have already been accused of, he's older than my dad and a friend of my boss's so keep your minds out of the gutter folks) He told me stories about doing the security for the Globe when the Queen came to a show and how they basically had to take it all apart to search for bombs. He also is working on the security for the Royal Wedding and the 2012 Olympics. He said everyone involved wishes that Paris had got to host the Olympics instead of London because it is the biggest security nightmare they have ever had and he plans to retire the day after it is all over. The show itself was great and I especially enjoyed it because it was mostly school kids who got very in to the performance, which was wonderful to see. Though they kept “awww”ing in sympathy when Lady Macbeth was breaking down, so I think they missed the point that she was totally evil but that is ok at least they were in to it! The actors and production team really played up the action in the show by having soldiers repelling down on the stage and pushing their way through the crowds and performing elaborate fight scenes. The supernatural bits were fantastic as they had so many great effects. It was very interactive and, of course, at the Globe! One of the coolest things they had was two body bags on the stage at the beginning, which you kind of forgot about when the soldiers came on and dragged them to the side and then did their lines. Then the witch comes out and does the whole "When shall we three meet again" speech and the two bags sit up! I almost screamed and all the kids did, the witches were in the body bags the whole time and all zombie-esque which was fantastic and freaky. But wait- there's more! As if seeing Macbeth wasn’t enough I found to my surprise I could also go to the after party! I basically felt like the English major equivalent of Cinderella the whole night. Free champagne, all the actors in the play milling about and apparently a bunch of British celebrities according to one person I talked to- not that I knew who anyone was but I guess that is alright; you can’t get nervous if you have no idea if the person you are talking to is famous or not. The party was where the exhibit in the Globe is and I got to go in again and see the exhibit, though this time with a free glass of champagne- too cool. All in all an INCREDIBLE experience, I still can still barely believe it happened. It is all the more incredible because it occurred because I just happened to sit next to and chat with the guest speaker from class that day who just happened to be on the board at the Globe and just happened to have an extra ticket for a show that was ending the next night and I just happened to mention I was studying Shakespeare- CRAZY world!

Friday March 11, 2011
Lindsay and Tara visit! I took them all around today and boy did we WALK. Everywhere. The Globe, London Eye, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, British Museum, National Gallery, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park… needless to say my feet were ready to fall off by the time I got home but it was a great day full of general merriment and jubilant jubilesquing. It is finally starting to feel like spring in London and it was sunny and gorgeous. That night we went out for Indian food, which I love, and it was nice to be with friends from Stonehill when I have been away from there for so long.

Saturday March 12, 2011
Dr. Rogers invited me over for dinner tonight, which was very nice of her. She lives in Putney which I really liked; it felt more like the country in the area where she lived even though we were still in the city. She made meatloaf, which I learned was an American thing because all the other people there were British and told me that she was the one who introduced them to it. It was delicious and great to have a taste from home. I never thought I would actually miss something like meatloaf- go figure.

Sunday March 13, 2011
This morning I had my first official English breakfast, which was delicious. I still find it odd that there are baked beans involved but I suppose if you can eat them for dinner why not breakfast… I also tried Black Pudding. Which I found out right before I took a bite was pig’s blood though it looked like sausage. To my credit I ate it anyways; as long as I didn’t think too much about what I was eating it wasn’t half bad! I guess we eat most of the other parts of the pig to put it in perspective so why not a little bit more... :S

Monday March 14, 2011
I am starting to realize that I have not really been talking about my internship at all with all the other exciting things going on so I will give a quick recap of what I doing there right now. I am still working on my final paper, which has ended up being a lot about the Psychology of Terrorism. I am examining terrorism from an individual psychological perspective and a group perspective. I have also recently become interested in the rhetoric of extremist groups, which cropped up a lot in my research, and asked Brooke if it would be acceptable to adjust my topic slightly to include all the new information I have found. She is very flexible and said that this is fine and that we would meet and talk about it in more detail next week. I am also still working on my Terrorist Profile which has grown to about 35 terrorists. I have one officey project where I am trying to scan all her papers and put them on the computer so she can have a paperless office so I've been working on that too. For the Responding to Terrorism course we have to do a group presentation on some sort of biological weapon and how we would inform the public about the threat. My group is doing a presentation about anthrax which I have been researching and found is actually pretty interesting. My portion of the project in particular is about the 2001 anthrax attacks in America and the lessons we can learn from that. I am not too happy when I stumble upon a picture of what someone with anthrax looks like because I am a bit squeamish but besides that I think it will make for an interesting presentation.

Tuesday March 15, 2011: Sherlock Holmes Museum

I got to go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum today at 221 Baker Street ("The most famous address in London") FOR CLASS! Life is good. It was a replica of what they think the house would look like based on the stories. Dr. Watson was sitting upstairs, who I was enormously disappointed to find was NOT in fact Jude Law, nor was RDJ present, but I guess you can't have everything in life. After that our class went to Regent's park which was really really pretty- sunny and spring in London!

Wednesday March 16, 2011: National Theater

Today during class we got to do a backstage tour at the National Theatre which was pretty cool. We saw behind the scenes of the set of Frankenstein, which was playing at the time, learned about the set, costumes, props etc. We saw the workrooms and how they were building the sets for the upcoming shows. Our guide was knowledgeable and nice and all in all it was a cool tour!

Tonight my Theatre class went and saw the play Frankenstein at the National Theatre, which was an adaptation of the novel. The set looks much different with light and sound then the empty stage did during the tour. All in all the show WAS INCREDIBLE. The effects were great- very cinematic, the stage amazing, the story was engrossing and they definitely went for the interpretation of the novel where humans made the monster evil. It was graphic, disturbing, enthralling and emotional and my classmates and I talked about it the whole 25 minute walk home which shows that we were affected. I think when you sit back passively and just observe something it clearly does not do much for you and when pressed to have an opinion you will probably respond "it was interesting;" when you can't stop talking, arguing and interpreting and feeling- then it is art.

The National Theatre is right on the Thames and I had some time to kill before the show so I took a few pictures at night- here is one of my favorites!

Friday March 18, 2011: English National Ballet

Alex, another girl in the program from Clark, interns at the English National Ballet and had free tickets to see their performance of "Black and White," which was basically a collection of different dances from different performances the had done it the past. They were amazing and the music was beautiful. And ballet dancers are solid muscle. I went with Alyssa and we chatted with a nice Irish lady who was sitting next to us. She thought we were Canadian because of our "soft accents." Beats the kid who in Ireland who thought I was from Long Island (tad offended, especially because he was American and should know the difference!). All in all cool show!

Thursday March 24, 2011: Comedy Show

Laura got free tickets to a comedy show at the Shaftesbury Theatre called "Comedy Rush" where there were 60 comedy acts in 60 minutes and was nice enough to bring Melanie and I along so it was a Stonehill girls night out! Each comic had one minute to make us laugh, some did it better than others :) All in all it was pretty funny- I have yet to discover what "British humor" means when someone says "oh that is just the British sense of humor;" do we have an "American" sense of humor? I don't think so- I think things are funny or they aren't... but anyways good night!

Saturday March 26, 2011: Brighton!

Today I was up bright and early to catch the train to Brighton! Brighton is a famous seaside town on the south coast of England (in East Sussex). The day started off cloudy but the sun came out eventually and it was very nice! I went with Hannah, Melanie, Christine, Alyssa and Laura and had a great time. We explored the random shops and side-streets where we found a little flea market selling all sort of random things. Then we went to the Royal Pavilion (which we didn't go in, too expensive) then a free museum that had the most random collection of stuff but was cute. Then it was down to the ocean!!! What I learned: the beach there isn't sand but rocks. No in the sense that sand is techincally rocks but actual rocks. Couldn;t be too comfortable to lay on but the beach was still pretty crowded for a not-that-warm-but-still-nice day! We had fresh fish and chips (french fries) for lunch and ate at a table that was basically on the beach- it was delecious!. Then we walked to the pier which had an amusement park on it. There were free chairs so we grabbed 6 and relaxed (or napped allegedly in my case) in the sun for awhile before exploring the rest of the pier. More exploration of the shops then it was back to the train station for the 1.5hr ish ride back to London. Long day and great day- glad I went! Rocky beachFish and Chips!

Royal Pavillion