Snow Day

I woke up kind of late so I didn't eat breakfast before church today. I also didn't really look outside before I walked out the front door. Something felt different about the street from when we got back last night. The difference was that there was snow on the cars and falling from the sky! Yes. SNOW. I ran back in and got my camera and took a couple pictures while I walked to church (picture 1 and 2). It is insane that just three days ago I wore shorts. Weather just doesn't make sense. So I went to church which wasn't all that exciting. Church was really empty today. I don't know what the deal was but it was weird. There were very few kids screaming or talking. The same little boy from Easter was there but he sat a couple row in front of me and to the right so I couldn't see him very well. :-(

I got back from church and ate breakfast/ lunch. Then I read from a book for our Islam class that we have to do a review on. I was reading while laying in my bed because there really isn't anywhere else to do it here. That was a bad idea. I eventually fell asleep for a good hour or two. I was really tired from only getting about six hours of sleep last night but I would have rather not napped. Oh well. Then I went on the computer and typed up all of my journal entries for Art History. We were supposed to do them as we went but I didn't so I had to catch up now. It isn't due for two weeks though. That was about my whole night. I did ten entries. I made dinner in the middle of typing them up. I bought the cheap pasta but some nice spaghetti sauce for once. It was a carbonara sauce with pieces of panchetta in it. So good. It was nice having a sauce that wasn't tomato based for once. So yeah, that's about it. I just did homework for most of the day.

It's crazy looking back at the last few days and all the stuff I have done. I think it was good to just sit around and not go out. The Olympic torch passed through London today as some of you might be aware of. I didn't go out and see it because it was cold and snowing. I also didn't see it because it passed by Notting Hill Gate (the closest it came to where I live) while I was in church plus I just wasn't that interested in the spectacle. It sort of was a once in a lifetime experience but I just didn't want to go through the trouble today. Also, Mom e-mailed me a picture of her in her hostel room that I mentioned before (the really tiny one). I thought it would be nice to share with people (picture 3). I hope everyone had nice Sunday!

Bon soir!

All the World's a Stage

So originally I was going to do my last Italy post tonight after I went to that TV show taping or whatever. Turns out I did not do either of those. The person I was going to the TV show taping with never came and got me and I ended up sleeping from 7:30 to 11:30. Haha, oops. I was really tired all day.

This morning I woke up at 7 and got ready to walk to the Globe Theatre (picture 1) which is about 4 miles away. Vanessa and I walked there. The morning light was really pretty. We walked by Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tate Modern. Now that's a list of London attractions! It was fun to walk and it felt good. Our tour and presentation at the Globe was our class for the day. That is really cool. Our tour guide is an actor at the Globe and he was really good. I thought he was energetic and funny and kept us involved. I was never bored. He talked about how the theatres in London started and what life was like as an actor in Shakespeare's time. Like I said, very informative and fun. We did a scene from Romeo and Juliet. I was the friar. He was showing us how all the directions and cues were in the words of the play. No stage directions necessary really. It was the scene were Romeo is going crazy after he kills Tybalt and nurse comes to visit the Friar and Romeo. It brought me back to ninth grade where me, Matt, Andrew, and Nick did a scene from R & J.

After that, we went into the theatre itself which was really cool. Smaller than I thought it would be. Also the stage was more elaborate than I thought it was going to be (picture 2). More art and carving than I imagined. Our tour guide explained the thatched roof and about the history of the Globe (picture 3). It was interesting to me that an American visiting London and looking for the Globe was the one who ended up getting it rebuilt 11 years ago. We walked behind the stage doors and then walked out on the stage and it was a really cool feeling stepping out and imagining all those people (max capacity 1,700) looking back at you. That's the difference between the Globe and other theatres. At the Globe, the actors and really see the audience and all of their faces. Scary. I really enjoyed the tour.

After that I walked to Trafalgar Square and ate lunch on the steps in front of the National Gallery. Amazing view down the street to Big Ben (picture 4). Plus it was partly sunny which was really nice. After lunch, I walked around the West End killing time until The Pirates of Penzance started. I never come to West End so it cool to explore Chinatown and the theatre district and Soho. Lots of places to eat and very commercialized. I saw 4 different McDonald's.

Pirates of Penzance (picture 5) is an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan (two English dudes) and was written in the Victorian era. An operetta is like a cross between a musical and an opera. There are some lines that are not really a song but are sung. There is just plain dialogue. Plus there are songs. I was incredibly tired during the play.. Plus we were in the last room on the floor so part of our view was obstructed by the balcony (the top half of the stage was gone). I wasn't that interested in the play. Gilbert and Sullivan poked fun at something different in every operetta they wrote. This one poked fun at the army and the police (some keystone cops action). Parts were funny but other parts were sung in an opera voice and I just couldn't understand what they were saying. Especially the lead woman singer. Ugh. It was a matinee and there were A TON of older people there. I was still glad we got to go just to get a flavor of what theatre was like 130 years ago and to see what an operetta was.

For those counting, that was 3 theatre experiences (The Vertical Hour, Pirates of Penzance, and the Globe) in less than 24 hours. Crazy. After the play, I walked back to the flats. I dinked around on the computer reading sports stuff then went into my room and decided to "rest my eyes" for a couple minutes. As I said, that turned into 4 hours of sleeping. Oh well. I felt I needed it so I don't mind. Then I came down and am writing this. I don't have any plans for tomorrow as of yet. We'll see what I end up doing. I was thinking British Museum but who knows. Have a wonderful day!

Cheers!

Je suis fatigué

I was really tired just about all day so I never got around to doing my posts about Scotland. I will get them up tomorrow. It was a really fun trip. My two favorite parts were the East Sands and Arthur's Seat, those will be explained.

Um, what else? I was going to go over to my cousin Sonya's house today but one of her son's was not feeling well so that is going to happen another time. I hope he gets feeling better. I really wanted to go but in a way I was kind of glad that I didn't. I ended up napping from 2-6. I only had 40 pages left of Gods and Generals so I started to read and immediately fell asleep. Haha, oops. Its ok though. I needed it. I only got 3 hours of sleep on the bus last night.

I went to church today too. Rachelle had not gotten back from Ireland so I went alone. It was kind of weird to not have her there. Most of the other cast of characters were at church though. All the kids were there too (unlike Ash Wednesday). I think I saw with my own eyes about 10-12 kids crying. That doesn't include all the ones I heard crying. Crazy. I kept up our tradition of going into Whole Foods after church and just browsing for a few minutes and then leaving. Weird thing to do I know but it's fun to see all the weird food they have there. Then I came back, ate some lunch and went to pick up my pictures from Sainsbury's. Tomorrow I will start scanning some of them in and add them to my previous posts. More details when I actually do it. I also dropped off my cameras from Scotland. They will be done on Tuesday so pictures will come then or if I can get Vanessa's earlier.

So I napped after getting my pictures and then finished the book. I really liked Gods and Generals. It is historical fiction about the first half of the civil war. I hadn't read anything about the civil war in a long time. It was funny hearing about some of the battles and officers and having my memory jogged a little. I wish I had some of my books here. For those who don't know, I was obsessed with the civil war in junior high. I was hungry after finishing the book so I made dinner, shell noodles with onion and garlic tomato sauce. I also had a little garlic bread thing which was just amazingly good. For dessert, chocolate mousse. All in all, a very delicious dinner.

It feels good to be back here after being on the bus and sleeping in the big hostel rooms. I know it was only 4 nights (after the program I am going to be doing that for 5 weeks, yikes) but it was still nice to be back to a place I am familiar with. I have a bunch of stuff to do before Wednesday: freak out about not having my camera yet, get a bunch of books to read in Italy, do the posts about Scotland, read more about Italy, do homework, miss everyone back home a ton. That's a long list. That's all for now.

Happy Chinese New Year!