KING LEAR

Morning all! And don't argue with that, because 3 in the morning is still technically MORNING. :P As always, writing this post in a rush before I have to get ready to go to the Tower of London.

It feels like ages since I've arrived here... and I guess it as been almost 2 1/2 weeks since being in England... but I've already seen so much of London with my class group! Let's see...on Saturday we went to Camden Market! Very touristy but still so cool.



That is probably the worst picture of all time to be taken of Camden Market. Sorry.
So many stands of vendors wanting to sell you stuff!!

"You can touch! Here, try it on!"
"For you special price, only for you!"
"Ah, beautiful girls, it looks beautiful on you. My little model!"
"I'll put it in the dressing room for you to try on."

Haha, yep. Hence why I didn't really touch much so as to prevent the descent of salesmen. But I did buy some stuff! Shhhh! Secret gift stuff! :] And we got absolutely POURED on. So cool! It was raining hard enough that it was causing a problem at the tube station because people didn't want to leave the protection of the building and were blocking the exits. I swear the transit worker almost got out a whip to move the herd out of the station.

After that we rushed over to the National Theater to see Sam Mendes' production of King Lear. Guys, it was INCREDIBLE. Last fall semester I took a whole class on King Lear, so I know the play intimately, and I loved every interpretive decision he made. The costuming was modern militaristic, from somewhere around the 50's or 60's, and the set was incredible. It had a rotating stage that was used geniusly, and a section in the middle that rose up to make a ramp and a platform.

 

The actors were incredible, the way they explained the Fool's disappearance was incredible (during the mock trial, King Lear got caught up in the pretend and madness and beat the Fool, who was playing Goneril, to death. It was so shocking and heart breaking), and the whole thing was just incredible.

 

After King Lear, lots of people came over to watch Brasil v. Chile in our front room. I've never followed soccer (football), but man! That game was intense!

 

 

Then that night we went on a walk around Hyde Park. Don't worry, the sun doesn't set until almost 10pm here. We went up and around the Royal Albert Hall and through some of Hyde Park, then down past Harrods again and got on the tube there to come back.

 

 

Random street. Still gorgeous.

Royal Albert Hall!

 

Prince Albert Memorial. It's HUGE.

 

Harrods all lit up!

 

At the park, we ran into an old man and his terrier and started talking. (For you stranger danger people out there, there were 6 of us, boys and girls, in a public place, and he was very nice.) Like all old men, he told us many stories and was very clever and witty. We played with his dog and had a very nice chat. Overall, everything about this walk was extremely enjoyable and I can't wait to go on another one.

 

Well that was Saturday! Tower of London today! Woo!

 







the British Museum

MUSEUMS. I love them. They're so thought-provoking and incredible. The British Museum is HUGE and has incredible artifacts from all over the world. We didn't get to every exhibit (obviously) and I need to go back soon to see the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. But what we did see was incredible. I took pictures of some of my favorite artifacts:

 

It was just massive inside. All the natural light illuminating everything was incredible too.

 

Sorry, the glass glare is pretty bad on this one...its the inside of a sarcophagus.



Isn't it humbling to know that these were real, living, breathing people with lives and families and heart break and humor and feelings?

That's a beaded dress-overlay for a woman.



 

Here's Cleopatra. Yes, THE Cleopatra!! I didn't even know we had her mummy or anything. WOW. I turned away from one display and BAM, there she was. It's amazing.

 

 

Mummified cats. There was also a falcon and alligator.

 

Tortoise shell instrument for Kaitlin.

Also (below) and snake bracelet. For Kaitlin. :D

 

These are small, maybe the size of a bouncy ball? And the detail is amazing!!

 

Mosaic fish. For Kaitlin.

 

I guess I really like small trinkets. The detail is just so beautiful and skilled. I'm surprised I didn't take any pictures of perfume bottles. I guess I was too busy admiring them to take pictures. :D For whatever reason, I really love perfume bottles and (conversely) warrior armor.

 

The next pictures are from the watch exhibit, which may be my favorite part of the museum so far. Watches just so perfectly exemplify humanity and our scientific, beauty-appreciating, compulsive minds.

 

The above watch hit musical notes instead of a single lead prong. :D Pretty amazing!

Awww! Another perfume bottle situation. Too busy looking to take pictures of more, I guess. But that's a good thing, right?

But I did take some videos!

 

 

 

Ya! SOOO cool, huh?!

Below is more British collections. And Brittany gracefully touching that guy's face. :D

 

Below is Moliere. I've read some of his plays, so it was cool to see this.

 

More flowers! Hey, I warned you. But aren't these awesome?!

 

 

After almost 3 hours at the museum, we headed to Pizza Express for lunch and made our way back to the flat. I've been happily laying here for 2 hours, catching up on writing and reading. I've been a tourist for 2 weeks, constantly on my feet and walking around, so it feels good to relax for a bit.

 

Ah...fun. Munching on dark chocolate digestives (cookies) and looking at these pictures and remembering how amazing it was is fun. :D

Clifford's Tower and Museum! (Day 2)

Fan acquired! Hopefully it will help lighten our room a bit.

For the last couple days I have started the amazing tradition of waking up at 5:30am. Additional fun British fact: being this far north, the sun is up that early. Frustratingly, I'm very light sensitive in the mornings, so I guess I'll be waking up with the sun from now on. Lovely...

Ok! Let's turn back time and do day two of York!

Ahem...but first an important interruption about Day 1. On our drive up to York we stopped at a Costco.

 Slightly different--different brand names and products--but they still sold hot dogs, pizza, and smoothies. But only mango smoothies, which were good but also not so good at the same time. It's hard to describe. There was a weird mid-taste to it.

 

Anywho! Day 2!

Our cottage came fully furnished, and it had books! Look at this treasure I found on a shelf in the hallway! :}
 

 

So Day 2 we went to Clifford's Tower and the museum right next to it. Unfortunately, I'm an idiot and somehow DIDN'T take a picture of the tower itself (or it got lost somehow), so I apologize. Kaitlin took a good one. But here's the museum through a slot-window in the tower! 

 

 

Here's a view of the inside of the tower from where the wood roof attached/upper walkway.

 

 

Various views from the top. You can see all of old York from up there. It's pretty spectacular.

 

 

 Kaitlin....what is that face? :D

 

Then that night, after the museum (which I didn't take any pictures in there...I guess) we were walking along the Shambles and saw a man completely dressed in a black suit, cape, and top hat. Turns out, he leads a ghost tour, which we decided to do and it ended up being a series of not-so-scary ghost stories and gags. :D It was great because he kept picking on dad because he was so much taller than everyone else.

That concludes day two! I think I'll follow this post up with another one about today. Keep everything separated and tidy. :D

Day 1?

I've been wrestling with how to effectively blog about the last two weeks. Should I do one massive, summarizing post? Should I do it day-by-day with details? Do I drag it out or stay up typing to catch up to now?
ARHGHAREHAGSLDKFJ.
Its actually pretty stressful for me. But this blog isn't supposed to be stressful! It's supposed to be fun! So I'm just going to write until its time for bed and post whatever I get finished. :] Good? Good. No judging organization or writing quality.

THE FLIGHT

Ah, flying. What an enjoyable and uncomfortable thing. I love traveling, and I have the infinite ability to sit for hours at a time, so planes aren't that bad. But at the same time, sitting in one confined seat for basically a day takes its toll. But in-flight movies and food and candy and music and books makes all that bearable. Let's start from the beginning!

My wonderful mother made me this hedgehog pillowcase in secret and surprised me with it. It is now among my most beloved possessions.

 

Me and Marissa in the car on the way to the airport. What a bunch of sillies...

 

My bag weighed EXACTLY 50 pounds. Booyah. Had to take a picture. The real trick will be not being over 50 pounds on the way back....

 

Mmmmm....the biscoff cookies they give you on the plane. :D

Fun happenstance on the plane--to JFK, a guy a row in front of me was watching the latest Wolverine movie on his iPad. :D Unfortunately, he turned it off half way through. Very inconsiderate.

I think this picture of Marissa accurately portrays how we were feeling one delayed flight, long customs line, 2 HOUR wait for a rental car later. A little crazed. Clearly sleep deprived. Choosing to be loopy instead of homicidal.

 

One 4 hour car ride later on the wrong side of the road and after several round abouts (or as Dad's phone says, "traffic circles"), we finally reached our cottage! And this is the street in was on! DEATHLY quiet neighborhood, I might add. Like, you feel like you should whisper outside because everyone's windows are open.

Random fact: the British don't believe in window screens, apparently.

 

....Dang! I don't have any photos of the interior! Just a video and a panorama thing. For the sake of time, I won't upload those now. Sorry! When I have time, I will. Hopefully that won't become a theme on this blog.

 

Well I think I'll end there for tonight! Tomorrow morning I have to get up before 7 to go grab a fan from Mom and Dad's hotel room. :D And tomorrow we're going to the British Museum! Oh, today we walked through Harrods and walked across the Thames to the British Film Institute building where we'll be watching lots of old films. :D So cool! Oh! And this frozen yogurt truck was there!

 

 

Cool, right?! We're going to go back one afternoon and walk down the river while we eat our Snog fro-yo. :D

 

Goodnight!