Living in London: Week 2

Saturday morning started a bit early, but with good reason:  The Borough Street Market.  Located near the London Bridge, there is endless food of all kinds and ethnicities.  Liz, Heidi and I found everything from German, Greek, Italian, French to desserts, chutneys, breads, dried fruits, cheeses, gluten-free foods, raw cow's milk... it's incredible!  By the time we weaved through market, all three of us had eaten enough free samples and small items to account for lunch.  Delicious!


The next part of the plan was to go watch the changing of the guard.  Apparently, people already know to get there seriously early, except us.  So after watching decked out guards marching into the gate out of sight and listening to Sousa marches phase against the stone of the palace, we decided to try again next time and headed for Trafalgar Square to meet up with Rachel and Brandon.


Not only is Trafalgar Square a beautiful area, but it is home to so many interesting attractions.  Our focus of the day was the National Gallery.  I had one purpose in this vastly beautiful exhibit: find the impressionists.  From what I can remember, I have always been fascinated by impressionists, both musically and visually.  Heidi lead me to Georges Seurat first.  All I could think about was Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim.  Just as Bernadette was finishing her singing in my head, I stumbled upon the Degas room.  Now, it wasn't necessarily that the room was just for Degas' paintings, but it felt that way.  I saw the dancers first (of course) and then rotated to several portraits I had never seen before.  Contrasting the two subjects truly emphasized his love of dancers.  Tearing myself away, I knew there was more to discover.  Van Gogh was next and it was brilliant to see his use of color in person.  Heidi, somehow knowing, brought me two rooms over to Monet's contribution to the era.  There are very few Monet's that don't have beauty within them, even if it's just color, but to see Water-Lilies, Setting Sun in person was breathtaking.


The rest of the day was spent finishing up homework and eating dinner with Rachel, Liz and Heidi that concluded with one of my favorite card games, Euchre (thanks for that David).


We had big plans for Sunday.  Nearly everyone in our program took the train to Cambridge in the hopes of hearing the the King's College Choir, but alas, due to our very own comedy of errors, we missed the first train and ended up on the local train to Cambridge.  And since the services run like clockwork, 5 minutes late meant no concert for us.  But we did manage to salvage the day.  Cambridge is a bustling town with lots of shopping, an open market and really good food.


Monday brought us back to class and brought me what appears to be a sinus infection.  This should be fun.  Dr. Madsen had us stand and sing O, Beautiful so the entire University Centre could hear.  After class, we dodged over to grab rush tickets to Million Dollar Quartet and came back to pack for our 4th of July picnic in Hyde Park.  We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.  We had roast chicken, fruits, cheeses, potato salad, fresh steamed spinach and several desserts.  America should be proud!


On the way home, we got distracted by a sale at Mango -yea, shopping- and got home with just enough time to get ready for the show.  Somehow, we managed to get front row seats.  This was such a blessing beyond how cool it was to be so close.  NO ONE else in the audience had as much fun as we did.  The story is based on one fluke evening where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis ended up in the recording studio together with a bit of help from Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records.  The music is already good: Blue Suede Shoes, Great Balls of Fire, See You Later Alligator, Folsom Prison Blues, but the performers sang and played remarkably well while remaining completely in character.  They had us clapping and dancing (British theatre-goers seem to clap on all the beats and they don't dance) and even though we were alone, we were having the most amazing time.  After the show, we went to the stage door.  We were the only ones, and these performers were fantastic.  They had no idea how to react.  We took pictures with anyone who wasn't freaked out by us being there (not the norm to have fans at the door) and talked to most of them.  They thanked us for being such a great audience.  What a great compliment!  We stopped at a pub on the way home since none of us could even dream about getting to bed, yet.


Tuesday confirmed my suspicions about having a sinus infection.  It definitely proved difficult to focus in class, but I'm not going to miss any classes.  After class, I stayed in for the day after a quick trip to Boots for medicine.  My awesome roommate, Heidi, made sure I was taken care of and even helped me cook a yummy salmon in mustard sauce followed by a viewing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1.  Thank you, Heidi!


Our class spent Wednesday at the University of London.  They presented their recent research and discussed the parallels between our schools and the UK schools.  It was interesting to see the stages of research, and I was quite fascinated by a study on empirically measuring the beauty of the human voice.  It is truly crazy how people perceive voices.  But, I will stop geeking out.  My day after that was quite uneventful.  Still sick, I had to skip my Scottish dance class, but at least I got my homework done.


Thursday's class specified the differences in types of data collection and research.  It my seem boring to some, but knowing where we have come from and where we are now has so much to do with research, you must understand my interest.  


This day, 7/7/11, will go down in history as the end of an journey.  Sick or not, I fully intended on being at least present for part of that imprint.  This day was the premier of the last Harry Potter movie.  10 years of our lives have been spent on the movies alone.  Hours have been devoted to reading in a culture built on TV and media.  And on the this day, I was in Trafalgar Square.  I am not the type to enjoy standing around hoping I see something for hours with no guarantee.  But, we did get a good look at the spectacle of it all.  After that, we ate a wonderful lunch at the Crypt below St. Martin in the fields, came up for one last look and went home to watch it live online, on the couch with snacks and personal space.  


After some cajoling to each other to get our work done, Heidi and I finish a bit of work and headed to... you guessed it, Wagamama's.  Heidi hadn't been yet, and in my defense, I, at least, ordered something different this time.  Jen and Brock met us there and then it was back to work to prepare for the last day of Dr. Madsen's class.  


Things I'm not exactly excited about in the next few days: last day of Dr. Madsen's class (it was just too short) and comps.


Things I am looking forward to: seeing Lend Me a Tenor tomorrow night or a concert at St. Paul's, eating dinner out, visiting another market Saturday morning and... leaving for Dublin and Edinburgh Saturday night!!