Last Week of the Program

Sunday I slept until noon after the debacle that was Fabric and was awoken by Molly coming to get me to go to Spitalfields Market, yet another open-air market with stalls of clothing, jewelry, ethnic food, and various other goods. We had a late start since we were waiting for two girls who had partied pretty hard at Fabric and thus were not the quickest to revive but set off we did. Spitalfields was definitely the least crowded of the markets I have been to and had a lot of really cool stuff but once again, nothing really caught my fancy. Well, except for the most beautiful vintage dress I have ever seen, but it was 250 pounds so that was no use. I am just really bad at shopping, especially in a different currency system, so came away without anything again. It was a fun trip anyway and turned out to be my only venture away from Palace Court that day. I needed the rest of the time to continue recovering from Fabric and to get things left undone accomplished.

Monday I resolved to get back out there and get things done. I left in the morning for the Museum of London which is exactly what it sounds like, a museum about London and its history. Snore. Seriously, I love history, but this was without a doubt one of the most boring museums I have ever been to in my life. Not well laid out and very dry. Plus a large section of it was off limits due to construction and there was a large group of schoolchildren. Shudder. Schoolchildren. Shudder. It had some items of interest such as an ancient lion skull (yes, there used to be lions in Britain, who knew?) and Oliver Cromwell's funeral mask but it looked like the best stuff was in the under construction portion. Lametastic. After that disappointment, I headed for the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666. Then when I got there, I decided I didn't really want to pay the 2 pounds to go up to its balcony and thus I looked, took a few pictures, and then left. I had some time until my oral exam at City but I got turned around a bit trying to reach my next museum so I ended up foregoing anything else and going early to print train tickets and such for Germany. The exam was basically just me talking to my academic adviser and internship coordinator about my internship and academic paper. No big deal at all. Just chit-chat really. I headed home for a quick dinner before heading to the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre where I had tickets for The Importance of Being Earnest.

I immediately fell in love with Regent's Park as I walked through it to the theatre. It has a boating lake and gazebos. I have a thing for gazebos. I also loved the theatre when upon entering it was decked out in twinkly lights. I also have a thing for twinkly lights. It reminded me so heavily of the Tippecanoe Amphitheater that I got nostalgic for bygone summer days at Civic. The show was very good too. Well, Act I not so much. I didn't think much of the actors playing Algernon and Jack and they were the vast majority of the first act so I didn't enjoy it much. Everyone in the first act just seemed to know they were performing Wilde and that it should be funny so they played everything more over the top than was necessary. They seemed to be telling us the audience how we should react rather than letting us react how we pleased. Luckily, the second act, really Act II and III, introduced Cecily who was my favorite performer of the evening. She overdid nothing and was a breath of fresh air to the proceedings. She and Gwendolyn also had great chemistry together, bouncing off of and complementing each other well. I don't know what it was but everyone seemed to do better in the second act than in the first, even Jack and Algernon, so the evening ended with delight rather than boredom. Though I still had qualms about the scenic design. Who thought it was a good idea to require the crew to "plant" dozens of roses on the stage floor during intermission and then take them up again between Act II and III without an intermission? Seriously, it was like the painfully long scene changes from Number the Stars all over again. The theatre also made us exit a different way than we came in so I had no idea how to get back to the Tube station. Luckily, I just followed the crowd and ended up back there anyway. Yay for lemming logic!

Tuesday was bad. I slept until 4 pm. I know, shameful, I agree but I swear it felt like I had mono again I was so tired and lacking in energy. I tried to wake up at 8 am and noon but both attempts were miserable failures. My body just gave out on me and would not let me do what I wanted until it had its proper rest. I felt much better when I finally did get up and shower and grocery shop. Plus people were going out that night and my intense sleep session left me ready and raring. We went to Sports Cafe because it was student night so we got in for free and got really cheap drinks. Some people chose to join a beer pong tournament but I opted for the dance floor instead. I had the time at Sports that I expected to have at Fabric. Great music, enough room to breathe and dance, and company to keep away the creepers. Unfortunately, a few unavoidably got in but they were dispatched as quickly as possible. I also had an interesting conversation with a Brazilian through my notebook and pen since we couldn't actually hear each other. Poor Tiago could hardly speak or write English anyway but he was nice and not creepy. It was 2 am before the others decided we needed to leave. I could have stayed and danced longer but having traveled back alone in the middle of the night before, I did not wish to repeat the experience. Really fun night at Sports and way cheaper as well.

Wednesday sucked because it was our final exam day. Everyone was studying or attempting to study all day because of course none of us had before then. This being the last hurdle to complete freedom made it all the harder for us to complete. By 8 pm, it was indeed done and time to sleep to prepare for...

CHAWTON!!!!! For those of you who don't know what Chawton is, it is the location of the Jane Austen's House museum where Jane lived when all of her novels were published and where she wrote my personal favorite, Emma. I have been looking forward to this trip since before the program even started. I missed the 10 o'clock train by a few minutes (FML) so I had to wait in Waterloo station for the 11 o'clock. Tres boring seeing as the only thing to do was go into the 50% off sale at Monsoon and marvel at how 50% off can still be so expensive. Then when I went through the ticket gate the guy asked me where I was going. I said Alton (the nearest train station to Chawton) but I said "al-ton". The ticket guy gave me a dirty "you American" look and snootily corrected me that it was "uhl-ton". What the fuck ever dude.

An hour later, I was in Jane Austen country. The Jane Austen's House website said to take a bus and then walk but after picking up a map, I figured I would just walk since it really wasn't that far. This meant I got to walk through Alton town and I liked it. It felt somewhat like Penzance in that it was small town and pretty but minus the ocean. I found Chawton with little difficulty and came upon Jane Austen's House before I even knew that is what it was. I entered through the shop, though nothing caught my fancy, and watched the intro video surrounded by stills from Jane Austen films. Jane Austen's House is a nice sized cottage with a courtyard, garden, and bakehouse. It was gloriously sunny so I sat in the garden for a bit before entering the actual house. I got to see the table where Jane Austen wrote all of her novels. I about hyperventilated with excitement and coolness. It was a very interesting place with costumes from Jane Austen film adaptations, Jane artifacts, and displays about her novels as well. You really could imagine her life even if being surrounded by senior citizens and wall plaques dampened the effect somewhat. Feeling I had paid proper homage, I decided after leaving the museum to not go to Winchester, where she is buried, but rather explore Alton further before boarding the train.

This turned out to be an excellent idea as I had a delicious meal and found an awesome secondhand book store. My late lunch was a farmhouse burger (a burger topped with a fried egg and bacon), chips (with salt, pepper, and vinegar of course), and a chocolate milkshake (my first since coming to Britain). Well worth the splurge of pounds for it. Thanks to the Alton Secondhand Bookstore, my collection of Charlotte Bronte novels is complete as I purchased The Professor there in addition to Child Star, the autobiography of Shirley Temple (50p!), and Classic Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories.

I caught an earlier train back to London, got myself an enormous Diet Coke from McDonald's, and then perused ANOTHER discount bookstore until it was time to enter the Old Vic for The Winter's Tale. The Old Vic is an excellent theater and one of the few that has managed not to burn down at some point or other. My seat in the dress circle was 19.50 because a safety rail was partially in my sight line. This safety rail was a skinny bar of metal that obscured my view not a bit. The people right in front of me had to pay 45 pounds for their seats and we really had the same viewpoint. Even the pillars I doubt would have obscured a view too much considering how small they were. So the lesson is, when going to the Old Vic, always pick a seat with something "in your way" because it likely will make no difference and you get a cheap ticket. Yay!

I had never seen The Winter's Tale performed but I knew the story and had used a monologue from it to audition on several occasions. It was very good, as evidenced by my tears at the end of the first act and the second. It takes good theater to make me cry whereas any old film or TV show can manage to do it. The cast was made up of a company of British and American actors, including Ethan Hawke, all of whom are distinguished in the profession. For all this, I was not as impressed by some as I would have thought. Leontes was not very good in my opinion nor was Perdita, Florizel, or Polixenes. Paulina was truly amazing as was Hermione and Ethan Hawke was hysterical besides apparently being able to sing country music well. The most exciting thing for me though was Antigonus who turned out to be played by none other than Headmaster Charleston from Gilmore Girls! I was probably the only one in the theater whose celebrity awe was for him rather than Ethan. All in all, a most enjoyable evening at the theater, even if it was 3 hours and pouring rain when we exited the theater.

Today is not really worth mentioning beyond that I fruitlessly went shopping and packed. For most people, today is their last day in London or their families are here, so I was in a rather interesting spot. Perhaps I should have done something more notable than visit two Primarks and various too-expensive vintage stores but really I am so tired of touring and especially on my own as most of mine has been. I am SO ready for Jon to be here so I will have someone to tour with me and I can see London afresh through his eyes. His week here will be intense so perhaps I am just resting up for that rather than wearing myself out before it even starts. It is just getting to that point where you know it is time to go home and you are ready for it. I am ready, after Jon and I's week, to come home. I love America. I love Bloomington. I love my mom. I love my pets. I love London too but it isn't home, though someday I do hope to make it so.