Rachael, Megan and I went to Oxford on February 22nd for a day trip. We caught the train earlier in the morning and spent the day there. We saw the Radcliffe Camera and the University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin which were lovely and unexpected. We turned down a side street and found them. We ate at the Eagle and the Child, an old haunt of the Inklings, including J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the founders of fantasy! Megan was very excited and inside there was a shrine set to their memory. We found the Botanic Garden, which is the oldest one in the country, or so Rachael's guide book told us and took a turn there. Daffodils and crocuses were blooming like there was no tomorrow, all over the established beds of flowers and herbs. We wandered next to Christ Church, where certain scenes from Harry Potter were filmed, but there was a massive line and the entrance fee was a bit ridiculous, so we contented ourselves with viewing it from the outside and then wandering around the grounds. It was an astonishing day, sunshine all day long with hardly any cloud cover. However the countryside marked the recent flooding, as one of the fields in front of Christ Church had turned into a fully fledged marsh, complete with swimming waterfowl.
We visited the Tower of London with our history class on the 25th, first touring the grounds with a guide and then wandering by ourselves through the towers and the exhibit with the crown jewels.
That same day happened to be Megan's birthday, so we went out to Wagamama and then saw Wicked at the Apollo Theatre, which was absolutely fantastic!! Rachael found some really great seats at an affordable price and it was a magical experience. Both Rachael and Megan had already seen it, but they were delighted to be with me for my first viewing. What a beautiful story it was and so harmoniously woven in with the existing story of The Wizard of Oz. I've never really liked the original or the movie for that matter, so Wicked was a revelation.
On the 26th, Wednesday, Rachael and I went with our Architecture class to Rochester. It was a charming town with clear medieval roots. We saw the Norman castle and the Cathedral, and again we were blessed with fantastic weather. We found lunch at a hotel restaurant where Rachael and Pavithra had a ball with the music--straight out of the 80's and 90's, most of them ballads. We had to do a bit of exploration on our own to find an old building, draw it, and then research it for a mini-class presentation. Rachael found a house now dedicated to Dickens and I did mine on Chertsey's Gate, a sight mentioned in one of Dickens' novel. The whole town of Rochester is pretty much a Dickens shrine for his time spent there.
The next day, our Shakespeare class visited The Globe Theatre, which was unfortunately much less inspiring than one would have expected. It took all of us forever to find our meeting point as it was a bit off course. Then we walked for a bit, over the Millennium Bridge which was featured in the 6th Harry Potter movie, and to the Globe. Went on a tour which lasted about 20 minutes and then wandered a bit more with the Professor....
In the meantime, we had an Architecture paper coming up and the English Honors Thesis Application drawing near. We got everything turned in on time, but things got a bit tense. I was also on another job/intern application kick, nothing of which has yielded any positive results yet. Patience...is difficult. And it only gets harder, because we have advising coming up for our senior year, but no schedule of classes released, and no word back yet on our Thesis applications....oh, the nerves!
Anyway.
March 2nd, Megan, Rachael, and I went to SeaLife, the big aquarium here in London. We all needed to get out and do something bcause aside from our classes, we hadn't really gone out to do anything fun or adventurous in the city. We got to watch the staff feed the seahorses (still my favorite sea critter) and there was one ray who was a complete show-off and a diva. It was almost like he was doing tricks for the crowd, flipping and rolling and nearly jumping up on the glass. We had a great time, despite the hordes of screaming children and crappy weather. Saw a man in a Shrek costume on the bridge there. Still don't know why he was dressed up...
On the 4th of March, Rachael and I went with our Theatre class to see "Oh, What a Lovely War," a revival play from the 50's I believe. The seats were in the nosebleeds and it was difficult to see the stage. From the beginning I was nervous with how high up we were and when the lights went out, there was still enough illumination for me to see everything around me. When the war scenes played out, some of the effects included strobe lighting and flashes, as well as canon and machine gunfire noises. I lost it about 20 minutes from the end and dashed out through an emergency exit door, with the assistance of an usher. Apparently I was having a panic attack, so that was interesting. The staff got me some water and escorted me around the building so I could find a quiet place to sit. I hid in the bathroom for a bit, and then got a drink at the bar to wait for Rachael and the rest of them to come out. Hoping that I never have one of those again, because it was awful, in the moment and the following repercussions. I didn't sleep that night for a terrible headache even though I was emotionally and physically wrung out from the panic attack. The next day, I felt even worse because I still had the headache and I was exhausted. Eventually I knocked it out with an assortment of pain meds, but that was a rough couple of days.
The following Thursday, the 6th, we had another theatre performance to attend called Happy Days. It was a Samuel Beckett play and exceedingly surrealistic. This one also had a loud noise featured in it, this horrendous, grating buzz. In the first half, it occurred only at the beginning and end, but in the second it was sporadic, and by the end of it, everyone in the audience was tense. Pretty much it boiled down to the character's rituals as a means of maintaining her sanity while she and her husband were stranded together and she was slowly buried alive in sand--a giant metaphor for any number of realities.
My family arrived in London on Saturday the 8th! The next week was a whirlwind, between spending time with them, my classwork, and travelling. We walked along Oxford Street, all the way to the British Museum, which we did not go to, because by the time we finished lunch, everyone looked like they were going to keel over, and I didn't think they'd last in the museum. We met up with them later for dinner at the tapas restaurant near St. Christopher's Place that Rachael and Megan and I discovered earlier in the semester. The following day, we did actually visit the museum and we took lots of fun imitation photos. I also showed them school and we had lunch in Tavistock Square. Afterward, they went back to Oxford St. and did some exploration of the shops there. On Monday, we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and then an exploration of Crouch End and our homes. Tuesday, my family wandered around and bought some souvenirs. Later that evening, we all saw the Lion King at the Lyceum. The puppetry and stage setting were so complex and intricate, and the music was stunning. On Wednesday, the family journeyed to the Tower of London and did some more wandering. The whole week pretty much was wandering endlessly. As for Rachael and I (and Megan), we had a Shakespeare performance: Comedy of Erros, which turned into a weird Cuban interpretation/slapstick humor kind of play. Rachael and I really enjoyed it at times in its ridiculousness, but Megan was pursed lips the whole time. Thursday, the family went on a bus tour to Windsor, Bath, and Stonehenge and they had a packed day with a fun tour guide. On Friday, their final full day in London we + Rachael went to the London zoo and saw all of the animals!!! Saturday morning, I dashed out early to see my family off, and then waited for Rachael, Megan, Tali, and Deborah to meet me at Oxford Street, where we did some serious shopping. Rachael found like four pairs of sandals and fun dresses, as did the rest of us. Pretty clothes happened and eventually we were exhausted and satisfied.
On the 17th of March, we went to see Blithe Spirit, an interesting play about a man who's previous wife comes back from the dead to haunt him and his current wife. We also had a paper for Shakespeare in which we had to write an alternate ending for Measure for Measure, with an explanation for our choices. That was a bit of a struggle for all of us, because no one knew exactly what our professor really wanted with the assignment.
And at this point I shall leave you, because Rachael promised to discuss our next exciting outing, followed by our weekend of blissful boring. Until then!
--Katie
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