The End!

On the top deck of the boat at our end-of-term river cruise

      Classes are done. End-of-term parties are done. Seemingly-endless evaluation forms are done. The first goodbyes have been said! I leave London on Monday morning and am quite literally counting down the hours (33, fyi). And as of this afternoon, all of the necessary arrangements for my trip have been checked off the list.
      I just spent 14 weeks in London, studying Monet and Turner by standing in front of original Monets and Turners, seeing more than 30 theatre and music shows, exploring an enormous city full of everything you can imagine, and living independently in a beautifully awkward flat with an amazing group of people. (And, and, and.) And now I'm going to spend three weeks traveling in Hungary, Croatia, and Italy with my boyfriend, before I go back home and have summer in Portland working a sweet part-time internship for the symphony.
      The only two coherent thoughts in my brain:
       1. How did I get this lucky??
       2. Helllllllllllll yes. :)

Travel Plans

I just confirmed my travel plans for when classes end! I have 18 days between when I have to move out of my flat and when I fly home on May 3rd. I'll be flying from London to meet up with Nik (who is currently in Germany and heading towards the Czech Republic and Poland) in Budapest on April 16th. We'll be spending a week (give or take) in eastern europe, ending up in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and then going to Italy for a little more than a week. I have about a million things I want to see in Italy, starting in northern Italy (Verona, Milan, the Lakes District, etc) and working my way down through Tuscany and ending in Rome. Now that I finally have a framework plan figured out, I'm so excited! I've got a rail pass that lets me go anywhere in 23 European countries and not nearly enough time (or money) to see them all, but it's going to be an amazing trip.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Lake Como, Italy

Anyone who has traveled in Southeastern Europe or Italy! Where should I go and what should I see (on a very limited student budget)? Especially helpful would be specific suggestions, i.e. restaurants, attractions, museums, hiking trails, etc. Thank you!

And also starting a countdown to arrival in my beloved Portland: 27 days!

Wales!

      Wales is now one of my favorite places on the planet. I had a list of about ten places I wanted to see and only two days to spend there - so instead of trying to pack things in, Nik and I chose to just go one place in the countryside and have a nice weekend absorbing some vitamin D and relaxing. And. It. Was. Blissful.
      I get so tired of constant big-city London, and breaks to places like St. Ives, Ireland, and Scotland have been really refreshing. But Wales was the antithesis of big city - green fields as far as you can see, tiny villages, friendly people, affordable costs, and at night more stars than I've ever seen in my life. It was such a welcome change, I wanted to buy a house right there and never leave.
      We took the train down from Liverpool to a little town called Chepstow near the Welsh-English border. We picked Chepstow because it was near Tintern, a spot I'd been wanting to visit for ages, and because I stumbled across the most adorable and charming B&B, the Willowbrook Guesthouse, online and desperately wanted to go there. That night when we arrived in Chepstow everything was closed, so we got some groceries and took a cab to our B&B, the Willowbrook Guesthouse, about 2 miles outside the town. We walked up to the B&B, met our host who was just as friendly and bubbly in person as she was on the phone, and went up to our room. The B&B was absolutely everything I had hoped it would be. Our room looked out towards a giant open field with a little brook running through it and all sorts of things growing. The room itself was big and comfy, it even smelled good. The little kitchenette in our room didn't have an oven, so we microwaved the chicken pot pie we'd bought, stirred in our frozen peas and corn, and turned it into an interesting sort of creamy chicken soup... ish. It was dinner if you didn't think too hard about it, and we sat eating it and staring out the window at the amazing number of bright stars (and Jupiter and Venus) we could see from our bed. And giggling at the perfection of it all (more me than Nik, admittedly. But he liked it too).

The view out our window

From our landing, looking down at the breakfast room

       The next morning we had a delicious breakfast, walked into town, and took a bus to Tintern. Tintern is a tiny town at the base of Tintern Abbey,  a ruined monastery which has foundations dating back to the early 12th century. I have wanted to go there for years because my favorite poem is William Wordsworth's Lines Written On A Hill Above Tintern Abbey. The poem tells of the beauty and serenity of the area and the view of the Abbey, and it had me completely captivated from the first time I read it. When the bus turned the corner around a hill and all of a sudden the Abbey was right there in front of me, I got all goosebumpy - the kind when you can't believe something is actually happening, it's all too perfect that it's overwhelming. Nik pulled out a copy of the poem and handed it to me right then and I just started crying and laughing because I was so happy. Boyfriend points to you, Nicholas!

       We spent the entire day basically just lounging in the sun and staring at the Abbey. The picnic tables of the Anchor Pub, right next to the Abbey, became home. We had a cider at the Anchor, walked along the Wye River for a bit, went back to the Anchor for another cider and then wandered through the Abbey itself. And then went back to the Anchor for another cider. Lots of liquid calories that day, but it was ok because we found that in the middle of nowhere, nobody takes cards except the Anchor, and therefore liquid plus the granola bars in my backpack were the only options.

      Walking around inside the Abbey was a completely surreal and beautiful experience. It's now entirely overrun by wildlife. They had removed the ivy from the stone to preserve it, but it was carpeted with grass and birds were roosting in the windows. The sky through the holes was perfectly blue and I couldn't help but think it was prettier than any stained glass. It was still a temple, but now like a temple to nature. Somehow the juxtaposition made a very profound statement for me. Sitting in the grass, leaning against the stone wall, and reading Wordsworth's poem now ranks among my top five most amazing moments of my life. Definitely the highlight of my semester abroad. I can't explain why or how, it just was everything I had imagined it to be and more and I'll never forget it. We took the last bus back to Chepstow, got some sandwiches, and went to catch our train back to London... and we missed it. I blame Wales for being so pretty, rather than us being stupid. But we misjudged by ten minutes and I cannot express how happy I was not to have to go back home. So we called to see if our room was still available and walked the two miles to the Willowbrook. On the way we stopped and sat in the middle of a field and watched shooting stars. You could not have written a script for this.

       The next day we wandered around Chepstow, taking a long walk through the field behind our B&B and discussing the merits of buying a bit of farm land and growing our own food. Screw a performance career, I'm gonna raise chickens instead. But, alas, we eventually got on a train and made our way back to London in time for my evening politics class. First things I heard when I walked into class: "You're alive!" and "Woah, you're a little bit tan!" Can you believe it???

Liverpool

      Nik and I went to Liverpool to see John Lennon's and Paul McCartney's childhood homes. We had a tour booked to spend an hour inside each house, and that was the only thing we knew about or had planned. Anyone who knows me may be surprised that I actually went into a situation willfully unprepared (not my usual style) - but discovering the cool things to see and do as we went turned out to be really fun. We basically spent two days exploring and visiting everything Beatles-related we could find.
      I grew up listening to my dad's music so I knew quite a few Beatles songs. I knew that they were a big deal in the 60s. But when I first started spending a lot of time with Nik two years ago, it became very clear very quickly that I needed to know more than that - especially after the first time I went with Nik to visit his parents in Boise. Nik and his dad could and do spend entire days in their (amazing, gorgeous) music shrine playing Beatles music together and every other conversation includes a Beatles reference or two. I almost needed notecards to keep up! (A great deal of the 8-hour drive to and from Boise is usually devoted to a Beatles album or two, so I get some serious study time.)
      Here in the UK, though, I've gotten the full story. For my politics class I wrote a paper on the Beatles, outlining their history and analyzing their socio-political influence. I visited Abbey Road Studios and took the infamous picture in the crosswalk. In Liverpool I visited John and Paul's homes, Penny Lane, the Cavern Club, and the John Lennon peace memorial. And the big finish - I saw Paul McCartney perform live at the Royal Albert Hall. So next time I visit Boise, I am all set!

Chinatown

      The train station in Liverpool is beautiful and the area surrounding it is the focal point of Liverpool nightlife - so arriving at 8:00 on a Saturday night, we instantly loved what we saw. We walked part-way to our B&B, just to see what we could see, and then took a cab the last couple miles. Along the way we stopped and talked to a hilarious group of guys outside a pub who were looking for a good baby name. They didn't like Nicholas or Leslie but they were fun to talk to! Once at the B&B I finally gave in and admitted that I was, in fact, really sick. I fell asleep in record time and Nik went out in search of interesting things (aka beer). About 2:30 in the morning our neighbors drunkenly buzzed our room a few times before figuring out they were in the wrong place and we also lost an hour of sleep for the UK's daylight savings that night, so we felt pretty awful the next morning. But we were off to see where the Beatles first began, so it was ok!
      The Beatles' Childhood Homes tour was pretty awesome. Both houses had been restored to how John and Paul would have known them, based on memories and pictures. At each one the caretaker took our pictures outside, took us through the rooms and told stories about what their lives were like, and then let us walk through on our own for a bit. I really enjoyed seeing what it was like - especially when the caretaker at Paul's house told me I was sitting in the very spot where the Beatles sat and sketched out Love Me Do in the back of a biology notebook. That gave me goosebumps. But I think my appreciation was nothing compared to Nik's. He could have died happy right there!

Mendips, childhood home of John Lennon

20 Forthlin Road, childhood home of Paul McCartney

Setliffe Park

    
      After the tour we got lunch and then went to check into our next B&B. It was an old Victorian house which, appropriately, used to be the childhood home of Stuart Sutcliffe, one of the original Beatles from the Hamburg days. It was a beautiful house right on the edge of a huge park a few miles outside the city center. We dumped our stuff, got ice cream cones, and spent the afternoon wandering through the park in the sunshine and walking along Penny Lane. Back at the B&B, we enjoyed a drink on the patio and then walked to Lark Lane (adorable little row of fun shops and restaurants) and splurged on a nice italian dinner and a bottle of wine. After dinner we went into town and went to the Cavern, the club where the Beatles first started playing shows. It turned out to be a hotspot for very drunk mid-life-crisis tourists, but we had a lot of fun singing along to the Beatles cover band guy. And I knew every single song, thank you very much.

      The next day we had the full english at the B&B (baked beans for breakfast is the best idea the Brits ever had), checked out, and went to the waterfront for a last morning in Liverpool. It was still sunny and summery, so we walked into town. We window shopped in Lark Lane on the way so it took us about three hours to get there. At the waterfront we sat on a patio in the sun (theme for the weekend) and shared a pizza - goat cheese, spinach, and sundried tomato, yum. And then went on the ferris wheel at the Albert Docks! It was huge and kind of terrifying, but also awesome. Then, sadly, we had to leave to go catch our train. I really didn't want to leave because we'd had such a great couple days and Liverpool was such a cool and beautiful city. There was a lot more I wanted to see and try out. But I couldn't be too sad because our next stop was an adorable little B&B in the-middle-of-nowhere Wales!

Byebye Liverpool!

   

Last week of classes

My class work in the last two days:
1. Heard a seminar on Sarah Kane, contemporary playwright whose work deals with violence and physical and psychological torture. I.E. eating babies.
2. Saw a stage production of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, a story of teenage ultra-violence, rape, and murder.
3. Heard a seminar on Punch and Judy, the traditional English puppet show which portrays brutality and domestic violence for the sake of humor (the early beginnings of slapstick humor).
4. Studied English atonal music, specifically an atonal opera setting of Punch and Judy, and Peter Maxwell Davies' 8 Songs for a Mad King which portray George III's decline into insanity.
5. Heard a lecture on the brutal Jack the Ripper killings in 1888.
6. Heard a lecture on the Kray Twins, the untouchable professional gangsters who ruled East London in the '60s through blackmail, political corruption, and blatant murder.
I CAN SEE WHY THEY WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO TEACH US ALL THIS STUFF!

In the last two days I've also submitted 40 pages of writing for the end of the term and presented a seminar on avant-garde contemporary playwright Mark Ravenhill. Oh, and had a brief crisis over registering for next term's classes. First final exam tomorrow.
I can tell you that in the last two days I have NOT showered or eaten a regular meal. Ten days left in London and I have no idea what to make of it.

Ramblings

      My laptop has been seriously grumpy in the last two weeks, not connecting to networks and often refusing to turn on at all. For some inexplicable reason, it's being friendly today, so here I am posting an update!
      The last two weeks have been crazy and wonderful. Nik was visiting and we got to do touristy London things and did some traveling as well (perhaps my computer is allergic to him, because it started working soon after he left this morning. Hmm). It's also the peak of the semester for school work, so I've been trying to juggle spending time with him with homework. Not having a computer hasn't helped. But he left this morning and I'm back to the real world.
      Only two weeks left in London. So much pressure wound up inside that sentence! All year I've been hearing and thinking that this semester is the opportunity of a lifetime, a life-changing experience, the best time of my life. And now it's almost over and I feel like I need to live up to that standard. London HAS been amazing. It's been fun and invigorating and overflowing, and I trust that I have been changed by it like I hoped. I'm definitely better at budgeting and spending, cooking, and traveling. I've got a nice little alcohol tolerance growing. And by golly I have finally learned to read analog clocks! Look out, world.
      I guess it's just hard to see the big life-altering differences while I'm still here, as if there's a lens to view it through but I can't reach it yet. Even harder to imagine is going back to school for another year. Living in London, having complete free reign  (and a weekly stipend) has made me want real life even more than before. I want a job and a house and a flower garden and a bicycle. Not the apron and lipstick kind, but the I'm-out-there-living-my life-however-I-want kind. I'm about to register for classes and I find myself unilaterally hating all my choices.  Hello senior project.
      I don't want to stay in London. I'm done with big city for a while, done with honking cars and cigarette butts. But, as much as I miss my friends and family (and food carts) neither am I ready to return home. The beautiful thing is that I have a 3 week trip through Europe planned in between the two!!! That should do the trick. :)

      But anyway. I was updating on the last two weeks, before I went off on a rant. So Nik arrived by train from Glasgow on Friday night. I met him at the station and we went directly to a concert at the Barbican by a group of 3 indie-rock musicians who all work heavily with string orchestration. One of the group was Owen Pallett, which is what drew us in. In the first half of the program, each of the three premiered a classical orchestral work. All very cool, very modern pieces. In the second half, the three and some others formed a strings/electronics/percussion band and basically jammed for two hours. It was incredible music and an amazing concert! We spent the rest of the weekend taking it easy, walking around London, celebrating St. Patrick's Day with my flatmates, and cooking delicious food. Nik got a random craving to make homemade bread, so he bought himself three different kinds of flour and an assortment of ingredients, and went to town making up his own recipe. I think we ate about five loaves of homemade bread in those first couple days.
      Monday-Thursday I had work, classes, and a big load of homework. We spent free time at my favorite pub, the Builders Arms. We also spent an afternoon at Abbey Road Studios, soaking in the aura of the Beatles and countless other recording artists. We took the picture in the crosswalk, of course, along with another 150 other awkward tourists. We ended up spending two hours just sitting nearby watching the parade of people posing and walking in funny ways, pigeon-toed or arms swinging unnaturally, or making ridiculous faces. And the long lines of angry cars honking at them. World-class people watching!

     We ended the week by celebrating my dear friend Irene's birthday with her. On Friday we power-toured Central London, hitting a long list of must-see spots. It was really fun to take Nik around and show him the city. That night we saw The Shins, which would have been really really awesome... except for that I got the flu about an hour before it started. Of course we went anyway, and the parts when I wasn't puking in the bathroom were great!
      On Saturday I pretended I wasn't sick and we set off on a long-weekend trip. First we took a train up to Liverpool and spent two days exploring the city and the Beatles highlights, and then came back down to a little town on the Welsh-English border called Chepstow for two days.
      I'm going to write separate posts for Liverpool and Wales, so this one doesn't get too unwieldy. There's too much to tell to fit it all in!

Catching Up

What a crazy week it has been! Gonna need the EU to bail me out of my sleep debt, please. Since my last post...
1. I saw the worst opera production in the world from the very highest back row of the Royal Opera House. That was three hours of my life I'll never get back.
2. I visited the little town of St. Ives on the Cornwall coast! I had an amazing and refreshing weekend of sun, fresh caught seafood, running around on the beach, and playing frisbee/flying a kite with friends. Something we really cannot do in London, and it was super nice to get away.

3. I saw the West End production of War Horse, which is now tied with Les Mis for the best theatre I've ever seen. The play is based off of a book and predates the movie. The special part of this WWII story is that the horses, main characters in the story, are lifesize puppets manned by three people each - one on the head, one in the shoulders, and one in the hind. They were unbelievably lifelike, I was astounded. Every movement and sound was flawless and it was a very moving and impressive performance.
4. I wrote a paper on The Beatles, comparing their influences in Britain and America, for my contemporary politics class.
5. I turned in a scholarship application (oh, right, senior year is happening soon...)
6. I studied pop art at the Tate Modern (Andy Warhol, Liechtenstein, and some crazy Italian satanists)
7. I went to a pub in the middle of nowhere to see my friend Shohei play a singer/songwriter gig and then went adventuring to return his rented sound equipment. For some reason we rewarded ourselves for making it onto the last train home in time by getting stale Krispy Kreme donuts from the corner convenience store. Hooray for odd, slightly inebriated shenanigans in the middle of the night!
8. Did laundry and cleaned my room. Something to be celebrated.

This morning I have been working on homework - they're trying to remind us that we're actually in school, not just on a sweet vacation. Very harsh of them. Although we did just hear that our last art history class will be a crawl alternating art gallery, pub, art gallery, pub, etc. So I guess 'school' is a relative term.

I am leaving in half an hour to go meet Nik at the train station! He is arriving in from London at 4:00 and staying with me for about 10 days, which I have been looking forward to all semester. I can't wait to see him and show him around my new home!

Party!

      I have thrown several impromptu, informal parties for the group while in London, which lots of people have enjoyed. So my friend Molly asked me to throw her a birthday party which would: 1.Get everyone together for the night, 2.Be relatively inexpensive, and 3.Include cream cheese frosting. So, in typical Leslie fashion and in full knowledge that I have piles of homework to do... I threw a massive and gourmet dinner party for 30 which took three days to prep for. I have no self control.
      Molly's birthday was today and the party is still going on. After running around cooking all day, I'm too exhausted to stay up any longer! But I'm very happy with how it went off, Molly was delighted, and it was a lot of fun. I put tea light candles around and had flowers for Molly, so it looked quite pretty. Here's the menu and some pictures from the evening!
Menu:
Veggies with hummus and tortilla chips
Cheese platter with cranberry ginger chutney and cream crackers
Polenta bites with parmesan, marinara, and fresh basil
Bruschetta toasts
Sausage rolls
Teriyaki chicken skewers with red bell pepper and pineapple
Potstickers
Mashed potatoes (these started out as potato skins, but our gimicky oven incinerated the skin bit) an toppings
Pumpkin spice cake with orange cream cheese frosting

Birthday girl Molly and our friend Nate

Part of the group, ready to eat!

Home to London!

I traveled around a foreign country on my own! CHECK. Aaaaaaaand never doing that again.
I am delighted to see London. Mind the gap! And newspapers everywhere. I wish there were friends here at my flat though, it's a bit lonely.

Limerick and the Cliffs of Moher

      Yesterday I took the bus over from Dublin and got into Limerick (on the west coast of Ireland) about 7pm. I got lost (again) trying to find the house where I am Couchsurfing for Sunday/Monday/Tuesday nights. Apparently the Irish don't believe in street signs and I didn't have a map yet, so I think it's admirable that I got to the right general area! Unfortunately though, I found a number 16 (which was my goal) on an unmarked road, took a guess and knocked on the door... no answer. So I call my host and say "I'm at the door!" but he says... "Uh. No you're not". Crap. Turns out I was only a couple blocks off though.
      My host, Kieran, and I got a pizza. He said - we've got the best pizza place here, you're gonna love it, better than any American pizza! Drumroll please... it was Papa Johns. I just started laughing, and he couldn't believe it when I told him there is one two miles from my house and the chain had, in fact, started in Indiana. But he's right, it's good pizza!
      For some crazy reason, I let Kieran convince me to get up at 5 in the morning and drive an hour to see the Cliffs of Moher at sunrise this morning. Four hours of sleep on a very uncomfortable couch was not the best set up, but it was absolutely worth it. We arrived at 6, so it was pitch black and deserted. We sat in the car waiting for the first sign of light and feeling the gusts of wind shake the car, and then walked up to the top of the Cliffs as it got brighter and brighter. Seeing these stunningly huge cliffs appear out of total darkness was one of the coolest things I've ever done. There was a very brief window between when the sun came up and when the fog rolled in a covered them up again. Definitely worth getting up for.

Cliffs of Moher, about 6:30am

The Cliffs and Watch Tower, 7:30am

Kieran and I at the Cliffs, with rain blowing sideways off the Atlantic. Brrrrrrr

      Standing on top of the Cliffs, Kieran happened to look down and see a police car pull up to his car parked down below. He thought he has getting a ticket and started running down to talk to them. But then the police saw us at the Cliff edge, turned on their lights, and raced up toward us. Of course we thought we were about to be arrested for parking illegally and entering the park without paying admission (not that we had an option at that hour!) and we panicked. Then when the car met us halfway down, they jumped out and asked breathlessly "Are you all right?? Is everything ok??" We said yes, yes, isn't it beautiful this early!? And one of the cops yelled "jesus, you scared the sh** out of us, we thought you was gonna jump!" All four of us just started laughing because we were all so relieved, having thought the worst. It was pretty comical.
      Kieran and I drove home, ate a bit of breakfast, and then both had a nap. I've been taking it easy today, feeling a little burnt out on pretty parks and old buildings for the moment. Tonight I'm hoping to see some traditional Irish music and have a good dinner, and for tomorrow I've booked a ridiculously kitschy tour bus around the Ring of Kerry: Paddywagon Tours, just for something different. On Wednesday I am planning to visit Bunratty Castle and Folk Park on my way to Shannon Airport to catch my flight home to London.

Dublin

      On Saturday I woke up at 4 in the morning, put the last things in my suitcase, and headed to the airport at 5. I was incredibly nervous in the morning and didn't really want to go. I've never traveled on my own before and I felt really unprepared. But when I was sitting (sit, stand, pace, sigh, repeat) at the tube station waiting for my train to the airport, all of a sudden a large bunch of purple balloons came bobbing along the underground tunnel, blown ahead of the train. It was the most unexpected and charming thing imaginable and seemed like a very good omen!
      When I finally got to the airport and made it through all three security checkpoints, the flight was quick and easy. Landing in Dublin, I was pretty lonely. You know how everyone immediately turns on their phones and starts calling people to say they've arrived? I didn't have anyone to call and it was not a pleasant feeling. But then the customs guy was super friendly and stamped my passport with a very satisfying *thump* and I got excited again. Doesn't take much.
      I am Couchsurfing this week, which is a cool and slightly odd thing. Couchsurfing is an online organization which allows you to make a profile and then search for other members around the world to ask if you can sleep on their couch for a few nights. It's based around facilitating affordable travel and creating multi-cultural connections. The idea is that you return the favor by opening your home up to members who visit your hometown. Identities and locations are verified and it's reportedly very safe. So while in Dublin, I Couchsurfed for the first time! I stayed Saturday night with a guy who works for Google. He lives in a  flat in an old gasworks which has been gutted and turned into a super swanky modern apartment building.

Looking into the inner courtyard from the flat

The outside of the building, with the old gasworks structure

Thought I was sleeping on a couch... and instead I got my own room with a king bed. YES.

      I spent that afternoon and most of Sunday wandering around Dublin on my own, getting myself lost and finding cool things along the way. It was weird not to have anyone to talk to, but I felt very free and independent. Not in a hippie way. In a "I'm a strong and capable person!" kind of way. I found: a castle, the tiniest lock I've ever seen with a hand crank to open the gates, the Guiness factory, a pop-up art market, the site where Handel's Messiah was premiered, some beautiful parks with lots of spring flowers, a guy who looks like Joseph Fiennes, gorgeous cathedrals, and some excellent pie. All good things :)

At Dublin Castle, with the chapel behind me

Christ Church Cathedral

A park bench in the sun and blackberry-apple crumble.

      The highlight of visiting Dublin was getting to spend a couple hours with Orla McDonagh, my favorite professor in the world who moved back to Dublin two years ago. We each had a drink and sat and caught up Saturday evening. I reminded her that she promised to come back and perform a recital for us at LC. She had to leave all too soon, but it was so much fun to see her! I loved Dublin, overall, and was sad to leave. But Saturday late afternoon I got on a bus and headed west to Limerick for the rest of my holiday.

The Start of Mid-term Break

      I can't believe it's mid-term break already! I am just starting to figure out life in London and really enjoy myself, and it's half-way over. But I'm taking my free week to spend five days in Ireland!
      Classes ended Thursday evening, then we went  to see Offenbach's opera, The Tales of Hoffman, at the English National Opera. With the exception of Puccini, opera's not really my thing but it was fun to put on our nicest clothes and go out for the night. If only it wasn't three and a half hours long... However, the English National Opera performed the rare, original version of The Tales of Hoffman in which one coloratura soprano sings all three of Hoffman's lovers, one part in each act. She was incredible and, no matter my preferences on opera, I was seriously impressed.
      After the opera a couple girls and I stopped at a bar for a drink because we felt so classy in our fancy clothes. It was, for sure, the worst pub experience we'd ever had (mean bartender, expensive drinks that tasted like water, and a gross restroom) so we finished our drinks a little too quickly while we discussed how great all our boys look when they dress up (a shower and a shave is a nice surprise, so their suits and ties were impressive!). Also spent some time discussing how great WE looked in our dresses. Then we headed back to the flat, because I was throwing a little start-of-break party for the group. I'd made a giant nutella cheesecake that morning, and everyone changed into PJs and came up to have dessert and drinks.

Cookie crumb crust, the nutella-cream cheese mixture, and double cream that refused to whip for the longest time

Shohei played music for us, and we all danced and sang along

       On Friday we visited the Tower of London at 8:45am (that came awfully early after the party) and toured the Houses of Parliament in the afternoon. Both were fascinating but tiring. Then I went out to dinner with Sue, Albert, and Josh which was fun. Then home to pack and a very short night of sleep before my flight to Dublin the next morning!

London Chamber Orchestra!!!

      Last Friday our music history professor, Chris, took us to Cadogan Hall to see the London Chamber Orchestra. They played William Walton's Crown Imperial, Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy for Violin, Harp, and Orchestra, and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5. The concert was incredible - definitely in my top ten performances I've ever been to. The orchestra was brilliant - precise, expressive, perfectly balanced, and the director was brilliant. I loved all the pieces they played. The Crown Imperial is a hilarious over-the-top fanfare (fun fact: the London Chamber Orchestra played it as the bridal march at Will and Kate's wedding). But the Bruch and the Vaughan Williams are both stunningly beautiful and intricate and exciting, especially when played by an amazing group like the LCO.
      Part of what made it so fun was that we sat in the balcony way up at the front, so we were literally on top of the orchestra. I could watch the director's face and hands, read the music off the violinists' stands below me, and be totally wrapped up in the surround sound. I let myself feel like I was a member of the orchestra, pretending I was on stage and playing along with them, and it was exactly the kind of professional orchestral experience I've been dreaming about since I started flute. I WANT THAT.
      My friend Ava was sitting in the balcony on the other side of the stage, facing towards me. She told me after the concert that I was hilarious to watch. Apparently my face was... expressive. She even caught me tearing up in the slow movement of the Bruch. *shrug* Typically, immediately after the concert I was inspired and rushed home to practice flute. Even more typically, about 20 minutes in I got really depressed at my own inadequacy, gave up, and went to bed. Oh well. Worth a try.

Scotland Plans

      I'm going to Scotland tonight! I'm really looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing some other places. The whole group is spending Saturday and Sunday in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and two of my friends (Irene and Drew) and I decided to take a late train up after class tonight and have an extra day to explore. Our plan is to skip out immediately after art history (we're at the National Gallery today) and take a 4.5 hour train ride up to Glasgow. We get in around 11:00pm, stay in a hostel, and - weather permitting - we'll spend Friday hiking around Loch Lomond. We'll come back to Glasgow when it gets too cold to move anymore, and then meet up with the rest of the group on Saturday. Can't wait to see trees that haven't been manicured to the Queen's perfection. And birds that aren't pigeons. My high school friend Kirsten, who studied in Glasgow for a semester, gave me lots of tips on where to go, what to do, etc. She said I have to try the deep-fried Mars bar for the cultural experience.... but I'm not sure if I can handle that.

This Feels Like A Very Long Vacation

      I have been walking several miles a day and climbing an awful lot of stairs, but have been seriously missing my gym workouts. So this morning I improvised a work out in my flat using The Complete Works of William Shakespeare as a weight. How's that for a British fine arts experience?
In other news:
      On Wednesday we staged a British House of Commons style debate: Pro-monarchists vs. Abolitionists. Our professor split us up arbitrarily and served as the Speaker of the House, Sue sat in as Her Majesty. Check out this video for a sample of the style we were instructed to emulate, and you can imagine that it was a pretty rowdy two hours: House of Commons Prime Minister's Questions
      And last night I saw a performance by the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Orchestra. They played a Handel Concerto Grosso, Bach's Brandenberg Concerto No. 3, Britten's Simple Symphony, Elgar's Serenade for Strings, and Haydn's 'Trauer' Symphony. The performance was magical, with the distinct exception of the Brandenberg which the violins and violas took at a breakneck speed, leaving the continuo trailing along behind. But the Haydn was breathtaking. :)

With roomie Irene, all bundled up to go out in the snow

Birthday Weekend

      Last Sunday was my 21st birthday and I had a wonderful time celebrating with my friends here in London. There are six of us who are turning 21 this semester and, determined not to miss out on the American experience, we all made a pact that we would go out and pretend that turning 21 actually meant something here as well. So I invited the whole group to meet me Saturday evening at my favorite local pub (called The Builders Arms) and have a few drinks, and then head back to our flat.
      During the day I made a cake, bought some alcohol and mixers, and took a delightful pre-party nap. I woke up excited and feeling good, put on a dress and some make-up, and went downstairs to see if my friends were ready to go. When I walked in to the room, Erika exclaimed to me "Happy birthday! I talked to the weather gods and got some snow for you!" ..... Huh? That's when I looked out the window and realized that, while I was napping, it had been snowing like mad outside and everything was covered in two inches of snow! Then I got REALLY excited.

Part of the group at The Builders Arms

      We walked over to the pub, totally enchanted by the snow. Everything was so quiet and still - a rare occurrence in London - and beautiful. There were a few people already at the pub, claiming tables as they opened up. More and more people arrived until the entire Lewis and Clark group was there, taking up almost the entire upstairs section of the pub. We even absorbed a couple guys from Norway who were having a quiet drink, but seemed very happy to help me celebrate my birthday! They bought me a rum and coke, apparently mistaking me for a classy lady who actually drinks alcohol. My friends knew me better - they bought me vodka cranberries. :)
      We spent a couple hours having a wonderful time hanging out at The Builders, and then we decided to head home and continue the celebration there. (By "we decided" I actually I got a sudden craving for chocolate cake and demanded everyone go home with me to eat it.) However, the chocolate cake craving was immediately suspended when we walked outside and found several inches of beautiful dry snow covering everything. MASS SNOWBALL FIGHT BEGINS.
      And continues. And absorbs innocent people walking by. And continues. And eventually starts migrating towards home, never slowing down. Two hours later, we all collapsed on our doorstep completely exhausted. And then, of course, we remembered the cake again! In the flat I heated up some apple cider with spiced rum to warm everybody up and served it with my cake (chocolate with caramel frosting). I got to skype with Nik for a few minutes and pretend that he was there at the party too. A few people grabbed instruments and starting playing music, and we all sang/danced/clapped along for the rest of the night. Having everyone there together was really amazing and I don't believe I've ever laughed so hard for so long (and for me, that's saying something). I was one of the first to go to bed (good thing - apparently I slept through a flooded bathroom leaking gallons of water into the bedroom below it and all of the drama that came with that little issue) and didn't even have too bad of a headache the next morning. It was a very very wonderful birthday party.
      The next day, Sunday, was my actual birthday! The group went to Hampton Court (home of the royal Tudor family and others) which was very cool. Unfortunately it was too cold of a day to spend time a lot of time there though. We looked around, walked through the royal apartments, and then caught the train back home. That night I got to attend a dinner party at Sue and Albert's (our crazy awesome program leaders) flat! They are having us all over in small groups, and it happened to be my turn on my birthday.
      They served us an amazing four course tradition British meal with different wine pairings: Cucumber slices with creme freche and smoked salmon, baked portobello mushrooms stuffed with shrimp and rosemary sauce and champagne. Then lamb stew with prunes and eggplant, garlic mash, broccoli, and cabernet sauvignon. A cheese and fruit course with six different kinds of British cheese, pears, apples, and blueberries. I brought a bottle of chardonnay-viogner and it went very nicely with this course. And then sticky toffee pudding with double cream for dessert. We all had a really great time and it was so nice of Sue and Albert to have us over! What a lovely end to an awesome birthday weekend.

Not even close to the weekend

      I woke up in the night, remembered it was Saturday and turned off my alarm so I could sleep in and have a nice, relaxing morning. I didn't wake up again until 9:30am, and even then decided to stay in bed for a while longer because I didn't feel all that well.
Then I realized it is actually Wednesday. So much for the relaxing morning.
      I jumped out of bed and took the fastest shower of my life, grabbed a Babybel cheese (I've been living off of those things) and power walked over to Foundation House. Made it just in time for my 10:00 class, which of course had to be music history AKA painfully-long-three-hours-of-inane-discussion-in-a-small-stuffy-room. Good start so far, right? And that's the story of why I am right now in bed eating leftover tortellini and pretending it is actually Saturday.

Fun Things This Week

      The last few days have been pretty awesome. On Tuesday, we went to see an Edwardian satire called The Charity That Begins At Home at the Orange Tree Theatre. The play was fantastic, like watching a Jane Austen movie. Beautifully written and flawlessly acted. The theatre itself was really cool - it was a tiny theatre-in-the-round. A small square room with a set in the middle and a few rows of chairs around the outside, and a balcony with one narrow row of chairs looking down onto the floor. A few lighting effects, and doors in each corner. And that was it. So simple, and yet so effective. I sat up in the balcony and felt like I was in the room with the characters. I loved it - probably my favorite performance so far.
      Wednesday morning, while messing around on my computer, I found that The Shins (one of my favorite bands) had just added a second concert date in London because their original show had sold out so quickly. The show happens to be on a free night while Nik is here visiting, so I immediately bought two tickets to see them on March 23rd! I let my friends know there were tickets available, and Louise and Julia both bought tickets as well. That is the day before the St. Petersburg Phil with Martha Argerich concert, so it's going to be an excellent weekend. I also bought tickets to see The Lion King musical and St. Martins-in-the-Fields play Bach, Handel, Britten, Elgar, and Bruch. So excited for all of these!!
      Thursdays are my favorite, because I get to sleep in, I get paid my weekly stipend, I have art history classes, and it's weekly pub night with a few friends. And then it's the weekend. Hard to mess that up. Yesterday our art history professor, Giovanni, took us to Greenwich to study 17th century architecture. It was, again, a perfectly clear and bitingly cold day. I wore tights, leggings, jeans, wool socks, boots, a tshirt, sweater, sweatshirt, wool coat, two scarves, gloves, and a hat. And I was STILL cold. I really think there's nothing else I could have done.
      The train ride to Greenwich was pretty and fun. When we got there, we walked around some of the construction sites for the Summer Olympics, which was cool to see. We looked at the Cutty Sark and the Naval Academy, and then walked up the hill to the Royal Observatory. There is an amazing view from up there! You can see all of London and the River Thames weaving through it. I don't have any camera batteries right now, but I solemnly vow to go back and take billions of pictures. The Royal Observatory is the also the site of the Prime Meridian! I made all 30 of us line up on it and take a group picture. It's on Albert's camera, but I will post it when I get it from him.
      The coolest part of the Observatory was their Camera Obscura - basically a very large pinhole camera which was developed in the Middle Ages as an early means of capturing perspective in art. Their camera obscura is a pitch black room with a set of mirrors which reflect light from a small hole in the ceiling onto a flat surface in the middle of the room. The light portrays a perfect reflection of the Queen's House, a quarter mile down the hill! We could see small shapes of people moving along the walkways and climbing the stairs. Very cool.
      Next we visited The Queen's House (remembering that people were watching us above in the camera obscura), which is the first building in the UK designed in the Roman classical white-marble/geometrics style. The art history aspect was fascinating and the building itself very beautiful. Greenwich was the original royal area of London and so there was a great deal of history imbedded in it as well.
      We stopped in Queen Mary's chapel, accidentally intruding on a fabulous counter-tenor's voice recital. Then we visited The Painted Hall, which was breathtakingly beautiful. It is an enormous banqueting hall and every inch is painted with images of monarchs, battles, mythology, iconography. We sat on the floor and stared as Giovanni read a long list of the scenes portrayed on the ceilings and walls. We spent a long time looking (especially since it was blissfully warm inside).
      And then it was pub time! A baked potato, chocolate cake, and a couple warm drinks thawed me out... and then I fell asleep at the table. Perfect end to a perfect day.

York!

       Last Saturday our whole group took a day trip to York, a small walled city about two hours' train ride north of London. We caught the first train in the morning (by 'morning' what I actually mean is the middle of the night) and the last train back at night (early evening, unfortunately). The sunrise on the train ride was gorgeous though - the English countryside lit up in greens and golds like in a fairy tale. Then, sleepily, we got off the train and got to spend the day exploring this beautiful and utterly enchanting old city under the guidance of our theatre professor Philip, who knows everything there is to know about England.

York Minster

      The day was perfectly clear and gorgeous, but bitterly cold. We were all bundled in every layer we'd brought overseas and still were frozen to the core by mid-morning. It was worth it though. We walked along the old wall of the city, built in the 13th century (which was a little perilous due to a thin layer of ice and no handrail). Then Philip took us through the center of town, stopping at Clifford's Tower -a small castle first erected by William the Conqueror, which was where the Jews of York in 1190 took refuge from a persecuting mob and chose mass suicide rather than baptism. Cheerful.

      Moving right along, we visited the quirky little 13th century Trinity Church and the York Minster, the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe. The Minster is absolutely stunning, and we could not have asked for a more beautiful day to see it. Sunshine streamed in through the stain glass like a hallmark movie and highlighted the intricate detail covering every inch of the building. We stood outside, wordlessly gazing at it and snapping photos for an hour, and then went inside and did the same thing. It was one of those moments when all you can do is laugh at the utter perfection of it.

Afternoon Tea

Josh and Julia, enjoying lunch

      When we'd satisfied ourselves at the Minster, we had free time explore and find food. I quickly realized that everything in York is about half the price and twice as charming as London, so I had a lovely afternoon tea, got some truffles from a chocolate shop, and bought myself a beautiful set of handmade silver/onyx jewelry from the weekend market in the center of town. I also made my friend Josh try on a hundred different flatcaps and convinced him to buy a nice green one. :)
      The group met up again to see a Pantomime at the York Theatre. I have no idea how to describe the Panto. It was like a slapstick parody of musicals? I guess. The theatre was packed full of three or four generations of York's families, all of whom had clearly grown up (or were growing up) seeing this Panto year after year and adoring the Pantomime Dame. Anthropologically speaking, this was fascinating. As a piece of theatre, it was crazy, confusing, and a little offensive. No idea what to make of it, really.
      For a stark contrast, after the Panto some of us went to an Evensong service at the York Minster. The choir was wonderful and I just sat there absorbing the beauty of the nave, the music, the poetry. Felt like I was getting a professional massage! After the service I shared a pizza with some friends and caught the train back home... where I had the most uncomfortable nap of my life and un-did all the relaxation and release of the Evensong. Oh well. It was nice while it lasted.

      York is now firmly among my favorite places in the world. I got warm again, eventually, and seriously hope I can go back and visit York again.
     
     

Scotland!

      Last night I booked my travel plans to Scotland! I will be taking the evening train up to Glasgow with a couple friends on Thursday, Feb. 16th, getting in late and staying at a youth hostel. Friday morning we will be taking a short train ride up to Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park to go hiking! There are hundreds of trails up the east side of the lake - including an art and literature walk which visits the places referenced in 14 famous songs/poems. Should be fun, so cross your fingers for decent weather! Saturday we meet up with the whole group to explore Glasgow, then visit Edinburgh on Sunday and home to London late that night. And internship early Monday morning! Maybe a nap on Tuesday...
      In other news - my bruise is a very nice greeny-brown this morning and I can flex my leg without any pain. Still taking it easy (thank god for netflix) but itching to go outside and be active again. But for now it's tea, a group meeting, laundry, and a visit to the national gallery to study gothic art. Even a little sunshine breaking through the clouds.

Fireworks!

So I'm sitting in my flat, researching hostels in Scotland and elevating my somewhat swollen leg when all of a sudden there are fireworks exploding outside my window!! No idea what it was for, but we just got treated to a fantastic and large-scale fireworks display in the park across the street. Cool, thanks London!

My Anthropology Prof Would Have Called This A Collision of Cultures

      Well. Yesterday... I made some great progress on my music education outreach project at my internship! And I had some incredible french food with a few friends! ..... And on the way home I got hit by a drunk driver and was saved from being flattened only by the sturdy protection of a lamp post.

My trustworthy lamp post

      I am fine! Truly! I had to convince my mother of that this morning - that was a difficult conversation to open up. How do you gently tell your mother that you've been run over??? Now Mom, this is gonna sound a lot worse than it actually is...
      I saw the car coming as I was crossing the road and instinctively jumped behind a lamp post at the edge of the sidewalk. The car veered straight into the lamp post and the broken bumper hit my left leg. I did fall over, mostly from the shock, but got up immediately. The driver was also fine and moving around. Then I was alone, already a little heady from the french wine, and scared out of my mind by the experience, so I just left. I have already been lectured by several people about how I should have stayed and called the police, gotten his insurance info, etc. But can you blame me? The guy just nearly ran me over, I didn't want to talk to him! All I wanted was to go home and curl up in the safety of my own bed. So I did.
      Today my leg is quite stiff and sore with a bruise coming along nicely, but it is clear that I will be just fine in a couple of days. So mother, it really is not nearly so bad as it sounds.

Free Time!

Drinks at The Crown

      Thursday: 1) Got paid my weekly stipend. 2) Studied mummies, the Rosetta Stone, and the Parthenon sculptures with our hot Italian art history professor. 3) Went to a pub with a few friends and started drinking at 5pm. This was a VERY good start to the weekend!
      We have three full days completely free, which sounds wonderful after last week's busy and hectic schedule. Today I slept in until 9, which was a miracle considering that the pile driver at the construction site outside my window starts work promptly at 8 every day. (Gives you an idea of how tired I was) When I woke up I made myself breakfast and then watched a movie in bed, just for the luxury of it - accompanied by the pounding of the pile driver, of course.

New Dress

      This afternoon I went vintage shopping on Brick Lane with my roomie Irene and the girls next door, Willa and Kayley. The four of us hit three different vintage shops, and I bought myself a darling new dress for a great price. Sifting through piles of old clothing was a little overwhelming - also exceptionally girly, for me - but I love my new dress. We made a cleansing pass through a nice bookstore on the way home. Now I'm about to make myself some pasta, practice flute for the first time in forever, and then go see a Landscape Photography Exhibit at the National Theater with my friend Ava. My friend Josh and I have planned a trip to the Royal Academy of Music museum tomorrow to see their collections of period instruments and original manuscripts. I guess that leaves Sunday for homework and laundry.
      OOH! And I splurged this morning. I bought two tickets to see the St. Petersburg Philharmonic with pianist Martha Argerich at the Barbican, for when Nik comes to visit. Argerich is phenomenal and I'm so excited to see her perform live!! Also excited to show Nik around my city. :)
My city. Hmm. When did that happen?