To begin with I must say that I am frustrated with people at the moment. So before recapping the last 4 days of my life I feel like it is necessary to explain the things that I will NOT miss when I go home to Kansas in 57 days.
I will not miss having to eat pizza with a fork and knife
I will not miss having to worry about pick pockets (more on that later)
I will not miss paying 10 for something and when it goes out of my bank it takes 15
I will not miss being squished in the tube next to men who need to wear better deodorant
I will not miss being cold without the satisfaction of having snow all around me
I will not miss being unable to find the brands I want in the grocery store
I will not miss the crap beef that London supplies
I will not miss having to wait a month after everyone else back home to see a movie
I will not miss having to look decent everyday as opposed to comfy in sweats
I will not miss having to specifically make sure that I ask for tap water otherwise they bring me a bottle of water that I must pay for
Now these are 8 things… I can’t possibly list all the things that I will miss because it would be 17 pages long (I might attempt to later though). So while at the moment I am sick and tired of eating my pizza with a fork and knife I am actually still quite in love with this city. I just miss some American customs that I didn’t even know were customs till I came here and realized they are not a worldwide thing.
Thing #2 I am frustrated with that I must discuss before I recap.
I had one of those moments yesterday where I question humanity. I have seen the following numerous times on the tube; a pregnant woman walks on and even though its crowded someone ALWAYS gets up and offers their seat to her because that is the right thing to do.
Yesterday as I walked on the tube, covered in purple I might add, I witnessed something quite shocking. Two women entered the tube that were obviously pregnant. One was a Caucasian woman of some sort of British decent and the other was obviously of Middle Eastern decent and was wearing a modern burka.
Immediately multiple elder men jumped out of their seats to offer it to the Caucasian woman but this wasn’t the case for the other one.
She was standing near the aisle of seats obviously hoping for one to open up. Each time a person would get up to get off the tube it the seat would quickly be replaced before the woman could make it to the seat. I wanted to give the people the benefit of the doubt that maybe they couldn’t tell that she was pregnant and yet stop after stop she would get closer to where the seats are and yet even while in clear vision not a single person offered their seat to her.
Are we so blinded by hatred and prejudice that we stop acting like humans? I didn’t and don’t understand why people would deem this woman undeserving of a place to rest her feet. Why does the Caucasian woman have any more right to a seat on the tube then the Middle Eastern one? She was obviously tired and kept wiping her forehead and anyone could see that she needed a place to sit down.
That just really made me mad about people for the day. I can’t understand how people deem others as worthless but I guess I never will.
Day 41
So today was 99.999% amazing. I convinced Izzy to go to the Sunday markets with me. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to go but about 5 minutes after getting there she was very pleased with my making her do this.
The Sunday markets are basically amazing. Plus there is all this ethnic food that is super cheap. Izzy and I both had beautiful burritos that were the size of our faces and they were delicious.
We searched through all the Sunday up markets stands and then after venturing down the rest of brick lane we headed to spittle field markets. It’s difficult to tell any stories about all the shopping experiences because people who I bought presents for read my blog and so this would give away Christmas and I don’t want to do that!
However, after today I only have 5 more people to shop for and then I am DONE!!! Huzzah!!!
So all day long I had been looking at journals because I am going to run out in the one I currently have and I am very picky about them and need to pick them out myself. So in spittlefields I found the PERFECT journal. It was hand made and leather bound and on the front was a little seahorse and stars and I haggled the price from 25ish down to 15. It was my most exciting purchase of the day and as I’m gushing to izzy about it on the tube, some EVIL man stole it from me.
That is all I have to say about that. I hope he enjoys the journal…I hope he writes in it everyday and turns it into a book that is his best selling novel. Then one day in interviews someone will ask him what his biggest regret was. He will say that he always regrets stealing his first journal with a little seahorse on it from the poor American on the tube.
That’s when I’ll strike!! So for now…he can enjoy his little journal because one-day ill find him and vengeance will be mine.
Day 42
Today I spent the day doing my mothers job a.k.a. legal work. After dealing with legal papers all day at my internship I decided that if I ever become a lawyer I will hire an assistant for this crap because otherwise I would lose my mind.
I also respect my mom much more for being able to read legal documents without an ipod and yet stay awake.
I can’t remember what I did that night so I must have stayed in and slept or something else boring.
Day 43
Today was awesome because instead of class we went to see the cardboard citizens. They are a group who do forum theatre, which is this very therapeutic kind of theatre that puts the audience in charge.
I finally did my laundry after needing to do it for a week then the group played an awesome round of things.
Day 44
Wednesday was awesome because I got to observe a British class on Meisner and funnily enough the director who taught it was from San Francisco.
Then was the grand adventure…
In an effort to not have to pay to get to the theatre to see Parade I decided to get off at the last stop in Zone 2 and then just walk to the theatre because on the map it didn’t look that far away.
I should have looked at the distance because it was 3 miles. That isn’t that far but when you are alone and not quite sure where you are and your ipod is dead; you walk slow. So after an hour I was FREEZING and confused and was kinda emotional anyway so I gave up and took a cab anyway paying 2 more pounds then I would have if I had gotten off at the tube station that was close.
So I got there an hour early and needed something to do so I wandered into this bar and grill that really was a bar that served French fries. It was cool if standoffish people who don’t speak English and obviously don’t like you are your thing.
It was a greek or turskish bar but I can’t tell which one because I am not an expert on language. From the tv screen in the corner that was playing news I gathered it was one of those 2 countries because the writing running along looked familiar to the writing I had seen in Greece 2 years ago.
I went to the counter to order a cranberry juice. The woman bartender couldn’t quite understand me and then proceeded to tell me that they didn’t have cranberry juice there. The man next to me was drinking cranberry juice so I asked her what was in his drink…she refused to answer the question. So I got an orange juice and then drank it in the corner while I texted my mom to tell her that I missed her whilst the people in the bar were staring at me yacking on in some undefined language. I left promptly after finishing my juice and thanked the lady.
However the night was rescued by Parade. It was chilling and amazing and beautiful. AND I bought the soundtrack on itunes within 10 minutes of getting home. How I never owned the soundtrack to JRB’s 3rd best musical I do not know. I say 3rd because L5Y and SFANW still are my top two.
But seeing all these senior musical theatre majors perform was quite a rude awakening. I had never thought about the fact that when I graduate I’m not just competing with all the Americans…there are people over in England just as talented as Americans are and just as able to take those roles that I have coveted for so long.
I am determined more then ever to train to be the best that I can be because there is some hefty competition coming from the other side of the pond.
Day 45
Today has been pretty chill. I went to class this morning and discussed the production of Faust that we saw last week.
Then I came back here to the res hall and have been resting ever since in preparation for tonight when I see the 4 hour Hamlet at the National Theatre.
I am quite excited for this experience since Hamlet is my 3rd favorite Shakespeare play.
Shows seen to date= 18
Wicked
Merry Wives of Windsor
RADA staged reading
Pieces of Vincent
Love Never Dies
Les Miserables
Clybourne Park
Jason Robert Brown
Catwalk Show
All My Sons
Les Miz 25th Anniversary tour
I drink the air before me = modern dance show
Enlightenment
Faust
Avenue Q
Cardboard Citizens
Parade
Hamlet
No comments:
Post a Comment