Final Day

Today was my last day in London. It's a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand, London is definitely one of my favorite places of all time. I can't count how many times I said to people this month, "Have I mentioned how much I love this city? Because I totally love this city!" And yet, the past month has been the busiest I have likely ever had. Normally I need a lot of down time to myself, time to recharge and be the happy, effervescent person I like to be; I haven't had that. Considering that fact, I think I have done a bang up job of maintaining my cool, being energetic, and congenial. 

We visited Buckingham Palace this morning, which was grandiose and full of golden things. I almost walked out with a corgi, but I decided that it would be too difficult to pack...

After that was lunch at the Dickens Inn, which was really good. Bangers and Mash with peas. So very British. 

So tasty

I was happy to meet up with my dear friend once she got out of work. We've been friends for many years, and though she works around the corner from where I've been staying all month, I didn't get to see her much aside from the two weekends prior to classes starting. It was a lovely way to finish out my trip here by walking around Leicester and Trafalgar squares and Piccadilly Circus with her.

This past month has been one of the best of my life. I've met fantastic new people, seen amazing things, visited some of my favorite places, got to see my good friend for the first time in 4 years, and fell in love with London all over again.

Still, it will be nice to go home. Back to the familiar, the quiet, and the slower paced city that I know. Good to see my family, my cats, my fish, and my friends again. Hence the bittersweet. Ah well. I suppose I'll send off with a sassy mannequin:

 It's been awesome. Cheers!

Update: I made a scrapbook-style powerpoint. Check it out sometime!

Joke of the Day:

I went to the zoo the other day, but there was only a dog in it. It was a shitzu.

That time I really got to go in the TARDIS

IT WAS BIGGER ON THE INSIDE!

I went to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff, Wales today. A small group of us hopped on a National Express bus and snoozed uncomfortably for four hours, but we made it into Cardiff. We managed to figure out where to get on a city bus that would take us to the Experience, and after a few false starts, THERE WE WERE!

As geeked out as I was about the Harry Potter tour, this was just as good. Better in some ways. Harry Potter was like coming home, remembering something I didn't realize I'd missed so much; this was an all out, geektastic adventure.

Much like the Harry Potter Tour it began with a video introduction, and when that wrapped up, our group was herded into the TARDIS! I already had goosebumps, but then I got to help drive the thing, and geeked out harder. And then, we landed, and were herded into another room... I got shivers when, as I walked down this dark hallway, I heard "Exterminate!" being shouted from every direction, and then came face to face with a Dalek in a new room. I made it through that alive, but quickly had to test my ability not to blink moments later. Based on the fact that I'm writing this now, I'm clearly not displaced in time, so that's good.

Here are some highlights from the exhibit following the experience:

Yer a Wizard, Harry

When I was twelve, my neighbor handed me a paperback book and said, "I think you would really like this." I looked at the cover - a colorful display of a confused looking boy riding on a broomstick. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in bold, lightning bolt letters arched over the top. I said my thanks, and put it down to read later. I remember my family was having a potluck and there was a thunderstorm outside when I snuck away from the noise and opened the book. After that, my life changed. I fell into the world of Harry Potter, waited anxiously for the next book, counting down the days. I remember completely freaking out when my cousins told me that they were turning it into a movie - both excited and scared that they might ruin it. I remember walking three miles to the video store (long before I was able to drive) just so I could purchase the first movie on VHS (because that was still a thing). I cried when my favorite characters died, I cheered when Harry got sassy with his professors ("I'm sorry, Professor. I must not tell lies." OH SNAP!) and I tried, unsuccessfully, to read Deathly Hallows slowly because I really didn't want it to end.

But end it did. The movies continued for a while after the books were finished, and I was able to draw it out a few more years, and Pottermore was an okay distraction for a day or two. But I knew I would never have that same experience again of living so greatly inside a fictional world as rich and warm as the Harry Potter world (Because as awesome as Game of Thrones is, I sure as hell do not want to live in that world... I'd be dead in a week! Not to mention the wait time on the books is much longer than a year at a time, sheesh).

Visiting the Making of Harry Potter Studios brought all of that right back. The introduction to the studios was a compilation video showing all the best parts from the movies, and aside from suddenly wanting to marathon all eight movies, I felt like a little kid again, amazed by my favorite books coming alive before my eyes.

For the next three hours, I wandered around the sets and props; I stood by the Hogwarts Gates, was practically inside the Gryffindor Common Room 

and the Potions classroom

and sat inside the flying Ford Anglia

I drank butterbeer as well. Very tasty stuff. Moving on to the creature department, I was able to see mandrakes, Fawkes, and life-size thestrals and Buckbeak. 

All of this was amazing, but my breath caught when I turned into a new room and saw this:

The whole thing was absolutely astounding. I walked around the model slowly, taking it all in. I know it's cliche, but there really isn't any better way of describing my experience at the Harry Potter Studios than to say it was simply magical.

Joke of the Day:

What kind of cereal do they serve at Hogwarts?

Hufflepuffs.

Now is the winter of our discontent

Richard III is currently running at Trafalgar Studios with Martin Freeman as the eponymous lead. I was fortunate enough to find this out very early on, and booked a ticket with amazing stage seats. What followed was a phenomenal production that is every bit as bloody, humorous, and psychotic as the posters lining the tube station walls purport. 

For the adaptation, the director decided it would be clever to have it set in Britain's Winter of Discontent in 1979 - the worst since the Second World War ended. Set up as a marvelous military coup, Freeman does an excellent job of portraying Richard III as a madman drunk on power. The rest of the cast was just as spectacular. I was close enough to everyone that I was able to watch their facial expressions, which often get missed in the grand circle seats at the theatre. When King Edward finds out Clarence has been killed, he is launched into a rage, and the actor's face was so red as he screamed at the assembled council, before being dragged off stage hacking. It was incredible. Everyone did such an amazing job portraying these classic roles.

Bonus: 

Lady Anne and Gloucester (soon to be Richard III) are having an argument and she calls him a hedgehog.

Joke of the Day:

Why did the chicken cross the playground?

To get to the other slide.

Paris, je n'aime pas.

Took a stroll through the City of Lights this weekend. We left on Friday morning, and aside from an amazing lunch (cinnamon glazed lamb, creamed asparagus soup, and Peach Melba, sooooo delicious) on a boat as we slowly cruised down the River Seine, and a nice tour through Montmartre, the day was a nightmare. I'm choosing only to remember that it was bad, and blocking out the details. It involved a guide that had no idea what she was doing, much frustration, and getting lost and being late.

In any case, when I woke up on Saturday, remembering that I don't like Paris at all and wondering why I was even there for the second time in my life, my roommate decided that I needed to see Paris in a new light and focus on some pretty things. My buddies and I sprung for a two day pass on the Hop-on-Hop-off tour busses around the city which would give us not only a history lesson, but take us to each of the museums and monuments we might want to visit. We started at the Eiffel Tower (gorgeous and right around the corner from our hotel), then went past several fancy looking buildings (Fun Fact: every building in Paris is fancy looking). We hopped off near the Place de Concorde because I noticed Maxim's. And then I saw this:

"The Art Nouveau Museum is closed in July."Yeah. Of course. I got lucky, though. When we made our way to the Musee d'Orsay, not only was the entire fifth floor Impressionist works (so many Monet paintings ^_^), but three floors leading up to it had rooms dedicated to Art Nouveau. Those were blissful two hours. I ended up splurging on an art book of Mucha Affiches to pull out from time to time and enjoy. So many lovely curving lines....

My Sunday in Paris was meant to be relaxing, but as I found with Paris, nothing goes as planned there for me. I got a pretty bad allergy attack. Because I would be allergic to that city. And, OF COURSE all of the pharmacies would be closed. We did eventually find one that happened to be open. I walked in, said "Bonjour... uh.. allergy?" and the guy nodded, handed me a box and said "One tablet per day. You runny a lot?" and pantomimed at my nose. We shared a pitiful smile as I nodded and then paid and left. My buddies and I wandered around Montmartre again just for shopping and lunch, before we were to get back on the Eurostar. We ended up having lunch at a cute little pastry place called Paul's. I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't feeling so knocked out. I managed to catch a nap on the train and woke up feeling so much better. The walk back to the flat in the rain was even wonderful after Paris. 

Here are some other notable things I saw in Paris:

Photo of the Day (create your name out of architecture! - this one was fun):



I gathered these different "letters" from around London, Oxford, and Paris, and then compiled them via PhotoJoiner.

Joke of the Day:

Did you hear about the Frenchman that jumped into the river in Paris?
He was declared in Seine.

That time I tried to run away with the TARDIS

We went to the BBC for a tour, and as soon as I walked in, there was a Dalek looking menacing right there. And then there was the TARDIS. Unfortunately it was locked, and I didn't run into the Doctor, so I couldn't get a key. If I'd had more time and wasn't about to go on a tour, I might have attempted to pick the lock and run away through time and space....

Alas. Instead, I went on that tour and it was pretty freaking amazing! I saw where the BBC World Service is based, walked onto the BBC One show set, and then I got to perform in a demo of a Radio Drama! I could do that as a job. That was a lot of fun!




Joke of the Day:

Why was Colin Baker afraid of Sylvester McCoy?

Because Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston

The Bird and the Baby and the Bodleian

I went to the Eagle & Child pub in Oxford for lunch. This pub was once a pretty cool hangout for the Inklings - two of its members have names that are still commonplace today. You might have heard of them: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.  They would meet in this room of the pub, discuss ideas, and write. It was stimulating to know I was sitting in a pub where such fantastic authors once sat, eating foods that they probably ate (or near enough to it). 

Following that, I wandered around the city with a walking tour toward the Christ Church College. Christ Church College is not like colleges in the US. Here, it is more of a dorm, a smaller part of the larger Oxford University. Aside from it's already rich history (Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland here, for example) and expansive publishing house, Oxford University is known for the locations where Harry Potter was filmed. I admit, I geeked out over walking up the stairs that led to the Great Hall, even if it was just a staircase in the school. And the dining hall there was too small to be the Hogwarts hall, so they used it for inspiration, but one can certainly tell. It's beautiful. 

And, of course, no trip to Oxford would be complete without at visit to the magnificent Bodleian Library. The Restricted Section was filmed here, as well as the Hospital Wing scenes. I was not allowed to take pictures inside the library, but it was a very beautiful, magical, place. 

 

 

50 Foot Dead Parrot Not Where it Was Supposed to Be

After reading up on plague and the great fire at the London Museum, climbing to the top of St. Paul's to see the view (terrifyingly beautiful), and shopping at Harrods (overheard this gem: "Ideally, I'd get this kind of bag, because I like the shape, but if I'm going to get anything, it's going to be Prada."), I went on a search for a 50-food Norwegian Blue Parrot. 

As part of the celebration of Monty Python's final live show this Sunday, a fiberglass sculpture of the mythical Norwegian Blue from the famous Parrot Sketch was unveiled at Potters Field near the Tower Bridge yesterday. Unfortunately, it appears that it was also moved to the O2 Arena yesterday as well, because when I walked along the Queen's Walk for a good two hours (at least), nary a parrot did I find. I started at St. Paul's, crossed the Millennium Bridge, and then continued along the River until I got to the Tower Bridge. Potters Field is right next to City Hall. No Parrot. Disappointed, I thought maybe I'd read the location wrong, so I ought to continue walking. I swear, I was halfway to Greenwich before I said, "Screw this," and turned back around. Of course, then I thought, "Well, they said it was on the South Bank, did they mean Southbank and I'm imagining the part about the Tower Bridge?" So I started walking to Southbank which is by Waterloo and the London Eye (2.2 miles from Tower Bridge). On my walk west, I noticed that a) tide was out, and b) the gate to the river was open, so I walked on the water's edge for a bit, which was nice. When I got to Jubilee Gardens 45 mins later, there was NO FREAKING PARROT. Instead I saw a large number of men in wedding dresses running in some kind of marathon. Not what I was hoping for, but I'll take it. 

It's been kind of a weird day.

Photo of the Day (buildings and light):

Joke of the Day: 

A man in a movie theater notices what looks like a parrot sitting next to him. "Are you a parrot?" asked the man, surprised. 

"Yes,"replied the parrot.

"What are you doing at the movies?" 

The parrot tilts his head, "Well, I liked the book."