End of the week

So the week has finally calmed down and I finally have a chance to do an "end of the week update".

Sign to Shaw's Corner

On Wednesday we had a guided tour of the Tate Modern, which obviously focuses on modern art specifically abstract artwork. Now I've never been one for abstract art, but I thought it was fairly interesting and found that some enjoyed it more than others. After I left Tate Modern, I decided to take a stroll and explore that area a little more since I hadn't really spent too much time there. Not wanting to get lost all I really did was walk in a straight line towards the Waterloo tube station. It turned out to be a good distance than I was expecting but still a good way to see the area. On my way back to the dorm I was hungry since I hadn't had breakfast and stopped Wildwood Italian restaurant and picked up a spicy pepperoni pizza to go since they have them on sale. By the time I walked back my hot cheese had turned cold, but I was still excited to eat it since I had been wanting pizza. I should have realized that when it said spicy it really meant spicy. I at the pizza, moving the hot peppers around so they were not all clustered together and it was quite a good meal. Later on in the day my eye was itching so like a genius I rubbed it with my fingers (which I hadn't washed since moving the peppers) and of course my eye started to burn as if it were on fire. Even after the burning in my eye had gone away it still hurt and so I figured that was the perfect excuse to take a small nap before our Richard III show that evening. When we finally arrived at the Waterloo station which wasn't that far from The Old Vic theatre it started to rain again. We rushed over to the theatre only getting a little drizzle on us. A group of us had dressed nice in hopes of being able to meet Kevin Spacey after the show that night. We were all really excited until we got to our seats and found that we couldn't see very much. When our trip was booked, this production had already been technically sold out we I guess we were lucky enough to be able to have even seen it. Once the show started I was really excited and kept leaning over the railing to try and see what was going on but to no avail. Soon after I lost interest because I couldn't see what was happening and just sat back and listened. At intermission a lot of the people in our area went to sit in open seats that had better views, which opened up seats in our area that while still a bit restricted, were loads better then where I was sitting. Once I was actually able to see what was going on, the play became so much more enjoyable. The play was really long and by the time we got out some of the tube stations were already closed so we had to walk to a different one. Sara and I hadn't eaten dinner yet so on our way to the tube we stopped by this Indian restaurant which was alright. Before we sat down we had asked if they were still open and they said yes and took us to a table, but it was as if they were already closed because they kept rushing us and it was just very uncomfortable especially when they were watching us eat. We quickly ate and then headed to the tube so we could hurry and get home since we had an early morning the next day.

Shaw's Oscar for Pygmalion

On Thursday our group woke up early and jumped on a bus for our day trip to Hertfordshire to see Shaw's Corner as well as Hatfield House. It didn't really take us a long time to get their, 2 hours at most. We first started at Shaw's Corner, which is the house that playwright George Bernard Shaw and his wife lived. Most of the rooms we visited have been left the same way he had had it when he died in 1950. I was even able to see his Oscar that he won for the screen adaptation for the play Pygmalion, which I knew fairly well. After looking through the house we wandered into his garden and saw his writing hut where he spent a great deal of time. It was a great experience, and I even took a little souvenir (a pine cone) from his garden. We next headed over to Hatfield house, which was the complete opposite of Shaw's corner even though they were both built during the Jacobean era. Hatfield house is the area where Elizabeth I lived before she was crowned queen. In fact they even have the tree she was sitting at when she found out that her sister Mary had died and that she was now queen. Before our tour of the house we had a bit of time to grab some lunch. I ate at the restaurant that was on the grounds since it was more convenient. All the food looked really good and I finally decided on Bangers (sausage) and mash. When lunch was over we all headed to see Elizabeth's tree and lost track of time because we were five minutes late for our tour. The house still has a royal titled family still living in it today so some of the 200+ rooms were off limits, but we were still able to see many different areas' within the house. One of the really cool things is that Hatfield house has been a shooting location for many famous films including Tomb Raider, the original Batman films, Sherlock Holmes, Get Him to the Greek, and the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was really excited because I the estate had  real garden maze on the grounds and I really wanted to do it, unfortunately the maze is never open to the public so that idea was done for. After our tour was over, we headed back to the bus for our return trip to London. We got back a bit of time to spare so I worked on one of my projects and ended up finishing it, so that is one less thing I have to worry about. Around 6:30 I took the bus and headed for the Royal Court for a new show, The Village Bike. This show has by far been the most contemporary and sexual that we have seen. I enjoyed the show, but felt that by the end of the show the cast members were miserable and didn't want to be in each other's company. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the show and thought that for a newer play is was good.

Outside view of the Hatfield House

This weekend we have another chance to travel outside of London as part of our free weekends. On Friday a group of us headed to bath to visit the Fashion Museum as well as the Roman Baths. We woke up early and headed to Paddington Station to see if we could get tickets and surprisingly we did. In a matter of a couple of weeks I seem to have used all forms of transportation here in London including, buses, tubes, walking, trains, and boats. The only two I'm missing are bike and car, but I'll pass on those because with my luck I'll probably head into oncoming traffic since they drive on the opposite side of the road. Anyway we headed to Bath and the train trip took us about an hour and a half. We headed towards the Fashion museum first, to make sure that we were able to spend as much time there as we wanted. On our way, many of us were hungry so we stopped by a pub and grabbed some lunch. I was really excited because I order the lunch special and only paid £ 7 for my BBQ Chicken meal and my Swedish Cider (which is amazing, if only it was sold in the states). The Fashion museum was right around the corner, which we weren't expecting so it wasn't that far of a walk for us after lunch. At the museum they had a "Dressing the Stars" exhibition that included costume sketches as well as the actual costume from many movies including The King's Speech, Troy, Elizabeth I, and Pirates of the Caribbean. In honor of the Royal wedding they also had a "Wedding Dresses through the Years" exhibit which was also really nice. After spending time in the Fashion Museum we headed over to the Roman Baths. We grabbed our hearing guides and walked around the baths which was huge. Before we left the Baths, we asked one of the workers how often people fall into the water, since there are signs everywhere telling us not to touch the water. He told us that two days ago they had someone actually jump in. We also asked him why we were not suppose to touch the water and he said it was because it hadn't been treated in years, possibly since the Romans built it and that it was possible that there were ameba's that could cause Meningitis. We were all soon sad that we had broken the rules and touched the water, but on the plus side I had some germx and we used to clean our hands. After our visit to the Roman Baths we headed back to the train station and were lucky enough to make the 5:13 train ride back to London, but our trip home took longer than expected because we kept having to stop due to some problems. We eventually made it back to our dorms and for me I decided to call it a day except to go grab some dinner at the Pizza Express near our dorms.

View from the Top of the Baths

Today I woke up and went to grab some groceries to help cut down on the cost of having to eat out, only to remember when I got back that I don't have any pans too cook my food in :( bummer. After putting my food away I did some Laundry and read the play The Duchess of Malfi for our workshop at the V&A on Monday. I'm thinking about heading out for a bit to explore and then coming back to find a monologue from the play that I need for the workshop. We'll just have to see what else this day has to bring, other than the coldness outside.

Costume used in Elizabeth I