Update on Oct. 6 through Oct. 21
Friday, Oct. 6: We went to Bath for our last day trip. What a great place. We took a tour of the Roman baths with virtual tour guides (aka: a phone on a string into which we’d type numbers from plaques on the wall and learn more about an area of the museum). That was actually really nice because you could go at your own pace, explore, and not have to struggle to hear a tour guide. It was really interesting to learn how they found the baths (residents were complaining about hot water flooding their basements – it was from a natural hot spring!), and how the Romans built it so well that it still works today, with most of the original piping. They worshipped Minerva at this bath site, believing that she was the reason the water was always hot with a never-ending supply. They worshipped her as well as the sun and moon. The whole bath area was about the size of a football fiend, with a place of worship, the bathhouse, sauna-like areas, the courtyard, and of course the sacrifice altar in the center of the courtyard. Quite the interesting place.
After the museum, we went to eat at a pub. They had AMAZING food! I had the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had (the croutons were more bread-like than crunchy), and I ended up ordering this massive tray of garlic bread. They took a long thin loaf of bread, cut it in half, then cut it in half the other way, giving me four foot long pieces of garlic bread! It was heavenly!
Once we’d had our full, we met up with our people down by the waterside park. It was gorgeous there. There were ducks, a couple of geese, and, of course, pigeons. I actually saw a couple pretty pigeons, so I had to take pictures! After walking around for a bit longer, it was time to go and we headed back to the bus.
Check out my Bath pics: http://smumn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006721&id=173300088&l=c1acf
That night I went out with Walt’s parents. It was so wonderful to be with adults! I love meeting people’s parents and seeing where they come from. I really miss my parents right now too, so it was nice to have parents of some kind to spend time with. We went to a pub down the road from their apartment, and then out to an Indian cuisine restaurant. Walt and I just shared an appetizer because we weren’t that hungry, but his parents had full meals. His dad is a crazy spice lover type of guy, and I guess his meal was even a little too spicy for him, but he enjoyed it all the same. They were such nice people; I’m glad that I got to meet them. It was also really cool to see the difference in customer service at the restaurant. Most of the places that we have all gone out to eat at have not been huge on customer service, but here they waited on us hand and foot. It was pretty fun to be looked after like that :)
Saturday, Oct. 7: In the afternoon, I went to The Seafarer for class at The National Theatre. I was soooo tired, and I felt bad because it was a really good show! I pulled a Mom and closed my eyes while simply listening to the dialogue for a little bit. Anyway, the actors were so great at their characters. They were older men, who were amazing at acting like older men :) It all flowed so naturally. I am definitely reading the script later.
That night, a big group of us went to the After Skool Klub. It is a club on the London University of Engineering campus, where all students are welcome. There is free entry until midnight and half price drinks until 11:30pm. It was amazing to be able to dance with everyone again. Although I can’t handle going out to dance all the time, every once in a while is such a release! There were a lot of gothic/punk students there, which provided for some entertaining people watching. Overall, I had a great time! We will probably go back at least once more. I know some people went back this past Saturday (Oct. 16th), but I stayed in.
Sunday, Oct. 8: A group of us (a bunch of girls, Bryan and Skjerven) were supposed to go to a London Wasps versus another London team (I can’t think of them right now) rugby game, but many complications arose. First of all, the ticket booth lady gave us directions to the ticket booth, but this is not where the game was actually being played. The practice field was there, but not the game. Anyway, after searching for about 20 minutes for the entrance to the field, we finally realized how off we were. We stopped in a convenience store only to find that the field the game was on was completely outside of London! To make a long story short: we didn’t go to the game. We ended up deciding that we would find a nearby pub and watch it there. We found a great place called the Red Back (or something along those lines), an Australian pub, where they also happened to be having a FREE barbeque and 1 lb. bottles of Foster’s (the local big name imported beer). At first we thought that possibly we were crashing some private event, exclusive to the locals students (which would have been quite exciting!), but soon realized that this is something that they do every Sunday! It was a great deal: two huge turkey burgers with fixings and pineapple slices (I know, Chris, that doesn’t sound all that great to you)!! I joked about the fact the burgers tasted different so they must be kangaroo burgers, but Skjerven shot down my idea and told me the truth. It was sad realization ;) After 6pm, the barbeque ended as did the drink special, but we ate quickly at a grease spoon across the street, and came back for dancing! That’s right! Two nights of dancing in a row!! I was definitely feeling it later, but it was so much fun. OH! There was this guy there who looked like a cross between Brad Pitt and another actor with a mullet looking hair cut with a chin strap that totally made him look like he should be a character in the musical Cats! Don’t worry; I’ll put a picture of him up!!
Monday, Oct. 9: Since I haven’t been keeping up with this update very well, I cannot really remember what Monday entailed except that I had European Business from 1-4pm and slept during it for a good 20-25 minutes before the professor decided that it was a good time for a break! With only 8 people in the class, I was so shocked at myself that I fell asleep, but I was feeling horrible and I didn’t even want to be there, and so I just put my head down. The best part, though, was that when I woke up, I looked down at my notebook to find a nice little puddle of drool… how embarrassing! I guess I didn’t snore, though. Thank God!
Tuesday, Oct. 10: This was a very exciting day! We went to the Tate Modern for the second week for Art class, and went around the Surrealism section to explore questions that people had about modern art. It was very educational to hear Oliver speak about the pieces, and I really feel like I learned a lot. For our final paper in the class, we can write about anything we want to, as long as we show that we’ve done some research and put some thought and effort into it (okay, Oliver!), and I think that I may end up writing about Surrealism just because it really interested me, while at the same time completely freaked me out! I think that it would just be an interesting thing to explore.
When I came home that afternoon, I found Bob in our flat with another man, setting up a broadband ‘wireless’ connection! I was sooooo excited that I gave Bob a hug. The problem: Bob hates hugs. He saw me coming with my arms wide open, and he laughed, turning away, and said, ‘No, don’t hug me! Don’t hug me!’ …but alas… I hugged him. He didn’t burst into flames or break out in hives, though, and I will be sure never to do it again. I mean I thought he was joking because of the way he was smiling! I guess it’s just difficult for a hugger like myself to understand anyone’s dislike towards hugs :) Anyway, the point of that story was: now we have Internet in the flats!!!
Wednesday, Oct. 11: Theatre in London class… KP, Zak, and Renee presented. What a great presentation! So well put together and entertaining!! Renee had to present on Posthumorous (the play that [Mr.] Dr. Flanagan wrote and we are putting on here), and she reported on an ‘exclusive interview’ she had with him. What a hilarious moment! They all better get an A!
That afternoon, Mackenzie and I tried to book our flight to France (for the next day) to go visit Mrs. Willis, our freshman year women’s choir professor, but we found out that it was WAY too expensive. We also realized that we really don’t have any extra weekends open to go see her, so we won’t be visiting dear Mrs. Willis in France after all. I also tried to book my flight to visit Andrea in Dublin (Oct 27th to the 30th), but my credit card AND debit card were both being dumb! It was very frustrating!! The next day I called Wells Fargo, though, and he reset my cards or something like that, and now they work! Yah!!! And I’m going to Ireland to visit Andrea! Yah!!!
Thursday, Oct. 12: Bob flew back to Winona Tuesday or Wednesday to interview students wanting to study abroad in Italy, so we didn’t have Global Issues class. This free morning was spent at Harlem, a wonderful restaurant in the Paddington/Notting Hill area. I had pancakes and an egg and bacon, and it was amazing!! It was also great to spend time with KP and Lindsay. I really love those girls! I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, taking it easy and pretending to work on International Business. (I didn’t get much done.) Late that afternoon, I took the long tube ride out to The New Wimbledon Theatre to help out with the show that the theatre students are putting on called Posthumorous. It was my first time seeing the show. I thoroughly enjoyed finally being able to understand all the little things the theatre students had been making comments about for over a month. The show itself is creative, but the jokes are definitely head shakers. In other words, it’s a find of stupid funny. I couldn’t help but laugh though; as we all know, I am quite easily amused.
The whole premise behind the show is that it’s the night that man first walks on the moon and so anything is possible. It’s also the night before the funeral of Dexter (Skjerven’s character), and Mo (Missy), the funeral parlor owner, and Earl (Walt), her assistant, are making sure the final arrangements are in place. Dexter has left little notes for everyone (all starting with NB) to ensure that his funeral goes exactly as he planned before he died. Francis (Nina) comes to the parlor to see her brother and is immediately freaked out because Dexter made sure that when people touched his casket, his bowtie would begin to flash and a recording of his voice would go off. Jack Ditty (Andrew), Dexter’s lawyer, comes in soon after Francis, shaking uncontrollably because he is incredibly afraid of dead people. The rest of the first act is about all revealing many of the little things that Dexter planned, one of them being that Mona (Kris) would meet Francis, who you find out in Act Two are actually twin sisters. Something that Dexter doesn’t plan is that his wife, Ramona (Katie Schares), also dies and planned to have her ceremony at the same parlor as him. Act One ends with the parlor closing and Dexter and Ramona stepping out of their caskets only to see each other.
Act Two is about what happens after the funeral parlor is closed: the bodies get out of the caskets and hang out. Dexter’s parents, Toots (Michelle) and Stringer (Mike), show up to greet Dexter as he enters Vita and before Post-Vita (i.e., something like heaven). They share with each other what has happened in the past 20-odd years. Then, Dexter shares what he knows about Francis and Mona (that they are twin sisters) and the fact that he has set it up so that they will find out in the morning. This brings about some conflict due to the fact that Toots had no idea that she’d had twins; Stringer know how apprehensive she’d been about having one, and when she was beginning to go into labor, she reacted unpredictably to the anesthetic, and ended up unconscious before, during, and for forty-eight hours after the birth of Francis and Mona. Wanting to protect Toots, Stringer decides to give one of the twins away before Toots can find out. He chooses to keep the one on the right. After Toots dies, he leaves a note for Dexter, telling him the truth about his sister’s twin. Although Dexter is supposed to tell Francis when she’s older, Francis is constantly teasing Dexter about the fact that he cannot keep a secret, so waiting until after he dies to reveal the truth is his chance to show her that he really can keep a secret. Later in the act, Ramona reveals that she had wanted to surprise Dexter with a man that she had found to look very much like him, whom she hires as her lawyer. We soon learn that Dexter is actually also a twin. Stringer was away when Toots gave birth, and she couldn’t handle the idea of twins at that point either, so she gives away one of the twins as well, choosing also to keep the one on the right, who happens to be Dexter. Since Dexter’s twin, Lester (also played my Skjerven), is going to be at the parlor the following day, the dead decide to pass a message to those who will be in the parlor, so they all understand that Lester is Dexter twin by making them all have a ‘gut feeling.’ Also, early in the act, Jack, Dexter’s lawyer, shows up in his pajamas, wondering why he’s in the parlor. It turns out that he overdosed on tranquilizers (because he was so riled up over seeing Dexter’s dead body and wanted to just go to sleep) and had been brought into the parlor that night. The act ends with Jack, Dexter, and Ramona ‘transmitting’ the message that Lester is Dexter’s twin.
Act Three is when everything comes together: Mona and Francis find out that they are twins and everyone feels the message that Lester is Dexter’s twin, finally understanding why he looks so much like Dexter. The act ends with a recording of Ramona and Dexter speaking as they leave their bodies for the afterlife. There you go, a long synopsis :)
Friday, Oct. 13: I was back to Wimbledon by 2pm to run through the show again. That night after rehearsal, a group of us (my flatmates [minus Brookly :(], Simon, Schares, Skjervan, Walt, and Renee) went out to a ‘gothic’ pub called the Marlborough Head. They had seven different mixed drinks, one for each of the Deadly Sin: Pride, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, and Greed. They also had seven test tube shots representing characters from the Adam’s Family. The pub’s décor was so awesome! There were gargoyles, cobwebs, old leather bound books, and different scientific lab instruments thrown about; so entertaining!! The chairs and benches were also high-backed and gothic style. Kris and Lindsay had been there the weekend before when a majority of us went to the After Skool Klub, and we decided that we had to check it out because it was Friday the 13th :) It seemed a fitting place! We ended up all crowding around a round picnic table outside that was meant for only 8 people. It ended up being a fun, chill time.
After we got bored with that pub, we went to the second pub that Kris and Lindsay had checked out the weekend before, called The Old Explorer. It turned out being a sort of dance pub with hip-hop music playing. Renee was in love with the place! Having her and Kris together to dance with was amazing! You cannot help but go crazy when you have a combo like that dancing with you!!!
Saturday, Oct. 14: I slept in late, got ready quick, and was at rehearsal by 2pm again. It was only a cue rehearsal, so it was relatively quick. We found out more things for me to do, though; put down a stool to help Simon get out of her casket at the end of act one, help Michelle into Dexter’s casket before act three (she played the Dexter’s dead body while Skjerven plays Lester for the first show, but now Mike is filling in), and some other things. Now, though, we have become more efficient, and I have been reduced to just checking if a door is unlocked during the interval (known in the States as an intermission) between act two and three and helping Mike into the casket before act three. I also make sure that everyone has everything ready for their costumes, they look nice, change between acts if need be, etc. In other words, I’m costume girl :)
After rehearsal, Erin showed Kris and I a wonderful store called UniQlo. It has a variety of solid color shirts (short-sleeved, long-sleeved, cotton and cashmere sweaters, tank tops, etc.) and other clothes. I ended up getting a variety of shirts for laying, as the weather gets colder, and a fleece vest. Kris and I absolutely loved it there (as did Erin), and we were definitely happy that we got to check it out!
On the way home, I saw the cutest baby boy on the tube. I was at the end of my carriage, and he was at the beginning of his. He was standing on his mother’s lap, next to his father, with his hands on the window, looking in at me. I automatically melted! I started waving at him and making faces to get him to laugh. He was such a happy baby! His parents were actually really nice too. Most people around here with snarl at you if you look at their children (which we all find to be kind of odd). That little boy made my night! I mean some people would have probably said that he was ‘flirting’ with me, and whom wouldn’t that make happy? ;)
That night Kris and I stayed in to work on International Business. Yeah… we procrastinated and ate a lot of food all night, but it was a GREAT time!
Sunday, Oct. 15: I had to actually work in International Business. We were meeting Mr. Huegel (aka: Benji) to discuss how our first week of class would go. Let me explain: I am taking International Business as a half on-line course, half normal course. We read assigned chapters, take quizzes, and write journal entries when Mr. Huegel isn’t here. Then, Mr. Huegel comes for one week in October and one week in November, when we have class every day (around our other class) Monday through Thursday, taking one test each week. Our final exam (which isn’t cumulative, but simply a third test on the last chunk of chapters) will actually be an on-line test because he won’t be here during finals week. Anyway, we were met Mr. Huegel at 4pm to discuss when we were going to meet and if we had any questions about the schedule. Monday I had my first assignment due, though, so I actually had to crack down on reading. Kris and I still procrastinated, but we managed to get our assignment done! There are only four students in our class (Kris, Brookly, Pat and myself), but it has turned out to actually be quite fun.
Monday, Oct. 16: International Business class, European Business class, and first dress rehearsal. Not much else to say.
Tuesday, Oct. 17: We met at 10:30am at the Victoria and Albert art museum for Art in London class. I’m not sure how I feel about the museum. I really enjoyed looking at the casts they had of famous pieces (David by Michelangelo, many Celtic crosses, coffins with intricate replicas of the bodies within, a huge Roman column that depicts all the battles one of their emperors had won, and parts of many Gothic buildings). They looked gorgeous although they were all fake! I guess they made the casts so that students could study these famous pieces without having to go to the specific museums around the world that actually have the pieces. Yes, we went to an educational place for our education :) I always love Oliver’s lectures, though. How can you not love that wonderful Irish man?
After Art, I had my test in International Business. It was all essay questions, with four questions we had to answer (one from each chapter), and a choice of four more from a set of eight questions. He had given us a review sheet with five questions for each chapter, and the questions all came from that sheet. I am pretty sure I aced the test. Whoop whoop! It was a great feeling!!
That night was our final dress rehearsal. It went really well except for the final act when Walt forgot to say his line that he normally forgets, but he’d actually remembered Monday night. It threw everyone off greatly, and although Nina tried to improvise, it didn’t work too well. “Why is she dead?” Oh… Nina… There was a lot of laughter after they finally finished the act. Yet the saying that if the final dress rehearsal goes bad, opening night should go great turned out to be true!
Wednesday, Oct. 18: We had a study session for our Global Issues class in the morning, KP and I gave a presentation in International Business in the afternoon, and opening night for Posthumorous in the evening. Opening night went well; we had an audience of about 20 people. This seems like a tiny number, but the fact that we are performing the show in a black box theatre makes that number seem a lot larger! Oh! One thing that went wrong: Schares’ corsage short-circuited before the show started. There was a tiny bit of light (she had a blinking corsage to match Skjerven’s blinking tie by the way), but not much, and it didn’t last long. Schares did a great job improving through it though; she simply blamed Earl, the funeral parlor assistant who was supposed to ‘wire’ her, for not being a good electrician.
After the show, Michelle, Simon, Schares, Andrew and I went to Pizza Hut near The New Wimbledon for supper. It was amazing!! Gotta love UK Pizza Hut, especially over US Pizza Hut!
Thursday, Oct. 19: I slept until about 11am, got ready for class, and went to International Business. Before I left, I got to see the package that Kris’ mom sent her. It was an amazing package: old pictures, a necklace, Halloween candy, a pair of jeans, and other random things. I love that woman! Mrs. Perkins rocks my socks off :)
The second show went well tonight. There were a few mistakes, but our cast has become very good at showing off their improvisation skills! Tonight Missy missed her cue to come on stage, so they had to add a little blip before just moving on with the show. Then, because it was Mike’s first night in Dexter’s casket, he almost panicked at the line mentioning an envelope one of the characters had supposedly put into Dexter’s coat pocket. All he could think about was: “Oh! I hope that envelope is in this coat!” Luckily we place the envelope on the inside the casket, not the coat, so everything was fine! Now we are halfway done with the performances!!
After we got back tonight, I went grocery shopping for the first time in over a week. It has been one expensive week, with having to put extra money on my tube pass because Wimbledon is outside of Zone 1 and 2 (where our cards give us access to) and because I have had to pay for eating out all week. We actually were just going to go to get a quick meal, but I ended up getting a bunch of groceries. It really made me see how much money I had wasted. I spent less than 10 lbs. on a huge box of cereal, two boxes of granola bars, Nutella, four pizzas, croissants, mini pancakes, and juice. Crazy, crazy stuff! I was going to get peanut butter too, but they were in the middle of restocking the shelves, and they didn’t have the normal peanut butter out, only tiny jars of organic peanut butter that was really expensive. I decided to wait (good job, huh, Dad?). All right, I’m going to go read more of Wicked, before I head to bed.
Friday, Oct. 20: I had my field study with BritishAmerican Business Inc. It was a very interesting learning experience. British American is a non-profit organization that helps British companies get set-up in the US and US companies get set-up in the UK. They have around 700 member companies, including many of the world’s largest international corporations. Sixty percent of the companies are in the services field. They help their members with marketing opportunities, business development opportunities, transatlantic services, and a business profile. They do these things through different publications, member-to-member perks, forums, speakers, networking events, databases and contact lists, event sponsorship, etc. The coolest thing that I found that they do is actually one of the networking events. It’s a lot like speed dating, but it’s speed networking! Experienced business professionals remain seated, while every 2-3 minutes, younger, less-experienced business folk rotate among them. This helps the less-experienced business people have that first encounter with professionals they want to talk to, allowing them to exchange business cards, and some brief information. If they decide they want to have further contact with them, the first encounter is out of the way, making more conversations a whole lot easier! Cool huh? Anyway, I asked our presenter if they had any interns helping with the publications they put out, and I guess they actually have two. They are both part of 8 or 12 week programs. The secretary though actually used to be an intern through the Mountbatten Internship Programme for 12 months, and they loved her so much that they extended her visa and then hired her full-time. I got the Mountbattern.website (http://www.mountbatten.org/) from the secretary, so that I could look more into it. It turns out that they help US students get internships in London and UK students get internships in New York. The programme is relatively competitive, and it would be something that I’d do after I finished my Bachelor’s degree, but it’s definitely something I wan to keep in mind. If accepted, they set you up in really great companies, that many times will hire you after your internship is over. What a great way to get experience and develop references!! Anyway, that was pretty exciting for me, although it is a ways away.
The show went well again. I had fun with make-up and put on hideous green eye shadow and bright pink lipstick :) It was quite entertaining :D
Saturday, Oct. 21: I definitely slept in! I had no motive to do anything besides catch up on my sleep, and it was glorious!! At about 3pm, I finally got out of bed, took a shower, ate, and headed off to Wimbledon. Although I was super involved in reading Wicked, and didn’t change tubes at Earl’s Court and had to turn around, I still got to Wimbledon with enough time to return a belt at H&M and stop by Book etc. (like Barnes and Noble, so you know it’s a new favorite store!) to pick up something quick. Everyone was pumped about it being the last night. After Mike finished act two, he actually began making little noises and jumping around out of joy! Erin and I carried our assistant stage manager duties to the full by going to KFC a couple of times for cast members. I think the KFC workers thought that we were very hungry girls :) After the show, we struck the set, and by struck the set, I mean literally took hammers to it (and screwdrivers, and utility knives). I followed around Andrew and picked up screws as he pulled them out. We finished taking apart the set (one of Dr. Flanagan’s friends was going to take the wood pieces and reuse them), reset the lights, and cleaned up the stage and dressing room area in about an hour and a half. It was nuts!! I was pretty proud of all of us though :) That night was the first night we all left the theatre at the same time. We got some weird looks on the last stretch due to the fact that we were carrying two folding chairs and two stools we had taken from the flat! The girls with the stools actually sat on them during the ride because there wasn’t enough room for them in the normal seats. Yeah, we’re crazy Americans; get over it ;) After I got home, I sat in the living room with Wicked and finished it. What a great book!! I am looking forward to (a) reading it again and looking for foreshadowing and (b) reading the sequel: Son of a Witch. It seemed so different from the musical as I reading it in the beginning, but after I finished it, I realized where they got the different pieces. I can understand that they needed to make changes in order to adapt the story from a 500 page book to a two hour show, and now that I’ve finished I think they actually did a good job of it. Anyway, now I’m going to reread the first four chapters of The United States of Europe for my midterm on Thursday, then move on to the other books Mac and I bought together.
After the museum, we went to eat at a pub. They had AMAZING food! I had the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had (the croutons were more bread-like than crunchy), and I ended up ordering this massive tray of garlic bread. They took a long thin loaf of bread, cut it in half, then cut it in half the other way, giving me four foot long pieces of garlic bread! It was heavenly!
Once we’d had our full, we met up with our people down by the waterside park. It was gorgeous there. There were ducks, a couple of geese, and, of course, pigeons. I actually saw a couple pretty pigeons, so I had to take pictures! After walking around for a bit longer, it was time to go and we headed back to the bus.
Check out my Bath pics: http://smumn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006721&id=173300088&l=c1acf
That night I went out with Walt’s parents. It was so wonderful to be with adults! I love meeting people’s parents and seeing where they come from. I really miss my parents right now too, so it was nice to have parents of some kind to spend time with. We went to a pub down the road from their apartment, and then out to an Indian cuisine restaurant. Walt and I just shared an appetizer because we weren’t that hungry, but his parents had full meals. His dad is a crazy spice lover type of guy, and I guess his meal was even a little too spicy for him, but he enjoyed it all the same. They were such nice people; I’m glad that I got to meet them. It was also really cool to see the difference in customer service at the restaurant. Most of the places that we have all gone out to eat at have not been huge on customer service, but here they waited on us hand and foot. It was pretty fun to be looked after like that :)
Saturday, Oct. 7: In the afternoon, I went to The Seafarer for class at The National Theatre. I was soooo tired, and I felt bad because it was a really good show! I pulled a Mom and closed my eyes while simply listening to the dialogue for a little bit. Anyway, the actors were so great at their characters. They were older men, who were amazing at acting like older men :) It all flowed so naturally. I am definitely reading the script later.
That night, a big group of us went to the After Skool Klub. It is a club on the London University of Engineering campus, where all students are welcome. There is free entry until midnight and half price drinks until 11:30pm. It was amazing to be able to dance with everyone again. Although I can’t handle going out to dance all the time, every once in a while is such a release! There were a lot of gothic/punk students there, which provided for some entertaining people watching. Overall, I had a great time! We will probably go back at least once more. I know some people went back this past Saturday (Oct. 16th), but I stayed in.
Sunday, Oct. 8: A group of us (a bunch of girls, Bryan and Skjerven) were supposed to go to a London Wasps versus another London team (I can’t think of them right now) rugby game, but many complications arose. First of all, the ticket booth lady gave us directions to the ticket booth, but this is not where the game was actually being played. The practice field was there, but not the game. Anyway, after searching for about 20 minutes for the entrance to the field, we finally realized how off we were. We stopped in a convenience store only to find that the field the game was on was completely outside of London! To make a long story short: we didn’t go to the game. We ended up deciding that we would find a nearby pub and watch it there. We found a great place called the Red Back (or something along those lines), an Australian pub, where they also happened to be having a FREE barbeque and 1 lb. bottles of Foster’s (the local big name imported beer). At first we thought that possibly we were crashing some private event, exclusive to the locals students (which would have been quite exciting!), but soon realized that this is something that they do every Sunday! It was a great deal: two huge turkey burgers with fixings and pineapple slices (I know, Chris, that doesn’t sound all that great to you)!! I joked about the fact the burgers tasted different so they must be kangaroo burgers, but Skjerven shot down my idea and told me the truth. It was sad realization ;) After 6pm, the barbeque ended as did the drink special, but we ate quickly at a grease spoon across the street, and came back for dancing! That’s right! Two nights of dancing in a row!! I was definitely feeling it later, but it was so much fun. OH! There was this guy there who looked like a cross between Brad Pitt and another actor with a mullet looking hair cut with a chin strap that totally made him look like he should be a character in the musical Cats! Don’t worry; I’ll put a picture of him up!!
Monday, Oct. 9: Since I haven’t been keeping up with this update very well, I cannot really remember what Monday entailed except that I had European Business from 1-4pm and slept during it for a good 20-25 minutes before the professor decided that it was a good time for a break! With only 8 people in the class, I was so shocked at myself that I fell asleep, but I was feeling horrible and I didn’t even want to be there, and so I just put my head down. The best part, though, was that when I woke up, I looked down at my notebook to find a nice little puddle of drool… how embarrassing! I guess I didn’t snore, though. Thank God!
Tuesday, Oct. 10: This was a very exciting day! We went to the Tate Modern for the second week for Art class, and went around the Surrealism section to explore questions that people had about modern art. It was very educational to hear Oliver speak about the pieces, and I really feel like I learned a lot. For our final paper in the class, we can write about anything we want to, as long as we show that we’ve done some research and put some thought and effort into it (okay, Oliver!), and I think that I may end up writing about Surrealism just because it really interested me, while at the same time completely freaked me out! I think that it would just be an interesting thing to explore.
When I came home that afternoon, I found Bob in our flat with another man, setting up a broadband ‘wireless’ connection! I was sooooo excited that I gave Bob a hug. The problem: Bob hates hugs. He saw me coming with my arms wide open, and he laughed, turning away, and said, ‘No, don’t hug me! Don’t hug me!’ …but alas… I hugged him. He didn’t burst into flames or break out in hives, though, and I will be sure never to do it again. I mean I thought he was joking because of the way he was smiling! I guess it’s just difficult for a hugger like myself to understand anyone’s dislike towards hugs :) Anyway, the point of that story was: now we have Internet in the flats!!!
Wednesday, Oct. 11: Theatre in London class… KP, Zak, and Renee presented. What a great presentation! So well put together and entertaining!! Renee had to present on Posthumorous (the play that [Mr.] Dr. Flanagan wrote and we are putting on here), and she reported on an ‘exclusive interview’ she had with him. What a hilarious moment! They all better get an A!
That afternoon, Mackenzie and I tried to book our flight to France (for the next day) to go visit Mrs. Willis, our freshman year women’s choir professor, but we found out that it was WAY too expensive. We also realized that we really don’t have any extra weekends open to go see her, so we won’t be visiting dear Mrs. Willis in France after all. I also tried to book my flight to visit Andrea in Dublin (Oct 27th to the 30th), but my credit card AND debit card were both being dumb! It was very frustrating!! The next day I called Wells Fargo, though, and he reset my cards or something like that, and now they work! Yah!!! And I’m going to Ireland to visit Andrea! Yah!!!
Thursday, Oct. 12: Bob flew back to Winona Tuesday or Wednesday to interview students wanting to study abroad in Italy, so we didn’t have Global Issues class. This free morning was spent at Harlem, a wonderful restaurant in the Paddington/Notting Hill area. I had pancakes and an egg and bacon, and it was amazing!! It was also great to spend time with KP and Lindsay. I really love those girls! I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, taking it easy and pretending to work on International Business. (I didn’t get much done.) Late that afternoon, I took the long tube ride out to The New Wimbledon Theatre to help out with the show that the theatre students are putting on called Posthumorous. It was my first time seeing the show. I thoroughly enjoyed finally being able to understand all the little things the theatre students had been making comments about for over a month. The show itself is creative, but the jokes are definitely head shakers. In other words, it’s a find of stupid funny. I couldn’t help but laugh though; as we all know, I am quite easily amused.
The whole premise behind the show is that it’s the night that man first walks on the moon and so anything is possible. It’s also the night before the funeral of Dexter (Skjerven’s character), and Mo (Missy), the funeral parlor owner, and Earl (Walt), her assistant, are making sure the final arrangements are in place. Dexter has left little notes for everyone (all starting with NB) to ensure that his funeral goes exactly as he planned before he died. Francis (Nina) comes to the parlor to see her brother and is immediately freaked out because Dexter made sure that when people touched his casket, his bowtie would begin to flash and a recording of his voice would go off. Jack Ditty (Andrew), Dexter’s lawyer, comes in soon after Francis, shaking uncontrollably because he is incredibly afraid of dead people. The rest of the first act is about all revealing many of the little things that Dexter planned, one of them being that Mona (Kris) would meet Francis, who you find out in Act Two are actually twin sisters. Something that Dexter doesn’t plan is that his wife, Ramona (Katie Schares), also dies and planned to have her ceremony at the same parlor as him. Act One ends with the parlor closing and Dexter and Ramona stepping out of their caskets only to see each other.
Act Two is about what happens after the funeral parlor is closed: the bodies get out of the caskets and hang out. Dexter’s parents, Toots (Michelle) and Stringer (Mike), show up to greet Dexter as he enters Vita and before Post-Vita (i.e., something like heaven). They share with each other what has happened in the past 20-odd years. Then, Dexter shares what he knows about Francis and Mona (that they are twin sisters) and the fact that he has set it up so that they will find out in the morning. This brings about some conflict due to the fact that Toots had no idea that she’d had twins; Stringer know how apprehensive she’d been about having one, and when she was beginning to go into labor, she reacted unpredictably to the anesthetic, and ended up unconscious before, during, and for forty-eight hours after the birth of Francis and Mona. Wanting to protect Toots, Stringer decides to give one of the twins away before Toots can find out. He chooses to keep the one on the right. After Toots dies, he leaves a note for Dexter, telling him the truth about his sister’s twin. Although Dexter is supposed to tell Francis when she’s older, Francis is constantly teasing Dexter about the fact that he cannot keep a secret, so waiting until after he dies to reveal the truth is his chance to show her that he really can keep a secret. Later in the act, Ramona reveals that she had wanted to surprise Dexter with a man that she had found to look very much like him, whom she hires as her lawyer. We soon learn that Dexter is actually also a twin. Stringer was away when Toots gave birth, and she couldn’t handle the idea of twins at that point either, so she gives away one of the twins as well, choosing also to keep the one on the right, who happens to be Dexter. Since Dexter’s twin, Lester (also played my Skjerven), is going to be at the parlor the following day, the dead decide to pass a message to those who will be in the parlor, so they all understand that Lester is Dexter twin by making them all have a ‘gut feeling.’ Also, early in the act, Jack, Dexter’s lawyer, shows up in his pajamas, wondering why he’s in the parlor. It turns out that he overdosed on tranquilizers (because he was so riled up over seeing Dexter’s dead body and wanted to just go to sleep) and had been brought into the parlor that night. The act ends with Jack, Dexter, and Ramona ‘transmitting’ the message that Lester is Dexter’s twin.
Act Three is when everything comes together: Mona and Francis find out that they are twins and everyone feels the message that Lester is Dexter’s twin, finally understanding why he looks so much like Dexter. The act ends with a recording of Ramona and Dexter speaking as they leave their bodies for the afterlife. There you go, a long synopsis :)
Friday, Oct. 13: I was back to Wimbledon by 2pm to run through the show again. That night after rehearsal, a group of us (my flatmates [minus Brookly :(], Simon, Schares, Skjervan, Walt, and Renee) went out to a ‘gothic’ pub called the Marlborough Head. They had seven different mixed drinks, one for each of the Deadly Sin: Pride, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, and Greed. They also had seven test tube shots representing characters from the Adam’s Family. The pub’s décor was so awesome! There were gargoyles, cobwebs, old leather bound books, and different scientific lab instruments thrown about; so entertaining!! The chairs and benches were also high-backed and gothic style. Kris and Lindsay had been there the weekend before when a majority of us went to the After Skool Klub, and we decided that we had to check it out because it was Friday the 13th :) It seemed a fitting place! We ended up all crowding around a round picnic table outside that was meant for only 8 people. It ended up being a fun, chill time.
After we got bored with that pub, we went to the second pub that Kris and Lindsay had checked out the weekend before, called The Old Explorer. It turned out being a sort of dance pub with hip-hop music playing. Renee was in love with the place! Having her and Kris together to dance with was amazing! You cannot help but go crazy when you have a combo like that dancing with you!!!
Saturday, Oct. 14: I slept in late, got ready quick, and was at rehearsal by 2pm again. It was only a cue rehearsal, so it was relatively quick. We found out more things for me to do, though; put down a stool to help Simon get out of her casket at the end of act one, help Michelle into Dexter’s casket before act three (she played the Dexter’s dead body while Skjerven plays Lester for the first show, but now Mike is filling in), and some other things. Now, though, we have become more efficient, and I have been reduced to just checking if a door is unlocked during the interval (known in the States as an intermission) between act two and three and helping Mike into the casket before act three. I also make sure that everyone has everything ready for their costumes, they look nice, change between acts if need be, etc. In other words, I’m costume girl :)
After rehearsal, Erin showed Kris and I a wonderful store called UniQlo. It has a variety of solid color shirts (short-sleeved, long-sleeved, cotton and cashmere sweaters, tank tops, etc.) and other clothes. I ended up getting a variety of shirts for laying, as the weather gets colder, and a fleece vest. Kris and I absolutely loved it there (as did Erin), and we were definitely happy that we got to check it out!
On the way home, I saw the cutest baby boy on the tube. I was at the end of my carriage, and he was at the beginning of his. He was standing on his mother’s lap, next to his father, with his hands on the window, looking in at me. I automatically melted! I started waving at him and making faces to get him to laugh. He was such a happy baby! His parents were actually really nice too. Most people around here with snarl at you if you look at their children (which we all find to be kind of odd). That little boy made my night! I mean some people would have probably said that he was ‘flirting’ with me, and whom wouldn’t that make happy? ;)
That night Kris and I stayed in to work on International Business. Yeah… we procrastinated and ate a lot of food all night, but it was a GREAT time!
Sunday, Oct. 15: I had to actually work in International Business. We were meeting Mr. Huegel (aka: Benji) to discuss how our first week of class would go. Let me explain: I am taking International Business as a half on-line course, half normal course. We read assigned chapters, take quizzes, and write journal entries when Mr. Huegel isn’t here. Then, Mr. Huegel comes for one week in October and one week in November, when we have class every day (around our other class) Monday through Thursday, taking one test each week. Our final exam (which isn’t cumulative, but simply a third test on the last chunk of chapters) will actually be an on-line test because he won’t be here during finals week. Anyway, we were met Mr. Huegel at 4pm to discuss when we were going to meet and if we had any questions about the schedule. Monday I had my first assignment due, though, so I actually had to crack down on reading. Kris and I still procrastinated, but we managed to get our assignment done! There are only four students in our class (Kris, Brookly, Pat and myself), but it has turned out to actually be quite fun.
Monday, Oct. 16: International Business class, European Business class, and first dress rehearsal. Not much else to say.
Tuesday, Oct. 17: We met at 10:30am at the Victoria and Albert art museum for Art in London class. I’m not sure how I feel about the museum. I really enjoyed looking at the casts they had of famous pieces (David by Michelangelo, many Celtic crosses, coffins with intricate replicas of the bodies within, a huge Roman column that depicts all the battles one of their emperors had won, and parts of many Gothic buildings). They looked gorgeous although they were all fake! I guess they made the casts so that students could study these famous pieces without having to go to the specific museums around the world that actually have the pieces. Yes, we went to an educational place for our education :) I always love Oliver’s lectures, though. How can you not love that wonderful Irish man?
After Art, I had my test in International Business. It was all essay questions, with four questions we had to answer (one from each chapter), and a choice of four more from a set of eight questions. He had given us a review sheet with five questions for each chapter, and the questions all came from that sheet. I am pretty sure I aced the test. Whoop whoop! It was a great feeling!!
That night was our final dress rehearsal. It went really well except for the final act when Walt forgot to say his line that he normally forgets, but he’d actually remembered Monday night. It threw everyone off greatly, and although Nina tried to improvise, it didn’t work too well. “Why is she dead?” Oh… Nina… There was a lot of laughter after they finally finished the act. Yet the saying that if the final dress rehearsal goes bad, opening night should go great turned out to be true!
Wednesday, Oct. 18: We had a study session for our Global Issues class in the morning, KP and I gave a presentation in International Business in the afternoon, and opening night for Posthumorous in the evening. Opening night went well; we had an audience of about 20 people. This seems like a tiny number, but the fact that we are performing the show in a black box theatre makes that number seem a lot larger! Oh! One thing that went wrong: Schares’ corsage short-circuited before the show started. There was a tiny bit of light (she had a blinking corsage to match Skjerven’s blinking tie by the way), but not much, and it didn’t last long. Schares did a great job improving through it though; she simply blamed Earl, the funeral parlor assistant who was supposed to ‘wire’ her, for not being a good electrician.
After the show, Michelle, Simon, Schares, Andrew and I went to Pizza Hut near The New Wimbledon for supper. It was amazing!! Gotta love UK Pizza Hut, especially over US Pizza Hut!
Thursday, Oct. 19: I slept until about 11am, got ready for class, and went to International Business. Before I left, I got to see the package that Kris’ mom sent her. It was an amazing package: old pictures, a necklace, Halloween candy, a pair of jeans, and other random things. I love that woman! Mrs. Perkins rocks my socks off :)
The second show went well tonight. There were a few mistakes, but our cast has become very good at showing off their improvisation skills! Tonight Missy missed her cue to come on stage, so they had to add a little blip before just moving on with the show. Then, because it was Mike’s first night in Dexter’s casket, he almost panicked at the line mentioning an envelope one of the characters had supposedly put into Dexter’s coat pocket. All he could think about was: “Oh! I hope that envelope is in this coat!” Luckily we place the envelope on the inside the casket, not the coat, so everything was fine! Now we are halfway done with the performances!!
After we got back tonight, I went grocery shopping for the first time in over a week. It has been one expensive week, with having to put extra money on my tube pass because Wimbledon is outside of Zone 1 and 2 (where our cards give us access to) and because I have had to pay for eating out all week. We actually were just going to go to get a quick meal, but I ended up getting a bunch of groceries. It really made me see how much money I had wasted. I spent less than 10 lbs. on a huge box of cereal, two boxes of granola bars, Nutella, four pizzas, croissants, mini pancakes, and juice. Crazy, crazy stuff! I was going to get peanut butter too, but they were in the middle of restocking the shelves, and they didn’t have the normal peanut butter out, only tiny jars of organic peanut butter that was really expensive. I decided to wait (good job, huh, Dad?). All right, I’m going to go read more of Wicked, before I head to bed.
Friday, Oct. 20: I had my field study with BritishAmerican Business Inc. It was a very interesting learning experience. British American is a non-profit organization that helps British companies get set-up in the US and US companies get set-up in the UK. They have around 700 member companies, including many of the world’s largest international corporations. Sixty percent of the companies are in the services field. They help their members with marketing opportunities, business development opportunities, transatlantic services, and a business profile. They do these things through different publications, member-to-member perks, forums, speakers, networking events, databases and contact lists, event sponsorship, etc. The coolest thing that I found that they do is actually one of the networking events. It’s a lot like speed dating, but it’s speed networking! Experienced business professionals remain seated, while every 2-3 minutes, younger, less-experienced business folk rotate among them. This helps the less-experienced business people have that first encounter with professionals they want to talk to, allowing them to exchange business cards, and some brief information. If they decide they want to have further contact with them, the first encounter is out of the way, making more conversations a whole lot easier! Cool huh? Anyway, I asked our presenter if they had any interns helping with the publications they put out, and I guess they actually have two. They are both part of 8 or 12 week programs. The secretary though actually used to be an intern through the Mountbatten Internship Programme for 12 months, and they loved her so much that they extended her visa and then hired her full-time. I got the Mountbattern.website (http://www.mountbatten.org/) from the secretary, so that I could look more into it. It turns out that they help US students get internships in London and UK students get internships in New York. The programme is relatively competitive, and it would be something that I’d do after I finished my Bachelor’s degree, but it’s definitely something I wan to keep in mind. If accepted, they set you up in really great companies, that many times will hire you after your internship is over. What a great way to get experience and develop references!! Anyway, that was pretty exciting for me, although it is a ways away.
The show went well again. I had fun with make-up and put on hideous green eye shadow and bright pink lipstick :) It was quite entertaining :D
Saturday, Oct. 21: I definitely slept in! I had no motive to do anything besides catch up on my sleep, and it was glorious!! At about 3pm, I finally got out of bed, took a shower, ate, and headed off to Wimbledon. Although I was super involved in reading Wicked, and didn’t change tubes at Earl’s Court and had to turn around, I still got to Wimbledon with enough time to return a belt at H&M and stop by Book etc. (like Barnes and Noble, so you know it’s a new favorite store!) to pick up something quick. Everyone was pumped about it being the last night. After Mike finished act two, he actually began making little noises and jumping around out of joy! Erin and I carried our assistant stage manager duties to the full by going to KFC a couple of times for cast members. I think the KFC workers thought that we were very hungry girls :) After the show, we struck the set, and by struck the set, I mean literally took hammers to it (and screwdrivers, and utility knives). I followed around Andrew and picked up screws as he pulled them out. We finished taking apart the set (one of Dr. Flanagan’s friends was going to take the wood pieces and reuse them), reset the lights, and cleaned up the stage and dressing room area in about an hour and a half. It was nuts!! I was pretty proud of all of us though :) That night was the first night we all left the theatre at the same time. We got some weird looks on the last stretch due to the fact that we were carrying two folding chairs and two stools we had taken from the flat! The girls with the stools actually sat on them during the ride because there wasn’t enough room for them in the normal seats. Yeah, we’re crazy Americans; get over it ;) After I got home, I sat in the living room with Wicked and finished it. What a great book!! I am looking forward to (a) reading it again and looking for foreshadowing and (b) reading the sequel: Son of a Witch. It seemed so different from the musical as I reading it in the beginning, but after I finished it, I realized where they got the different pieces. I can understand that they needed to make changes in order to adapt the story from a 500 page book to a two hour show, and now that I’ve finished I think they actually did a good job of it. Anyway, now I’m going to reread the first four chapters of The United States of Europe for my midterm on Thursday, then move on to the other books Mac and I bought together.
posted by Abby | 4:17 AM
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