Shows

One of my favorite things about London is the culture. I'm a geek, so I love museums, art galleries, going to the theatre, things like that. Basically, London is a playground filled with treats for the academic traveller. One of my classes is called "Contemporary British Theatre" and it is a drama class for non-drama majors where all we do is see one show every week and then talk about it, occasionally writing a review. So far we have seen two shows: one bad one and one good one. We have also gotten to see two well known London theatres, too - The Young Vic and The Royal National. One of the reasons I love the class is because the focus of the class is not on the big, commercial musicals and plays that the West End gets, which is an area of London similar to Broadway. Most of these shows are either transfers from New York or will eventually transfer to New York if they are successful here; so I have seen a good chunk of them already, or they are things that I would chose not to see...like Thriller Live, a Michael Jackson tribute musical. Not my style.

But this past Friday afternoon I found myself sitting around my flat realizing that I hadn't done anything "Londony" all day. Then I got upset that it was already almost October and the time has just been flying by. So I decided to treat myself to one of the big West End shows that I was interested in seeing. I looked up a few shows, but I found that the West End theatre district is not nearly as organized or accessible as Broadway; you can't just walk up and down one street and see a marquee for almost every show. I didn't have time for a plan, so I just took the tube to a stop that I knew was within a close proximity of some theatres, and I just looked around. Lucky for me, the first theatre I saw was showing "Love Never Dies" which actually was my first choice of shows I wanted to see. For anybody who hasn't heard of it, it is the sequel to "Phantom of the Opera." I walked in half an hour before the show, and I was able to snag a ticket in the last row; I was ecstatic. The show was good, but it has a few major flaws. There are some really good songs, and some mediocre ones. The writing is kind of spotty, and it's a little "dialed down" from the intense writing and thrilling score of the original. There were some amazing technical elements, including a lot of impressive special effects. The biggest complaint I had was that the girl playing Meg...well, she sucked. And Meg is one of the bigger roles in this show. (Pretty much all the same characters from the original are in the sequel, as well as a few new ones. Christine's son, who we find out VERY quickly is actually the Phantom's son, adds an interesting "creepy child" element to the show, but I feel for that kid. He must be EXHAUSTED with how many songs he sings!) I couldn't get any pictures inside, but here's the marquee and my ticket as proof!



And finally, to wrap up my amazing weekend, I had such a great time last night. I met up with Vince and Janelle, two of the people that I lived with when I was volunteering in South Africa this summer. Vince is from London, so I've seen him a couple times since getting here. Janelle is actually from Canada. I had dinner with both of them on Thursday after Janelle flew in, but this time we were actually able to go out for an evening. Janelle is here for a short stay with Vince until both of them go back to South Africa, which I am insanely jealous of. It is just really good to see people from this summer. We have a bond that nobody else will ever replace. I miss everybody else from SA!

But back to the event at hand. We managed to get into a huge club where we saw The Saturdays in concert!!! For anybody who doesn't know who they are, they are basically a modern day Spice Girls, but not quite so popular. They are the biggest girl group in the UK right now. The concert was so much fun, even though I couldn't move an inch where I was standing. That was only because I was pretty close to them, check out the view.



So it's been a REALLY GOOD weekend, and I'm hoping that this week isn't a let down, with class and all.

Finalized Travel Plans

I finally have my Fall Break planned and I am so excited to go! I was initially planning on only making two stops, but when I was looking at flights, I found that it actually was cheaper to make a stop halfway for a day, hence the short visit to one of my destinations - but I'm really pumped to get a quick flash of that city. I'm also really happy with who I am travelling for the break. I am even meeting up with a friend who is studying in France for the last leg of my journey. Here are the details:

I'll be in Paris from October 23rd to October 26th. The morning of the 26th I will fly to Milan, where I will spend the day. Then I fly out on the 27th to Athens! On Octboer 30th I will return to London, hopefully ready to finish the semester. But then don't forget that I'll be in Amsterdam the weekend of November 12th-14th. Should be a lot of fun!

Travel Plans and more

Brief update: I had a really fun weekend. My flatmates and I went to a live music festival (which actually wasn't as good as I was hoping) and then went out in Trafalgar Square on Saturday to celebrate Jenna's birthday (one of the girls I live with.) Then on Sunday I got to visit Buckingham Palace - some of the rooms are open this summer for public viewing, so it was really cool to go inside. Sadly, but expectedly, you can't take pictures inside. Here's a picture of Jenna and I outside the back of the palace, though, overlooking the Queen's MASSIVE gardens.



I haven't finished planning my Fall Break yet, and I was waiting until I had all my travel plans finalized to blog about them all together, but I'm getting too anxious and excited. My flatmates and I all booked a weekend trip to Amsterdam in mid-November. I had layovers in Amsterdam on my way to and back home from South Africa, and I am going to enjoy having some time to spend in the city. My calendar for the semester is starting to take shape!

Belfast Peace Walls

So as anyone who catches me on facebook despite the time difference knows, I had my first academic thing due this past weekend. I had two essays due from my Ireland trip, and of course I had waited until "prime time" to finish them. I told myself I was going to do them several times...but then other things just kept coming up. Like shopping, eating, going to class, and...a few other things. But when it finally came down to that special time of "ok, I have to actually do these now" I actually really enjoyed writing about Ireland. It was a place that I loved visiting, and I hope to visit again some time in my life.

I wrote one of my papers about the peace walls that we visited in Ireland. You can see my Ireland pictures to see a little glimpse of them and the rest of Ireland and Northern Ireland that I saw. But I thought that some people here might appreciate seeing a little more of them.







And I just got a lovely post on my Facebook wall from Erica, my best friend, who is back home in Michigan. (Hey Erica, look, I'm writing about you in my blog! PS, you just lost the game.) She told me that my blog has gotten boring lately and that I should do more exciting stuff. And I just wanted to let her, and the rest of you know that I am in the process of planning some very exciting things. More to come later.

A Run in the Park

So an update on the sick thing. I feel better, the girl who got me sick feels better. However, I got another one of my roommates sick, who got sick for about two days, and then got another girl sick. A 24-48 hour "London Bug" is going around. At least we all got over it quickly, and hopefully this won't be a constant thing, especially given London's "beautiful weather." I actually don't *think* I will mind so much, since I grew up and go to school in a place with...strange weather habits involving lots of precipitation. We'll see.

Another update referencing the PSC class I wanted to get in to. After the best "please let me in this class" email I could draft, the professor emailed me back last night saying I could be in the class. Of course, because it's an abroad class, I have to get him to sign a form. I can't just have him give me a permission number for MySlice (Syracuse's online class sign-up thing.) Since I don't think he comes in on Mondays, I'm hoping that a forward of his email will get me registered in the class. I'm not in the class YET, I have one more obstacle.

But it has recently hit me that an academic semester has started. I get to my Managerial Decision Making class (basically an advanced statistics class,) and it's my last class of my first week. Granted, I haven't had my Consumer Behavior class yet, the professor was sick on the first day. We'll see how that one is later. I was just ready for the weekend, and the professor greets us with a quiz. Luckily, it wasn't for a grade or anything, just one of those "see what you know, set the pace" kind of quizzes. Still, I'm a geek, and I'm like "well a quiz is a quiz" and I know that London professors are different than what I'm used to. I'm still waiting before I pass judgment on my professors. I like to get past "syllabus week" before permanently setting my expectations for a class. I'll update on that later. Nothing new on the internship front, interview for that is this week!

I'm really excited because I was just named Assistant Director of Public Relations for First Year Players, the student run theatre group I am in on campus at Syracuse. Here is their website for anyone not from Syracuse or who hasn't heard me talk about it. It needs some updating; still listing that we are selling tickets to last year's show. I have high hopes for the PR team this year :) I'll probably mention them a few more times in later blogs.

This morning, yes it is already Sunday morning here for anyone reading this on Saturday night in the US. WAKE UP ALREADY! I am going to an event sponsored by SU London in about an hour, but I decided to wake up this morning and do something I haven't gotten myself to do yet: Run in Hyde Park!!! I loved living in New York City the summer after my freshmen year because I was able to run in Central Park. Running is something I like to do, but honestly I just can't get myself to do for an extended period of time on the treadmill yet. I like parks, cities, big things for me to explore while I run. What a better way to see the city than to watch it wake up! I cut some corners in the steady six-mile run (with the cut corners I probably did only about four miles) just so that I'd make it home in time to shower, take a decent-length tube ride, and meet up with a bunch of other Syracuse kids to go to a market that sells really good food. Since I just ran, I'll probably get something yummy. I went to a craft/flea/food market last weekend, and I managed to find some good gluten free stuff, much better and cheaper than in the states. I also went to a gluten free bakery a few mornings ago and sampled one thing. I have to say, eating gluten free is easier in London.

So I have already had a great London morning, and I'm off to do one fun thing before I have to come home and finish a few school things. The academic semester is just warming up...hopefully I can keep up the running thing while the weather cools down.

Things are Looking Up in London

Pray to the powers of the blog, and yee shall be granted your wish. Apparently, posting all the things that were getting me down about my semester in London so far on my blog fixed them all! Let's start from the first one.

I'm adjusting to the weather; you have to quickly around here. I bought an umbrella, but I might invest in a more decent one so that I don't look so...shaggy all the time. The tube is back to somewhat normal service. I gave myself PLENTY of time this morning, with "lost American" time scheduled in to make sure that I wasn't late. And sure enough, I get lost around a strange block I had never seen before. But it was cute; I saw children being walked to school by their nannies & saw some more of the people that live near me, so I enjoyed the walk. I got to my first class on time, and it's actually a class that I'm on the waiting list for and just hoping to get in. It's a political science class called "Islam and the West" and the professor is really intense, and I think I would really like this class. The three hours went by pretty quickly, and I made every effort I could to secure a spot in the class, so I just have to hope he lets me. If I don't get into it, it's not the end of the world, but it would help me out a lot. As I was in class I got a voicemail about scheduling an interview for a potential internship. It sounds like something that I would enjoy, and hopefully I'll be able to post more about it in the future - interview is Monday, wish me luck!

I'm already starting to feel better, perhaps it is because I unpacked my vitamins and started taking them...hope I'm over the worst of it. I looked into the bikes, I think I'm going to try it in a week, and maybe just for a week, and maybe I'll stick to Hyde park. It just looks like a cool London experience, since they JUST put the program into place. Anyway, I had a solid five hours before my next class, and I wanted to really go explore a new part of London. I Googled some places near the school building that had gluten free lunch options and found a few just a few tube stops away. I got to Leicester Square pretty quickly, and I was proud that I had been pronouncing it right. I wandered the square finding a few places with gluten free food, most of them more out of my price range, but it was nice to see it was there. I finally found an outlet of a chain that I had heard about before on my Twitter, wagamama. They had an allergy-awareness book, just like a lot of chains I visit frequently, and I picked out a rice-noodle based dish. It was really good, but HUGE! I ate about half, and caught a quick tube ride home to put the rest in the fridge. From there it was off to the V&A Museum. I got off the tube, and decided to go to the Natural History museum instead since it was closer. I managed to get through about a third of the permanent exhibit before I had to go to class. Unfortunately my camera was dead, so I couldn't take any pictures, but I have a feeling I will be back at that museum VERY soon. I went to my "Contemporary British Theatre" class, which is a drama class for non-drama majors who just want to go watch shows and talk/write about them: PERFECT for me! My professor told us that she won't be taking us to the big commercial stuff as often, but to brand new plays in smaller & more diverse venues. It sounds good to me because I've seen the same productions of many current West End shows before on Broadway (a lot of shows that closed on Broadway and transfered to London.)

Came home, re-heated my Wagamama, blogged/twittered/facebooked, and now I'm going to research the company I am interviewing with. London felt a lot more like home today.

Strike & Bike

London weather...I was warned. Didn't have "the best" first day of classes that I've ever had. The London tube crews went on a 24-hour strike on the day of my first class, and of course the bus system was jammed and traffic was awful. I gave myself about an hour to get to class, twice as much as it would take me to get to that location on a normal day. We got about halfway to the building in that hour, so I ditched the bus and started running the streets of London. In jeans & a sweatshirt, with a backpack, oh, and did I mention one of my roommates got me sick? Why do I ALWAYS get sick the second week of being in a new country. (I was horribly sick for about 4 days my second week in South Africa, had to skip a lot of nights out and even one day at school.) I showed up half an hour late, and to my excitement, the professor hadn't even shown up yet. No, he walked in a full hour after I did.

So I decided I wouldn't let this happen to me again. I have been kind of in my cocoon of the hotel, my flat, the school building, and their surrounding areas. I've been to a few local restaurants, cafes, and pubs, but nothing of extreme interest. Yesterday I met up with my friend Vince (who I lived with in SA) and he gave me a personal walking tour of some of the neighborhoods. It was good to see somebody from that group of people. Anyway, I am starting to look into a new program that the Mayor of London introduced about two months ago, where there are bikes EVERYWHERE that you can borrow for up to a half hour for free (if you pay a small weekly or yearly access fee) - it's a really good bargain, even if you only do it like twice a week. Here is the info for anyone who is interested.I am going to wait until I can breathe properly again, and then I might give it a shot. I also might bike through Hyde Park a lot, since I live within a two minute walk of it. I haven't even ran in Hyde Park yet! God, I wish I wasn't getting sick so that I can enjoy London, now that I realize I've been here a week and basically done nothing but grocery shop, move into my flat, and go to informational meetings. I miss the excitement that Ireland offered - we hit the ground RUNNING with no time for adjustment, and that is more my style. I came to London with the intention of spending as little time in my flat as possible, and just enjoying the excitement of the city - free museums, world class shopping, nightlife, history, unfamiliar architecture, etc. I think tomorrow I am going to spend the few hours I have in between classes just exploring the city without an agenda...except making it back for my next class on time of course.

My Flat!

So London is very stressful, let me just say. Between orientation meetings, adjusting to a new country, and finding a flat, I have found myself quite drained every day. I am very ready for classes to begin, to find an internship (hopefully) and to move into my flat and just start living the London life. A big cause of stress was finding the perfect flat for the semester, and I think we struck gold. After several visits to many alright flats, we finally got a hold of a landlord who had just put a beautiful flat on the market an hour ago. One of the student guides came with us, and after viewing it he said "you would be stupid not to take it." It is in the Bayswater area, three bedroooms & two bathrooms, right near two tube stops (different lines, which is really convenient for travel) and only a 15 minute tube ride away from Faraday House, Syracuse's academic building in London. I move in tomorrow, and I could not be more excited. Oh, not to mention that it is completely refurbished very recently. Meaning new kitchen appliances, a new washer/drier, new bathroom fixtures, new dishes/silverware, etc. Here are some pics!



The front



The living room (complete with big screen TV and DVD player)



One of the three bedrooms



One of the two bathrooms



The kitchen

Ireland Photos

So I finally got around to uploading my pictures from Ireland. Here are some of my favorites.






The viking festival in Dublin



The Guinness Factory



The peace walls in Belfast



"The Organ" of the Giants Causeway on the northern coast



Crossing the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge on the northern coast

Check out more pictures of the Belfast peace walls.