I just got back late last night from spending my weekend in London. The Kenyon-Exeter group left early Friday morning and the majority of the group left London during mid afternoon on Sunday, but I decided that I wanted to stay in the city for as long as possible and took a later train with a few other people.
Before going to London, I kept getting e-mails from Kenyon warning me, "Do not go to London. If you do go, do not go to tourist attractions due to the recent terrorist threats." Upon receiving many of those e-mails from Kenyon, I asked my Professor if it was smart for us to all go, especially since the threats are directed toward the city that we were headed to. She said not to worry and that it was more likely to get hit by a bus crossing the street because we forgot to look in the right direction upon stepping off the sidewalk. But this didn't make me feel any better, and in fact, it made me a little more nervous. See, I was hit by a car when I was eight years old, and that happened in America, where the cars drive on the "correct" side of the road. And since I've been in England, I've almost accidentally stepped out in the street in front of cars, just missing my own death. So as a person who has already been hit by a car once, and has almost been hit many more times in the past three weeks upon arriving in Exeter, it seemed more likely than not that my probability of getting hit by a bus was pretty high.
But lucky for me, London is used to tourists and before stepping off the sidewalk, the street tells you which way to look for oncoming traffic before crossing. So as I sit here writing this blog, I am happy to report that I was not hit by a bus, nor was I a victim of any terrorist act.
As soon as we arrived in Paddington Station, we all carried our suitcases to our first show, The Prince of Denmark. Even though it seems to be a clever idea to write and perform a prequel to Hamlet, it was not very good. The play only lasted an hour, but it seemed really long and the acting was no good. After the play we walked to our hotel, got our rooms, got a little food, and took a nap before going to see our next show, War Horse. Well rested and showered, I walked with the Kenyon-Exeter group to London's National Theatre. War Horse, originally a children's book and first person narrative through the eyes of the Horse, Joey, I wondered how they were going to depict a horse on stage and show how he is feeling throughout the performance. With that being said, this three hour performance is one of the best shows I have ever seen in my entire life. The horses are life size and move and jump as if they are real. It is definitely a magical show, one that I know my Mom would have been crying through.
Then early Saturday morning, a group of us walked over to the Foundling Museum (because we had an assignment to go there and write about it). I learned a lot there and after learning what a Foundling was and did, I was not surprised to learn that Oliver Twist was based off of one of the kids from the Foundling School/Hospital. After the Museum, a few of us walked over to King's Cross, which is the train station where they shoot Harry Potter! We then split up into smaller groups, and I walked with another Kenyonian to do a little house hunting over at Buckingham Palace! Even though the Palace was really pretty, I was a little disappointed because I was expecting guards in red jackets standing still and not being able to move or smile outside the palace gates. But there weren't any guards and I wanted to take some funny pictures! Next time I am in London, which is in three weeks, I am going to find guards in red jackets who aren't allowed to respond to any outside stimuli and make one of them laugh. But anyway, after Buckingham Palace, we walked around St. James Park, saw swans, met a duck, and got stuck in a torrential downpour with a giant pelican. Take a look:
But once the rain stopped we dried off at lunch and ordered some hot soup and a warm cup of coffee. After lunch we hit the town shopping, but came up short because we found that every single store on Oxford Street is the same exact store that we have in Exeter. I was upset because I wanted to buy my first London souvenir.
For dinner we had sushi, and even though the sushi went in a revolving circle around all of the tables, it was still amazing because it was the first sushi that I had in three weeks!
After dinner, three of us walked to the Tate Modern Museum. We saw an amazing porcelain sunflower seed exhibit and I walked around the art gallery and saw paintings by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Pollock, and Salvador Dali.
After the Tate, we walked on the Millennium Bridge, and spotted London Bridge from across the water and sang, "London Bridge is Falling Down".
We eventually called it a night because we had to get up early the next day to check out of our hotel and try the shopping area one last time before we headed back to Exeter. And lucky for me, Sunday morning was filled with cute shops of which new articles of clothing have been added to my wardrobe. But after shopping and checking out of the hotel, we walked back to the National Theatre to watch our last show of the weekend, Hamlet. As good as this production was, I am always thrown off a little when Shakespeare's work is performed in modern times. It was definitely an original script in which the director made quite a few changes, one for example was that Ophelia did not commit suicide, yet she was murdered in the river by Gertrude and Cladius. Not my favorite renditions (it's weird to me when Hamlet lives in the 21st century, with a stereo in his room), but still, very entertaining. But of course, there was drama before the show even began. When I took out my ticket, it read that it was for the show for Saturday night, not the Sunday afternoon show that I was supposed to be attending. On top of that, I was unable to call after my Professor to let her know that I would be unable to get into the show because I had all of the sudden come down with Laryngitis. Luckily, other Kenyon students got hold of our Professor and she came out to help me deal with my mishap. Unfortunately, the box office said that the show was sold out, and that I wouldn't be able to change my ticket for Sunday's show. Now in a panic and physically unable to speak, I thought I was going to have to wait three and a half hours outside the theatre until the play finished. But my Professor was so nice and she gave me her ticket and said that she would try to get in some other way. Once seated with all the other Kenyon students, I noticed the seat on my old ticket was still not taken, and that the theatre had misprinted the day and time. I tried calling my Professor to let her know that there was a seat available for her, but her phone was shut off and I wouldn't have been able to speak anyway since I was struck with Laryngitis. But all in all, everything worked out. She was able to get a different seat and I was viewing the play from one of the best seats in the house.
After the play, we walked back to Paddington Station, boarded our train and made it back to Exeter within two hours. Even though I had a theatre scare and I got really sick in London (and still have no voice), I did have a lot of fun and experienced London in a way I never thought I would.
My parents told me before I left for London, to call them when I got back to Exeter so that they would know that everything was okay and that I didn't get hit by a bus or anything. So after unpacking, I called home, forgetting that my voice barely existed. My Dad picked up the phone and said, "Hello", and with all my might I tried saying "Hello" back to him, but all that came out was a tiny little grunt. After a few more failed "hello's", my Dad finally said, "Who is this?" Trying to get him to understand that it was his daughter calling from England to tell him that everything was okay, I kept repeating, "Logan" in soft grunts until he finally understood who it was. He got my Mom on the phone too, but we only talked for a short time because my throat hurt and my voice couldn't do much more talking. At the end of our phone conversation, my Dad said that he first thought that it was Aunt Bettie calling. Aunt Bettie is my Mom's best friend's great Aunt who is now 104 years old. I guess Laryngitis adds a couple of years to my voice.
I had two early classes today, one of which I had a presentation in, but my Professor let someone else in the class read my paper aloud after he heard me say 'good morning'. I was going to go to the health center today in between two of my classes, but I took a nap instead because I thought that would help me get healthier and when I woke up still feeling sick, I decided to walk into town and get salt water and cough drops. In my next class my Professor heard me talking and went to her office and brought back Aspirin and more cough drops and told me that I don't need to go to class later this week! WOOOT! But hopefully I will be feeling better because missing one class here is like missing a weeks worth of class since classes meet more infrequently in England and for longer periods of time. But hopefully I will be feeling better within the next few days because I just last night I booked my tickets for my trip to Wales for next weekend with my best friend! I am so excited that I will be reunited with her (and in Europe of all places). My Kenyon Professor gave me a handbook on Wales today in class and it looks like I will be very busy this weekend in Cardiff! I have a lot of reading and work to do this week, but it's worth doing it in the next few days so that I can go on my vacation this weekend. I'll be sure to report back after Cardiff, and don't worry, I'll keep my eye out for cute stores and hopefully I won't have the same problem as I did in London!! Keep checking my blog for more updates next week.
