Friday, September 4, 2009

LondonesQue

Good evening, loyal subjects. After two days of romping around the city roads, I am coming ever closer to being fully Londonesque.

Last Wednesday, after class, I had nothing to do (well, lies, I actually had to read the James Bond novel "Dr. No." Poor me!) so I decided to toodle around the National Portrait Gallery, where I ran into this guy:



I slowly walked around the Tudor rooms, taking in each piece with comments to myself of "cute" or "total player" or "wouldn't want to be forced to marry HIM!" I ended up in the Stuart rooms, fully enjoying myself. The thing with a portrait gallery is that it isn't so much about the "art" as it is the person. Each plaque next to the portraits didn't say so much about the picture as the owner of the mug. Entire stories developed, like those of King James and his mistresses, just by looking at their faces.

Highlight, of course, was running into this balla:



The next day I had my Playing Shakespeare course, which will be the gleaming light of gloriousness during my stay here. We were lectured on Elizabethan theatre. Imagine learning everything about "Shakespeare in Love" that you never knew you wanted to know. First half of the semester in the classroom. Second half at The Globe. Yup. That one.

That evening we had a programme-wide viewing of "The Queen." It's very different seeing it here, knowing she's living down the block. I still can't really wrap my mind around the idea of having a Queen. Goes against my gut-American Independence business. But as long as I'm here, I'm willing to be a fan.

Today I saw "Avenue Q." I went in knowing most of the jokes/songs (thanks, Joe) so some of the initial humor (humour?) was lost for me. It was very interesting watching it with a Euro-British audience. Gary Coleman = not so funny. Making fun of Germans = very funny. I got a headache about halfway through, but I self-diagnosed it as dehydration. I think I've subconsciously avoided taking in liquids since the paying-for-the-toilet incident.

Had another magnificent dinner tonight. Kelly cooked chicken wrapped in bacon stuck on tooth picks and glazed with something tangy. How is it possible that I'm eating better here than I've ever eaten before?

Tomorrow - group trip to Stonehenge and Bath!!

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