6/27-6/29: Wrapping Up in London: Matilda the Musical, Dr. Dee, and Soaking It All In

6/27

Lunch box from Thai Square.

            Wednesday morning I went on a really nice run down the Thames. Instead of just going down to Blackfriars Bridge then to Waterloo and wherever from there, I kept running toward the footbridge that crossed over to the area of the South Bank where the London Eye is. I dodged people traffic and crossed the bridge and headed back east. Though we have spent some time around the Eye and Southbank Centre, we hadn’t been to the area between the Southbank Centre and Blackfriars. I ran by an outdoor bookstore and a few outdoor bars with artsy seating and architecture. When I’m back in London this will definitely be an area I will spend more time in. After I got back and ready for the day, Margot and I headed over to the Cambridge Theatre in Covent Garden to try and snag some tickets to Matilda the Musical. We got there around 1:00 PM, and there were already a few people waiting for return tickets as they had sold out. We decided to grab lunch at Thai Square, a restaurant we had passed on the bus that boasted about its recent winning of a best restaurant award. I hadn’t gotten Thai food yet since I had been in London, even though it is one of my favorites, so I was excited. We both got lunch boxes that ended up being way too much food, but it was delicious.

The BEAUTIFUL Matilda stage.

            Following lunch, we went back to the theatre and cued (I think American English should start using this phrase, it’s much simpler than saying “got in line”) to wait for return tickets. Unfortunately they only had enough for one of us. Margot being the awesome, selfless person she is insisted on myself taking the ticket. I hesitated and felt bad at first, but after her persistence I finally decided to just get the ticket and go by myself (she ended up getting to see it on Friday though J). Matilda was by far one of my favorite musicals that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been lucky enough to have seen a decent amount. I laughed, I almost cried, I grinned nonstop, I was completely engulfed in the show. It was by far one of the most dynamic, creative, and impressive performances I have ever seen. The children, who made up half the cast, had loads upon loads of talent. I was so impressed with their singing, acting, choreography, and the like. I can’t get over the creativity of the set and how the actors and actresses oftentimes intertwined the set with their choreography, namely in “School Song” with the letter blocks/gate of the school and with “When I Grow Up” and the swings. Seriously though, I would see this again in a second-especially as it is coming to Broadway in the fall! And yes, they do include the cake scene in the musical version J My favorite characters were probably Matilda, Bruce, Sergio (Matilda’s brother, hilariously recreated in the musical) and Ms. Trunchbull (spoiler alert: she’s played by a man in the musical, hilarious). I cannot say enough good things about the show. I bought the soundtrack right when I got home and have been listening nonstop since then. I apologize in advance for any ranting and raving I do about the show in the next few months. After the show, I decided to walk home as it was nice out and Covent Garden is about a mile and a half away from the flats. I stopped at Bea’s on the way back to get Margot a cupcake for her kindness in letting me get the ticket. When I got home I cooked myself dinner and just hung out for the rest of the evening as I was pretty exhausted.

6/28

           

            Thursday morning I began my day with another run. This last week I have honestly have been spending a lot of time while I’ve been running or walking just reflecting upon my time in the city and really just taking in the city and all of its senses. It’s almost been sort of a mental and therapeutic closure for me, just exploring the different neighborhoods and thinking back upon all that I have seen. I went to Café Nero in the afternoon to try and get some work done which proved unsuccessful. I decided to head over to Covent Garden again and just walk around there, soaking more of London in. We had to meet our professor at 5:15 PM to get our tickets to Dr. Dee so I had a few hours to kill. I mainly used my internal compass to get around, which was pretty good by the end of the trip, not really caring if I got lost. I eventually made my way down to the National Portrait Gallery. This was a museum I was a little ehh about visiting, as it wasn’t on my “must-see” list, but I’m very happy that I took the time to go in. I most greatly enjoyed the more recent portraits. I really enjoyed the variety in technique of the more modern portraits. One of my favorites was the one of David Beckham, naturally. It definitely wasn’t a traditional portrait, as it was a video on loop of him sleeping in bed. My favorite portraits were also the ones that made my put my nose millimeters from the canvas to discern whether or not it was a photograph-all of the times I had to do this, it was in fact not a photograph. That is what blew my mind the most. The intricacies of someones facial features-from the veins in their eyes to the wrinkles running along their cheeks-recreated from oil pastel or whichever medium was incredibly impressive. I read in my Fodor’s book that they had a restaurant/bar on the top floor, and because I had about 20 more minutes to kill I decided to go up there. I ended up getting a bellini and enjoying the view of Trafalgar Square and the rooftops of London.

English National Opera's Dr. Dee.

            When 5:15 PM came around, we met in the lobby to collect our tickets then we were told we had some more time to kill before the pre-show talk led by Professor Cook. We hung out at the Café Nero next door and got some coffee. Once we filed into our temporary seats by the Dress Circle bar, Professor Cook began leading the pre-performance talk. I had initially thought that this was just going to be a talk with our professors, a few actors, the director, and the composer-but it turns out it was a ticketed event that was being recorded for a podcast (I am guessing for one of Professor Cook’s BBC Radio arts broadcasts). The two performers discussed their role, and the director took us about his vision and the process of collaborating on the piece. I am most grateful for this presentation as it gave me a fairly good background to the show so I was able to follow along better during it. The show itself was..interesting to say the least. Dr. Dee is about man from the early 18^th century who essentially acted as an oracle, made some predications and sometimes played advisor to the Queen. I honestly didn’t really follow the first act, and only did more for the second act because it was discussed more in depth during the pre-performance talk. Like I said about my experience seeing a play at the Globe, though I didn’t totally get the show, I enjoyed the experience of seeing my first opera. One thing I was surprised with was the variety of music within it. I was expecting the traditional belting-out opera singer throughout-but the opera singing was interspersed with more contemporary sounds in addition to one of the directors who would play the acoustic guitar and sing every so often. Fun fact: that guy is also a member of Gorillaz. After the show, the professors took us to a late dinner at Pizza Express down the road. I had a delicious grilled vegetable salad with goat cheese, something I had been craving from there since the last time we went before the Globe. It was a definitely nice conclusion to the class and one last big dinner together. That was probably the point where I realized that my journey in London was really coming to a close. Sitting at the table with my ten other classmates and reflecting upon how much we had done and learned together was really a moment of thankfulness for me.

Group on the last night at Picadilly Institute.

After finally wrapping dinner up around 11:45 PM, we headed back to the flats where we debated about whether or not to go out. I ended up going back to Picadilly Institute with Lucie, Eleni, Carter, Mike and Jasper. This is probably the occurrence that began the events that really came full circle from the beginning. This was the club that we went to on our first night out. Both times were also coincidently marked by us accessorizing at the club, the first time with a straw hat and goggles being passed around-this time with a glittery top hat. We wandered through the many different rooms that made up the club, each with their own personality-still proving to be one of my favorite venues in terms of decoration and set up. There was even the same DJ in the 90’s/00’s throwback room, as we went on Saturdays both times. Our time there winded down with his mixing of a Destiny’s Child song with Mambo No. 5 per my request (I told him it was written about me). After the club I went to the casino with Jasper and Mike to hang out and extend our evening, the same one I went to before when the guys wanted to watch the NBA finals. All I really did there was watch ESPN America-which was playing the X-Games and also showed a few highlights of the Redskins acquiring RG3 and some from a Nats game, which I got really excited about. At around 5:00 AM we finally left the casino to Leicester Square already plenty illuminated by daylight. We wandered around (interspersed with some skipping around on my behalf) trying to find a bus to get us back. I don’t know why seeing sunlight then is rejuvenating for me. It was just another seemingly minor experience that helped me see the city and explore its streets in a new light-quite literally. I finally got back to the flats around 5:20 AM, and was tempted to just stay up and hit the gym at 6:00 AM to lift. Especially because Jasper told me he’d cook me breakfast if I did so. Despite that incentive, exhaustion finally began to hit me when I got in and I went to bed until 11:00  AM.

           

6/29

Atop the London Eye!

            Friday morning and early afternoon I spent packing and trying to get all of my stuff organized for my departure on Saturday. I went to the gym to get one last lift in at LA Fitness then went to Faraday one last time to print out my boarding pass. My sentimentality really began to sink in then, especially as the goodbyes to our friends from the other classes had already begun as many were traveling this weekend. When I came back to Gazzano I found out that some people had gotten tickets to the London Eye. I luckily showered and got ready just in time to get a ticket and leave to go with them. I’m actually very happy that we waited to ride the London Eye until our last day. It was a very symbolic way of closing our journey in London. It was nice to be able to recognize buildings and parts of the city on our own, and reflect back upon our time at each of them. Though it was looking like an overcast evening (we up went around 7:00 PM), the clouds slowly moved east revealing a sunset and blue skies dotted with more-white-than-grey clouds. After our thirty minute trip around the Eye, we decided to stop by a pub before heading home. Walking along the Thames and down the Strand, I led everyone to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a historic pub that I have been wanting to go to since reading about it in Fodors. Located about halfway between the Eye and our flats, it seemed like the perfect place to stop. Not to mention it was one last thing to knock of my bucket list J

            The pub definitely lives up to being “ye olde” and the atmosphere is such also. The sign to the right of the front door proclaims “Under 15 Sovereigns: Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, Rebuilt 1657, in the reign of Charles II and continued successively in the Reigns of James II (1702-1714)…….Elizabeth II (1952). All of the sovereign king and queens were listed in between, really giving a perspective on how archaic the pub is. As we descended the staircase down two flights, there were tables literally in every nook and cranny. Ducking our heads, our feet shuffled downwards along the woodchip dusted floor until we settled in at a long wooden table. I tried a pint of Smith’s organic wheat ale, which was pretty good. Some of us spent some quality time at a 63 bus stop with an incredibly intoxicated man before finally catching one back toward our flat. Myself, Lauren, and Jessie went to Perfect Chicken for our last dinner-once again, another “full circle” moment. When we walked in Reese was as bubbly as ever, but he was definitely lamenting in our departure with us. “AMERICA!” he yelled cheerfully as I walked in, a greeting that I will definitely miss and a nickname I will probably never be called again. I can’t remember if I talked about this before, but Reese has been calling me “America” since the second time we went there. He misheard my friends when they tried to tell him my name is Erica, and thought it was America…it’s stuck since then J As we were discussing how sad we were about leaving, I was clearly pouting and he came over and grabbed my cheeks and told me to smile, “America, don’t be sad yet!” Promises were made to tell all of our friends in the States about Perfect Chicken in the City. For a departing gift, they gave us our already affordable £3 meals for £1 each. Reese exchanged hugs with all over us, and we left with food in hand to eat back at the flats. The rest of the evening was spent booking cabs and sitting around with the girls listening to sad music, talking about our time there, and singing . Funny enough, we found out the guys were also listening to sad, goodbye music also next door. I guess we all had the same mentality by the time our last true night was drawing to a close. It was a relaxing way to bring our time in London to a close, and the evening turned out to be a great synthesis of random things to end our time there.