RANDOM ADVICE:

• Phones. Whatever you do, don’t rent a Piccell. Greta and I have horror stories. Go to Carphone Warehouse when you get to the UK and figure it out from there.
• UK Bank Accounts. It’s hard to set up a UK bank account because it’s not good for the bank to do business with customers who will only be there for 4 months as opposed to people who will open up accounts for years at a time. Prepare to fight for one. Or, if you’re using it for rent, open a joint account with your flatmates.
• Oysters. Don’t wait to set up your student Oyster card. It will save you lots of moneys.
• Be Green. Your utilities bill will be lower if you’re good about switching off lights and outlets and such. Wear layers and put the heat on less if you can, etc. Common sense kinda stuff.
• Postcards. Shop around before you get postcards. There are some places in Picadilly Circus and on High Street Kensington where you can get like, 11 postcards for a pound.
• Shoes. Bring good ones. And bring more than one pair. One will get wet and need to dry, and one will get worn down soles to the point of necessary repair. I wore through 2 pairs of boots from all the trekking across London, Dublin and Barcelona.
• Buying Theatre Tickets. Go to the box office. This way you can pick your seat, and you don’t get charged a booking fee.
• Bill’s Walks & Coffee Talks Do them.

PUBS & BARS:

• The Pembroke. Located on Old Brompton Road in Earls Court, the Pembroke is a pretty classy pub that feels like you’re sitting in a swanky Victorian living room. The people who work there and go there are really nice (though it is mostly an older crowd, 30s and up for the most part). You can ask to borrow board games at the bar, and there’s free wifi during non-peak hours. There’s a restaurant attached, but the restaurant is really swanky and pricey. The bar’s good though.
• O’Neills. This pub is a chain of restaurant-pubs all around the city. It’s a sports bar of sorts with 5 pound burger meals. They also serve J2O (my favorite European juice drink. The Pembroke doesn’t have J2O) in several flavors. It’s very casual, good food, good atmosphere. There’s one in Earls Court either on Earls Court Road or on
• The Awesome Bankside Pub on the Thames whose Name I don’t Remember. There’s this awesome pub to the right of the Tate Modern if you cross the millennium bridge (mansionhouse tube). There’s a porch with fire pillars, blankets and heat lamps, so you can bundle up and sit outside with your drink and watch the Thames in any season. There’s a really great atmosphere indoors too. Good lighting. J2O. Friendly barstaff and there’s a coffee bar in addition to the bar with the booze. A younger set of people come here.
• Prince of Wales is a pub far down Old Brompton road in Earls Court, past the Earls Court Exhibition Center and the West Brompton tube station. The only pub I found in four months of living in London that makes fish & chips without dairy. And it’s DELICIOUS. Fun casual atmosphere, more of a sit down restaurant kind of pub than a bar.

CLUBS:

• Zoo- The Zoo bar is a dance club/bar in Leicester Square. Varied age groups (everyone from late 20s to strange and often creepy middle aged men). It’s a lot of fun there, but go with a group of people. They don’t charge to check purses, but they do to check coats (AM would bring a huge purse and stuff her coat into it). If you decide to go earlier in the week and put your name on the list, you can cut through the line, show your id, and get in for free!
• Ku- a fun gay bar in Chinatown. Really friendly bartenders in mesh tanktops who are amused by American ids work there and hilarious photos of buff guys are shown on large monitors. There’s a dance floor in their basement that I didn’t go to, but the bar area’s fun. And they have J2O.

Shows: West End Productions not to miss

• Enron- We saw it at the Royal Court Theatre this semester. It’s fantastic! The original cast moved to the West End after the RCT run was done. It’s Lucy Prebble’s new play with music about Skilling and Fastow and the Enron scandal told in an innovative and energetic way, with heavy use of appropriate projections, movement, and dinosaurs. Noel Coward Theatre.
• 39 Steps- a must if you’re a Hitchcock fan. Very funny parody of the film Noir genre with a four man cast. Criterion Theatre.
• Twelfth Night- This opened the night before I left London. It’s the RSC! Doing Twelfth Night! Need I say more? It’s at The Duke of Yorks Theatre.
• War Horse- The most touching and incredible puppet show you’ll ever experience. Life sized horse puppets wielded by 3 people become the lead characters in a heart wrenching tale of war and friendship. Parts of the puppets are made from recycled weapons! All in all, a beautiful piece of theatre. New London Theatre.
• Priscilla, Queen of the Desert the Musical. SO MUCH FUN. 2 Australian drag queens and a transsexual pile into a van named Priscilla for the road trip of a lifetime. Lots of glitter, wigs, dancing, and music you’ll recognize. It’s a blast! If you go, go for the 25 pound tickets. There are 20 pound tickets available, but because of the way the theatre’s set up, it really is worth the extra 5 to get bumped forward.

Theatres: Theatres to check out! All of these places have student tickets under 20 pounds.

• The Globe! – You knew this was coming. Shakespeare’s Globe is amazing. It’s right on the Thames, next to the Tate Modern, impossible to miss. Even though their season won’t start again until April (be a groundling and elbow/charm your way to the front, it’s so worth it). They still have programs year round. They’re doing a staged reading of a Restoration version of the Merchant of Venice called The Jew of Venice in February, a lecture about the Georgian Globe, and a production of Midsummer done by a bunch of Soutwark kids! In addition to other cool stuff. Groundling tickets for their main season are 5 pounds. The education events are anything from 7 pounds to 15 depending on what it is.  http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/globeeducation/publicevents/talksandlectures/
• The Royal Court Theatre- We were lucky enough to see 2 splendid productions in their main downstage space- Enron and The Priory. The Royal Court theatre in Chelsea is dedicated to producing new and innovative works. They have an awesome bar area where trendy people hang out, and an even more awesome bookshop (lots of new plays! Yaye!). There’s an upstairs blackbox space that’s pretty cool too, so I hear, but I didn’t see anything there.  http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/ . Half price education group tickets were 12.50…I don’t know how much normal concessions are.
• The Arcola. Located in Hackney, it’s a bit of a hike to get out to the Arcola. You either take a bus or the overground. But it’s worth it. This place is so cool. It’s entirely Green and eco-friendly, from their relaxed coffee-shop lobby to the work they do. There are two studio spaces. They produce new work and new takes on classics. I saw The Line- a mediocre script but a stunning production of a play about Degas there, along with a brilliant and terrifying modern twist on Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.  http://www.arcolatheatre.com/ . Concessions, 10 pounds, but Tuesdays are “Pay what you can” night, subject to availability.
• The Gate- a pub theatre in Notting Hill Gate that calls itself “London’s international theatre”. We saw two modern twists on literary classics (Vanya and The Kreutzer Sonata). They do new works and dance pieces too. It’s a really nice, small intimate black box space above the Prince Albert pub. And tickets aren’t super pricey. http://www.gatetheatre.co.uk/home.aspx . Concessions 11 pounds.
• The Donmar Warehouse. Awesome theatre that used to be a banana factory. Does a lot of groundbreaking work, has a standing room, and has a stunning history. Talk to Erin Coen about it, she adores the Donmar.
• The BFI Southbank- The British Film Institute is so cool! You can go sit in a room with monitors and watch any film in their huge archive for free, check out a film inspired gallery for free, or see a film there. They show different movies, foreign, historic, classic, anything really. They even have an Imax! But they rotate what they show each day. They also hold events corresponding to the films. I saw Gangster classic “The Underworld”, a silent flick from the thirties with live piano accompaniment for 6.75. They take their films seriously, so there’s no concessions or sodas allowed in the theatres, but they do have a swanky bar on the main level. It’s worth a visit or two.

GALLERIES- I’m not an art student, and I’m sure anyone taking Art & Architecture or any other art history class will be able to suggest more, but here are a few of my favorite art galleries.

• NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY-Legendary portrait gallery located near the National Gallery in Trafalger Square. Most of it is free, but they do have different special exhibits that you do have to pay for (when I was there it was some thing about the Beatles and David Bowie). But it is free to check out the Tudor collection and see not only Elizabeth I, Richard III and many many Popes; but Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, and naturally, William Shakespeare.
• SAATCHI GALLERY- Located in Swanky Chelsea (Sloane Square Tube) amidst lots of fancy shops, the Saatchi Gallery is a free gallery filled with really interesting modern art from around the world. SO interesting! And it’s not a very big gallery, so you can explore and get through it all in a solid 2 hours or so (at least I did. But it was awesome). When I was there there was an exhibit in the basement of a bunch of life sized dummies of uniformed bearded Arabic men in electric wheelchairs roaming around the basement. There was a guy whose job was to make sure they didn’t crash. I still don’t know what that was supposed to mean or represent but boy was it fun to watch and think about! 
• TATE MODERN- A must. It’s free except for special exhibits. There are hands on things in between galleries. But it’s worth going to for the art work. They have classics like Koons, Roy Lichenstien, Andy Warhol, Picasso, among others. It’s awesome. My favorite is the Cubism and Futurism wing. Check it out! It’s right across the Millenium Bridge on the Southbank, next to the Globe.
• NATIONAL GALLERY- The National Gallery is Located right on Trafalger Square. It is MASSIVE, and gorgeous. They have everything from different installation exhibits to religious renaissance art to Impressionists. I wasn’t able to see even a fraction of it, but what I saw was marvelous.

MUSEUMS

• Shakespeare’s Globe & Exhibition Center- It’s a little steep for entry, 11 pounds or so, but if you do love the Bard, it’s worth it. Located next to the Globe on the Southbank, the Globe Exhibition Center is like a Shakespeare Museum! There are models of the different theatres and spaces Shakespeare and his contemporaries used, timelines, artifacts, a huge section on Elizabethan music and costumage, a history of the Globe theatre and Sam Wanamaker’s legacy. It’s awesome. There’s also an interactive section on the first floor, including a HUGE Shakespeare magnetic poetry wall and…wait for it….Shakespeare Karaoke.
• London Museum- Everything from Prehistoric Britain to models of St Pauls and ancient Roman Homes. Its pretty neat.
• British Museum- This is a MUST. It’s near RADA. You can take the Goodge St. tube (I think…check me on this one). This is another epic museum that’ll take a few trips. It’s grand. I really dug their library and the Asian art. It’s free unless you go to specific special exhibits.
• V&A- In South Kensington (south Kens. Tube), the Victoria & Albert Museum is a must. My favorite exhibits were the Ironworks, the fashion, and the Theatre Section (you can even try on the costumes!). But there’s so much there, it’s another museum that’ll take some time to get through. But you’ll love every minute of it. And if you don’t, go to another wing, and you’ll find something else interesting and historic. Free.
• Museum of Natural History- SO MUCH TAXADERMY. And dinosaurs! There are even little robot dinos next to the dinosaur bones to show you what they would have looked like. And there’s a mastodon. And there are little animals carved into the walls of the architecture of the building. And it’s free. GO SEE SOME DINOS!

PARKS- There are so many parks in London, and they’re ALL BEAUTIFUL. Regents Park, Hyde Park etc. They’re all worth a visit and a stroll.

CAFES & COFFEE CHAINS

• Café Du Coin. On Earls Court Road in Earls Court, leading towards Old Brompton. Free wifi with a coffee or something. Delicious omelets. Cute and cozy atmosphere.
• EAT. One of my favorite coffee/sandwich/soup chains. They’re all over London- there are 2 on the South Bank (one near the BFI and one near the Globe), there’s one in Sloane Square, one near Leicester Square, they’re EVERYWHERE. The soup menu changes each day, but they’re really good at labeling what has dairy or wheat or nuts (basically common allergies) and what’s vegetarian friendly. They have delicious Pho soup with veggie dumplings and noodles and broth (so tasty), and their soups are really good. So’s the noodle salad. A good place to stop for coffee or a warm lunch.
• Pret a Manger. Another coffee/sandwich/soup shop. Not as allergy friendly, but still good, and all over the city. The Pret on Gloucester Road has black coffee for 99p. And they have delicious and cheap Miso soup served in coffee cups!

PRODUCTS/snacks:

• J2O- my drink of choice. It’s a non-alcoholic juice drink that comes in a bottle that looks like a clear beer bottle. It comes in all sorts of fun flavours. My favorites are Orange Passionfruit, Apple Mango, and Apple Blueberry. Most pubs have it. Delicious.
• Ginger Snaps- delicious cookies that are cheap and come in rolls at any grocery store. They are so tasty. Especially with black coffee.
• Hobnobs- delicious oat cookies. Great if you’re gonna snack or bake an apple crisp.
• Starburst- different flavors exist in the UK, like lemon-lime and blackcurrant. Very good.

*Note: Take your time the first time you go grocery shopping. Some things are more expensive in the UK than they are here and vice versa. Scope it out.

RESTAURANTS- I didn’t eat out all that often, but here are a few places I went and enjoyed.

MANGOSTEEN- The BEST chicken pad thai in Earls Court (for  5.50!). It’s hard to miss—it’s got a purple awning and it’s on Old Brompton Road in Earls Court. The main course portions are huge and slightly more expensive than the Pad Thai dishes, but easy to share. You can eat in or do Take-away. Very friendly people work there. I’m mildly embarrassed to say that they knew my name and number by the end of November…

NANDOS- Affordable and delicious chicken restaurant. I recommend the Mango-lime sauce. Go up to the bar, order your chicken, your portion size and sides, and either sit down or do take away. It’s a chain, so it’s all over the city. There’s one on Gloucester Road and one on Earls Court Road.

MARKETS AND SHOPPING

• Cecil Court – This is a neat area filled with vintage prints and map shops, antique and old bookstores and hobby/collectable type things. It’s an alley/court area near Leicester Square. It was a lot of fun going through the shops and browsing. It’s so quaint! I got a few items for my journal and a sweet poetry book there . Check it out!
• Portobello Road and Markets- The markets on Portobello Road are my favorite! All along Portobello Road (in Notting Hill, Notting Hill Gate Tube), antique stalls, artisans, clothes, and food are sold. There’s a great falafel stand! A portion of the road is dedicated to food, mostly fruits and veggies. You can get a basket of apples, oranges, peppers, avocados, etc. for 1 pound. A lot of locals bring their groceries there and stock up on their week’s worth of produce. There’s also a flea-market at the far end (I got some kicking boots there, plus plenty of holiday gifts). It’s best to go on a Friday or Saturday if you’re game for dealing with crowds, the most stalls are open then. Sunday the flea market’s open but it’s a bit slow, and during the week it really depends on which stalls are there or not.
• Liverpool Markets- I only went once on one of Bill’s walks, but it’s awesome. There’s a trendy and crafty market, a varied one, and a flower market where we got our cactus (if you get to the flower market towards closing time, they drop their prices significantly). Ask Chava or Erin Coen more about this, they went here way more than I did. Only open Sundays.
• Camden Markets- Lots of markets that used to be stables! Complete with lots of horse sculptures. Antiques, crafts, clothes, etc. I haggled for my coat here (60 pounds turned into 32 with some help from Tara’s master haggling skills). It’s fun to browse or to shop here, but it’s best to have a plan of action-it can get overwhelming quickly. Keep an eye on your purse, and avoid the chinese food stall…but otherwise it’s a great deal of fun. Plus the London Zoo’s near by!
• High Street Kensington- Popular shopping area. H&M, Wholefoods, Carphone Warehouse, PC World, Accessorize, it’s a good place to stop to run all sorts of errands.
• Oxfam and charity shops—are not only all over London, but all over England. Beth got a sweet ski jacket at a charity shop in Warwick. It’s a good way to score some inexpensive finds, and to get rid of or donate whatever you don’t want to or can’t bring back to the States at the end of the semester.

FUN NEIGHBORHOODS

• Notting Hill- Notting Hill has got to be one of my favorite areas in London. It’s friendly, low key, easy to navigate. The buildings are brightly colored or have colorful doors while still looking classy and English. Plenty of vintage shops, an adorable Gelato shop, and the Gate theatre’s there, and a movie theatre and the Notting Hill Arts Club (never got to go, but always wanted to). A Banksy mural exists near George Orwell’s former home, which is near Portobello Road. Plus, Portobello Road.
• Hackney- Culturally diverse Hackney has a large Turkish and Jewish population. It’s a bit tricky to get to, you either have to take a bus or the over ground. And it is a little sketch at night. But the Arcola is there, and so are some amazing Turkish bakeries and Jewish bagel shops (even if their bagels have dairy in them…I don’t think that’s kosher…) But it’s fun to walk into a convenience store and see newspapers in over 4 languages. Good for a day trip. Or a trip to the Arcola!
• Richmond- It’s outside of zone 2 so you’ll have to top up your Oyster. It’s a pleasant town with a few theaters and a really laid back vibe. GO TO A RUGBY GAME. The London Scottish play on the Rugby grounds in Richmond, tickets are 10 pounds, and it is SO fun. The Richmond Theatre feels like you walked into a music box. And the Orange Tree Pub is terrific. It’s a fun place for a day trip. Especially if Rugby’s involved.
• The South Bank- My favorite part of London. Take a stroll past the National. Visit the Globe. Go on the Eye; enjoy the view from Gabriel’s Wharf. It’s all good!

What a whirlwind! That’s all, folks.

2. Stand Up Comedy with Matt Rudge in a pub in Edinburgh

3. Twenty-Something in Edinburgh

4. The Last Witch in Edinburgh

5. [burlesque] Dr. Faustus in Edinburgh

6. Jane Austen and the Art of Pornography in Edinburgh

7. Cardenio in Edinburgh

8. The News at 10 Standup in Edinburgh

9. The 39 Steps

10. Troilus & Cressida at the Globe

11. Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Globe

12. As You Like It Lecture at the Globe

13. Return to Parnassus Read Not Dead reading at the Globe

14. Sonnets 400 at the Globe

15. Arcadia at the Duke of York’s Theatre

16. The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre

17. Life is a Dream at the Donmar Warehouse

18. Enron at the Royal Court Theatre

19. The Priory at the Royal Court Theatre

20. Alison’s House at the Orange Tree Theatre

21. Ring of Truth at the Orange Tree Theatre

22. Dr. Faustus at the Greenwich Theatre

23. School for Scandal at the Greenwich Theatre

24. Talk Back with the Artistic Staff at the Greenwich Theatre

25. Life is a Dream at the Donmar Warehouse

26. The Kreutzer Sonata at the Gate Theatre

27. Vanya at the Gate Theatre

28. The Habit of Art at the National

29. All’s Well that Ends Well at the National

30. Talk-back with Fiona Shaw at the National

31. Backstage Tour of the National Theatre

32. If there Is, I haven’t found it Yet at the Bush Theatre

33. The Spanish Tragedy at the Arcola

34. The Line at the Arcola

35. Othello at Trafalger Studios

36. Macbeth at the Rose

37. Judgment Day at the Almeida

38. As You Like It with the RSC in Stratford Upon Avon

39. War Horse at the New London Theatre

40. An Inspector Calls at the Novello Theatre

41. Endgame on the West End

42. Mrs. Warren’s Profession at the Richmond Theatre

43. Inherit the Wind at the Old Vic

44. Breakfast at Tiffany’s at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

45. Literary Pub Crawl in Dublin

46. Tarantos Flamanco Show in Barcelona

47. Karter y Kash ironic Johnny Cash Cover Band concert in Barcelona

48.  La Crueda Realidad in Barcelona

49. The Decemberists concert in Elephant & Castle

50. Sarah Gillespy concert at the Borderline

51. The Man of Mode at RADA’s Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre

52. Commedians at the Lyric Hammersmith

53. In Conversation with Comedian’s Trevor Griffiths at the Lyric Hammersmith

54. Jack & The Beanstalk Pantomime at the Lyric Hammersmith

55. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert the Musical at the Palace Theatre

56. The Underworld at the BFI Southbank

57. The Theatre Royal Drury Lane Tour Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

58. La Cage Aux Folles at Northumberland Avenue

We woke up early to start scrubbing the flat clean. Went to Bill’s final Coffee Talk, which was pretty fun, and stayed there socializing far too long.

Chava, Greta, Tara and I all decided to go to the Prince of Wales pub for lunch (the pub below their flat). Turns out the Prince of Wales Pub just might be the only pub in London that makes Fish & Chips without dairy! So I had my first and last Fish & Chips on my last day in London. And it was delicious. I really liked the Prince of Wales Pub. And the company, of course. I had 2 J2Os. Yum.

Then I went back to my flat, cleaned a little more, and went down to the Southbank with my flatmates to mount the London Eye with Ana Maria, Ali, Kelsey, Stacey, and Ginny. It was pretty cool! We were in this futuristic pod with a large Indian family and an English Grandmother and Grandson. The pod was made entirely of windows. It was 30 minutes of high flying majesty. We went on the flight that happened around 4, so the sun was setting as we saw the city below us.

We went back to the flat and continued to clean until Danny came and did inspection. He was pretty nice, and didn’t charge us for a few things he maybe should have (broken beds, etc.). But he was not thrilled with our cleaning job (mostly because we had no idea we needed specialty cleaning products to deal with the stove, and so on). We had a bit of a mix up with the electric company since they shut down their website on weekends (Danny was going to deduct our utilities and electric from the deposit). So he gave us the deposit and called us later telling us how much to leave in an envelope for him in the flat. We gave Bertram to him, since we couldn’t take the cactus on the plane with us. Bertram will have a good home.

With our deposit in our wallets, we went out on the town. Leah, Casey and Bekah wanted Fish & Chips, so we went to the Prince of Tek pub on Earls Court Road. I had more J2O, and a burger without the bun. It was tastey.

We then went on the tube to Embankment and went for a final stroll along the Thames and the Southbank until we got to this terrific pub Casey knew of that was right next to the Tate Modern. It was right on the water, had a large porch and fire pillars and heat lamps, and blankets! So you can sit on the porch and gaze at the water with your drink in any season. It was so nice! Even if some creepy guys asked Leah and I uncomfortable questions about circumcision (is that some twisted Euro-pick up line? Or do they just not know any jews?). Another strange man was trying to light his cigarette on the fire pillar (which is surrounded by glass) and got angry when we started giggling but didn’t have a lighter to offer him. Apparently he was having a rough night- he misses his old roomate and his new one is “a whore with nappy hair”. His words, not ours. There was a younger set at this pub than at many that i’d been to. Even if there were some crazies. But it was great fun.

We went back to the flat, finished packing and reflected on an amazing semester.

I’d never been to Canary Wharf before- it was really neat. It had a lot of modern buildings, a lot of glass and steel and really tall buildings. It was very clean, crisp and commercial. And there was an ice rink where you can skate for 9 pounds concessions (everywhere else we looked in town was way more expensive). I discovered that my combat boots are 2 different sizes which made renting skates a little complicated, but it all worked out.

I watched other people skate before I went out on the ice, decided to pretend I knew what I was doing, and discovered that I’m a lot better at ice skating than I thought I was. And that it’s SO MUCH FUN! I befriended a 9 year old english girl in a purple polka dotted coat who gave me pointers. They played some strange music- everything from what you’d hear in a club to jazz to “O happy Day” from the Sister Act movie. But it was great fun.

Andres, Alysabeth, Bekah and I went to Nando’s for dinner. It’s a chain of portuguese food and different kinds of grilled chicken. It’s cheap, and absolutely delicious, and I don’t know why I didn’t go there before but it was excellent.

Then Leah, Bekah, Alysabeth, and I went to the Lyric Hammersmith to see a Pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk. Melissa was supposed to meet us there. We were accidentally sold seats in the Upper Circle when they weren’t opening up the Upper Circle so we were upgraded to the Stalls! The manager guy was intense with his ear piece and christmas colored bandana on his head. He directed us where to go and Melissa met us shortly after the show started.

Christmas Pantomime is an English Christmas Tradition. It usually takes popular stories like Aladdin or Cinderella or Peter Pan, etc. Adds a narrator of sorts, a drag queen or “Dame”, parodied popular music, audience participation, and frequently a cameo by a celebrity (The voice of the giant puppet was Patrick Stewart). They often sell candy floss and popcorn and all sorts of carnival treats in the lobby and the ushers dress all christmassy, and it’s geered towards families, kids and kids at heart. Pantos often bring in more dough to some theatres than a solid portion of their main season.

Like I said, we saw Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack’s mother was the dame, “Wendy Windsor” who the audience had to greet with a “Hello, Wendy Windsor!” every time she walked onstage. There was a gratuitous villian who sang a song about how she’s the bad guy we’re supposed to boo. She hated children because she’s made entirely of sugar and doesn’t want to be eaten. She sells Jack the beans. There were random snail puppets who sang about their love of cabbage. There was an “evil” sidekick who wasn’t very good at his job because he wasn’t very evil. He became Wendy Windsor’s love interest, and whenever he hears a line from a song he bursts into song and dance (everything from “I’m getting married in the morning” to Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface”) and then the conductor of the orchestra would hand up a frying pan to bang him on the head to get him to shut up. This made me and Bekah laugh a lot–Bekah has the same problem, where she can’t keep herself from singing when she hears a tune or words from a song. We don’t beat her with frying pans though….The cow was really a spanish bull/narrator figure, named “Especial!”– whenever he said his name he’d strike a muscular pose and the audience had to shout “The special one!”. He first came out onto the stage with his lower torso draped in a towel of the English flag. He later revealed cow pants and udders, since naturally, in a panto, you’d get a Bull to play the cow. The giant’s palace in the sky was really a slave-run marshmallow factory that was running low on sugar. Jack’s love interest, Jill, was a sassy marshmallow maker who was thrilled that Jack was too dim witted to realise how bitchy she was. Jack dug Jill because she was pretty and funny and didn’t make fun of him for being dumb (since she enjoyed being smarter). But they were funny.

We booed the sugar villain. Clapped along to the music. Wendy Windsor sung Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 when complaining about Jack and his stupidity. They sang “We Are Hammersmith” instead of “We are Family”, and the bull lead everyone in a patriotic song about Spain. At the end, Wendy Windsor and the in-effective side kick man get married, Jill drops subtle hints to Jack, and when that doesn’t work, she rips off her magenta tafetta dress to reveal a tina turner style sequined and fringed leotard to do Beyonce’s “Single Ladies Dance”. Wendy Windsor does a similar costume change and joins in, and by the end everyone onstage is doing the Single Ladies Dance. Including the hermaphroditic cow. It was HILARIOUS. The little girl in front of me couldn’t contain her joy, so she stood up and started dancing in the aisles. It was grand.

It was such a fun night, with really good company. We went back to the borough and started packing.

Bekah, Leah, Casey and I went out to Leah’s Stratford, the Museum of Childhood! It’s a museum filled with all kinds of toys and puppets, historic, antique and modern. There are play stations, and the toys and exhibits are all organized by learning style and kind of play they’re used for/ developmental stages. So it’s a toy museum constructed by sociologists. No wonder Leah’s in love with it. We keep telling her she should make a US equivalent. I played at the lego station and made a house. There was a table with those faces with magnet bits that you use another magnet to give the faces beards and hair ‘dos, and we all had far too much fun with that. I rode an adult sized rocking horse. Admired 4 cases filled with international and antique puppets, marionets and shadow puppets. Bekah and I were small enough to fit in some of the costumes in the dress up bin so we got decked out (she was a cowgirl, i was a knight) and we improvised a scene about a cowgirl messenger seeking the valuable wine lodged in the haunted castle’s cellar (don’t ask…). We saw a few cases filled with Syndie dolls, the classier British version of Barbie. We also put on a puppet show for some small English children. There was a small art gallery filled with art based on fairy tales, and a wooden ambulence that was always filled with playing children. This place was awesome. Kindergarten Regression at its finest!

That evening was the ICLC’s end of term event and open mic night. Most of us dressed up. A local rabbi came by to lead us all in the lighting of a menorah with his 3 year old son Yitzie serving as his assistant (he was supposed to hand out donuts but started crying when the rabbi took the bag of treats away). We all sang the prayer and the menorah was placed on the mantle…There was a raffle (I won a bag from the RSC in Stratford!), food, a slide show of our time in London (I look posessed in most of the Coffee Talk photos…i didn’t realize how terrifying i look when in desperate need of caffeine…), and prizes were awarded for the photo, postcard, travel writing and other contests. Nick was the Titanic of the end of term event which was amusing. Mid way through he started throwing chocolate to the masses- it was quite a sight. I won 10 pounds for a piece i wrote about the hermit crabs in Barcelona. Then there was the open mic event. Nick indulged his inner diva by doing a fantastic piano cover of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”. Nick accompanied Vince in a sentimental and very appropriate rendition of “I’ll be Home for Christmas”. Beth lead everyone in a “Let it snow” sing along, 2 music majors played some Motzart on their oboe and flute, Sarina played a beautiful christmas song on a guitar and lead everyone in a sing-along chorus, and Bekah put together and sang a medley of showtunes from musicals set in London. Bekah kicked butt. Leah wrote a song called “the 17 weeks at the London Center” to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas. It was a hit! Everyone began to sing along after a bit, and Bill was flattered. I’ll post it later, it’s so good. The open mic night ended with Nick acompanying Kim and Vince in singing “For Good” from Wicked, which was a real tear jerker. I found myself hugging and comforting a few of my friends sitting near me and pretending I wasn’t watery eyed…though i kinda was. It was such a good evening.

After the event I walked with Tamar to her flat to pick up the watering can she borrowed and used as a prop for the acting scenes. So, watering can in tow, I went to Sainsburies to pick up some groceries and threw them in the Shakespeare bag I won. While in Sainsburies, Bekah called and told me to meet a bunch of my friends at the Pembroke. So I struth through Earls Court in my dress and combat boots, carrying a watering can and a bag filled with fruit and chocolate, and smiling at whoever looks at me funny. It began to snow. I arrived at the Pembroke a frigid mess. Andres joked that I should bring the watering can up to the bar and ask them to fill it. We decided that would be unsanitary and I ordered a cranberry juice. It was a lot of fun. I really like the Pembroke. It’s got the feel of an old Victorian Inn. It’s really classy. We were frequently the youngest people there besides a few of the bartenders but no one treated us differently or anything. It’s just classy. They usually have boardgames at the bar. They’re only shortcoming is that they don’t serve J2O. Andres was flirting with a guy at the bar and wound up accidentally meeting and befriending the owners of the Pembroke who invited him to join the party they were throwing upstairs. Molly, Alysabeth, Bekah, Casey, Leah and I left him there and went down Earls Court Road in search of Chips since we were all hungry and the food at the End of Term Event wasn’t exactly Jenna-friendly.

We arrived at King’s Kabobs. Still wielding my watering can, the kabob guys remarked “What do you need that for? it’s snowing! Your Garden will get watered. There’s no Garden here.”….I was too lazy to go back to the flat and then back to the kebab place, it was on the way to my flat is the real answer. The fun answer is i wanted to see what people would say. Or start a trend. Either way, we went and sat in the back and watched retro music videos. The chips were cheap and delicious. The watering can was stowed safely under our table. And my tipsy friends got a kick out of the irony that i was the only sober one there and yet i was the one carrying a watering can around the streets of London.

It was a good night.

The first night I sang my prayer and turned on electric switches by myself, then skyped with Bekah and her family as they lit their menorah. The second night I met my dad in Covent Garden, enjoyed good company, and counted the candles in the restaurant as being sufficiant. Third night I skyped with Samantha, who did have a menorah, but also wasn’t allowed to light candles. I sang, she mimed the candle lighting. It was very pleasant. Fourth night, Bekah used the flashlight feature on her phone (cool, huh?) as the shamish, shining it on each light as i turned on the switch and we all sang. Apparently Leah recorded a video of us doing this. I’m not sure how i feel about that…Night five Bekah and I made latkes and I went to Trafalger Square and sang my prayer while I looked at the giant menorah they’d set up next to a plaque explaining what Chanukkah is. Night Six I decided to count all the christmas lights around the city as lights. Night Seven was the end of Term event and they brought in a Rabbi to light the menorah and sing with us. And Night 8 was another count all the christmas lights as chanukkah lights.

I spend all semester looking for the Jews in London and I find a synogogue through the random Rabbi who shows up to our end of term event. Go Figure.

Going to a toystore with Leah is like bringing an enthusiastic five your old to a carnival. After they’ve eaten lots of cotton candy. She’s so much fun. The toystore at Herrods was HUGE.  There was a man demonstrating magic tricks. There was a table filled with fake snow- this wierd chemical stuff that when you add water to it it puffs up and gets cold and kinda looks like snow…back in Ithaca we’ll get loads of the real thing, but it seemed to entertain english children of all ages. There was a replica of the Globe filled with electronic teddy bears acting out different scenes on the stage and in the seats. Complete with a pick-pocket gorilla in the yard and a couple of bears making out on the third tier. I took loads of photos. I even found a huge stuffed panda bear, like Simon, the bear Drew and Lisa and I had when we were tykes. It was wild.

I went and took my Interrelationships Exam, the written part was surprisingly easy, the oral part was just…odd. I got my journal and my main paper back, and I did alright. Nia and Anna won the best journal prizes, and we all enjoyed having one last chance to watch T.Kidd be T.Kidd.

That night I was going to stay in and clean but decided to go stroll around my favorite part of London, the South Bank. It was cold and mildly rainy. The kind of rain that can’t decide if it wants to be snow or not. But I was bundled up and I wanted to explore. So I did. I walked across the bridge from Embankment to down near the BFI, passed the National Theatre, and kept walking, watching the waves in the Thames get rougher and rougher. I walked along past the book market spot on a corridor made of trees with lights and the rail by the water. The way the lights were bouncing off the water made it feel like I was walking through a tunnel…of magic. I walked out to Gabriel’s wharf, and saw that someone had etched in large letters in the sand:

“In case I didn’t tell you enough tonight how much I love you”

I saw a young woman look at that and leap into her boyfriend’s arms before they started kissing. It was sweet. I walkedout onto the pier, meditated for a bit, and just soaked in the beauty of the evening. I called my friend Melissa to see if she wanted to join me on the tail end of my walk. Ironically she had the same idea and was down by the Eye. So I kept walking from the pier towards the Eye and we met at the National.

We walked down from the National past Gabriel’s Wharf, around the Tate Modern to the Globe, talking about life, the universe and everything. Melissa’s really cool. She’s a musical theatre major from Texas who goes to the University of Santa Fe. She and three of her friends were part of our program at the ICLC from U. Santa Fe. I regret not getting to know her and the other Santa Fe girls better. Anyway, whe stood in front of the Globe in awe and wonder. I tried to say good bye to it, but I couldn’t, so I decided to go back later in the week.

When I saw The Misanthrope I saw a matinee so the actors didn’t come out afterwards. Melissa and Katie were seeing the Misanthrope on press night, so there wouldn’t be any stagedooring either. So Melissa and I decided to meet Katie at the theatre to try and get Dominic Rowan’s autograph. But since the next day was press night they weren’t out anyway, so we went back to Earl’s Court and went to a cafe on Gloucester that was open late. More fun conversation and company. I said goodbye to Harmony who was leaving early. And came back to my flat at an unreasonable hour.

I woke up around 10, got dressed and went straight to writing my Shakespeare paper. I got really engrossed in it and made good progress. I had to be at the center for the ICLC group photo that afternoon. I thought that it was at 2, so if I got to the center around 1:15 I’d be able to be there with time to spare. Turns out the deadlines for teacher evaluations were at 2, the photo was at 1. Leah called me as i was turning the key in the door telling me i missed it.

So Mom, Dad- Don’t look for me in the group photo. You won’t see me there until I paste a tiny thumbnail of myself in the background.

Anyway, I decided to go to the National Portrait Gallery to say hi to the Tudors. I saw King Richard III, Queen Elizabeth I, a bunch of other kings and queens and dukes. I also saw Fletcher and Ben Jonson! But my favorite portrait was the one of William Shakespeare (surprise, surprise). It’s his most famous portrait (beyond the etching you find in copies of his books). I feel kind of silly and very embarassed about this, but I got a little emotional. It was incredible to see proof that he really did exist. He sat for that portrait centuries ago, and probably had no idea of the impact he had on literature, pop culture, history, and people’s lives. It was unreal.

I then went back to Earl’s Court, ordered some Thai food from Mangosteen for the last time (it’s gotten to the point where the guys who work there know me). I thought I had less time than I actually did to get and eat dinner before the show, so i was a little out of breath. I paid for my food and the Mangosteen man walked me to the door and wouldn’t give me my food until he said

“Take a deep breath, smile, and slow down. We’ll see you soon!”

I’m gonna miss Mangosteen pad thai and the freindly folk who work there.

Erin, Melissa and I went to go see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. We met Andres under the marquee before the show and took photos of the giant shoe on top of the marquee. Tamar was meeting him later. The show was incredible! Spectacle, sequins, music, humor, and drag queens. So fun. Even the little cherubs decorating the theatre were decked out with mini disco balls. It’s based on an Australian movie about 2 drag queens and a transsexual who go on a road trip in a van named Priscilla from Sydney to Alicetown to do a casino show/ meet one of the drag queen’s family. The music is all popular music and cabaret standards carefully dropped into the plot, and there are three fantastic belters decked out like the supremes suspended from the ceiling providing the high notes and backup. It was so much fun! I loved every minute of it. It’s coming to the states. I recommend it. And it was a lot of fun going with Melissa and Erin and meeting up with Andres and Tamar later on.

Perfect last West End show, for sure.

Monday I woke up early to meet Alysabeth at the Earls Court tube station so we could go to Hammersmith to get our tickets to the Pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk for Friday. We successfully bought our tickets and had a lovely chat. Alysabeth went to go work on more of her paper. I decided I’d done enough of mine to take the day I had ahead of me and fill it with adventure!

So I switched at Earls Court and went up to Paddington. I hadn’t really looked around Paddington yet, I just went to the train station. When Doug came to visit I came out of the station and nearly bought a cup of coffee, so I thought I should use the time (while I have it) to go explore. I thought I’d passed a tea shop while I was there and I wanted to investigate. So I got out of the station, looked at some clothes in a charity shop, and went to this tea shop. Which turned out not to be a tea shop at all. It was really a used-luggage/suitcase store that happened to be displaying tea in the windows. So I decided to get off at Notting Hill Gate to walk around one of my favorite neighborhoods and markets.

I walked along the street in Notting Hill. Passed the Gate Theatre and the Prince Albert Pub. Went into a few vintage shops, looked at some antiques on Portobello Road, but mostly just enjoyed the atmosphere. I bought myself a delicious falafel wrap for lunch and continued to admire the colorful doors and walls of Notting Hill. I went back to the Notting Hill Gate stop, met a really nice Morrocan guy who didn’t understand why I’d want to be in London when I can live in America (he’s also the first person I’ve met abroad who’s not only been to NJ, but liked it. And didn’t make Sopranos jokes). He got on a different train, and then mine came. I took it back to Earls Court where I met Melissa and Erin so we could go to  Leicester Square to buy our tickets for Priscilla: Queen of the Desert for Tuesday.

After purchasing my ticket I decided to wander around Chinatown. I went to a little tea room I went to when Sam was visiting called the Jen Cafe. The space is small and crammed, the tables and walls are all green and there were two women at the window making dumplings. They sat me at a table with an asian man in his late twenties in a suit, eating soup and reading the paper. I ordered my tea, and decided to write some observations and poems. The man at my table kept slurping his soup and coughing, then immediately appologizing profusely (he seemed to think his coughing/slurping was distracting me, it really wasn’t). It became a vicious pattern- slurp, cough, “so sorry!”, over and over. Until he finally cleared his throat and drank some water. I was writing my observations and the waitress must’ve read what i was writing over my shoulder. She said something in chinese to the man at my table, and he smiled. As he was leaving he said “Good luck with your writing”. It was a delicious cup of tea and an interesting writing experience. I then went back to Leicester Square where I took the tube to South Kensington to go to the V&A.

At the V&A I went saw the fashion exhibit, some of the sculptures, the ironworks, some of the jewlery, and the theatre exhibit (which welcomed me with the Shakespeare portion of the film montage of british scenes). I saw everything from elaborate iron gates to costumes from historic plays, pantos and ballets (including things Sir Laurence Olivier might have worn). I also tried on a few costumes in the hands-on part of the theatre wing. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The jewlery exhibit was hard to take, it was very dark with bright lights about the jewels and whatnot. It was really pretty, but not easy to look at. Eventually, I’d had enough and I decided to home, via Earls Court.

My flatmates and I went out to eat at our local Irish pub, O’neill’s, which was wonderful. Then Bekah and Leah and I went to the Pembroke for a drink and to play with their board games- but all of them had been stolen and they can’t replace them until after the holidays, so our drinks were free. I then went to Covent Gardenvia the Earl’s Court tube and met my dad for some sorbet, tea, and good conversation. He generously offerred to take a bag of my stuff home for me so I’d have less to lug. So I took him up on the offer.

There you have it! A monday chock full of adventure, sponsored by the District and Picadilly lines.

I discovered my Shakespeare paper was due Thursday instead of Monday, so I had drank 3 cups of coffee expecting to pull an all nighter when I realised that I didn’t need to. Then I heard about the pianos and skyped with Kermit for a few hours. And lamented. And worked on the paper. Grumble.