Noah and the Whale: A Religious Experience

Last Friday I was lucky enough to be part of the magical experience that was Noah and the Whale at the Roundhouse Theatre in London. Originally sold out, my friend miraculously scored tickets and one of my top London goals- seeing my favorite band on its own turf-was achieved. The set was relatively as expected: most of the songs from The First Days of Spring and a lot from (my favorite, of course) Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. Personal favorites were Blue Skies and Rocks and Daggers but the 5 Years Time encore was pretty awesome as well.

Charlie Fink was pretty entertaining in his own quiet genius sort of way, but I guess he couldn't be too enthused considering his freshly released album is all about his heart being broken and such. At one point a bunch of people to the left of us yelled out "move the lamp" as one was obstructing the view of him from his right side, and he just deeply and quietly muttered "move the lamp?" I'm sure you had to be there but it was kind of adorable. Anyway, the show was beyond amazing and it really couldn't have lasted long enough even if it had been an all nighter. Afterwards we went to a bunch of pubs in Camden (no surprise there) and perpetuated the warm happiness the show had initiated. It might have been my best night here yet. No, really, it was that good. Well done, all parties involved.

From Buffy to Bakerloo

Last Thursday my theatre class saw 6 Degrees of Separation at the Royal Vic. Apparently it's supposed to be a pretty popular production at the moment, if not highly reviewed. Anywho....I didn't realize it until today in my Theatre class when we discussed the more finite details, but one of the main characters was played by Anthony Stewart Head, who was Giles in the beloved teen series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (gasp at the celebrity!). I was still pondering the wonders of this finding as I walked the platforms from Hammersmith and City to the Jubilee when who do I see but Giles himself?! Tall, greying-in a dashing way, and everything the fictional pedagogue should be in real life. I wanted to tell him all kinds of nice things but it was rush hour and I figured, well, no one wants to get stopped in the tube at the most hectic time possible, even if to be complimented. So I watched him go down the escalator to the Bakerloo line and pleasantly smirked the whole ride back. I've been doing that a lot here.

I'm just comin' here to come down- I could be this, I could move town

Midnight tonight marks exactly five weeks since I left US soil, and I find that very, very strange. It's funny (and cliche, but true) how so many things really have changed since that fateful day. I won't bore you with the details, dear reader, but I am pleased to tell you that these 5 weeks have been nothing short of magical.

But now let's cut to the chase; what I really want to do is tell you about a few things that have transpired since we last met. On Wednesday I saw a play called Disconnect with my theatre class. It was written by Anupama Chandrasekhar, a playwrite from South India, and centers on four telephone credit collectors who contact indebted Americans (while donning American personas) to attempt to reach payment arrangements. The play was actually really interesting because it centers around sub-cultural racism within Indian society in the face of globalization (which my professor describes as, essentially, Americanization). It's harsh and doesn't really hold back. The characters are so infatuated with "The American Dream" that they emulate the culture in any way possible through outdated pop culture referrences and overpriced status items like a D&G leather jacket and Blackberry Storm. In this unquenchable attempt to at least appear American they drive themselves into some of the very issues they are paid to keep Americans accountable for. In a word, it was intriguing. We discussed the play in class today and I was really interested...I think I might go back and read the script and I'm pretty sure it will be the topic of my first real assignment this semester!

What else? I went to the Victoria And Albert Museum on Thursday (bomb) and The Natural History Museum on Saturday. The latter was in a really cool building but I have to say, from what I saw (which, mind you, wasn't a WHOLE lot) it didn't have much on D.C.'s Natural History Museum.

Oh, and tonight I went out with my friends Emily and Joelle for a few pints with real working adults. We got into some pretty interesting discussions about global politics and the arbitrary nature of "nationalism." I have to say, conversations like that are always really fun for me when they happen but I can't really take part in them all the time. Maybe once every week or two I'd really like to engage in some hard core socially and politically minded intellectual stimulation....but mostly just Lost theories for the rest.

So that's about it. I'd like to think of this post as a few sub-posts. It clearly just shows that I need to update more often, but now it's like you have a week of highlights, right?

In other news:
-I get lost in Camden far too often on weekend nights
-Skins features some truly unbelievable music (and the show is awesome too)
-I have rediscovered my love for Broken Social Scene and am especially obsessed with Major Label Debut
-The Noah and the Whale show I was really pumped for is officially sold out. Anyone want to make a trip to Toulouse for plan b?
-Everyone says the Olympics were cool but I wouldn't know because our TV is busted. My landlord owes me some serious memories lost!
-La Salle is getting ready for Midterms. Ha, suckers.
I guess that's mostly it. I don't know....Screw Sidney Crosby? See, you could see right through the lack of enthusiasm, couldn't you?

Stanislavski, Dostoevsky, Chekhov....and The Simpsons in Russian

Last night a really good family friend, John, was nice enough to take me to the Consort Club's annual Royal College of Music performance. This year it featured a truly exceptional concert pianist named Konstantin Lapshin, who is studying piano on a post graduate level and competing internationally on behalf of the college. He played Chopin's Polonaise-Fantaisie and Shumann's Carnaval and....it was beyond words. I'm clearly no where near a classical music connoisseur, but even I could tell this guy was genius. After the performance we had champagne in a drawing room (I know, how fancy) and made our way to our seats. As I got to the table I was shocked, thrilled, and terrified to learn that I was seated next to no other than Konstantin Lapshin and proceeded to short-term hyperventalate over a. the fact that there were a lot of forks, knives, and glasses and b. that I would need to keep up conversation with the performer everyone so admired though I was the person in the room with the least possible knowledge about classical music.

So I took a deep breath, got over the awkwardness, and talked to Konstantin about...well, everything. I pulled every Russian lit. figure I could think of (Dostoevsky and Chekhov, basically) and we somehow discussed what little I remembered of method acting. At one point a woman to his left asked him if he liked The Simpsons (it was relevant at the time) and I found it probably a little too funny that he watched it in Russian. He seemed to be enjoying himself and I actually found the night refreshing. I love that even though we were from totally different cultures and backgrounds we were able to bond over how weird it is adjusting to English accents and I found it especially entertaining that he asked, "do you have a facebook?"

So it was a surprisingly entertaining encounter. Watching experiences change drastically before your eyes and turn out differently than you could ever have predicted really never gets old and I'm happy to keep taking it in with little other than a smirk.

Give us This Day Our Daily Debauchery

Sunday- a day for penance, rest, and faith....for good people. For me and my friends last Sunday was a day of complete and utter debauchery. We'd heard a distant rumor that such a place as "The Church" existed far far away at St. Johns Hill. A place where drunkards from all across the U.K. met at noon every Sunday to worship Dionysus and get their fill of total absurdity whilst dressed in costume and, customarily, highly intoxicated. We awoke at 8:30 sharp, got dressed in clothes no congregation member would appreciate, and took the hike to the elusive, beautiful Church. Upon our arrival we were met with an eyeful of total madness. Be it a huge screen that "candid camera" style displayed pictures of members in the crowd with funny captions underneath or the room full of people dressed as smirfs, air force pilots, mimes, and ancient Greeks, nothing left me anything short of delighted and shocked.

For our entertainment, the stage was enlisted with comedy sketches, musical performances, a stripper, and tomfoolery involving audience members. At the end we got on stage and danced for who knows how long. We got back around 5, I passed out at 7 and considered it a great success. I don't think I could handle this as a new weekly ritual (after all, a few of my new British friends have said it's reserved for the "hardcore") but it was memorable for sure!

My Day Trip to Wales

Thursday night, between a few rounds of karaoke at the International Students Housing bar, I made impromptu plans to go to Wales the following day with my room mate and a couple of her friends. I figure travel costs were decent, Wales always sounded cool, and this is likely one of the best weekends to do this sort of thing. So I woke up at 6, took the coach with them to Cardiff, Wales, and had what turned out to be a really great day! We didn't do anything in particular- looked at the Cardiff Castle, took a lot of pictures of the city streets, had some delicious Darjeeling tea, shopped around a little and got dinner.

The Cardiff Castle was really cool. It's right in the middle of town and surrounded by busy roads but it's extremely well-preserved and blends in with the rest of the city. I don't think the picture I posted here adequately conveys how interesting and consistent the juxtaposition between the new and old is, but it'll have to do. My favorite thing about the city was that old and new buildings existed everywhere, right next to each other and they formed a cohesive aesthetic.



This picture might actually be my favorite that I took because I really like the different angles, as made very easily accessible by interesting architecture. This is of the middle of town, basically the square, which is pretty modern, save for a few buildings and alleyways stemming from various parts. Most of the shops and newer restaurants were behind me when I took this shot, so it's a pretty congested area (though, somehow, you wouldn't know it looking at this photo).





Another thing I really liked about Cardiff was that alleyways of shops literally exist everywhere. They are all partially indoor with glass ceilings so it's bright throughout them. Some have balconies and shop fronts just as though they're outside but they're also cooler and semi- mall like. I'm not sure how old the buildings are but they definitely seemed pretty old, just with modern touches. We had our tea in one of the little shops down this alley, and while it was a tad cramped, it was really cute.

And....that's all I can really think of at the moment. Wales was really cool. I probably wouldn't need to stay there for a long time or anything, but it was a really cute, interesting day trip. I had a lot of fun getting to know new people from my trip and basically just roaming around aimlessly. I think the best way to close this off is another picture I took that wasn't especially relevant but, in my opinion, really cool. So, here goes nothing:

The Reinvention of the Blog

So I'm not sure how evident it is by the passing months of one big post void but prior to this moment I had basically given up on the blog. I guess I just figured I didn't really have anything to say that was so provocative or enlightening that I should assert some virtual knowledge.....for all of my anxiously awaiting readers. However, I am now doing something somewhat interesting; I'm living in London and if that's not something to blog about I don't know what is!

So, I'll be brief. I got in on Monday morning and stayed with my grandfather's colleague until everyone else arrived the next day. As you can see in the picture of our living room, we moved into the sweetest flat EVER (though some other kids in Hampden house's flat is actually better)...got some great fallafel and generally settled in. Then we met up with a bunch of other UMD kids at the pub right downstairs and I already love that place. Nice staff, really great cider selection, and generally cool ambiance (how lame did that sound?).

Then yesterday we had orientation but we also did a coach tour of London. We caught the usual sights like Big Ben, St. Peter's and Westminster Abbey, the Thames, some royal guards, and way too many buildings that were used in Harry Potter movies, and it was cool to get the mad touristy part out of the way.

Last night was night 2 and we went to a tex mex place that was really only ok but the company was swell. And while I said I probably wouldn't go out tonight bc of a significant funds depletion...I'm thinking I'll fall for peer pressure and go out to a place called the Metropolitan with the same hoard of American study abroaders. This week is comprised of all orientations b.s. and then we start class on Monday. I actually kind of can't wait for the real-life stuff to kick in because the suspense is just killing me! Haven't met my British boyfriend yet but I think he's just too nervous to say hi when I'm with 30 other obnoxious Americans. So that's about it for now. Until next time, I'll leave this for your viewing pleasures: