Weeks 4 & 5 - Going GLOBAL

There was a FULL rainbow before one play!

Week four and most of week five have been spent in Bankside (London) near Shakespeare's Globe, where we've been taking classes and attending performances. Every lecture and workshop is informative and engaging, and it’s pretty incredible to see “original practice” (made as they would have been made in Shakespeare’s time) costumes, instruments, etc. It’s also exciting to work with instructors who frequently work with the Globe actors as they prepare for a play. Some days at the Globe, I feel like I’m living someone else’s dream. Don’t get me wrong – I’m loving it! I just know how much it means to the actors in our group, and so I work hard to appreciate every moment as much as I can, despite my limited theatre experience and knowledge base. We put on a mini version of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale on our final afternoon there. It was pretty good and I really enjoyed rehearsing for and performing in it!

With Jordan in "Hell" (under the Globe stage) during a tour

We saw three performances at the Globe: Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (my favourite play ever), and Tony Harrison’s The Globe Mysteries. These performances were drastically different from one another, and we enjoyed each one for five pounds a ticket as ‘groundlings’ – people who stand on the ground in front of the stage. During Dr. Faustus, our first show in London, one of the characters was giving a monologue and, as he said something about love, raised his eyebrows a few times at me. I blushed and covered my face, and the audience (especially the Prin people) laughed. How embarrassingly wonderful! At Much Ado, when Beatrice was writing off men without beards (in addition to men with beards), she gestured to a fellow in our group and then mouthed a laughing apology a number of times. It was pretty funny. Free interaction with the groundlings characterizes a Globe performance, but it definitely took some getting used to!

With Ben at Hyde Park in London

On Sunday at church, I ran into a classmate from Prin, Ben, who was in my year and was doing a bit of traveling before starting an internship. I was so glad to see a familiar face and hang out for a bit, especially because we weren't close in college and I got to talk to him post-graduation. We spent a few hours wandering around Hyde park, where a concert was going on. Someone asked us a question, which is always a really good sign - it means you don't look like a tourist! We stopped by Speaker's Corner, where anyone can stand on a little step ladder and rant about his or her topic of choice. We saw one man arrive when we did and within fifteen minutes there were some twenty people around him. Many people were talking politics, conspiracy theory (it was Sept 11th), etc. and others were yelling about religion. One little Asian man was yelling "YOUU AARE ALLL LOOST SHEEEP!" and one guy responded, "No; I'm a lost cow!" Again, "WHEERE WILLL YOUU GO WHEN YOU DIEEE?" and, in response, a snickering chorus of "Hell!!" There were a surprising number of people in attendance whose main interest was to give the speakers a hard time. One group of guys in their twenties with beers in their hands yelled at a heavyset man, repeatedly calling him "FATTY!" The man replied, "Are you even listening? I'm on your side!" As these rowdy guys moved along, the adults said back and forth to each other, "those idiots are the future of our country?!?" It was fun to listen to everyone for a few minutes each, and the political discussions were far more interesting than the sweaty religious ranters. Obviously. 

Wednesday night on the Tube to and from church, my friends and I had a delightful time playing charades, silently acting out clues and mouthing our guesses.  It wasn’t quite in line with English public transportation behaviour, but it was slightly more respectful than giving in to the American instinct to chat and laugh at a normal volume. On the way back, I was trying to get them to say “Bambi,” and a nice fellow sitting near us asked one of my friends if I’d had too much to drink. When he found out what we were doing, he tried to help my friends guess. After he left, Heidi said to me, “A couple more stops and you would have gotten a phone number!”

I am enjoying listening for a number of fun words/phrases commonly used by the English. Here are a few patterns: ending sentences with “, really.” or with rhetorical questions like “isn’t it?” “didn’t I?”, chap, bloke, bit, lovely, fantastic, brilliant, a bit crap, cheers, etc.  I'm always a little shocked when they say "Where's the toilet?" I have handled this by asking for the ladies' instead. I messed up a few times, saying "pants" when I meant "trousers" and "chips" when I meant "crisps." Fail! I made quick recoveries, though, don't worry!

It’s time for a trying-new-foods update. Status: mediocre. I am pretty much thriving/surviving on sandwiches, croissants, cereal, Caesar salad, chicken, margarita pizza, Starbucks, fruit, and various forms of chocolate. Not bad. I surprised myself by enjoying some tomato and spinach on a turkey sandwich. SHOCKING! I ate a few pieces of either a mango or a peach – not sure I know the difference, which is embarrassing. I ate alone at restaurants for both lunch and dinner one day, which was a little brave of me. Another night I was overly brave with a burrito (chicken, rice, black beans, avocado, sour cream, mild salsa) and, after suffering through a few bites, ate the chicken out of it and gave the rest to a vegetarian friend. Lesson number one million for the abroad: whenever possible, try new foods by taking bites of other people’s food, not by purchasing the whole entree. I’ve also tried Turkish delight, real gingerbread, a mushroom-centered sandwich and chocolate covered cornflake clusters.  I know that last one doesn’t count, but it’s the only one I went on to purchase after sampling. Surprised? Didn’t think so.   

Week 3 - Library time in London

***WARNING: I reference a very bad word twice during this post. My apologies!***

London! Many of the Abroaders had been anxiously awaiting our time in London, but I hadn’t thought much of it until we arrived on Saturday, Sept 3^rd. As we walked to the British Library, I felt an immediate repulsion to my surroundings, although not to London in particular – more to city life in general. After a day or two, I felt more acclimated, but I’m definitely not a city girl…

We got Oyster cards to use on buses and the tube (the underground) during our time in London, and we had fun getting comfortable navigating our way around. I had a slightly terrifying moment at the tube station one night this week. I was in a line of Prin people to swipe my Oyster card when I realized it wasn’t immediately accessible.  I moved to the end of the line so I could retrieve it without holding anyone up. I thought to myself, “It must be in here somewhere; this is a tiny purse… No?  Perhaps my fleece pockets… No… Rain jacket pockets?... Nope… Jean pockets… No… Purse again… pockets again…” and within thirty seconds I realized that the Prin group had marched out of sight, and I was suddenly alone at night in a London tube station without an Oyster card. I choked back my panic and searched my purse once more – why, of course, it was simply pushed to one narrow end of the tiny purse! Blasted thing. I swiped it and rushed down the stairs, grateful to see that the group was still waiting for the next train. I walked up to a friend and allowed myself three or four tears of relief before joyfully boarding the tube home. (Side note: earlier this week at a clothing store I saw some Oyster cardholders that said things like “Keep Calm and Carry On,” etc.; I laughed aloud at the one that said, “WHERE’S MY F***ING CARD?” – without the asterisks. Although I would NEVER purchase something like that, my experiences with the tube recalled that cardholder to mind more than once!)

Working at the British Library was a gorgeous experience.  Once you go through the intense process of applying for a yearlong membership card as an official “Reader,” you can order books to be retrieved at a particular “Reading Room” within 70 minutes or 48 hours, depending on where the book is stored.  The Rare Books and Music Reading Room where we worked had perhaps three hundred people working in near silence. Every day, you lock your stuff in a locker and enter the room with your computer, paper, and a pencil in a clear plastic bag.  After you pick a (numbered) desk, you wait in line to check out up to six books at a time (ten per day maximum), which are registered to your seat number.  The process was slightly nerve-racking the first day, but became quite routine by the end. 

Working with the texts was so rewarding, especially for an English literature major. Gently turning the pages of a four hundred year old book is quite thrilling. I spent the first day researching midwifery around Shakespeare’s time, as I will be a midwife in Pericles when we perform it in November. As you may know, the letter “s” used to be typed as a sort of “f” in most old texts, which was quite unfortunate in sentences like “Many children dye whilest they are sucking the breasts” and “They are commonly sucked by their own Mothers.”  I had to work hard not to cringe or laugh!

On my second day at the library, I realized I had been given a book that I hadn’t ordered.  When I took it back up to the desk, we discovered that it had been ordered by an “SA MOSER” rather than “H MOSER.”  I said something clever like, “Oh, I guess my relatives are in town!” and went back to my seat.  The next morning I had reached the front of the checkout line when I overheard a patron at the counter say, “Those aren’t my books.” Sure enough, they were mine! I indicated as much, and the woman turned excitedly to me and said “Oh, are you the other Moser?” “Yes I am! We actually pronounce it ‘Moser,’ although we’re probably wrong.” She laughed and told me she was an archeology professor at University of Southampton. We briefly discussed my abroad program, and she asked whether I’d ever been to Austria.  Apparently “our surname is EVERYWHERE there!”  She was going to buy a piece of Moser glass there but didn’t because “it was quite expensive and, frankly, quite boring!” Her books arrived, and she said, “Best of luck!” with as much loving enthusiasm as I would have given someone after a few days of joyful companionship. Definitely a highlight!

Most importantly, the library cafe had the most delicious chocolate banana cake and chicken Caesar salad sandwiches I've ever had. The British Library: Come for the books, stay for the food!