Ok, Paris.

So to those of you who didn't know, I went to Paris for a weekend. Here are the events:

5:45 Friday morning. Arriving at the tube station this early is torture. It's torture to be up this early in general, but it's bad enough being in a cramped smelly place with luggage. Luckily I could cram everything into my backpack. The Eurostar is a fast train, and I mean fast. We made it into France in two or so hours, which I guess if you're from the United States, to go from one country to another in 2 hours is amazing. I had never really put into perspective how close the European countries are to one another. No wonder there were so many border disputes.

We are given our Metro tickets which allow us to travel anywhere for the the weekend. The Metro in Paris is so much worse than the London Tube. It's smaller, older, smellier, grosser, and filled with the weirdest people. Straight up gropers and shifty eyed creeps.

We get to the Holiday Inn where we are staying. Derek and I are once again rooming together and we trekked upstairs to see if our room is any bigger than the closet we were given in London. We open the door and there is only one full sized bed in the room. There are supposed to be two twins. And Derek and I have become good friends, don't get me wrong, but it was really freakin hot in Paris and he's a much bigger guy than I am. So we have to venture back downstairs to remedy the situation.

That afternoon we head out to see Notre Dame and it is positively massive. I've been around quite a few large cathedrals, having been to Spain, but the Notre Dame is exceptionally large. It actually feels even larger inside than on the outside, which I didn't think was possible.

Back to the hotel for a nap then out for dinner. We ate at a wonderful French restaurant in the Latin Quarter of town. I had foie gras, cuchon (roast suckling pig) and creme brulee. Tres magnifique!

The next day we are up bright and early for a day of seeing sights. After eating five croissants, we head out to the Louvre to see world famous art. We see Ms. Mona Lisa, Ms. Winged Victory, and Ms. Venus de Milo. The ceilings were the most amazing parts of the Louvre. Every ceiling was just as ornate and beautiful as the art beneath it. So then we leave the Louvre to go to L'Arc de Triumph.

We eat another fantastic meal. I had boeuf bourguignon and chocolate mousse. It was the best chocolate mousse I've ever had. Thick but not too heavy and very very rich. I ate it all in like 4 seconds.

After lunch we go on a boat cruise up and down the Seine. We got to see all of the beautiful buildings in a one hour sitting. It was very convenient.

We are whisked away to the Eiffel Tower and we get to go up! To the first level, and that's all fine and dandy, sure. But then we got to take an elevator all the way up to the very tippy top of the elevator. And holy moly that shizz is very high. You can see literally everything from the Eiffel Tower. We stayed up there for about an hour, just surveying the city. We came down and had some dinner. I had homemade pate and breaded and fried veal. After that it was time to return to the Tower because it was 11 and it is beautiful at night. Eating a sugar and lemon crepe, looking at the tower, I knew then that Europe was amazing.

In the morning we pack up and move our stuff to the train station lockers. We take the Metro to the Musee D'Orsay and see wonderful Impressionist and post-Impressionist art: Cezanne, Rodin, Matisse, Tolouse-Latrec, Van Gogh, Monet. Tres wonderful.

We next trek up to Montmartre, Mountain of the Martyr, where all of these artists used to live. The area is a little more touristy now, instead of artsy, but many artists come and display their sketches and draw characitures of poeple. More delicious food: a croque monsieur (a ham sandwich with melted cheese on top) and another crepe (sugar and lemon again).

Finally it's back to the train station to head back to jolly ol England. I'm happy to be back. As wonderful as Paris is, it's kinda dirty and the general malaise of "well if it get's done, then it get's done. If not oh well" attitude is so completely the opposite of American sentimentality that it takes some getting used to. More than a weekend anyway :) I had a fantastic time and would no doubt go again in the future. Even if just for the foie gras.

Pictures at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/profile.php?id=1060320126

Like a Fishbone and Women Beware Women

Well I have quite a lot to catch up on so I've broken it into two posts. This one is about the plays I saw before I left for Paris.

The first play of the week was entitled Like A Fishbone, and it was at the Shepherd Bush Theater. The theater is in what looks to be a refurbished townhouse, and it is definitely a little cramped. Walking up two flights of stairs to the main theater, one gets the sense that one is walking into a living room. The actual theater has seating around three sides, with the space decorated to look like an architect's office. The play was about a woman who comes to see the architect who is designing the memorial for a school shooting that happened in their town. The woman lost her little girl in the shooting and has appeared in London to ask the architect to change her design for the memorial, which is to preserve the schoolhouse exactly how it was on the day of the shooting, so everyone can see. The mother is blind and fiercely religious, the architect, also a mother, is staunchly atheistic. The play is an 75 minute dialogue about the merits of religion, history, preservation, class, children, motherhood, life, love and it was positively wonderful. The script was completely original and deserves to be well known. At the end you're forced to pick a side, either the religious mother or the atheist architect, and that is what theater is supposed to do.

Thursday night we saw a play at the National Theater called Women Beware Women. The play was written in the 1600s by a man named Thomas Middleton, to reflect the excess, greed, and sex of the times. The version of this play was updated in design, but not in language. The stage was a on a massive rotating platform, that on one side would be a beautiful Medici mansion, complete with chandeliers and marble floors, and on the other side was some pipes, a light bulb and some dingy doors to reflect the poorer side of town. This play is funny and tragic, combining things like wit, slapstick, dance, rape, seduction, revenge, and murder. The end scene was arguably the most impressive thing I've ever seen on stage. It took place at a masquerade ball, with the stage rotating constantly and big band jazz playing in the background. Almost every major character was murdered in one way or another: stabbing, poisoning, strangling, etc., as everyone in the background was attending the party. It was pretty much indescribable. I was blown away, as was pretty much everyone else in the theater.

This next week is going to be a great week for theater. Warhorse, Enron, and Nevermore. Stay tuned.

Wet and Wild!

Ok I did not see a play about gay cannibals. I will, however, see it at some point. It sounds too good to be true.

I have some more pictures. Tia, Megan, Jaclyn and I went to this museum called Somerset House. Inside the museum courtyard there are rows and rows or water jets that shoot up from the ground. It was a remarkably hot day and we got our bathing suits on and headed down. Here's what it looks like:











It was very wet and fun and we had to ride the tube home soaking wet. I felt bad for the guy who sat down after me (but not really).

Tonight I went and saw Avenue Q. I love that show. I had the fortune of seeing it a few years ago in San Diego and tonight did not disappoint. It is absolutely brilliant, and if you haven't seen it please do. It's raunchy and it has puppets: what more could you want from a play?

Plays for days

Well I have seen a few more shows since the last time I posted.

The first was called Ditch. When Josh told us we were seeing it all we knew was that it was in a tunnel system underneath Waterloo train station. Well it certainly was underground. We walked through Waterloo station to the outside and down and around under a bridge to find a door with a line coming out of it. Upon entering, we found a series of tableaus: crates with potatoes, a tree broken into several parts, a small deer with its shadow projected into the background, and a bar area with old furniture entitled the Bunker. The space where the play was taking place had a circular dirt area in the middle surrounded by a small moat. Coming into the space from offstage was a large table and in the back there were two towers, with two exits relatively close behind them. The play was about a dystopian post-apocalyptic England in which citizens were required to register on a list, and the Security kept "track" of those who didn't register. The play followed a small outpost of the Security with six people living in it, and their time together. The design as a whole was beautiful; trains even passed overhead during the show to enhance the idea of living underground (although we discussed in class later that them living underground was actually debatable). The script itself was very weak, unfortunately, which did not match up with the quality of the production as a whole. But this happens a lot.

The next night we saw a play entitled The 39 Steps. It is a theatrical version of the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name. Four actors (3 men and 1 woman) play about 100 parts, and turn the thriller into a comedic romp. They even used the exact same dialogue from the film, which is especially hilarious. The commitment from the actors was wonderful to watch, as some had to switch in the middle of the scene to be different roles. I laughed nonstop.

Tonight I think I'm going to see a play about gay cannibals. It's not for class, though. Perhaps more personal research..........?????

hehehe. No but really, I think I'm going to see a play about gay cannibals.

Photos!

So it's been a while since I've posted. Here we are:

Monday night I went to Chinatown with some new friends. It's a small Chinatown, about 2 blocks long and one block down, so they don't have a ton to offer, but the food is good. They also have dim sum everyday until 5 (which I was very surprised to learn) so I'll be heading back there multiple times, on that you can bet.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. After class, the group of us went over to the Temple Church, where the Knights Templar headquarters were located. The church itself was constructed in the 1100s, with some people in there buried shortly after that century began. To think, that people have been interned in the church over 900 years is phenomenal.

We finally headed over to the Globe Theater, Shakespeare's theater, where we saw a splendid production of Macbeth. Inspired by Dante's Inferno, the area on the ground where people stand had a black tarp spread over it with holes cut in it for peoples' heads to represent the final circle of hell. It was extremely bloody and gory, a plus in my mind to spice up Shakespeare.

Now I'm going to post some pictures because I haven't done that yet:

EXPLORE

Sorry, this is probably going to be a long post:

Yesterday was a cool day. In the morning, all of us piled on a bus and took a tour around the entire city. We got an overall visual of what the city looks like, as well as where everything is. After that we were given time for lunch, and then we headed out on a walking tour of the area we are staying in, Kensington. This borough is very posh and rich, with lots of big, beautiful houses and upscale shops. We walked past the Royal Albert Hall, The Albert Monument, The Royal College of Music, through Kensington Park and back down and around. Any and all of Kensington is positively gorgeous, so we are very lucky to be living in this area. Later that night we got to see our first play: Money.

Money has been running intermittently for about 4 years in the London and is not the average piece of theater. It is staged in a massive warehouse, and when you walk in there is a bar to the left, and in front of you a giant machine from which a low rumbling is emitting. There were a smattering of tables and chairs around the front of the machine. There were 2 flights of metal stairs and opera music playing in the background. At 9:45 a man wearing police riot gear emerged from the shadows to hand out 5 colored balloons to people. He then got a drink from the bar as the audience continued to chat. About 10 minutes later, he collected the balloons and ushered everyone into the machine. The room was pitch black and about 80 people were crammed in like sardines. The noises of trains steaming, hammers clamoring, and loud ticking pummeled the ears when suddenly the noise stopped and the lights flicked on. To the sides of us were rows of seats that we took to, and in front and behind us were doors with no knobs. The performers came in and out of the doors holding their own knobs. The play is based on an Emile Zola novel entitled L'Argent about a French banking fiasco in the 19th century, although it was not at all very obvious. The play was witty and intense, with heavy symbolism that I only understood after I got home and wikipedia'd what the novel was about. However, it was visually stunning, with the play running on three planes (a bottom floor, middle floor and top floor that could all be seen through because the floors were made of plexiglass). It is phenomenally difficult for me to describe the full effects of this piece, but ask me about it when I get home and I'd be glad to fill in any details.

So, not done yet!

Today I woke up around noon (waaaay too late) and Ashleigh, Tia and I decided to take a walk through Kensington Palace. They have a very unique display in the Palace right now; the palace itself is actually under renovation, so instead of fully closing it, they've asked famous artists to create exhibits that represent the various princesses that have lived there over the years. The exhibit is artistic and engaging and a little freaky at times, but it was always beautiful.

After the palace, we headed over to our professor's, Josh's, house to meet his wife and two daughters. We trekked down to the local pub where I had a Pimm's and then moved on to a street that had only Middle Eastern restaurants and stores from start to end. A lot of baklava was consumed.

Well I start school tomorrow. It's going to be interesting, adjusting to a school schedule while still in a place that beckons me to explore it every second of the day. Wish me luck!

Writing this while not watching soccer

Hello everyone!!

So I feel like everyone here is also starting a blog. I'm competing with my friends to write blogs. Stupid blogs.

Anyway, I'm adjusting to the time schedule pretty well already. It's half past midnight and I'm just now starting to get sleepy. My body is tired but my brain is racing, which is a sign of some disease, I'm sure.

Today was a good day. We had orientation at the Foundation House where they gave us tips on how to live in London and stuff like that. Turns out you're not supposed to tip bartenders because they make really good wages already. Also we got our Oyster card, which allows us to travel pretty much anywhere within Zone 1 and 2, which is pretty much everywhere important.

After all this we headed out to Camden Market, a spot that both Jeff and Rory suggested to multiple people in our crew. Camden is this wonderful, open-air market that I equate with Olvera Street in LA, but with a greater variety of food (the whole reason I was there in the first place. Am I my mother's son, or what?). We perused the stalls and ate some delicious salt and pepper chicken and some food from the French Alps - sausage and potatoes with cheese.

Coming back through Leicester Square we got off to take a look around: that is a very happening place! It is the heart of the city, with theaters, cinemas, restaurants, and tons of things happening within the actual square itself. But heading home in rush hour traffic is insane. Pictures to follow of that!

I don't know if you guys have heard, but I guess people around the world play this game called soccer, or football to some, and it's pretty popular I guess. People watch it - I just get a beer and cheer when appropriate.

Toooooo much fun.