A London Update

I've been writing so much about my trips that I've completely neglected the fact that I am actually living in London. Well, the fog and cloudy sky is really starting to get irritating. It's been raining almost everyday, and just really unpleasant. I guess that's typical London, and I have to deal with it. Things at the Unicorn are really starting to pick up. We are all getting ready for the biggest production of the year, Cinderella. It stars the Unicorn Ensemble, plus a few guest artists whom I've become very friendly with. It's nice that I am able to socialize with the actors, they are so nice and welcoming to me, and very fun to be around. Last Friday I spent the entire day painting the giant ship/staircase. Because the show takes place on a ship, which is actually a retirement home for magicians (this version of Cinderella is quite different,) and the other side is a giant staircase for the ball. The entire piece is on a revolve that moves about 4 and a half feet per second. Pretty fast. It is huge and we first textured the front of the ship with some gooey stuff called Artex, then spent hours and hours painting every part of this giant structure. The foyer also has been recently decorated with hundreds of giant butterflies in celebration of Cinderella (the ball is butterfly themed.) I had spent days tying 6 meters of fish wire to each side of each butterfly, and they were put up last week. It looks so festive when you walk in. It just looks so magical and welcoming with tons of butterflies swarming above your head. I've also been getting a good handle on the technical world of the theatre. While I strongly dislike rigging lights, doing set fit-ups, and being backstage alltogether, I'm enjoying getting to know what it is like to do other things in the theatre. It's good because now I know that I definitely want to be onstage, or doing something on the creative team. Putting a traveling set together requires muscle strength and getting pleasure out of using power tools. These are two things I do not have. Anyway, I'm really enjoying my time at the Unicorn, and I really have been feeling like I am a part of their team, and I can't wait for Cinderella to open. I've been watching it grow from nothing to a huge production, so it's going to be very exciting on opening night.
Last night our whole flat, plus a few, got together for a real Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone brought a dish, and we had a huge feast. Sadly and pathetically we did not have turkey because it is extremely difficult to get your hands on a turkey in Britain before Christmas, and when you can find one they are super expensive. So we had chicken and pretended it was turkey by putting gravy and cranberry sauce on it. Very pathetic, I know, but with all of the Thanksgiving foods everyone cooked and the company, it was really fun. I made a dish that started as butternut squash but turned into "Autumn Delight" after I had added apples, sweet potato, and pumpkin to it. It was very orange and autumny, and my new creation.
My parents get here on Wednesday morning for a weeks visit, and I am very excited to see them and spend time with them. For Thanksgiving we are probably going to go to a BBQ restaurant that is serving "traditional American Thanksgiving dinner." Hopefully it will be good, but it obviously won't be the same and being home with the entire family. Anyway, I'll be home in about 25 days, and while I love it here in London I am pretty sure I'm ready to go back home. This has all just been one really long vacation. It feels as though I've put my life on hold back home, and I'm ready to get back to real life now. I miss everyone at home, and at Clark, and I am excited to continue my life after having this experience under my belt. It really has changed me, and it has allowed me to really discover who I am and what I want to do with my life. I don't want to make this all corny until I actually have to write my last London blog entry, but I always think about how glad I am that I decided to study abroad here, and also how lucky I am.I'm just loving every minute of it.

J'adore Paris

I went to Paris this past weekend with a bunch of my flatmates plus a few others. I traveled in on the Eurostar train Friday night with Katie (my friend from Clark studying at LSE who speaks French wonderfully,) and got in just in time to meet up with Lilly, who had arrived earlier that day. We walked around Montmarte, where our hostel was, and then found a cute and amazing restaurant where we were even able to eat outside because it wasn’t even that cold. I ate an open-faced sandwich with goat cheese, honey, and almonds. I can’t stop thinking about it! It was so good! The second day we woke up and made our way towards the center of the city where we were meeting a few more friends at a different hotel that was right near the Eiffel Tower. This hotel was about a 2 minute walk from it. It was such a good location. We spent the day site seeing at the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, we walked down the Champs Elysees, and then we went to the Louvre, which I really enjoyed. We also got in free with our UK visa, which was awesome, and seeing the Mona Lisa was kind of unreal.
That night Katie and I met Blanche and Bernard (my Grandma’s first cousins, and only relatives) for dinner. They don’t really speak English, so I was really glad I had Katie there to translate most of what they were saying. The last time I saw them I was probably 10 years old, so I didn’t really remember them at all. It was strange meeting up with family in another country, but it was so nice. Blanche even resembles my Grandma a little. They made reservations at a nice authentic French restaurant, and even reserved a special table by the window that looked out on the city and insisted that Katie and I sit in the window seats. They also insisted that we order an appetizer, main course, drinks, and dessert. They were very nice to us. I just felt bad because while I could somewhat understand what they were saying at some points, I had no way of responding. The extent of my knowledge of French is “bonjour,” “comment allez vous,” “merci,” “wi,” and “au revoir.” So, I used what I knew when appropriate, shook my head a lot, and read from Katie’s French Phrasebook that we brought along. It was really fun having dinner with Blanche and Bernard, but it was stressful because our conversations were obviously very limited. After dinner Blanche and Bernard took Katie and I for a drive around Paris. They showed us all the sites, and it just so nice being able to spend time with them.
They next day we took a day trip to Versailles. It was absolutely incredible. Giant, absolutely giant and so extravagant. We also took a long walk down to Marie Antoinette’s house, which was very pink and girly. It was all very interesting.
Being in Paris was absolutely magical. The best site was the Eiffel Tower at night. It was all lit up, with lights blinking, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. It was also massive! It was a very good weekend, with the baguettes, crepes, cheese, crème brulee, beautiful sites, and good company. I had an amazing time. It is definitely a place that I will have to go back to in my lifetime.

Las Cuidades de Madrid y Barcelona

I am writing this entry with the help of some notes about my trip that I jotted down on the late plane ride back to London, with the help of Pat and Sarah. Spending almost a week in Spain with an upper respiratory infection, I realized that all I really needed was Sudafed Nasal Spray (works like a miracle,) a few packs of tissues, hazelnut gelato, siestas, and friends that rub your back when you feel like you're on the verge of passing out. The week prior to the trip every single one of my flatmates, yes all 5 of them, were sick. I tried to stay away as much as possible, disinfected every common area, and downed cartons of orange juice. While all of that worked for the week everyone was sick, I ended up getting sick right before I left for Spain. Greaaaaaat. The doctor put me on antibiotics, and while they made my stomach rather upset for the first few days, I guess they prevented me from getting worse, which I probably would have because I was traveling. Anyway, I'll stop complaining and start talking about the awesome things that I was able to do while I was away despite feeling sort of like death for the first half of the trip.

Day 1--Madrid: We left at 3:00am in London rain, but arrived in beautiful Spanish sunshine and palm trees. It took 3 transfers on the Metro to get to our hostel, which was in the center of the city, and right next door to a Starbucks...always a plus. We saved some money by staying in a 6 person room (there were only 3 of us,) which meant that we shared this tiny tiny tiny room with 3 strangers. One was from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Turkey. While it was a little frightening staying with people we didn’t know, and sleeping with our wallets, ipods, cameras, and passports under our pillows, it was pretty cool talking to them about the trips they were on and their own countries. After settling in the hostel, we then went to the Prado Museum. I don’t have much to say about it because I pretty much sat down in a chair every chance I got because I just simply couldn’t stand from being so tired and sick. After that we went back to the hostel and took a nice long siesta (nap.) It was great. We also learned that from about 2:00pm to 6:00pm many of the shops and restaurants close for siesta, so we thought we would join in, and it was very well deserved. We ate dinner that night at a place called VIPS, which was sort of like a Spanish version of TGIFridays.

Day 2 – Madrid: The second day we went on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the city. This tour let us hop on the bus at any bus stop, and hop off at any bus stop, to hop back on at any bus stop, etc. Pretty convenient. It was a nice was to see the city, and there was even a recording that we listened to through headphones that explained what we were passing. I also enjoyed sitting. We hopped off for lunch at restaurant that was not so much in the center of the city, so none of the employees spoke English. Pat, Sarah, and I all ordered the same thing because we heard a few familiar words thrown in. It was a special of chicken, eggs, and spaghetti. Not so Spanish, but still very good. That night when we got back to our hostel we were surprised to see an Australian couple in our room. They were John and Lucy from Australia. They both were 22 and taking a few months to travel Europe together. They were also both fluent in Spanish, and that night we all went out to a Tapas bar. It really was awesome, we even exchanged numbers and invited them to come hang out with us when they travel to London. We spent the rest of the night talking about the differences between The US and Australia, the US and Europe, and Australia and Europe.

Day 3 – Madrid y Barcelona: The morning before we left for Barcelona we took a walk that took about 3 minutes to the massive palace called Palacio Real de Madrid. It was huge! We took a tour of the inside, which also included entry to the Armory and The Royal Pharmacy Museum. Pretty neat. We took a lot of pictures, and even got an amazing view of the entire city from the back of the building. Walking back into the center of city we were graced with the wonderful music of an old Spanish man on an accordion playing Havah Nagilah, which I found to be very funny. In the center of the city we came across an overweight man dressed as Spidarman, smoking a cigarette, looking for people to take pictures with so he could make a few Euro. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take pictures with this guy because it was just too hilarious. He was actually very nice, and very hilarious, and Pat only paid him about 1 Euro for the handful of pictures that we took. That night we flew to Barcelona.

Day 4 – Barcelona: We had met up with 7 other friends in Barcelona and we all stayed together in the “Ideal Youth Hostel.” That was its name. I guess it was ideal because it was right in the center of the action, but the filth was not too ideal. Anyway, we dealt with it for 3 nights, and at least we were sleeping next to our friends and not strangers. That morning we went on a boat tour on the Mediterranean. Talk about turquoise water! It was beautiful. That night we had paella and tapas for dinner, and we ate outside on the most famous street in the city, Las Ramblas. It was a lot of fun.

Day 5 – Barcelona: Since I was still kind of sick I stayed behind while the rest of the group went on a bike tour. I walked around for the day with another girl from our group who also wasn’t feeling too well. We went to a market that was just incredible. There were immense amounts of fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, meat, chocolate, and candy. Everything looked so amazing, and we took so many pictures of all the vendors. We also went searching for one of the Gaudi houses. Antoni Gaudi was a famous modernist architect from Barcelona, and he built a handful of houses around the city that are just unbelievable. After roaming around for a while, and asking people on the street “derecha o izquierda?” (right or left,) we finally found La Casa be Batilla. It was so beautiful I can’t even begin to describe it. We took a tour of the house, and took tons of pictures. We then ventured to find El Palacio de Musica, which is a giant concert hall. That building was just as beautiful as Gaudi’s. Halloween in Barcelona was crazy. Instead of dressing up in cute or funny costumes people dress up in scary costumes. Everyone was all about blood and gore, but the night life was really fun. We attempted to stay up until 6 in the morning like the locals do, but us Americans just couldn’t keep up, and we ended up crashing around 4.

Day 6 – Barcelona à London: We started the day off with some Dunkin Coffee, which is actually an exact replica of Dunkin Donuts, which we found very amusing. We did some quick site seeing at the Olympic Park, another Gaudi house called La Sagrada Familia, and then even another Gaudi house called La Casa Mila, and then slowed it all down for some McDonalds at the end of the day. We hoped on a plane, and arrived in London around midnight.

It was a great trip, and despite being rather ill for most of it, I was able to experience Spanish culture in 2 different cities and I even got to practice speaking Spanish. It was very rewarding, and I’m so glad I went, and I am grateful for that nice lady that translated the pharmacist for me when I went in the middle of the night.