Hubbub

Today I’m staying close to the dorm after two days of cross-country travelling. We went to Oxford on Thursday to see C.S. Lewis-related stuff for the Calhoun students (I was geeking out the whole time like “Terry Jones was here!!!!”), which, I’m sorry to say, wasn't my favorite part of the trip. We saw some really cool stuff, let me say that: I was standing with my head lolled back contemplating cathedral ceilings for about half of it. But I don’t know/appreciate enough about C.S. Lewis to have my life made complete by walking up the steps to his office building at Magdalen College or eating at the pub where he got together with the Inklings. (Although it was excellent – a chicken and mushroom pie filled me up for the second time on this trip.) It was cool to see the college and the town and all, but I feel like I should have been more excited than I actually was. Or at least about the right stuff, like Lewis’ house instead of this awesome bookstore across from King’s College.

I got my souvenir, by the way – a book from the afore-said bookstore. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope. I stayed up until about three the other night watching the four-hour BBC adaptation and absolutely fell in love with the story. I saw the buy-one-get-one-free copy at Blackwell’s and considered it fate.

Yesterday a friend and I planned to go back to London to see “The Taming of the Shrew” at the Globe, which meant catching a bus at 7.15 in the morning. On Thursday night I set my alarm at 5.15 just to make sure I had plenty of time, showered before I went to bed, and settled into so deep a sleep that I was dead to the world until my friend called me at 6.53 to see it I was coming. Ten minutes later I was downstairs, makeup and contacts shoved in my purse, and at 7.13 we were sitting on the bus, ready for the three-hour trek.

We were both starving when we arrived since neither of us had eaten breakfast, so we grabbed a muffin and coffee from Starbucks and sat on a ledge outside a dentist’s office, just watching the world go by.

(And what an interesting world it is too: when they say “it takes all kinds,” they mean it.)

We still had a few hours before the show, but we still had to navigate the Tube, so we bought day passes and successfully figured out which trains to take and how we would get back.

When we went to the Globe a few weeks ago, we passed this open-air market underneath a bridge, and being the open-market fan I am, I asked if we could go there.

Such places are really the crossroads of the world. They had everything: fresh fruits and vegetables, traditional English fare, freshly-made sangria, exotic meats (kangaroo meatballs and ostrich steaks, namely), fantastic-smelling fish, this Spanish stew with rice and seafood (it was beautiful) – all amid people from all walks of life, crammed together underneath a bridge in an obscure section of London. I get such a kick out of stuff like that. J

We kept going toward the Globe, grabbed lunch, and sat on a bench by the Thames until we discovered the free Wi Fi in the Globe and camped out there until the show started.

While we were waiting, I talked to an older gentleman about the theatre and Shakespeare and all. He was a patron of the theatre and really had been before the Globe was actually built in the 90s. He said that side of the river had been all warehouses for a long time, and the theatre has brought new life to the area. So cool to learn local history from actual locals. J

The production was totally different from what I thought it would. (All this exposure to Shakespeare is teaching me that his plays don’t have to be the puffy-sleeved, breeches-clad productions that you usually see: there’s such a wide range of artistic interpretations that can be done.) This was an all-female cast of about eight, so there was much switching around – “I’m this character who wears this and does this accent, but I’m also this character in this totally different persona.” It was quick, very diverse costume-wise (Grumio was in a 1930s pilot’s jumpsuit, and Gremio was in an all-white golf outfit – sweater, trousers, cap), full of random but awesome songs, and one of my favorite shows we’ve seen.

Our bus arrived back at Cheltenham around 9, and at that point we hadn’t eaten since about 11.45 that morning. So we feasted on frozen pizza, garlic bread, vegetables, and Coke, talking in our little kitchen with two other girls until nearly midnight.

We traveled a lot for one thing. I stood up during the show, so I was a little sore this morning. The day started a little crazy and ended with me passing out from exhaustion at the end. (Not literally, Ma.) But it was the best way to spend my last travel day here. The rest of the time will be spent wrapping up another section of homework for an essay and exam on Monday, packing, laundry, etc. Today there’s a farmer’s market downtown, so a friend and I are going there to try meat pies for lunch. But yesterday will stand out in my memory as my last hoorah of the trip. We were independent, smart, safe, and, above all, having a blast.

There may be one or two more blog entries about the scenery or what I’ve learned, but this will prolly be the last one I write here since the rest of the weekend will be spent working and we go home on Tuesday. If you’ve been keeping up with my escapades over the past few weeks, thank you so much for reading – I’ve enjoyed writing for you. : )