Travel Diary

Monday October 14, 2002

Got my midterm back. It's an 86%. That is a B. It's not terribly bad, but an A would have been nicer. Then again, I didn't travel 5,000 miles just to study American colonization. And all study and no play makes James a dull boy. Though, all play and no study makes James fail and get sent home early. No, a B is just fine.

Our afternoon consisted of a rousing lecture regarding museums. Now, being at museums has a certain risk factor of boredom. Depending on the content, one can easily fall from "this is nice" to "Ahhhhh...could life get any duller right now!?" Well, if one now drops to having lectures about museums, one could find themselves doing odd things like composing emails during the lecture.

Tuesday October 15, 2002

Around 1:30pm, my mobile phone got a message, "Where are you?" And that was enough. I knew instantly that we must have had a schedule change this week and that my film class was starting without me. Ack! I packed up my stuff and headed to class. Fortunately, I was only across the street from the classroom, so I didn't miss much. Our film was The Third Man. It was another great opus and I found it easy to watch. Having to answer questions about these films does help us pay attention more. Though, after a while of paying attention causes one to get involved with the film and start to forget about the questions.

Wednesday October 16, 2002

More class in the morning. Lunch followed (see? I'm eating now). And our field trip was to a museum (I think I've been to five museums so far). We toured the Victoria and Albert Museum. Things were pretty interesting, but we never stayed in one place long enough for me to see or read about the works. Many of the items did have fascinating history behind them.

After I paused too long staring at samurai swords, I noticed that the tour group that I was in had disappeared. I searched for them (well, a little) but could not find them again, so, I did my own tour of the museum. What I lacked in knowledge, I made up for in well, uh, okay, I just lacked in knowledge. No matter. After some time, I ran into another tour group from our school. I joined them for the rest of the tour. One room we visited had many replicas from Italy. Several of the items were ones I had seen during a visit to Rome years ago. If I had known all the statues were duplicated here, I could have saved hours of trying to learn Italian. Live and learn.

They even had a replica of the Statue of David. The thing was much larger than I had imagined it to be. The tour guide informed us that a huge stone fig leaf was placed over the private parts of David when the Queen visited the museum. One girl asked where the fig leaf was. The guide then had us look in back of the David pedestal and encased in glass was said fig leaf.

When our tour ended, we stuck around a while to view some of the history of clothing section. Once that was done, we headed over to the theatre district to have dinner before our evening show. After dinner, we entered the theatre to see The Complete Works of Shakespeare...Abridged.

The show was one of the funniest productions I'd ever seen. Only three actors were in it, but they worked so well with the audience that it seemed to end way too quickly. The gags were hilarious and I figured they had perfected their craft over the seven years the show had been in existence. I'd highly recommend this show to anyone visiting London. The comedy was causing my cheeks to hurt from smiling and laughing so much. One caution would be that anyone sitting in the front row might be targeted for some special attention. Fortunately; I was three rows back and quite safe.

Thursday October 17, 2002

I had no class in the morning since it was switched to Tuesday. So after a long rest, I made it into town. I met some friends and we headed over to the Science Museum. Now this was a cool place to visit. The museum was free but the James Bond exhibit and the IMAX movie cost extra. So of course we paid the money to see those two things. After a brief stroll through the museum, we entered the IMAX cinema. The movie was in 3D so we all received special glasses. I tried mine on and the picture seemed worse during the beginning. I took them off and just watched it that way, but I did confirm with others who were wearing their glasses that they were indeed having no effect. Soon after, the announcer said, "You may now put on your 3D glasses." Ah, that explained that.

The 3D effects were outstanding and truly amazing. Many times, you felt you could simply reach out your hand and touch the images in front of you. Technology has come so far in that arena. The wow factor only lasted so long though. It always comes down to good characters and good story to carry a film. This movie didn't have any of that, so my interest dropped after some time. The last two segments of it consisted of showing a snippet of the movie Antz and part of a Simpson's episode. I did enjoy the experience though.

The Bond exhibit was an entire letdown. I don't know what I was expecting, but it surely wasn't worth the money paid to get in. I think I was hoping for more demonstrations of working spy equipment. While seeing the prop teeth used by Jaws was nice, it just didn't have the same effect as maybe seeing a watch full of acid that could melt through two inches of steel.

We got to see more of the Science Museum after that, but it closed at 6pm, so our exploring was cut short. We knew we'd have to be returning there soon. At 8pm, I had a rehearsal for the play I'm doing. It went well and should be an interesting show.

Friday October 18, 2002

At 9am, we gathered in front of the buses to head over to Stratford. Missing from the scene were Kalaine, Raquel, Randi, and Heather. Apparently, their alarms weren't doing the job properly. At 9:15, the buses left without them.

The ride over was a quiet one. Rain clouds filled the skies, but after time, the sun started peeking through. When we arrived, we were greeted with a bright sunny day. Our first stop was the home of Anne Hathaway. Sure, I knew who she was. Well, right after they told us that is. It was amazing to be in a house that was over 400 years old. Parts of it had been fixed up and restored, but much of the home was as is was when Anne lived there and Shakespeare used to drive up in his Harley, throw rocks at her bedroom window, and toss out a sonnet or two.

We then headed over to an old church where Shakespeare was baptized and buried (years after the baptism). The church was amazing and ethereal. Beautiful stained glass windows supplied much color to the inside. But as in most places, the stained glass wasn't originally there before the 19th century. The church destroyed the original windows -- they didn't like pagan things such as stained glass.

Making our way to the heart of Stratford upon Avon, we passed a large river called Avon. It may have been a lake, I dunno. It had water, swans, and boats, so I knew it would make a great picture.

In town, we saw the birthplace of Shakespeare. The house was well kept. Though I found that seeing how people lived back then was more interesting than who was born in the house. It wasn't as if there were any pictures of young William holding up his third grade project of a clay ashtray.

Once that part of the tour was finished, we were free to travel anywhere. The only catch was we had to be on the afternoon bus by 3:15 or it would leave without us. I snapped some pictures of town and then met up with Mulana to go take pictures of the swans on the river. The swans were naturals and posed nicely for the cameras. But being a little arrogant, they also became quite greedy when it came time to accept my gifts of bread pieces. They quickly surrounded me, and my hands were held high in the air to avoid their nipping beaks. Interesting, each one was a bit different. While some swans would barely take your fingers off, others were quite gentle in how they ate. One bird would slowly and gently take the bread from my fingers. He never once bit me. Others would dart in with their beaks and you'd simply hope for the best.

The swans must have gotten quite used to receiving free food. Nearby, an old lady was attempting to eat a sandwich when a large (king?) swan began grabbing for her food. She wasn't interested in sharing, but the swan didn't care. I walked over there and scolded the big bird. Funniest thing happened. He lowered his head (and long neck) and began waddling away. I could have sworn the darn thing was actually remorseful. I couldn't believe it--a sorry swan.

Once we exhausted our bread supply, we headed back to town (Stratford) to meet up with a few others. We visited a small café called The Lemon Tree and had drinks and snacks. But soon, 3:15 came, and we were back on the bus heading to London.

I slept most of the way home. The countryside was pleasant, but resting was also quite nice. It felt great to just be traveling along the fields of England. Back at the base, we had some dinner and then headed home.

Saturday October 19, 2002

Saturday, I had a lie in (slept in). Later I headed out to London Station to meet up with some others. Since they were late, I trolled around to kill time. I then wandered into Southwark Cathedral. The place was large and beautiful. A choir was rehearsing for a show and singing some requiem music. The cathedral amplified their voices marvelously, so I sat and listened a while. In time, I walked back over to meet the others.

We got in line to see the London Dungeon. This place was essentially a horror show of the violence and death of London past. The line, possibly due to Halloween, was long. We probably spent an hour waiting to get inside. Once inside, we paid 9.5 pounds. The first event was having a picture taken. Gardner and I put our heads inside the chopping blocks and the girls raised the axes. Snap! No, not to our heads coming off, but to the picture being taken. The dungeon offered exhibits and descriptions of gore and such. It was somewhat interesting, but a bit of a yawn. Surprisingly, many kids were also present. In my guess, it wasn't the best place for youth.

When that was done, we traveled over to see the Body Worlds exhibit. This was by far, the most unusual thing we'd seen to date. It cost 8 pounds to get in and that was with the student discount. Once inside, we were greeted with everything inside of a human body that one could think of. It wasn't just skeletons, but internal organs, muscles, tissues, the skin (sometimes in one whole piece), capillaries, and much more. Some figures were playing chess, pole vaulting or blocking a goal. The bodies had been filled with a plasticide to keep them in their poses. It was gory to some, but I found it all quite educational. For 2 pounds, we got the audio sets to learn about each item. The displays taught how each part of the human body worked, how parts broke down and how they were again fixed. After three hours, we were only halfway done with the displays. But it was 11pm and the place seemed to be closing.

Once outside, Raquel and I went to get food. A solicitor from a curry restaurant baited us by saying they had great curry and great prices. After saying that the food was guaranteed to be good, we decided to patronize the place. I ordered chicken vindaloo, which was a very hot curry. Raquel ordered some curry and wasn't quite as hot. Soon after, Gardner and Kalaine joined us. They had left the museum early to grab some dinner, so now they just had dessert. When our food came, I dove in. the curry wasn't just hot, it was mucho caliente! My mouth was on fire. I had a pint of ale to help numb the pain, but even that wasn't very effective. My forehead was even sweating. When the waiter came by, I urgently plead for some ice cream. He said I had to finish the meal first. Ice cream was just for dessert. Oh great. That's all I needed--someone  else telling me how to eat. But he did bring some brown sugar, which was supposed to help. I guess it did, but I also finished eating quickly so I could order my ice cream. The ice cream did wonders and the burning soon died down.

After dinner, we caught the Tube back to our homes. Fortunately, we left just in time. For the Tube stop running at 12:30 and we left the restaurant right close to 12:10.

Sunday October 20, 2002

During Sunday, we returned to the Science Museum. My midterm was coming up fast and much was left to do. We spent some time at the Internet café as well. Dinner was held at an Italian place. Overall, a nice relaxing day.

Monday, October 21, 2002

More class for me. At night, we had another school tour. It was a Shakespeare/Dickens walk. We had a tour guide and he took us to places the two men would have once traveled. The tour wasn't the most exciting thing, but it's always fun to hang out with people and walk around town. After the tour, we ended up in a pub for dessert and drinks. Going home, we took the Tube. Beside the tracks at the train station, I got the clever idea of trying to show off a little bit for the girls. Abandoning all common sense, I leapt up into the air and grabbed a low hanging steel crossbeam. It wasn't my fault. The thing just beckoned to be played on. I did a few pull-ups and dropped back to the ground. I was tempted to even repeat the task. But the next thing I knew the PA system had someone somewhere saying that basically, "Horsing around in the Tube station could get one kicked out." Er, okay. Enough of that nonsense. The last thing I needed was to be banned from my Tube stop. Where else would I get my daily stair climbing exercise? I did have to wonder how they knew I was playing around, but I had to look no further than the closed circuit cameras mounted on the ceiling (for I'm sure they were quite focused on me). Ah yes! Security. Good to have around...when you're not misbehaving.

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

My day off was mostly spent at the Science Museum preparing for the science midterm. At night, we dined at Wagamama's. I'm beginning to really enjoy that restaurant. The best thing about is that it is nonsmoking (hard to find many places like that). When dinner was done, Kalaine returned home while Liz and I headed out for a drink. I was up quite late preparing my take-home midterm and my US History project. I also tried to watch the Giants game. But it was on very late at night. It's sort of a treat to be able to catch the World Series over here. The catch is that it's on at 1am in the morning.

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

The late nights caught up with me because I ended up oversleeping. Ah well. No big deal. I headed to class and was only 20 minutes late. This fared better than some students who didn't arrive at all. In the afternoon, I attended my last class until the break is over. After class, a few of the girls invited me to attend a movie with them. The movie was required for our film class, so I happily went along. I would have gone along anyway. We headed to Covent Garden to see the picture. It was an English film entitled All or nothing. Not a bad show, but not terribly great either. After the show, I headed home.

Thursday, October 24, 2002

I had no class but went to town to have lunch with Kalaine and Heather. We ate at our favorite Italian place, Café Uno. We then went over to the Dilke house and Heather went home to sleep. Kalaine soon left to meet Gardner at the train station. They would be flying to Italy for the week. I had already been there, so I wasn't going along. I got some things done on the Internet and then waited for rehearsal. I sent a text message to the director inquiring the time of the rehearsal but never heard back. Well, 6pm came and went and still no word. This wasn't good, but not terribly unexpected. It doesn't seem to be entirely altogether at this point and that makes me question the future of this show. Either way, I'm fine with that. I'm happy if it goes on, but also happy with the free time returned to me. I went home early for a change and got somewhat caught up with things. Not being too sure of the show's future, I also bought a book to read on the train instead of my script. It's called Red Dragon and was given good shelf space since the movie just came out. I'm hoping it's a good book, but I'm well aware that I'm now going to be disappointed in the movie since I'm reading the book. But hey, the book will be 8-12 hours of enjoyment. The movie would be possibly two hours, if that. And the book costs less.

Friday, October 25, 2002

After my morning lie in, I traveled to town to make plans with Elika. We settled on taking in a show at the Royal Opera House. Tonight's venue was various selections of the Royal Ballet. Sounded like a good fun cultural activity.

Around 6:30pm, Elika and I met up at the Tube station. Rain was falling in the darkened sky, but it wasn't too heavy. We wandered around a ways until we found the Royal Opera House. It was a nice place. Very classy. Inside, we headed up to the box office and inquired about tickets for the evening. The lady oat the desk was very friendly and helped us out quite a bit. Turns out that most of the show was sold out, but tickets were still available in the balcony. They weren't a bad price either -- only 3 pounds ($4.50). The catch is that they were standing eats. Hmmm. Well, I guess standing wouldn't' be too bad. And we figured we could always see another show sitting down if the experience wasn't too great. We bought tickets and headed out for a drink. Across the street, we had a beer at a bar and enjoyed the atmosphere of the smoke filled place. Too many Europeans just haven't come to the conclusion that having black lungs filled with tar is bad--not  good, but bad. Yeah, so is beer maybe, but why add fuel to the fire.

Around 7:15 pm, we headed to our seats. Many steps were ascended to reach the upper balcony. But the view really wasn't too bad. The show got off to a great start and we were treated to a performance of Christopher Wheeldon's Tryst. The dancing was good and the music even better. It only lasted 20 minutes and we had our first interval (intermission). The second act was something called Gong. It wasn't as good as the first, but the music was spectacular. During this performance, we commandeered some empty seats in the balcony that no one showed up to claim. This way, if they did show up, they would be warm and ready for the ticket holders. Yeah, aren't we thoughtful? I thought so. The third show was dances from Carmen. The set was a bit odd. It had a hard round sphere in the lower stage and big houses that looked like colorless Swiss cheese. The ballet was mostly contemporary, but it was still enjoyable. Still, we may go back for a more classical performance in November.

Saturday, October 26, 2002

Feeling quite cultural again, I met up with Rachel to see the London Symphony at the Royal Festival Hall. This time, we wouldn't be so lucky. Turns out these events are very popular. The thing was sold out and no ticket scalpers could be found. So we departed the hall and looked for entertainment elsewhere.

Wandering around, we found a play that looked interesting. But it was in Japanese and translated to English. Hmmm. Nah, too much work. We then found a theatre performing a show called ART. We checked the ticket office and yes indeed, there were seats left. They only cost 30 pounds ($45) and they weren't together. Ack. That's 10 times higher than the Royal Opera House. We passed.

Entertainment hunting made us hungry so we stopped at a little restaurant to eat. I had a grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes. Not bad, not great. But it was food and we had to eat. Well, I didn't have to eat. But I figured Rachel may get a little bothered by me wanting nothing more than a cold pint of ale for dinner. So we ate.

After dinner, we toured around a bit more and decided to take in a movie. The first movie house wanted 10 pounds for tickets. That's $15.00! We don't even pay that much back in the states. Maybe it's because the movie is imported. Who knows? We left.

Another theater wanted only 7.5 pounds. Okay. It's pricey but livable. We'd just pass on the popcorn and cokes. And I don't have to mention the whole candy thing. So we went and saw K-19: The Widowmaker. It wasn't bad, but being in a physical science class, and studying nuclear physics left me wanting to point out flaws in the movie's plot. But I refrained from yelling out, "HEY! A nuclear fission reaction won't cause a thermonuclear fusion explosion!" we liked the movie though. It was action packed. It just didn't have the same suspense and intensity as Das Boot. I doubt any submarine movie ever will.

Some rain followed us back to the Tube station. We rode the Tube to our stations and parted ways. It was a relaxing day.

Sunday, October 27, 2002

I slept in for quite a while. It's just so tough to get up when you don't have to. Outside, fierce winds blew. These gales were relentless and they continued howled and let their presence be known. It was going to be a windy day to follow a windy night.

Finally, I wandered into town and visited the Internet café. My latest quest would be doing the homework to give a half-hour presentation on Sir Francis Drake. This would consume a good amount  of time. I researched history for most of the afternoon. And then went home.

Thoughts:

We're halfway done. Things have gone well. My bedroom has been an interesting challenge. There's not a lot of space to move around; I've had to get used to that. I remember how Harry Potter had to live under the stairs at first. Well, I don't have that problem. No sir. I just have to shower under the stairs. It's not too bad, but there's no room there either. The place is compact. If I ever have to fly into space to take a few pictures, I will at least know that I can live in tight spaces.

Food is still expensive. I try to buy more at the market now. But it's tough carrying things around everywhere. My homestay folks seem content at my eating more food during the day. Yet, it has caused an upset stomach a couple of times. I think things will work out okay. Only six weeks to go anyway. In a small way, things may have changed. Not much. But having people want to throw you out of their house because they aren't comfortable with your eating habits can tend to give a slight awkwardness to the environment.

And we try to help each other out. On occasion, Dorris will offer to drive me to the Laundromat, which gives me a break from walking several blocks. Other times, they will ask me to drop a bottle off at the recyclers on my way to the Tube station. But last week, Dorris had a request that I simply could not do.

After coming home for the day, I was chatting with them and Dorris requested that I walk on down to the corner liquor store and pick her up a chocolate bar. She had a craving for such a snack. This sounded fine to me, as I'm sure she would have been happy to share the sweet treat. But alas, this wasn't possible at all. A coke would have been fine, as would a package of crisps (chips). However, I have a rule against buying candy. And chocolate fits into that rule. I explained this whole rule of mine to them, and they understood. Okay, they probably thought it was a bit strange, but the same could be said for people getting overly bothered about a person skipping lunch and dinner on occasion. The reason I don't buy treats on behalf of others is exactly because of what I said earlier: they would probably share the treat. Anyway, it's my rule I've had for years, and it's kept me from overdosing on candy. I wasn't going to break it now. For with so many various candies to choose from, I'd surely be hospitalized in no time. And I'm sure Blue Cross doesn't cover candy abuse.

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