Travel Diary

Monday, November 25, 2002

My weekend in Scotland was done, and I resumed class at 9am sharp. It's always nice to relax on Monday after a long weekend of traveling. People all around me are sick. I would guess that at any given time, half of London is sick. It's not surprising. The Tube is ever so crowded with people hacking and coughing. My goal is just stay healthy. Several times colds have come knocking at my door, but I've always been able to turn them away. If I start to get sick, I begin to eat a good amount of food, and I get plenty of rest. Combine that with a positive attitude and it seems to work faithfully.

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Hey, it's my day off, but I still head down to the college. I've agreed to assist Raquel in her history presentation. She's doing a report on Duke Ellington, and she's asked me to come in and help demonstrate some swing dancing moves with her and Kalaine. Of course I oblige. I arrive 20 minutes before her starting time. They are both out in the hallway practicing. Raquel recites her speech whilst Kalaine practices the swing dancing. I try to ascertain the game plan, but it's all very unstructured and unplanned. I'm not fond of performing something unrehearsed.

With 10 minutes to begin, my heart beats rapidly. I'm a stranger there. It isn't really my class and I don't know the people very well. Still I remain confident that everything will go smoothly. Plus, I feel it's always wise to try things that make me nervous. Butterflies in the stomach make us feel alive It reminds us that we're not just going through the everyday motions. It's a good way to really feel alive.

The demonstration goes over well. Soon, I'm back at the Dilke House. The afternoon is spent getting things done. Around 5pm, I head home to get ready for the evening. I drop my things off at the house and put on my good shoes. For tonight, we're going swing dancing.

Kalaine and some of the others have decided to visit a swing-dancing club this evening. It sounds like a great idea so I agree to come along. I take the Tube down to Balham station. It's a long ways away. Over an hour is spent riding the Tube to reach the southern part of London. Finally, I arrive. I bump into Kalaine at the station and we search for the place together. After a few wrong turns, we reach...the Bedford.

Downstairs is your standard bar. It's crowded. The light is mostly golden and somewhat masked behind the smoke and intoxication in the air. We head upstairs. It's different up there. Unlike the regular dance clubs, this place has plenty of room to move around. The dance floor is large and welcoming. After paying six pounds to get in (one pound extra was for the live band), we see Liz and Nathan already involved in the swing dance lesson. Kalaine and I add to the group.

Our next hour is spent learning some basic swing dance moves. Some of it is new. Some of it isn't. Nevertheless, it's all good practice. Since the guys outnumber the girls, we move around in a circle. Occasionally, we have to sit out and watch. It's most unusual. Usually, the organized dancing has more girls than guys. That's what makes it nicer than the crowded clubs where 77 guys stand around and drool over the lone three girls on the dance floor.

I try out the dance steps with different girls. However, one partner bears an uncanny resemblance to an old friend of mine, Kim. The match is almost shocking. She has a wonderful smile so I make sure to get her name...Stacy. Well, I probably shouldn't use her real name, so we'll just call her Lily.

Once the lessons end, it's time for free dancing. The band began to play. I danced with Kalaine and Liz for the most part. I may have danced with other girls, but I don't remember it all too well. Perhaps I'd had one too many beers. But before the night is over, I do manage to get in a dance with Stacy. She's quite good and there's no easy way to keep up with her. I feel like I have two left feet. Or maybe two right feet. Maybe one of each?

The evening was fantastic and the most fun I had had since...well, Scotland three days earlier. Life is just one fun fling after another.

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

My one-day holiday is over and it's back to school. Our afternoon is a field trip to the Guardian newsroom. The Guardian is one of the big newspapers in London. Back home it would probably be classified as liberal and democratic. Personally, wouldn't know since I've never actually read it. We're supposed to be reading the newspaper each day for Physical Science class. Not sure how it relates exactly, though it's a moot point since I'm not actually reading it.

Anyway, the newsroom trip turns out to be just to the visitor center. It's very small and doesn't have a whole lot to do. All in all, the field trip is quite a bust. After our brief self-guided tour, I met with Kalaine and Raquel to have lunch at a pub. That's when I make a big discovery...yeah, I hate to say it but...I don't like "London Pride." Up until then, I hadn't met a beer that I didn't like, but things quickly changed after a half pint of that stuff. Oh well. There are lots more to choose from. Bartender!

For the evening, we visited the movie theatre. Harry Potter was everyone's choice. The movie wasn't bad, but of course since I had read the book, it wasn't top notch either. I would consider it to be mainly eye candy. It's fun to watch for a while, but I find myself bored half way through it due to the lack of substance.

Thursday, November 28, 2002

I get up and head to the college. Having some time to kill before class, I head over to take pictures of Tower Bridge. But as usual, I find myself at London Bridge Station. I just can't seem to figure out that Tower Bridge isn't the same thing as London Bridge. In fact the real London Bridge is in Arizona somewhere. Not wanting to lose more time on the Tube, I walk over to St. James Park and take some pictures. I'll take pictures of London (I mean TOWER) Bridge another day. It's a nice day outside. Birds and squirrels were all over the place. Ducks seemed to walk around in small gangs. Out in the pond, two large white pelicans drifted across the water.

From there, I head over to Buckingham Palace. I take more pictures of the guards and then notice the crowd starting to move quickly. I didn't want to miss out on something extravagant so I join the crowd. Next thing I know, the gates are opening and out come carriages drawn by horses in fancy gold bridling. Men dressed in bright red velvet cloaks are mounted on the carriages. I catch a quick glimpse inside and notice some fancy dressed passengers inside. I don't know who they are, but I take some pictures all the same.

Afterwards, I walk back to the school. Next on the list is film class. Since, it's Thanksgiving, we see a movie called What's Cooking. It's a fun film and we're left salivating over all the delicious turkey and trimmings shown during the movie. At night, I met up with Liz and we journey on over to Leicester Square. We wander up to the half-price ticket booth to see what show is the cheapest. They recommend The Woman in Black. We buy two tickets. The hard part is now finding the theater. Neither of us has the London street guide, so we mosey around and ask directions. Finally, we enter a store that has a guidebook and look through it. Ah, it's over in Covent Garden. Minutes later, we arrive at the theater and grab our seats. We're up pretty high since it's in the upper balcony.

The show starts off slowly and I begin to get sleepy. Still, it's very interesting, so I try to stay awake. The thing about this show is that it's a "thriller." I had never seen a real thriller done on stage before so I'm quite curious as to how it will work. I'm not disappointed. As it moves along, it gets more suspenseful and scarier. By then end of act one, the audience is even screaming. I can't wait for Act II.

Act II is just as good. I'm left thoroughly impressed by what can be done on stage using nothing but some good acting, great sound effects, and a lot of audience imagination. The best part is that the show was only 10 pounds. It was money well spent. But now it was time to get ready for Normandy.

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