London: What I'll Miss

We have left Croatia and are now in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Since I don't want my last London posts to overlap too much with our current travel posts, I've gotta get this one out ASAP.

Right about the time I was drafting my post on homesickness, one of Joe's friends asked me what I would miss about London when we return to the States. At the time I grumbled/growled "Nothing. There's nothing here that I can't get better at home." I was, clearly, in no mood. But since then I've been thinking about it and I've come up with some things about my life in London that will change when I return to San Diego.

Stopping at Costa Coffee for a treat after class before I get on the bus going home.
This simple activity became part of an established routine on my two days of class each week. On days when the weather, the darkness, or the distance from home were weighing on me, this stop was something to look forward to. On days when I was feeling excited about living in a big, bustling city, this stop was part of a pattern that proved I had created a new life in London.

Public Transportation
Although I missed having a car occasionally, overall I really enjoyed using public transportation to get around London. The busses especially offer a low-stress way to get from place to place; instead of gripping a steering wheel and anxiously trying to make the most of every traffic light, once I boarded the bus I knew that my travel time was out of my hands and I could just relax. Since I don't really enjoy driving and I'd spent the two years before this commuting almost an hour each way for work, it was a relief to be able to read on my commute or even just take in the view. Busses allowed me to see a lot more of London and get a better idea of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up this elaborate cityscape. Whenever it was reasonable, Joe and I always chose busses over the tube for this reason.

our local bus at our neighborhood stop

busses in Trafalgar Square, Big Ben in the distance

My Abel & Cole delivery/Graze snacks
Having fresh, organic, in-season, local, and healthy food delivered to our door every week was awesome. Our Abel & Cole boxes pushed me to try new things as a cook and Graze gave us healthy snack alternatives to candy and chips. I know we can sign up for a CSA at home and that Graze actually exists in the USA also, but I'll miss the British versions.

Quick and Easy travel to what Americans often call "All over the world!"
London to Dublin takes about an hour and costs about $60. I booked trips to Paris less than a month in advance twice. I booked a two week trip around Spain about three weeks ahead. Flying to Croatia was direct, cheap, and took about 2 hours. If I didn't like the flight times/prices at one airport, there were 3 others to chose from. We travelled to Scotland exclusively by train (Paris and Brussels, too) and it took only a few hours. Oh, and no time change (or really minor ones) means no jetlag on arrival. Priceless.

Downton Abbey & Sherlock
I may have had to watch ALL other television on Hulu, but I got Downton Abbey and Sherlock before all of y'all and it was awesome.

Sherlock pub quiz team, We're Bringing Reichenback

The novelty of actually living in a world-recognized city, among history. (I go to Regent Street for the Apple Store...)
There were definitely moments throughout the year when we'd realize that we were living among history. No, we didn't hang out in central London much and it took until nearly the end of our time in London to actually do the touristy things. But I can't explain what it feels like to make plans with a friend and realize that your commute there means you'll be getting out a London Bridge tube stop or walking across Tower Bridge to meet up. Euston Station (which is what J. K. Rowling was actually picturing when she wrote the King's Cross scenes in Harry Potter) was my tube station for school. We went to Baker Street mostly for the Chipotle. My T.K. Maxx store was in Covent Garden. Oh, and we could see the London Eye from our neighborhood every day. Besides the recognizable names and sites, there is just so much to do and see in this metropolis. When we arrived, it was exciting to sign up for Time Out and the Londonist and try to make plans to do and see as much as we could. The posters on the sides of busses and in the tube were like big signs that said "OPPORTUNITY." I also feel like living in a big city meant that we were more willing to travel further for the things we wanted to do. We both hope that this translates to a willingness to use public transportation (though limited) in San Diego when there are things in downtown that we want to do but write off as being too far to drive.

Apple Store on Regent Street

Charlotte Street, one of our favorite places in London 

Tower Bridge, 9 pm, June 2014

Cider, cider, everywhere
I don't drink beer and I don't always want wine or a cocktail, but I do enjoy cider and for once in my life I could get it pretty much everywhere we went. This made tagging along with Joe when he wanted to drink craft beer much easier. Beer bars are much more likely to have cider than they are to have wine. Remember Cider Tap, the partner to Euston Tap? It was like these twin businesses were designed for Joe and I.

Reading like it's my job (because it's my job)
I may not have enjoyed everything we read for my master's program, but I did enjoy being back in school this year. I miss teaching and am looking forward to getting back to it, but getting to spend a year reading out of my comfort zone has been good. These last few months especially have been fun because I have finally been able to choose my reading based on background and research for my dissertation. Re-read the Hunger Games (twice)? Yes, please. Read the Divergent series and the Matched series and the Handmaid's Tale all as research? I don't mind if I do. Oh and the Giver and Lord of the Flies and a whole bunch of other literature that I enjoy every minute of, because it's my job to do this. It's research. I love it.

Exclusive time with my husband
And finally, the best thing about this year has been the time that Joe and I have had together. Some people thought we were crazy to move abroad during our first year of marriage, but trial by fire has worked for us. Back home we worked opposite schedules and lived in different cities for almost half of the time we were dating; our tiny London flat, flexible schedules, and intense travel have pushed our relationship to a new level. We joke that we've condensed three or four years of marriage into one. I know that going home doesn't mean that this necessarily ends, but the re-introduction of friends and family into our daily lives means that our alone time will be naturally diluted and going back to work means that I won't be able to stay up until 4 am because I want to eat dinner with Joe when he gets home from a closing shift at 2:30. This year has been intense in a lot of ways, but it has also given us the flexibility to spend a lot of time together and I will always be grateful for that. Over and over again throughout the last year we have agreed that this adventure was the right choice for us and we are so, so glad we did it.

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On our last night in London, we had a get-together at BrewDog Camden (our favorite local spot) for one more evening of fun, games, and socializing with all of the wonderful people we met in our 10 months living there. The night was emotional and surreal and we feel incredibly lucky to have spent this year making so many new friendships that we hope will last a lifetime. Since I don't have many pictures to go with the above post about what I'll miss in London, I'll include pictures from our Going Away party too.

with Emily playing games

Jen, Sherwin, Tammela, and Laura (the other side of the table)

with Rebecca

Tammela & Fabian

with Kieran

Tash, Anneste, Nicolo, and Jimmy

Ineta & Nicolo (plus Jimmy)

The Making of Harry Potter

First off: Croatia is amazing. We've been here for 5 days and I can't wait to share pictures.

But first there's a little bit of London business leftover that I want to get on here before too long. We may have left London on July 1, but seeing as we don't have anywhere else to call home just yet, I'm still going to write about London.

One of the last major items on our London List was the Warner Bros studio set tour of the Making of Harry Potter. We dropped several London sights off our priorities in June, but this was non-negotiable. We finally booked our tour on June 16 and we travelled to the studio in Leavesden in this super-touristy converted double-decker:

The studio could have gone only two ways: boring/lame and totally awesome. Unsurprisingly, it was the latter. Now, after ten months of me taking and posting LOTS of pictures of Joe with beers (that all look exactly the same even if they taste totally different), it was Joe's turn to take pictures of me being ridiculously excited about every new set and prop. As we entered the building, I even warned him: I might cry.

The cabinet under the stairs was only in the queue leading into the sets. No, the real tour starts BIG.

The doors to the Great Hall! I don't know what I expected, but I was shocked over and over by how HUGE the sets were and how REAL it all felt. Plus there were all kinds of details that I'd never noticed in the films, like the fact that every one of the torches in the Great Hall is in the form of one of the four house animals and every statue is different.

Two of the house tables were left set for a meal and there were costumes from each house around the room, including Cedric Diggory/Robert Pattinson's Triwizard Tournament uniform, Harry/Daniel Radcliffe's first Gryffindor Robes, and costumes for each of the teachers at the Head Table.

Beyond the Great Hall were several other sets including the boys' dormitory, Gryffindor common room, the kitchen of the Burrow, Hagrid's hut, the Potions dungeon/classroom, and Dumbledore's entire two-story office.

the underside of Harry's invisibility cloak made of green screen
so that it could be graphically enhanced in post production

the entrance to Dumbledore's office; the password is lemon drop

This area also included an abundance of props, including all of the horcruxes, dozens of wands, Molly Weasley's family clock, the doors to the Chamber of Secrets and a few Gringott's vaults, and many paper items. I was struck by the fact that Rita Skeeter's The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore is a real-life paperback book.

Beyond this area is an outdoor space between studios that includes some of the larger sets. The Night Bus, Hogwarts Bridge, and both Privet Drive and the Potter's house from Godric's Hollow are in this area. There is also a stand where you can buy Butter Beer, one of only two locations in the world.

The next section of the tour includes architecture, art, blueprints, and animatronics. The animatronic Buckbeak was moving the entire time.

The last section before the most amazing store I've ever been in was the model of Hogwarts used in wide shots of the school. It was magical.

This year has been fueled by Harry Potter all along. The paper I wrote that gained me entry to UCL was about the series. The Harry Potter conference I attended in Scotland in 2012 made me confident I could handle moving to the UK. Throughout our travels we have collected multi-lingual editions of the series as well as a special British edition. In Edinburgh, we visited the cafe where Rowling wrote much of the first books. It should come as a shock to no one that we were inclined to buy wands or that I proudly sport my Ravenclaw shirt (the House to which I was assigned by the Sorting Hat on Pottermore; Joe is a Gryffindor mostly because I say so).

Charlie and Bert joined the Order of the Phoenix! They also met their idol, Fawkes!

the Elder Wand

The details on the wands were one of our favorite parts of the tour. Every character's wand is totally different - unique in color, shape, design, and even weight. Even Fred and George Weasley, whose wands are sold as a set, have completely different designs. Molly Weasley's is very practical. Narcissa Malfoy's is highly decorative. Sometimes the design is reflective of the character, but sometimes it isn't. For someone like me who loves personalization and detail, this was just one more feature of the films for me to love.

I love this series and the movies that helped bring it to life, so being on the sets was somewhat surreal and overwhelming. Even Joe was impressed with the tour and the authenticity of everything we saw. I didn't cry, but I could have. A big Thank You to my colleagues at Diego Hills who gave us this gift for our wedding last year - it was an amazing day.

Just one more, for the road:

A Tale of Two Dramas

The last seven days have been chock-full of drama and by that I mean the kind you find on a stage. In addition to the Gala for St. George that Joe and I attended last Sunday, Joe traveled to the eastern coast of England to see YES! and I went to two different plays with two different friends. In between, Joe has closed three nights in a row and I spent three days writing two 2,500 word essays for my Authors exam, which accounts for a whopping 30% of my overall MA score.

Much Ado About Nothing @ Shakespeare's Globe
Thursday, 1 May

For nearly the entire programme, my classmates have been dreading the three-day pressure pot of the Authors exam (I really didn't find it that bad, but that's another post). As a way to ease the stress, Tammela and I planned our reward ahead of time: £13 tickets to see Much Ado at the Globe! We had both been wanting to take in a play at the Globe and this was the perfect opportunity. Our exam was due at 10 am and the matinee began at 2 pm, perfect timing for a lunch stop at Borough Market in between. (In reality, both Tammela and I finished our exams early and turned them in on Wednesday, leaving us a chance to sleep in on Thursday instead of heading to campus to endure the crush of 45 masters candidates all signing their tests in at the same time.)

Tammela's review can be read here.

It has been a while since I read Much Ado (high school? Is that right?), but I was looking forward to a comedy. Despite my background as an English major and my experience as an English teacher, I'm always pleasantly surprised when I can watch Shakespeare and understand what's going on without difficulty. There is such a stigma that his plays are difficult to understand that seeing them as they were intended - straightforward, relaxed, without gimmicks - is a happy reminder that really, these plays are universal and meant for everyone.

Honestly, the performance was hilarious. Emma Pallant as Beatrice and Simon Bubb as Benedick were clear standouts who stole the show with their facial expressions and comedic timing. The cast consisted of just eight players, 5 men and 3 women, who doubled-up on parts as necessary. The costuming was simple, 1950s style which kept with a "period" theme but was more relatable for the many school groups in the audience than traditional Elizabethan dress may have been.

The Globe itself is an open-top theatre, which meant that the groundlings in the standing-room-only section made good use of their rain gear throughout the performance. Tammela and I were very glad to have splurged on actual seats where we were protected from the rain that ranged from a light drizzle to heavy sheets. Resident pigeons fly overhead as they please, and the play is lit mostly naturally, making it all feel a bit more real.

Like Shakespeare's birthday party last week, seeing a play inside the Globe feels like being in a movie. This reconstruction was only built in 1997, so perhaps it was used when Shakespeare in Love was filmed just a couple years later. 

1984 @ the Playhouse Theatre

Saturday, May 3

Just two days later I headed down to the bank of the Thames to see a dramatic interpretation of 1984 with Rebecca. I love this book but I was a bit skeptical about how it could possibly work on the stage. The reviews have been great, though, and it was even nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play (the British version of the Tony's).

The play starts with a frame narrative of a book club meeting to discuss the novel. While this is functional and allows the characters to narrate some of Winston Smith's interior monologue from the book, it was a bit off-putting to me. The set was exceedingly simple - a single room where Winston can write in his diary with a hallway beyond that had windows into Winston's private space, so that nothing was ever actually private. This room was also used as the canteen where Winston talks with Syme and Parsons. The apartment where Winston meets with Julia was mostly included in pre-filmed scenes on a screen, making it seem like it was happening in a secret location behind Winston's apartment.

To heighten the tension and stress in the audience, loud noises, buzzers, and bright flashing lights were often employed followed by complete darkness or silence. This was effectively jarring and kept the audience attentive for sure.

ironic surveillance video at the theatre

The performance kept a quick pace throughout, boasting a running time of exactly 101 minutes. They kept to this by skipping the intermission and continuing straight through to the end. I was shocked by how quickly Winston and Julia found their secret uncovered and, next moment, found themselves in the Ministry of Love. While this pace was good for the audience, I don't know if it accurately captured the time period covered by the book.

The performances were well executed. Mike Arends was excellent as Winston, though he is far younger and more attractive than I would have preferred for this casting. Hara Yannas was the perfect Julia, and Gavin Spokes was just right as Parsons.

It was really interesting to see this book played out on a stage and I enjoyed spending the evening with Rebecca, but I was left a bit unsatisfied. So much of this novel is about being inside Winston's head, feeling the paranoia, experiencing the psychological conflict: I'm not sure it's possible to genuinely capture that on stage or screen. (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time came close with its portrayal of Christopher's autism.) Maybe if I weren't planning to write on dystopias for my dissertation, I'd be happier with any interpretation of this classic. I'm very glad I got the opportunity to see this adaptation, especially since I had to try several times before I could get tickets, but of the performances I've seen here in London, I was underwhelmed.

Shakespeare's Birthday!

On Easter Monday I took advantage of a quintessentially London experience: celebrating the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birthday with a free bash at the Globe Theatre in Southwark. As we are only a week out from the dreaded Authors exam, many of my classmates have been acting like bears in winter: hibernating with their books and critical theory and refusing to come out. This study method is fine, of course, but not my style. I have always been a procrastinator and done just fine, so instead of using my last few months as a Londoner sitting in a library or at home, I'm going to jump on every opportunity I find.

I found out about this event because waaaaaay back when we first decided to make this move, I signed up for the Globe's email list. The message I got promised free activities and performances, plus the exhibition attached to the theatre, which normally runs over £13 per ticket, would be open to the public for free! Sold!

My classmate Emily met me along the river walk in front of the theatre. We were both embarrassingly excited to be at Shakespeare's Globe celebrating Shakespeare's birthday.

 Costumes in the exhibition, including one worn by Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth I

Once we'd made it through the crush of party guests in the exhibition, Emily and I were thrilled by the traditional Birthday Party going on downstairs - face painting, a puppet show, and a bouncy Elsinore Castle were just a few of the family-friendly festivities.

Once we made it into the theatre it was like being transported. I know I should say that it felt like time-traveling back to the turn of the 17th century when The Globe was built and Shakespeare was there writing plays, but instead it felt like walking onto a movie set. Maybe that's the California in me.

Emily and I were both excited when we were offered these flags that we'd seen all the children running around with

There was a performance by the Shakespearean improv group the School of Night, which not only performs in impromptu iambic pentameter, but will incorporate suggestions from the audience while increasing the difficulty of their performance (adding rhymes, couplets, or creating sonnets on the spot).

And of course there was a cake and the entire audience sang Happy Birthday to Shakespeare (and Kiara, who was turning 5)!

It would have been very easy to bail on this event, especially after most of the people I had planned to go with said that they couldn't make it, but I am so glad that I didn't. Not only did I get to spend some time with Emily and get to know her better, but I also got to participate in a London event that I know I'll never be able to recreate. 

Afterwards, Emily and I met up with some of our classmates at her flat to celebrate Easter by eating chocolate eggs and drinking wine/sangria. From there I headed over to Euston Tap to meet up with Joe and a bunch of BrewDog friends to support the Stone Tap takeover where Joe was the default Stone rep. It was a lovely London day and even ended with us walking to our bus in the rain, both very happy.

(Just wait! Next week I actually get to see a performance at the Globe!)