Best of London

On Friday we packed up our little London flat and hopped on a train to Oxford, where we will continue our studies and our festivities in St. Edmund’s Hall. We are decidedly sad about leaving our flats, as we love the social atmosphere, but we’ve agreed that a lower-key existence might be in order.

Anyway, since we have left London, and since I was never very good at updating the blog these past three weeks, I thought I would write a Best Of blog, recording some of the conventional and unconventional moments that have made me fall in love with London.

Top Ten Moments in London (in no particular order)

1. First bite of Nutella. Everyone told me I would love it, and they were right. Thirty minutes after meeting my flatmates, they convinced me that buying a whole jar without ever having tasted it was a risk I could take. So very glad I did.

2. Henry IV at the Globe Theatre. After three hours of sleep and a long day, I was hardly excited about seeing our first Shakespeare production as a “groundling,” meaning I would have to stand throughout the show. However, the second Prince Hal and Falstaff hit that stage, I fell in love with Shakespeare and his surprisingly dirty sense of humor.

3. Watching the sun rise on the Thames. Our group had just spent the evening getting to know each other with a rousing game of Never Have I Ever when we realized that it was 4 a.m. and the sun was about to rise. Of course Bryce and I decided we should advantage and walk down to the Millennium Bridge and watch it come up over the river. We had the usually packed pedestrian bridge all to ourselves, and we watched the sun rise and the city wake up.

4. Losing the World Cup game to Germany. Doesn’t sound like it should be on here, does it? However, after reserving tables at a popular pub, ordering pitchers of Pimm’s and lemonade (a very British drink), and cheering our hearts out with the rest of the fans, we felt like real Londoners to be sad and upset.

5. Watching “Defying Gravity” blow my mind. Jesse and I decided to take advantage of the half-price ticket counters in Leicester Square and got nosebleed tickets for Wicked. It was...just amazing. I had chills the whole time. Seeing the book that I love and the soundtrack that I memorize come to life on stage definitely deserves a place on this list.

6. Seeing Jena in Russell Square. My Chapel Hill roommate and I just happened to be in London at the same time, but on completely different programs. As soon as we could, we met up or dinner. When we found each other in Russell Square Gardens, we had a little girly fit about how cool it was that we were together in London, and then we shared some pasta and white wine to celebrate!

7. Making it to the London Eye. As you probably know, the London Eye is a gigantic Ferris wheel-type thing, only with large glass-windowed boxes that hold about twenty and take you up and up until you can see the whole London Skyline. It really is quite a beautiful experience…that we almost didn’t have. We bought our tickets on a Friday morning and vowed to make it back before 9:30 that evening to redeem them for our ride. Too bad this was early in the program, and we still didn’t know exactly how to use the tube. At 9:35 we finally made it to our stop and started running. And running. And running. Until Holly discovered that she didn’t have enough money on her tube card to LEAVE the station! She yelled for us to leave her behind, but Sally waited with her. Much drama. The rest of us began running past Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, determined to make it and have them hold it. When we got there, the teenagers running the ride laughed at us and made us promise to buy them drinks if we waited for Holly and Sally. The empty promises were never fulfilled, but Holly and Sally did eventually come charging up (surprisingly quickly for two small girls) around 9:47, and we all had a very wonderful ride on the London Eye.

8. Never enough sleep. One Monday morning, after a loooong weekend of going to plays, going to Stratford, sight-seeing, and sight-seeing the pubs until about 4 a.m. the previous evening, Sally (my London roommate) and I both woke up at 8:45 to our alarms. And we snoozed. At 9:00 our simultaneous alarms rang again. We both sighed, and I looked at her and said, “We’re never going to get enough sleep, are we?” She hesitated a moment, looked at me and said, “Nope.” With that, she threw back the covers and got ready for another great yet sleepless week. Didn’t take me too long to follow suit.

9. First class with Professor Armitage. The man is a true Shakespeare scholar. From offhand analyses of Ophelia’s relationship with her mother to how he would have played Lear quite differently than Greg Hicks did to regularly reciting all of the same information we hear on guided tours through Stratford, he knows his stuff. However, the man also has a LOT of color. He keeps class interesting with his less-than politically correct comments about the Italians overflowing Oxford or what unstaunched wench actually means or, most importantly, his now-infamous, rumbling and throaty, “Rooiiiiiight.” Many student imitations have been made, of course. (Group consensus has Bryce taking the gold.)

10. Photo fail. Hands down, my favorite moment in London. A large group of us had just gone to see (on our own accord) a little play at the historic Rose Theatre, Arden of Faversham. We were walking back to the flats to decide what to do with rest of the evening, and of course we took the way back along the Thames. It was a beautiful night, and the Thames was reflecting the moonlight while the London skyline glittered. Naturally, Mom Sally demanded a group photo in front of the scene. We all playfully griped, lined up and wrapped our arms around each other, excited for another photo displaying how happy we all were to be together in this amazing place. We smiled, and we waited for the photo to happen. And we waited…and waited. As we one by one realized that we had just set up a perfect photo but had acquired NO PHOTOGRAPHER, the entire group erupted into the most uproarious laughter I have ever heard. I myself had not laughed that hard in a long time. The photo pose broke up into hugs and doublings-over of laughter, and the photo was forgotten, but, to be perfectly corny, I will cherish that memory forever.

Hope you enjoyed a few little slices of my London life. To be honest, it already feels bittersweet to look back on these joyous memories with these wonderful people and know that half of my time with them has passed. However, I am continuing to have the time of my life in Oxford, as I will post about soon. I may even have the time here to blog a bit more, especially with your advice, Kelsey!

More on that soon. For now, as always, I love and miss you all.