"Some sherry-crazed old dowager" and Silly Walks

British politics. Maybe it's just a Boris Johnson thing (Mayor of London), or maybe this is a broad cultural difference, but could you picture, a month ago, McCain calling Obama "some sherry-crazed old dowager who has lost the family silver at roullette?" Because that's what Boris Johnson said about Gordon Brown.

The London Paper - November 25th
"In a stinging personal assault, the London Mayor said the Prime Minister was:

"like a drunk who has woken to the most appalling hangover, and who reaches for the whisky bottle to help him dull the pain.

"He is like some sherry-crazed old dowager who has lost the family silver at roulette, and who decides to double up by betting the house as well."


It sounds like a fake quote, like something out of the Onion! (or the English version of the Onion - The Daily Mash http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/).

Another reason to love London.

People here are under the impression that American political campaigns are just big celebrity shows (which they are, so fair enough). The question is, would you rather your politics be more like American Idol or Monty Python?

I think I pick Monty Python because that Boris Johnson quote was hilarious. Comparing him to a drunk wasn't enough. He also had to throw in the hangover. And then another whole paragraph full of more name calling and a drunken hypothetical situation.

Anyway... Today I went to Westminster Abbey! Very pretty inside (and outside). Also, speaking of Monty Python, I FINALLY got a few Ministry of Silly Walks pictures. I really wanted it in front of Parliament, and I walk past it on the way to my internship but it's awkward enough to ask a stranger to take your picture, let alone asking a stranger to take your picture doing a silly walk. (And also I've developed an I'm-Not-One-Of-"Those"-Tourists-On-Westminster-Bridge-I'm-Actually-Here-For-Real-Reasons superiority complex so I've refrained from taking pictures on my walks to and from work.) But today I was around Parliament with people I knew, making it slightly less awkward having them take pictures of me doing a silly walk. Still awkward, because neither of them had seen that particular Monty Python, but less awkward none the less.

How come every time you come around my London London Bridge wanna go down?

Actually this is called the "Tower Bridge" not the "London Bridge." Common mistake. The Tower Bridge was built in 1894 and is featured in Fergie's song "London Bridge" despite it being the wrong bridge. There has been a bridge on the spot of London Bridge at least since Roman times 2,000 years ago. The current London Bridge has been there since 1973. In 1968 someone in Arizona bought the old London Bridge and put it up in Arizona. (?) Rumor has it he thought he was buying Tower Bridge and ended up with the must less interesting London Bridge. He denies it, but I would too b/c that's pretty stupid.





Anyway, I crossed Tower Bridge today on my way to the Tower of London. Tower of London was awesome. There's 20 towers in tower of London. You can see different exhibitions there like torture at the tower and see the crown jewels! There has to be 6 ravens at the tower or else the English kingdom or something will crumble so the guide said they keep 9 there, for good measure, and clip their wings so they can't fly away. The Tower of London was awesome. It's sooo old! It was weird to see the gates/passageways to the river and hear the stories of people who passed through them so long ago. One of the metal pointy curtain things (wow what are those called and do they even have a name) that come down under archways to stop people from getting in.... anyway one of those was there that was 700 years old. They said that they let it down recently and it still worked but it took 3 days to get down. Also there was a carving on one of the towers that a Jesuit (Loyola is Jesuit) prisoner carved there forever ago. The tour guide was a beefeater who lived in the tower. A hundred something people still live on the grounds of the tower he said. That would be awesome. "Where do you live?" "The effing Tower of London."

It was so funny seeing the actor/workers dressed up in medieval clothing. Part of me was like "oh, those rennies..." but then I remembered this isn't a Renaissance fair, it's a real medieval building!

Pictures are below. After the Tower I went to a photography exhibit called "London Through a Lens." It was photographs taken in London from 1800's until now. Everything from WWII things, an elephant walking around the street, the Beatles, riots, buses, etc. It was really cool, I want to buy the book!

Beefeater Tour Guide

Tower of London

Unimportant Small Things

Thought I would update a few small things that I've been doing lately.

Square Pies. YUM. I write about food probably too often but this place was unbelievable. If you ever come to London borrow my Cheap Eats book. It's lead me to places such as the great Stick and Bowl, Square Pie, etc. Square pie - they give you literally a square pie (I got Cottage Pie - minced beef carrots and potatoes) mashed potatoes and mushy peas. Mushy peas shouldn't be good but they are. oh and the most amazing gravy I have ever tasted.

Went to platform 9 3/4. Harry Potter's train gate to Hogwarts!



I went to the Foundling Museum. It was a hospital started in the 1700's for children whose parents/mothers couldn't take care of them. Orphanage I guess, but also a school. The most interesting part was how the rich people would come to watch the kids eat lunch on Sundays b/c it made them feel good about themselves for helping them. It was essentially only started because it was fashionable at the time to be charitable. A sad part was the cabinet with trinkets/coins/rings/etc that the mothers left with their babies when they admitted them to the hospital.

Went to the Imperial War Museum with my WWI class. It's a very good museum! Interesting displays even for me - a non-history-liking person.

Went to our last play for our theatre class. It was a shit play. We've seen a good mix of good plays and bad plays. The best play I've seen was the one we had to choose to go to on our own. It was so good! It was called The Dying of Today. If anyone's a theatre buff, it was by Howard Barker and performed by the Wrestling School. It was probably the best play I've ever seen. (I also really liked A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe though.) I don't want to write again what it was about (I had to write a review of it for class) So I'll just post that instead!.

The Dying of Today centered around the idea of the beauty of pain, catastrophe and suffering. A visitor entered a barber shop. He asked the barber if he likes bad news. He asked if the barber wanted to hear the horrible news he happily possessed. The visitor was practically giddy with the thought of telling the barber the bad news.

Written by Howard Barker and performed by his company The Wrestling School, The Dying of Today is currently being performed the Arcola Theatre. This run is the first time the play has been performed in the UK. The play is based on an account of the total destruction of the Athenian army and navy in 413 BC. A survivor of the expedition casually mentioned the news of the complete slaughter while being shaved. This play deals with a similar communication of a catastrophe. The Wrestling School was started in 1988 to stage plays by Howard Barker, who directed most of the productions. The company got its name from the idea that the actors had to wrestle with the meanings and concepts before being able to properly convey them to an audience. It was obvious that much wrestling and thought had been put into this moving and powerfully performed production. Howard Barker is known for making plays about the extremes of human experience and challenging ideas. This play is no exception.

The visitor, played by Duncan Bell, continuously asked the barber, played by George Irving, if he wanted to hear the bad news. After the visitor asked if the barber had a son, the barber guessed that his son, who was in the army, had been killed and that this was the bad news. He guessed further that the whole army had been killed and that they had all been cornered in a quarry and slaughtered. The visitor watched the barber’s animated telling of these horrific events with relish.

Throughout the barber’s telling of what he imagined the slaughter to be like, the visitor watched the reflection of the barber’s face in the mirror. Whenever he was unable to see, he would ask the barber to reveal his face so that he could continue watching. He commented on the beauty of the barber and his words while he talked about such pain and suggested that he could not have told the story better himself. He said, “How beautiful were the barber’s tears and more beautiful still holding of the tears, and yet more beautiful than that, the tears still coming through the holding…”

The entire play was based on the telling and receiving of the bad news. Emphasis was made on the beauty of pain and the beauty that pain brings out of people. The visitor expressed this when he stated, “Why do you prefer bad news, I ask myself, do you like grief, do you like chaos? Not at all. Only I think men are more beautiful flung down than standing up.” Pain is a necessary and unavoidable part of life. It is arguably the strongest emotion that can be felt and, as this play suggests, it can bring about a kind of beauty.

The content and meaning of the play were powerful on their own, but the performances, staging and theater made this production even more intriguing. Only two rows of benches surrounding the small stage on three sides created an intimate environment that allowed all members of the audience to study the engrossing facial expressions of both Bell and Irving. A large section of the play, starting from when he first walked on stage, the barber did not say one word yet so much was communicated from his face alone. This intimate environment also added to the notion that the barber and the visitor alone possessed such great and tragic news that would soon affect every aspect of the surrounding community’s life. The small audience had this knowledge, too, and had it been a large theater full of hundreds of people, this effect and some meaning would have been lost.

The set, designed by Tomas Leipzig, was realistic in some aspects, but surreal as well. It was obvious that it was a barber shop with a barber chair and sink. However, yellowed newspapers were unnaturally taped to the back wall hinting at the theme of news and communication. The lighting, designed by Ace McCarron, was red and green at times to highlight the intensity of the characters’ feelings. The performances and the story itself were slightly exaggerated and coincided with the surreal aspects of the set and lighting.

The set and story were intriguing and thought-provoking, but the performances were the best part of the production. Bell and Irving’s insightful and nuanced portrayals of these complex characters were enough to keep the audience intrigued for the seventy minutes that their two characters alone occupied the stage. They both fit their parts perfectly. Irving’s facial features had the perfect combination of emotion and stoicism. Bell pulled off what could be a tough role. Despite the visitor’s uncommon and almost repulsive obsession with pain and suffering, his character seemed more of an almost mystical visitor from another realm than a crazy masochist. By the end of the play he has somehow convinced members of the audience to almost love the beauty of pain as much as he does.


This weekend I plan on going to the touristy things that I haven't made it to yet. The Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, St. Pauls, and maybe a boat tour. I still have to go up in the Eye, and I really want to see the Design Museum. I also have approximately 50 papers to write. Should be a busy weekend! Will probably also make an appearance at Square Pie and/or Stick and Bowl.

Being in London and doing touristy things makes me want to do more touristy things in Chicago when I get back!

Amsterdam and Brugges - The Venices of the North

They really do both call themselves that - Venice of the North. Stockholm too. And St. Petersburg. You can't ALL be the Venices of the North. It reminds me when schools try to call themselves the "Harvard of the Midwest." There's like 8 of them.

Anyway, this weekend I went on the FREE tour I won of Amsterdam and Brugges! It was definitely a different experience going with a gigantic tour group than when I just went with Tommy two summers ago. This time my hotel was right near the red light district and Dam Square, which is arguably the most touristy section of the most touristy city in the world. I love Amsterdam - it's canals and pointy buildings and beer and fries, but it made me appreciate London in a similar way that Barcelona did. I guess it's that Barcelona and Amsterdam aren't big enough cities to absorb all of the tourism. In Amsterdam, literally every restaurants/stores/bars etc are directed towards tourists. In London there's that too of course, but so much of it is more 'real' for lack of a better word.

We left early Friday morning, drove to Dover, got on the ferry (even though I swore to myself I would never take that damn ferry again - see earlier post about Ieper) and drove to Amsterdam. We took a canal tour and then a walking tour of the red light district. Then went to a bar, met an entire "soccer-football" team (that's what they told me they were), and wandered around the city.


The most hilarious thing about European boys is that they will talk FOREVER about their country. Italians about how Rome is the capital of the world (don't tell them it's actually probably London or New York, they don't like that.) Dutch boys will tell you all about how important the color orange is, Queen's Day, and how "Holland is such a beautiful city." (their English wasn't perfect...) Once, in London, my roommate just happened to mention to a Greek guy that she had been to Athens and he was so happy that he bought both of us drinks the rest of the night. Could you imagine that happening in America? "What!??! You've been to Springfield??? Capital of the world! Next round on me..."

Another fun oddity is that, as I've learned, my name is hard to shout at the top of your lungs in a club and still be understandable, especially if the other person's first language wasn't English (but still hard to native speakers). But if I pronounce it Mee-kie-AY-luh, they understand immediately, their eyes light up and they will proceed to tell me that the name Mee-kie-AY-luh is from their country (Doesn't matter which country. Any country) and what it means in their language.

The next day we went to a traditional Dutch living history museum/area. Windmills, clogs and cheese. VERY good cheese. Really wanted to buy clogs but fortunately talked myself out of it.







Then we went back to Amsterdam and a few of us went to the Anne Frank House, walked around, then our tour guide took some of us to a brewery that's off-the-beaten path of tourists. It was called Ij or something weird. The beer was soo good and there was not a single tourist in the entire place (besides us). It was a brewery in a windmill. We then went to the Sex Museum (because it's Amsterdam, you have too).




Yum. Fries. They have great fries. They have a variety of sauces to choose from. Someone in line told me to get Fitesaussen (or however they spell it). It was essentially mayo. It was great. I'm surprised my heart didn't stop - I had it twice that weekend. And fries another time with ketchup. And a couple of waffles. Beer, waffles and fries with mayonnaise. How is America (actually Scotland beat us recently) the fattest country on earth? Unbelievable. Anyway I worked off all that later - keep reading.



The next day we got up and drove to Brugges! I love Brugges! The last time I was there I had a cold so I don't really remember it b/c of being all doped up on cold medicine. It's soooo cute. I love Brugges. medievally and all the buildings are adorable and pointy. There's canals (Venice of the North). I climbed to the top of the Bellfry, a giant old bell tower. 366 stairs. Tightly winding stairs. The views from the top were incredible though. When I climbed back down the 366 (366!) stairs, I immediately went to one of the two competing fry stands right in front (it's a thing.. there's two, they've been there a while or something) and ordered fries. Extra mayo. I just climbed 366 stairs, I deserve it.

Catch up

I've been slacking on the blog. I've been super busy! But now I'm going to make a list of all the things I haven't written about so maybe I'll remember to write about them.

• bagels
• the election :)
  
• Lord Mayor Show
• Borough market - and how this food market is so much better than Barcelona's.
  
• How awesome London is.

Now I must sleep b/c my roommate and I went to a club last night called the Zoo Bar (aptly named) and then got up early to see the Lord Mayor Show and now I need a nap.
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OK. let me quickly write about those things so I can write about Amsterdam! Bagels - one night me and my roommate convinced a couple of our friends to take a night bus (at least 40 minutes) to Brick Lane for a bagel. (the wonderful bagels with beef on them.) Totally worth it. This would have been better told and longer if I had written it earlier! Sorry!

The Election - Me and a friend went to an election party at a bar/concert venue. They played the BBC coverage of it on a big projector. Everyone counted down each time a new batch of states was about to be announced. It was very fun and exciting. Not a single McCain supporter in the whole place. (or even in this whole city!) People here will ask you straight out who you are going to vote for/ who you voted for. It's not like America where it's a big secret and no one asks anyone because they don't want to be rude. In class several professors have just assumed everyone voted Obama or asked the class as a whole who they supported. And the classes the day after the election, many people skipped and the teachers didn't even care and were like "well that's great they were celebrating Obama's win!" (we didn't even start getting coverage here until 9 or 10pm, after he won Ohio we got a bus home and weren't home until 4am or so). Also, that next week the teachers were all like "By the way... Congratulations" about the election. Must be awkward for the McCain supporters! haha. They would probably get sued or something if they were to do that in a school in America.

Lord Mayer Show - click here for the website. my history is lacking. Old parade (like 800 years old) celebrating the new Lord Mayor of London. Used to be a really powerful position but isn't so much anymore, I heard. It was fun but it was raining. Pictures below.

Borough Market - This market was sooo great! They gave samples at almost all of the stands, we ate so many samples it was almost enough to just go there and eat free samples for lunch. yummm. Borough Market is another reason why London is better than Barcelona - this market is less touristy (though I'm sure it's touristy still) and just better in general. bigger and prettier.

These guys were passing out free samples to everyone and yelling "rat poison! let me give you some rat poison!" Some people were afraid to try the samples I don't know why. We however were not afraid to take their samples and stood there like little birds.

Halloween

Last night was Halloween! Kalen and I had to work until 5:30 and therefore couldn't go on the walking ghost tour that a lot of our friends/other IES students went on... so we were in charge of making our own fun. We made some mixed drinks for ourselves and went through our closets trying to find a costume. All we had to work with was our real-live everyday clothes (as opposed to having at our disposal a basement full of costumes from halloweens past), our everyday makeup, and some bobby-pins/hair ties etc. I think we were very resourceful and dressed up as CATS!


We just wore black (yes, I DID bring a lot of black clothes to London. I know that might come as a surprise to most of you) and put our hair up in side bun things for the ears, and used eyeliner for whiskers and a nose! Genius.

We walked to the tube station (getting only a few weird glances, but we thought, 'hey, we're in Chelsea, maybe more people will be dressed up in a less posh area) and got on the tube. We then realized that not a single other person was dressed up. (exact opposite of getting on the el on halloween.) A woman next to me had a princess wand sticking out of her purse and some people had some funny shoes on etc. but it's hard to tell what's a costume and what's normal in London. Every once in a while I would forget that I was dressed as a cat and I would catch our reflection in the tube window and be like, "oh crap. I'm in a very public place in a foreign country with eyeliner whiskers drawn on my face."

So we were feeling a little bit out of place, but then the train stopped and Satan walked on with a fairy and everything was cool.

Later on that night we of course saw a bunch of other people who were dressed up, but for a while we only would pass the occasional vampire/zombie or werewolf of sorts, give each other a nod of solidarity, and continue walking.

We couldn't find the place we actually meant to go to (on Brick Lane) but a dead bride passing out fliers pointed us in the direction of another bar having a Halloween party so we just went there instead. There's about 3 bagel shops per capita in that area, so we got a late night bagel for the trip home and it was AMAZING. Oh my god I've never had a bagel so good and the beef on it was so amazing too. I don't even like beef that much. The place looked a little shady (but it was packed even at 1am and Kalen had remembered reading about it in a guide book so we went anyway). The whole time I was thinking, I don't even care if I get food poisening, this is so damn good. But alas I didn't get sick, so it must not have been that shady of a place (aside from the men working in the back meowing at us while we waited in line. But you'll have that I guess.)


(Kalen and I standing in front of HUGH GRANT'S house, you can't see it though)