Here's a quick review of December 29: THE FREAKING GLOBE THEATRE!
After that little squee fest, we, that is, Dr. Cannon, Sarah, Callie, Holly, and I, all went out to eat at an Indian restaurant. YUM! I got a fruity lamb dish: Kashmiri Lamb aljksdjlsfl (I can't remember, whoops!) Eating took a long while, and by the time we got to the playhouse, all the tickets for that night got sold out. I did get a ticket for the 30th, though, so all was well with me.
After that, we went to the pub just next to the theatre, and I had my very first Guinness in London! Of course, that was not my first Guinness, but my first in London, so Yay! We didn't make it to the Chester Cheese in, but the pub that we went to, The Shipwright Arms, was really good so yay! I had a pint of Guinness, as well as a pint of cider. Hee.... Apparently, I'm really funny when I'm "toasty" as Sarah says.
ANYway, after that Holly, Callie, and I went back to their room where we may or may not of each consumed another pint of alcohol each. It was fun! We watched this odd British show hosted by Stephen Fry, where he asks odd trivia questions to famous people and comedians. It's really fun!
So that was the 29th.
The 30th doesn't have any voice recordings (let the sad sighs begin), so sorry about that, but OMG the 30th (today, btw) was absolutely fantastic!!!
First we had class. My little group (Callie, Holly, Heather, and Sarah) all sat at one end, and we thought that we were talking too much, but Dr. Wadia and Dr. Cannon assured us that we weren't, so that's a yay!
After that, Holly and I went to the.... British Library! That was completely amazing!! There was an exhibit on Illuminated Manuscripts and it was utterly fantastic! I have never seen anything like it!
I saw a prayer scroll of Queen Margret, you know, from Richard III? The Crazy one? Yeah, I saw her prayer scroll dedicated to the Virgin Mary so that Margret might have children. Fantastic! I also saw Elizabeth's present to Henry VIII which she gave him when she was only 12! It was opened to a page that had her handwriting on it. Her Handwriting!! I saw Queen Elizabeth I's HANDWRITING! Brilliant!
Holly and I then went to the main exhibit and we were both moved to tears by the things we saw there. From Shakespeare's First Folio, to original copies of works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn, from the Beatles to Arthur Conan Doyle's lost novel, from the Magna Carter, to the Gutenberg Bible, to the little bit of papyrus that the oldest known copy of the New Testament is written on. We saw so many wonderful beautiful things there. We were just completely awed and humbled by it all.
After the we had explored the library for a number of hours, we sat down and had tea! with a scone! It was titled: Afternoon Cream Tea, and the scone came with the most delicious cream... yum. We had an excellent conversation. It was a wonderful day. We weren't running around like a chicken with its head cut off. We were simply enjoying being in London. Absolutely wonderful!!
After that, we went back to the hotel, were we met up with Dr. Cannon. Then we three went out for dinner at a Thai restaurant not two minutes from our hotel, and it was so fantastic! I had Pad Thai, of course, and true to most Thai Restaurants, they gave me so much food for such a decent price! YUM!
THEN! As a glorious end to an amazing day, Dr. Cannon and I went out to Canterbury tales in Southwark Playhouse. She had bought tickets when she found that she couldn't get tickets for a Woman in Black, so we went together.
It.was.amazing!!! The theatre was transformed into a literal tavern, where we could buy actual drinks! I had mulled wine and it was fantastic! SOOO GOOD! Dear sir, even if you don't like wine, I think you'll like this!!
The play was amazing too! The Host was just perfect! Full of charisma and life, and he spoke in Middle English some of the time, which was absolutely amazing! There were five other actors and they played all the parts, and they did such a good job! They had audience participation and songs in between, and they embodied the spirit of the stories and the character to a T!
I particularly liked how the man playing the Host, only played the host, which made him even more of a moral character. Great!
I also really liked how the guy who played the Pardoner, the last tale of the play, was given the really despicable parts in the other plays. It wasn't so jarring that he was the horrible character, because we'd been used to seeing him be terrible.
But Man-o-mango! Was that playhouse raucus! Two of the actors dropped their pants and showed their buttocks fully to the audience (just the back, not the front, but still!) And curse words and lewd gestures were flying about and it was awesome! Dr. Cannon and I both adored it! It made the Tales so alive and vivid for us!
And now I'm back in my hotel room, resting my feverish footsies and getting ready for bed, since we go to Canterbury and Dover tomorrow! Yes, Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach. I LOVE LONDON!!!
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