I am sad about leaving London even though I know I'll be back for a couple days later.
It's true what they say: When you're having fun, time goes by that much faster.
I don't want to leave! Okay, I will stop being a baby and go eat breakfast now.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Time Flies
I usually try to avoid blog entries that merely list whatever activities I've engaged in throughout the day because I find them really boring and kind of pointless in the long run but I may have to resort to that because I don't really have the time or energy to think of something intelligent and thought-provoking to say at the moment. Being away makes me feel a little strange sometimes. There are days when I don't think of home at all and can picture myself living here for the rest of my life. And that makes me wonder if it would really make any difference whether I went home or not. I mean, of course realistically speaking a vacation that extends past its due date and goes on indefinitely is not exactly feasible (monetary or otherwise), but honestly, when you're young and have no real roots in life you feel like you can do whatever you want and go wherever you want without experiencing a strong emotional attachment to what you're leaving behind. This is not to say that I don't miss family, friends, and school but the extent to which they define my life is gradually becoming less noticeable, at least when I'm so far away.
Wow, I sound like I don't get homesick at all or something. I guess it's because the days here are so packed that you don't really have time to miss home. It's weird because I get more sleep here than I did at home (what with my self-imposed nocturnal lifestyle and all) but I'm still dead tired at the end of every day. But I sort of like feeling that way - going through the day and feeling like you made the most of every moment, so much that sleep becomes a gift rather than a necessity. I love being busy but at the same time it's also draining. There really is an infinite amount of things to see here, or at least it feels that way for the time being. The night before we ended up getting really good seats for Les Miserables for a good price and the whole performance was simply incredible. I am pretty much in love with musicals now and would love to see more of them if opportunity permitted. I really enjoyed how they managed to stage the French Revolution in a way that was both realistic and engaging. The woman who played Cosette's mother had sort of a weak voice but all the other actors were phenomenal. I especially liked the little girl who had Cosette's part - she was adorable and her voice was strong.
We also watched Timon of Athens at the Globe Theatre and have tickets for Revenger's Tragedy tonight. Man, I am really getting behind on the reading for these classes. I haven't even started Revenger's Tragedy yet and we're supposed to write a response paper for the performance after viewing it. It's hard to find time to do work when you're so busy sight-seeing and having fun but I have to say that school should still be a priority since we are going to be graded for these two classes. I had a really fun time writing about Timon of Athens though (although of course I ended up doing it last minute) so I don't think completing the assignments will be too bad. The exams are a different story. And we have one tomorrow!
On a less somber note (or perhaps a more somber note? depending on how you look at it), a couple of us encountered our first bout of racism the other night at a restaurant in Chinatown. (I know, Chinatown in London...kind of ironic considering I've flown from the Bay Area and all.) I totally didn't expect it. The waitress who served us clearly saw that we were a party of three and yet purposely only gave us two sets of chopsticks, ignoring Jenna completely. And surprise surprise, two of us were Chinese and Jenna was white. When we asked her about it she was sitting at another table chatting with a waiter and she totally gave us this look like, "Why are you bothering me now?" and was basically downright rude. I almost felt like walking out of the restaurant after that but it was late and we were all tired and hungry so we just stayed and ate. She did eventually give us another pair of chopsticks but her attitude throughout the whole ordeal (yeah, like it's so hard to give a table a full set of utensils - especially when you're a waitress) just pissed me off. I was just embarrassed for her, mostly. They say that the British tend to focus more on class than race, whereas for Americans it's really the other way around, but I think that is just pure BS. Not just because of this one experience but it does contribute to the reinforcing of my viewpoint on it. Even though we're on the other side of the world I don't feel like it's that different from home in terms of social norms. Londoners are supposedly rude to foreigners but I don't buy this as a general absolute. There are rude people and then there are people who are perfectly nice and helpful, just like everywhere else. Just because the culture is different doesn't mean there aren't similarities as well. I'm probably speaking the obvious, but I've just been thinking more about this issue as of late.
Well, I wanted to write about the Timon of Athens performance but I'm out of time and need to start heading back to the hotel. Some other time.
Wow, I sound like I don't get homesick at all or something. I guess it's because the days here are so packed that you don't really have time to miss home. It's weird because I get more sleep here than I did at home (what with my self-imposed nocturnal lifestyle and all) but I'm still dead tired at the end of every day. But I sort of like feeling that way - going through the day and feeling like you made the most of every moment, so much that sleep becomes a gift rather than a necessity. I love being busy but at the same time it's also draining. There really is an infinite amount of things to see here, or at least it feels that way for the time being. The night before we ended up getting really good seats for Les Miserables for a good price and the whole performance was simply incredible. I am pretty much in love with musicals now and would love to see more of them if opportunity permitted. I really enjoyed how they managed to stage the French Revolution in a way that was both realistic and engaging. The woman who played Cosette's mother had sort of a weak voice but all the other actors were phenomenal. I especially liked the little girl who had Cosette's part - she was adorable and her voice was strong.
We also watched Timon of Athens at the Globe Theatre and have tickets for Revenger's Tragedy tonight. Man, I am really getting behind on the reading for these classes. I haven't even started Revenger's Tragedy yet and we're supposed to write a response paper for the performance after viewing it. It's hard to find time to do work when you're so busy sight-seeing and having fun but I have to say that school should still be a priority since we are going to be graded for these two classes. I had a really fun time writing about Timon of Athens though (although of course I ended up doing it last minute) so I don't think completing the assignments will be too bad. The exams are a different story. And we have one tomorrow!
On a less somber note (or perhaps a more somber note? depending on how you look at it), a couple of us encountered our first bout of racism the other night at a restaurant in Chinatown. (I know, Chinatown in London...kind of ironic considering I've flown from the Bay Area and all.) I totally didn't expect it. The waitress who served us clearly saw that we were a party of three and yet purposely only gave us two sets of chopsticks, ignoring Jenna completely. And surprise surprise, two of us were Chinese and Jenna was white. When we asked her about it she was sitting at another table chatting with a waiter and she totally gave us this look like, "Why are you bothering me now?" and was basically downright rude. I almost felt like walking out of the restaurant after that but it was late and we were all tired and hungry so we just stayed and ate. She did eventually give us another pair of chopsticks but her attitude throughout the whole ordeal (yeah, like it's so hard to give a table a full set of utensils - especially when you're a waitress) just pissed me off. I was just embarrassed for her, mostly. They say that the British tend to focus more on class than race, whereas for Americans it's really the other way around, but I think that is just pure BS. Not just because of this one experience but it does contribute to the reinforcing of my viewpoint on it. Even though we're on the other side of the world I don't feel like it's that different from home in terms of social norms. Londoners are supposedly rude to foreigners but I don't buy this as a general absolute. There are rude people and then there are people who are perfectly nice and helpful, just like everywhere else. Just because the culture is different doesn't mean there aren't similarities as well. I'm probably speaking the obvious, but I've just been thinking more about this issue as of late.
Well, I wanted to write about the Timon of Athens performance but I'm out of time and need to start heading back to the hotel. Some other time.
Monday, August 4, 2008
London in a blurb
An hour before class and this internet cafe charges by the hour so I don't really have the time to blog my heart out or even just to say most of the things I want to say. But so far, things have been good. London is amazing, as expected. Maybe too amazing, because it's hard to find time to see and do everything that's available when we're only staying for ten days. Granted, I guess I'll get to see more of the city when my family comes up but still, the time passes by so quickly here. It doesn't feel like it's only been three days, it feels at least twice as long, if not longer. I love, love, love how practically everything's within walking distance and even for places further away the public transportion system simply rocks. You can pretty much go anywhere without a car and walking really is the norm, not like back home or even in Los Angeles. The city is like a crazy hybrid of San Francisco, New York, and Hong Kong. It's awesome. The only bad thing is that it does get expensive because it's not like you can avoid going out for meals.
Some places we've visited so far are the Globe theater, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye (giant ferris wheel that overlooks the entire city), a park whose name I forgot (there are so many here - and they're huge!), St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminister Abbey, two galleries, and various streets and shops along the way. I think tonight we're going to try to snag tickets for Phantom of the Opera because last time we went they were completely sold out. There are so many musicals here! The culture is simply unlimited and practically omnipresent. We watched a performance of King Lear yesterday - it was my first time watching a Shakespeare play on a professional level and it was definitely memorable.
I can't wait to visit the British Museum (supposedly they have the Rosetta stone???) and the British Library, which seems to me like a place where all the great minds and their works have converged. Da Vinci, Blake, Austen, Milton, Beethoven, Shakespeare, and various others - it's like an intellectual's dream come true! I bet you could spend weeks and weeks in there and still not see everything. Alas, I will have to settle for merely a glimpse.
Some places we've visited so far are the Globe theater, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye (giant ferris wheel that overlooks the entire city), a park whose name I forgot (there are so many here - and they're huge!), St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminister Abbey, two galleries, and various streets and shops along the way. I think tonight we're going to try to snag tickets for Phantom of the Opera because last time we went they were completely sold out. There are so many musicals here! The culture is simply unlimited and practically omnipresent. We watched a performance of King Lear yesterday - it was my first time watching a Shakespeare play on a professional level and it was definitely memorable.
I can't wait to visit the British Museum (supposedly they have the Rosetta stone???) and the British Library, which seems to me like a place where all the great minds and their works have converged. Da Vinci, Blake, Austen, Milton, Beethoven, Shakespeare, and various others - it's like an intellectual's dream come true! I bet you could spend weeks and weeks in there and still not see everything. Alas, I will have to settle for merely a glimpse.
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