So soon I will post some pics and info about my slew of daytrips over the Gigantic Failure of Spring Break 2010. But first, I have had a list of Random Observations running in my head for a while now, so I'm going to jot those down first!
1. Adorable Language Use: So obviously, as the originator of our mother tongue, there are some fun/funny/delightful phrases and words I love to see and hear in use over here. While some of you with better vocabs may have heard some of this before, it was new to me and these things make me smile every time!
Alight: to depart? get off a train. As in "Please alight here for Leicester Square". I like this idea of 'alighting'. It sounds so, I don't know, sprite or something. Like you just hop off the train with little air in your step.
"Deal with": I find this in use often and it makes me laugh. Like, when you ATM at the bank, the little screen says "We are dealing with your request. Please hold" or 'We will deal with you next'. To me it just sounds funny, like "Crap, we have DEAL with you...again?"
Scheme: not a new word either, of course, but I love this too. Here they often use it in place of 'program' or something. Like, "The student travel card scheme provides students with discounted public transportation around London". I love that this sounds so...sneaky.
"Fell pregnant": this cracks me up when I see it in Hello! or OK! celebrity gossip mags (yes, the Brits are obsessed with stars and their babies as well). The phrasing here is "Yes, last year when I fell pregnant I gained a ton of weight" or something like that. I like 'fell pregnant' because it reminds me of 'falling ill' (I guess not too far off course, right?) but also it conjures up an image of a pregnant woman falling down. And we all know, of course, that watching people fall down is always funny. Which leads me to...
2. The British are obsessed with preventing people from falling down.
Obviously the 'mind the gap' is one of these moments. But I've started to notice that these types of things are everywhere. "Mind the stairs", "Mind your head" (saw that in a short doorway once), "Don't take the stairs if they are too hard for you", etc. etc. I also read this article once about how a street was turned into a pedestrian zone, and people in the area were FREAKING OUT because they were worried about people falling and tripping on the curbs! I guess this attention to detail and worry about people falling down is cute and polite, in a way. Yet oddly, no one in Britain seems to care much about running into you (which, yes, still happens to me pretty much every single day, no matter if I veer to the left or right...)
3. Let's prevent people from shopping.
So I love these little moments here and there when something over here flies in the face of good ol' fashioned capitalism. Case in point is the Tube station for Camden Market. Now Camden market is an awesome and crazy place--a mix of street market and real stores, many of the punk and goth variety. It gets really nuts on the weekends, gets super crowded with tons of shoppers. So I loved the fact that on Sundays, the Camden Market tube station CLOSES DOWN completely, because it's trying to prevent overcrowding. Like, can you imagine a mall in the USA literally turning you away (or blocking your car from the parking lot) because "Oh no, it's just too crowded in there"?) I mean, it's a MARKETPLACE for crying out loud. And yet, here are the Brits, trying to prevent to many people tripping on each other's toes and, probably, falling on curbs and into gaps.
4. No Standing O's...ever.
For all their politeness, the British just don't get too excited about anything, or heap too much praise. Case in point was my experience at the Boat Races that I mentioned earlier--for the biggest college sporting event of the year, by the end there was literally like a golf clap--and people were even drunk! It's amazing. Well anyway, I've gone to almost 20 plays here (yes, I know, I'm broke) and I swear I don't know what it takes, but the Brits will.not.give.a.standing.ovation. Like, EVER. I saw Mark Rylance in 'Jerusalem', an AMAZING play and wonderful performance, literally the DAY AFTER he won the equivalent of the Tony Award (its the Olivier Award here) for Best Actor. I was sure that there would be all kinds of clapping and big hurrah at the show I was at. I was absolutely riveted by his performance for over three hours, it was fantastic, and when it was done, I JUMPED off my chair for a standing O. If there was ever a worthy moment for one, this was it! I was sure I was not alone...until I looked around. Of course, everyone was nicely, politely clapping, nothing else. It left me feeling like Julia Roberts in that scene in Pretty Woman, when they're at the polo match and she's 'whoop whoop'ing Arsenio Hall-style. Yeah, that was me--and still IS me half the time because I've seen so many great shows!
5. If people aren't wearing fabulous boots or expensive leather shoes here, they are wearing Converse All-Stars. Now, I have had several pairs of Chuck's in my day and like them, but they are all over the place here. I'm coming to realize that London everyday fashion right now is so circa early 1990s...like Phoebe from Friends or something.
6. Okay, I don't mean to sound all un-PC or xenophobic or something, but seriously--do Spanish people (particularly young people) ALWAYS travel in packs? Like, seriously, at any given time at a major museum or landmark (or street, for that matter) in London, I'm constantly running into packs of Spanish speaking kids, probably around the age of my 'kids' here. What the hell? They are everywhere! Am I just running into the same group over and over again (maybe people are saying that about my group as well "Dammit! Why do I keep running into this group of loud American students that talk ALL the time and take up so much space?") Yeah, it's likely.
7. This last observation is not so much random as it is to be totally true: after three months in a smallish house, 18 college students start to want to kill each other. Which makes me want to plug my ears, sing "Mary had a little lamb" over and over, and go to my 'happy place'. (yes, I have started counting down the days--only about 14 more to go!)
Over the upcoming weekend I plan to post more about my day trips and some photos and whatnot. Til then, I'll continue to observe and report on this semi-weird place...which is becoming not so weird at all (just in time for me to leave, of course!)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
From Tipping Point to Tipping Over...
Ah, looking back on my last post I was so excited--I could finally get my photos up (and I'm planning to go back and put up some more photos in the earlier entries as well soon), I had finally taken the time to blog, Spring Break Week was coming up, and best of all, Carrie was soon to arrive. The 'tipping point' was basically that: things are looking up! And then, I basically got completely knocked down, once again.
Because of that stupid Icelandic volcano.
Carrie was due to arrive Friday morning, April 16th...basically 24 hours after ALL the UK airports were closed down indefinitely. Her flight was probably one of the first ones canceled (which was good, I suppose, I'm glad she didn't get trapped in the air, sent back to MN, or flown to Dubai or something) and she was rescheduled for Sunday night/arrive Monday morning. Now, of course, at that time we're thinking, "Hey, no biggie, that sucks, we'll probably miss out on going to Spain, but whatever, we'll just hang in London...surely the ash cloud will go away in the coming hours...RIGHT?" Um, as we all know...NO. IT DID NOT. The UNPRECEDENTED ASH CLOUD OVER ICELAND CLOSED HEATHROW AND ALL UK AIRPORTS FOR ALMOST SIX DAYS. I could not, not believe this. Carrie even tried to re-book once her Sunday night flight got canceled, and Delta basically told her no, they were not rebooking anyone for the UK anytime soon...and could they fly her anywhere else in the world she wants to go? Um, no, Carrie didn't want to go anywhere else in the world besides Europe. So, she took the refund while they were still offering it, and we cried tears of sadness through the computer on Gmail chat.
To say this was a disappointment of a HUGE magnitude for me is the understatement of the year.
I was near catatonic for days, as I was just so depressed. Carrie and I had been talking about her visiting me over here for basically a whole year; plans had been made, we were to go to Spain (a trip that was canceled out as well, but fortunately, I should be getting a full refund from Expedia for it--amazingly lucky), and we were to have a solid week of fun just hanging out and being tourists. Carrie loves English history and medieval stuff more than most people I know (I can't tell you how many times she made me watch that dumb movie 'Ever After' with her in college that's set in the Middle Age England) and we had lots of ideas of what we would check out. While we were both initially bummed at the idea of not getting to Spain (ha! if only that had been the extent of our travel problems!), it didn't really matter as long as she got here. We live way further apart in the USA than we would like anyway, and it's rare to get this much uninterrupted time with her, so to me, that's the real loss here. We yelled at the volcano. We cried over chat. We cursed the air, airlines, our timing (if only she had flown in ONE DAY EARLIER), everything, but it didn't matter. She didn't make it here, and it sucked.
(Needless to say, we will obviously plan some sort of alternative trip ASAP. Going more than six months without getting to see Carrie sort of makes me crazy and feel totally abnormal).
So, that was one issue. Combined with my personal frustration/sadness/total letdown was the frustration/sadness/total letdown/general panic of the majority of MY STUDENTS who, also, were to leave on Spring Break! While a few had train travel only, and got out on their trips, the majority had some sort of flying involved (including four girls who had found this awesome deal for a weeklong cruise in the Canary Islands, set to leave Friday 4/16 also), and that all went into chaos as well. There was a lot of re-booking, lots of tearful calls home to parents asking for help/more money (many are getting refunds, but of course, they take up to 30 days to process, so...), and a total revamping of plans. With all this chaos, Eckerd and I went back and forth and finally decided that keeping the house open as a backup was the right thing to do for the students, since so many had to remake plans or lost them altogether.
I agreed to this thinking there would be only about 3 people here all week. There ended up being about 10 instead. So much for a 'break' for me...
We ended up having a lot more around because of a few issues: A) some students had family arrivals due to come mid-week, and while one girl did get her parents here by Thursday, the rest all eventually had canceled flights; B) many of the students that ended up here really did try to get out to Paris or other places by bus/ferry/train...only to find those modes of transport completely booked solid and/or astronomically expensive now.
SO, yeah. It's been an interesting week. Fortunately, given the fact that several still did get out on trips (I had six take a boat to Amsterdam), and those here did a lot of day trips, it has been quite mellow around the house for me, which was good. I wouldn't say I feel totally revived and refreshed, and I'm still harboring major bitterness toward this stupid volcano and all of Iceland in general (I mean, what does Iceland even offer the world? Bjork and volcanic ash, apparently), it has been a bit of break at least, with no meals to supervise and no teaching this week.
That is the update for now. In the meanwhile, to try to ease the pain, I did go on many daytrips myself this week, and had some lovely times, even though I was traveling on my own and wishing Carrie was around the whole time. My friends Margie and Chris and their cute kids arrived up from Switzerland (we had planned for them to come up when Carrie was here, and they were able to come anyway) so I'm tooling around with them this weekend. At least they were able to come too, and be a bright spot in this whole Spring Break meltdown.
ASAP, I'll post more with my pics of Wimbledon, Windsor Castle, Brighton, and York.
In the meanwhile, I would stay as far away from me as possible--because as this semester has proven, I'm one unlucky gal. :( We have to assume, right, that the bad karma has GOT to be over soon enough, and soon enough, I'll be back on a plane to the USA and happy to be home again?
Unless, of course, that 'other volcano' in Iceland decides to wake up and spew more ash our way...
Because of that stupid Icelandic volcano.
Carrie was due to arrive Friday morning, April 16th...basically 24 hours after ALL the UK airports were closed down indefinitely. Her flight was probably one of the first ones canceled (which was good, I suppose, I'm glad she didn't get trapped in the air, sent back to MN, or flown to Dubai or something) and she was rescheduled for Sunday night/arrive Monday morning. Now, of course, at that time we're thinking, "Hey, no biggie, that sucks, we'll probably miss out on going to Spain, but whatever, we'll just hang in London...surely the ash cloud will go away in the coming hours...RIGHT?" Um, as we all know...NO. IT DID NOT. The UNPRECEDENTED ASH CLOUD OVER ICELAND CLOSED HEATHROW AND ALL UK AIRPORTS FOR ALMOST SIX DAYS. I could not, not believe this. Carrie even tried to re-book once her Sunday night flight got canceled, and Delta basically told her no, they were not rebooking anyone for the UK anytime soon...and could they fly her anywhere else in the world she wants to go? Um, no, Carrie didn't want to go anywhere else in the world besides Europe. So, she took the refund while they were still offering it, and we cried tears of sadness through the computer on Gmail chat.
To say this was a disappointment of a HUGE magnitude for me is the understatement of the year.
I was near catatonic for days, as I was just so depressed. Carrie and I had been talking about her visiting me over here for basically a whole year; plans had been made, we were to go to Spain (a trip that was canceled out as well, but fortunately, I should be getting a full refund from Expedia for it--amazingly lucky), and we were to have a solid week of fun just hanging out and being tourists. Carrie loves English history and medieval stuff more than most people I know (I can't tell you how many times she made me watch that dumb movie 'Ever After' with her in college that's set in the Middle Age England) and we had lots of ideas of what we would check out. While we were both initially bummed at the idea of not getting to Spain (ha! if only that had been the extent of our travel problems!), it didn't really matter as long as she got here. We live way further apart in the USA than we would like anyway, and it's rare to get this much uninterrupted time with her, so to me, that's the real loss here. We yelled at the volcano. We cried over chat. We cursed the air, airlines, our timing (if only she had flown in ONE DAY EARLIER), everything, but it didn't matter. She didn't make it here, and it sucked.
(Needless to say, we will obviously plan some sort of alternative trip ASAP. Going more than six months without getting to see Carrie sort of makes me crazy and feel totally abnormal).
So, that was one issue. Combined with my personal frustration/sadness/total letdown was the frustration/sadness/total letdown/general panic of the majority of MY STUDENTS who, also, were to leave on Spring Break! While a few had train travel only, and got out on their trips, the majority had some sort of flying involved (including four girls who had found this awesome deal for a weeklong cruise in the Canary Islands, set to leave Friday 4/16 also), and that all went into chaos as well. There was a lot of re-booking, lots of tearful calls home to parents asking for help/more money (many are getting refunds, but of course, they take up to 30 days to process, so...), and a total revamping of plans. With all this chaos, Eckerd and I went back and forth and finally decided that keeping the house open as a backup was the right thing to do for the students, since so many had to remake plans or lost them altogether.
I agreed to this thinking there would be only about 3 people here all week. There ended up being about 10 instead. So much for a 'break' for me...
We ended up having a lot more around because of a few issues: A) some students had family arrivals due to come mid-week, and while one girl did get her parents here by Thursday, the rest all eventually had canceled flights; B) many of the students that ended up here really did try to get out to Paris or other places by bus/ferry/train...only to find those modes of transport completely booked solid and/or astronomically expensive now.
SO, yeah. It's been an interesting week. Fortunately, given the fact that several still did get out on trips (I had six take a boat to Amsterdam), and those here did a lot of day trips, it has been quite mellow around the house for me, which was good. I wouldn't say I feel totally revived and refreshed, and I'm still harboring major bitterness toward this stupid volcano and all of Iceland in general (I mean, what does Iceland even offer the world? Bjork and volcanic ash, apparently), it has been a bit of break at least, with no meals to supervise and no teaching this week.
That is the update for now. In the meanwhile, to try to ease the pain, I did go on many daytrips myself this week, and had some lovely times, even though I was traveling on my own and wishing Carrie was around the whole time. My friends Margie and Chris and their cute kids arrived up from Switzerland (we had planned for them to come up when Carrie was here, and they were able to come anyway) so I'm tooling around with them this weekend. At least they were able to come too, and be a bright spot in this whole Spring Break meltdown.
ASAP, I'll post more with my pics of Wimbledon, Windsor Castle, Brighton, and York.
In the meanwhile, I would stay as far away from me as possible--because as this semester has proven, I'm one unlucky gal. :( We have to assume, right, that the bad karma has GOT to be over soon enough, and soon enough, I'll be back on a plane to the USA and happy to be home again?
Unless, of course, that 'other volcano' in Iceland decides to wake up and spew more ash our way...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Tipping Point
So yeah, I'm late on posting another entry, I'm sorry, I suck, yadda yadda, you all know the drill by now. My Midwestern people-pleasing guilt is in full force.
I can.not.believe that it is practically mid-April at this point. If you want time to go super super fast, move abroad and live with 18 college students (it's also a good way to get gray hair fast). We are down to just 4 'normal' weeks left in the house, plus our official Spring Break is NEXT WEEK. I can hardly wait--Carrie arrives on Friday morning to hang out with me here for about 9 days (til Sunday April 25th). I convinced her that I just HAD to get out of town if she came to visit over my break, so she was game enough to go along with my idea to get us to Barcelona, Spain, for four days next week! That's right, it's a trip-within-a-trip for Carrie and a little getaway for me, since break times are the only times I can leave the house overnight. Carrie and I have been talking about going to Spain for years, and so it's very exciting that it's actually happening. During our Grand European Tour of 2001 (something like 9 countries in 4 weeks), Carrie and I didn't quite get to Spain and everyone was always talking about Barcelona and how fun it was. Granted, now we are in our thirties and aren't on the Lush Tour of 2001 anymore, I hope it is still fun. My hunch says it will be, and probably sunnier and warmer too. So, fun stuff ahead.
Looking back on the last couple of weeks, it's been another whirlwind of activity. I got to spend some time with Leslie, a UNI friend-of-a-friend and spent a lovely Sunday up at Hampstead Heath, a HUGE park with a big hill that overlooks the entire city; went to see Macbeth in a weird modern staging but came away impressed overall; went to Tate Modern again and had a lovely guided tour (by students) of the Southbank area, which is way cooler than I expected; and best of all, was visited by my friend Julie for Easter weekend!
Having Julie here was great. London is an entirely different place for me when I have a playmate my own age to go around with (and someone who I don't have to grade at the end of the term), and just as it was when Chris was here, we had a great time. Since Jules had been here before, we skipped a lot of the mega touristy stuff and focused on the mildly touristy things, which often involved shopping. We went to four markets total (Camden, with all the cool punk stuff; Portobello Road--the cool market in Notting Hill that makes me wish I was rich and liked antiques; Spitafields, which just has a great atomosphere and also makes me wish I were rich; and Petticoat Lane, the one place in London where you actually CAN feel rich, because everything there is ridiculously cheap. This is mostly a clothing market, which of course means I love it, and since I've been there twice I've gotten cute jeans for 5 pounds (roughly $7.50) and several shirts for 1 pound each ($1.50...granted, they are plain t-shirts and whatnot, but still, IN PRINCIPLE, I had to buy them). Julie and I were also able to locate a God Save the Queen Sex Pistols t-shirt for me for 5 pounds, and a Clash t-shirt for her for the same. Not that either one of us really listens to those bands, but I freaking love the iconic Sex Pistols image of the queen for the album (if I can figure out a way to attach an image on this post, will do so below) that I don't care. I'm psyched. I can look like a rock 'n roll badass now.
Anywho, Julie and I had a delightful Easter in that we decided that rather than getting some lame-o Easter roast beef or something, that we were going to shell out and do 'Afternoon Tea' British style. Now, one would think that this is no big deal, but I'm here to tell you Americanites, it IS a big freaking deal (with a big freakin' price--our formal tea cost 15 pounds/23 dollars...and it was a cheap one for sure). Getting the damn tea was another story. After stopping by two museums and having drama in each one (let's just say that the museums are NUTSO on Easter Sunday) we thought, screw it, let's shell out and go to do tea at Harrods (for 21 pounds each). We were on a mission. We walk and walk, and get to Harrods only to find a batch of tourists all standing in front of Harrods, perplexed because it was closed. On Easter Sunday. Well, duh. And yet, I was pissed and confused. First of all, surprisingly most tourist sights were open on Easter, so really we could do any number of things, and wouldn't it be to Harrods benefit to be open too? To serve us tea, dammit? As if their employees need a holiday! (j/k, of course). But seriously, Harrods is owned by Mohammad al Fayed (father if Dodi, and apparently the future father-in-law of Diana if things had gone differently in Paris in 1997)...who I am pretty darn sure is MUSLIM. Hello, what are you doing on Easter anyway, Mohammad? Julie and I wanted our tea, sorry. Bitchiness ensues.
So dejected and sad since it was Julie's last day in town/last chance for high tea, we were just about to go to McDonalds or something instead when we practically walked right up to a storefront called 'The Tea Room'. It was red and fancy, and had afternoon tea for 15 pounds. Done! So we went, and even though there were several tables open on the main floor, somehow Julie and I get seated in the empty basement. Well, to be fair, there was a Spanish-speaking family there with some very loud children, but they left soon after...apparently we got the special 'American' room for our tea, which got to be more funny than anything. Anyway, the point is, Afternoon Tea is the bomb (da bomb? is that how you say it?). So it comes with your own teapot (I should hope so, for 23 freaking dollars) and then this lovely little rack of plates with small sandwiches (with the crusts cut off!) and little scones and this delicious clotted cream that tastes like whipped butter. We ate and ate and drank and then found out we got to pick out a monster dessert. Julie got some delish cheesecake and I of course went for a slice of chocolate cake the size of Montana. We ate so much I was seriously bloated when we walked out of the crazy Tea Room, but it was worth it. Afternoon tea is no joke, people...don't eat beforehand, and be ready to be there for a couple of hours. I found myself wishing I had been wearing a dress and some gloves to boot.
So that was a terrific weekend with Julie, and last week was fun/crazy as well...Last Tuesday I went to see the Cuban National Ballet (uh, put that under the category of 'things not seen in America') which was terrific. Then Thursday we had the trip to Stonehenge and Bath with students--it was cool to go again, mostly because it wasn't so GOD AWFUL COLD like it was when Chris and I were there, and it was fun to see them enjoy it so much.
This last weekend was pretty low key as I'm trying to get my ducks in a row for break, and to get ready for the transition back to Sylvia, our normal cook/house manager, and her return. Today was Chris the Cook's last day and I was sad--in tears even. He was so sweet, bringing me little presents every single day (usually in the form of tasty Greek food, though he brought me a wine key once which was pretty cool). I had a couple pics taken of him and me and printed them out, and plan to send a postcard from Eckerd as soon as I'm back. He was certainly a bright spot and I'm lucky to have gotten to know him while I was here.
And so, that has me waxing philosophic a bit, leading me to the title of this post--the tipping point. It's amazing how the energy and psyche of everyone (students and me) has changed in the last week or so. Two weeks ago, I thought people were going to kill each other--they are sick of each other, of the close quarters, of the food, of the chilly weather. And then...the sun is out longer, the temps warmer, the city is coming to life, and the realization that time is ticking away VERY fast has hit all of us. Suddenly, people have energy again, and folks are more on the go than ever, including me. Considering I've been here a solid 10 weeks, I still have a huge 'bucket list' of things I want to do yet in London that is going to take some serious strategy to complete. And as much as I will be so happy to be back in my normal life, my normal living situation, and back in the land of big pops (sodas, to translate to all you non-Midwestern types) and ice and customer service, I will miss things about London so very much.
I think it was finally in the last week or so that I've truly started to 'feel' like a Londoner. I know my way around, have been to many neighborhoods by now, though it's still amazing to me what surprises I find just when I think I know an area. That's the true joy of getting to live in such a big city, at least for me. Coming from Iowa and only really living in smallish cities (or big-ish ones like Minneapolis and Tampa Bay, which are large but not pedestrian at all), it's so much fun to have so MUCH available, almost all the time, right at your fingertips. I'm already dreading going back to FL where I have to drive miles to the nearest coffee shop, or where I simply have to drive at all and can't take the Tube on the 'Jubilee' or 'Bakerloo' lines (my two favorite subway line names here). I'll miss being asked for directions about 20 times per day from all kinds of people and tourists and being able to answer them easily and well (yep, I'm still the Direction Queen of London). I will miss having awesome museums and theatre at my fingertips, though my pocketbook will be happy for a rest after all the shows I've booked for myself (I think I'll have seen a total of about 20 plays/musicals/performances in my time here, which is more than one per week average...in the week alone after Spring Break, I have three). I'll miss the daily joys of figuring out the bus lines (yes, sadly, this is a joy for me) and listening to charming disembodied voices telling me to Mind the Gap. (As you can see, what it really comes down to is a love affair with public transportation, apparently...)
On the other hand, I think I have had a bit of a tipping point personally as well. My whole life I have been full of wanderlust, wanting to go, go, go all the time, and constantly plotting my next trip in my head while in the middle of another. I definitely will always be a traveler, but I'm also finding that the idea of home, and making a home, and being AT HOME, sounds pretty darn amazing as well. Is this maturity? Growing old? Crap. A lot of this may come from the fact that in the last week or so, there seems to be a rush of bad news circulating about with people in my world--including the sudden loss of a friend's father, to the tragic, tragic suicide of an old friend from Northern Iowa (hadn't talked to her in several years, but this shocking news still makes my head spin and eyes fill with tears to think about it) and various illnesses of other folks as well. I think that while the news is horrible and hard to deal with while I am away from my normal support system, it is a good wake-up call for me: Karen, stop bitching about dishes and loud students. You live in London, for crying out loud, and get to amazing things on a daily basis, and guess what, life is short. Not to sound like an after-school special, but it's true. I think the tipping point has come where I'm really, really walking around the city, milking it for all it's worth, with my eyes wide open (also in part so I can continue to try to not run into people constantly...the human bumper car thing still continues).
Anyway, I'll leave you at this for now. I promise that my randomness and sarcasm will return in my next post, which will also likely be full of stories from Carrie's visit, if not before. Til then, friends...thanks for reading.
I can.not.believe that it is practically mid-April at this point. If you want time to go super super fast, move abroad and live with 18 college students (it's also a good way to get gray hair fast). We are down to just 4 'normal' weeks left in the house, plus our official Spring Break is NEXT WEEK. I can hardly wait--Carrie arrives on Friday morning to hang out with me here for about 9 days (til Sunday April 25th). I convinced her that I just HAD to get out of town if she came to visit over my break, so she was game enough to go along with my idea to get us to Barcelona, Spain, for four days next week! That's right, it's a trip-within-a-trip for Carrie and a little getaway for me, since break times are the only times I can leave the house overnight. Carrie and I have been talking about going to Spain for years, and so it's very exciting that it's actually happening. During our Grand European Tour of 2001 (something like 9 countries in 4 weeks), Carrie and I didn't quite get to Spain and everyone was always talking about Barcelona and how fun it was. Granted, now we are in our thirties and aren't on the Lush Tour of 2001 anymore, I hope it is still fun. My hunch says it will be, and probably sunnier and warmer too. So, fun stuff ahead.
Looking back on the last couple of weeks, it's been another whirlwind of activity. I got to spend some time with Leslie, a UNI friend-of-a-friend and spent a lovely Sunday up at Hampstead Heath, a HUGE park with a big hill that overlooks the entire city; went to see Macbeth in a weird modern staging but came away impressed overall; went to Tate Modern again and had a lovely guided tour (by students) of the Southbank area, which is way cooler than I expected; and best of all, was visited by my friend Julie for Easter weekend!
Having Julie here was great. London is an entirely different place for me when I have a playmate my own age to go around with (and someone who I don't have to grade at the end of the term), and just as it was when Chris was here, we had a great time. Since Jules had been here before, we skipped a lot of the mega touristy stuff and focused on the mildly touristy things, which often involved shopping. We went to four markets total (Camden, with all the cool punk stuff; Portobello Road--the cool market in Notting Hill that makes me wish I was rich and liked antiques; Spitafields, which just has a great atomosphere and also makes me wish I were rich; and Petticoat Lane, the one place in London where you actually CAN feel rich, because everything there is ridiculously cheap. This is mostly a clothing market, which of course means I love it, and since I've been there twice I've gotten cute jeans for 5 pounds (roughly $7.50) and several shirts for 1 pound each ($1.50...granted, they are plain t-shirts and whatnot, but still, IN PRINCIPLE, I had to buy them). Julie and I were also able to locate a God Save the Queen Sex Pistols t-shirt for me for 5 pounds, and a Clash t-shirt for her for the same. Not that either one of us really listens to those bands, but I freaking love the iconic Sex Pistols image of the queen for the album (if I can figure out a way to attach an image on this post, will do so below) that I don't care. I'm psyched. I can look like a rock 'n roll badass now.
Anywho, Julie and I had a delightful Easter in that we decided that rather than getting some lame-o Easter roast beef or something, that we were going to shell out and do 'Afternoon Tea' British style. Now, one would think that this is no big deal, but I'm here to tell you Americanites, it IS a big freaking deal (with a big freakin' price--our formal tea cost 15 pounds/23 dollars...and it was a cheap one for sure). Getting the damn tea was another story. After stopping by two museums and having drama in each one (let's just say that the museums are NUTSO on Easter Sunday) we thought, screw it, let's shell out and go to do tea at Harrods (for 21 pounds each). We were on a mission. We walk and walk, and get to Harrods only to find a batch of tourists all standing in front of Harrods, perplexed because it was closed. On Easter Sunday. Well, duh. And yet, I was pissed and confused. First of all, surprisingly most tourist sights were open on Easter, so really we could do any number of things, and wouldn't it be to Harrods benefit to be open too? To serve us tea, dammit? As if their employees need a holiday! (j/k, of course). But seriously, Harrods is owned by Mohammad al Fayed (father if Dodi, and apparently the future father-in-law of Diana if things had gone differently in Paris in 1997)...who I am pretty darn sure is MUSLIM. Hello, what are you doing on Easter anyway, Mohammad? Julie and I wanted our tea, sorry. Bitchiness ensues.
So dejected and sad since it was Julie's last day in town/last chance for high tea, we were just about to go to McDonalds or something instead when we practically walked right up to a storefront called 'The Tea Room'. It was red and fancy, and had afternoon tea for 15 pounds. Done! So we went, and even though there were several tables open on the main floor, somehow Julie and I get seated in the empty basement. Well, to be fair, there was a Spanish-speaking family there with some very loud children, but they left soon after...apparently we got the special 'American' room for our tea, which got to be more funny than anything. Anyway, the point is, Afternoon Tea is the bomb (da bomb? is that how you say it?). So it comes with your own teapot (I should hope so, for 23 freaking dollars) and then this lovely little rack of plates with small sandwiches (with the crusts cut off!) and little scones and this delicious clotted cream that tastes like whipped butter. We ate and ate and drank and then found out we got to pick out a monster dessert. Julie got some delish cheesecake and I of course went for a slice of chocolate cake the size of Montana. We ate so much I was seriously bloated when we walked out of the crazy Tea Room, but it was worth it. Afternoon tea is no joke, people...don't eat beforehand, and be ready to be there for a couple of hours. I found myself wishing I had been wearing a dress and some gloves to boot.
So that was a terrific weekend with Julie, and last week was fun/crazy as well...Last Tuesday I went to see the Cuban National Ballet (uh, put that under the category of 'things not seen in America') which was terrific. Then Thursday we had the trip to Stonehenge and Bath with students--it was cool to go again, mostly because it wasn't so GOD AWFUL COLD like it was when Chris and I were there, and it was fun to see them enjoy it so much.
This last weekend was pretty low key as I'm trying to get my ducks in a row for break, and to get ready for the transition back to Sylvia, our normal cook/house manager, and her return. Today was Chris the Cook's last day and I was sad--in tears even. He was so sweet, bringing me little presents every single day (usually in the form of tasty Greek food, though he brought me a wine key once which was pretty cool). I had a couple pics taken of him and me and printed them out, and plan to send a postcard from Eckerd as soon as I'm back. He was certainly a bright spot and I'm lucky to have gotten to know him while I was here.
And so, that has me waxing philosophic a bit, leading me to the title of this post--the tipping point. It's amazing how the energy and psyche of everyone (students and me) has changed in the last week or so. Two weeks ago, I thought people were going to kill each other--they are sick of each other, of the close quarters, of the food, of the chilly weather. And then...the sun is out longer, the temps warmer, the city is coming to life, and the realization that time is ticking away VERY fast has hit all of us. Suddenly, people have energy again, and folks are more on the go than ever, including me. Considering I've been here a solid 10 weeks, I still have a huge 'bucket list' of things I want to do yet in London that is going to take some serious strategy to complete. And as much as I will be so happy to be back in my normal life, my normal living situation, and back in the land of big pops (sodas, to translate to all you non-Midwestern types) and ice and customer service, I will miss things about London so very much.
I think it was finally in the last week or so that I've truly started to 'feel' like a Londoner. I know my way around, have been to many neighborhoods by now, though it's still amazing to me what surprises I find just when I think I know an area. That's the true joy of getting to live in such a big city, at least for me. Coming from Iowa and only really living in smallish cities (or big-ish ones like Minneapolis and Tampa Bay, which are large but not pedestrian at all), it's so much fun to have so MUCH available, almost all the time, right at your fingertips. I'm already dreading going back to FL where I have to drive miles to the nearest coffee shop, or where I simply have to drive at all and can't take the Tube on the 'Jubilee' or 'Bakerloo' lines (my two favorite subway line names here). I'll miss being asked for directions about 20 times per day from all kinds of people and tourists and being able to answer them easily and well (yep, I'm still the Direction Queen of London). I will miss having awesome museums and theatre at my fingertips, though my pocketbook will be happy for a rest after all the shows I've booked for myself (I think I'll have seen a total of about 20 plays/musicals/performances in my time here, which is more than one per week average...in the week alone after Spring Break, I have three). I'll miss the daily joys of figuring out the bus lines (yes, sadly, this is a joy for me) and listening to charming disembodied voices telling me to Mind the Gap. (As you can see, what it really comes down to is a love affair with public transportation, apparently...)
On the other hand, I think I have had a bit of a tipping point personally as well. My whole life I have been full of wanderlust, wanting to go, go, go all the time, and constantly plotting my next trip in my head while in the middle of another. I definitely will always be a traveler, but I'm also finding that the idea of home, and making a home, and being AT HOME, sounds pretty darn amazing as well. Is this maturity? Growing old? Crap. A lot of this may come from the fact that in the last week or so, there seems to be a rush of bad news circulating about with people in my world--including the sudden loss of a friend's father, to the tragic, tragic suicide of an old friend from Northern Iowa (hadn't talked to her in several years, but this shocking news still makes my head spin and eyes fill with tears to think about it) and various illnesses of other folks as well. I think that while the news is horrible and hard to deal with while I am away from my normal support system, it is a good wake-up call for me: Karen, stop bitching about dishes and loud students. You live in London, for crying out loud, and get to amazing things on a daily basis, and guess what, life is short. Not to sound like an after-school special, but it's true. I think the tipping point has come where I'm really, really walking around the city, milking it for all it's worth, with my eyes wide open (also in part so I can continue to try to not run into people constantly...the human bumper car thing still continues).
Anyway, I'll leave you at this for now. I promise that my randomness and sarcasm will return in my next post, which will also likely be full of stories from Carrie's visit, if not before. Til then, friends...thanks for reading.
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