LONDON WEEK ONE: 2018

The Arrival:  Day One

On Friday, August 24 I sat at the Mirabell Cafe from 7:30 am to 2:00 pm waiting for students to arrive so I could bring them to their flats.  Lots of coffee was consumed!!!!  The flats this year are in the Hammersmith area in my complex.  

 In addition to coffee I, of course, had a Full English Breakfast.

Celeste and Adam were the first to arrive!!!

Then Alec and Cole arrived.  We all had coffee!

After awhile Olivia, Rachel, and Annabeth graced the UK with their presence.

At 2 pm we had an orientation meeting with a member of the staff of Anglo-American which reviewed all the rules and safety procedures.  Of course, everyone was trying to stay awake.

After the meeting, I took the students to get their phones and sim cards.  That took a couple of hours.

We met Dan, who was the last to arrive, outside of Starbucks in Hammersmith.  He got his phone the next day.  We then all went to eat at William Morris, a Wetherspoons pub before heading back to the flats.

Day Two:  Walking Tour

At 10:00 am we began our walking tour of Central London.  

                  
 Look who met us and went on tour with us!  Stefan!  He was in London to do a Workshop on West End Musical Theatre.  He got Saturday off to be with us.

 It is a tradition that we take a picture in front of Big Ben on Westminster Bridge.  As you can see, Big Ben is covered in scaffolding.

 We also took a picture with the London Eye in the background.

We walked along the South Bank to the National Theatre to buy plays that we needed for the Page to Stage class.  We stopped at the skateboard park for a photo.

We crossed back over the Thames River and went to Trafalgar Square where I treated everyone to tea and coffee in The Crypt of Saint Martin of the Fields Church which is known for its candlelight evening concerts of classical music.  Very relaxing.

After going to Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden we stopped for dinner at La Porchetta Pollo Bar for Italian food!  One of the more reasonable restaurants in Central London right on the edge of Soho.

Cole's calzone!

My starter of prosciutto and melon

Emma's mushroom risotto.

Pasta Sofia: with spinach and ricotta cheese

Monday was a Bank Holiday so our classes began on Tuesday. He are pictures of the first day of school!!!  We hold classes at the Saint Paul Center in Hammersmith.  I taught the Theatre in London class where Emma and Kyleigh presented on the New and Old Globe and Othello.   In the Page to Stage Class Annabeth and Olivia presented on Fun Home the we saw on Saturday.

On Tuesday Dan, Amalia, and Celeste met with Jonathan Kennedy the Executive Director of Tara Arts to interview him on Fringe Theatre, British Music Hall, Pantomime, and British Farce.  They will be presenting these topics in the Theatre in London class.  That afternoon Emma and Adam went to Parliament with David Tinham the British Politics professor.

Rehearsals: 

Wednesday morning at 10:00 we had our second rehearsal for A Piece of My Heart at The Cockpit Theatre where we did table work.  The play will be performed at the New Wimbledon Studio Theatre on October 17 - 20.  We also rehearsed Thursday evening.

Emma our stage manager and costumer and Mariah our assistant stage manager and dramaturgue

Tate Modern and The Globe:

On Wednesday afternoon the students went to the Tate Modern museum with Becky Hurst for the Art in London class.  They went to a special exhibit on Picasso and had time to explore some of the other artwork at the Tate.  At around 5:30 they met me next door at the Globe Theatre where we saw a performance of Othello with Mark Rylance, one of my favorite actors, playing Iago.  The play was awesome!!!!   I came across the Southwalk Bridge and took the pictures below.  The Shard.

A view of the Globe and Tate Modern from the Bridge

The Globe

The Tate Modern

Becky took the students across the Millennial Bridge from Saint Paul's Cathedral.

One of Jenny Holzer's sayings from her exhibit

 Picasso:

This is make from a lot of radios!!!!

We form a line at the Globe at 5:30 for a 7:30 performance so we can be first in line and rush the stage so we can lean on it.  It helps when you are a Groundling and have to stand for the whole show!  From the photos you can see we were the first in the theatre.

Saint Paul's Dome across from where we lined up.

Millennial Bridge.  Remember when it got destroyed in Harry Potter???

The Gate where the Groundlings enter the Globe.  All figures are animals that are mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.

The Stage.

 😊

Cambridge: Our first day-trip!!!

Graham, our bus driver, picked us up at the flats at 8:15 am and drove us to Cambridge

Margaret our wonderful tour guide!!!!

A model of Cambridge and the Colleges in the Park.

Punting boats.  Punting is a Cambridge tradition.  You will see that some of the students went punting before we left.

The Mathematical Bridge

The clock donated by an alum.

Video of the clock working ...sorry for the side view.

Cambridge's famous pub. A hangout for soldiers and air force.  Corner room ceiling is covered with graffiti that was done with cigarettes by soldiers.  Also it was where the discovery of DNA was announce along with other scientific discoveries.

 The window on the left is always left open.  A ghost who they think died in a fire wants is open.  Once when someone closed it a fire broke out in the kitchen.  It is permanently open and can't be closed even by mistake.  

I always get the fish and chips here.  Even the mushy peas are good!

The Senate building where student grades are posted outside.  As a prank, student put a car on top of the building and it took the Administration over a week to figure out how to get it down.  If you look at the tower to the right of the Senate build, you will see where as an initiation students had to jump out the window onto the Senate building.

King's College Chapel.  Amazing.  Paid extra so students could go in and experience it.  Henry VIII finished it and Cromwell's men and horses lived there for a time.  At the back of the chapel you can see graffiti Cromwell's soldiers put on the walls.  See past blogs for pictures.

The awesome fan ceiling.

Other scenes of the town.

Making fudge.  We ate some on the way home. 

New sculptures outside Great St. Mary's Church.

The group just back from going to the Zoology Museum waiting for the punters to return so we can go back to London.

 Love this.  Clever salesperson at the Harry Potter store in Cambridge.

The EVIL pigeon of Cambridge.

A pigeon store!  Yikes!  They ARE taking over the world (have you ever seen a baby pigeon or a dead one???)  Aliens.

Might be their leader. 100 pound for this print.

Saturday afternoon we went to see the musical, Fun Home at the Young Vic. Their last performance was that night.  Excellent production.  We will discuss this play and Othello in class in a few hours.  It is now 4 am and I have to get this blog sent out!!!! lol

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!

ENJOY THE CLOCK AGAIN.