Blog week 4

Dear Family,

My deepest apologies for my failure to keep up with this blog over the past week. I could not possibly write all that I have seen and done so I will highlight the main points.

Theatre: Saw three plays. Time and the Conways, Triolus and Cressida and Dreams of Violence. To be honest, I did not love any of these shows. Time and the Conways was written in the late 1930’s and told of the time following the war. But, on top of telling the story of one wealthy family, it also included J.W Dunne’s theory that time (past, present and future) is all occurring simultaneously. In other words the play was all over the place, the characters were not likeable and the script was terribly written. I left Triolus and Cressida feeling that Shakespeare should have stuck to Elizabethan England and left Ancient Greece/the Trojan war to Homer and his contemporaries. And, some terrible director decided it would be a good idea to have all sword fighting scenes throughout the play but then some kid pulled out a machine gun to kill Ajax-did not appreciate the modern reference so late in the play. Dreams of Violence was funny but the make-out session/stripping that took place on stage was a little awkward. Hopefully this week will be better-Michael Billington said that one of the plays that we will be seeing has been one of the best performances he has seen in a while but we shall see.

There were also a few fun outings this week. 3 of my friends and I went to Kensington Park and rented a row boat for an hour. Then we headed to Picadilly Circus (a shopping area in the city NOT a circus) to find a cute candy shop I saw online. It looked like the first scene of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Needless to say, I was a happy camper. Then, we had girls night. I made chicken hoy sin and other girls made sides, dessert, got champagne cheese and crackers and then we watched Notting Hill and laughed about the fact that it was shot in our neighborhood.

On Friday we went to Cambridge. The campus is beautiful, complete with a river and boats to go punting (like a gondola in Venice). It rained so we couldn’t really enjoy the outdoors but I was able to go into the library and see a first edition Sir Isaac Newton book so, that was definitely impressive.

Today I checked out Portobello Market (street next to mine that has outdoor shops on the weekend). I didn’t get anything so I headed back to Harrods for round three with a friend. I bought some produce and stir fry sauce (I quit bar food because it is gross so I make stir fry for dinner every night)- Tonight I tried olive oil infused with hot peppers..delish. I am also trying to run everyday in the park because 1) it is beautiful and I should totally take advantage of living in such proximity to such a great place and 2) I have no intention of coming home any less fit than when I got here.

Tomorrow we are going to see Godot…should be intense because, having read the play, I know that Beckett’s work is solely dialogue based (the entire story takes place on a park bench). I’ll let you know how that goes.

Xoxo,
Hope