Day 13: I Feel like a Nerd

I spent a day in class and at the library and loved it.  Call me a nerd, a geek, a recluse, a loser, a weirdo (Jared and Jeremy probably won't read this blog or else I would hear these teasing and also much worse) but it was so fun to me!  We studied Shakespeare this morning in class, specifically in relation to Twelfth Night which we saw and read.  I learned a lot of new things talking to other people about it and it was pretty fun.  I'm memorizing Sonnet 116 for one of my English assignments (upon a suggestion from Jamie- thank you) which goes like this:


Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 


After class the day was rather stressful.  We have the opportunity to travel somewhere in Europe during our "free travel" days.  We have to do all the travel plans and put together our own groups, which has caused a little drama.  Before coming on study abroad I wanted to go to Salzburg, Austria where the Sound of Music was filmed and where Mozart grew up.  When I came here I realized that I probably wouldn't have the time to go there and that I wouldn't be able to find a group to go.  There are people going to Rome and Barcelona but I don't really fit in with those groups.  There's also a group going to somewhere else in Italy but they've already bought all of their tickets.  So now my options include going to Florence, Italy, Paris again, Berlin, or staying in London and doing the things that I won't have time to do the rest of the trip.  I originally picked Florence and I was kind of put in charge of looking at hotels for our large group of 10 people.  It is SOOOOOOOOO stressful to try to find hotel openings at the right time and for the "right" price that fits the budgets of everyone and that aren't extremely sketchy.  There were so many opinions and so many things to look at that I got a little frustrated and just kind of stopped looking.  I'm not feeling great about Florence now I need to decide what I'm doing!


After this stressful time, I needed to get out of the Centre.  We had an assignment do to at the British Library so my friends Whitney and Tiffany headed there with me.  I wasn't expecting much there but I LOVED it!  They have a room with famous, famous works in it.  Here's a list of just some of the things that I saw there:
-The Magna Carta
- The Gutenberg Bible
- Da Vinci's notes
- Shakespeare's Folio
- John Milton's commonplace book
- Handel's score for The Messiah
- Jane Austen's notebook and writing desk
- Charlotte Bronte's manuscript for Jane Eyre
- Virginia Woolf's manuscript for Mrs. Dalloway
- Beatles lyrics manuscripts for Yesterday, Help, Ticket to ride, Hard days night, and Michelle
- Wordworth's Poem of Childhood 
- Mozart's horn concerto in E flat
- Mendelssohn's wedding march
- Gerard Mercator's first Atlas
- Illuminated manuscripts
- Tyndale's New Testament Illuminated


Unfortunately, they didn't allow any pictures inside but we were all freaking out with excitement at the things we saw.  Luckily, they are nerds too.  :)  It was like, "Oh my gosh there's Jane Austen's handwriting... there's the ORIGINAL Jane Eyre... I'm crying, there's Handle's Messiah..."  It was really fun!  I wanted to buy a beautiful book from the bookstore there but they were pretty expensive and so I bought some post cards to use as bookmarks instead.  I'm going to find a random old bookstore somewhere in London to buy beautiful books.

King's Cross Station is right across the street from the library and so we thought, "Hey, why not go to Platform 9 3/4?"  So we did.  King's Cross is not like they show in Harry Potter (*shocker).  It is very modern and actually very pretty inside.  We found the Platform, hopped on the Hogwarts Express, said hi to Harry, Hermoine, and Ron, and then came back to London.

After dinner, I went to another play.  I might be kinda crazy going to ALL of these plays but there are so many and they are so inexpensive that I feel like I have to take full advantage of it.  Jared, Lauren Fine, and I hopped on the tube , got Ben's cookies for our "dinner," and came to Picadilly Circus.  This is supposed to be the "Time Square" of London.  I find that comparison rather amusing because there is only one building with signage on it and it's clean!  Nothing like New York.  It's still a fun atmosphere!  

We got some gelato before started from a random little shop we found near Picadilly Circus.  It's the best gelato I've ever had!  It was strawberry and super delicious!

(Jared and Lauren Fine)

After our treats we headed into the theatre to watch 39 Steps.  

I saw this at Hale Center Theater in January and loved it.  Four characters play over 138 different roles in 100 minutes and do a great job with all of the Alfred Hitcock references.  I think Hale did an amazing job and it really compared to this play but what I loved the most is at the end of this play it "snowed" on the audience.  It was really fun!  Then when we walked out into Picadilly after the show, we watched some random and entertaining street performers before heading home.  I can't believe I get to do all of these fun things each day!