Markets, Shakespeare and Pictures

I will try to catch up a bit in today's post, most of which I am sorry to tell you that I wrote in a notebook during one of my classes the other day in an attempt to stay awake and listening (which I know sounds like a stretch but if my mind is active I can pay more attention to what is going on, and I was taking notes at the same time).

Sunday

Sunday was John's last day in London, so we made the effort to be out and about relatively early in order to make the most of the day. Since John had some souveniers to pick up for various people (and I've b egun trying to accomplish the same goal...requests anyone?) and we'd heard good things about the Brick Lane market, which is only open on Sundays, we decided to head there first. After passing many tempting Indian restaurants and sweet shops, we came to the market itself. It is an odd mix of stands. There are more formal indoor markets with artists, jewlers and designers selling high-quality, unique and often hand-made wares, as well as outdoor streets lined with people sitting on blankets surrounded by old clothes, jewlery, and junk. Those parts were almost like a giant garage sale, and although there were a few neat finds, John and I found the indoor markets more worthwhile, if also more expensive. There were also streets with more everyday market goods, including baked goods, produce, and fresh meats (which looked rather shady), as well as household goods and electronics. I picked up some neat things at the markets but will refrain from describing them here, since that may spoil the surprise for some of you.

After browsing Brick Lane for quite awhile, we headed to the Spitafields Market, which is open daily but only has food on Sundays, and is generally more active on weekends. this was the same market I went to after dropping Eszter at the train station, but it was still fun to go through again. It is more like the indoor markets in Brick Lane, with nicer goods. I have to say, however, that one of my favorite parts of the markets is the huge range of delicious food stands, most of which are relatively inexpensive. John and I split an order of chicken teriyaki, complete with rice and salad, for lunch, and afterwards got a bubble tea. It was the first place I have seen with this delicious treat since being in London, which is surprising (despite the fact that Mimi warned me before I left) considering there is a huge international population here. The one we got was really just pure mango juice, freshly made, with two kinds of tapioca beads and ice. It was very delicious and fresh. Our last treat from the markets was a Nutella crepe. Really, you can't go wrong with that.

After thoroughly going through Spitafields (and waiting out a heavy but quick rainstorm) we ventured back to Brick Lane so that John could take some photographs of things he saw earlier. Then we took the tube to the area by the Globe and walked across the Millenium Bridge over the Thames. The Millenium Bridge is a neat footbidge with great views up and down the river. We found a pub on the water and split an order of traditional fish and chips and "mushy peas," which are a lot like mashed potatos but made form peas.

After dinner we headed to the Globe to see "Love's Labour's Lost." We had standing seats, in order to better experience what the so-called "groundlings," or working class people, in Shakespeare's days would have felt like. It also only cost 5 pounds a ticket to stand, and three times more for the priviledge of sitting. The play was a bit difficult to follow through the first act since neither John or I had read or seen it before, but it was still very funny. It helped that the actors often enter thorugh the groundlings and run around amongst them, shoving people out of the way as they go. They also tried their best to make it as raunchy as it would have been in Shakespeare's time (and possibly more so)...there were a few humping scenes and one off the older male actors completely mooned the audience, and we saw much more than we would have liked. The poor children in the audience...and their parents thought they were taking them to an educational experience. The acting was also quite good, although it was very difficult to stand still for so long.

The Globe itself made the play well worth seeing. It was built to be as authentic as possible, and is very close to the original site (although not directly on it since there are other buildings there now that could not be bought out). It has a real thatched roof and is open air above a good portion of the stage and all of the standing audience, so that if it rains you get wet (luckily for us it only drizzled a bit during the second act. The pigeons also fly through the theater occasionally. Unfortunatley, this also means that the effect of this beautiful space is occasionally marred by the loud sound of airplanes flying overhead, which make it very difficult to hear the actors, whose voices are not amplified at all.

After the play was over, John and I admired the view of the London night skyline (and unsuccessfully tried to take pictures of it) before heading back to the tube station. Unfortunately, they started having signal problems on the line we were on a few stops into our ride and we had to get off and find a bus instead, which cost us another ticket and took a lot longer. At least John got the London double-decker bus experience before leaving. I spent the rest of the night finishing my English paper.

Unfortunately I have actually done things every day this week despite having class, so I think I need to stop now and post some pictures before I bore you all more than I already have. I want to do justice to Madame Tussaud's, the bizarre play we saw last night, and Oxford, and I need to finish the abstract for our history paper tonight.

Just a few side notes: I am feeling much better, almost perfect, finally, which is good because I'm off to Wales bright and early Friday morning with Woopy and some girls from my program. Also, the hot water in our building has stopped working. It is yellowish and cloudy (they never said the hot water taps were potable but this is really unusual) and quite chilly. Mel, if you made it this far into the entry, I thought you would appreciate that it is not only Germany that has problems keeping its dorms functioning. They didn't even leave us a nice note to warn us, like they did with you.

Some pictures now... from Brighton (the pictures of the water and the weird looking Indian castle structure that is the Royal Pavillion), Stonehenge and the Neolithic Burial Mounds, and Bath. I won't label them all but I'm sure you can figure out which is which.