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A Wicked Weekend in London.
A musical, anti-war protest, and the traditional London attractions during a weekend break from school.
Big Ben & I. He's just as splendid in real-life!
The main purpose of our trip was to see the musicals Wicked and The Lion King. Due to financial constraints, I only attended the Friday night showing of Wicked, but my friends insisted I saw the better of the two shows. We landed front row tickets to Wicked, by waiting three hours in line to buy one of the 24 front row stall seats sold on a first-come-first serve basis on the performing night. Generally, I am not a huge fan of musicals, but Wicked was absolutely amazing! The storyline, the soundtrack, the performance, everything was just as good as I had hoped it would be. After listening obsessively to the soundtrack recorded by the original Broadway cast, one part I definitely picked up on were the British accents all of the actors had. In the end, my friends and I agreed the British version almost sounded better than the American version! For those who have not heard of this spectacular musical, this Wicked linkwill show a preview of what we laughed, cried, and smiled over for 2 amazing hours.
The set of Wicked.
In addition to the musicals, we also viewed Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Hyde Park, London Bridge, and the Tower of London.
Westminster abbey
London Bridge (is not falling down, thankfully).
The Tower was especially impressive as the home of the crown jewels, and a fantastic armory with many accounts of the torturing and executions of prisoners that occurred there. Ravens are also kept on the grounds because legend has it that King Charles II strongly believed that if any ravens ever left the tower, the kingdom and the tower would fall.
A beheading block, and the axe that supposedly killed Queen Anne Boleyn.
We were fortunate enough to spend a bit of time in the British Museum, but didn’t have anywhere near enough time to view all of its contents. Multiple visits are strongly recommended by locals. Anyway, we did get to view some Egyptian art, including the rosetta stone, which was a tool used to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs to classic Greek.
The rosetta stone of the British Museum.
My favorite district would have to be Camden Town in northern London. Famous for its crowded markets and center of “alternative lifestyles,” it’s off the beaten path for tourists, but well worth a visit, especially for students.
Another unexpected but interesting experience occurred while my friends were viewing The Lion King and, while wandering about, I stumbled across a huge anti-war demonstration being held near the National Gallery of London. I spent nearly an hour snapping photos of the display, listening to the speakers, and following the demonstrators as they paraded around SoHo and Piccadilly Circus, two interconnected multicultural districts of London. News coverage of the protest can be found here.
Protest in front of the National Gallery.
Extreme protesters…very willing to pose for photos though.
My time in London gave me a taste of the cultural adjustment I will likely have to endure when returning to the United States. I found it comforting, but slightly odd to hear my native tongue being uttered in public places. London, unlike Granada, is extremely cosmopolitan, full of Indians, Asians, and many tourists, so it was nice to see an ethnic mix again. Unexpectedly, I found verbal communication to be a bit of a challenge. I had assumed that by being spoken to in English, it would be easy to respond in English, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, I was sometimes thrown off by the British pronunciation and style of speaking, and was still trying to respond in Spanish! Quite amusing, but frustrating at the same time.
In the end, I unexpectedly ended up falling in love with the city of London. I had initially worried that London would be too “American,” but perhaps London’s American aspects, such as the presence of Starbucks on every corner and 24-hour grocery stores satisfied the part of me that is slightly homesick for the American lifestyle. Also, in comparison to large cities in Spain and Italy, London is extremely clean and orderly, which corresponds perfectly to the anal way the British run their airports. London Stansted and Heathrow are the only airports in which the passport control officials will throw a fit if you make even the tiniest mistake on your landing card; other countries don’t even have landing cards to fill out. Anyway, London was the first large European city in which I needn’t worry about dodging stray dogs, dog poop, and motos (mopeds).
Group in front of Big Ben & Parliament on our last night.
. On the homefront of Granada, life is mostly normal, with the exception of the strikes of the professors of the Centro de Lenguas Modernas (CLM). Our campus employs two types of professors: those of the University of Granada, and those of the CLM. Apparently, the CLM professors receive extremely low benefits (ie. University profs are paid 50 euros an hour; CLM profs receive 15 euros an hour), and are striking for 1-hour a day by parading through the center blowing whistles and waving signs about. The point seems to be to disrupt classes being conducted by the University professors in order to infuriate the students and other staff in order to be heard. So far, the only part that is definitely working is the infuriation of students.
After my London adventure, I now have 2 days of classes, before leaving on a 5-day AHA program excursion in Madrid during Spain’s holiday week of “Día de Andalucía.” Coverage of that adventure to come soon!
