Yesterday was a very dreary early morning. We woke up around 7 to the lovely weather forecast of rain all day and temperatures only getting up to a measly 50 degrees. This would be semi-tolerable if it was a normal day of class, but no. Today we were getting a tour of Shakespeare's Globe. At this point, it is obvious that every time I mention Shakespeare's Globe it is just going to bring bad weather. The tour was scheduled to start at 9:15, but we had to meet on the South Bank at 8:45. So we had to leave at 7:50. No one was happy, to say the least. We were cold, wet, miserable, and then had to continue to be cold wet and miserable while we got a tour of the all outdoor Shakespeare's Globe. Don't get me wrong, the Globe is beautiful and extremely interesting, but there were other places yesterday morning that I would have rather been. Like my bed, for instance.
After the tour, we sadly had to head back to RADA for our 11-1 class due to the dreary weather. We all literally sat in the studio with our coats and hoods on for the next 2 hours because we were all so miserable and freezing. Relieved is an understatement when that clock finally hit 1:00pm. Maggie and I frantically speed-walked back to the apartment to get warm and took extremely scalding hot showers just to make ourselves feel better. After relaxing for a few hours in the apartment, we decided to trek back out into the grossness (better prepared, though) and go see the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge takes you in a lift (aka elevator) up 42 meters above the road part of the bridge to a pedestrian enclosed walkway. Here, called the "Tower Bridge Exhibition", you can read all about the famous bridges of the world, as well as the history of this bridge. After the upper bridge segment of the exhibition, you take the lift down underneath the bridge to the Engine Rooms, where you see how exactly the drawbridge functions. It was definitely worth seeing!!
Next, after miraculously getting on the right bus back into the main part of the city, we visited Leadenhall Market. Leadenhall Market is supposedly where Diagon Alley was filmed or based off of (not sure which, or both) in the Harry Potter film series. So of course I had to go see it! It wasn't as exciting as I thought, being kind of small and the only restaurants were pubs teeming with 9-5 business people who were definitely not our crowd. But, I made sure to get a snapshot just to say that I had been there!
By this point, Maggie and I were getting pretty hungry but we figured that we would wander a little further to see if we would just stumble upon a cute little pub or restaurant. Well, we didn't find a pub OR restaurant. But, we did find our way to the Royal Exchange National Bank, St. Paul's Cathedral, and One New Change which is a shopping mall type area that has an amazing view from it's 6th floor. I also took advantage of One New Change in my search for new combat boots because, as most of you probably don't know, my only pair of durable walking shoes that I had packed have come to the end of their lifespan and decided to break during my trip. Sadly, I didn't find any new shoes at One New Change but that's okay! We finally hopped onto the Tube with a sigh of relief (it was so warm in there!) and made our way back to Great Portland Street to grab a bite to eat at Pizza Express. I know the name sounds deceiving and like fast food, but Pizza Express is actually a great italian restaurant. We each got ourselves a Peroni beer, some dough balls, and I ate a monster calzone all by myself (thank God for all of this walking!)
Collapsing into bed last night was actually the best thing ever, besides realizing that we still had a full day of Saturday class ahead...
In our Saturday morning session, we watched a short YouTube clip of Glenda Jackson speaking to the House of Commons in Parliament after the death of Margaret Thatcher. The news broadcast was supposed to be as part of a tribute to Thatcher, but when Jackson stood up, she had other ideas in mind. She began to point out all of the flaws during Thatcher's reign, basically saying how it was the worst era in England ever. Now, we weren't watching this video clip for political education or anything like that, but more to see how Glenda Jackson presented herself. She was introducing such extreme and shocking ideas, but still managed to maintain a calm and level voice, speak without screaming even when people were trying to override her, and she owned every inch of that room. She made sure that she was heard, because she knew that she deserved to be heard, and she didn't let that go until she had said every single thing that she had wanted to say. After watching this YouTube clip, a couple of our classmates were told to go outside one by one and then come back in and try to tell us a poem. But, while they were trying to tell us the poem, we would be whispering to one another, or banging on the floor, or have our backs turned to them; all obstacles that they had to try and fight through to make sure their message was still heard. Our voice coach, George, said something interesting during this exercise. He said, "10% of the people in your life are people who don't care what you do or say and will love you no matter what you do, 10% are people who care about what you do and what you say, and the other 80% just don't care...which percent should you be trying to talk to?" It was interesting to look at it that way - at the very small amount of people who actually want to listen to you and hear what you have to say. It is definitely something to keep in mind for the future.
In our afternoon session, we did some weird movement exercises with Charlie where he played a 3 minute song and within that time, each of us had to go into the middle of the circle and be part of the "dance" that was occurring. Everyone had to be ready at all times, and there always had to be five people in the circle; three standing up and two in some type of squatting position. If one person in the circle decides to squat who was standing, someone has to compensate for that and stand up. The exercise was about cooperation and focus and less about the embarrassing dance moves that everyone was doing. It showed how when we all put real focus into the task, all of the unimportant stuff just fades away.
At 5:00pm, I could not have been any happier. The sun was out after many days of being hidden, class was over, and it was officially the Bank Holiday weekend! We have Sunday and Monday off this weekend, which is a nice change and a good chance to relax and catch up on sleep. Saturday night, we really didn't want to go to the strange club scene again, so we googled karaoke bars. We ended up back in Shoreditch at a karaoke bar called "Birdcage." It sounds really weird, I know, and the place definitely brought a different kind of crowd but it was an absolute blast. We put our names on the karaoke list and watched as other people put themselves out there singing songs like, "Single Ladies," "River Deep," "Angels," and "My Sharona." Finally, around 12:30am, we heard the MC say, "Up next, Christie and Maggie." After all of these older more classic songs, guess what Maggie and I sang? Titanium by Sia. Yup. But, we were a HIT. We were probably so off-tune and completely screaming into the microphones, but we had so much fun. And the crowd cheered for us which was awesome too! It was an awesome way to start the weekend.
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