Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

My favorite statue at the Victoria and Albert Museum, despite the fact that Samson is beating that poor man to death with a jaw bone.

It's been a while since I've last update. Where to begin? On Thursday night, Omar, Erin, and I decided to go see Wicked- it was good, but Spamalot is more my type of Broadway. Friday afternoon a bunch of us went on a tour of Parliament. It was originally the Palace of Westminster, then it burned down and was rebuilt, and then it was almost completely destroyed and rebuilt (again). The oldest part of the building is the hall you sit in before your tour starts- its around 900 years old! They used to hold trials there. The one you all will be probably recognize is the trial that found William Wallace (Braveheart) guilty of treason. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic and encouraged us to imagine ourselves as the queen walking around the halls before addressing Parliament. The procedures there are very much antiquated, but they have yet to deal with hanging chads a la Florida, so I guess it's working just fine.

On Sunday, Andrew and I tried to go to the Portobello Market, which is pretty close to me, but we got there too early. We gave up and had lunch in what is quickly becoming my favorite coffee shop by school, Cafe Nero. (For Mom and Amanda: my waiter was named Stefano and shared all the best aspects of our bus drive in Italy haha, but was about 20 and presumably has no children). I was hanging out with Andrew in the London Center, when Steve Brown, walked in. (For Family and Amanda: Steve is the retired jazz prof. from IC). He's hanging around Europe with his wife for a bit, and is living in the flat on the top floor of the London Center this week. We've been hearing a lot more of the word "baby" around here- it's great. He is going to play in Brit Pop tomorrow with Andrew and Omar; it should be an interesting class to say the least.

Another IC prof is in town right now as well. Dan Isbell is here presenting his dissertation at Roehampton University and we're going to meet up with him tonight for drinks- we'll get to show him around town a bit and catch up. It should be a lot of fun.

Yesterday, my art history class toured Westminster Abbey. It's a beautiful building crammed full of tombs and monuments to what feels like everyone of mild fame or nobility that has ever lived in England. Highlights of the non-architectural variety include the flagstone tributes to Elgar and Vaughn Williams. Handel is buried there and has a really interesting statue of him without his wig on. Our professor was telling us that Handel was famous for throwing his wig at musicians who were playing out of tune during rehearsals and that he once threatened to throw a soprano out of a window for singing flat. awesome.

Things to look forward to: Friday and Saturday trip to Stratford upon Avon and Oxford.
Two weekends from now: trip to Bath and Stonehenge
Planning fall break trip: tour of Italy with Omar, Andrew, and Mike

Cheers!

P.S. The only thing I've found so far that I hate about London (and presumably other parts of England): instead of worms coming out when it rains, SLUGS come out here. gross.