So much to say!

London followed the rules of November. October had been relatively warm for the season, usually hovering in the 60s and 50s. But on the first of November, I awoke to a 38 degree morning. Just as Brits queue for no reason and mind the gap, London obediently stepped into fall and hasn’t wavered yet. Shann and I are amazed at how fast the transformation took place. Shann said she also awoke that morning and looked out the window to find yellow and orange brittle leaves on the tree outside; she swore they weren’t there the morning before.

Well, since fall has arrived, I’ve done the following:

• The Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House. Every time I go to these artistic events, I realize how much I don’t know. The first time I went to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for instance, I was puzzled at why the conductor kept leaving and entering the room and why the musicians felt compelled to tune up after every song (didn’t they just tune up 20 minutes ago?). Performances are soaked in such a long cultural tradition, and I’ve enjoyed trying to acquaint myself with them. It’s a similar sensation to walking along the street in a new city—everything is wonderful and interesting, even if you don’t understand it.

Anyway, I’ve always enjoyed the score of Tchraichosky’s The Sleeping Beauty (thanks, Disney), so I enjoyed the opportunity to hear it played by a top-notch orchestra. As for the story line, I have to admit that I had more trouble following. For one, the plot wasn’t the same as the Disney version, so I wasn’t always sure who was what character or what the dance was supposed to present.

Second, theaters in London don’t give out the free programs we’re accustomed to in the US. Bye-bye classic playbill programs. Hello, Confusion. I could have bought a program, which had a plot synopsis and artistic/cultural commentary, but it was 7 pounds ($14), so I didn’t buy it. Looking back on it, I regret not buying it, though, because I think I would have gotten more out of the experience if I did.

Third, with 2200 seats over 5 tiers, the Royal Opera House is the hugest performance venue I’ve been to in my life. And we were in the dead last row pushed to the far right of the elliptical theater. If you leaned forward far enough without blocking the view of the person next to you, you could see a good 2/3 of the stage. Yeah student nosebleed seats! Still, I can’t complain—eight pound tickets! Hard to beat that.

The costumes were so elaborate that even from our seats they shimmered.

I kept thinking about Tolstoy’s thoughts about the opera in Anna Karenina. Tolstoy had a distaste for the melodrama of the opera, finding its sense of love idealized. I wasn’t repulsed by the opera—I actually enjoyed it a lot. But I can see what he meant. At the end, for instance, the dancers had to go through the long tradition of bowing and then bowing again and then letting the principle dancers bow together and then bow and their own and then bow for the orchestra. And then the conductor comes out and bows for the audience and bows for the principle dancers, and the principle dancers bow for the conductor again. They give the principle dancer flowers. Then the curtain is drawn and propped open. Once again, the dancers pop out and bow together and then go back in. Then they come out individually and bow some more. The whole time the theater is going wild (they even booed the Wicked Witch, which I thought was mean. I mean, the dancer isn’t Actually the witch…).

My main problem with ballets and operas is that the music is so soothing that I often have difficulty staying awake. It’s particularly uncomfortable in the student seats I often buy. It’s a good problem to have, though, I think. What a pity it would be to have music so bad that you couldn’t even fall asleep.

Anyway, what a grand time. I think I will be going back at least once more before I leave. We’re trying to make it to the Snowman Ballet at Christmastime. I know that plot!

• Study with Shann at the huge Starbucks and go to church at Holy Trinity Brompton. Many of you know that while at home, I avoid patronizing Starbucks, if I can. Mostly, I want to support the local coffee shops. While in London, though, I seem to have abandoned that. I figure, the money I spend at Starbucks funnels back into the American economy—take that, The Pound! London doesn’t have a prominent coffee shop culture, anyway.

The Tottenham Court Road Starbucks is the largest Starbucks I’ve ever been to. It’s three stories and never seems to run out of seats! It’s also in a good location, within walking distance to Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Chinatown, and Leicester Square. All this combined has made it Shann and my study place of choice. For the two times we’ve studied so far, anyway.

After getting work done, we took the tube to Kensington to go to the 7 pm service of Holy Trinity Brompton. The tricky part about this church is that there is actually a different church right in front of it. And it also has a 7 pm service! Shann and I almost went to that one by accident, but the profusion of incense and the priest collars tipped us off and we found HTB in back.

I liked HTB a lot—it reminds me quite a bit of Menlo Park Pres, just as people told me it would. The teaching was refreshing, too. I love the church I’ve been attending—the worship and community are among the most earnest I’ve seen. I love worshiping there. But HTB is clearly better resourced, and the teaching is well-informed.

• St. Paul’s Cathedral. Since I’m taking a London Architecture class at school, I bypassed the usual entrance fee and got to go for free! I got to walk around for as long as I wanted and climb up to the top of the dome. It’s amazing how similar it actually is to St. Peter’s Basillica in Rome, the building St. Paul’s is modeled after. Not as much sunlight comes through the sides and ceilings, but besides that it feels very much the same.

Personally, I think I’ve become more jaded by Cathedrals and Basillicas, though. I do appreciate their beauty. The tall vaulted ceilings will always inspire a sense of awe and smallness in me, just as they were meant to. But I remembering visiting Italy and Rome with my family and feeling sad about all the corruption in the church. Such buildings stand more as a symbol of mankind’s power, not so much of God’s. There is so much excessive ornamentation given by the rich on behalf of the poor, as if someone took the poor widow’s penny and melted it right into the wall.

• More cooking adventures, episode Bi Bim Bap- Shann and I made our own version of bi bim bap. I had spent most of the day stressing to get my internship applications to California on time. The cooking was fun, and the dish came out very tasty!

• Greenwich. I didn’t realize Greenwich was so closed to my flat, so I was happily surprised to see it as an option for my architecture assignment. I went to Greenwich with my family eight years ago and remembering liking it quite a lot. I had only recently learned about longitude and latitude and thought it was so awesome to stand on the Prime Meridian.

Greenwich is only 17 minutes away on the Docklands Light Rail, an above ground public transportation rail that takes you to the outskirts of the city. Half of the city is a lovely park, which the Tudor rulers had used for a getaway house. Lovely place. Lots of small shops. Lots of restaurants. Three cheers for Greenwich!


Anyway. This is massive. I think I’ve got to stop here.

New resolution: Update every day, even if it’s one sentence. Let’s see how it goes.

You’re a true friend if you’ve gotten this far.