Paris au printemps: Trip to London- Day 2 (Shakespeare and Modern Art)

'Ello mes amis! I admit I missed speaking French while in London. But I loved listening to all the British accents around me. British English is in fact a very different from American English. I enjoyed seeing signs on the Underground (which makes no sense, the Metro in Paris is better in my opinion) that said "Way Out" instead of Exit/Sortie. Who says "way out" anyway? I always giggled when the voice said "mind the gap please" when getting off the tube. Sometimes the gap could be very big. One also should "mind the steps", "mind the traffic" and "mind the children" according to other signs. I personally feel that "WATCH OUT" or "DANGER" is much more effective. But using "mind" seems a bit more proper, which I guess the Brits like. When shopping, we browsed through the trousers (not pants). One thing I found extremely useful was that in front of cross walks, the city had written "look left" or "look right". If not for those signs, I bet I would have been hit by a taxi driving on the wrong side of the street. Ok, it was the right side of the street for them, but the wrong side for the rest of the world. Except Australia. The garbage cans are not garbage cans, they are in fact, "litter bins". See exhibit A...

But enough of the British-isms, now onto the main attraction of the post, day two in London town! I took the underground to St. Paul and walked by the cathedral on my way to meet up with my Babson buddies. I didn't go in because it cost about 15 pounds, and my wallet was becoming lighter at an alarming rate. Here's some pics of the outside of the Cathedral.

That's just the side. Diana and Charles got married here.

The Cathedral dominates the skyline.

Sadly, Occupy London is still in full swing outside St. Paul's. I'm not sure why they are camped out in front of a church and not in the financial district. I'm all for free speech and considered shouting "get a job you hippies!" at the protesters, but I did not want to spend my day debating with idiots or in a London hospital. I'm also a fan of peace and love (and the Beatles) but I do not understand how camping out in a city's downtown (and I love camping) is going to fix anything in the economy. I understand people are frustrated, but the only way their lives are going to improve is if they get up and start working. And that's my rant for the day.

I then crossed the Thames via the Millennium Bridge, to meet up with my friends who were staying across the river.

The Globe Theatre

(please note the 'e' on the end)

Jess, Susan and I headed over to the Globe for a tour. It is actually the third Globe theater, the first burned down in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII. A cannon was fired, and the thatch roof caught fire. Amazingly, no one in the packed theater died, only "one man's trousers caught fire". It was rebuilt, but later torn down in 1644 by the Puritans. The current Globe was rebuilt in the late 1990s. The construction took awhile because it was hard to find builders who could work with plaster and oak beams to accurately reproduce the original building.

"All the world's a stage."

Costume for Elizabeth I

It's amazing how much of Shakespeare's language we use everyday....

After showing our student ID we bought our tour then the guy behind the desk asked what we were doing that afternoon. We cautiously answered that we had no other plans. After he reassured us that he was not asking us out on a date, he offered us FREE (yes FREE) ticket's to the afternoon's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I may have screamed with excitement and done a little dance after he handed over the tickets. Our tickets were for the "groundling" section, so we stood directly in front of the stage, next to the grey ramp in the picture of the Globe above. We leaned on the stage when our feet got tired. It was the opening performance, and the audience was mostly middle school kids from London. The play was FANTASTIC. I love A Midsummer Night's Dream, although Taming of the Shrew is my all time favorite Shakespeare play. It was very funny to see the kid's reaction to any kissing onstage. Standing in front of the stage, clapping and cheering at the end made me feel as if I was at an Elizabethan rock concert. We were in spitting range of the actors, and Jess got a bit of Lysander's spit on her. Maybe it will bring her good luck. The costumes were modern and they added a few modern gags to the scenes which I think made it more accessible and entertaining to the middle school students. We left in a daze of Shakespearean bliss and headed over to the Tate Modern Art Museum.

Tate is only 5 minutes down the river from the Globe, and is home to a lot of weird and wonderful modern art. It reminded me a lot of the Pompidou Centre here in Paris. Thankfully this museum was free! I really missed my "gratuit" tickets at Parisian landmarks and museums during the trip. Here are some of my favorite works of art and some of the art I just don't get.

This was supposed to symbolize molten rock or transformation or something. Or maybe an elephant.

I thought this was really cool! It was red mesh hanging from the ceiling and a red mesh staircase. Stairway to heaven maybe? Or to hell?

Dad has this poster in the garage! WHAAM!

Another Monet water lily painting. They're everywhere!

Installation about women's rights

Outside the Tate. I love the birch trees!

And with all the excitement of getting home to Paris, a nice shower, and starting to blog, I forgot to mention.............

I HAVE A SUMMER INTERNSHIP! As Horatio Hornblower (another of my favorite Brits) would say, "hip hip huzzah!" I will be spending my summer at Nordstrom in the Natick Mall (very near Babson) and participating in the Retail Sales Internship program.

Here is a description of the internship:

Being part of the Nordstrom Retail Internship program gives you an up-close and personal view of the fashion retail business. It's a real-world perspective you won't find in any classroom.

During the Nordstrom Retail Internship program, you'll dedicate a majority of your time to learning our business in the most important job in our company - the salesperson. In addition to spending time on the selling floor in a specific merchandise area, you'll work with many levels of management and gain exposure to different areas of our retail business. You'll also work closely with your department manager on assigned projects, as well as attending management meetings and training seminars.

In addition, participants in the Nordstrom Retail Internship program are paid a competitive wage and commission, as well as an employee merchandise discount.

Responsibilities

Greet customers in a timely, professional and engaging manner

Maintain an active awareness of the merchandise available in the department and store and be able to serve customers as needed

Perform daily department maintenance tasks including stock work, re-merchandising, display, price markdowns, merchandise transfers and light cleaning

Work as a team player to ensure each customer receives the best service possible

Open new Nordstrom Fashion Rewards accounts as a means of building customer relationships

Consistently seek new fashion and product knowledge to act as an expert for the customer

Set and achieve personal sales goals while supporting the goals of the team

Actively participate in and complete all components of the Internship Program, including time selling on the floor, sales and other customer events, classroom programs, etc.

Still living the dream. Although I am very excited for this opportunity, it breaks my heart to know that I am not going back to Camp Tanamakoon this summer. I literally have chest pains when I think about it. I've spent the past 10 summers there(and one at GV before that), and I don't know who I would be if I didn't go to summer camp. All my best memories/stories usually start with, "this one time at camp...." Skipping the first week of school to do outdoor education in the fall is very tempting...why be in a classroom when you could be here????