Bats, Beats, Boats, and a Baby

I'm currently sitting on a train heading toward Holyhead, England where I will catch a ferry to Dublin, Ireland. As the trees zoom past me I am getting further and further away from London and I don't even know where to start describing the past couple weeks. Unfortunately I have been swarmed with homework so I haven't had much time to blog. In all, I had such an amazing trip. I have made long-lasting friendships and I've learned so much about British culture and most importantly I have learned a lot about myself. I am not sad that it's over yet, though. I am looking forward to the week ahead of me where I will be spending time in both Dublin and Ibiza. 

Here are some highlights from the past few weeks.

Cricket

For my sports journalism class, we attended a cricket match between Surrey and Hampshire at The Oval. We spent the week before attempting to learn the game. I had a pretty good idea of what was going on at the match, but it is such a fast-paced game that it was hard to keep track at times.

The audience was aware of this as well. Instead of watching the match intently, the crowd drank bottomless beers from their 4-drink carriers and interacted rowdily with one another in the stands. Fans made their own game, stacking clear, empty beer cups and seeing how high their towers could reach. This wasn’t just one section. Beer towers could be seen all the way across the stadium and you didn’t have to look for them. All you had to do was listen for the section with the most cheers and you'd find more than a handful of fans looking up to the clear, sunny sky at their towering masterpieces. 

When that “sport” got old, a section of the stands (mine in particular), attempted to start “the wave.” Pretty impressively, it reached about three quarters around the 360-degree stadium after just a few tries. To me, it felt more like an American football game than an English cricket match. At times I was left wondering if cricket was just another excuse for spectators to come together to drink their favorite brew and socialize with their friends, colleagues, and families.

Electric Daisy Carnival

I'll preface this with saying it was completely different than I expected. Back home in Las Vegas, EDC is such a huge event with thousands of people traveling from all over the world to attend. Rave culture has been growing, especially in the US, but it has also been changing. EDC London was very calm, well as calm as a music festival can be. I expected to walk into EDC London to find the same thing as EDC Las Vegas - a bunch of girls wearing hardly any clothes and people borderline overdosing in every direction. This wasn't the case in London. Europeans have been having festivals and listening to electronic music way before the days of EDC. For them, EDC was about the music. They didn't have to try hard to make a show out of it by wearing bedazzled bras, fuzzy boots, and their underwear. Although dressing up is a lot of fun, I preferred the casualness of the attire and cheap beer of EDC London opposed to the hard drugs and slutty outfits I see in all my friends' Facebook pictures from EDC Las Vegas.

Anyways, it was a great time. I was able to see all of my favorite performers AND we were in the front for every set we saw. I almost sold my ticket a week before because of the heat wave. I didn't want to be miserably in the sun all day. I'm so glad I didn't sell it. It was a perfectly cloudy day filled with good friends and great music.

Camden Market

Camden Market was amazing. There were so many shops that I don't think you could see the whole thing in one day. Camden Market sits on a canal. We took a boat ride down the canal equipped with a struggling musician who we were told would "sing us whatever we wanted."He was awful. Not his voice... His voice was fine, but it was hard to enjoy because he was such an awful person. He spent the entire time talking about himself. He was an American who had only been in London for one week. The shitty boat company literally found him and hired him that morning because their "regular musician" didn't show up for work. We asked the guy to sing Jack Johnson. He wouldn't. We asked him to play Oasis. He wouldn't. This hipster said he wouldn't play those artists because "people tell him he sounds like them and he wants to be different." Shut up. He had this bushy beard and said the purpose of it was to separate the girls from the woman. "Girls will see my beard and be superficial and not give me a chance. Woman will look past it and I know that if they like me even if I have a beard then they are keepers."What a tool.

Royal Baby

I don't really have much to say about this but... THE BABY WAS BORN! Finally. I was beginning to think I wouldn't get to be there for it. Granted, British people aren't as obsessed with the royal family as Americans are but it was still cool to be there in such a media crazed frenzy.

Harry Potter Studio Tour

Magical. That word's ironic for the situation. But it was magical. I was never a huge Harry Potter fan, but now I want to be. I want to read all the books and watch all the movies all over again. It was insane seeing how much work went into the making of the film. Every single little detail was accounted for. The experience can't really be described in words, but if you are ever in England, I definitely recommend this tour, even if you aren't a Harry Potter fan.

Why Americans Don’t Fancy Cricket

If you had to guess which country hosted the first international cricket match, many would answer with absolute certainty that it was England. However, it’s said that the modern world’s first international sporting event was a cricket match between the U.S. and Canada in 1844, predating the modern Olympic games. Even though cricket holds a spot in the top two on the list of most popular sports in the world, falling just behind football, Americans just don't really care that much. 

Maybe it’s because cricket is not considered to be American. Cricket was first played in southern England in the sixteenth century. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international matches were being held. Today, cricket is most popular in Australia, England, India, and southern Africa.

The English are proud that they created the game just as Americans are proud that they created basketball or baseball. Americans are deeply involved with the sports they birthed, but they don’t heavily participate in international sports like soccer and cricket. International sports create more competition and Americans would have to work that much harder to work their way to the top to remain a world power. 

In the 2012 Summer Olympics, the United States brought home 46 gold medals, 29 silver, and 29 bronze, putting them at the top of the Olympics medal table. Americans love watching the Olympics because they love proving that they have some of the world’s best athletes. However, cricket is an exception, very rarely televised in the U.S. in general, Americans shy away from following the sport at all. 

Consequently, the United States doesn’t have a major team. This means no highlights on ESPN and no giant stadiums to sell-out. It’s difficult for Americans to get excited about cricket when they can’t watch it live or even on television. The few dedicated American followers can watch it online, but, very much like football, they are supporting teams from other parts of the world instead of from their home country.

So what do they do? They watch baseball instead. Baseball is America’s past-time. Baseball evolved from cricket and by the 19th century was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. Because people compare cricket so closely with baseball, it’s tough to build support for another sport involving a bat, a ball, and running. They are too similar to both hold worldwide popularity. Americans spend enough time arguing about the differences between football and American football and the sports are nowhere similar to each other. They don’t have the time to do the same for cricket and baseball.

Cricket was among the more popular sports in America in the mid-19th century, but the introduction of baseball came at expense of cricket. Marketing played a major role. After the Civil War, nationalism exploded along with a new sense of an American national identity. With evolving communication and transportation technologies, baseball promoters recognized an opportunity to expand. They created the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1871 by meshing together some of the existing traveling clubs. Young athletes and fans quickly embraced it. Cricket clubs, however, stayed regional and many of the top players switched to baseball, including Harry Wright and A. G. Spalding, both of whom founded sporting goods firms which are still active today. The American cricket fans went with them and never returned. 

Cricket’s rules are extremely different than baseball’s and Americans don’t want to spend their valuable time and effort learning how to understand them. Different terminology such as “bowler” instead of “pitcher” and “wicket keeper” instead of “catcher” throws them off and they are unwilling to accept it. Furthermore, the idea of a 360 degree field with the all the action happening in the center is unfathomable. 

Last year, British Prime Minister David Cameron visited President Obama and tagged along for a Mississippi Valley State vs. Western Kentucky college basketball game. In return, the president told a reporter, “He’s going to teach me cricket because I don’t understand what’s going on with that.”

With two leagues and 30 teams playing tons of games in both the season and playoffs, it’s difficult as it is for people to follow baseball. Americans have no time to start following cricket, which has various leagues and types of matches. This leads to another reason Americans don’t follow cricket: they have no patience. 

Some cricket matches can last for days. The world’s longest match is held by Blunham Cricket Club from Bedfordshire in England. The club played for 5 days: 105 hours, from 10am on Thursday, August 26, 2010 until 7pm on Monday, August 30, 2010. 

Each team gets 10 outs and usually scores between 300 and 400 runs in their turn at bat. Though the thought of it amazes most Americans, they just don’t have the attention span to watch six or seven hours of cricket. They can hardly watch a three hour American football game without getting too drunk to remember it. Cricket-watchers, however, make a day out of it, casually sipping their beers and watching their favorite clubs on the television at the local pub.

It seems that Americans just get bored easily. In soccer, teams score too few points for Americans to stay interested and in cricket, teams score too many.  Games are long and tedious in both sports and American viewers can’t seem to find a balance. Yet they watch golf, one of the slowest-paced games there is. Golf is the sixth most popular sport in the country, but cricket doesn’t even make the Top 10 cut. This seems a little strange considering cricket is the second most popular sport in the world.

"I've tried to explain Test cricket to Americans who say 'How can any sport go on four or five days?' To that I say 'Tiger Woods starts on a Thursday and plays until Sunday or even Monday.' We watch eight hours of golf at a time and still don't know the winner,” Jon Lockerbie, The United States of America Cricket Association’s Chief Executive Officer told BBC News in 2009.

Noticing this trend and hoping to spread to a larger audience, the Twenty20 league was introduced in 2003. Twenty20, or T20, cricket is the most condensed form of the game. A match typically lasts around three hours. In T20, each team has a single inning, which lasts between 75 and 90 minutes. In this timespan, each team bats for a maximum of 20 overs, or a set of six balls bowled.

Twenty20 cricketers are becoming very wealthy celebrities, too. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, captain of the Chennai Super Kings, racked up $1.5 million for just over six weeks on the field in 2008, making him the league's top earner. The expansion of the league can be seen in monetary figures alone. For the 2013-2014 year, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is to receive $26 million: $3.5 million in yearly match fees and $23 million in endorsements from top companies such as Pepsi, Reebok, and Lays. He is the most wealthy cricketer in the world. Most of the top paid cricketers are from India, with only two hailing from Australia - Shane Watson ($5.9m) and Michael Clarke ($4.9m) - and one from England, Ricky Ponting ($4m).

"If Twenty20 cricket is marketed properly and fans, television, and sponsors embrace it, we could see the sport of cricket becoming the next great sport in the US, where other sports have tried,” said Lockerbie.

In addition to the introduction of a T20 league, other measures can be taken to promote cricket expansion in the United States. First of all, we need to get kids to start playing the game. In New York, 32 schools played cricket among young adults aged 15 to 19 when BBC reported it in 2010. And in Atlanta, 35 schools had introduced the sport into their physical education class. 

Jatin Patel, president of the Indiana Youth Cricket Association, said students in about 240 Indiana schools have been shown the basics of the sport since his Indianapolis-based group began an outreach program in 2010.

In the U.S. today, there are more than 50 leagues across the United States with 1,100 registered clubs and around 32,000 active participants. These are all under the country’s governing body for the sport, the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA). Once children begin to become interested in the sport, perhaps adults will follow suit. This process can be sped up if the USACA appoints a National Youth Cricket Coordinator to implement cricket into more schools and youth programs across the country.

Correlating with exposing cricket to schools, cricket equipment needs to be sold and readily available in sporting goods stores across the U.S. Just as children can’t ride bikes without helmets, they can’t play cricket without proper equipment.

Furthermore, the United States needs more places for cricket to be played. In 2007, the first international-standard stadium, Central Broward Regional Park and Stadium, was completed in Lauderhill, Florida at the expense of $70 million. In May 2013, while a Phillies baseball game was being played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there was a cricket match happening simultaneously at the annual Philadelphia Cricket Festival. This five-day long event has been going on for 21 years at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, featuring clubs from across the country and sometimes internationally. 

“It’s kind of like underground sport — a secret society — in the sense that it’s everywhere if you know where to look,” says Della Penna, who is the cricket editor at ESPN. “But if you don’t know where to look, you wouldn’t know it existed.”

Though the United States has a long way to go until they are even close to being comparable to India, Australia, or England, many American states are making advances toward the sport in hopes that it will increase international tourism and ultimately benefit from economic development. 

"If your goal is to try and connect with many parts of this world for potential commerce, trade and tourism, that's a huge market to go after," Lauderhill Mayor Richard Kaplan said.

The city of Indianapolis, Indiana is spending $6 million to equip one of its parks with a premier cricket pitch. Indianapolis has also signed a three-year deal to host a U.S. amateur cricket tournament and championship, starting in August 2014. The city hopes to be the heart of American cricket, just as it is the heart of American auto racing.

"When people around the world think of cricket, I want them to think of Indianapolis," Mayor Greg Ballard told media in India during a trade visit in April. 

Cricket's supporters in the U.S. have also been finding themselves in the media spotlight. Joseph O'Neill's highly-acclaimed novel, Netherland, has been highly encouraged by Oprah Winfrey and President Barack Obama (I assume after the Prime Minister explained to him the rules of the game). The novel tells the story of cricket-playing immigrants in New York and is to be made into a Hollywood film.

In addition to cricket being seen on the big screen, cricket highlights need to be seen on television in order for Americans to adopt the sport. I remember sitting in a London pub when I visited Europe in 2011 and asking the bartender what sport was being shown on the screens above me. I was 18 years old and I had no idea what a cricket match was or what it even looked like. Looking back, it seems awfully naive, but how could I have known if I was never exposed to it in school and the sport isn’t even televised by ESPN?

However, cricket isn’t as foreign as most Americans think. Today, I can set my self apart from most Americans and say that I’ve attended an International cricket match. From the minute I walked in the gates of The Oval, the competitive atmosphere turned out to be very similar to that of an American sporting event. Even better, I understood the rules of the game. 

Americans seem to have a rather strange obsession with the newly birthed “Royal Baby.” Maybe they’ll start following cricket when the baby is old enough to play. Until then, American cricketers will continue implementing their sport into schools, expanding on the construction of stadiums, and attempting to explain cricket to their friends and family. The future of cricket is bright for Americans and in time they can easily adopt the sport and maybe even produce some of the world’s top cricketers.

Stonehenge vs. Street Art

On Wednesday, I paid 8 pounds to walk a circle around historic Stonehenge. Today, I paid 5 pounds as a grateful tip to our guide to walk through the vandalized walls of East London. Although Stonehenge is something I have always wanted to see and experience, I was able to see and learn a lot more walking through the narrow alleys of London. 

Stonehenge is a preserved site that gives us a glimpse of the past. The crazy part is... we don't even know its purpose. Upon entry, our guide said, dramatically, "As you look up at those rocks, think to yourself...." Then, he added matter-of-factly, "Think to yourself 'I don't even know what the hell I'm looking at.'" 

Today, our much cooler guide, shared what it is like to be a street artist in London. We made a giant circle around East London, stopping at small pieces and big pieces, learning about the artists who painted them, how they painted them, and why they painted them. He shared stories of an artist who would paint while dressed up as a construction worker in the middle of the night so he wouldn't get caught. He told us about a 61 year old man who chemically binds his sculptures to the top of light posts. He told us about "Space Invader" who has spread his trademark to over 30 major cities. And he told us about a brilliant artist (accountant by day, street artist by night) who was just sent to jail for 3 years because he was caught painting on the walls. This man's sentence for vandalism is longer than a man who had been sent to prison the same day for child molestation.  

The city decides what art should or shouldn't be painted over. But, as our Aussie guide shared, what if the cavemen had their wall art sensored? We would know hardly anything about our past. This is where I get to linking Stonehenge and the street art together. Stonehenge tells us a lot about our past (even though we don't know its true function, serving us now as just a piece of art) and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. The street art in London tells us a lot about our present - many of the pieces have cultural, environmental, and political messages - yet the art is looked down upon and punishable by law. 

So where do we draw the line between art and vandalism and who should be responsible for deciding where our culture leaves its mark?

Other highlights:

• Seeing the Roman baths in Bath, England

• Cream tea at The Mad Hatter's Tea Party (Bath, England)

• Having not tea, but cocktails served in teapots, at The Betsy Smith, a fabulously decorated pub in West London

• Throwing up the "O" in front of Stonehenge. Scoducks!

Football and Folk Music

“A lot of the time it feels like… music is some sort of excuse to be a human. It’s kind of like people need that excuse to go and put their arms in the air and sing their hearts out.” 

-Marcus Mumford

One thing I've learned so far in London is that you don't need excuses. You don't need an excuse like studying abroad as your means of seeing the world. You don't need an excuse to justify eating that extra scoop of ice cream. You don't need an excuse to dance wildly while staring up at your favorite band - or for dancing in your room to no music at all. As long as what you're doing is making you happy...there is no need for excuses. Just go out and do it. 

Last night I stood in the fourth or fifth row of a stadium holding 60,000 screaming people watching some of my favorite bands and I needed no excuse whatsoever. First to take the stage were two bands I hadn't heard of - Bear's Den and Laim. Next up was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. You might know them for their song "Home". Edward Sharpe was definitely the folkiest and most personable performance of the day. Right as they stepped on the stage with top hats on their heads and bottles of wine in their hands I knew I would love it. The two lead singers, Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos, didn't only put themselves in the crowd, but put the crowd in the band, letting fans dance among them.

Following was Ben Howard. More of a calm and soothing artist (and because our feet hurt from standing), we took a seat in the grass and listened along. Next was Vampire Weekend, another one of my faves. Vampire Weekend's music sounded great but they weren't as involved with the crowd as Edward Sharpe was. Nonetheless, I sang and danced along to every word. 

Finally, after standing for what seemed like days in the hot sun, Mumford and Sons took the stage. Mumford and Sons originated in London so seeing them play in their homeland just made the experience even more exciting. Also, one of the band members, Ted Dwane, just recovered from having brain surgery so the band was very excited to be reunited and playing for all the London locals. They said we were the largest crowd they'd ever played for. They also said we were better than Glastonbury. Keyboard player, Ben Lovett, said, "Were any of you lot at Glastonbury last weekend? It was a very pleasant experience... [but] you guys are shit loads better than that gig ever was." The band's banjo player Winston Marshall added, "Probably because you haven't done as many drugs as the people there."

For me, Mumford and Sons is similar to a modern-day Beatles. With both bands being from London and with the trendy fashion these days being rooted from the Woodstock Era, at one point in the performance I felt like what I was experiencing was very similar to how people felt in London listening to The Beatles as they emerged and blew up in the 60s. It was truly an experience I will never forget and I'm not sure if I'm embarrassed or proud to admit that I cried.

Mumford and Sons loves collaboration. After their encore, they invited all the bands up on stage and performed Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain".

The place was a madhouse, though. So. Many. People. It was bad enough being crammed in the park, but imagine all 60,000 people leaving the park and heading toward the same destination - the tube station. Packed like sardines, we finally boarded our train and made it home.

My favorite song performed was "Below My Feet," but a song that sums up my experience both at the concert and here in London is "After the Storm".

"And there will come a time,
you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart,
but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see
what you find there,
With grace in your heart
and flowers in your hair."

This place is my hill.

The show was definitely the highlight of my week. 

However, other memorable moments included:

• 4th of July themed Pub Crawl - there's just something about celebrating your country's independence whilst in the country you gained the independence from.

• Tour of Chelsea Football Club - their "backstage" facilities didn't even come close to comparing to the Ducks. But then again, they don't have Phil Knight on their side.

• Tour of Lord's Cricket Ground - Cricket is actually the second most-played sport in Great Britain!

• Standing in the front row and holding hands with Alice Katz, member of the band Youngblood Hawke, at KOKO Nightclub.

• Last, but certainly not least, sitting in a pub full of London locals, drinking cider, and watching Andy Murray - the first Brit in 77 years - win the Wimbledon Championships. So cool to be here during this exciting time. Thank God that Kate didn't have her baby during the finals because this city wouldn't have known what to do with itself.

That's all for now, folks. Stay tuned!
P.S. I apologize for the poor video quality. Blogger isn't the most revolutionary when it comes to handling videos.

Highnesses and Headbanging

Thursday, June 27th

On Thursday, we went on a guided tour of the financial district. The first thing I noticed in the area was how everybody was dressed. I felt so out of place. The attire was so professional, yet so stylish. We told our business teacher that he needed a tie. He proceeded to pull one out of his pocket and responded, "You never know when you might need to go into a meeting."

The most interesting building to me was Lloyds. It made me feel like I was in the setting of some futuristic movie. The architecture was very industrial. All of the modes of transportation were placed on the corners of the building, so if there was maintenance to an elevator needed to be done it wouldn't interrupt a business meeting going on inside. In the heart of construction and grandiose modernization is Leadenhall Market - very different than its surrounding area and also the site of Harry Potter's wand shop. The market was scattered with businessmen and women catching a drink on their break.

Juxtaposition of old/new

Lloyds

Leadenhall Market

The whole gang

Friday, June 28th

Friday was Wimbledon. I could talk for hours but I will try to keep it brief. At 8:00 AM Friday morning, the chances of seeing a tennis match at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships were very slim. Grey clouds consumed the sky and general admission spectators were left in a large grassy field, standing in The Queue for up to three hours (some had camped out all night) in the consistent, medium to heavy rain, waiting to enter The All England Lawn Tennis Club. While queueing, guests without umbrellas were shielded by plastic ponchos sold by various publications along with a copy of their daily newspaper. After the initial queueing, we finally entered the green gates with our queue cards in hand, passed numerous sponsor tables, and approached the ariport-like security checkpoint. Once through, the historic Club was finally in sight. Twenty pounds later, we had out first glimpse of the flower-lined Centre Court surrounded by the zoo of people we call Wimbledon.

With all matches on hold due to the unyielding rain, the Grounds was packed tight with eager spectators with not much more to do than have a drink - or ten. Top of the line restaurants, such as The Wingfield Restaurant, were filled to capacity with guests, and the queue for the food court stretched long and wide. Along with slightly overpriced pizzas, fish and chips, and sandwiches, the timeless classics were made readily available. Champagne flowed without end, ripe strawberries and cream were eaten on the hill, and you couldn’t go more than six feet without seeing a Pimm’s in someone’s hand. Despite the lack of sport action and the dampness in the air, fun and laughter could be heard in every direction. There was a Wimbledon spirit in the air that could not be tampered with.

Other attractions included the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum (a 12 pound entry fee), The Wimbledon Shop, and a display of all the past champions found in the corridor of Centre Court. The museum didn’t seem too busy, but the shop, like every other part of the Club, was packed tight. In the shop, guests were able to purchase a plethora of official Wimbledon products including: clothing, rackets, tennis shoes, balls and accessories, toweling products, key rings, bags, jewelry, gifts, and souvenirs. Like the food, most of the items available were sold at steep prices. 

Surprisingly, the walk-by Wimbledon history lesson hung on the walls outside Centre Court was FREE. Dating back to the first Championship in 1877, life size artwork lined the walls with portraits of the Gentlemen’s Singles, Gentlemen’s Doubles, Ladies’ Singles, Ladies’ Doubles, and Mixed Doubles winners with their respective years. Portraits included the United States’ Williams sisters and last year’s Men’s Singles champion, Roger Federer of Switzerland.

In fact, there were quite a few portraits of Roger Federer lining the walls. His first being in 2003, Federer has won seven Wimbledon Championships. But he won’t be winning one this year. Last week, Federer experienced his earliest exit from Wimbledon since 2002, when he was defeated in the second round by Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.

With upsets so far including Sharapova, Williams, Nadal, and Federer, guests attending Wimbledon on Friday were excited to see what the day had in store. Finally, around 2:00 PM, the roof opened on Centre Court and matches commenced. 

I was able to see a match between Alexandr Dolgopolov, 24, top-ranked Ukrainian male tennis player (although he may have some competition due to Stakhovsky’s defeat over Federer), and Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo, 25. The match had been rained out the day before and after hours of waiting, the pair was finally given the chance to prove their talent. 

On Thursday, the standings were at  6-4 3-0, favoring Dolgopolov. The break allowed a tired Giraldo to rest, but on Friday he couldn’t catch his breath. Just when we thought Giraldo was on a roll, tricking Dolgopolov with drop shots and pulling ahead, Giraldo would repeatedly fail to serve his ball over the net, making it easy for Dolgopolov to regain his lead. At one point, Giraldo even shouted out in anger when his opponent came back near the end of the game to win both the game and the set. The match ended 6-4, 7-5, 6-3, with Dolgopolov defeating Giraldo and moving on to play No. 4, David Ferrer. 

Matches continued throughout the day, on and off due to the starting and stopping of rain. At the end of the Day 5, losers included Sharapova-defeater, Michelle Larcher de Brito, and Federer-defeater, Sergiy Stakhovsky. Winners included Britain’s own Andy Murray, 26, and Laura Robson, 19. 

Saturday, June 29th

On Saturday, I went with some friends to the Portobello Market, an enormous outdoor street market in Notting Hill. It took us about three hours to get through one side and we still left with unseen territory. The market included fresh food, handmade jewelry, and lots of creative screen tees. There were many vintage clothing shops lining the streets as well that we loved getting a peek inside of. The market was a great place for souvenirs and a great place to enjoy the sunny weather in general. One of the coolest parts of the market was an old VW bus that had been transformed into a coffee shop. Couches had been set up on the street and with the graffiti backdrop it was a perfect spot for young people to hang out.

Sunday, June 30th

Sunday was tourist day. We decided to get all of our sight-seeing out of the way. Starting with Buckingham Palace, we saw the changing of the guards. Well, we tried. It was so crowded that there wasn't very much to see so we left halfway through. We then continued on to Big Ben, took some photos, and headed to lunch. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and some caesar salads before getting back on the tube and heading to the Tower of London. Once there, we were told that we should come back another day due to the amount of people in line to see the Crown Jewels. It was 3 PM, but with the tower closing at 5:30, we would have been standing in line for so long that we wouldn't have made it in before closing.

Monday, July 1st

With no class on Monday, we woke up determined to make it to the Tower of London at a decent time. We left the dorms around 9:30 AM and planned to be inside the tower by 10. All did NOT go according to plan. After going out of the way on the tube to be able to switch lines, we finally boarded the Circle line and headed toward our destination. Three stops away, the tube broke down. We departed the tube and after some initial struggling, eventually figured out what bus route to take. We took the bus a couple stops then got off to change to our final bus that was to take us directly to the tower. We waited. And waited. The bus wasn't coming. About 12 other buses had stopped, though! Time went on... still no bus. At this point, we had NO idea where we were and our surroundings weren't exactly comfortable. After a little bit longer of worrying, we found another tube station, got on a functioning line, and made our way to our destination. It was now 11:30 AM. After walking across Tower Bridge, we finally made it to the Tower of London - the fortress, palace, and prison -  around noon.

It was definitely worth the wait! 

A short building history (from their website): In the early 1080s, William the Conqueror began to build a massive stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. Through the centuries that followed, successive monarchs added to the fortifications. 

I kind of felt like I was in a theme park. The building didn't seem real. The place was massive. There was even an exhibit featuring all the animals that had once lived there. What do you give someone who has everything? Wild beasts. Kings and Queens were often given exotic animals as gifts and the lower classes would pay money to come see them. 

Locked in the animal cage

While walking through the grounds, I often had to remind myself that real people had actually lived and suffered here. We walked through kings' sleeping quarters, torture chambers, and finally the exhibit of the Royal Crown Jewels. It was surreal. I have never seen so many shiny objects in one place. The net worth of the jewels is more than what all the people I've ever met in my life will ever make combined! It was beautiful - yet oddly uncomfortable seeing them directly after seeing the room (right across the street) where men had been tortured to their death.

Where the Crown Jewels are kept 

Torture device

Tuesday, July 2nd

After class on Tuesday, we went on a backstage tour of the National Theater. We learned all about the history of the theaters inside and how the changing of the sets work. We got to see where all the props are held and learned about how they are made. The tour wasn't very long, but passing the actors in the hallways backstage definitely got me excited for our return there next week to see Strange Interlude. 

Wednesday, July 3rd

On Wednesday evening, we had the opportunity to go see Hofesh Shechter Company's "Political Mother: The Choreographer's Cut" at Sadler's Wells. Initially, with a line of string instruments I was worried that I would be a distraction with my persistent cough I've yet to rid of. I soon learned that would not be a problem. This was no ordinary modern dance. After a few minutes of violins and cellos, the stage lit up with an ear-shattering heavy metal rock band. I can honestly say I have never seen or heard anything like this. I cannot put an emphasis on how loud it was. Though I was thoroughly entertained with the production and the idea as a whole, I wasn't entirely impressed with the choreography. No doubt, it was a very good performance and the dancers executed it with perfection. However, with such potential both with the story and the music, I expected the choreography to be right in line. Nonetheless, it was an experience I will never forget. Both the band and the audience were head-banging while a group of modern dancers were performing in front of us simultaneously. My hat's off to the guy who had this brilliant idea. The more I think about it, the more I loved it.