Wednesday, September 24th
Started off the day with history class- another professor who is also very passionate about what he does… and also incredibly proud to be an Irishman residing in Europe. We had our entire first lecture on this history of Ireland… in our British History course. He is a pianist, and therefore has an appreciation for music, which was nice because we got to listen to several musical excerpts in class. Cody and I rather enjoyed it. You could tell there was just so much he wanted to fit into the class, but couldn’t.
I learned a lot about the battles of the Irish resistance to the English, and how this related to the American Revolution and the French Revolution. It was also interesting relating all of this back to the original causes, the Protestant Reformation, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, which I basically spent an entire semester on back at Point. Thank you Larry Ball for enlightening me with your brilliance.
One particular bit I thought interesting was through the music we heard. Green symbolizes the resistance to the protestants and the commitment to keeping their identity. The song we heard from that was “Wearing of the Green.” Orange represents northern Ireland, accepting the new ways introduced by Queen Victoria, and the very British region. The song we heard from that was “The Sash My Father Wore.”
After class, I had lunch with Cody and then ended up going back to my room to google how to get to the Globe Theatre since I was one of the only ones who didn’t have class before we had to leave. GoogleMaps makes me very happy- international awesomeness.
A group of us got there and watched one of the best plays I’ve ever seen… and it’s only my first one here. Wow. It was such an incredible show. We saw a comedy by Shakespeare called “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” The acting was wonderful, and the emotion each character conveyed was incredible. It was absolutely hilarious! I laughed so hard. I particularly enjoyed the scene where the wives were going on an incredibly excitable tirade, trying to get Falstaff to hide in a basket without directly saying to do so. In the end of their exuberant rant, they finally pause and say “look- a basket…” It was so perfect. For those of you who know me and my “Look a mountain!” deal… you can see why I laughed so hard.
Of course, most people are probably lost with that explanation, but all I can say is see the play sometime, even if you are intimidated by Shakespeare. It was absolutely HILARIOUS. The costumes were awesome; the pit orchestra was great and they played traditional Elizabethean instruments. Our tickets were amazing as well. We had standing spots, but it was worth it because we were right in front of the stage, and part of the stage actually wraped around us, with the actors walking around us in a circle the entire show. There were times where we were literally looking straight up at them, literally no more that 6 inches away, because we were so close we were leaning on the stage… and our feet were tired from standing so long. Totally worth it though.
One thing that I have definitely learned to appreciate more over the years, is my actual appreciation for the arts and how much of me it has become. Those who have performed, or who have become so emotionally involved with such things have had the appreciation of the feeling of captivation delivered by such performances. It is truly an indescribable feeling. I always try to describe it as having so much emotion built up inside of you with no way to effectively release it. I feel so fortunate to be able to experience such things, in addition to having the opportunity to be a part of them as well.
I am usually very pleased with any performance, but this was definitely one of the standouts. Such a well done presentation, combined with the Globe Theatre, and my excitement for all of the amazingness of the arts this city will be offering me in the coming few months left me in awe and almost filled with tears of excitement at the end of the show.
Anyway, enough of my being sappy and incredibly excited about all of my passions in this world… We made our way back to the tube, walking past Millennium Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral along with the rest of the beautiful lit up view the Thame’s shoreline had to offer. What a beautiful city- I’m only sad that I have been so busy with settling in, and getting accustomed to classes and other necessities that I haven’t had time to do much sight-seeing as of yet.
When we returned, we went to the ISH bar, socialized for a bit, and then decided that we were starving since we hadn’t eaten supper and it was now nearly midnight. We walked maybe a mile looking for something that was open, and then ended up calling out for a pizza and walking back to ISH. I would carry on about the long ordeal and lots and lots of walking all over the place to try to find something open, but that would be exhausting and probably a bit boring to the reader, as I already write too much, and in great detail as it is. Morale of the story: we got our pizza.
Started off the day with history class- another professor who is also very passionate about what he does… and also incredibly proud to be an Irishman residing in Europe. We had our entire first lecture on this history of Ireland… in our British History course. He is a pianist, and therefore has an appreciation for music, which was nice because we got to listen to several musical excerpts in class. Cody and I rather enjoyed it. You could tell there was just so much he wanted to fit into the class, but couldn’t.
I learned a lot about the battles of the Irish resistance to the English, and how this related to the American Revolution and the French Revolution. It was also interesting relating all of this back to the original causes, the Protestant Reformation, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, which I basically spent an entire semester on back at Point. Thank you Larry Ball for enlightening me with your brilliance.
One particular bit I thought interesting was through the music we heard. Green symbolizes the resistance to the protestants and the commitment to keeping their identity. The song we heard from that was “Wearing of the Green.” Orange represents northern Ireland, accepting the new ways introduced by Queen Victoria, and the very British region. The song we heard from that was “The Sash My Father Wore.”
After class, I had lunch with Cody and then ended up going back to my room to google how to get to the Globe Theatre since I was one of the only ones who didn’t have class before we had to leave. GoogleMaps makes me very happy- international awesomeness.
A group of us got there and watched one of the best plays I’ve ever seen… and it’s only my first one here. Wow. It was such an incredible show. We saw a comedy by Shakespeare called “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” The acting was wonderful, and the emotion each character conveyed was incredible. It was absolutely hilarious! I laughed so hard. I particularly enjoyed the scene where the wives were going on an incredibly excitable tirade, trying to get Falstaff to hide in a basket without directly saying to do so. In the end of their exuberant rant, they finally pause and say “look- a basket…” It was so perfect. For those of you who know me and my “Look a mountain!” deal… you can see why I laughed so hard.
Of course, most people are probably lost with that explanation, but all I can say is see the play sometime, even if you are intimidated by Shakespeare. It was absolutely HILARIOUS. The costumes were awesome; the pit orchestra was great and they played traditional Elizabethean instruments. Our tickets were amazing as well. We had standing spots, but it was worth it because we were right in front of the stage, and part of the stage actually wraped around us, with the actors walking around us in a circle the entire show. There were times where we were literally looking straight up at them, literally no more that 6 inches away, because we were so close we were leaning on the stage… and our feet were tired from standing so long. Totally worth it though.
One thing that I have definitely learned to appreciate more over the years, is my actual appreciation for the arts and how much of me it has become. Those who have performed, or who have become so emotionally involved with such things have had the appreciation of the feeling of captivation delivered by such performances. It is truly an indescribable feeling. I always try to describe it as having so much emotion built up inside of you with no way to effectively release it. I feel so fortunate to be able to experience such things, in addition to having the opportunity to be a part of them as well.
I am usually very pleased with any performance, but this was definitely one of the standouts. Such a well done presentation, combined with the Globe Theatre, and my excitement for all of the amazingness of the arts this city will be offering me in the coming few months left me in awe and almost filled with tears of excitement at the end of the show.
Anyway, enough of my being sappy and incredibly excited about all of my passions in this world… We made our way back to the tube, walking past Millennium Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral along with the rest of the beautiful lit up view the Thame’s shoreline had to offer. What a beautiful city- I’m only sad that I have been so busy with settling in, and getting accustomed to classes and other necessities that I haven’t had time to do much sight-seeing as of yet.
When we returned, we went to the ISH bar, socialized for a bit, and then decided that we were starving since we hadn’t eaten supper and it was now nearly midnight. We walked maybe a mile looking for something that was open, and then ended up calling out for a pizza and walking back to ISH. I would carry on about the long ordeal and lots and lots of walking all over the place to try to find something open, but that would be exhausting and probably a bit boring to the reader, as I already write too much, and in great detail as it is. Morale of the story: we got our pizza.
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