Every place on earth has it's goods and bads right? Let's not forget that London is a giant city with millions of inhabitants and the Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world.
At least, let's not forget this again.
It makes sense that the program bought our tickets to the plays so far in advance. Most of the shows we've seen are completely sold out. Amanda and I are really lucky we got into Once before Arthur Darvil left that weekend. (Then again, Once has run for a year.) Basically, it's easy to forget how many people there are and how slim your chances of getting to do things you want are. At the beginning of our trip, we tried to go the the Imperial War Museum over about south bank. Well, it's closed until July. Things like that are alright though. It's things like yesterday that suck.
First off, the day before yesterday we tried to get into a Museums at Night showcase as well, but we didn't realize until just before we left that they wanted people to make reservations and by that time, they were booked out. At least we hadn't left the flat yet.
So yesterday morning we had a class Shakespeare Walking Tour led by our professors. Lucky for us, one part of the tour was the rebuilt globe theatre. Amanda and I have wanted to see Much Ado About Nothing (my favorite Shakespeare show) before it closes, and we now had the perfect opportunity to swing by and purchase tickets. It turned out we had to come back because the walking tour wasn't quite finished yet, so after lunch at Borough Market, we walked back to the Globe.
The moment we said the words Much Ado, the box office worker stopped looking at his computer, took his hands off the key board, and shook his head. Completely sold out for the rest of the run. I can't really describe how disappointed I felt, but I tried to shake it off and feel content knowing we'd be back to see Antony and Cleopatra with the program.
We went back to the Kensington area around two to do homework and laundry before leaving for the next big thing I desperately wanted to do. Another activity in the Museums and Night weekend, I had found an interactive one night only murder mystery in the College of London Darwin Museum. We double checked that we needed no ticket, ate light because they were going to feed us some, and headed out early since it was first come first serve.
Then we made our first mistake. The 49 bus is very convenient for us since it starts at the top of our street and takes us right to the tube station. So, in a hurry as we were, we decided to wait for it to come. The bus comes every 7-10 minutes constantly. Or so they say. We waited twenty minutes. We could've walked there in ten or less, but we waited, each moment more anxious.
When we finally got to the station and squeezed on a crowded rush hour train, I thought, all is well now. We'll be a little later than we planned, but still early. Little did I know, the circle line trains are painfully slow. They don't run at full speed. Not only that, but they kept stopping. All the announcement would say was, we have a red light. It was maddening. Sometimes the lights flicker off for a while as well. At this point, I'm fully frustrated. I'm scared we aren't going to make it for the opening of the doors. If you could hear my inner monologue, it might have sounded like this -
So slow were the trains that I knew we were now going to be late. Way late. My only hope was that not very many people knew about it or they were opening it up to a lot of people. To make a long, angry story short, we didn't make it. There were 500 people there by the time we showed up and they only let 200 in. That being the second crushing blow to my hopes that day, I broke down.
Like I said, London is a huge place with millions of people, not to mention tourists. The tube ride home felt even longer.
I'm not trying to be depressing, although I'm depressing myself rehashing it (too soon probably). I've had many wonderful experiences and the weather was freakin cloudless and 70 yesterday (perfect). But sometimes it's not perfect living in a huge city.
But despite the bad timing and ugly attitude, there was some good in the trip.
Maybe I was slap happy.
Maybe it was so ridiculous I couldn't help myself.
Probably it was a mixture of the two.
This guy got on the circle train with his guitar and started busking.
He was good. But the mixture of his long silver hair pulled back in a ponytail, leather jacket, and the way british people treat noise (like it isn't happening) was so hilarious to me. I was trying so hard not to laugh, but as he wandered up and down the isles for donations (remember the circle line is so slow while running, you could play a guitar and walk around without falling over) I kept giggling. I broke down one time and completely laughed out loud. It was the most entertaining thing outside of a Theatre I've seen thus far for sure.
The last day and a half have been homework filled for me. I started my two online classes yesterday and finished everything due this weekend before I leave for Wales tomorrow.
I also got my grades from last semester, a 4.0
Every little thing is gunna be alright.
I just have to find things to laugh about when it gets frustrating or sad!
~Jamie
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