Day 5: June 10, 2014

Well, the day began terribly, so I'm going to rant for a little bit. If you don't want to hear about it, skip to the second paragraph. I'm not sure if my roommate is passive aggressively getting back at me for something or if she just doesn't think. I'm thinking it's the first, but for what I don't know. I set my alarm on the phone for 7:00 am every morning. The sound only has 2 volumes, on and off, but isn't loud at all. Well I did not wake up at 7. Instead, I woke up at 8:45. This normally would not be a problem except that we were all leaving on a tour at 9 am, and we had to meet in the lobby at 8:55 at the latest. As soon as I w's aware of the time I jumped up and began putting clothes on. I made a comment, "I can't believe my alarm didn't go off." She responds with, "Yes it did. I meant to wake you up at 15 minutes till, but I guess I forgot." I was livid, but didn't have time to respond. All I could do was get dressed, wash my face, and brush my hair. No time for food or anything else. I get down to the else. Right before we leave, she asks me, "Are you ready?" I said, in an obviously annoyed tone, "As ready as I'm going to be." It is this next statement that leads to believe that this was not an accident. She responds with, "That's impressive; I didn't think you were going to make it." We share a bedroom, how do you forget to wake someone up when we have to be downstairs at a certain time? Also, if someone sets an alarm it can be assumed that they want to wake up at a specific time. Not be left alone until 15 before leaving. After I had calmed down a bit, I asked her on the elevator if that happens again, and we have an early scheduled trip, if she would please wake me up and not wait 15 minutes until we have to leave. She responds with, "Is 30 minutes ok?" I wanted to turn and yell obscenities at her. I know that it isn't her responsibility to make sure that I'm awake, but we're all human and mistakes happen. I would not have done the same thing to her, in fact, I still wouldn't because it wouldn't be right.

Now that that my rant is out of the way, I would just like to begin this with the statement that I have never walked over so many dead people in my life, and I have incredibly mixed feelings about it. I think what Americans view as respecting the dead just isn't an option in England and they do things their own way. We had a scheduled tour at Westminster Abbey. The Abbey's builder originally had three purposes in mind. He wanted it to be used as a burial place for saints, for coronations, and also a boy's school/monastery. Nobody has been Burris in the abbey since 1920. Pictures were not aloud inside of the actual building, so I couldn't get many. The church was originally named St. Peter's Church. Here is a picture. The name was changed during King Henry VIII's reformation of religion. It's name comes from being in the town of Westminster. King Henry VIII also used money from this church, because if was so rich to help build St. Paul's Cathedral. That is where the saying, "Stealing from Peter to pay Paul" comes from.

There are people buried everywhere, over 3,000 and it is impossible not to step on someone. We were all trying to avoid stepping on graves, so to put as at ease and to bring us all closer to him so that we would be out of the way, he did a little jig right on top of Shakespeare's best friend's grave. We were all astonished, but after that it didn't seem like anyone in our group had an issue with walking over graves. Not that we had a choice about it. The place was so packed, that we all had to just to hear what he was saying and to stay together. Some of us, including myself, even leaned against the sarcophaguses of lords and ladies at certain points. They made it impossible to touch the sarcophagus of any true royalty. First we went to the corner dedicated to science where Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried. Then as we continued our tour we learned a lot of interesting gossip/tales about some of the royalty and lords and ladies hurried in the abbey. Some were about their lives, and others were about their deaths or both. It was all very interesting. We also went to the Poet's Corner, where we saw the grave for Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Byron, and Spencer. Shakespeare is not buried in the abbey,  but in his home town of Stratford. They do have a memorial of him with a quote from his epilogue of Paradise Lost. It was a misquote, but it's still there. There were also memorials for Lewis Carol and several other authors. Some of the other burials that I found to be interesting is one for the plumber of the abbey, and also a mass grave for 10 monks who died of the Black death. Their remains still haven't been disturbed for fear that the germs may still be active. Here is a picture of me with the courtyard in the background. The entire grounds are truly gorgeous.

 

I was also able to get a picture of the oldest door in Britain.

 

After we left the abbey, we had time for lunch, but I had to go back to Nido and finish getting ready s I missed lunch. After lunch we had class and we discussed Spencer's work that I had read the night before. After class, I went back to finally eat my first meal at 5:30 and read the first two acts of Titus Andronicus. It is a lot more gruesome than I expected it to be. No wonder people are passing out. It's basically Hell on Earth, because death is too easy. Here is the link to a review of the play that we'll be seeing on Thursday.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/titus-andronicus-shakespeares-globe-theatre-review-9315656.html.

Despite it's awful gory, and demented content, I'm really enjoying this play. It brings up a lot of issues that we still have in today's society in the themes of the play. This concludes my day in London.