Half Moon
I received the Wise's Christmas letter today, and was so excited to get my very own first Christmas letter all the way over here in London! It also made me realize I should take some time for an update.
Today was the last day of classes for the term. Our final Globe class was on music, where an extraordinarily talented man told us he was NOT a lute player nor a brass player then continued to perform brilliantly on a variety of Elizabethan instruments including the lute and the trombone. Later, as a class, we experimented with editing an obscure Elizabethan play by Thomas Middleton and got through about ten lines in two hours, because we argued so much. I look forward to what I now know will be my final project for that class this term, which will be to edit a scene from another, yet undetermined Elizabethan or Jacobean play and describing my choices and theories.
I've had a great term; my MA program is the best part about this experience by far, and is worth every unsavory thing I have to deal with over here. I will be getting my British library card tomorrow, meaning I can look at real manuscripts and early printed texts from the 16th and 17th centuries as I see fit. I also have access to the Globe's small, disorganized but rich library, including the late John Gielgud's personal book collection (the signatures on inside covers alone are priceless!).
I'll be spending Christmas with a classmate and her family (both parents are academics...what a joy!) in Bristol, which will be the first time I have been outside London since I arrived. I look forward to new traditions...they value Boxing Day almost as much as Christmas, and because they have no Thanksgiving, turkey and wine is not as passe by December 25th as it is in the states. The only problem is the Christmas spirit settles in unsettlingly late here...it's the 13th and I still don't hear sleighbells.
Well, I do at work. My retail position is a bit more grating than I had thought, so I'm looking around for other opportunities that might spring up but still staying the course to pay my rent. If I have to see one more Christmas bag or sell one more cheesy aluminum Christmas tree I may throw myself out a window! I work Christmas Eve too, but thankfully only until three, when I jet off to Bristol.
I've managed to take advantage of the touristy sights of London now that I have an idea I'll be home by August. Knowing there is an end-date helps me see London not as a trap but as a glorious, long visit. I've been twice to the British museum with a USC friend over here on a semester abroad, seen the Holbein special exhibit at Tate Britain, been to the Tate Modern three times, and even yesterday saw the Globe exhibition when my friends and I were a bit fed up with studying (our MA passes get us in free to most Globe things). On our course we also got exclusive access to the excavation site of the Rose theatre, where Titus Andronicus and Henry V were performed, which lies under a protective water covering underneath a tall building down the street from the Globe. It is very neat walking past Southwark Cathedral, Westminster Palace and the Clink every class day, and I even walk down the steps Nancy was killed on in Oliver Twist (dubbed Nancy's Steps) under London Bridge. I also enjoy sitting atop the double-decker buses and exploring London that way, and between classes we walk along Waterloo Bridge between Big Ben and the Tower of London.
My house is functional if not incredibly homey. Virginia Woolf said everyone needs a room of one's own, and I don't really have that in emotional terms, but I do have surrogate homes with my various classmates (the main friends I have, since coworkers are not exactly people I hang out with, not that they're not nice people...you know what I mean). It's just nice having a group of amazingly intelligent people to be with...I had that at USC but the
difference here is we all do and know the same things so we can talk about it everywhere. We're such nerds at pubs discussing editorial theory and new bibliography when the three-piece suits all "take the piss" out of each other (make fun of) and make sloppy passes at Cockney-accented women (my housemates call them "filthy slags") at the next table. I've also spent several wonderful evenings with the Wulkans, who cook a mean dinner and offer great conversation (Jonathan is becoming a very smart, curious young man and provides a lot of theoretical and factual topics for discussion, which all of us, especially Uncle Bill and I, are more than willing to deliver) as wellas moral and emotional support.
It's cold here and supposedly will get colder. I have a scarf for the first time in my life and who knows what I'd do without it! I need to get a coat from a thrift store or something, as the small jackets I brought are quickly becoming insufficient.
So all in all the Christmas season brings some closure to the old and hope for the new. Papers are due January 6 for this term, and the next term starts two days later. I look forward to the relative freedom to write and study over the next three weeks, and continue to find new things I can learn about England and - I find more and more - about my own home country as well.
Today was the last day of classes for the term. Our final Globe class was on music, where an extraordinarily talented man told us he was NOT a lute player nor a brass player then continued to perform brilliantly on a variety of Elizabethan instruments including the lute and the trombone. Later, as a class, we experimented with editing an obscure Elizabethan play by Thomas Middleton and got through about ten lines in two hours, because we argued so much. I look forward to what I now know will be my final project for that class this term, which will be to edit a scene from another, yet undetermined Elizabethan or Jacobean play and describing my choices and theories.
I've had a great term; my MA program is the best part about this experience by far, and is worth every unsavory thing I have to deal with over here. I will be getting my British library card tomorrow, meaning I can look at real manuscripts and early printed texts from the 16th and 17th centuries as I see fit. I also have access to the Globe's small, disorganized but rich library, including the late John Gielgud's personal book collection (the signatures on inside covers alone are priceless!).
I'll be spending Christmas with a classmate and her family (both parents are academics...what a joy!) in Bristol, which will be the first time I have been outside London since I arrived. I look forward to new traditions...they value Boxing Day almost as much as Christmas, and because they have no Thanksgiving, turkey and wine is not as passe by December 25th as it is in the states. The only problem is the Christmas spirit settles in unsettlingly late here...it's the 13th and I still don't hear sleighbells.
Well, I do at work. My retail position is a bit more grating than I had thought, so I'm looking around for other opportunities that might spring up but still staying the course to pay my rent. If I have to see one more Christmas bag or sell one more cheesy aluminum Christmas tree I may throw myself out a window! I work Christmas Eve too, but thankfully only until three, when I jet off to Bristol.
I've managed to take advantage of the touristy sights of London now that I have an idea I'll be home by August. Knowing there is an end-date helps me see London not as a trap but as a glorious, long visit. I've been twice to the British museum with a USC friend over here on a semester abroad, seen the Holbein special exhibit at Tate Britain, been to the Tate Modern three times, and even yesterday saw the Globe exhibition when my friends and I were a bit fed up with studying (our MA passes get us in free to most Globe things). On our course we also got exclusive access to the excavation site of the Rose theatre, where Titus Andronicus and Henry V were performed, which lies under a protective water covering underneath a tall building down the street from the Globe. It is very neat walking past Southwark Cathedral, Westminster Palace and the Clink every class day, and I even walk down the steps Nancy was killed on in Oliver Twist (dubbed Nancy's Steps) under London Bridge. I also enjoy sitting atop the double-decker buses and exploring London that way, and between classes we walk along Waterloo Bridge between Big Ben and the Tower of London.
My house is functional if not incredibly homey. Virginia Woolf said everyone needs a room of one's own, and I don't really have that in emotional terms, but I do have surrogate homes with my various classmates (the main friends I have, since coworkers are not exactly people I hang out with, not that they're not nice people...you know what I mean). It's just nice having a group of amazingly intelligent people to be with...I had that at USC but the
difference here is we all do and know the same things so we can talk about it everywhere. We're such nerds at pubs discussing editorial theory and new bibliography when the three-piece suits all "take the piss" out of each other (make fun of) and make sloppy passes at Cockney-accented women (my housemates call them "filthy slags") at the next table. I've also spent several wonderful evenings with the Wulkans, who cook a mean dinner and offer great conversation (Jonathan is becoming a very smart, curious young man and provides a lot of theoretical and factual topics for discussion, which all of us, especially Uncle Bill and I, are more than willing to deliver) as wellas moral and emotional support.
It's cold here and supposedly will get colder. I have a scarf for the first time in my life and who knows what I'd do without it! I need to get a coat from a thrift store or something, as the small jackets I brought are quickly becoming insufficient.
So all in all the Christmas season brings some closure to the old and hope for the new. Papers are due January 6 for this term, and the next term starts two days later. I look forward to the relative freedom to write and study over the next three weeks, and continue to find new things I can learn about England and - I find more and more - about my own home country as well.