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Wednesday my group made a pilgrimage to Stonehenge and Avebury. It was a very rainy day, but the trip was great. Stonehenge was not as huge as I thought it would be, but it still had a mystical air about it. Even if the stones weren't there, the place itself would maintain that quality.
Avebury was a small town with another stone circle structure. This one wasn't in tact completely, but again, the town had a special feel to it. My favorite parts of Avebury were visiting the Gothic church in the town and eating at the pub around the corner. The church was an incredible site. It had all of the classic Gothic attributes I've studied. It was small and quiet, which was nice and it had guilt paintings, a carved altarpiece and a stain glass window up front. (Not a rose window though.)
The pub we visited, called the Red Lion, was really, really cool. I bought this ale called Scrumpy Jack's. It was so good - cider with a pucker! I also had fish and chips for the first time since I've been here. It came with a side of mushy peas which were SO SO SO good. I loved them so much I'm going to get a recipe for them to bring back to the US!
On Thursday, I had a hellishly long day. First, my train route shut down, so I had to take the long way around to the gallery. Then that route closed too and was STUCK in the middle of London, the farthest point from the Victoria & Albert Museum (where I was trying to go.) I walked around looking for a bus or tube station that could tell me where I was going, no one knew how to help me and THEN it started raining. Downpouring, actually. When I finally found a police officer to help me, I ended up having to take the Central line to the Picadilly line all the way down to the V & A. It took over a half hour for me to get there that way, which is 1/3 the amount of time it would have taken if they hadn't shut down the line I was originally supposed to use.
By the time I got to class, it was half over and I was wet and miserable. I didn't even eat breakfast that morning so I was starving too. But thankfully both Jody and Gary let our classes out early, so I had time to do some looking around the gift shops and get a shower before our group went to see the Lord of the Rings play.
Now the LOTR play was very interesting. Visually I couldn't figure out how it was going to translate on stage. And it was a musical. And it's an incredibly long series with tons of important details. I just didn't see how it was going to work.
BUT ... it did. They used a rotating stage with platforms that adjusted height and size throughout. It was very difficult blocking and I'm shocked none of the actors fell off the stage. (I was told they did the first few times they performed publicly.) The lighting effects were spectacular and they were able to follow the story decently. Towards the end, much like the books and movies, it started to drag, but that wasn't unexpected.
The only part that ruined the good rating I would like to give this play, is the actress who played Galadriel. Her singing was on point and very powerful, but her acting was HORRID. Somehow she managed to take a character who is strong, wise and beautiful and turn her into a trite and relatively meaningless presence. She completely zapped the importance out of everything Galadriel says with every line delivery. It was very disappointing and I couldn't believe the director had allowed that to happen, let alone coached her to play the role in such a way.
But enough of my critique. Today I'm going to visit Westminster Abbey, Tate Modern and HOPEFULLY the National Gallery to try to get a jump start on my independent study project. Wish me luck and HAPPY 4th of JULY to everyone in the U.S.A. I'll miss you and the fireworks today!
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