Day 7: Thursday, July 9 - An Evensong Evening

I went to bed early last night and slept in today and felt almost as good as new. Who knew sleep was so important!!!

Today we had an extra class at the end of the day because one of our Trinity professors is extremely pregnant and wants to get as ahead as possible in case she pops before the program ends. So I got out at around 5pm and headed straight for Kings College where there was an Evensong service at 5:30pm. Evensong is an evening Anglican mass that is usually sung-through (mostly) by a choir and the Kings College Choir is one of the best. Click here for a recent youtube video of the choir. I was lucky enough to get a seat right next to them and they were heavenly (pardon the pun). It was quite short, at about 45 mins in length. Just enough for my limited attention span.

Inside the great court of Kings College.


After the mass, I got an avocado sandwich wrap and an ice cream, walked around for a bit, then went back to my room to catch up on my interneting. Then it was off to bed.

Day 6: Wednesday, July 8 - A DNA Day

Class from 11:30 - 3:30, as usual. Then everyone from the program met up at the Eagle pub, the famed pub where Watson & Crick first realized the double-helix structure of DNA, back in 1953.





Other than that historical nugget, the pub was nothing special. Still cool to visit the exact spot where Watson & Crick had their alcohol-induced DNA epiphany.


Switching from the science to the arts, as I often do, I then headed to the famed ADC Theatre to see a new one-act play, This View of Life, debuting as part of the Darwin Festival here at Cambridge. The play was interesting but I really was not in the mood for it and found it quite whiny and long-winded. Perhaps I would've like it more on another day. Oh well.



Since I was so tired and blah I decided to call it a night and go to bed early. Easier said than done, as Shari skyped me at 11:30pm!!!

Day 5: Tuesday, July 7 - A Night at the Opera!

By this time, I had narrowed my classes down to the three mentioned above. All still very interesting. 'Nuff about that!

After class, and despite the fact that I was still pretty tired and dragged out, I decided to bite the bullet and head down to London for the evening to see Il barbiere di Siviglia the at the Royal Opera House. The production starred star Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez and star American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. I had planned on catching this one at some point while over here, but after I read that Ms. DiDonato would be performing in a wheelchair as a result of breaking her leg the performance before, I just had to see it that night. I rang up the box office, snagged myself a ticket, and I was off to the train station.

Usually the trip from Cambridge to London is 45 mins on a train that is non-stop. Just my luck, the train before mine that stopped at like 8 stops on its way to London was canceled, making MY train the train that was to stop at EVERY station along the way. I was not impressed. What made matters worse, in my rush to leave, I forgot my iPod and didn't have time to eat lunch. And on top of that, the girl in from of me talked on her cell phone the ENTIRE journey. Her voice was one of those 20-something nasally brit chic voices. So grating. Apparently she had missed her train and was going to be 5 mins late for work, so she felt the need to tell every single contact in her phone about it. And about how her boyfriend isn't the best person it the world but he tries. "We all have our faults," she opines. Some more than others,my dear. The old man who sat next to me for the last half of the 1.5 hour trip smelled of mothballs so strongly that I had to cover my nose with my scarf. Than god for that scarf.

So I finally get there,my stomach eating itself, and it's freezing and pouring rain. It seems whenever I'm in London in the summer, it has the biggest rainfall its had in 20 years. They said the same thing last year. This time it closed one of the tube lines. Typ. So anyway, it's raining and cold, but no matter cause what do my weary eyes see?!?! Yep, you guessed it; the golden arches!! I was so happy I could cry. So after eating and crying tears of joy, I headed to Covent Garden, where the Royal Opera House is. It's a beautiful house on the inside, not very grand on the outside. On the way, I stopped off to get some water and some Smarties for the show. I NEVER wanna be stuck hungry in England ever again.

My seat in the theatre is pretty high up, but no biggie. It was still perfect, as I had a full view of the stage and the acoustics were great. The show started a few minutes late because Ms. DiDonato had JUST received her wheelchair minutes before and, instead of being pushed around it in, she wanted to do it on her own. Good decision. The performance was absolutely amazing. Even without the wheelchair story, the production, with its all-star cast, has been receiving rave reviews. The wheelchair seemed to enhance the camp comedic aspect of the show, and Ms. DiDonato later said that being so confined helped her to further explore and bring out those same feelings felt by the character of Rosina as she tries to break free from her unpleasant situation. It definitely worked. After "Una voce poco fa", Rosina's big aria in Act I, the audience went nuts giving DiDonato what felt like a 5 minute ovation. Both she and Juan Diego Florez blew me away with their voices. So much power and so perfect, technically. It gave me chills, and made the headache getting there (and back!!) well worth it.

They both got a very long ovation in the middle of Act II. (Click on the pics for much bigger ones.)

The curtain calls were lovely and exciting. This is Juan Diego Florez.

Joyce DiDonato wheeling herself onstage for her curtain call.

Enjoying her much-deserved ovation.

I rushed out right after to try to make the 11:15 train back to Cambridge from Kings Cross. After running through the tube station and the train station likeone of those people we all roll our eyes at, I finally made it, with only a minute to spare. I was lucky...or so I thought...

In England they do this thing where they perform maintenance on train tracks and subway lines during times of minimal use, like on evenings and weekends (what about the tourists??). The worst part about it is there's no advance warning. One learns about it as it's happening. This is what happened to me. I thought I was quickly and quietly on my way back to Cambridge...not so. I would have to get off at Hitchin (????) then take a waiting bus to Cambridge. If you thought a the bus would go directly to Cambridge, as I did, you'd be mistaken. It proceeded to drive to every single train station that the train had stopped at on the way to London. Every one. Can you imagine how long that took!?!? I finally got home around 2am, feeling car-sick and very hungry. Everything in Cambridge closes at around 6pm so I was worried I'd be sick and hungry til the shops opened in the morning. Thank god there was a "chips" stand (or as Shari calls them, "fry wagons") in the Market Square. Again I was eating and crying tears of joy. I finally made it up to my room and promptly went to bed. Great night overall.

Day 4: Monday, July 6 - Rain, rain go away...

I know, I know, I've been slacking on the blogging. But I haven't been feeling very well, sadly. Not "sick", just under the weather. Most of today has been spent in class or in my room, so I'll just do a little recap of this day since not much happened.

There are five classes we can choose from here, with the option of taking no more than three. They are: International Comparative Criminal Law, European Constitutionalism, EU Trade Law, International Women's Rights, And EC Competition/Antitrust Law. I had originally intended on taking just the EU Trade and EU Competition classes but, like most students, I sat in on the other classes the first day to make sure I made the right choice. The Women's Rights class was so fun that I toyed with the idea of adding that class too.

As expected, after class I was tired and not feeling the best so I walked around a bit. It was at this point that I was caught in a torrential downpour. Thank god I had my brolly, but with all the lightening, I wondered how safe that was!!! It stopped after about 10 minutes, then in true English (and Michigan!) fashion, the sun was back out. By this time, I was really tired, so I called it a night and went back to my room to retire for the night.

The thunderstorm in brewing...


...the heavens open...


...I duck in here for safe cover...



...waiting patiently for it to blow over. Finally I stopped waiting and just got on with trying to find my way back. I was already soaked from head to toe, so I couldn't get any wetter.

Day 3: Sunday, July 5 - I arrive at Cambridge

In the morning we got an early start and went to the Hammersmith Vintage Fair. This is where I got the gorgeous red dress that I wore to the Chicago Lyric Opera's opening night last year. Last year we saw some lovely vintage porn at the fair but this year we were not so lucky. Even more unlucky was that my host's friend had an unfortunate pet emergency that morning as we were at the fair. So sad (not about the fair being cut short, but about the kitty of course). That turned out to be my cue to skidaddle.

Although it was a bit earlier than I had planned to leave for the train station, it was good that I got an early move on. I had walked to the Ravenscourt Park tube station but it was closed. I thought perhaps they were doing maintenance on it like last time, so i walked down to the Hammersmith station. Turns out that both the District and the Piccadilly lines were down because of a person under a train at Kings Cross station. That meant that Kings Cross station was closed too. So I had to take the Hammersmith line and get off at Euston Square station then walk all the way to Kings Cross with my painfully gigantic suitcase. I like to think I burned off some of the Epoisses on this journey. I finally got to Kings Cross and this is what I saw...

Luckily, even though the tube part of the station was closed, the National Rail station was still open so the trains to Cambridge were still running. The journey is about 45 minutes. Then a quick cab from the Cambridge station to Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. Trinity was founded by Henry VIII and is the richest of the colleges at Cambridge. Take a look!


My residence hall.


Pleasantly surprised by the rooms. Bigger than many European hotel rooms.


After getting settled, all of the students in the program gathered for a tour followed by a reception hosted by one of the Trinity professors.


At the reception I struck up a conversation with a Federal judge and we ended up going out to dinner. Interesting and lots of fun. Then I retired back to my room for some much needed sleep. Not feeling very well, physically. Hopefully some more sleep will do the trick.

And so it's good night from me!

Day 2: Saturday, July 4 - London Funtivities

At my request, we started the day off at Portobello Road fighting crowds, dodging rain, kissing doggies, eating sushi, and browsing antiques. RC jokes that I like to shop for tools and electronics while she's admiring the jewelery. As if!! While out, we got some Epoisses and some raspberries, strawberries, and cherries at the market. Yummers. The cheese was so strong it could be detected yards away from the bag. Thankfully, I was NOT the one carrying it. Ernie loved it.


After a Pimms at a bar I don't know the name of, and a quick rest at the house in the garden, we were off to the theatre again. On the way to the West End, we inadvertently encountered London's Pride celebration. Drunk, half-naked queens prancing throughout the streets. Fun stuff! Especially in 85 degree weather.


Before the show we made the traditional stop at Wagamama and got our usual plus a bottle of Riesling. In true lightweight fashion, I felt the Riesling for the rest of the night.

The show was Sondheim's "A Little Night Music." Surprisingly, I had never seen it before but I thought it was well done. Great direction by Trevor Nunn and the acting was quite good too. The singing...not so much. These days young West End singers sound like American high school musical voices - very untrained and lacking in power and technique. It still astonishes me every time I see a musical over here. Nevertheless, the show was a winner.

We ended up going straight back to the house after the show, though I wish we could've stayed out a bit later to enjoy the festivities (and the crazy people-watching). It was a really fun day and night and I can't wait to do it again!

Day 1: July 3 - I have arrived!

So I've made it to London! Yay! Time of arrival 11:25am - on time, and in one piece. After all the recent plane crashes and the big O'Hare computer glitch issue, I was beginning to wonder.

I am having so much fun already. I really love it here.

First things first, on the advice of my gracious host, I had a little cat-nap. Then I was off to get a fountain diet coke and to get my travel phone unlocked. Chiswick has some great little shops. I'll have to check them out again when I have more time. Then we were off to see Forbidden Broadway at the Menier Chocolate Factory. It was fab, as expected. Lots of timely, clever references to West End shows and some oldies-but-goodies thrown in too. And I thought the theatre was a great little space. There is a restaurant too where one can eat and/or get lit before the show. Did both (obviously). Overall, a GREAT day to start my trip. Now time for bed. Looking forward to tomorrow!

The cool street the theatre was on.

i've pulled the trigger

i know it's not time yet, but i felt the fact that i've finally booked my dates to be somewhat "rationally related" and "relevant" enough to warrant a post (gotta love law jargon, eh). either that, or i just wanted to do another post cause i like looking at the thames pic above. anyway, i'll be minding the gap from july 2 til july 21 (with some cambridge'ing in between). that's a lot of minding...

and good day to yous.

testing 1 2 3. stay tuned...