6/06 – London Day 14

Hello everyone! There’s a lot to cover today, but I will start from the beginning. I slept in a little today and got Wasabi again for breakfast. I decided to go a different route today and get their curry and chicken katsu which was really good! I’ll definitely be getting it again.

After eating in the company of my roommate Tabi, we realized that all the tube stations would be down for the strike that has been ongoing during our trip. I found out the strike is happening because of a dispute over jobs and pensions (very specific, I know).  After learning this, we found out the walk to our next destination, the Westminster Abbey, was a 50-minute walk away. I already knew there wasn’t much of a chance I would walk for nearly hour and then do a tour, so Tabi and I decided to go via bus which was a great idea! We got there quickly, and we went at a good time since there weren’t huge crowds for the buses yet.

We got to the Westminster Abbey earlier than our group did, so to pass the time we got tea from the Cellarium Café & Terrace. The tea was refreshing and exactly what I needed before a long tour!

We then met up with our tour guide Molly outside of the Abbey gift shop, and as always, Molly had all answers to our questions! Before we even walked into the Abbey, we learned stuff like what the difference was between a cathedral and an abbey, and what exactly the abbey was used for. To answer these questions for you guys, abbeys house monks and nuns rather than archbishops, and it is used as a church for royals. Some more things we learned were that the Westminster Abbey is where royals have coronations and weddings, and it is much smaller than the St. Paul’s cathedral that we previously visited. That’s a lot of information to give you all right off the bat, but it’s just a taste of what we were able to learn before our tour started! I don’t think our group could have gotten any more lucky with who our tour guide was. Throughout our time together, Molly as very knowledgeable and had an answer for every question we presented to her.

When our group had everyone in it, we made our way into the Westminster Abbey. Even going through the entrance was breathtaking because we went into an alternate entrance, and as soon as we walked in, the walls were covered with memorials and sculptures. It intimidated me a little bit, but I knew from the moment we walked in that there was so much history and general knowledge I would be able to gain from our tour. I quickly learned that the Abbey is full of memorials and graves. It is virtually impossible to walk without stepping on someone’s grave, which I tried to avoid if at all possible. Something interesting about the mapping of these graves is that the some of the people buried are divided accordingly into groups such as the musicians’ aisle, the statesmen’s aisle, the scientists’ corner, and the poets’ corner. I really enjoyed both the scientists’ corner and the poets’ corner. In the scientists’ corner, I got to see memorials for Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, and Stephen Hawking. It was amazing to see how these people were represented in their memorials. For example, a lot of detail went into Sir Isaac Newton’s memorial. His memorial made reference to his four novels and depicted cherubs carrying out his life’s work.

In the poet’s corner, I was especially interested in the graves of Lewis Carroll, Percy Shelley, and William Shakespeare. Lewis Carroll was the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and was also a mathematician. Lewis Carroll is a household name because of the fame he garnered from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. There are so many spin-offs of this novel that have and are being created! His memorial was on the floor, so it was easy to miss. His memorial also queued me into the fact that he was a student of the Christ Church of Oxford and is currently buried at Guildford.

Percy Shelley is another name that I recognized instantly; however, it is not because I know him, but rather his wife Mary Shelley who authored Frankenstein.  Some of Percy’s work includes The Cenci and Prometheus Unbound. I have not read these books, but I think I will have to check them out! I honestly thought his memorial was for his wife until I noticed that the birth and death years were off. Seeing this memorial made me wonder where exactly Mary Shelley was buried, and I came to find out that she is in Bournemouth at St. Peter’s Church.

The final name that interested me was William Shakespeare, and not just because of the sheer beauty of his memorial. It is because I have a newfound interest and respect for William Shakespeare after reading about King Lear and analyzing it with my fellow study abroad students. Shakespeare was prolific in that he wrote a ton of plays, and many of them grew to be very popular. Just seeing his memorial and how opulent it was made me excited to read more of his plays to understand why he deserved such a grand memorial.

The Abbey itself was beauty personified. It has been maintained well enough to where you’re in awe when you first walk in. When you go to the Abbey, make sure you look up! There was so much detail in the ceilings that you appreciate the effort that went into the building to a greater extent. I think my favorite part of the whole tour was when we got to learn about the grave of the unknown soldier. This was a grave that represents the fallen soldiers of the First World War and is never to be stepped on. This grave was built to bring comfort to the families of these lost soldiers by allowing them to associate their loved ones with a proper burial. The grave was also surrounded by poppies, which were the flowers that surrounded the battlefield that the soldiers fought on.

After our tour of the Westminster Abbey, we said our goodbyes to Molly. Hopefully we can meet her again one day in the future! From Westminster, I met back up with my mom. Today was her last full day in London, so I 100% wanted to see her before she went back home! We walked to Chinatown, and I took her to Rasa Sayang, the Malaysian restaurant I went to at the beginning of the trip. The food was just as delicious as it was the first time around! I got the salted egg prawns, and I was surprised by just how good they were. We both got some great drinks as well, so I want to go back sometime during my trip to try out the other drinks they had on the menu! After Rasa Sayang, we got a dessert which I had never tried before that had herbal grass jelly. Underneath the herbal grass jelly there was shaved ice, and it was topped with mochi. This dessert was very refreshing! I would have never tried it on my own, so I’m glad I was able to share the experience of having it for the first time with my mom.

After we ate together, it was time to part ways with my mom and head to the show of the night, The Glass Menagerie. We were lucky enough to be able to see Amy Adams perform in this production – I absolutely love her films! The Glass Menagerie is about a southern family figuring out how they will support themselves. It centers around Tom Wingfield, Amanda Wingfield, Laura Wingfield, and Jim O’Connor. Laura and Tom are siblings, both mothered by Amanda. Jim is Laura’s love interest who turns out to be engaged to a girl that he is “going steady with”. It is important to know that Amanda is hell bent on Laura finding a husband to care for her, since she worries about Laura’s physical disability and severe shyness. Something important about this play in terms of symbolism is that Laura has a glass collection, which her mother calls a “glass menagerie”. This glass collection shadows the fragility and transparency of Laura’s life.

Seeing a quintessential American play in Great Britain was an interesting experience. To be honest, the magic of being immersed in the plot was ruined whenever I was able to hear incongruities with a true southern accent. There was also a lack of character in the portrayal of characters if that makes sense. For example, as talented and amazing as Amy Adams is, she gave a very monotone performance. I wish she would have given more emotion to drive home the point of Amanda reaching her wits end in her confrontations with Tom. Without a large range in character portrayal, I think that the most this production had going for itself was its script. I was hoping that the production we saw would make more artistic decisions than it did, and because of this, our viewing of the play just felt like a reread of the script.

Another issue I had with this performance was the set design. I have seen shows in London where the set design absolutely blows my mind. I understand that not all shows will do this; however, I was expecting there to be more meaning behind the set. I feel like nothing was placed deliberately enough for symbolism to be seen in the staging. Despite this, I will say that I enjoyed the use of the physical glass menagerie. A lot of times, you could see a character looking through the glass, and it signified that character seeing the performance as more of a memory, or from an omniscient point of view.

This play is also set in St. Louis, Missouri, and I do not think any part of the play was unique to this area. I wish that there were more artistic decisions made to play into the authenticity and essence of the setting of the play. If I viewed this play without any context, I don’t think I would know where it took place at all.

Sadly, I was very underwhelmed by this production of The Glass Menagerie. I have heard great things about other performances of it, and I was especially excited to see it after all our interesting discussions in class. If you are going to view this play, I would recommend you check the reviews of the production you will be seeing! This is because I know there are many directions to take in this play, so even though the production we saw was not a hit, the one you see may be amazing! In spite of my less than stellar review, I was still happy to see Amy Adams, and the performance by Jim’s actor was very believable and personable.

Phew! Long post, but it’s done! Tomorrow will definitely be shorter, but we did a ton of important stuff today that I am ultimately glad I did and needed to document. Until next time! 🙂