Stratford upon Avon is the most polar opposite to London while still being a big tourist location in England. While London is big on night life and staying out late, Stratford upon Avon is pretty much closed by 6 P.M. while London is always fast moving and crowded, Stratford is relatively calm and slow. What they have in common is an abundance of delicious gelato, which I will dearly miss.
I am also going to miss some of the cultural aspects that are different in England than in the U.S. the biggest of these is definitely the meal deal, which is at almost every convenience store in London and I have not seen at all in the U.S. the mix of convenience and variety. I also really liked the culture of mostly take out versus eating in. There were many restaurants where eating in wasn’t an option, and there was often a surcharge for eating in the restaurant. Having the option to just grab some food from pretty much any spot in London was great during busier days so I didn’t have to halt my plans.
The biggest difference I noticed culturally was the way that customer service worked. I am used to in small stores in Arkansas being somewhat greeted at the door and at restaurants have a waiter regularly come over to check on me. In London, most restaurants would leave you alone after ordering your food, maybe checking on you once or twice if you were there for a while. As someone who sometimes gets anxious talking to new people, I appreciated the conversations mainly being on the customer and not being assumed. I also feel like it is better for the workers in London because they don’t have to constantly pretend to be super happy and talkative like they do at many businesses in the U.S.
The biggest take away I got from this study abroad came from My Neighbor Totoro. I often have a frustration, especially within the last couple of years, that I have had trouble describing. Even now I have a hard time putting words too it but the best way I can describe it is a desire for accomplishment or closeness to a particular idea. Be it a design, character, or abstract concept I would want to express it in a way I did not know how. Creative projects would help with the frustration, and sometimes sated it somewhat for a time, but more often than not it would lead to half finished projects or dropped hobbies trying to get close to the idea. Recently with the frustration I have had a fear that it may not be something I can fully get rid of, that the desire for closeness and frustration for being unable to achieve it may just be something I have to live with. That changed when I saw Totoro. Everything about the puppet, it’s stage presence, the way it moved, the way it felt alive, blew me away. It scratched that itch at the back of my brain, that frustration, in a way that nothing else has quite been able to hit. I still can’t place specifically what it was about Totoro that hit that mark, but just the knowledge that it exists, that the frustration can be stopped, has been deeply calming for me. Next time that frustration and anxiety starts to rise, if it does, I feel like it will be much easier to manage because while I don’t know exactly what it is, I know there is a concrete solution, and have at least a jumping off point to replicate it.While the production My Neighbor Totoro certainly had its problems, and was not the best show we saw objectively, it definitely had the most impact on me and I believe will lead to long term improvement to my life as a theater maker.
Before this trip I did not really believe in a singular life altering experience, and to a certain degree I still don’t. People are such a odd combination of experiences and genetics and I don’t think one month can fully change a person, but I feel like this study abroad has definitely caused a shift in me, and I am excited to get back to Arkansas and get to work.
Theatre in London U of A 