The Review, Overview, and Retrospekt

(I aware 'retrospekt' was spelt wrong, I was being ironic?)


It has been a month as of yesterday, of my life changing adventure in London England, for my Theatre Study abroad trip. I wanted to get a chance to breifly re-cap some of the things I experienced and a few of the things I miss especially.

I cannot attempt to number the experiences and lessons I've learned, but a few of the important lessons I took back with me would be:

-Freedom. Yeah, we've all heard that saying "Freedom isn't Free", but I learned also how much of a paradox it can be. In Never So Good, it asks the question "What does Freedom mean?"
"Freedom means ability to improve the world" while the other character counters with
"Freedom is the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want."
I realized a problem that "promised freedom" can create. Do we encourage freedom if the choice is ethically wrong? Who decides what is ethically wrong? If the majority agrees on "what is wrong" is it denying the minority their own freedom? In the end, will anyone be happy?

-Totalization
I'm not sure if 'totalization' is a word or not, but it came to symbolize a danger that can happen to the unaware audience member. I learned from Tim Slover, my program director, that it can be creatively restricting, to totalize ones feelings about a certain play, story, or even movie.
"I hated that play. It was horrible." That doesn't help you grow at all. Think of the play from the view point, that everything you may have not agreed with, everything that you saw in that production, was a choice. You may not have liked that choice, but the production or the director had a reason for making it, don't think of it as just an oversight.
"I didn't like this, but I did like how they did this..." Creates a wider opportunity for growth.

I learned that London is the land of the furtive glances...
Almost no one makes eye contact with you. You'll be on a train, look up just to see the person's eyes skirting away.

I learned that London-ers may not be the most outgoing of people, but once you do break through the ice, they are very friendly.

I miss everything about London, but here are a few extremes:
-TRANSPORTATION. I hate not having the ability to go to a tube station within 5 minutes, and be able to be in Barbican London in a half an hour. I miss walking out of my building, J-Walking across the street and catching a #9 Bus to Aldwych/Hammersmith or #10 to Kingscross every 3 to 4 minutes. I miss the wind rushing by in the tube station. I miss minding the Gap.

-I miss Wagamama's, Thornton's Licorice toffee, I miss Cranberries, I miss Borough Market, I miss Minstrels, I miss Heaven bars.

I miss subsidized theatre.

I miss Kew

I miss Hyde Park

I miss Cafe Nero

I miss Pret a Manger

I miss the LondonPaper guys in the purple uniforms

I miss walking up the stairs of the double decker

I miss Tesco & Sainsbury's

I miss the strange construction workers who would smoke, speak in french, eat, stare...do everything BUT construction work.

I miss the people I met.

I miss Big Ben

I miss the Thames

I DON'T miss the plumbing system's or water pressure difficulties.
The truth is that the day I left, it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. I miss everything about London.

I'll write more later.......................................

I want to thank again, all those who kept up with me on this blog. I can't believe HOW many people actually wanted to read some of my garbage. But to me, it wasn't garbage, and I needed this blog very much. I intend to continue writing some of my thoughts in this blog. To continue it along, it may not remain the London blog, but it will be my life, until my life and London reunite themselves together.

-ellesse