Friday 18 January 2008

Gales in Wales

Wicked was absolutely amazing. I was a little nervous going in because I knew the voices of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth so well from the soundtrack that I might not like the vocal change. But Kerry Ellis and Diane Pilkington were an incredible Elphaba and Glinda, respectively. The show was everything I had imagined it could be and more. I had figured out most of the plot through listening to the soundtrack far too many times, but I enjoyed actually seeing the show filled in the blanks and delivered an unexpected ending. Thanks, friends who have seen this before and not ruined the ending for me! Check out my excited pictures before the show. Note how close we are to the stage, too!




Kerry Ellis was incredible as Elphaba!


Glinda making Elphaba "popular."


Wicked at the Victoria Apollo Theatre.


After two years of waiting, I was very excited to see the show.


It's a little blurry, but you can kind of tell how close we were to the stage. The curtain was a map of Oz.


Pam and I pre-show.

Today we traveled to Cardiff, the capital of Wales. We booked a cheap and comfortable bus ride through Megabus and arrived here around 6 p.m. Sadly, gale-force wind and rain greeted us. After a few minor turnarounds, we managed to find our adorable hostel, Riverside Backpackers Hostel. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow and have them posted. It is newly refurbished and is incredibly stylish and comfortable. It’s owned by a really hospitable brother and sister who have been wonderful to us so far, giving us club, pub and activity suggestions for our stay. We had delicious and pretty cheap meal at a local pub called The Bethany. I had the smothered chicken, basically chicken smothered in cheese and bacon (which is actually ham here). I haven’t really had a full meal like that since I’ve been here. Needless to say, I was extremely happy.

Tomorrow, we plan on visiting Cardiff Castle in the heart of downtown Cardiff. We could see it from the window of our bus, but the darkness didn’t allow for the best view. We originally had hoped to attend a theatrical Welsh dinner there tomorrow night, but they need 40 people to attend in order to host the dinner. I guess there weren’t enough for this weeked. It’s not too surprising that January doesn’t bring in too many tourists.

I hope that we can get a good hike in tomorrow along the coast as well. The bay is only about a mile down the road from us, so I’m sure I can at least get a couple of hours down in that region. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for semi-decent weather tomorrow. It rains in the UK every day. If you ever visit, I don’t care what else you bring—just be sure that you at least have an umbrella. Besides Pete and my family, I would say that sunshine is the thing I miss the most from home. Sad but true.

I’m going to take a moment to sum up some of the things I’ve learned in my first ten days of my London/European adventure:

-Fries are called chips; chips are called crisps; cookies are called biscuits. There are so many other words and expression differences, I could spend an hour or two listing them. The most important one is not using the term “bathroom.” It is instead called “the toilet.” If this is a little too weird for you, “loo,” “W/C,” or “restroom” works just as well.
-On the subject of cultural differences, making a peace sign with two fingers is ok, but if you do that and flip your hand around you pretty much just flipped someone off, if not worse. Please keep your deuces back in the states.
-The Underground (Tube) system is one of man’s greatest engineering accomplishments. I absolutely love it. If only Kansas City had something even remotely similar.
-You actually can enjoy London for cheap. Most museums are free, so you should never run out of things to do. It’s the living expenses that really rack up the costs. But lucky for us, we have an amazing supermarket down the road. You can, in fact, survive on peanut butter sandwiches and apples, especially if it means a trip to Spain or Italy down the road.
-On the subject of money, you don’t have to tip here! Hooray!
-Londoners dress exceedingly well, but I’ve found you can kind of mimic their style by having a few essentials, namely boots, skinny jeans and tights.
-Like I said, umbrellas here are clutch. This is my golden rule for London.

I’ve also learned that doing the whole across-the-ocean-relationship thing is in fact very doable. Pete and I have been sending e-mails back and forth every day, and I honestly feel like we’ve become stronger. His e-mails are great—they sound just like he talks, so the distance isn’t as difficult.

Lucky for me, the distance isn’t permanent. I get to see him in 13 days (but who’s counting?) when he visits for a couple of days en route to his semester in Pamplona, Spain. We’re planning small trips to Paris and Ireland this semester and after I’m done with my program, I’ll spend two weeks traveling through Spain with him. I’m so excited for him to finally get to Spain and get the experience he’s been wanting for so long. He’s going to do great there.

I’m going to finish up a few more things, then hit the pillow. Updates from Wales and pictures to come! Cheers!

Here are a few more pictures of the past few days:


This was Trafalgar Square during the Russian Festival last Sunday.


We went to the Tate Modern on Tuesday. Inside the front entrance was a huge, manmade crack. It got everyone's attention right away.


A close-up of the intriguing crack.


From the seventh floor of the Tate Modern, we got a pretty good view across the Thames into downtown City of London. There's St. Paul's!


Here is emap's world headquarters where I will be working the next three months!

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