My friend Elizabeth arrived here ridiculously early on Sunday morning, and so we grabbed some coffee and caught up on eachother's lives before going on a bit of a tour of central London. I took her down Oxford Street, past all the lovely shops, then to my study centre on Tottenham Court Road, then down to Trafalgar Square, then down Queen's Way to Buckingham Palace, then through the Green Park, where we had lunch. Basically, I've been playing tour guide, which has been a lot of fun. Monday night, we went out to a club called The Roxy, and we just got home from having dinner at a local pub called The Green Man, where we met up with another Grinnell student who is visiting other friends here in London.
Yesterday, I had classes all day, and things are going to be really stressful here for the next week until finals are over! Oh well, I've been looking up day trips out of London, so I'm sure I'll be kept plenty busy over our fall break. I'm actually really glad that I decided not to go abroad for this time, because I get the feeling that many of my fellow American classmates are going to go to all these cities and not really SEE anything. Well, that's not true... what I mean is that they aren't going to get a sense of the cities or the countries they visit. I think I would much rather stay in one country for a longer time, in order to really get a sense of it, than to jump around from city to city, spending only 2 or 3 days in each place. On some level, cities are all really the same, anyway.
Yesterday evening, the Grinnell students were invited out to dinner by two members of Grinnell's international study department. We had dinner at the Royal Court Theatre's bar and restaurant, and it was nice to eat in a classier place than Sainsbury's or Pret a Manger. After dinner, I stayed for the performance of "Enron", which I have decided ought to be called "Enron: The Musical". It was a wickedly funny performance of Enron's rise and fall and the consequences. I enjoyed the play because it was a fresh take on economic crisis. The dialogue was great, and there were hysterical song-and-dance numbers, as well as snippets of Bush speeches on video, and the like. On some level, I'm glad that this was the last play I'll be attending with the program, because I've been to at least 20 plays, and it has gotten a bit overwhelming. I'm looking forward to having more time to do things on my own (and I already do most things on my own) after I get back from fall break. I'll only have one class to focus on, and I'll have free four day weekends every weekend.
Today, I began to write a paper for my Black Atlantic class, and Elizabeth and I went to Portobello Road to browse the antique shops. She found a cute, wooden box from India that she plans to give to her boyfriend for Christmas, and I found these handmade leather satchels that are literally to die for. At 40 or 50 pounds a pop, I know I'll have to give myself some time before I go back to look at them again, but they are incredibly well made, supple, and just really beautiful. Tomorrow, I have class again all day, and afterwards I'll head to Trafalgar Square for the free screening of a few short films that are part of the annual British Film Festival! I'm excited!
I also found a new musician that I really like. If you know who Nick Drake is, the artist I found has a very similar style. He is Swedish-born of Argentine parents, and his name is Jose Gonzalez: finger-picked guitar, moody, autumnal bedroom songs. Perfect.
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