The Globe!!

     Yesterday was our day excursion to London for a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VI Part 3! Yes, I know, it sounds like a pretty random Shakespeare play... but luckily we've have a whole week of Shakespeare class this week studying the play to prepare! We left Oxford around 9 and bussed into the city--I was napping and kept peeking out to see if we were there yet! And then we were and all those familiar feelings came back: London! The most beautiful city in the world! It gave me the greatest feeling of joy to walk along the Thames again, see the bridges and the dome of St Pauls. It was my third time in London and it almost felt like a tiny homecoming.
       We had lunch at Borough Market on the East Side very near to the Globe and I had (surprise surprise) fish and chips! Then Alex and I walked the short distance to the Tate Modern--which, it turns out, is different from the Tate Britain and had NO Pre-Raphaelite art boo. It is housed in an old fire station with a huge tall tower overlooking St Pauls on the West Bank, so its quite imposing and has beautiful views!

It was very fun to go investigate and try to wrap our tiny, insignificant brains around famous modern art works of deeper meaning, such as these gems (note especially the middle canvas):

 

I'm sorry, I know many people devote their lives to the careful study of such works and artists have devoted much more in creating it! I hope one day to better understand contemporary art, but I have to say that for this visit it went straight whoosh over my head. Ah, well. It was still fun to go! I know Sadie and Olivia had studied the art and knew much more about it, so my favorite part of the visit was when we ran into them and Sadie explained minimalism to me, so that at least the photo on the right meant a little more to me. To know is to have passion!
       After the Tate Modern we headed back to the Globe for our 2 o'clock matinee. We had GREAT seats on the bottom tier of seats and I made sure to get a cushion as the benches are a little hard. It is difficult to sit that long with no back on the bench but the play was so good I hardly noticed it! I couldn't sneak a video, sorry :( but I did get some pics of the stage with the heads stuck everywhere (spoiler, people lose their heads in this play...)

Our view!

It was a really wonderful day in London and I am looking forward to more!! After we got back there was a pizza part in the JCR and then I just had watch Shakespeare in Love--after the day I'd had, I almost felt like I had lived the movie!