Homework? Psh!

            After a day filled with strange Shakespearian conundrums, I was tired of sitting around with textbooks.  There are few things worse than sitting inside doing homework while a city like London smirks at you from outside the window.

             Naturally, I resolved to go out and have some fun that next day.  Sarah was the only roommate I could convince to go with me.  Everyone else was worried about homework- because, in all honesty, we had quite a load that week.  So Sarah and I tried to invite the 10 girls living in dorm 1, but they also backed out at the last minute because of homework stress.  I couldn’t believe that 14 out of 16 girls chose homework over having a London experience. 

            I admire my ever-so-studious friends for their diligence in their classes.  But three months from now I don’t want to find myself sitting in a taxi on the way to the airport looking out the frosty window at all of the museums and sites that had I had passed up for a letter grade.  It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to learn and travel at the same time, but the greatest learning, I believe, will come from the experience.  Not the classroom.  And that’s more important to me than seeing the letter “A” on a piece of paper.

            So, leaving our friends behind with their homework, Sarah and I set off for Kensington Palace.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  In fact, it has only rained two days out of the 17 days I’ve been here.  The rest have been sunny and warm, and perfect for a run through Hyde Park and the Kensington Gardens.  Sarah and I try to go jogging every morning before breakfast.  Look at the beautiful park we get to jog in just across the street from our neighborhood.  

            Some evenings we go there to read for homework.  Golden leaves are starting to accumulate on the ground, and it’s so picturesque to watch them streaming in a race across the asphalt paths with the breeze pushing them along.  But the morning that we were walking through to the palace there was no breeze at all, just a warm sun.

            We didn’t really know where we were going, but we had seen the palace on our jogs in the park before, so we headed that direction.  Eventually we found ourselves in a garden, and figured we were getting close.  Huge, perfectly trimmed hedges led us down a pathway and finally to a side entrance to the palace.  Compared to the other palaces I’ve been able to see thus far in my travels, it seemed unusually small.  Too big to be a house but too small to be a palace.

            But, the building is still big enough to hold lots of history.  It is the birthplace of Queen Victoria, and has been the home of monarchs such as Queen Anne and Queen Mary (not to be confused with the “Bloody Mary”).

            Now it is the residence of other members of the royal family.  Prince Harry is there sometimes, as he was raised there.  His mother, Princess Diana had lived there when she was alive.  Dukes and Duchesses of Kent and Gloucester live there now, and the prince and princess of Kent.  But of course we weren’t able to just drop in for tea with them. 

            We got our student rate (England loves students and we get absolutely everything cheaper!) and entered the State Rooms, which are open to the public..  Sarah and I grabbed ourselves our own little mechanical tour-guides, which talk your head off as you move throughout the palace, and started on the bottom floor.  Sadly, they did not allow flash photography, and so most of my pictures turned out dark and blurry.  Otherwise this post would have a lot more pictures.

            The first room was set up to look like a dressmaker’s shop.  They had original dresses, needles, and even advertisements all over the room from the late 19^th century.  We also listened to stories of the hard labor, and sometimes resulting death, of the women that worked to make these dresses for the more fortunate.  The next rooms were all about Cotillion!

            I immediately wished my little sister Alexa was with me.  She’s going to be doing Cotillion in a few months, just like I did when I was a senior in high school.  Our cousin Samantha is going to be doing it also this year, which will be cool.  It would have been fun to check it out together.  Alexa and Sammie, this is for you guys:

            All this fancy debutant stuff started in the mid 1700’s.  Young girls of the wealthy upper class were presented to court, but most importantly to bachelors and their families.  Middle class girls could be presented if they found a sponsor.  It was hoped that by the end of the debutante season, each girl would land a husband of similar social standing. 

            The season began with each girl being presented to the queen at the court.  The court in which this big event would happen was known as the court of St. James.  Today, the curtsey that you girls will learn is titled, the St. James Bow.  The season usually ran for a few months with many parties and opportunities for the young women to meet… well… cute rich guys.

            White was the color to wear, as it represented the purity of the girl.  But, as time wore on, pinks and other colors started becoming acceptable.  We saw many dresses worn throughout the ages.  My favorites were these, worn in the 20s.  The girls of this day were also required to wear white ostrich feathers and pearls.

            The parties throughout the season were a big deal.  Today, Alexa and Sammie are not going to be hunting down husbands… but instead they will be supporting a charity.  That is really what Cotillions are all about now.  The last debutantes had their final curtsey in 1958 when Queen Elizabeth II (the current Queen of England) got rid of the ceremony. 

            So now England, Australia, Ireland, and the United States all continue the old tradition of Debutante Balls, but the Queen is no longer involved and it’s really just for charity and to have an excuse to dress up.

            We were able to watch some old black and white footage of the last true debutante ball.  It was so cute watching the girls in their bobs nervously waiting with their mothers to bow to the queen.  Some messed up and were probably scarred for life.  So girls, if you mess up just be glad it’s not in front of the queen and hundreds of families scrutinizing your every move for their sons.  You’re just supporting a good cause and your family and friends get to see how gorgeous you are in a big white cotillion gown.

Here we are trying to follow the lady on the screen above the mirror, in a St. James Bow.

            Back in the day the girls even went to special schools to prepare to be a debutante.  There was a room where you could try to learn a thing or two that they had ingrained into their brains.  There was a dance pattern on the ground that you could follow.  It was a waltz that Sarah and I tried out.  I had to be the guy, which was actually a lot harder than being the girl, I think.  Then we tried walking this line with a book on our head- yes they actually practiced that.  

We even tried to learn how to tie a bow tie. 

As you can see… that didn’t work out too well.

            So we moved on to see Princess Diana’s dresses.  The whole exhibit raved about her fashion sense.  I’m sure it would all make more sense to me if I had been older in the 80s and 90s.

            After we climbed this black marble staircase we left the world of gowns and cotillion behind us and got to see the room Queen Victoria was born in.  Her bed was there, which really wasn’t as grand as I expected it to be.  She was eighteen years old when, in the early hours of the morning, someone woke her up and let her know of her ascension to the throne.  In no time she moved to Buckingham Palace and took her bed with her.  Since then it has been returned.  There were gallery’s and drawing rooms that were very beautiful and filled with awesome artifacts. 

            Sarah and I were way happy when we walked out and back into Kensington Gardens.  Tucked away in the back of Hyde Park, it seems that a lot of people don’t realize that the palace is open to the public.  And it’s really cool!

            Then we received a phone call from a few of our friends that they had decided that we were right and that homework was completely overrated.  They were in Hyde Park and on their way to the Science Museum.  We liked that idea- free entry!  So the only trick was to find them.  Hyde park is very big.  

They tried to pick the biggest and most obvious memorial to meet by (the Albert memorial), and after a few wrong turns down obscure dirt pathways, we finally met up with them.

            What an awesome museum!  We got to go to the Wallace and Gromit section of the museum, which was really made to support the protection of great ideas with copyright laws, etc.  But it was really cute and fun.  I was stoked because we got to see the real sets used in the movies.  Wallace and Gromit it the cutest British show ever!

            We got to do a few other cool things like make wallpaper (above), shoot off rockets, and watch a guy make explosions with household items.  We had to head back home after only a few hours but we are all eager to return another day.  That’s what I love about living here, I never feel like I have to squeeze everything in at once.  As long as I don’t keep myself locked up in the center too often with homework chaining me to my desk, I’ll be able to see almost everything I want to!

            The grand finale for the amazing day was going to the Globe Theater.  

It has been built to look exactly as it did when Shakespeare and his company performed there.  There is no ceiling, only open air and three balconies with seats.  For much cheaper you can be a "groundling" which means that you don't get a seat at all.  Instead, you can stand in the dirt directly in front of the stage.  The actors had no microphones, there were no extreme special effects,- it was all very authentic.  We saw the play “As You Like It” which was hilarious.  We had to read it for my Shakespeare class beforehand, which I found enjoyable. But actually seeing it acted out on stage blew me away.  I have a completely new appreciation for all of Shakespeare’s plays.  It makes such a difference to see the actor’s funny gestures and expressions to go along with the words.  I hope to see another Shakespeare play in the Globe Theater soon.  Even though we have to sit on these super hard wooden seats, it’s completely worth it.

  The next day we got to see Wicked.  I’ve seen it once before in New York with my mom and grandparents, so I already knew how amazing it was going to be.  A few of us, even the ones who had never seen it before, knew the words to every single song.  It was tempting to sing along, but of course we didn’t.  There was a group of 8-10 year old boys in front of us, which was awesome because I could see right over their heads without a problem.  The voices were amazing, and I noticed many of the differences between the CD and both of the performances.  They were all distinctive, which was really cool to see and hear the different interpretations.

We all walked out with huge stupid smiles on our faces and sang “Loathing” and “Defy Gravity” all the way home, much to the disgust of the Londoners in the tube.

            Oops.