Sleepy Attempt at Blogging

Oi Vey. I would say that I'm not getting enough sleep, but I think that instead I'm just asleep 24/7. Today I've been in a complete haze- I'm definitely sick, and boy do I wish I weren't!

As I had said on Wednesday, we went to "Much Ado About Nothing" at the Globe Theater. We got somewhat lost on the way there from the tube station, but that wouldn't have been a problem if Steffi hadn't been wearing wicked-looking 4 inch stilletos. Ouch. Not good for cities, I tell you. When we got there, we had seats with restricted views, but we were actually very lucky- we were in the back row, so we could lean back against the wall- everyone else was standing or on benches. The all women troupe which performed it was really quite good, though it took a little while to get used to their shouting and trying to make their voices slightly deeper. I also had a little trouble with it at first, as I've only seen the movie, and so I had preconcieved ideas as to how the characters should be played. Benedick and Beatrice are irresistable characters, of course, and I was very excited at the end when they kissed. So romantic! *wipes a tear*

Thursday, well, Thursday was fun. I started the day in my usual tired haze. I had Lynch's literature class in the morning, and had to suffer through a painfully boring research presentation on Cardiff Castle, but we got out of class early, and after a quick lunch at the flat, Matt, Mel, Diana and I went out. We went to Tower Bridge, which we would have gone inside if not for the admission fee; the same with the HMS Belfast. We wandered our way down the Thames, stopping to get ice cream. It was really weird; this wasn't your typical soft serve. This was like Cool Whip on a cone, with some chocolate stuck in. It was good.... but very sweet.

Anyway, the last time I had gone to the Tate Modern it was four years ago, I think, and it was hot and crowded. What little I saw, I didn't like, and I was a little wary of returning. The desire to see the paintings by Mark Rothko persuaded me to return, however. This time, I adored it, and engaging with all of that art brought me right up ut of my haze. I returned to the world of the living, as I passed by some extraordinary pieces of art. there was this really cool piece called, I think, "Your Double Light-House Experiment," which had an entire room devoted to itself alone. It had two circular rooms, with walls that were flat colors of light. You started by going into the larger room, and staring at the wall of light. It would constantly change color; the changes were so slight, though, (being, as they were, computer controlled) so that the colors faded one into the next very gradually. You were meant to observe the psychological effect of these changing colors, but at this point I was still pretty tired and not really feeling emotion of any kind whatsoever. Anyway, the museum was full of interesting things, particularly Rodin's "The Kiss." Yes, I'll admit I like it's sensuality, but I also appreciate the reference to Dante's Inferno, now that I've read it. It's a huge, and wonderful piece. I saw a couple of paintings by Dali, and his "Lobster Telephone," which made me laugh outloud having just spent time pondering his paintings. It's exactly what it's name implies- a telephone with a lobster on its handle. You gotta love the surrealists. Oh! and I saw Magritte's scuplture "The Healer" which I really liked. It's a bronze of a man whose torso and head is a birdcage, still draped in his cloak with his hat on top. Neat stuff.
And, of course, I saw the room with the Rothkos. They were described to me as tragic, and that they were. They're huge canvases covered in layered glazes with simple, boxlike forms or none at all, and you could just see the depression and monotony that went into their making. It's awesome that Rothko was able to decide how they were presented- the large room with only his pieces in it, dark blue-grey walls, and low lighting are perfect for their viewing. oh, and I was excited to see "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" by Boccioni, one of my favorite sculptures ever, even though I'm not terribly fond of the Futurist movement in general.

Anyway, we eventually had to get out of there- Mel and Diana had left long since, and Matt Neff and I needed to run back to the flat before we all headed out to see "Cyrano de Bergerac" at the Royal National Theatre. This we did, returning for the play later that evening a mere few blocks from the Tate Modern.

This presentation of "Cyrano" was certainly interesting. It was very experimental, and I'm not sure how I really felt about percussion, modern ballet, and a band with accordions and a sax being worked in. Definitely interesting, though. I think I kind of resented the ballet, just because it was making a long play longer, and we were all exhausted- we seem to be that way a lot these days.

Oh, and last night was no help on the sleep front. Mel and I went and hung out with the guys at another building, plus Alex who lives in the flat next door (the shy one with the crush, remember?). When Alex and I went back to our rooms on Penywern, however, I discovered that I had forgotten my keys. We went all the way back to the other house so that I could get Mel's keys, but those sadly didn't do me any good. You see, a bit of back story here- Mel got a faulty set of keys. There are two locks on our door, and Mel only has the key to the bottom lock, so the roommates all agreed to only lock the bottom one. Sadly for me, someone had forgotten, and locked the top one before they went to bed. Alex and I pounded on the door and rand the buzzer in the room for a long time, but my flat has two stories, so my roommates didn't wake up! Lucky for me, a bunch of Alex's roommates are in Paris this weekend, including Matt Neff, whose bed I commandeered for the night. I didn't sleep well once morning started coming, either, because I was convinced that one of my roommates, who is a control freak, was going to to notice that Mel and I weren't there, freak out, and call Facinelli (one of our teachers). Of course, when I did get back, she didn't care one bit, which is terribly ironic considering that she was freaking out on anothe night when she had no reason to worry. Anyway, I'm not going to stop disliking this Elizabeth girl anytime soon, so I'll stop ranting about her. I'll just say this- if I have to room with her in Dublin, things are not going to be happy. She's really quite impossible.

Argh, curse this cold! Anyway, tomorrow's my last day in London- we fly to Dublin very early on Monday morning. I'll probably hit the Victoria and Albert Museum tomorrow, if I can drag myself out of bed and convince myself that I wouldn't rather lie about all day trying to fight off this cold.
Tscheuss!

P.S. Matkun, there's actually a picture of said hair on the way- it's fun stuff, let me tell you ;-) And Steppie, I'm SO jealous of you seeing Clay! I could totally go for a Clay hug!