The Quick Hits (highlight of each day)
Once again I've been told that the Quick Hits section is a good way to read my blog in under one minute, so here goes nothing. For those of you who want to spend twenty minutes on this, see below.
Sunday, February 24 -- cappuccino at Flat White
Monday, February 25 -- Book of Mormon musical
Tuesday, February 26 -- purchased Eurostar tickets
Wednesday, February 27 -- FIFA at Dutch interns' flat
Thursday, February 28 -- Princess Louise pub
Friday, March 1 -- meetings with PwC/BCG alumni
Saturday, March 2 -- Meat Liquor experience
Sunday, March 3 -- Economics paper all day
Monday, March 4 -- Wicked musical
Tuesday, March 5 -- hung out in flat 19
Wednesday, March 6 -- Picasso 1901 exhibit
Thursday, March 7 -- ate Belgian waffles
Friday, March 8 -- saw my cousin Sophie and her boyfriend Erik
Saturday, March 9 -- Holborn Whippet pub
Sunday, March 10 -- beach at Brighton
Monday, March 11 -- hung out back at flat
Tuesday, March 12 -- Lumineers concert
Wednesday, March 13 -- Princess Diana memorial
Thursday, March 14 -- Rock of Ages musical
Friday, March 15 -- Matilda musical
The Highlights
Yes, this section is for those of you who have that coffee and biscuit and want to read on. Okay, sorry for that, but here it is.
Book of Mormon musical:
The Book of Mormon was my first-ever musical, and as I noted, it was not my last. I have already seen four in this three week span. In a previous post, I mentioned waiting in line to get these Book of Mormon tickets. Nicole and I stood four hours for those tickets, so the anticipation had been growing leading up to this musical. And because we had waited in line for so long, we had priority seats, meaning I would sit about sixth row with an amazing view. The three people who I went with (Nicole, Lauren S, and Alice) kept telling me how great my first experience would be, and they did not lie.
Before the musical started, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who wrote the script, came out to welcome the audience. These two are kind of celebrities as they also created and write for South Park. A picture of them that I took from the Book of Mormon London facebook page is below:
I've seen plays and I've gone to concerts, but the wonderful thing about the musical is that you get the best of both worlds. The acting in Book of Mormon was top-notch -- actors from Broadway came to London and also the best London actors were chosen. And the music was incredible as well, especially Gavin Creel who plays the lead role of Elder Price. The entire plot is hilarious -- two Mormon 19-year-olds go to Uganda to convert the locals there -- and everything goes wrong. During the musical I found myself in a state of ultimate happiness and I couldn't wait to go to more musicals.
Wicked musical:
To respond to my need to see more musicals, I saw Wicked the following week. Wicked is one of the most well-known musicals and several friends had recommended it. Upon waking up on a Monday morning I headed straight to the box office which opened at 10 am and asked for a student ticket. For under thirty pounds, I was able to get one of the best tickets in the house, which was key in enjoying this musical.
It was hard to quite live up to Book of Mormon, but Wicked did a pretty good job at doing so. Prior to attending the musical I had listened to the entire soundtrack, which definitely makes enjoying the songs a lot easier. I knew pretty much all of "Defying Gravity" going in, and was exceptionally pleased to see the masterful performance of that song. The plot was very good, and in particular the actress who played Elphaba was an amazing singer. To get a sense of perspective of the theatre, a picture I took of it is included below:
Weekend with Sophie and Erik:
A week into March, I had the pleasure of hanging out with my Dutch cousin Sophie and her boyfriend Erik. This was special for me as I had not seen either of them in quite some time. It also got me very excited to see the rest of my Dutch family in about a month. Our first part of the weekend on Friday was afternoon tea at Tea and Tattle. There we shared our initial stories of what we had done for the past two years. It was great to hear how well Sophie was doing at her Naval Academy and that Erik had found a great job. I also noticed that Sophie's English had progressed quite a bit!
We then headed over to Harrod's, the famous department store of London. This store is huge, and also crazily expensive. There was even a giant Easter egg for one thousand pounds! My favorite room was the millionaire/spy room. In this room were two sorts of things. For the millionaire part of the description were several large signed documents by very famous people. My favorite, and easily the most impressive, were the ones signed by multiple early US Presidents! As for the spy gear, there was anything you had ever seen in a James Bond film, and that was very neat. We all very much enjoyed Harrod's, and following it had a delicious dinner at Ponti's, the restaurant where my friend Ben is interning at.
On Saturday we first went to Spitalfields Market, which in my opinion was a little disappointing. I was expecting a large food market and instead received a market full of clothes and trinkets. That beings said, it was still very interesting to look around. We then took the tube over to Covent Garden where we walked around for a while and stopped to have a coffee. I enjoyed going around this area as it is very pretty and I had not yet officially walked through it. Following Covent Garden I took Sophie and Erik to Marquis Cornawallis, a local pub, so that we could all experience fish and chips. Here's a picture of us at the pub:
Their visit did not end there, and after heading back to my flat for a while, we went with some of my friends over to Holborn Whippet -- the pub that I went to on the second day in London. This experience was even better, and they have some excellent craft beers on tap. Also, it was great for Sophie and Erik to meet some of my friends here, and a good time was had by all. A picture of me, Sophie, Erik, and Conor is below:
Brighton expedition:
The day after saying goodbye to Sophie and Erik was spent in Brighton, a beach town nearly an hour away from London. This trip was planned fairly last-minute, but I was glad to just choose to go somewhere out of the blue. Unfortunately several of us, including myself, who went to Brighton went with very little sleep in our systems. We had stayed up to watch the big UNC-Duke game, which I will not speak about as we were crushed.
Anyways, upon arriving to Brighton we immediately strolled along the beach. After spending so long in the world that is London, it's easy to forget other forms of nature besides buildings (wait, that isn't nature!). For an hour or so we just walked along the beach and it was beautiful to just watch the water. A picture of the scenery is included below:
The rest of the day at Brighton wasn't nearly as good (note: touristy cold pier in March is no fun), but nevertheless we still had a great time. One thing that really struck me was seeing the prices at the pub we ate at for lunch. For about four pounds, I was able to get a chicken sandwich, fries, and a soda. All that would cost at least ten pounds in London. Seeing those prices just made me realize how ridiculous they are in London, and it was good to feel a sense of reality again.
On our Brighton trip we also headed to a museum of Brighton, which was one of the worst museums I had ever been to. It seemed like it was just a random collection of trinkets with no underlying meaning. We then walked around for a little while and some people then left back for London. However, a few of us stayed and had a really good coffee at a nearby cafe. By the end of the day we were all extremely tired and ready to go back to London.
Lumineers concert:
This was a very good experience, not only because the Lumineers produced excellent music (and Langhorne Slim, who opened was good), but also because Ben gave me the ticket for free. Unfortunately he was not feeling well, but he wanted someone to enjoy it so luckily I was able to go with Dinesh. To tell the truth, I have only been to a handful of concerts. And this one set the bar high. The Lumineers are a great up-and-coming band, and with their first album they already have a song ("Ho Hey") that has topped the charts. A picture from the concert is included below:
There's something special about seeing music performed in front of you. It gives you a much more intimate feeling with the music, even if it isn't as "perfect" as a studio-produced album would be. One complaint I did have about the concert was that people were constantly videotaping and taking pictures. And to be honest, I simply don't understand this. Yes, I know that you want to remember your precious memories. But videotaping a whole concert, in my opinion, does not allow you to enjoy the moment, which I think is much more important.
Honorable Mentions
There are some other experiences that I would like to mention but will do in a shorter format. First off is my Meat Liquor experience. This is the rauchiest restaurant I have ever been to, and I didn't even know that was a thing. You look on their website and there is no information. You get there, stand in line, and cannot peer in as the windows are tinted. Once you walk inside, it is incredible dark, music is playing loudly, there are curse words written all over the wall, etc. It is quite humourous. However, I will say that my burger there was quite good, and that's what I was going for. Below is a picture of inside Meat Liquor:
Another honorable mention is purely viewing the Princess Diana memorial. While I do not personally have a picture of it, I can describe it as a circular stream of water. But it is definitely more exciting than that. As you walk along the stream, the water will quickly change speed and sounds, representing the troubles in Princess Diana's life. Although quite simple for such an important memorial, I found it incredible moving. It gives you a chance to just look at the water and think.
You may be wondering where descriptions of the other two supposed musicals I saw are. Well, here you go. One of these was Rock of Ages. I was lucky enough to have my friend Ariana give a free ticket to me, and I was glad to go with her. Although not as good on a technical level as Book of Mormon or Wicked, I found it incredibly funny, and some of the music very good. The jokes were hilarious and I left with "Every rose has its thorn" and "I want to know what love is" both stuck in my head. I would call it a good night. Below is a picture of the set:
Finally the other musical I went to see was Matilda. Although I heard raving reviews from this, I did not leave with the most favorable impression. I did really enjoy it, but I had trouble understanding the music with kids singing it and with fairly heavy British accents. That being said, I thought the plot was great and it was awesome to see one of my childhood favorites come alive in front of me. To make things better, I only had to pay five pounds for a ticket with Katie Q, so my wallet was not hurting afterwards. A picture of the set is included below:
Classes and Internship
By this time I'm not very settled into both my classes and my internship. First my classes. They have overall been going very well. I have especially enjoyed a couple of the recent galleries we have atteneded with Art History (most notably Tate Britain) as my professor seems to have an amazing background when it comes to paintings. With Economics the material has remained interesting, and I am very impressed at how intimately the professor knows what she is teaching. It really makes a difference when you are in class. And finally, although Politics has remained somewhat on the more boring side, I have learned a decent amount about the system over here and am very glad for that.
My internship has been a little disappointing, but I am still trying to get a lot out of it. It is disappointing in that there is loads of filing to do, but I have been able to do some interesting work related to exchange rates and travel receipts. And after all it is understandable that there is a lot of filing as I am in the finance department of our company. However, I have made an effort to start speaking with different people within Grant Thornton International to see what they do and try to better understand how the company operates. I think in the final blog post from the trip I will post some of the things I have learned from this internship, as there have been several.
The Reflection
In the first two blog posts I perhaps had a feeling that I "wasn't doing enough." However, I quickly ended this theory when I wrote those blog posts and realized that I was doing something interesting several times a week. For the weeks included in this blog post, I didn't once think that I wasn't doing enough, and I have really enjoyed myself. There is so much to do in London, and I think that especially being introduced to musicals, I have experienced a lot.
The people on this program have continued to be an amazing part of my days here. They are always asking how my day was or if I want to join them on an adventure -- and I am very thankful for that. Speaking of people, one thing I did not yet mention in details was my conversations with alumni. I contacted several UNC alumni living in London and met with three of them during this span of three weeks. They were all so incredibly helpful to me and I am proud to be a Tar Heel.
I will soon post something about Spring Break, but looking forward I cannot wait to finish my last few weeks in London in style. It is incredible how fast time flies while you're abroad, and I've tried my best to enjoy the moment instead of worrying about how little time there is left. Once again, thank you for following my adventures, and I wish you a wonderful Easter holiday!
Love,
Jorian
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