A Week Out

 This past week has gone by in a whirlwind; amidst the chaos of induction ceremonies and orientation I have also been making a few day trips to London. I have been to the theatre in London twice over the past week, once to the Globe to see Dr. Faustus and once to St. Martin's theatre to see The Mousetrap (for the second time). I had never read Dr. Faustus but had always been intrigued by the idea of seeing a play by the man considered to be Shakespeare's chief rival Christopher Marlowe, until his premature death in a bar fight, so I endeavored to make another visit to the Globe. This time I watched as a groundling which meant that I got in for a meager 5GBP but that I had to stand for the entire 3 hour performance. I ended up arriving early so I got a spot literally right on the stage; I was so close that I could have touched the actors legs as they walked past me!

leaning against the stage

my view of the stage (not zoomed in)

The play was, as always with London theatre, of immaculate quality. Dr. Faustus was a fantastically dark character battling against whether to be good or evil and ultimately sells his soul to the devil for 24 years of wealth and power. The actor portraying Mephistopheles, Lucifer's right hand man, was particularly poignant in his bone chilling performance. In short, I left the play much more satisfied and enlightened than when I came. 

A few days later I returned for a very different sort of play, Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap near Covent Garden. This is the longest running play in theatrical history and I decided that in honor of Christie week I would see the play once again. I arrived in London early and since it was such a nice day out I decided to wander a bit. I went to Borough market in Southwark and wandered amongst all of the beautiful displays of french pastries, giant cheese and olive barrels, pallets of fresh fruit and veg, and enticing stands selling falafel and Turkish gyros. It is a foodies' paradise and I always love having a nice go around in there. 

Macarons at Laduree

After wandering through all of the pleasant aromas I was hungry so I set off to have lunch at a French cafe chain, Cafe Rouge off of Leicester Square. I enjoyed a thoroughly French meal and afterwards went to Harrods where I bought myself a treat of a few macarons from the Laduree shop. 

Cafe Rouge

     After spending a nice morning and afternoon in London I walked over to the theatre for the play. 

I had forgotten the ending to the murder mystery whodunnit and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting it. Afterwards I headed back to Waterloo station and hopped on the 7:20pm train to Reading alighting at Egham at 8pm. By the time I arrived home it was 8:30pm and I was tired, yet reinvigorated from my day out to the city. 

                               

14 Cherrywood Avenue

I've been on my own for a week now and have been busy getting settled into my room at 14 Cherrywood avenue. I am living in a little village right next to Egham (a slightly bigger village) called Englefield Green; our high street (main street) consists of a pub, the Holly Tree, a convenience store, and a few odd restaurants. I also have quite an old looking church with a big cemetery next to it. The main high street where one can get a lot of groceries and do one's banking is in Egham, about a 15 minute bus ride away from my house.

 My room is on the first floor (second floor to us Americans); I have four housemates and four of the five rooms that we have are on the first floor. One person lives on the ground floor by our sitting room and I still haven't met this roommate yet. I will have two male housemates and two female. So far the ones who have moved in are Hassan (from Ghana), Nikki, and Rachel (both from England) and I've really been lucky in getting great housemates. All three have been really helpful in showing me around and I've spent a lot of time this week hanging out with Nikki and Rachel and getting introduced to their friends. It was starting to get a bit lonely not knowing anyone so I'm so grateful for their friendliness and it makes all the difference in helping me to get settled. In future posts I will expound more profusely about the obstacles and the differences that I face in day to day life as a result of being new; already there are alot!

entering my house

I will now attempt to give you a photo tour of my house:

my kitchen complete with washing machine, oven, and stove

A fridge and freezer for 5 people; these are the sizes of a mini fridge each

my backyard

our shower/bathroom again for 5 people

inside my room (i now have a bookshelf by my bed

my desk; my room is now cleaner too :)

At first I was unsure about my house and whether I would like living here but I've come to realize this week that I will be just fine. The more and more that I have put together my room the cozier it becomes. Cherrywood is not quite home yet but it is well on its way to becoming it.

An Update from England

I bet that you all thought that I had dropped off of the planet by now but I assure you that I am safe and sound in Egham. I am freshly off of a week's vacation with my Dad and if the soreness in my legs is any indicator of how busy we were I would say that we accomplished a fair amount of sightseeing. We visited both London and Torquay, a city on the English riviera in SW England in Devon. We spent three nights in London and in that time we saw two plays, visited the British museum, ran errands, and took a day trip to Chartwell in Kent; how's that for three days?

Seeing Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe Theatre

London

Chartwell, Winston Churchill's home

Inside the British Museum

Inside of our atrociously small bathroom in the hotel (this includes a shower)

On Saturday we took the train to Torquay to attend the events of Agatha Christie week (for those of you who don't know, I'm a HUGE Agatha Christie fan). Dad and I attended this two years ago and it was such great fun that we wanted to catch a few days there as well. We stayed at the same b&b as we did two years ago and it was fun catching up with the owners, Chris and Janet. We only stayed for two days so we couldn't attend all of the events that we had hoped to but we did visit Christie's house, Greenway, which is on the River Dart near Dartmouth (20 miles away) and went on a murder mystery dinner play on a 19th century steam train. The train ran along the Devonshire coast from Paignton (the next town over) to Dartmouth and back. The cast put on a 1920's themed mystery show and they walked up and down the train's cars continually playing and replaying new scenes to help us figure out the whodunit. In the end nobody in my car got the answer right but we had so much fun gossiping and asking questions of the actors that no one minded. 

Dartmouth

In front of Greenway, Christie's home

Afternoon cream tea

in front of the Dartmouth steam train

on the train

                                                     Video of the actors on board the train

Dad and I had a fantastic time on our trip and the week simply flew by. He left me in Egham on Wednesday morning and he continued on with his journey and I am just beginning mine; more to come soon on the moving in process and life in an English village.