Today was unusual in that it was the first day wrought with finality. Prior to waking up this morning, I think a lot of us took our time and the possibilities available to us here for granted, myself included. It wasn’t until my alarm went off this morning and the first rocking chords of “Rory And The Hurricanes” by Ringo Starr reverberated through my flat that the realization hit me: in a matter of hours, I wouldn’t be in the city that I’ve grown to love. I also realized that my To See/Do List of places around London was not nearly completed, so that just means I’ll have to come back! My Oyster card (ie tube pass) can always be reloaded, after all…
One of the works we read in preparation for this course epitomizes this odd awareness of time, or lack thereof: “Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run for it.” (Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress). Even though we can’t stop time, we can sure make it fly with fun! We spent our last English literature class discussing the last few poems we read, delivered our Capstone (in essence, a final project) presentations to the class and took several surveys for Scape, INTO London City University (our hosting campus) and the OSU Honors College.
From the classroom, we proceeded on foot to the Perkin Reveller (the name is also conveniently a reference to Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales), a very nice restaurant almost directly under the Tower Bridge and next to the Tower of London along the Thames. We all got afternoon tea, which was a lot of fun! I tried Earl Grey for the first time, and despite my orthodox avoidance of tea, I was thoroughly impressed with this one. The tea was accompanied by a variety of little sandwiches and cakes on elegant miniature trays. I truly felt right proper! Plus, most of us dressed up for the occasion, and that really made it special.
After tea, we headed briefly to the
Victoria and Albert Museum. I would’ve loved to have spent more time there, but unfortunately I felt fairly museumed-out after the past few days. Also, I needed to finish packing between our officially planned excursions and our own, late-night adventures.
For dinner, we found a new pub not far from the one we visited a few nights ago, except this one featured an amazing live blues/jazz/swing
musician and singer. He even serenaded one of my friends! After that, we returned very quickly to Scape to pick up some more people to go to a fantastic club called Jamboree. Tonight’s featured music act was called Des Was A Bowie Fan, and it was yet another outstanding music venue. It was nestled into a courtyard, and the interior looked like a cross between the quirkiness of décor of Central Perk (from the T.V. show, Friends) and the grungy din of a typical sports bar. The focal point of the
room was a short wooden stage, upon which stood a piano off to one side. Below the stage, a large dance floor connected the musician’s quarters to the bar and seating area. We danced on the stage, elevated above the crowd, for several hours to tunes by everyone from the Beatles to the Smiths to the Beach Boys, and even the B52’s and the Temptations, until the heat inside was overwhelming and we were forced into the cool air amidst a crowd of only locals. It was easily one of my favorite parts of the trip!
