London: The beginning

We made it!! After days of traveling Amy and I arrived in London yesterday around 8 in the morning. Of course it only felt like midnight, so we were doing okay but neither of us had slept that much. We braved the tube all the way to one of the southernmost tips of London, and spent the majority of the day with Amy’s friend Della. Della lives with her brother Martin and we spent the time meeting each other (or in Amy's case, catching up.) Amy is staying with Della, so once we got her settled we walked over to Re and David's, also friends of Amy's, where I'm staying.

Re and David have this amazing house in south London; from the outside it looks like an ordinary townhouse, but on the inside you discover a huge 4-bedroom 5-bathroom house, tastefully decorated with items that could have been make 5 years ago or 500 years ago. The whole top floor currently belongs to me complete with bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen. Everything is quite European--the "clothes-dryer" is the line outside and every toilet and shower is an adventure. The shower hasn't been too difficult to figure out, as American showers are equally puzzling, but the act of flushing the toilet is always a path of discovery. Just a few minutes ago I actually managed to succeed in a full flush on the first try, which I consider a vast improvement of the usual 4-or-5-half-flushes-until-the-real-deal-happens.

Of course there is an absolutely beautiful garden in the back and a wonderful cross between a dining-room and a green house where I had breakfast this morning.

My first impression of the English can be summed up in a little story: at Della's house there was a beautiful calico cat. When I asked the name, they said they had no idea, they simply call it cat because its not theirs. Of course they feed it and pet it and take care of it, but their really not sure of it's gender or even how it got there. When arriving at Re's we saw a wonderful black cat. Once again I asked the name, and Re said that she didn't know and they just call it cat, creating a humorous sense of deja vu. Apparently this cat comes over because it knows it can always get a good scratch. So that is my first impression of the English: kind, caring, yet somewhat impersonal and private, not necessarily trying to get too involved with others.

Today we decided to hit the city. It was awesome. But there was a twist. When I arrived at Della's today to meet Amy, she had no voice. Laryngitis had taken over, and there was my professor with a notepad, tea and honey, otherwise completely unable to communicate. Poor woman: those of you that know Amy know that she isn't exactly quiet. Nonetheless, I became the translator and group communicator today. It's a good thing that I have taken piano lessons with Amy for 3 years now, otherwise reading her notes would have been impossible. She spent almost the whole day whispering and writing...I told her it felt like we were telling secrets!

Some highlights of today included Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, and of course the Proms. Going to the Proms was unreal; Royal Albert Hall is incredible, just like as glorious as every youtube video I've seen of it. And the big deal about it's acoustics being lousy, I disagree. Not really that bad at all, especially when you go in with the mindset that it will be on-par with Olsen Gym. The program was Wagner's Rienzi Overture, Beethoven's 2nd piano concerto (with Paul Lewis at the bench!!!!), and Dvorak's new world symphony. Fantastic. We met up with Amy's friend Mina for the concert and afterwards Mina took us to a swanky little place and talked about her fascinating life as a concert pianist and teacher living in London.

Otherwise, I becoming very familiar with the tube, I haven't been robbed yet, I love fish and chips, I love London more than I had even expected, and British accents are actually a lot harder to understand in real life than in the movies. But it's 1 am, and it's a full day tomorrow, so I have to go! I'm meeting up with Ben, one of my best friend's from high school who's here on some West Point Summer School thing, and then Amy and I are going to a Pink Martini concert at the Barbican! And a teaser for you lovers of the greatest baritone ever--I get to see Bryn Terfel on Saturday!!! Until next time!