Live from an overpriced coffee shop

Here I am, sitting in an overpriced coffee shop somewhere in a northern borough of London, watching people come and go on their visits to the restroom as I frantically use of up my 2 hours of wifi.

Our time with the grant is nearing it's end, so Amy is using today's unusually open schedule to cram in all the museums and sites that she hasn't made it to yet. Since I will have plenty of time to experience these later, I am using to day to scope out my future: currently I'm looking around the Borough where I will be moving to in September, and a little bit I'll hop on the tube and see if I can find where the institute is.

Since I built it up so much last time, I figure I had better stop talking about today and jump back to Wednesday and Glydebourne. This was Amy's idea as she is aware of my infatuation with opera, but we had no idea what an ordeal it would be. It took literally ALL day. I had some time in the morning to walk around our borough and buy some lunch and stuff for our picnic dinner while Amy caught up on sleep and worked on the budget. By 2 we were dressed in formal attire, Amy in a new purple dress with heels and me in my bowtie and blazer. We had to catch a specific train, so naturally we got a little confused. Fortunately there were two ladies who were also overdressed, so we asked them if they were going to Glydebourne, and they were! This is how we met our friends Barbara and Penny. They were our guardian angels for the whole day; they got us on the right train (hour delay due to flooding) then on the bus (imagine dozens of overdressed people frantically running off a train and on to a tour bus...it was so WEIRD!) as so on. The Glydebourne crowd was literally fighting for seats on the bus; one woman ran past Amy and slightly snagged her dress with her picnic basket, offering no apology. Fortunately no major damage was done.

Barbara and Penny had warned us when we first me: Glydebourne was very little about the opera and very much about eating and being seen. Of course the opera was brilliant--flawless even. Probably one of the best I've ever seen. I'm trying to think of what aspect wasn't amazing, but singers, set, staging, orchestra, conductor, lighting, even lighting was superb. The opera house is ridiculously small, but it is a private opera house. The intermission is an hour and a half long, for that's when you eat your picnic lunch, and for most people this is really what Glydebourne is really about. Of course we ended up by God's good will actually sitting next to Barbara and Penny during the performance, and they offered to buy us champagne during the interval (no small gesture, 10 pounds a glass!) Also, the setting was beautiful. Think of those British movies, like 4 Weddings and a Funeral, and it was straight out of that. Huge opera house in the middle of the country, manicured gardens organized in a maze of hedges, wealthy British people eating dinner on the lawn and playing croquet. It was quite the ordeal.

We ended up sitting with our friends on the train ride back, and they were simply marvelous for conversation. They had much to say for our grant and we're flattered when we asked if we could quote them.

On Thursday Amy and I went separate ways, which was definitely for the best considering we had been spending almost every waking hour together for the past two weeks. I took an adventure trying to find my mom's doctor friend who lived near Greenwich who had promised to keep my extra suitcase while I go explore mainland Europe. After finding it quite easily, I explored Greenwich and took a long walk along the Thames. I was doing quite well until I got lost somewhere on the South Bank, going further South instead of the intended North. Things were getting sketchier and sketchier until I finally managed to find a train and then take it to London Bridge. There I went to find the Gherkin (Swiss Re building) and got to see financial London. Needless to say in my jeans with a camera around my neck, I felt a little under-dressed as the rest of London was in Armani suits and such. Then I took the tube back to Balham, where I met up with Amy and some other friends who took us out to Persian food, which was of course amazing.

Friday I was just eating breakfast when Amy ran in telling me she had just scheduled an interview that started in 15 minutes and we had to leave immediately. Thank goodness we did; the man we interviewed turned out to be our number 1 source for our grant. He ran the Barbican (think all of Lincoln Center, or Seattle Center times 3! The Barbican is a really BIG deal in London.) Then we had another interview with a man who started a very famous television show in the UK, which is pretty much reality TV with a youth orchestra. Then we went to our final Prom. It was an amazing orchestra; they started with a British piece I didn't know, then Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 3 (Paul Lewis as the pianist...and Amy set it up so we got to meet him backstage at intermission!) They closed with Ein Heldenlaben--brilliant!

Well, I'm going to run out of internet time. My next update will likely be from Germany or Switzerland...I fly out on Monday!