London, Edinburgh, and more!

I have many exciting things to write about, so I apologize if this post gets long. First up, my trip to London and Edinburgh.

Brief recap: Last weekend I got Thanksgiving off, not because it is celebrated in Hungary, but because almost all the students in my program are American and would be upset to have class on Thanksgiving. Officially, last friday was a normal school day, however the professor of my one friday class wisely decided to reschedule because he recognized that most of the class had no intention of being in Hungary (myself included). That gave me a five day weekend (remember, I don't have class on monday) and I decided to make the most of it by visiting my friends studying in the UK.

I left shortly after my last class on Wednesday and arrived at my lodging in London (courtesy of Joseph Replogle) around 10:30pm. The really convenient thing for me is that all of the Pomona students studying in London are staying in the same apartment, so I got to visit them all simultaneously! After catching up with people, I went to bed because I wanted to get up early the next morning.

Here's why: When I was planning my trip to London, I was overwhelmed by the amount of things to see and do, especially considering that I only had two days! I didn't know how to decide, then I remembered: "London is the home of the West End!" So I resolved to see a show. Once I had decided that, I knew at once that I wanted to see War Horse. If you haven't heard of it, shame on you! (especially because Steven Spielberg is directing a screen adaptation of the novel opening soon) Anyway, just to bring you up to speed, War Horse opened in London in 2007 and was nominated for several Olivier (like the Tonys for the West End) awards, winning two. A new production was opened on Broadway last season and the show subsequently won five Tonys plus a special Tony for the puppets (more on that later).

Anyway, by the time I had decided this, the tickets were sold out for the performances while I was in London. However, I discovered that the theatre reserves some tickets to be sold the day of the performance. This is (finally) were the early rising comes in. I got up early to make sure I was the first in line for my ticket - and I was. It turns out, I probably could have caught another half hour of sleep and still been the first in line, but there was no way to know that beforehand. Either way, it was well worth it! War Horse is probably the best show I have ever seen. They did stuff on the stage that I did not think was possible, this is not only from a technical complexity standpoint, but also the characterization achieved and how cleanly the show was put together. Before I can discuss this in greater detail, I need to tell you a little bit about the show.

As the title suggests, War Horse is the story of a horse, Joey, that is raised in rural England and then sent off to fight in WWI, when calvary were still used (to no avail against the new machine guns). It is also the story of Joey's young owner Albert who can't stand the loss of his horse and goes to find him. For more details on the story, read the novel, watch the play (only convenient if you live in London or New York, sorry), or watch the movie that is soon to be released. So, the question is: "How do you tell a story about a horse onstage, in a realistic manner." The answer: puppets. However, these were no ordinary puppets. Each horse took three people to operate: one to operate the head, one to operate the front legs, and one to operate the hind legs. However, the movement was so realistic that I quickly forgot the puppeteers were there at all. Maybe that's the wrong choice of words - I didn't forgot they were there, but I didn't care. I was fully able to believe that it was a really horse on the stage. I am almost done raving about the show, I promise, but bear with me just a little longer.

The horses for me really epitomize the show: the perfect balance between realism and representationalism. By appearance, the horses were clearly not real, but their movements were uncanny. The stage was the same way, because the show moves quickly from one scene to the next, the set was minimal - just enough to represent the setting and signify necessary changes. Again, the show incorporated everything - sets, lights, actors, puppets, music, effects - that presented a clean, simple, and polished finish despite the enormous complexity of the underlying components. If you want to see more about the horse puppets, check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7u6N-cSWtY

It's a long video, so if you just want to see Joey, he comes out about 9 minutes in. In short, War Horse has a great story, great acting, and great visuals. It is a truly amazing show.

I should probably tell you about the rest of my trip too. After getting my ticket for the matinee performance of War Horse, I went and got another day of ticket for the evening performance of The 39 Steps, that's right, two shows in one day. The 39 Steps is a good ol' British comedy incorporating slapstick, witticism, gag humor, and all around farcery (i.e. about as far from War Horse as you can get). It was hilarious, but I would still recommend War Horse over The 39 Steps.

After getting that ticket, I had a few hours to kill, so I went to the British Museum - which is MASSIVE! I more or less just walked through the galleries, not stopping to read much, and it still took me close to 3 hours! Joseph said he has been there seven times and still hasn't seen everything! It is quite an incredible collection. After that was a quick lunch of bangers and mash before War Horse (so good!), then I went back to the apartment where all the Pomona students pooled together to cook Thanksgiving dinner. We (well, I should say "they," I didn't help with the cooking) substituted a chicken for the turkey, but it was still delicious and spent with friends - isn't that what's important? Then I ran off to The 39 Steps. After a tiring day of walking around and the dramatic performance of War Horse, the farcical humor of The 39 Steps was the perfect cap to a great Thanksgiving.

Friday I slept in a little later to recuperate before heading out for a full day of sightseeing. I started by heading down to Trafalgar Square and a brief visit to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. I walked down past a bunch of historic building (mainly former military offices) and past the horse gate (appropriate considering what I had seen the day before). I was even there around the changing of the guard, however from what I saw, the on duty guards and fresh guards just lined up and stared at each other for a while so I left. I walked down to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey and walked along the Thames for a little bit before returning to Trafalgar Square for the free 1pm concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields church. The concert on that day happened to be a phenomenal Russian pianist who played some Bach, Chopin, and Albeniz. It was quite good, and the pianist even gave an encore.

Next, I headed to the Imperial War Museum. The name kind of tells it all: lots of guns, tanks, trucks, boats, planes, missiles, a submarine or two, and basically anything that may have used during WWI or WWII. It also houses a Holocaust exhibit that I thought was very well done (and I actually can form a legit opinion because I have been to several such exhibitions and studied others through my Holocaust and Memory class). For something completely different, I headed back to Westminster Abbey for the Evensong. This was great for several reasons: I got to see the inside of the Abbey (without having to pay), I got to hear the choir in such a beautiful space, I quite enjoy comparing and contrasting different styles of worship, and I found the service moving. Afterwards I headed back to the apartment to hang out with friends for my last night in London.

Saturday I flew up to Edinburgh. On my way to Kaitlyn's (my host's) apartment, I learned that Scotland really is very, very windy. I had taken a bus from the airport into the city, and I was off that bus for around 10 seconds before a gust of wind came up and nearly knocked me over. Unfortunately I didn't get to Kaitlyn's apartment until about 3:30, by which time the sun was going down. No worries though, Kaitlyn still had something for us to do: go hang lights for the student theatre group she is a part of. Only I could manage to spend my first two hours in a new country hanging lights in a theatre. Oh well, I got to meet some cool people and it was fun (I mean, I hadn't worked in a theatre for like four months, something was wrong).

Kaitlyn had another suggestion for me after we were done hanging lights (this one a legit tourist activity).  She suggested I take a tour of Edinburgh's "Underground City." As my tour guide explained, the words "underground city" are misleading. More accurately, we toured a "subterranean system of tunnels, caves, and caverns," but that didn't fit on the brochure and somehow "Underground City" sells more tickets. It was an interesting tour, and the guide was quite enthusiastic, very knowledgeable, and entertaining. It was great way to learn about a part of Edinburgh's history that is often forgotten (and for much of the 20th century, completely hidden).

Since I had gotten in too late on Saturday to see very much, Sunday was the only day I had for the main tourist attractions. Kaitlyn and I started off the day by climbing up Arthur's Seat, which is a large hill to the south of the city and offers tremendous views of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth. If it was windy at the base of the hill, then it was downright tempestuous at the top! There is a rocky area at the top with two crops that go a little higher, and each had a short pillar type thing. During a lull in the wind, I climbed to the top of one to see what was on the pillar. It was a metal plate pointing out all the sights you could see. As I was looking at this, the wind picked up and pinned me against the pillar for a few minutes. Fortunately I had the foresight to be on the downwind side of the pillar and did not blown off the outcrop.

After that, Kaitlyn had to go back to the theatre, so I went and strolled along the High Street (the center of the Old Town). I visited St. Giles Cathedral (which isn't really a cathedral because it is a Church of Scotland). St. Giles was built in many stages, so it has a very unique layout and each wing and each chapel has its own slightly different architectural style. Across from St. Giles there was a bagpiper playing, which made me chuckle. Then I went to the legendary Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh Castle has a long history of trading hands, sometimes violently, other times through cunning. Unlike other castles I have visited, it was clear that much of the castle (especially the older parts) were built for the express purpose of battle - not to be an ornate palace of royalty. The oldest building in the castle is a chapel that dates back to the 12th century. Ironically, the largest canon in the castle, the Mons Meg, is positioned right next to this chapel. The Mons Meg is a very impressive canon: it used to fire a canon ball 20 inches in diameter, weighing about 400lbs, and on one occasion was recorded to have fired over 2 miles! I say "used to" because it ruptured while being fired a couple of hundred years ago. They keep it around because it still looks impressive. Moving on, in the royal apartments I learned that King James VI of Scotland, who later became James I of England, and I share not only a name, but also birthday!

By the time I was done at the castle, I only had about an hour and half before all the sights closed down at 5. I spent that hour and a half in the Scottish National Museum. Since I didn't have much time, I decided to focus on the exhibit presenting the history of Scotland. I still wasn't able to do that justice in the limited time I had. Afterwards I met Kaitlyn at the theatre before I headed back to St. Giles for an evening concert. The concert was performed by the Edinburgh Youth Chorus, so I was a bit wary, but it was pretty good. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with Kaitlyn and briefly with Gary (another Pomona student), but he had a lot of homework to do.

Monday, I packed up and returned to Hungary. I know this is already a long post, but the title promised "and more." So here are the other exciting things:

1. Today as I was walking to class, it was snowing! It made me happy (first snow of the season here).

2. In my advanced Combinatorics/ Hypergraph Theory course, I proved a result that the professor had never seen before. This in and of itself is cool (for me anyways), but also he said that he would look into it to see if it is a new result and if I could do something with it (like publish it)! I guess it turns out that doing your homework the hard way can (sometimes) pay off!

3. Room draw just got done. In case you don't know, at Pomona, room draw is the process in which students are assigned a number (based on class) and then choose a room. Since I am abroad, I did not draw a room for this semester, but I chose a proxy to pick a room for me for next semester. As it turns out, I got a single in Norton, which was actually one of my top picks (surprising since I had a terrible room draw number).

Sorry about this post being a short novel, I guess I should write more frequently... oh well! Also, I will get pictures up on facebook ... eventually. I have a paper to write and (as always) problem sets to solve in the meantime.