Family Visit

My family came to visit! It was very exciting and exhausting. So now that everyone has boarded their planes home, I guess that it is time that I got on the ball and actually posted again. It has been a busy week and a half for me and the rest of the family, but I can't tell you about their experiences, I can just tell you mine. (I am going to warn you all in advance, this post is going to be rather wordy because not nearly enough pictures were taken, at least on my end, most of the photo credits go to my sister Andrea.)

SUNDAY is when my family arrived. I was so excited that they were all coming to visit that I couldn't really sleep, like that kid in the Disneyland commercials. Although in retrospect this would have been a fantastic idea as the rest of the visit I felt a bit sleep deprived.

My mom rented a very nice apartment in Wapping (pronounced Wopping) right on the river. (As the East London underground line is currently under construction, the location made my commute to them a little difficult, but we made it work. Yay for buses.) Once they got to their house, they unpacked and did a little napping. (Jet lag.) Then I went and met up with them, finding Hugh fast asleep on the couch (as we came to find out, he would do a lot).

After greetings and catching up we walked down the road and had dinner in a pub, The Captain Kidd. I think we ordered like 5 different kinds of pies, steak and kidney, steak and ale, chicken and mushroom, sheperd's pie... you get the idea. (Andrea was in heaven, she loves pies.) It was nice and relaxed. Then we went to the grocery store, came back, watched some tennis, and they went to bed and I went back to my apartment.

(Wapping is the old wharf area. It was heavily bombed in WWII and afterwards fell into disrepair. Recently a lot of money was put into the area, making a nice, young neighborhood with some good restaurants and pubs. Although not very far from where I am living in Mile End, the feel of the places is very different. You can see this riding on the bus and all of a sudden you see all these Indian/Bangladeshi sari stores and Indian restaurants and street vegetable stalls.)

MONDAY I had classes. So they went out and about and explored. We had a slight miscommunication, I thought that I was going to go right after class and meet them in London for dinner, but I couldn't get in touch with them when I got out of class. Then my mom called and said they were all pooped out and went back to their apartment. So I hopped on the tube to get the bus... and I met up with them back at their apartment. Almost everyone was asleep on the couches.

We went to a nice Italian place nearby for dinner. There was a funny episode on the way back where we were teasing Hugh (Guess where he got the idea for his blog title?) about checking for his wallet. The waiter had jokingly given him the bill. I commented how it was funny watching guys walking out their doors and patting themselves down to make sure that they had everything. Hugh said, "Yeah, I would freak out if I didn't have my thing." And Jim said, "Well I think anyone would freak out if they lost their thing." Oh the sexual insinuations. This set off a string of jokes and we made Hugh laugh so hard he couldn't stop coughing, which in turn led to jokes about not letting himself get sick over losing his thing. I love joking with my family.

Once back at the apartment we watched some of the Tennis World Finals. (Which was actually in London only a hop, skip, and a jump away at the O2, where I watched the Gymnastics World Championships.) Hugh fell asleep on the couch again. We think it has mystical powers over him. He can't sit on it without nodding off.

Andrea headed home with me that night. We had a sister sleepover and got caught up with each other. I had some work to finish for the next day and she fell asleep while I was still talking to her, which was a very entertaining experience. But we managed to share a single bed, something that we never would have been able to before.

TUESDAY morning Andrea and I got up, got some coffee (tea) and croissants (chocolate for me!) and got on the tube to meet everyone at The Tower of London. Over 1000 years of London History. It's pretty intense. We went on a tour with one of the Yeomen Warders (Beefeaters) and then walked past the crown jewels and into the Henry VIII Exhibit. (You know, I found it all fascinating. Unfortunately I had to go back to campus to meet my playwriting group for our project. Everyone else was freezing, so they got some lunch and went back to the apartment.

I showered and got ready to go out to a show. My mom and I decided on it, but we let it be a surprise for everyone else. We met at The Real Greek in Covent Garden, a restaurant recommended by Jim's brother, and it was very yummy. Dinner was delicious Greek food, (we attempted to coerce Abigail into trying hummus, but she refused, we teased her like all good siblings would) and we had some good desserts that Andrea could eat too, baklava.

During this time I was constantly checking my phone (a habit I usually loathe in restaurants) because Zach, a friend from high school who was studying abroad in Paris, (my mom dated his dad for a bit, but that is a story for another day) was getting off his train and was going to meet us at the theatre, but we were cutting it close. Then we walked towards the theatre to see Avenue Q. Zach came in from Paris. Narrowly making it into the theatre. But we all got to see it, and it was so much fun!

I saw Avenue Q in New York when I visited Rex two summers ago, but it was everyone else's first time seeing the show. It's very unique, as a musical. It makes me smile just thinking about it. After the show we all went our separate ways. Well they all went to the house and I went back to my apartment, but we all went home and went to sleep.

WEDNESDAY I had no classes and no meetings. We decided to take a bus tour around London. It is a hop-on hop-off bus, or was supposed to be (I would not recommend this bus tour unless you get on the red one, and you actually get on and off). It gives commentary. Fun stuff. Most of the stuff I had seen before, already taking a tour around the city at the beginning of my stay here. This bus trip quickly got interesting though.

We started our journey at Tower Hill. Abigail had to pee when we got on the bus. Now, not that I am one to talk about needing to pee, but watching her try to hold it in was absolutely hilarious. My laughing didn't help her any, so we got off the bus near Parliament and Westminster Abbey. As a group we all went towards the public toilets, had some great fun fishing out the correct coinage to let everyone in, and then made our merry way, making fun of Abigail the entire time of course, towards the bus stop next to Westminster.

This day was very cold. It was sunny, thank god no rain, but the icy wind that kept coming at us was very, very cold. Mom, to try to combat the cold pulled her scarf over her head and hunched her shoulders against the wind, making her look like an old woman who was missing her cane. I cleverly said that the scarf aged her twenty years and was promptly smacked in the back of the head. Then Hugh laughed and pointed at me, so I smacked him in the back of the head. This is what happens I guess.

Finally another bus came. This was the blue tour and we all had to use some sexy headphones to hear the commentary, no more live guide. It was cold up there too. We drove by Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard was happening. "Are we getting off Mom? Mom? I guess not." So we kept driving. And driving. We saw a lot of London, some parts more than other. We went past Hyde Park and up to Speaker's Corner, around Marble Arch, down to Berkeley Square (pronouced Barkley) which has the most haunted house in London, then around Buckingham Palace again out towards Harrods.

Harrods was another place that we debated getting off at. I think that attempting to go into a department store with over 200 departments with all 7 of us would have been very difficult. However, everyone was getting hungry at this point. It was around the Victoria and Albert Museum that I pulled out my conveniently hidden sandwich. Having travelled with my family before (although admittedly it was usually waiting in pilot lounge's for my Dad) I know that sometimes getting food gets put on the back burner. So when I pulled out my 'Brie My Baby' sandwich, they were all envious. (Except for Andrea, who could not in fact eat any of it because it had almost entirely cheese.) I did sustain them with some sour apple candies.

Instead of stopping we kept driving, past Kensington Palace, the Natural History Museum, Notting Hill, Paddington Station, J.M Barrie's House (Peter Pan!), and then past Marble Arch... again. And then we went back down and circled Marble Arch. Marble Arch. And finally we got to move on and somehow got our bus stopped outside the most expensive tourist attraction in London: Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. (I also think that this is the most stupid, creepy and pointless museum.) The bus turned off and we ended up sitting there waiting for more than 20 minutes. Abigail actually had the right idea at this point of getting off the bus and getting the tube to somewhere with food. Her sage advice was not heeded.

Instead when the bus started up again we went by Baker Street (yes like Sherlock Holmes) and down towards Oxford Circus. We kept joking that the bus would turn around and go past Marble Arch against just for old times sake, but the traffic was so bad that we were getting passed by pedestrians. So finally, at the next available opportunity we hot tailed it off that bus and right into shopping traffic. Now thankfully I mostly knew my way around this area, was able to avoid all the crowded shops and get to a nice little restaurant where it was warm within about 7 minutes. I am going to pat myself on the back for that one, it's not so easy at Oxford Circus.

After everyone defrosted and was fed, we decided to boycott the bus and took a nice walk south towards Trafalgar Square. We walked through Soho, and down to Piccadilly Circus and then Trafalgar Square. (I was a little confused by the new statue, as there had been people up there the last time I visited. I later figured out that it was this... One and Other. Watch the best bits.) We went up to the Wellington Monument and had fun climbing on lions. Pictures!

Then back towards Covent Garden, we wandered and watched street performers. There was one guy who was heckling us, he told us he had a masters in theatre. (If only I could juggle... then I could have his future! Just kidding Dad.) I volunteered to be a part of his "light a match with a yo-yo trick." Which was successful. After the show was over, Hugh went to give him a pound and said, "I think I would give him more money if he had hit you in the face with the yo-yo."

They went to grab some beers and warm up. Hugh and I went to get some tea and some carrot cake instead. Very yummy carrot cake! Mom, Jim and Abigail left early. Hugh and I met Zach and Andrea in the bar, decided that we had done enough exploring for the day and got back on the tube home. We somehow beat them back to the apartment. They got groceries. We made some dinner. Watched some tennis.

Matt, Christine and Alexi showed up. They are family friends from way back that now live in Switzerland. They came to have Thanksgiving with us. So greetings and more food. Then I headed home.

THURSDAY was actually Thanksgiving. But we decided to hold off the eating and merriment until Friday because I had classes all day Thursday and Robin wouldn't be able to come until Friday.

Looking back, I have absolutely no idea what everyone else did this day. Thursday was rather eventful for me because I had rehearsed reading rehearsals (mouthful I know!) starting at 11am. Then we broke for lunch, met up again at 2 to continue rehearsals. Then we had a lighting/tech run through. Then class meeting. Then an editing meeting. Then at 6 we had our actual performance/read-thru. Basically I have been working in my dramaturgy and translation class on a group playwriting project based on the structure of Schnizler's La Ronde. It was a very interesting process, but as I have to write an essay on it, I am not going to write about much of it here.

Now something that is different about classes in University here as opposed to the US, is that professors can serve you alcohol. It's still weird for me. But as we were performing plays, and they were basically an evening of theatre, our professor brought us snacks and wine. So after the performances were done, there were not that many of us left so we finished everything. (There may or may not have been an excursion upstairs in which a plate of food from the reception may have gone missing.) And for those of you who don't know me, I am a lightweight. A fact that has been reinforced in my mind several times now. The glass or so of wine that I had was definitely enough.

Continuing on. Unbeknownst to me, one of the girls in my class is rather famous in her home country. Her mother is a famous Russian pop singer. So is her father. She has a recording contract. And to think I thought her a ditz... anyway she decided that we had to go back to her place because they were (rightly) kicking us out of the theatre.

After the most ridiculous cab ride and transportation fiasco, we ended up at her apartment where I was taught, to my detriment, how to properly drink Vodka... by a Russian. I will just let your imagination fill in the blanks between karaoke, her mother skype-yelling at us, pizza, and a pullout couch.

FRIDAY morning, miraculously, I was not hung over. But as I had been more than tipsy when we left school I had no idea where the hell in London I actually was. So I tried to leave with my Russian friend, but she wanted me to run some errands with her first, so I declined and wandered around forever trying to find a sign, a tube station, anything. My phone had also run out of credit. I eventually found Victoria Station. I took the tube back to my place.

Everyone else had gone to Hampton Court Palace. But as that is quite a ways away it would have been pointless to try to meet them there. So I showered, napped, did some work, and met them back at the apartment for Thanksgiving!!

I am going to stop this post here and continue Thanksgiving in the next post.

Cheers!