wimbledon and shakespeare

hiiiii! sorry my last blog got posted so late. i had to upload the pictures four different times and the wifi is basically from the jurassic period so it took about 2 hours each time. first off can i  just say... i am so freakin tired. i am gonna fall over dead. i keep doing these weird things to wake myself up. anywho.
so this morning i woke up without an alarm at like 5 am, just like always! it's terrible. but today instead of going back to sleep i got ready for WIMBLEDON! yeeeeehooooo. standing in the legendary queue starts at something like 630 in the morning so i wanted to get going. so i tiptoed around the room as everyone slept! just fyi the floors are super super creaky here cause everything is all wood and olden. haha anyways, i got out of the house a little before 7 i think! i grabbed breakfast at tesco (little mini grocer) and hopped on the tube all by myself! i felt so legit. like a grown up london resident. i tried to avoid talking so no one would know that i'm american hahah.
but anyways i got off at the southfield station and talked a little bit with an older australian couple who had been on the tube with me and realized we were both headed to wimbledon. after our long walk to the park we ended up in the queue together and just continued chatting. their names were Marlene and Allen and they were from South Australia. they were so sweet! they are a retired couple and were touring the uk for 6 weeks. by the end of the day i felt like they were my grandparents or something! they were so sweet, always making sure they didn't leave me behind and that i could see the courts and stuff. the couple in front of us also turned out to be Australian! they stuck with us all day too. their names were Amy and Bobby and they live in Sydney. they were like 23 i think so they were young and fun. so we stood in line for about two hours! but it wasn't too bad cause we were talking the whole time. we got into the park itself at about 11:00. we were around #4500 in the line out of 8000 so we did pretty good, but it was crazy to see all the people that camp out and stuff! i didn't think people were that dedicated! but i guess a centre court ticket for 44 pounds is worth it to some people!

the huge queue! it took up this whole huge field and wounded around for what seemed like foreverrr

my australian pals! 

the queue getting a little more exciting... andre won 20 years ago this year! 

as you get closer they have a lot of interactive stuff... for instance you can do a photoshoot in this evian thing.. in another place you could go in and play wii tennis. lots of free stuff also which is always good! 

once we were on the grounds i realized how much i love wimbledon! the grounds are so beautiful! and everything just seems so classy!

the strawberries and cream, the champagne, all that good stuff. it's just a 'lovely' place. so we wanted to go see mardy fish play tsonga on the show court 12 but it got full super fast! so instead we went to standing room on court 9 and watched another american, jesse levine. he was playing some guy from slovakia that talked to himself a lot. we only watched the first set, but the american won! so that was good. it was really hot so we decided to move around. i went to the shop and got some stuff for amanda the tennis fan. then went off to find some food. the food there is so fun! everything is really well done and fresh and presented nicely. they have all the british stuff, special teas, cakes, sandwiches, baguettes... i loved it. i went to one of the food courts and got a egg salad sandwich with spinach, as well as the traditional strawberries and cream! it was super good. and i regularly would NOT buy an egg salad sandwich that had been on display. but it sounded good, and it was!
after that i went over by court 1 (reserved seating, couldn't go in there because i only had a grounds pass) and sat on the big lawn/steps they show on TV a lot and watched the bigscreen. they were showing one of the british girls who was playing on court 3. she lost but it was fun because you can talk when you aren't on the court so all the locals were really into that one. she was a cute girl and got beat by some russian that looked like a man so that was a bummer. hahahah i am so mean. anyways.
i have to say today i definitely developed an appreciation for smoking areas in the US! i haven't noticed before, but here in the UK you can smoke everywhere! it's gross! i am so glad the states isn't like that. but back to wimbledon, after watching that match it was super hot! and i had to get back to the centre for a 4 o'clock lecture so i grabbed the tube back!

i got off the tube at my stop and still had a lot of time so i wandered around my neighborhood for a little bit. i went to a mall nearby which actually has a funny story. so it's in the whiteley building, which was apparently Hitler's favorite building. he wanted it to be his headquarters when he took over europe so he made sure to spare it in the blitz. fun fact of the day. but back to present day, it's now a mall and has zara and accessorize and h&m and all the fine european shops so it was nice to walk around and get a feel. i was too tired to buy anything though! after that i went and got some postage at the post office (which is completely ran by indians by the way) and came back to the centre. i tried to sleep for a little bit because i am literally dying but soon enough it was 4 o'clock and lecture time!
so our lecture was from tim slover again, the guy from the U, and he introduced to the shakespeare play we saw tonight, which is henry v. he did an excellent job again. this guy seriously makes art so much more interesting! after that it was time for dinner! tonight we had fish, a little frittata, more nommy rolls, and roasted carrots. so good yet again. i love it! i'm so glad we are fed well.
after that it was off to the tube to get to the globe theatre for our first shakespeare encounter! we got to pass by st. pauls again which was really pretty, and also go over one of the bridges that they show in the flyover scenes from harry potter. (ps-can't wait to go the set of that! eeep!) we saw henry v, and i definitely appreciated it more thanks to professor slover's little intro. if you don't come prepared to stuff it goes right over my head! so i was really glad i knew more of what was going on.
so at the globe theatre, it is a full on recreation of how it was in shakespeare's time. it's not a very big theatre, and about half the 'seating' is actually at ground level, and you stand! right up next to the stage. of course to get the full effect our professors decided to get these tickets. my feet have never hurt so bad. i was rocking around and switching legs and was really quite miserable. it was sad because i was actually enjoying shakespeare for probably the first time in my life but it was hard to give my full attention because it was so unpleasant standing for so long. it was a full hour and fifteen until intermission! but it was still super neat. keeping to the whole traditional thing, they don't use any special affects, costuming, or make up that wouldn't have been available during shakespeare's time. the only exception is lighting. electricity was allowed :) i forgot! the roof of the globe is true to it's original state- non existent! so when it started raining, we definitely felt it. i have to say it was a pretty surreal experience, standing in the globe theatre in the rain watching super legit shakespeare. today was a cool day!

good shot of st. pauls on the way to the theatre

the globe! 

kind of a crappy picture... but here you can get the general idea of what was going on. pretty surprised how colorful it was! 

tomorrow we are off bright and early for our first coach trip! every wednesday we wake up bright and early and take a big bus out of the city. tomorrow we will be visiting canterbury and dover! the cliffs, castles, etc. i'm pumped!! until then... hope everyone is doing super! feel free to leave comments i would love to hear from ya :) much love! 

collage of the day!