Is this the real life? Is it just fantasy?

(photos: the photo exhibit at the theatre contained the most fantastic photo of Freddie ever taken, this one's for you Scott Molski; large statue outside the theatre; church where Chaucer collected classes, and oddly enough, the same church the Jack the Ripper tour guide told us was the "prostitute's church"; a statue of the emporer Trajen in front of some of the old Roman wall)

It pays off to wear musician t-shirts. Especially good ones. Like Bowie.
At breakfast today one of the cooks stopped asked me if i'd been to seen Bowie in New York, and i unfortunately had to say no. So then we talked about Bowie for a bit and now i think i am getting a free burned copy of a Ray Lamontagne cd, since i have never listened to him. Well, only if i find the guy at lunch... So yeah, wear good t-shirts, you can get free stuff and make British friends.

On the way to class, the Central line of the tubes shut down because of a "trespassor on the tracks", so we switched, and eventually that line was shut down as well. I'm not sure if it was for security reasons or if "trespassor" was a bit of a euphemism, since not all tube stations have anything preventing people from going on the tracks.

Civ of London class today consisted of a walk dedicated to the original Roman Wall which used to surround the square mile of "The City" of London. You can see a few bits of old wall around the area, but only the 20th century parts, as the Roman bits are now underground. The Britons kept knocking down areas and rebuliding on top of the rubble, so that the level of this area is much different now then it was in Roman times. You can see the levels of red clay brick separating layers of the English stone for extra support. This wall was the main line of defense for London in Roman times, it had only 3 sides, as the River Thames provided the fourth. The two main gates, located at Aldgate and Bishopsgate, were the only ways of entering the city and it was heavily guarded. In order to intimidate people coming into the city since they had no real police force at the time, and hooligans or ruffians who upset someone would have their head cut off, dipped in tar, put on a spike, and mounted on the top of the gate. They won't stand for any of your sass.

The wall was not only for defense, but also a way of collecting money through tariffs, as you may have surmised. What was especially interesting, though, was the fact that the tax collecter at the one of the churches we passed was Geoffrey Chaucer, of Canterbury Tales fame.

My theatre class was cancelled today so i wasted that time pretty well, until a friend came up and said a few people were trying to see "We Will Rock You" , the Queen musical, later that night. So despite the fact that i had to finish a book, i said "Of course i'll go, i have no other obligations to school or anything." So i went, and i am glad i did. It was quite good, though not the best i have seen. The music was pretty impressive, as it is not that easy to successfully perform Queen songs unless you are Freddie Mercury. They changes the lyrics to some songs, which i wasn't so sure about, and a couple of the characters didn't sing quite like i hoped they would. But overall it was a fantastic time, and now i have to listen to Queen for at least a week straight.

Well, i have class at the National Gallery in a bit, then my class is going to the reconstructed Globe Theatre to see Comedy of Errors. I plan on walking since i am cheap, and luckily, enjoy walking. This means i should go eat lunch now and try to procure the aforementioned cd. If only i had a ..."BICYCLE! BICYCLE! BICYCLE! I want to ride my... bicycle! bicycle! bicycle! I want to ride my bicycle. i want to ride my bike. i want to ride my bicycle. i want to ride it where i like..."
Oh Queen, you, fantastic rock band, you