{"id":1150,"date":"2015-04-26T11:29:05","date_gmt":"2015-04-26T15:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.rollins.edu\/wpsites\/letters\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2019-07-25T15:24:07","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T15:24:07","slug":"bittersweet-last-week-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/2015\/04\/26\/bittersweet-last-week-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Bittersweet last week in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

My last week in London was bittersweet; I was excited to return home and start summer break but felt sad to leave a city that has been my home for the last four\u00a0months. It was especially hard to say goodbye to\u00a0The Independent\u00a0<\/em>and the editors that I have grown close with. Fortunately, the foreign deputy editor wants me to pitch story ideas \u00a0from Florida, so there are\u00a0still opportunities to snag more international bylines before graduation.<\/p>\n

During my last few days abroad, I tried to fit in as much activities as I could. On my last weekend, I took a trip\u00a0to Brighton\u2015a seaside resort that many Londoners venture to for the beaches and amusement rides on\u00a0the\u00a0pier. I also went to Abbey Road Studios and snagged a Beatle-inspired picture with my roommate on the iconic crosswalk. Afterwards, we had lunch at Leadenhall Market\u2015an elegant covered market with Victorian architecture located\u00a0in the historic center of\u00a0London.<\/p>\n

During the week, I saw the opening night performance of\u00a0Merchant of Venice<\/em> at The Globe. My roommate’s theatre professor gave us\u00a0two\u00a0groundling tickets, and we stood\u00a0inches away from the actors\u2015who ocassionally grabbed audience members to join in certain scenes.\u00a0\u00a0I am always\u00a0amazed at how relatable Shakespeare’s plays are to modern audiences.\u00a0Merchant of Venice<\/em>\u00a0is a comedy play, and though performed hundreds of years after its premiere, the humor was still spot on. The dramatic moments also continue to move audiences with\u00a0the play’s themes of\u00a0religious prejudice and showing mercy to one’s enemies. Though a replica of the original, The Globe with its open roof\u00a0and candle-lit stage\u00a0made me feel lost in another time and appreciative of the playwright’s influences on modern\u00a0culture.<\/p>\n

On my last night in London, I had a formal goodbye dinner with my roommates Alex and Katie. We ate at OXO Tower\u2015 a\u00a0skyline brasserie overlooking the\u00a0Thames River and Southbank. Afterwards, we\u00a0stopped at the Udderbelly Festival\u2015a springtime comedy and circus carnival. To end our evening, we took a stroll along the Thames to get our last glimpses of the London Eye,\u00a0Westminister, and Big Ben.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My last week in London was bittersweet; I was excited to return home and start summer break but felt sad to leave a city that has been my home for the last four\u00a0months. It was especially hard to say goodbye to\u00a0The Independent\u00a0and the editors that I have grown close with. Fortunately, the foreign deputy editor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":487,"featured_media":1160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[74,99,220,259,322],"class_list":["post-1150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capa","tag-abbey-road","tag-brighton","tag-leadenhall-market","tag-oxo-tower","tag-the-globe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17970,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions\/17970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}