I Stalk A Young British Barbershop Quartet...Among Other Things

Tuesday, was it? Yes, Tuesday was a rather significant day for me, first because it was the morning I woke up with a sore throat. A lot of girls have been sick this past week but since I don't live with any of them, I had hoped I'd be able to avoid this mini-plague. Unfortunately, that was not to be. However, this cold has been riddled with miracles! Somehow I had the forethought to bring my last few alka seltzer cold tablets when I was packing for this trip, so they have provided me with a great deal of relief. But second, and perhpas the more significant, I'm not miserable with this cold. I had a day and a half of a sore throat and I've had to blow my nose a lot, but the misery that normally accompanies such colds has been completely absent. Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon here, but things could have been a lot worse! Anyway, Tuesday. It was our last real day of classes and once we were done we went as a group to St. Pauls Cathedral. It is THE cathedral of London (meaning the center of the church in London) and also the second biggest naturally built dome in the world. The first is St. Peters in Rome and the third is the Capitol building in Washington DC! I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was a beautiful building. These cathedrals are typically built in the shape of a cross, with the altar in the east, pointing towards Jerusalem. We were given a tour of the main floor of the cathedral and the crypt beneath it, where several prominent people are buried, including the man who built the cathedral, Christopher Wren. Next to his tomb is a slab of stone that someone found on the beach years ago. It had Wren's symbol etched on it, meaning that he'd chosen that stone specifically for use in the building of St. Pauls, but they ended up not needing it and the stone was abandoned and lost. Now it sits in the cathedral, as close to Wren's grave as possible. I thought it was a pretty cool story. As far east as you can get in the cathedral, there is a little chapel. After World War II, the English dedicated that chapel to the 28,000 American soldiers who died fighting with the English. There is a giant book in which the name of every fallen American is written (it was open to the "G's" while we were there) and the three stained glass windows depict the state emblems for all fifty staes. I found Utah's emblem with the beehive, but I couldn't find Minnesota's and not for a lack of trying! Our tour guide pointed out a carved rocketship that was cleverly hidden behind some floral carvings in this little chapel. He said it was made by an Englishman who had such faith in America and its space program that he put the carving there to commemorate their putting a man into space long before we actually achieved it. I don't know how true that story is, but I saw the rocket for myself! Sitting in this little chapel that the English had dedicated to our war heroes was very touching. But the absolute best part of St. Pauls was climbing to the top of the dome. Well, the climb itself wasn't that great, but being at the top was amazing! 250 steps took us up to the whisper gallery, which is the lowest point on the dome. This is a little walkway around the dome's interior where you can hear whisperes from the otherside of the vast room. It's also open onto the main floor of the cathedral, so you can see the people wandering around on the floor below you. From there it's a series of increasingly smaller and narrower staircases until you reach the second landing, which is outside the dome. You can see much of London from here, though it is surrounded by a high stone wall to keep anyone from falling off. And from there, it's another ten spiral staircases that take up up to the very top of the dome. Before going outside, there is a little window in the floor through which you can look and see the floor of the cathedral. It was so far down that I got a little bit dizzy, even though there was no way I could fall through. Then you go outside and get a breathtaking bird's eye view of London and the Thames. Add this to the growing list of places in London where I would stay forever if I could. Words really don't do this building justice. It was homework time after St. Pauls, and my roommates and I spent a few hours finishing up assignments and papers before we headed out yet again, this time for the Globe Theatre. We spent the evening enjoying Shakespeare the way it would have been performed in his day, at the reproduction of his theater. The Globe is pretty cool, and we had seats around the edge of the theater, so we didn't have to stand for two-and-a-half hours, which was nice, but the seats weren't all that comfortable so it was hard to enjoy the play. They had a traditional band playing traditional music and they had men playing all of the women, and when it started to rain on the people who were standing, I was grateful for my seat even if I did have a numb behind. The play we saw was Richard III, who is mostly known in history for being the most likely culprit in the disappearance and murder of his two nephews, both of which stood between him and the crown. No one knows who really killed them, but their bodies were found at the Tower of London a few years ago, and Richard III was most certainly the one responsible for locking them in the tower. But more on that later! We left the Globe and headed out across the Millenium bridge, which is just as cool at night as it is during the day, towards the tube station. Most of the theater-goers were using the station behind St Pauls, but we returned to the station we had come from, which was a little to the right. It wasn't long before I realized that we were following this group of guys that were all dressed to the nines and carrying suitcases. A little after that, they started singing in perfect barbershop harmony as they walked to their train. I will be the first to say that I pulled out my camera and filmeed as much as i could. They easily had some of the best unaltered voices I have ever heard. And that...was Tuesday!