Submitted by Anne Grae Martin on the 2015 fall semester study abroad program in London, England…
Time for a brief history lesson. In 1605, a young man by the name of Guy Fawkes was involved in a plot to assassinate the protestant King James and blow up the Houses of Parliament. Their goal was to replace the king with his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, who would become a puppet queen for the Catholics. Unfortunately, Fawkes was discovered beneath the Houses of Parliament with the gun powder and thus the plot was foiled. To celebrate his failure, every year on November 5th the good people of England set off fireworks, burn effigies of Fawkes and have bonfires. The day is secured in our memories by the poem (Remember, remember the 5th of November…) and by the movie V for Vendetta which came out 10 years ago and stars Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving.
Before coming to England, I thought one of the most fascinating cultural celebrations that England has is Guy Fawkes Day. I was very excited to get to go to a bonfire and see fireworks. The actual Guy Fawkes Day (5th of November) was a Thursday so not many places had fireworks planned. So we decided to wait until the bigger celebrations on Saturday. But, it turns out that just because fireworks are not planned, that does not mean, they do not happen. We heard about 5 different fireworks displays going on, and we could even see some from the window of our flat. We walked around for an hour in search of fireworks, but unfortunately they proved rather hard to find. Lucky for us, Saturday the 7th had a nice organized event at our local park and we finally got to see some nice fireworks. So, a successful Guy Fawkes weekend for me!
On Wednesday night, my Shakespeare class had a trip to the National Theatre to see As You Like It. This class is great because we’ve been seeing some very good and very interesting productions of some of Shakespeare’s work. I like the field trip component of this class because it’s one thing to sit in class and discuss minor plot points, but it’s another to actually go see professional actors putting the show on. It has made the class so much more meaningful to me.
I think what I’m going to miss most about London is the food. The other day I went on a walking tour of Soho with one of my classes. We ended near a bunch of little street vendors selling all kinds of food for a decent price. Delaware has some good restaurants and food carts, but London has an amazing array of diverse and delicious food. What is more, the “Little Feast” market next to our flat reopened on Friday as well, decorated for the holidays. I mentioned them before in one of my first posts, but basically what it is is a converted alley way filled with food stands and lights and tables and happiness. And we pre-registered online, so we got free apple cider when we walked in.
Between the fireworks, celebrations, shows and food, I really don’t know I’m going to come home in a little over a month.