new year's revelry

i must first note that whoever last logged into 'blogspot.com' on this computer changed all the language settings to some eastern characters that i don't recognize. so i'm flying blind here. but aren't we all.

i'm frustrated by this medium - i've got 20 minutes to write something i hope you all might find relatively interesting, and i'm not sure if you want specific discourse on topics i've been reflecting on, or if a play by play of my activities is more appropriate. i'd like it to be more towards the former, because being abroad is stimulating my thinking on a number of issues i felt more or less blocked up in while in rochester. but, considering that it was just new years (and new year's eve just before that), i do feel obligated to relate to you my very sweet evening.

we all saw a production of Thomas Middleton's 'A New Way to Please You' in the afternoon of the 31st, and then after dinner we moved to Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' - it was a fantastic production that I enjoyed immensely. the music in particular was somewhat entrancing - it lent a 3-dimensional pathos to the whole play, but especially to the character Feste - the fool - that was entirely absent in the literal text.

after the play a group of 12 of us headed down to the 'food mart: express' to buy beer or wine, each according to his or her taste, and walked slowly over the waterloo bridge towards the national theatre. we took our time because london at night is beautiful and the city was especially dolled up for the holiday - images were projected on buildings, lights were shone into the sky - it was breathtaking. while people around us were setting up camp for the evening as this would be an ideal spot to see the fireworks set off over the thames by the london eye, we moved on and walked along the thames, eventually ending up at big ben, where we experienced the ritual rebirth of time with about 50,000 other people. it was great.

after midnight we quickly decided to head towards trafalgar square, another population center for the evening, but the street was blocked. at this juncture, we were packed in together as tightly as possible, and moved only by the whim of the crowd. because i am tall and visible, most people in the general area seemed to blame me for being shoved this way and that. i felt bad that they weren't in control of their own movement, but hey - we were all in the same boat and i had some girl's deceptively pointy purse shoved up under my ribs for 20 minutes. give me a break.

we ended up moving across the westminster bridge (away from our hotel, to the wrong side of the thames), being swept into these currents of people that moved seemingly without any individual volition. it was an interesting commentary on collective action, and exhilarating as it was unnerving. the downside of these powerfully pumping arteries of personhood was that half our group was in an instant shunted off into another branch of the social body and were ultimately turned around. we were separated and would not be rejoined until 2 hours later at the hotel. my group, now of four, took a round about route back to the hotel, as i, apparently the leader, forgot we were now on the wrong side of the thames and headed west when east should have been our heading. but we made it back.

however when we did arrive back at the hotel and were rejoined shortly after by our diverted fellows, we were 2 short of our original 12. my good friend tom and i immediately set out to look for them. so we scoured every place we had been that evening for the next hour and a half, returning to the hotel around 4am, only to learn that our lost lambs had gotten back of their own accord about 15 minutes after we had left. but such is the stuff of stories. about new year's.

i close this entry with an invitation to you all. check out this website: www.earthfromtheair.com

this is a virtual version of an exhibit on display near the tower bridge - the artist/photographer yannthus bertrand, in partnership with UNESCO is in the midst of an extensive series of aerial photographs of natural and human phenomena. the pictures are stunning, and the captions are poignantly conscious of the complex interrelationship between human and natural forces of beauty and destruction. the most intriguing and moving pictures are those in which the two interact in a single frame. i love the one of the man on the bales of cotton, but it's hard to pick a favorite.

i don't miss the states much right now, but i do miss you that populate them. peace to you all and happy new year.