Arriving at the end of the tunnel

The last couple of weeks have been kind of a mixed experience. A little under three weeks ago I broke my foot while out dancing, which means I've been wearing a caste and walking around on crutches for a while.. We finally had our graduation ceremony, and I got my studenterhue (grad cap)  which is a Danish tradition - you normally get it right after your last exam, but we waited more than a month, which meant we didn't quite feel like graduates yet. A few days after that, we went on the obligatory truck ride around greater Copenhagen, visiting the homes of many of our class mates, consuming a remarkable amount of alcohol in the process. But more than that, the point is that you spend a whole day (12 hours in our case) celebrating, standing in the truck screaming, and people wave at you, yell congrats, the cars honk when they pass, and everybody smiles at you. As a friend of mine said: "It makes you feel like a rock star!!". And it did, and I loved going around celebrating. But it was also tough for me, quite an ordeal really, because I had to move around on one leg and crutches - I was proud I made it, but my leg ended up cramping pretty badly towards the end, and it did take some of the enjoyment out of the whole experience, especially since I simply couldn't make it to the centre of Kongens Nytorv for the final dance around the Rytterstatue. 

          On top of that, we this weekend had massive rain in Copenhagen, which resulted in a flooding of our basement - 25 cm water everywhere. Now, it so happens that my room is in the basement - and although none of my vintage clothes were harmed, my prom dress, several pairs of shoes, my CISV stuff from when I was 11 and all my pre- and middle school books were soaked through; I've been spending days trying to save them. Also, I'll have to get a new wardrobe, new bookcases, a new table and a new bed. 

         Finally, I've been worried sick about my exam grades; I needed 38 points on my IB Diploma to get into University of St Andrews, and I felt very unsure as to whether I had managed that. Laying out the worst case scenario, I could go as low as 34 points - still a fine grade, I know, but very far from what I expect of myself. Also, it would mean that I most likely wouldn't be going abroad at all, and that the university I would end up at in Denmark would be far from my first choice, because the translation between IB and Danish grades is so ridiculous. So yeah, I've been in kind of a bad mood lately.

But, as the title of this post indicates, I am not only seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but have pretty much arrived at it. In just over a week, I will be able to walk properly again; I was allowed to start my job later and didn't, as I'd feared, lose it over my foot; I managed to publish my class' blue book today (which I've also been stressing about), and was actually happy with the result. And finally, and most importantly, the IB exam grades were published today, and I managed to in all my subjects achieve my best-case scenario grade, even surpassing it in one case - totalling 42 points which is even more than I was predicted. And *poof* - gone was my stress and anxiety, and I can now simply be proud of myself and excited to be going to St Andrews! Even if one of the two friends I was hoping to bring with me didn't make it, she'll still be rather close by - so it is not the end of the world. 

So: University of St. Andrews, here I come!!!

CNN's Quest to Cph

Throughout June, the CNN has been promoting Copenhagen through the 'Future Cities' part of Richard Quest's show Quest Means Business on mondays. I'd like to point out that the norm is one city, one show, but our capital has been on Future Cities for a total of 4 weeks ^^
          I really like Richard Quest's programmes in general  - although I usually watch BBC News, I like to watch Quest Means Business (airs mon-fri 20:00 CET); perhaps it's because he's actually British. I am a bit of an anglophile, I know.

When the CNN team was in Copenhagen to shoot the programmes, I read an interview with him on the topic. First of all, he said that we Danes should stop going berserk whenever someone remotely famous comes visiting; Copenhagen is a cool city, everybody knows that. Well obviously ;)
Oh, and he promised not to 'pull an Oprah' by walking around screaming 'OH MY GOD BLONDE PEOPLE' and 'OH MY GOD NO HOMELESS PEOPLE DYING IN THE STREETS', which also appealed to me.

For those of you who didn't catch the shows as they aired, you can watch them below:

'Copenhagenization' in the Danish Capital 

7th June 2011

A Carbon Neutral Copenhagen by 2025?

13th June 2011

Hedonistic Sustainability in Copenhagen

20th June 2011

Renovating a Palace in Copenhagen

27th June 2011

   

Much Ado About Nothing in London

Now, I haven't made a blog post in around a month - which also means I never got around to reviewing the performance of 'Much Ado About Nothing' at Wyndham's Theatre in London, which was the main purpose of my day-trip to London. I think I fell into some kind of post-IB pit, where I really needed to just do absolutely nothing for a while; and even though I love writing this blog, it also felt like a bit of an obligation, because I felt I needed to post regularly. Now, I'm getting back into gear - first of all, doing nothing gets boring after a while, secondly I start working in a couple of weeks, and thirdly I have tons of stuff I need to figure out before I (hopefully) leave for St Andrews mid-September. Oh, and our grades are published next Wednesday, so I guess I'm also just a bit too restless to not be doing anything. It freaks me out!!

But back to my visit to London. It was one of the best trips I've ever been on!!, even if it was not very long - I had a marvellous travel companion, and when she hopefully joins me at St Andrews in the autumn we'll have to make theatre-day trips to London a regular thing. We went to the same pub for the two nights we were there (I really love Strongbow cider - not like the sweet stuff you can get in DK), we   bought loads of books (including a V&A hat anthology and a 1959 self-help book called 'The Art of being a Well Dressed Wife'), and I got a gorgeous three-strand pearl necklace with a silver clasp at Alfies Antique Market. The McQueen dresses we saw at Harvey Nichols were amazing, and the afternoon tea at Harrods just how I imagined (well, better, really); the champagne was delicious, a waiter came to pour us more tea and ask if we wanted more of anything every 5 minutes (we didn't really - there was so much food we couldn't eat it all in the first place), and the Terrace Bar in itself is a quite beautiful place. 

We stayed at Harrods for so long we ended up having to rush home to get changed, and run to the theatre - we made it in 2 minutes before the play commenced. Our seats were great, we sat near the middle of 5th row stalls (and with a rather insubstantial price difference between the two seating-categories, I don't see how it would make sense to go for the cheaper option). Evidently, we were not the only ones there who were David Tennant fans - several girls sitting along the wall were wearing identical Superman T-shirts, which turned out to be of the kind worn by Tennant in the play, when he as Benedick listens in on his friends talking about how in love with him Beatrice is.

Overall, the play was fantastic. I hadn't read it before we went, but the change of setting from medieval Padua to 1980's Gibraltar didn't really bother me - rather, it meant all the guys were wearing crisp white navy outfits, which can only be a plus.
          The story is basically two interwoven love stories; Hero and Claudio are young lovers, who are to be married - Benedick and Beatrice mutually loathe each other, and both swear that they shall never marry. But when their friends devise a plot wherein each overhears a discussion on the other's being madly in love with them, they of course discover that they requite it. The story's villain interferes with the young engaged couple, making Claudio believe that Hero was unfaithful to him the night before their wedding; he 'exposes' her at the wedding ceremony, and Beatrice asks Benedick (who has sworn to do anything for her) to kill his friend Claudio. A Romeo & Juliette-esque scam ensues, where they pretend Hero has died of sorrow, and as her innocence is discovered Claudio falls into despair; but as the play is a comedy, we of course get our happy ending.

One of the play's themes explores gender roles; the old idea of a female falling into one of two categories, Madonna or Whore, is shown in Hero and Claudio's relationship (the Madonna-Whore complex is attributed to Freud, but it seems Shakespeare beat him to it). Claudio idolises Hero, but all too readily believes she would deceive him; he doesn't even seek an explanation, but takes revenge by exposing her publicly. Beatrice and Benedick have a more healthy relationship in that sense - they are more than aware of each other's faults, but love in spite (and because?) of them. I'd like to think that the latter were the more modern couple, but we still have some issues suggesting otherwise.. it is generally less socially accepted for a woman than a man to be casual about sex - luckily, that seems to be changing.

Not surprisingly, I think Tennant was genious in this production. He is absolutely endearing as he, utterly tonedeaf and with no apparent aptitude for rhyming, waiting for Beatrice tries to compose a love song with the help of a toy keyboard. Also, the scene where he listens in on his friends is one of the most hilarious ones I've seen in a long time - the walls are being 'painted' at the time, and in his distraction Benedick places his hand in a paint bucket; Tennant's impressive timing, his ability to look so utterly astonished and his gradually being covered in white paint (as he of course keeps barging into the paint buckets) makes for stomach cramp-causing laughter.
           I'm afraid, though, that the corresponding scene with Beatrice is not nearly as funny. It's still rather funny, but in general Catherine Tate doesn't really live up to Tennant's comical talent -- she doesn't manage to make her character quite as believable, and sometimes it seems Beatrice is nothing but a bunch of grimaces. That's a bit harsh I guess, and it's not that I don't find Tate a good actress; but the problem is, working with Tennant, she is a bit overshined.

One actor worthty of mention, though, is the production's Claudio, played by Tom Bateman. He was apparently fresh out of drama school when he landed this part, but he seems to easily match his more seasoned fellow actors. Josie Rourke (the director) has put in a 'new' scene in the play, where Claudio, after hearing of Hero's innocence and death, spends the night at the church - drinking his brains out, and ultimately almost shooting his brains out (saved by a 'vision' of Hero). This scene, as well as the animal-like anger and desparation he shows when he 'sees' Hero (really her maid) with another man after her hen party, was very impressive and deeply moving to me. I must confess, I cried a bit. So kudos to Tom Bateman - I'll look forward to seeing more of him.

I must confess, I'm still a bigger fan of Tennant in Hamlet than Much Ado About Nothing - Hamlet remains my favourite play, and the general cast of that production was more impressive. But I by no means regret going to London to watch this comedy - it was a great, great trip, I liked the play very much, and in general it is just nice to be able to watch a play in English. And as I said - we plan to make a habit of it.