Gabi Goes! Adventures of a JMU Student Abroad, Vol. 8

Day Thirteenth and Fourteenth: Les Miserables, Sumatran Tigers and Pre-Dublin

Stars
In your multitudes
Scarce to be counted
Filling the darkness
With order and light
You are the sentinels
Silent and sure
Keeping watch in the night.
Keeping watch in the night. – Javert

I had always scoffed at Les Miserables the musical. Not the book, I vaguely remember thumbing through a chunk of it during my Hunchback of Notre Dame enamored phase, and then set it aside in favor of Dumas (who is still, probably, my favourite). But I had never quite liked the idea of the musical. Maybe it was because I had heard too many fangirls squeal over it, maybe I tired of the large eyed picture of Cosette staring at me from every other dorm room, maybe it was because my opera-loving mother had professed it was absolute musical tripe of the worst kind and that I shouldn’t bother. I had warmed up to it a bit during the 2011 school year, even occasionally humming strains of Do You Hear The People Sing and One Day More, the more rollicking revolutionary songs as I wrote my book about a series of failed rebellions—-go figure. But I never really wanted to go, and it was unexpected that I decided to head over to Queen’s Theatre to see it with a group of the other students.

I prepared, in the deepest recesses of my heart to hate it.

So I attempted to cheer myself up and reward myself for stepping out of the box by going to the London Zoo in gorgeous Regent’s Park—-the zoo was a bit of a disappointment, but the tigers were pretty cool and the reptile house (where they filmed part of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone!) as were the okapis, and afterward by going to the London Zoological Museum to see some pretty bizarre sights. The Museum was a bit like a cluttered madman’s basement, containing everything from enormous turtle shells to a pickled cat, and I spent some extra time looking around, and then headed to the comic book store. Stepp, if you are reading this, your head would have imploded. It is a megastore, and has every variety of comic, nerdy paraphernalia, and an entire floor of Doctor Who. Needless to say, it was fun looking around. Later that day, after we went to the tiny Italian place Mondellos, I walked to Les Miserables in a state of trepidation that did not lift until the curtain.

Yes, the musical is repetitive. Yes, the characters are not developed enough as they are in the book and the love songs are trite (A Heart of Love sounds like a parody song) but I would definitely see it again. The character of Javert, an obsessed policemen that holds strictly to the code of the law because of his shameful background immediately caught my attention as an anti-villain and an all-around fantastic performance, the songConfrontation was probably my favourite song as was the insanely catchy Master of the House and the main motif song of Look Down. I promptly read everything I could about Javert as a character, and watched the Les Mis movie starring Liam Neelson and Geoffrey Rush. I suppose you could say I am hooked, if only on that particular character (to be fair, Jean Valjean is also pretty cool.)

I still cannot get over that we are all about a ten minute walk to West End (Lion King on Tuesday!). Today was pretty quiet, every one was already gone to their respective destinations, studying, or sleeping. I went to the comic book store because I was bored, bought some Londony presents for friends and family, went to Britain’s Tate museum , saw some Picassos, and got to look through more original, as in in their handwriting, Bloomsbury materials, (apparently Lytton’s favourite literary critic is ‘himself’ and he hated J.M. Barrie), read some books, found the original filming location for Sherlock’s 221B Baker Street on North Gower Street five minutes away where I promptly was overcome with happiness and gathered a few odd looks from Londoners as I took about twenty-five photographs and tried to absorb that Benedict Cumberbatch does, in fact, exist. Later, I wrote another part of my book in Russell Square Park where I got pollen up my nose, and then watched part of Thor while I was supposed to be packing for Dublin tomorrow. Oh well. Quiet day.