At the Beginning

Yesterday was my first day of class!!!

I experienced my first London rush hour.... NOT cool. My claustrophobic genes (thanks mom) started kicking in when I realized I was more than 6 feet under as I got off the first train to transfer to another line and walked out of the door into a sea of smelly, grumpy city folk. We had to wait for a train to pass before we could get on because they were so crowded. One woman wearing a pink backpack (or rucksack) literally contorted her body in ways I didn't know possible as she leaned in over the masses boarding the train. She could have almost gone crowd surfing on top of all the stuffy business men squashed awwkwardly together. A sea of black and a pink backpack (that the doors of the train car just barely missed) went streaking off down the track as we waited for the next train and hoped that we wouldn't be late for class.

The Beatles class was first. Upon request from a very special person (cough cough Marie) I will be including a Beatles fact book in each of my journal entries on class days hence forward. Beginning with today:

The Beatles were virtually UNKNOWN in the USA while there was mania going on in Britain. Stumbling upon the Beatles madness, Americans like Ed Sullivan spent almost 100,000 dollars on promoting the Beatles before they came to the States. By the time they arrived in Feb of 1964, "I wanna Hold Your Hand" was number one in the charts, and the teenbopper girls were going bonkers just like all of their sisters across the seas.

In the beginning Paul and RINGO were the favorite Beatles, not John (common mistake)

Many believe that a major contributor to Beatle success was the JFK assasination, because the whole world was looking for something to lift them up.

73 million people watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, an OBVIOUS record for the time, and still one of the largest audiences in history.

More to come after our fieldtrip tomorrow...

The theatre class will be super cool too. The teacher is the eccentric old bird of a lady with a singy song voice who goes to the theatre 3 to 4 times a week. Sheesh. I'm jealous. We are going to see only plays because "we will take ourselves to see musicals. It is her job to take us to things we would never dream of on our own."

After class I came home and went on a run through Regent's Park and it was gorgeous and moving.

Wait.... I LIVE HEREEEEEEEEEEEE!