Lots of -ism's

I stayed up kind of late last night reading and just dinking around looking at more flights and more hostels and more possibilities for next weekend so I did not really know what I was going to do today. After some thought (I got on the Tube and then decided last second, haha), I went to the Tate Modern (picture 1). I liked it.

Like I said, I left my flat and no one else seemed to be awake so I just decided to go alone. Instead of going to the usual Gloucester Road Station, I walked the extra like 2 minutes to South Kensington Station, just to mix it up a bit. The way to Gloucester Road is the same way to Foundation House and the grocery stores and stuff so I am a little tired of walking it all the time. I got off at St. Paul's Cathedral. From there I walked across the Millenium Bridge. It was SO windy and it was raining. It was pretty miserable, I was really glad that I wasn't in the middle of an 11 mile hike, that's for sure. I walked in and started to explore a little bit.

Just to fill you all in, the Tate Modern was opened around 2000. It is an old power plant building which makes it really industrial looking (and feeling) when you walk around. There is a giant crack down the middle of Turbine Hall (where they used to have the turbines, obviously). Most of the time, sculptures or other art is housed here but not today apparently. Apparently, it is a real challenge to design stuff for the hall because the space is so massive (5 stories tall). On the top of the old power plant building, they built something they call the "skybox". It is two stories of glass on the top of the building. It helps let light into Turbine Hall and a cafe and other exhibits are up there. There are four free galleries to explore. Each day, there is 1 free tour of each of those galleries (11, 12, 14, and 15). I just missed the 11 tour.

So I walked around the gallery that had the 11 tour while I killed time until the 12 tour. The gallery I walked through on my own was called Poetry and Dream. It had a bunch of stuff about surrealism. I didn't really get any of it. That's the way life goes though. I did appreciate the effort and stuff that went into them though. They all looked very well done, I just had no idea what they were about really. It had something to do with Freud and dreams or whatever. I got the 12 tour of the next wing of the gallery entitled Material Gestures. This was about abstractism. This was my favorite wing of the whole place. I just liked the paintings and sculptures a lot. I really liked Monet's "Water Lillies" (picture 2). You might say that Monet was an impressionist not an abstractist, but this painting was one of the last ones he did and it has depth and different colors so some people lump it in the abstracts. On the wall across from that was a painting by Jackson Pollock (they guy who just flipped paint on a canvas and stuff). We saw "The Snail" by Matisse which I also liked. Basically, its just cut outs arranged on a piece of white paper (its really big though). There were sculptures by Giacometti (picture 3) which I liked as well. They are metal sculptures against a white background which makes your eyes feel funny and makes the sculptures have a sort of aura like thing. Very sweet.

The next gallery was States of Flux and the tour was at 14. This gallery had stuff from cubism and futurism. I should mention that at the beginning of each wing was two pieces of art from the beginning of each -ism and the end that are about the same sort of subject. I don't really want to explain what each piece was for each gallery and how they matched up but it was a really interesting and cool way of introducing each subject matter. Anyway, the tour guide said that we were going to see paintings by cubist and I immediately thought of the paper I had to write for my Geometry class. I wrote about the fourth dimension (don't fall asleep, it will be over soon) and part of my paper discussed how cubist used four dimensional representations in their paintings. I can't remember if I used this exact painting in my paper but I for sure saw it during my research, it was called "Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a Mantlepiece" (picture 4). I sort of gasped when I saw it; I am a nerd. I used a semicolon there because they are sentences that correlate to each other, like I was taught in middle school. The rest of the gallery was not as spectacular as that was to me. I saw this glass thing by DuChamp which our guide explained but I had no idea what she was talking about. There was another Matisse. Lichtenstein and his comic book strip looking paintings were there too. There was one painting by Grosz called "Suicide". It was all blood red and there was a wealthy guy in the brothel while someone hung them self outside and another person was shot. Very depressing. This was my second favorite out of the three tours.

Last and maybe least (just kidding, sort of) was Idea and Object. This gallery was about minimalism. The guide's name was Basel. He was older with white hair and a sport coat and he had English written all over him. He was cool. Everything in this gallery was weird. There were three pieces by Flavin that were just neon lights arranged in certain ways. There were two paintings by Mondrian that were the black lines and primary colors that I am sure most people recognize from somewhere. The one piece that I actually did kind of like was by Beuys. It was called "the pack" (picture 5). It actually made sense to me. The last room had a bunch of things by Judd. One of them was a stack of bricks. That's it. Um, ok. Another was a copper box with no top and red felt on the bottom inside. Um, ok. Haha. Whatever floats your boat.

After that I was kind of pooped and came back to the flat. I did not eat lunch today (I forgot to pack one). So I was hungry. I had an apple and an orange and walked to the library. I got two more books and then came back and made dinner. I dinked around online some more. That's like all I do it seems. I was joking with Vanessa saying that I will spend more time researching and looking at stuff than I will at the actual place. Oh well, at least I will be prepared. Then I had my nightly tea and cookies and here I am. The Tate Modern is a must see in London, simply for the building itself, let alone all the (mostly) cool art inside. I was really glad I went today.

Ciao!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

At least, that's what I've heard about the weather back in MN. Someone here told me that it was -45 degrees with wind chill at SJU. Holy crap!! It was like +45 and sunny today but a little windy here in the UK. Some people walking around had like parkas on and stuff. I thought it was kind of funny. I thought of that title because I was thinking of everyone back home but also because I am listening to Rat Pack Christmas as I'm writing this. Haha, what can I say? I like the cd.

The frequent reader of this blog will notice something different about this post from the last few. Could it be the imporved humor? Maybe I changed the format? No and No. I included pictures again!!! YAHOOOOO!!!! Vanessa downloaded her pictures to a computer so I am able to include pictures for this post. I am also going to retroactively add pictures to previous posts so it would be really worth your time to check those out, if only to see my beautiful face in front of stonehenge. All it takes is a little scroll down on this page. Picture 1 of this post is the inside of Our Lady of Victories, the church that Rachelle and I go to every Sunday. I just thought I'd throw it in there for everyone to see. No kids were there when we took the picture so it had a, um, slightly different atmosphere.

I had Senior Sem again today. We spent the whole class reading through the play, "Murder in the Cathedral" by T.S. Eliot. We were continuing it from Monday. I guess I liked the play. I realize that we kind of sprinted through it but it went by really fast. I don't have much to say about the play. Poetry was used in it at times. There were a lot of allusions and stuff that Phil explained. Again, the reason we read this is because we are going to Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday which is where Sir Thomas à Becket was killed. We are also going to Dover (castle and white cliffs included). At Dover, we are getting a tour of the Wartime Tunnels where people hid during war and stuff apparently. We are leaving at 7:30 am which means some people will be late, as usual.

After class, I looked online researching places to go feb 7-10 because it is our first open weekend. I just looked at Ryanair flights that work for when I want to leave and return and are cheap (£10 or less one way). Then I looked up info for those destinations. After doing that for a while and feeling guilty about sitting inside when the sun is shining outside, I got Vanessa and we went for another walk. This time we went to Regent's Canal (picture 1). It's a canal built in 1820 to connect another canal with a port on the other side of London. John Nash (who designed the canal and Regent's Park) wanted it to go through the park but was persuaded not to. Good thing because there have been numerous instances where barges have blown up on the canal (carrying gunpowder). Vanessa and I took the Tube over there and the first half of the walk was just along the canal on the tow-way. This is just a path where a steam engine or donkey or whatever would pull the boats along when the canal was operational. Now its a nice path for a nice day. The canal is now used by little barge type house things. Apparently people live in those things sometimes. There are kitchens and stuff inside them. In the spring, they are covered by potted plants. You can take a canal bus ride for £6 on Sundays.

So we walked along the canal for a while. We walked by a cafe that has a great view down the canal (picture 2). We are going to go back there when they open up the doors over the canal and its warmer. There are 4 or 5 big mansions (picture 3) along the canal on the way to Regent's Park. They are spectacular. We then walked off the canal to Primrose Hill. The Hill was steeper than I thought but it offered amazing views of London. We could see the London Eye and Canary Wharf among others. Picture 4 has the view with Vanessa in the foreground. I loved the clouds and the blue sky in picture 5. On a side note, I don't notice a ton of smog here, a greener city I guess. Then we walked through some side streets. One house we passed by was formerly occupied by W.B. Yeats, the famous Irish poet. We eventually got to Camden Market. Its an enormous outdoor/indoor market with little alleys (picture 6) and people selling mostly clothes but sometimes jewelry or hats or whatever. There were some Chinese stands that were trying to get us to buy some food. One lady called us over and sort of whispered, "It say £3 for meal but I sell to you for £2.50" and winked. Haha. Good times. We, of course, politely declined. I liked the market a lot and Vanessa and I agreed that we would come back some other time (i.e. more money) and buy some souvenirs or whatever. We took the Tube back to our flat.

I read from "Atilla" and had some more pasta for dinner (sausage tortellini with tomato sauce, £1.75, oh yes). That's about it for my day. I was going to go hike along the English Channel coast tomorrow but there's supposed to be 35+ mph winds and rain so I think that that is out (it will happen eventually, don't worry) which sucks. I really wanted to do that. Oh well. I will think of something else to do.

Take Care!

Field Trips

Hello again faithful (and non-faithful) readers! For both of my classes today, we took a field trip to a museum. I also took a field trip of my own to the library. I felt a little like Ms. Frizzle today or something. Haha.

For my Islam vs. The West class, we were originally going to meet in class for about an hour and then go to the Victoria and Albert Museum down the road to see their Islamic Art exhibit. Well that didn't quite happen. When we arrived at Foundation House, we saw a sign that we were going to meet down in the common room. We all got there and our prof told us that we were just going to head straight for the museum instead. We got to the museum at about twenty after to realize that it doesn't open until 10! Haha. Oops. So we all just split up and walked around until then. Me and a few other people walked by a bakery and then spent the rest of our time in a souvenir/card shop looking at Valentine's Day cards and tacky souvenirs. We came back to V & A (nickname for the museum) and got in. My prof lead us in and talked for two minutes and then said, "Right, just go in, have a look around and leave whenever you feel like." I stayed for about an hour looking at the Islamic Art exhibit and some other ones too and then left. I really liked the exhibit. Its so interesting that Muslims were making bowls and carpets with geometric shapes and literally NO human figures on anything at the same time that Medieval artists were painting church scenes with only people in them. Very different artistic styles 1000 years old, that prelude to the "styles" that still rub together the wrong way today.

I walked from the V & A to the Kensington Central Library and checked out some books. One was by Rick Steves (that CAN NOT be his real name). He has a website that has a whole bunch of travel articles and maps and guides on it. I also picked up a book called "Country Walks Near London". AWESOME!!!!! A bunch of day hikes that are all within about 2 hours of London by train. That was exactly the kind of book I wanted. Lastly, I got a book called "Atilla" which is historical fiction about Atilla the Hun.

Vanessa and I walked from our flat to the National Gallery for Art History. It saves money and its not too far of a walk (a little under an hour). The class was spent going through the museum and looking for signs, symbols, and allegories. We looked at the very famous painting "Marriage of Arnolthini". We talked about all the symbols: dog, fruit, chandalier, mirror, etc. We also looked at the "The Ambassadors" and the symbols in that. There were other paintings too. It was all really cool looking for the symbols and deciphering what they mean. Sometimes I think, it seems like not EVERYTHING has a meaning. I don't know. Maybe it does, but I just think that sometimes the artist just put one or two things in for the fun of it. No way to know really, since all the artists we looked at died like 400 years ago or more.

As we were walking back, I was doing a little quiz with Vanessa on American History. She said she didn't know much so I would ask her stuff and see if she knew it and then I would tell her about it. I felt kind of bad, like I was making fun of her or being patronizing and I said that but she replied that it was good for her so I don't know. We got back and made our reservations for Spring Break (that being plane tickets and hostels). So that's all done, for better or worse. Then I ate spaghetti for dinner, watched tv and read. Later on, I drank my now usual cup of tea and did this entry. Very exciting evening, I know.

To recap my school week, I had 2 hours of Senior Sem, 1 hour of Islam vs. The West, about 2.5 hours of Art History, and then 1.5 hours of Senior Sem (tomorrow). That's it for classes this week. Wow, that's an easy schedule. I have a paper and a check up on my Art History journal and a bunch of readings due next week so it's not all good (though it is mostly good).

As-Salamu Alaykum.
(Arabic for "Peace Be With You". It's used by both Arab Muslims and Arab Christians.)

Non-School Research

I feel like my eyes are turning into square shapes on account of all time I've spent looking at a computer today. It can't be helped really. I have been researching relentlessly on places to go, things to see, when to go, and a million other things about europe just about all day.

First off, I got up and was walking to Sociology of the City when some guys from my program came walking back the other way with huge smiles on their faces almost shouting all the way down the street that class was cancelled. I was mildly excited. I like that class and I like that prof so (as geeky as it sounds) I was a little disappointed. Plus, I didn't really have anything I really wanted to do today so I was sort of at a loss. But I went down to the computer lab and starting looking at stuff online and I was instantly hooked. I spent almost all of the time that I would have been in class, reading in my "Let's Go Europe" Book (thanks Amy, BEST BOOK EVER). Seriously.

Then I went to Senior Sem. The topic of class was a chapter in our textbook entitled, "The Relationship of Religion and Morality". Uh oh, major controversy brewing in this chapter. Rachels (the author) basically said that religion and morality are completely different things. He went through a bunch of arguments why that was true (using "reason"). One of the reasons they should be seperated is because some people do things because God says they are right and Rachels says that that is bad reason to do something (paraphrasing here). I actually kind of agree but through the WHOLE chapter, Rachels never once mentioned faith. I think that sometimes you have to do things because you BELIEVE that they are what God wants you to do and that's all you have. That can give people a lot of courage and make people do (good) things that they normally wouldn't do. Sorry to get all evangelistic or whatever but I was a little put off by this chapter. Rachels, in the last paragraph of the chapter, says that "he isn't anti-god". I might disagree. We spent the rest of class doing a readthrough of "Murder in the Cathedral" by T.S. Eliot in preperation for our visit to Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday. Sir Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1270 and people have gone on pilgrimages there ever since. Needless to say, I am excited to visit.

After class, I researched more for what I want to do during and after my classes are done. Nothing set in stone, just accumulating knowledge and seeing if things pique my interest or not. I did a half grocery store visit. That means that I bought stuff for lunch and breakfast but not any dinner options really. I still have spaghetti for tomorrow night so I probably won't do that until Wednesday. Very exciting stuff, I know. Oh well. All in all, it was a pretty relaxing day (even if my eyes are tired from staring at the screen), my first one in a while. I hope everyone had a good Monday (not really possible).

Peace!

Walk along the Thames

Today was not a very lazy Sunday. It was yet another day of awesome weather outside so I knew I couldn't spend it all inside and so I didn't.

I went to bed last night at around 1 am after finishing my book. I was awoken by Mo coming into the room very unsteadly and hopping around trying to get his shoes off and changing pants and stuff. There was a reason for his being uncoordinated which some people might guess (it was his birthday yesterday might be a clue). Anyway, I woke up during this and he mumbled something like sorry and then left again to sleep in someone else's room apparently. I immediately fell back asleep. The whole thing wasn't a very big deal to me really, it was his birthday and he could be kind of loud if he wanted to. So after sleeping again, I woke up and went to church with Rachelle. We got into our same place with the same people sitting around us (for the most part). I definitely feel more at home there than I do in my flat which is probably bad but whatever. Rachelle was looking around and spotted Phil and Katherine behind us, we did the obligatory wave. The sermon was by a priest from Australia. I think the guy was genuinely very loud and honest and stuff but I think he was also putting on a little bit of a show for everyone today during his homily. I liked him a lot and he had a lot of good things to say.

After church, Rachelle and I completed our Sunday morning ritual by going into Whole Foods on the way back and drooling over all the amazing food they have there. After we wiped the drool off our faces, we made our way back. I went online for a little bit then decided to go somewhere. I didn't decide where exactly until I was on the Tube. I got off at Vauxhall which is about a mile upstream of the Thames from Westminster. I had decided to walk on the Thames Path (a footpath on the south side of the river) for a while. A while turned into me walking from Vauxhall all the way to about a half mile past Tower Bridge. It was fantastic because the sun was on me the whole time and the River was next to me. The path wasn't too crowded most of the time. The London Eye (ferris wheel thing) had started up again after being closed for about two weeks for repairs and such. There were street performers in the park right by the Eye. The people who pretend to be statues, the break dancers, the musician, they were all there. It was fun to see them do each of their respective "thing". There was a big difference in the place from the last time I was there. I had previously walked this path but both times it was night, and raining, and the Eye was closed. Needless to say, today was the next opposite of all three of those.

Like I said, I just walked for a while next to the River, letting all the attractions and people and sights pass me by. I did wish I had a camera for parts of it but Vanessa was meeting up with one of her friends who happens to live here and I don't have one at the moment (as we all know). I got back on the Tube (probably a 4 to 5 mile walk today) and came back here.

I made spaghetti with sauce for dinner, it was ok. I read for Senior Sem tomorrow and that was about it for me today. Tomorrow is a class day as well as a grocery day, very exciting...

Cheers!

Cultures Destroyed

*Yet another super duper long post. You have been notified (I should put this above just about every post, shouldn't I?)*

Kind of depressing title for the absolutely spectacular day I had today. A contradtiction of sorts I suppose but that's they way life seems at times, the good vs. the bad and all that.

First off, I just wanted to mention that last night I bought tea, shortbread fingers, and Skittles after I wrote my blog entry. I was craving tea and cookies and I succumbed to the Skittles while I was waiting in line. They were just staring back at me with longing I couldn't say no. They were terrible. They don't use artifical flavors here, only fruit juices (health? come on, not with Skittles). Pardon my French, but they were a bastardization (not a word, I know) of what Skittles should be. I swear the purple ones tasted like tomatoes and I did not like that. It reminded me of what I would imagine hanging out with an ex would be like. You're so used to them from before and they keep begging you to hang out again so you finally say yes and then both of you realize, right away, that its just plain not the same and weird and you wish you hadn't hung out at all. It was just like that with the Skittles. Anywho, I bought raspberry and chamomile (sp?) tea. It was in a bright pink box. A little embarassing but who cares, it tastes really good and I like it. In fact I am going to go get some now.

Ok, I've got my girly tea and some cookies that I snagged from the Fanshawe's house so I am set to recount my day. It started off at 6:30 (boooo). I did my usual routine (shower, toast, yogurt, e-mail) and got on the bus at 8. We headed off to Salisbury. I grabbed a book from the common room before I left called "Company of Three". It's about a woman who moves in with two other people and their trials and tribulations. It is a very good book and I have almost finished it (already, its 350 pages long). Pleasure Reading, definitely not mind blowing or whatever. Anyway, most people slept on the bus and we arrived at Salisbury Cathedral. It was fantastic. The sky was blue and it was kind of breezy. We got a tour of the place from an older woman. Actually, all the tour guides looked well past retirement age. She told us a large number of different things about the cathedral. She talked a lot and fast. She would do this sort of walk fast/shuffle thing and say, "Come on! Times awasting!". I did remember a couple of things though. The spire and tower are the tallest in Britain at 404 ft. The oldest clock in the world is inside the cathedral. The cathedral is built on the only piece of shale within 40 miles or something like that. If the cathedral was built anywhere else, it would have sunk or something I guess.

One instance of cultures destroyed was at Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral was built from 1220 to 1258 (only 38 years for the whole thing!!!!) but in the 1600's, after the reformation, some people came in and just defaced the place. They moved tombs, scraped off paint from just about everywhere, took away bones, destroyed priceless stained glass and other atrocities. I don't mean to be all righteous or whatever but that is just plain horrible. The sad thing that stuff like that is happening RIGHT NOW in places all over the world (even the US). Cultures and precious relics and buildings are being destroyed or "revamped" and it sucks. The theme will continue soon.

After the tour, we had time to ourselves so Vanessa and I walked through the town of Salisbury and visited another church and walked along some streets and stuff. Busy, kind of small, town. Saturday is Market Day so there was an outdoor market going on. I ate lunch on a bench that was in the sun and faced the cathdral. Awesome. (On a side note, I made ham and salami sandwiches and the salami stunk up my backpack a little bit, I think that was The Man Upstairs punishing me for not having PBJ). We hopped on the bus and drove through some more rolling hills and fields to Stonehenge. Along the way, someone behind me said that it looked like Iowa. I was completely offended and a little peeved. Iowa has NOTHING on the English countryside. Moving on...

We got to Stonehenge and grabbed some audio guides which told the story of Stonehenge as we walked around it. It is smaller than I thought it was. It was still really awesome. There was bright sunshine lighting up the rocks and blue sky. There was also a very gusty wind that was quite chilly (at least for England, I understand the weather conditions in MN, it's all relative). Stonehenge was made something like 4-5,000 years ago and its still standing. Just incredible. We did the whole circle around the outside of it (it was gated off so no National Lampoon's European Vacation moment) and hopped back on the bus. I didn't talk about Stonehenge that much here but there's not much to say other than you should go see it for yourself (try for a sunny day, hard to do but still).

Back to the depressing topic of Cultrues Destroyed. During the audio tour, it said that back in the day, people would visit Stonehenge and instead of an audio guide, they would get a hammer and chisel. This allowed them to take back a piece of the stones. I was horrified for the second time that day. I know it sounds naive but geez, that's not right.

Next we tried to drive to the Fanshawe residence but we got a little lost along the way not once, not twice, but three times! Oh well. We got there and we greeted warmly by David and Jane. Phil told me that Jane had searched for David's name and saw that I mentioned him in my blog! What a crazy coincedence! I am going to stop using exclamation points now! Anyway, they had small sandwiches, juice, pop, tea, all sorts of cookies set out for us to snack on. Then we went to David's studio and he gave a little presentation on what he does. He showed a whole bunch of photos. They were the most incredible photos I have ever seen. First I should explain about what he does I guess. David is a composer/explorer and he spent 7 years (in the 70's) in Africa going up the Nile recording different African Tribal songs and rituals. He turned all those recordings into the piece, "African Sanctus". After that, he went on a 10 year (yes, 10 year) trip to the Pacific Rim (in the 80's) recording music there. He's still working on the arranging of that music but it will be called "Pacific Odyssey". So he showed us a ton of pictures and talked a lot about his music and about life in general. He said two things that I remembered

• Music is a wound that never heals


• 2% of people DO. 98% of people WISH THEY HAD.

Two very powerful and inspirational quotes. A weird coincedence, David's best friend from the African tribes (he's on the cover of the African Sanctus CD), is the uncle of Barak Obama. How strange? Cultures Destroyed fits into this part of our day because as he was showing pictures, David would said that one of the tribes was completely massacred only two years after he met them in a civil war. He said that men, women, and children were killed, decapitated and thrown in the Nile. An entire TRIBE! Hundreds of thousands of people apparently. Just awful. Then showed a slide of people on Fiji gathered around a tv. He said that it was the end of their culture and that it was really hard for him to find the old music and tribes in the pacific because of the proliferation of tv and other things. Entire tribes and cultures just wiped out and David has their lasting songs and rituals recorded and we heard some of them. It was very eerie.

We had a GREAT dinner of bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes). That was followed up with cake, fruit and custard, more cookies, strawberry cheesecake and just a million things. We all took doggy bags home with food. Some people took bottles of pop back and whole cookie boxes (they asked first). We all felt like beggars who never get food going somewhere and then just scavengering for things to take back with us (it feels like that sometimes). The Fanshawe's were amazingly hospitable and welcoming and I don't think anyone ever felt weird or uncomfortable in their home. If Jane is reading this, Thank You again, it was wonderful. Then we headed back. I set out like a million e-mails and wrote this NOVEL. Holy crap is it long, and no pictures (yet). I haven't gotten the pictures from Vanessa, I will though!

Well, it was a great and very enlightening day for me. All this Culture Destroying can get pretty depressing but its because of people like the National Trust (takes care of Stonehenge) and David Fanshawe (recorded now extinct tribes) that hope still comes. I think the quote, "if you don't know your history, you are doomed to repeat it" really holds true here. Knowing what we know now about how cultures and buildings and atrifacts acan be destroyed, we need to fight hard to preserve and keep them for everyone later. That's all the deep stuff for me today.

God be with thee! (goodbye is a shortened form of that, say that phrase fast and you'll hear it)

Camera Shopping

I was up until around 4 am talking on Skype last night so I slept in until 11:30 today. I got ready and Vanessa and I set out on a quest to try and find a store that would sell me a good camera cheap. Word to the wise: In London, those stores don't exist.

We walked across Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to an area of London called Oxford Circus (no elephants unfortunately, just a lot of traffic). The parks were really nice, I had never really walked through them before so it was fun to do that. It was a really nice day out, breezy, not too cool, sunshine. Then we got to Oxford Street which we had to walk on and it was a mess. People would walk right into us and there were literally a million people walking on these sidewalks, it was insane. I'm not kidding. We were getting extremely annoyed. On the way back, Vanessa leaned over to me and said, "I think I'm starting to hate people." I said, "I'd rather be walking through mud like yesterday." Anyway, we got to a couple stores but they didn't have the cameras I wanted and their prices were ridiculous. So we walked back along the street again. Just bad. Anyway, as we were walking back, I decided to try High Street Kensington to see if it had any stores that might help. It didn't. We stopped at a grocery store and Vanessa got a bunch of groceries. As we were walking back she told me, "I thought YOU were the one that was supposed to spend money, not me." I just laughed.

I came back to the flat and ate a couple more quesadillas. I was really hungry (I only had toast so far). I had a really big headache so I laid down and watched some tv. Then I came down to the computer lab and did some more camera research and now, here I am.

Tomorrow morning everyone has to be ready by 8 am to get on the coach so its going to be an early night. I am very tired so it was going to be an early night anyway. I am super excited to see Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. It is going to be really sweet. Plus, mostly sunshine and highs around 50 are expected. Yay!

I hope everyone has fun this weekend. I know I will!

Good News/Bad News

Ok. So I have some good news and I have some bad news. I will do the bad news first, just to get it out of the way. Here it comes... my camera broke. Yup. I was hiking (I will get to that) and I wanted to take a picture of myself so I put it on a fence post and it took the picture but fell off because of the wind and landed right on the lens part so now it won't turn on or whatever. To be more specific, it will turn on but the lens part won't extend at all, it just makes a grinding noise and then on the screen it shows E18. Then the camera shuts off. I was insanely depressed but I guess I have moved on now. I sort of wanted to get a new camera anyway, I suppose... Now I have my excuse. On the other had, I'll just say it, it sucks, a lot. That camera has basically been an extension of me since I got it two years and one month ago (exactly, as a matter of fact). It's like what I would imagine not having an arm would feel like. I feel very naked without it. Ugh. So there's the bad news.

More bad news I guess. Because of the broken camera situation, I can't post pictures today and I couldn't take pictures for half my day. So there will be no pictures until I can get another camera. Sorry!!!

Now for the good news! I had an idea in my head last night of something to do but I didn't post about it because the entry was kind of long and I wasn't sure if I would actually go through with it or not. Anyway, I went to Constable Country. That's an area about an hour train ride northeast of London where an artist named John Constable grew up and did most of his paintings. Constable Country itself is a very shallow valley made by the Stour River. That walley (before it was called Constable Country) was and actually still is referred to as Dedham Vale. It's mroe marshy and stuff than I had thought but it was still very beautiful. The most famous area of the Country is Flatford Mill. Constable made a painting of this mill with the bridge and the river and it sold for a ton of money. As a matter of fact, Constable's work is some of the most expensive paintings you can buy now. As I said, he is very famous (wasn't when he was alive though). He liked painting landscapes and sky and stuff like that and Constable Country is perfect for that.

I left my flat at around 8:30 this morning with a lunch and some books and other necessary things but no map of the area. The only information that I really had was some directions from the town of Manningtree (where the train stops) to Flatford Mill. I got on the train at Liverpool Street (picture 1). When I got off the train, it was really cloudy and I was worried because the forecast called for mostly sunny and I really wanted some sun while I was walking. So I walked and followed the directions. Turns out that in January the path is super muddy (picture 2). It made for an interesting hiking experience to say that least. I trudged on, avoiding mud as much as I could. Fields were the main land around me with the River Stour cutting through but they were still very pretty if you ask me (picture 3 and 4). I ended up taking the wrong turn somewhere and walked toward a town with a church spire sticking out it instead. On the way there, I ran into a group of people pheasant hunting. I had heard their gun shots as I was walking. They were nice and we talked for a little bit. I made my way to the church spire. It turns out that the town I came to was Dedham.

Dedham was where Constable went to school as a boy. He did some paintings of the town and stuff from far off. I guess I mean he didn't paint the town but he painted it within some of his landscapes. Constable's father owned a mill in Dedham and in Flatford (the famous one) and another mill somewhere else. John, being the oldest, was expected to take over the family business. He didn't want to; he had fallen in love in painting. So his dad let him. Back to my story, I walked through Dedham, I explored the inside of the church (picture 5) and church's cemetary (picture 6), walked along the main drag (not much to it but I still liked it), and even had a little conversation with a couple of older women who were on a walk in the town as well. Then I continued on my roundabout way to Flatford Mill.

As I was walking, I was thinking about the difference between being lost and not knowing where you where you are going. At this point in my journey, I was not lost, I just didn't know where I was going some of the time. I followed the well defined, and muddy, path but I wasn't sure how far it was to the Mill and all that jazz. I tried to take a detour to another little town where John's parents are buried but I wasn't sure where I was going so I turned around. I crossed over the River on a wood bridge (picture 7). By this time, the sun had come out I was at the top of a hill (picture 8) and it was really beautiful and I wanted to remember that moment so I decided to do something stupid. I put my camera on a small, woobly fencepost and take a timer shot. It took the picture (picture 9) but as soon as it did, a gust of wind came and knocked the camera down right on the lens part. I was devastated. I was depressed. I was really mad at myself. When I was putting the camera on the fencepost I knew it was risk but there wasn't anyone else around and the moment meant a lot to me. Oh well. Life happens. I walked back down the hill and continued on my way to the Mill by walking along the River. I was still very angry and sad but as I walked, those things melted away and I just had to smile because of the amazing scenary around me and the sunshine and the fresh air and the fact that I was hiking again.

I finally got to Flatford Mill and man did I wish I had my camera. I ate my PBJ sandwiches next to the mill, right on the river. It was fantastic. I decided to just keeping moving and not linger too long there. I was still mildly upset about the camera and none of the buildings were open, they are only open on Saturday and Sunday in Jan and Feb. Dumb. I walked my way back to the train station amid sunshine and blue skies. I proceeded to walk to the town of Manningtree inself. On the way there, I walked by a couple of city worker guys. As I walked past them, they looked me up and down and I heard one of them say, "Another one from London, eh" and the other worker grunted in agreement. That was awesome. One of the best compliments I have received. The town isn't much but I walked to the shore of the river. At Manningtree, the Stour opens up really wide before it goes into the ocean. It's a mix of salt and fresh water sort of. So I technically wasn't at the ocean but I walking along a big body of water. I loved it. I love walking by, looking at, and just being around water. It's very calming. I tried to walk back to the train station by another route but ended up not knowing where I was going again (not lost though). I eventually walked around enough to get my bearings (keeping the river on my right at all times was a good help) and got back to the train station at around 4. I estimate that I walked somewhere between 8 or 9 miles today. The train ride back was very pleasant, I had a book and my Zune and the there was a gorgeous sunset. I rode the Tube back and ate pizza for dinner and then read some more (I am devouring "Skinny Dip"). Now I'm here.

You know, even with my camera (probably my prized possession, at least 1A with my Zune) breaking today, this was still probably my favorite day here. That's saying something too. I mean with the Tower Bridge day or the first night I was here when I walked around with Vanessa or almost any other day that's a tough list to be the best of. I just plain forgot how much I love walking around outdoors with the sun on my face and a backpack on my back. I mean, it was just plain wonderful. The same thing happens on the first hike of each of our annual summer vacations. Anyway, i had a lot of fun with one bad spot mixed in. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? We'll just have to wait and see.

Au revoir!

Free Books

Why would I title this entry "Free Books"? Well there are a couple reasons I did that which will be revealed shortly.

I had Senior Seminar again today. We spent about forty five minutes just doing trip business, handing out information, talking about registration and volunteering and other stuff. The next forty-five minutes we talked about where we are going Saturday. We are going to Salisbury Cathedral (more on that after we visit there), Stonehenge (I am super excited about that), and David Fanshawe. I think I mentioned this before but David Fanshawe is a composer of music who rocks. He has a CD he made where he combines guitar and percussion, choir, and recorded African music. It's called African Sanctus. If anyone reading this blog has a chance to just listen to a little bit of it, you should. It is phenomenal. It is so different from anything I have ever heard. Anyway, on Saturday, we are visiting his house and having dinner with him I guess. It should pretty sweet. So we talked about Saturday and then we listened to some of the CD, African Sanctus.

After Senior Seminar, I came back and had a quesadilla for lunch (yummmmm). I bought some hot salsa but I didn't think it was that hot, at least not compared to Greg's salsa. Then I got Vanessa to come with me and we did a little walking tour of North Kensington (northwest of where I live). The main points of the tour were A) get out and walk B) see more of our neighborhood C) get a library card and visit the library. So main point C was one of the reasons I titled this post free books. Anyway, Vanessa and I walked by the church that I go to every Sunday (all 2 of them so far), Our Lady of Victories (picture 1). Throughout the walk, we passed by houses occupied by semi-famous people. People like Lord Leighton (artist, his house is picture 2), Linley Sambourne (drew cartoons for Punch), and Kenneth Grahame (wrote The Wind in the Willows). They all lived in Kensington in Victorian times. They had really cool Victorian houses along the entire walk. Lord Leighton's is now an art museum which we did not go into, but I will someday. We walked by a restaurant owned by Bill Wyman (guitarist in Rolling Stones) called Sticky Fingers (picture 3). Holland Park is in Kensington and it has manicured gardens that must be spectacular in spring (its not spring so they aren't as good as seen in picture 4). Holland Park was part of the gardens of Holland House, a mansion that was around since 1600, but was later donated and became the main part of the park. The two of us stopped by a garden shop which has peacocks as residents (picture 5). Vanessa freaked out when saw the head of it pop up above the fence line. We eventually made our way to the Kensington Central Library and got our library cards. Same policy as the US, free books for 3 weeks, then renewals. I for got to mention that on our walking tour, we passed by one of the oldest letter boxes in London. The whole walk took about 3 hours, it was very pleasant.

Another reason I titled this entry, Free Books, is because I just finished reading a book I brought with me (for free) called Final Exam. I really liked the book (except for the ending, kind of anti-climactic if you ask me, I was expecting someone to get busted but oh well). It's a murder mystery set at Kenyon College where my uncle, Barry, is a professor. Since I left I have also read Hatchet and An Abundance of Katherines. Both were very good (AAoF being one of my favorite books I think I have ever read, I basically finished it on the plane). It's crazy, I don't think I have read this much in a verrrrry long time. Those three books, plus reading for my classes, plus reading about Britain and Europe for traveling purposes. That's a lot of reading. That's part of life though, changing and adapting. Most nights I spend watching TV and reading (as opposed to last semester where I spent most nights on the computer, playing video games, or watching tv). I'm not making any judgements on myself or what I am doing, I am simply stating the difference.

Well, that's all I have to say for now I guess. More tomorrow I presume. Adios!

Good Day

Guten Tag! That means good day in German (Amy, correct me if I'm wrong). At any rate, I had a pretty good day today. I usually do. Today wasn't that exciting really but the sun was shining which almost automatically makes it a good day here.

I got up and went to my Islam vs. The West class. We spent most of the class taking notes while our teacher lectured on the early history of Islam. He started at Muhammad (obviously) and his minstry in around 680 and we made it all the way to about 1400 or something like that. About 700 years in three hours, not bad. He told us about what Muhammad did and how everything after him kind of got all messed up. The Shii believe that Muhammad only had one rightful heir but the Sunnis believed that Muhammad wanted there to be elections and the two sides have not gotten along well since then. The rift between them has gotten worse since the US invaded Iraq and there is a sort of civil war going on there right now. To think all that started with no one remembering exactly what Muhammad wanted after he died. That's a good lesson to make sure you have a clear will, if I have ever heard one ;-) Seriously though, it was a very interesting class. I've already said this before, but it's amazing how little I know about Islam. I am still amazed by it.

I went back to my flat and had, what else, a couple PBJ sandwiches and an orange for lunch. They were delicious. Then I took the Tube to the National Gallery (picture 1) in Trafalgar Square (picture 2, with Big Ben down the road and picture 3). I got there a little early and took some pictures of the square. I liked the fact that the sun was out for the first time in a couple days. I really like the fountain picture below (picture 4). I met up with the group and we spent the class period looking at Middle Ages art and the transition from that to the art of the Renaissance. We discussed paintings in churches in the Middle Ages and how they were all very religious based (saints, Mary, Jesus, etc.). Then we moved on to paintings in the Renaissance of Roman and Greek myths and how they were all done for patrons for their homes and furniture. Again, I know nothing about this stuff so its fun to just sit and listen to my prof tell us all this stuff in the paintings. Very interesting.

Vanessa and I walked back from the Gallery (to save money) and then sat around in the computer lab. I ate dinner (chicken and bacon tortellini with tomato sauce, under £2 total, awesome). From dessert, I am currently eating chocolate mousse (6 for about a pound, what a steal) and an apple. Very good and good for you. I spent about 2 hours looking up stuff about visiting somewhere in Britain Wed. through Fri. but I couldn't really find anything so I gave up. It was fun to just look up prices and read more about all the towns. I learned a lot.

I am getting excited about my Spring Break plans. We decided to start reserving plane tickets and hostels by the end of the week. We hope to have everything reserved that we can by Sunday, I don't know if that will happen however. Tomorrow I have Senior Seminar and then its's the weekend for me (haha)! Yay!

Bye!

Picture-less Day

Hi again! I did not take a single picture today. Believe me, I'm as shocked as you are. The last day that I didn't take pictures was probably a week ago Sunday. Crazy. There are many reasons for me not taking any pictures, the main one being that I had class during all of the light hours of the day. So without further ado, here's a recap.

In Sociology of the City, our homework was coming up with images that came to our minds when we thought of a city, things that are specific to cities and phrases and metaphors for cities. We discussed these in class. We would give an example of an image or something and then our teacher would say how that image does or does not apply to London and we would debate if the image was really true or not. The same thing happened for all the of the homework assignment things. It was pretty interesting and fun to have a conversation sort of thing with our professor as opposed to him just telling us stuff for the whole 3 hours (still not used to sitting for that long, even with a break). The last part of class, Justin lectured on the history of London, at least the recent history.

We spent the time inbetween classes down in the common room of Foundation House (where our classes are). I ate two PBJ sandwiches. Gourmet, I know. I looked at a couple books they have down there about Venice, Florence, and Rome. Very interesting and I'm still insanely excited about going there.

Senior Seminar was spent discussing two of the cases that we had to read for last week's class. I wasn't that interested, I felt like most of the discussion was just a re-hashing of what was said in the book. We then discussed Cultural Relativism. Haha, interesting, right? It wasn't bad. It was the reading we had to do for our class today. Cultural Relativism says that all things are right or wrong as long as they are right or wrong within the culture and that there are no universal moral truths. The author of the book ripped this theory apart and that was about it. We spent the last half hour of class listening to Phil give us a quick hits history of England, focusing on the Canterbury Tales and how they came to be (since we are going to be re-enacting them in a week and a half).

After Senior Seminar, a bunch of us went to Parliament and sat in on the House of Lords while they were discussing an embryonic stem cell research bill. It was interesting being there and hearing them discussing but the topic was kind of dull. They spent about 45 minutes straight arguing the merits of having "serious disability" or "life-threatening disability". Like I said, sort of dull. It was still good to go there and see them in action, plus it was free.

I took the Tube back and went to the grocery store. Good times. I spent £20 (Yikes!!!!) but it was money well spent. I got some stuff for quesadillas and I got some salalmi and ham and cheese for what hopes to be a few awesome sandwiches. Anyway, unloading my groceries is like Christmas and my birthday rolled into one. Its my favorite thing to do. Seeing all the stuff I get to eat this week, it makes me happy. I ate and read for my Islam vs. The West class tomorrow and now I'm here writing this entry.

Sorry for the whole no picture thing. Can't be helped on days like today and tomorrow when I have class. I promise pictures of some place sweet on Wednesday, I have a couple places in mind. Till then, bye!

Lazy Sunday

'Allo every one! So as the title suggests, its been a pretty lazy day for me.

I woke up at around 9 so I could get showered and dressed to go to church again. The walk to church was much better than time around though because I wasn't a dead man walking. Rachelle and I kept up a good pace and we were there in no time. The church service was loud, again. Little kids just running all over the place. Rachelle and I walked in and she asked where we should sit, me being a creature of habit, decided to sit in the exact same spot. It was nice beacuse all the same families and other people sat around us. It reminded me a lot of St. Als and how we have sat roughly the exact same area ever since I can remember. I did notice a couple differences in the mass today (I was too out of it to notice them last time). They change just a couple words during the Apostle's Creed and they don't sing the responsorial, they just read the verses out loud and everyone replies the chorus. Its different but not bad.

I got back from church and just sat around for an hour or so. I didn't really have anything that I wanted to do. I ate some lunch (mmm, PBJ) and just watched a little tv and read some articles online. Then I decided to do something with myself. I went to the Chelsea neighborhood.

In one of the books (Eyewitness London) they have walking tours of just about every neighborhood in London so today I picked Chelsea. Its a famous neighborhood for fashion. Mini-skirts started there in the 50s and 'Punk' was invented there in the 70s. It was a riverside town back in the day and Sir Thomas More, among other famous writers used to reside here. Chelsea is also just a 5 minute Tube ride away from me.

So I began the walk at Sloane Square (picture 1). Not much to say about the Square. It's actually a rectangle which is interesting I suppose. I continued on and walked for quite a ways along King's Road. This road has tons of shops and stuff along it. It's like High Street Kensington but fewer name brands. I walked by The Chelsea Town Hall and made my way by The Old Dairy (picture 2). That is a house that was built in 1796 when it was surrounded by cow pastures. I walked by Old Chelsea Church (picture 3) and just stepped inside for a minute. The old church was basically destroyed during WWII but they rebuilt it to almost the exact same dimensions. There is a sculpture of Sir Thomas More gazing across the Thames in front of the church. I walked along the Cheyne Walk (picture 4). Its nothing more than a path next a street which is next to the river but there used to be no road so the Walk was a little bit more romantic and scenic. Now, not so much. I walked by Thomas Carlyle's house. There was an admission charge to get in and I wasn't particularly interested so I didn't pay. Apparently a bunch of famous people used to visit Carlyle here. Dickens and Darwin are two. By the way, James Carlyle was a historian who wrote some famous books.

I continued on, walking by a ton of different brick row houses (picture 7). Very pretty and probably very expensive. I walked by Albert Bridge (picture 5). It is a suspension bridge over the Thames that has a huge amount of light bulbs along each suspension wire. It is very spectacular at night (I wouldn't know I suppose, but it was nice during the day). I walked around the Chelsea Physic Garden but it wasn't open during 'the winter'. Winter? It was like 50 degrees out today. Whatever. I moved on to the Royal Hospital (picture 6). Its not so much a hospital as it is a retirement home. It was built and designed by Christopher Wren (designed A TON of stuff in London). It is home of the Chelsea Pensioners (retirees, they call them pensioners here). I saw a couple of them as I was walking around. They have a very nice dining hall. I was looking out when at the end of the road I was walking on, I saw a bench with a wooden pensioner on it (like the ronald mcdonald things you see), and a little girl walked by with her mom. The little girl jumped up and stood on the bench and hugged the fake pensioner with all her might around the neck. Pretty much the cutest thing ever. It made my day.

I walked back to the Tube and headed for the flat. I stopped and bought some italian sausage and ham tortellini and tomato sauce for dinner. It was delicious. Then I talked to John on Skype and went out and bought some cookies for dessert. I also read for my classes tomorrow sometime during today, I don't really remember when. Anyway, it was a lazy day and I loved it. I hope everyone else had a lazy, relaxed day as well! Bon soir!