Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

I planned today to be my "goodbye London" day and it was was (the title of the post is a David Gray song). I woke up and got ready and did a little, tiny bit of packing. My plan was to walk. A lot. I was a little depressed because it was raining when I left but I didn't let it get me down because I had no choice. I had my plan and I was going to stick to it. I took the bus to Piccadilly Circus and walked from there to Stanford's. I bought three guidebooks. Frommer's Greece, Eyewitness Istanbul, and Rick Steves's Belgium and Netherlands. I am also bringing Rick Steves's Switzerland and my big Let's Go Europe book. Those are going to be my main sources of information. I like having the variety of types of guidebooks. I would have just rented all guidebooks from the library but they had a pretty poor selection. So I bought the books and then stopped at the same pizza place I usually do in Leicester Square. 1.50 pounds for a slice. It is sooo good. Leicester Square was getting all geared up for the Iron Man premiere. I really want to see that movie. I'll have to wait until I get back though.

I walked down the The Strand and happened upon a big collection of people walking down it (picture 1). Apparently, it was a Teacher's strike and they were marching to get more pay or something like that. I just read the signs so I don't know much more about it. There were a lot of them though. I stopped at Tesco's and bought a little feast for lunch. That chicken and bacon pasta salad my mom and I had for Easter, a banana, a dinner roll (I love dinner rolls), two white chocolate cookies, and some lemon-lime spring water. I was very excited to eat it. I walked down The Strand until I got to St. Mary-le-Strand Church. You might remember that this is one of my favorite churches. I went in and took a couple pictures. The priest came up behind me and asked if the pictures were good. I told him of course. He proceeded to give a history of the church in about 2 or 3 minutes. He told me about a chapel in the college across the street. I went over to that chapel and looked around. The stained glass was cool. It had very bright colors and interesting faces (picture 2). Each window had a major person from the Bible. I continued walking down the Strand taking pictures of the highlights like St. Clement Danes Church and the Royal Courts of Justice. I walked around the Temple area but the church was closed. I continued on to St. Paul's Cathedral (picture 3). At this point it started really down pouring and hailing so I hung out under the cover of the church until it let up.

It was still raining a little but I was getting antsy so I continued along until I got to the Tower of London. I stopped under the awning thing where the ticket sales are and sat down and ate my lunch. It was raining really hard and there was some lightning and thunder as well. Those are not common in London. By the time I finished lunch and got done digesting, the rain had basically stopped and I saw some blue sky on the way. Yay! I traversed Tower Bridge and then set out on the next part of my walk. The next stage was walking along the Thames to Westminster. I passed by all the usuals: OXO Tower, the Golden Hind, London Bridge, Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, Millenium Bridge, Jubilee Bridge (love picture 4), London Eye, and finally Westminster. The sun was shining finally and the clouds were spectacular. This was true for everything I walked by today but it is mind-blowing to me that all of these places have a memory attached to them. It was like walking through a lot of my time in London. I was amazed at how many little facts I remembered about all the places and how much I loved every single place. I was so sad when I finally turned the last corner and the Tower Bridge went out of view for the last time. It was like that with every place. The funny thing is that even though I have walked along different parts of this part a bunch of times, there were still new things and stuff I had never noticed before. Like Southwark Cathedral. I didn't go inside but I don't remember ever really seeing it before. It has black pebbles and smooth cream colored stone all over it (picture 5). I really liked the look of it. It had a nice little garden as well.

I got to Westminster and did my final salute to Big Ben (picture 6) and Westminster Abbey. I walked up Whitehall, past the horse guards, and up to Trafalgar Square. This was maybe my favorite spot to sit in all of London so I sat for a little bit on last time then went into the National Gallery for a last tour of my favorite pieces. Just like what I said about Southwark Cathderal, I saw all the paintings that I really like but I also noticed some new ones that I had not seen before which was fun. From Trafalgar, I did my usual walk home through St. James's Park which had some AWESOME flowers (picture 7). At Buckingham Palace, all the tulips that surround the traffic circle were in total and complete bloom (picture 8). They were stunning. I walked by Green Park and saw Vanessa and her boyfriend Lucky. It was a crazy coincidence to run into them. My path went through Hyde Park Corner and into Hyde Park next. There flowers here were fantabulous (I just made that word up) too. I saw some dark red/purple colored tulips which I had never seen before; they were interesting (picture 9). There was a canopy thing with vines all over it which would have been perfect for some portraits or something like that (picture 10). I walked by the Serpentine and the Albert Memorial for the last time as well. Sad to see them go. Then it was back down Queen's Gate and onto to Queen's Gate Terrace and Metrogate.

I would estimate I walked over 8 or 9 miles today. It was extremely tiring but totally worth while. I reminisced and saw some new things. I am really sad to see London go but I know that I have to see it go so that I can have some more new adventures. Someday I'll be back though! :-) I didn't write that much about what I was feeling or thinking because I was thinking and feeling a lot of things: sadness over leaving, happy for all the memories I have, lucky to be able to have seen so much in London, anxiety over leaving a place I know, tiredness from walking so much, ecstatic that I am only about a month away from seeing everyone, nervous about all the stuff I still had to do. All of those emotions are thoughts were running through my head at once. There were a couple times when I just stopped, took a deep breath, and cleared my mind. Of course, it was cluttered again in about 2 seconds but that 2 seconds of peace was nice. I'm complaining about that, just saying that it's hard to write about. Anyway, continuing on...

I spent the evening making dinner, doing the post about Kew (I love the title of the post, one of my best ones if you ask me), calling people on Skype, washing clothes and trying to get a little organized. I didn't do a ton of packing today but I figured I had time tomorrow. The main accomplishment I did was wash my clothes so that I could pack them. I didn't do this post last night because I was up talking on Skype until about 2:30 or 3. Tomorrow is my actual last day in London. Yikes!

Two Month Reunion

Ok. So on Friday I went and met my mom at Victoria train station after she had landed and taken the train from the airport. I actually woke up later than I wanted but I got there with plenty of time. I was so happy to see her. It seems like ages since we last said goodbye in MN. So we met each other and then took the Tube to my flat. We went there first because it was only 10 or 11 am and she couldn't check in to her hotel until later. So we got ready and settled and decided to do my "usual walk" from my flat to the National Gallery.

It was pretty cold out but not that bad with the sun shining. We walked by the Albert Memorial (picture 1) and through Hyde Park and the Serpentine. I have said this before, but sometimes this walk can be kind of boring or whatever but it's always fun to walk it with someone who hasn't seen it before. From Hyde Park we continued through Hyde Park Corner and meandered on to Buckingham Palace (Victoria Statue in front of Buckingham picture 2). It was here that we started to notice all the people walking around. There were TONS of tourists around. I was very surprised. Because of all the people, they closed the roads from Hyde Park Corner to Trafalgar Square. The clouds were amazing with the blue sky. It was so strange seeing all the tourists walking around. There are always people taking pictures and stuff but this was crazy. We continued walking and I had us take the detour through St. James's Park (picture 3) because I think it is the best park in London. The dafodils were blooming like usual. So pretty.

We got to Trafalgar Square and sat outside on the steps for a while. The view down Whitehall to Big Ben was just as magnificent as it always is (picture 4). Mom and I ventured in the National Gallery. We did a quick tour of all the galleries. I got to see the Impressionist paintings again which was great. Mom got to see some paintings by Vermeer which she wanted to do. Then we left the Gallery and walked to Parliament. The horse guards weren't out because of construction which was kind of depressing because they are fun for people to see. The clouds were still awesome so Big Ben was cool. We took each other's pictures in front of it (picture 5). We also walked around and saw the outside of Westminster Abbey. Then we took the Tube back to my flat. Mom grabbed her stuff and took the bus to her hotel. Because Kensington Gardens closes at around 6, it is not easy to walk around to her hotel so she took the bus. Anyway, she got to the hotel fine and then took the bus back over so we could go to dinner.

Mom had a little bit of an adventure getting back to my flat. She got off at the right stop but wasn't sure exactly where she was so she walked past my street a whole bunch of times until she finally figured it out. I felt bad for not explaining it better but she got here so it's all good. We ate dinner at Gloucester Arms, the pub down the road from my flat. They have 2 entrees for £8 which is a pretty good deal. We talked and ate. It was very nice. Mom took the bus back and I watched some basketball on the computer and went to bed.

It was a nice day and it was fun to walk around and show Mom all the stuff that I get to see almost every day.

Bye!

Impressions of Impressionism

My day started out like usual. That being hitting the snooze like 4 times and then showering and having toast. I went to Islam vs. the West. We talked about Fundamentalism in Islam today. It was interesting but a lot of intense notetaking going on. Holy crap. Next week we are going to a mosque which is going to be super sweet.

*Disclaimer: Lots of art talk below. You have been warned.*

Then I came back and had lunch and went to the National Gallery yet again for Art History. As you can tell by the title of this blog entry, we talked about Impressionism. First, we talked about what painting was like before Impressionism. People spent a ton of time copying and practicing techniques, then they made their own paintings which were sent into this competition called the Salon. In the Salon, rich people would find paintings they liked and ask the artist to paint for them. That's it. The impressionists were rebelling against this sort of thing. They were a co-op and all very young and self-funded in Paris. They painted modern life and made no qualms about it. Some critics thought their paintings were boring or whatever but the artists just wanted to paint what was going on right now, not what already happened like the Salon type painters did. A good example of this is the artist Manet (not Monet) was painting a model who was posing all weird so he said to her, "Is that how you look when you buy your radishes?!?!" I thought that was a funny quote and totally epitomizes what the Impressionists were about ideaologically.

The Impressionists did not just disagree with the subject matter of the Salon painters but also how they painted. They would sketch and then spend hours or days in a studio making it perfect. Impressionists wanted the painting to be done as fast as possible. They wanted to capture moments and the feelings associated with them. If you can't tell yet, I love Impressionism.

Some of the works we looked at included Manet, Monet, Sisley, Pissaro, Van Gogh, Caillebotte, Seurat (Post-Impressionist), and Degas. The more recognizable pieces we saw were "Sunflowers" and "Van Gogh's Chair" by Vincent Van Gogh and "The Water Lilly Pond" by Monet. If you look any of those up online, chance are that you saw them in an art class in high school or whatever. On a side note, "Van Gogh's Chair" is actually a self-portrait that Van Gogh did. Just like if I asked you, "If you could be any vegetable, which would you be?" Except that you would then draw the vegetable.

One of my absolute favorite paintings (maybe my favorite ever?) that I have seen in all the art galleries I have been to here in London is "Lake Keitele" by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (picture 1) which I don't think is actually Impressionistic because the artist is Finnish. The silver streaks on the lake represent where the boat of a mythical Norse hero paddled by. I just love the way the lake and mountains look. It's like a picture but better. Like I said, not really Impressionist but it looks just like it and who cares, it's a beautiful painting. One of my favorites that we saw today was "Houses of Parliament, Sunset" by Monet (picture 2). He went to London in 1870-1 because of the Franco-Prussian War. He painted a bunch of stuff while here. He said that he liked London a lot because of the fog (actually smog from the factories) and the way it made the sunsets and sunrises look. Another painting that I liked was "A Coastal Scene" by Theo Van Rysselberghe (picture 3). He used a technique called pointillism where you just make dots to create the painting. He actually copied the technique from Seurat. I thought this painting was peaceful and it reminds me of some of the places I have been in the US and here. "A Wheat Field with Cypresses" by Vincent Van Gogh (picture 4) was another painting that just blew me away. This is actually a field outside of a mental institute that Van Gogh stayed in for a year (he was a little unbalanced). It reminded me a lot of "Starry Night" but during the day. I love this one too. So bright and just happy looking if you ask me. Last painting I want to mention is Monet's "Water Lily Pond" again (picture 5). It's a Japanese bridge over a pond in his gardens. You can actually go to Monet's gardens in Giverny, France. They aren't too far from Paris. He spent a ton of his time painting scenes from his garden. I have heard that the gardens are spectacular.

There are probably 30 other pictures I could talk about and put on here but I don't want to bore anyone (I hope I haven't already). If anyone who reads this comes to London someday, seriously make time to go to the National Gallery and check out the Impressionists there. It is totally worth the time and they are more beautiful in person. Anyway, after that was over I walked back to the flat but on the way, I was still overcome by the Impressionists and stuff, so I stopped off in St. James's Park and took some pictures of the flowers (picture 6 and my shadow with flowers picture 7). There are SO MANY daffodils blooming right now. There were just tons of them. I took a whole bunch of pictures but deleted a lot of them. I couldn't get the effect I wanted to appear on the camera. There was an awesome sunset in Hyde Park while I was walking (picture 8). After getting back, I read for a while and went online for a while and made dinner and did my usual night routine but just sitting around. Tomorrow we are listening to the whole War Requiem which should be interesting. Till next time!

Bon Soir!

Future Math Teachers Unite!

I am sitting at the computer writing this blog entry with Maggie Donahue sitting next to me on a computer as well. She was in Scotland this weekend and spent the today in London. Amazing!!!

That paragraph was written, like it says, with Maggie sitting next to me. Sadly, she has left me here all alone again so the rest was not written with her here.

I started the day by going to church. It was really good. The pastor, Father Perry, did the service. He hasn't been at the 10 am mass for a while so it was nice to have him again. The other priests have bad accents and are hard to hear. Plus Fr. Perry is just very calm and he smiles a lot. I like his style. Not to get too evangelical but I just liked his homily. He had a baby (not the Fr. Grile Christmas Special Homily) and talked about how babies can't see when they are first born just like people can't "see" until they baptized. It was more complicated than that but it was really good. He did a good job. It was refreshing to be able to completely understand the whole Homily. Anyway, I didn't go to Whole Foods like usual after mass because Maggie had told me that she would be in London today so I went back to the flat and tried to call her. It was no good. Her phone wasn't working. I was depressed but couldn't do anything about it. I started to put more pictures on Facebook and then all of a sudden I got an e-mail that said. "Call me you fool!" I replied calmly, "I can't!!" and then gave her my phone number. Soon after I got a call.

We met up at Trafalgar Square (picture 1). Kristina came with me because she knew some of the people Maggie was traveling with. We walked around the square looking for them. I turned to Kristina and said, "I bet Maggie is going to either scream my name or jump on me when she sees me." Sure enough, like 1 minute after saying that, Maggie jumped on my back. It was so cool to see her. The first thing we noticed was that we have the exact same coat!! Haha, the rain coat thing that I always wear and bought from REI. Crazy. Reminds me of the first time I saw John's winter coat (we have the exact same one of those too). I guess the old saying, "great minds think alike" is true. Maybe the other old saying applies better, I think it goes "Jeremy has excellent fashion sense" :-)

Anyway, it was just unspeakably cool to be able to see Maggie here (picture 2). It was like having a little bit of home come and visit. That sounds weird maybe to people who are still in MN. The same kind of feeling comes over me when I buy fruit cocktail (Dad) or read a depressing young adult book (Amy) or see a little boy walking hand in hand with his dad (Josh and Sam) or see an amazing sunset (Mom). In each one of those instances, its sort of like each of you are there with me. I have stuff like that for everyone from back home. With Maggie being here, it was like all my SJU friends and memories were here, even though it was only Maggie actually sitting with me. I hope that that makes some sense. As soon as Maggie and I started talking, it was game over with the rest of her friends. I felt sort of bad because we were walking way faster than everyone else but I was just so excited to talk and see her that it translated into a faster walking pace. Plus, I always walk kind of fast now. Its just a by product of all the walking I do.

Maggie and her pals wanted to see the Tower Bridge so we crossed the Thames on the Jubilee Bridge and walked along the South Bank. We passed the National Theatre, Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, Vinopolis, the Clink, and London Bridge. Maggie and I stopped on the Tower Bridge (Maggie said picture 3 looks like an elephant, I agree) and sat and talked while we waited for the rest of the group to catch up (where we sat picture 4). I don't even know what we talked about. Just a million things. We were sitting there and some people walked by and one was wearing a St. Cloud State sweatshirt. Turns out Maggie swam with that girl for 11 years when they were little. Go figure... The group caught up and Maggie and I zoomed off to go back to our flats. The rest of the group went another way back.

I took Maggie back by way of The Strand, the major roadway through The City. We passed by St. Paul's Cathedral, the Royal Courts of Justice, and Fleet Street. St. Mary-Le-Strand (picture 5), the church in the middle of the road, was looking especially good in the late light and budding trees. We got back to Trafalgar Square and continued on my well worn path back to the flats (I have walked from Trafalgar to Metrogate about 10-15 times. The usual sights went by: St. James's Park, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park Corner, and Hyde Park (the Serpentine and daffodils picture 6). It was fun to go on it with someone that wasn't jaded by it all like I think me and Vanessa are sometimes. This whole time we were talking and walking by the way. We took a little different way back by passing by Harrod's (picture 7), the V&A, and the Natural History Museum.

Back at the flats, Maggie and I had a cup of tea while we waited for the others. When they got there, we made the noodles and sauce that they had bought. They bought 2 kilos worth of noodles (!). That's a lot of noodles. There were 7 of us though and, come hell or high water, we finished all of them. Like I said, Maggie and her friends had just been in Scotland and they took an over night bus to London so they were all really tired. Plus, I felt like they were visiting me in my "home" so I was sort of the host. I did all of the cooking and cleaning. They offered numerous times to help but there wasn't much to help with and they were all tired. This made me think of one of the big themes of The Odyssey which is hospitality. All the people in the book offer lots of hospitality to everyone else who visits because they know that some day they will need the hospitality when they are out adventuring. I feel that way now too. Sort of a "Pay It Forward" type of thing. Plus I really enjoyed cooking for all those people. A welcome change to always only making stuff for myself which can be depressing and boring. It was really funny trying to finish the noodles (everyone was so full). Maggie told me that she sometimes cuts up garlic or spinach and adds it to the crappy sauce she buys which makes it taste way better. Great idea. I will remember that. Also, one of the people in her group made coffee chocolate. That being melted chocolate mixed with instant coffee and sugar, then reformed. DELICIOUS!!!!! It was so good and it was instant energy.

After dinner, we all just hung out in the dining room and computer room. They finally got ready to leave. I was really sad to see them go. It was all over so quickly! I was really sad to see Maggie and all her friends go. They had to catch a bus to Stansted for their flight in the morning. I was so glad to have Maggie come here while I was in London. I was/am amazed that the same person that I worked on Foundations homework with 18 months ago, is the same person I was walking across the Tower Bridge with. Crazy!! I had an awesome day of walking and talking. Tomorrow: class :-/

Thanks for coming Maggie and friends!

TTFN: Ta Ta For Now!

The History Boys and Italy

Well hello again. I started the day off by going to Senior Sem. We talked about the play we went to tonight The History Boys and spent a lot of the rest of the time talking about perception and how people view art forms and what affects how people view art forms. That was about it. Not super interesting and I was itching to leave just because I wanted to start getting ready.

After class, I ate lunch and just sat around reading some more books about Italy and not wanting to pack. It's funny how I sat in class wanting to leave and pack but when it came down to it, I didn't want to pack. Oh well. It was around 2:30 and the sun was out so I decided to go to Hyde Park and walk around the Serpentine, the big lake in the park. It was really pretty and there were a ton of people out. I took some pictures, trying to get used to my new camera (one of the other reasons why I wanted to go out and walk around). I'm not going to put any of the pictures up now because I need to finish packing and then I want to try and lay down a little bit before we leave (you will see why I said "lay down for a little bit" in the next paragraph). After walking around, I ate dinner and walked to the theater for the play. On the way, I passed a movie premiere for a movie with Uma Thurman and Colin Firth. I didn't get to see them, I had to get to the play.

I just got back from the play. Um, I thought it was pretty funny but a big part of it really made me uncomfortable. The play is about a bunch of boys who are trying to get into Oxford or Cambridge. They have two teachers, Hector and Irwin who teach them. (Not for young readers) Hector fondles one of the students each day after school when he drives them home on his motorcycle. He gets caught but soon after dies in a motorcycle crash. Before he gets caught, Irwin and one of the boys are like sort of in love but never do anything about it. The big question of the play though, is what do you teach kids in school? Stuff to pass tests or stuff they like. So I liked that aspect but the student teacher relationships made me very uncomfortable. Not because they were both guys, that really didn't bother me. But because that is just unacceptable. I mean, it really is. Like really really. So yeah. Interesting but I wouldn't want to see it again frankly.

OK so here's the plan. Vanessa and I are going to head out of our flats at around 3 am and walk to Victoria Coach Station. Its not far and only takes about 45 minutes (we did it for Edinburgh). We will get on a coach bus at 4:10 to get to Stansted Airport. The coach arrives at around 5:25 and our plane leaves at 6:30 for Venice. Then our trip really begins. Here's some of the important dates and where we are sleeping.

Flight from London to Venice: 2/14. Departs 6:30. Arrives 9:25. Flight number FR792
Feb. 14-16 Venice: Sleeping in a double room at Casa Gerotto & Calderan
Feb. 16-19 Florence: Sleeping in a hostel at Hostel Archi Rossi
Feb. 19-22 Rome: Sleeping in a hostel at Roma Inn
Flight from Rome to London: 2/22. Departs 22:05. Arrives 23:45. Flight number FR3015

I looked it up online and all three places we are staying at have free internet. I still don't plan on doing big posts or anything, something similar to what I did for Scotland, but the free internet will allow me to check my mail and stuff so if you feel like, continue sending e-mails letting me know how things are going with you and I will try to get back to you. Um, I guess that's all I have to say about the trip for now. I can't believe its already here. It felt like a really long ways away when we were planning it about a month ago. It will be super exciting and fun and I can't wait to go.

I will miss all of you a ton and try to get some sweet souvenirs! Have fun!

Bye!

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!