It's A Great Day To Be Alive

As I have said, the past few days I have just sat around in the computer lab or had class so they were pretty boring. Today was not boring. I had a lot of fun today just walking around two neighborhoods of London. These walks (and most of the walks that I have done and will continue to do) are from the Eyewitness London book I stole, ahem borrowed, from the the common room where I live.

I woke up kind of late and got ready to go. I didn't mention this before and maybe I shouldn't now, it might create a commotion or something but I thought about growing a beard or something. I didn't actually go through with it. I shaved the neck part to see what it looked like. I kind of liked it actually but I wasn't ready for it yet. Some day I will have one though. Anyway, I was kind of on the fence of where to go but I decided to walk around Covent Garden and then Holborn. Both are located west of where I live. They are the areas between Trafalgar Square and St. Paul's Cathedral. They are right next to each other geographically but are worlds apart historically.

I started to walk the well-trodden path along Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James's Park to get to Trafalgar Square but I was slowed down by a couple things. First, there was a parade of soldiers marching with either an insturment or a gun back from Buckingham Palace to another building just a couple blocks away (picture 1). They go to Buckingham for the changing of the guard. I walked alongside them for a little bit. Then I saw that a bunch of flowers were in bloom so I took a couple pictures. One of them,(picture 2) is just absolutely amazing if I do say so myself. I truly love this picture. After those distractions, I made my way to Trafalgar Square and on to Covent Garden.

Covent Garden used to be, well a covent garden for Westminster Abbey to get its vegetables from, then it was London's first square (designed by Inigo Jones), then it was worn out warehouses and streets. Now it is a stylish place to shop and just walk around in. I started off at the Central Market and Piazza. It's a covered mall type thing that has stylish shops and stuff inside (picture 3). Near one end of it is St. Paul's Church. You don't enter on this side though. There were a bunch of people standing around watching a street performer. He balanced stuff on his chin and hand-stand walked over 4 people. It was pretty impressive I must say. I walked into St. Paul's Church by going in the designed back door. Inigio Jones designed it and wanted people to enter from the West which is unorthodox so they made him switch the door around. He still designed the big entrance on the side facing the Piazza, just without a door (picture 4). I walked around some streets with little shops and cafes. My next big stop was Stanford's (picture 5). It was established in 1852 and is the largest map and guide retalier in the world. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Honestly, I could spend a whole day in there if there was better seating (there isn't any, probably for the exact reason I just said). There were TONS and TONS of guide books. I didn't even know where to start. I only spent about a half hour in there. It's too bad I am broke and can't really afford to buy anything.

Next I past St. Martin's Theatre which has the longest running play in the world called The Mousetrap. Near there, is the Seven Dials. It's an intersection that has seven streets converge at it. At the center of it is a column with seven sun dials on the top. Pretty cool. Then I walked on Neal's Street and Neal's Yard which has shops along it. Specialty stores and just clothing stores abound here. I have noticed that there are so a lot of places to shop in London. Notting Hill, Camden Town, High Kensington, Oxford Street, Neal's Yard, the list could go on forever. It's a good thing I don't like it that much and don't have the money for it. Neal's Street is still cool because all the building used to be warehouses and grungy homes which you can still kind of tell but in a good way. There was also an areacalled Thomas Neal's which is a small indoor mall built in a courtyard. I walked to the Royal Opera House next (picture 6). It was rebuilt in the 1850's after a fire. Just about every famous dancer or opera-ist (I don't know what you call them) has performed here. The building is really cool looking and I liked the ballet statue in front of it. From the Opera House I ended my walk of Covent Garden. I walked out to The Strand walked along it just a few blocks to the next neighborhood, Holborn.

Holborn is the traditional home of the legal and journalism sectors. The journalism people left in the 80's but the law is still here. The main body of the law is the Royal Courts of Justice which is where all big civil cases take place (the criminal ones take place at the Old Bailey I believe). Totally neo-gothic building with lots of sharp points and tall windows and such. Just a super imposing thing to look at. From there, I walked along The Strand to the Twinings store. This store has been in operation since 1705. Twinings is a type of tea for those that don't know. It's the tea I drink here. From there, I walked to Temple. I had been here (and the Royal Courts of Justice for that matter) before when Vanessa and I walked along The Strand. It's still really cool. It was built by the Knights Templar in the 13th Century. There are the same stone effygies of the knights inside the church (picture 7). The area around Temple has tons of Law Offices. There was a little square right by the church where I ate lunch (picture 8). Incredibly peaceful and very pretty. While I was eating, I was thinking of all the cool places I have eaten lunch since I got here. It would be fun to make a little collage or just organize my pictures in that way when I get home. I could do a grouping of churches or of my favorite pictures or whatever too. I am getting a little ahead of myself by talking about getting home though.

From there, I walked past the Law Society. I don't know much about the building or what's inside but out in front of it along the railing are a bunch of gold lions. I thought they were really cool looking with the black railing underneath them and the gray building behind. They definitely stood out (picture 9). I continued walking to another area called Lincoln's Inn. This area is one of the best preserved Inn's of Court or so I hear. An Inn of Court is where people study law I think. I don't even really know. All I know is that there were some just amazing flowers there (picture 10) and I really liked the main building of the complex (picture 11). I went to the church but it wasn't open which was too bad. I just meandered around the area and took some more pictures. It was really cloudy but it didn't dampen my mood. I felt much better after seeing the all the flowers and just being outside and walking around.

My last stop was the Sir John Soane's Museum (picture 12). It is three houses in a row that the architect owned. He collected a ton of art through the years and when he died, he said he would turn it all over to the state on one condition. Nothing be moved after he died. The promise was kept and now its the museum. This is probably my favorite museum I have been to so far here in London. I know that that is saying something considering the multitude I have visited but its true. I liked it a lot. There are almost no electric lights in it. There a bunch of sky lights. One of the workers there told me to come back on a sunny day because it is much better. Ins bottom in sculptures or paintings. The Painting Room actually has walls that swing open so that more could be hung out. So amazing. Like I said, I really liked it. Right outside of it is Lincoln's Inn Fields which is now a park but uide the house are tons and tons of art. Some rooms have been left exactly the same way since Soane died in 1830. Others have been covered from top tosed to be a public execution spot. Lots of people died there.

From the museum I made my way back to the flats. I had a little snack and went off to the Royal College of Music. The Orchestra is pretty big and was fantastic (picture 13). The person who conducted the first piece, an avant-garde (meaning completely weird) piece, had just gotten his master's degree. The guy who directed the next two pieces was older and very famous. The second piece was a piano concerto. The guy who played the piano played it completely by heart. Phil said it was one of the toughest pieces of piano music out there and this guy was only 26!!! Holy crap. Lastly, they played The Planets which was just stupendous and awesome and so well done. I talked to Phil before the concert started and he told me that two of his sons live in Vale. One is traveled Central America a lot and is now going to India in this summer. The other has hiked the Appalachian Trail and is planning on hiking the Continental Divide trail. They are my heroes. That is just so cool, seriously.

Today was one of my best days here (which is saying something) I had a ton of fun taking pictures and walking around two interesting and different neighborhoods. The concert was phenomenal. Just a great day to be alive (a Travis Tritt song for those who don't know). I hope you all had a great day too!

Bon soir!

Anthem for Doomed Youth

Well if I thought the past couple days were uneventful, today was the Dark Ages. So I will recount today but also give everyone a little look at all the excitement coming up this month. By the way, the title of this post is the title of a poem by Wilfred Owen, who we talked about today in class.

When I walked into Senior Sem today, Phil called me over and told me that an Indian woman at the grocery store he always goes to asked him to help her two kids (16 and 13) with their English proficiency. He couldn't do it so he asked me if I wanted to do. Of course I said yes. It would involve a couple nights a week and maybe a weekend or two. I would get paid. Sign me up! We'll see what happens but I hope something comes out of it.

In class today, we talked about a bunch of stuff. We discussed the War Poets which were some poets who served for Britain in WWI and wrote anti-war poetry because of it. The most famous of the War Poets was Wilfred Owen. The poetry he wrote holds nothing back and is quite grim and depressing. If you're interested, here's a link to some of his works. It really is worth it to just read one or two of the poems. I suggest Anthem for Doomed Youth because its short and is similar to the rest of his stuff. The most tragic part about the whole thing is that he ended up dying in WWI, just like all the people he wrote about.

We read those War Poet poems because they are featured in a piece of music called The War Requiem by Benjamin Britten. he wrote it for the re-opening of Coventry Cathedral after it was destroyed in WWII. We are visiting the cathedral in a week. Um, lots of connections there to stuff we are doing (British music, morality of war, program excursion, etc.). We are going to listen to that music next week in preparation for our visit. We spent the rest of the class time talking about "englishness" in music. We continued our journey through English music history by learning about the three great English composers of the late 19th and early 20th century, with Holst the biggest among them. Holst wrote The Planets which is very popular among high school marching bands. Park Center performed that music in 1999 I think, maybe 2001. I don't know. At any rate, I had heard it before and am going to hear it again soon. On Thursday we are going to a concert by the Royal College of Music and they are performing The Planets. You should be able to listen to some of the music at this link if you are so inclined. *Phew* That's a lot of connections and a lot of stuff to talk about and get ready for.

After class, I sat around in the computer lab applying for summer jobs and doing more travel research and just catching up on Facebook and emails. I could spend a lifetime doing travel research. Eventually, I will need to stop and do something else with myself but for now, I enjoy it and feel like I need to do it for all the reasons that I think I said before (lots of potential trips coming up). I ate dinner and read and watched tv and generally lazed around. Tough life, I know. That's about it for today.

To fulfill my promise at the beginning, here's a look at some of the uncoming stuff that I know about right now in my life:

March 6 ~ Orchestra Concert
March 7-9 ~ Home Stay near Oxford (more on that tomorrow)
March 12 ~ Theatre: Major Barbara
March 15 ~ Coventry Cathedral and Warwick Castle
March 21 ~ My mom arrives
March 23 ~ Easter
March 26 ~ Theatre: The Importance of Being Ernest
March 30 ~ My mom leaves

Busy, busy. Bye!