experiment...

So I've been trying some new things with my photos, and one of them is stitching a bunch of photos together to create a single panoramic one. I thought I'd share the results. There's some obvious flaws, especially with the Westminster one, but what the hell.

lofty art-ness

I've not been doing much noteworthy recently. Mainly it's been class and grocery shopping. Yesterday, however, I went to Camden Market and the surrounding area. It's like Willy Street back home, but less aging-hippie-ish, more urban-punk-rock-ish. I spent most of my time in Stables Market, which is (surprise) a converted stable. It seems to big to have been just a stable, so I think there used to be something else there as well. If the statues are anything to go by, there were horses and blacksmiths and stableboys, all in this one area. Really, there were horse statues everywhere. The giant disembodied horse head was a little creepy. But the whole neighborhood seemed a bit edgier, and more down to earth - almost homey.
Today I wandered around downtown. I went to St. James's Palace because I thought there was going to be a parade - there wasn't, it's tomorrow. But I walked to Buckingham Palace from there, and then to St. James's park. I then went to the Westminster Abbey/Houses of Parliament area, taking awful touristy pictures the whole way. I got bored of walking and went to the National Gallery.
Most people reading this will know I'm not a big art girl, and I get bored in museums, but I actually had fun and looked at paintings this time. I discovered I like Rubens and Cezanne. I did make sure to hit up their "must see" paintings - one of van Gogh's sunflower paintings, one of Monet's bridge+waterlilies, and the da Vincis, the Michaelangelos, and the Raphaels. To be honest, I didn't care much for the sunflowers or the waterlilies. Most of Monet's paintings just looked messy to me, and I thought some of the other van Goghs were better. I think my favorite was Samson and Delilah by Rubens. Either that, or this random Dutch painter that I had never heard of called Vilhelm Hammershoi had a painting called interior that I liked.
After that I went to the National Portrait Gallery, which was right next door. I went through the Tudor rooms and saw all those paintings that were used in my history books. It was pretty cool, but I didn't finish because I was tired and cranky. I'll probably need to go back to see the rest and fully appreciate it.
Next on my list:
Greenwich observatory
Churchill's War Rooms

Paintings I liked (if you read this far I assume you care about my opinions of art):
Rubens - Samson and Delilah
Hammershoi - Interior
van Gogh - A Wheatfield with Cypresses
Cezanne - Hillside in Provence
Pissarro - The Boulevard Montmartre at Night
Renoir - Gladioli in a Vase

"Eh" paintings
van Gogh - Sunflowers
Monet - The Water-lily Pond

Oh-My-God-I-Hate-This-Painter-And-His-Stupid-Boats-Can-We-Just-Move-On-Now Paintings:
JMW Turner - Rain, Steam and Speed - The great Western Railway
JMW Turner - The Fighting Temeraire (Don't believe them when they say it's a must. It's not.)

The Isle of Wight

Sorry I haven't written a blog for awhile, but I didn't think I had anything exciting to write about until my lovely daytrip yesterday. I decided (like Lauren) to get out of the city. But instead of going for the entire weekend and freezing my butt off in the north (although I'm sure Lauren is having a wonderful time being Cathy on the Moors), I went to an island. Not that that meant it was warm. I went to the Isle of Wight, which is an island of the southern coast of England. It is also home to Osborne House, the seaside villa of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. I am currently very much interested in these two after seeing the fantastic movie The Young Victoria (in theatres now...so go see it).

Right. So I found this place in the guidebook Mom gave me for my birthday and thought "That sounds like a perfect place for me to go." Now...how to get there. Well, first I had to see if it was open as many things close in the winter. It was open, but only for pre-booked guided tours. Ok. Called, got a tour. No problem. Next, how the hell do I get there? It's on an island. There are many options as it turns out, but the easiest one was to take a train to Southampton, catch the free city bus to the ferry, take the ferry across to East Cowes on the Isle of Wight (and the town where Osborne House is located) and then walk about 15 minutes up the road to the house. So I booked the ferry and the train online (because as I learned from travelling with my Mom, everything is cheaper when you book in advance...plus you know for sure you have a ticket) and was ready to go.

Everything went wonderfully. I only had to stop and ask for directions once when I was in East Cowes in order to double check I was going in the right direction (I was). And I got to Osborne House early and in time to go on an earlier tour, which meant I'd have more time to wander the grounds and the town after the tour.

The tour of the house was excellent. There were only 5 other people besides me on it and our tour guide lady was very enthusiastic. She thought everything from the floors to the ceilings, the paintings to the furniture was "lovely, lovely." And it was. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures in the house, but everything was just as beautiful as things often are in old fanc houses. Except that it only had the appearance of being fancy. When Queen Victoria came to the throne at 18, she inheritited all her uncle's debts. This meant that she was always smart about money, which is weird to think about since she was queen and all. But this meant that everything in the house looked splendid but was actually cheaper material. The two best examples of this is that the house itself was built of red brick and then painted to look the way it is now. Also, there are many rooms where the walls or columns appear to be marble but are in fact plaster or concrete painted to look like marble. The paint job is so well done that if the guide hadn't told us it was fake, I never would have guessed. The house was actually designed by the builder and Prince Albert. He had been on the Grand Tour and wanted the house to look like an Italian villa which it definitely does, so much that I occasionally forgot I was in England. Until the weather reminded me.

Since it is the winter, most of the house was closed up and all of the gardens were closed. However, there are no private tours in the summer, so I was really glad I went and got some of the backstories. I would like to go back in the summer, so hopefully I'll be around to do so. And beware to anyone who comes and visits me here that this might be somewhere I insist on dragging you to. After the tour, I walked around the grounds outside. The weather kept going back and forth about every half and hour from bright and sunny to dark and cloudy. At times it was quite pleasant, until a sea breeze hit me. I had some afternoon tea and a scone in the cafe that was really good. Then I wandered around the town, stopping in some little shops (although there weren't many), but mostly enjoying the quiet. The noise of the city doesn't bother me so much, but I forget how quiet it can be when there aren't a million people around and buses and cars. There were cars and buses on the island, but not as many as in London.

Today, I went to Portobello Road in Notting Hill. It is actually sunny here in a not a cloud in the sky kind of way. But the dusting of snow on the ground means that it is still cold, so myhands were nearly frozen as I walked along, but it was still nice to be in the sun. I almost bought several things at the market, but wasn't sure enough to buy anything except a chocolate doughtnut with the most sprinkles I have ever seen. I will definitely be going back and perhaps next time I will get something.

So a very busy weekend and more to come. I will be seeking a pub tomorrow morning to watch Britain's Andy Murray take on Federer in the Australian Open. This country will go completely insane if he wins. I will be cheering him on of course because no one would let me do otherwise. :)

Say What?!

So about a quarter of the way through my violin lesson today, Professor Azoitei breaks my intense focus with the most absurd comment. There I am, concentrating on the kajillion things he has instructed me in his heavy Romanian accent to do, all relating to the fact that my bow arm sucks...ie. "Lauren, can you hear that? You must bring your elbow into your body. Ach! No, no, no," (at this point he's cradling his head in his hands despairingly while moaning to himself), "rotate, rotate the hand! Do not wreck the bow change with too much wrist and finger movement. Suspend the bow, even the pressure, keep the speed constant and make no sudden movements!" After a while, beads of sweat breaking out on my brow as I try to simultaneously manipulate my arm, elbow, wrist, hand and fingers in all manner of foreign ways, I finally manage to do something correct as he smiles and says, "Good! You are clearly intelligent. You get what I'm saying and fix it quickly." Then here comes the craziness. "Lauren. What are your plans for graduate school?"
Me: Uhhh...I'm going to get a job after school. Maybe I'll go sometime in the future.
P.A.: (simply and conversationally) Really? Because I was thinking you go to Julliard or Curtis or even Royal Academy here for degree in Performance.
Me: (staring blankly at him before breaking out in manic laughter. Then, noting he's not joining in the chortle fest and, is in fact, looking quite confused at my reaction) Wait, you aren't serious are you?
P.A.: Uh, of course.
Me: There's no way I could get in, Professor.
P.A.: You show great potential. You work hard, you can study there.
Me: (still laughing) Uhhh...okay
P.A.: (perplexed by my hysterical hyena-like guffaws) Ok, ok, it was just an idea. Let's hear Mozart then.

So yup. That's my deranged Professor. He's crazy, but I love him. Plus, today after bemoaning the terrible edition I got of the Mozart, he rectified it by putting in (by memory) all of his teacher's (Itzhak Perlman's) bowings and fingerings. He then proceeded to share Dorthy Delay's secret on exhaling before starting a phrase rather than the customary practice of inhaling. And he wonders why I get so nervous playing for him. Huh.

On a different note, tomorrow I'm going to Haworth!!!! I am simply ecstatic, especially because after feeling ill since Monday, I am finally starting to get better. More when I get back from wandering the moors.

Adios,
Lauren

kinda back to normal...

Well, my illness(es) have mostly passed, and I just have a scratchy throat for my troubles. I'm getting thoroughly sick of art museums, or at least seeing kinda lame pictures of boats. I'd like to have a lecture about said lame boats instead. I think next week we're museum free, so that's good.
Today in Contemporary Britain we got to hear Justin (the professor) give relationship advice as it relates to the royal family - mainly, don't marry your first boyfriend. He tends to do a more free-form sort of discussion (which is how we got on to "Is Prince William going to marry Kate??!?!"), which I find I like. I didn't think I would, but I get answers to my questions instead of "see me after class and we'll talk". We also have 3 hours, which allows for a bit of digression.
Today after class I went to Platform 9 and 3/4 in King's Cross station. It's in this little side alley type thing, which means it's a pain in the tuchus to find. We did the cheesy pictures, but as we did so a queue formed behind us. I'm not sure if it's awesome or a little sad that a bunch of us, who happened to be well over 14, were lining up to take a picture with the cart sticking out of the wall. Hopefully it's an awesome thing, otherwise I'll feel like a loser.
It turns out the British Library is right next to King's Cross, so we hoofed it over and saw the exhibits. This year is the 1000 year anniversary of Beowulf (how they determine this, I don't know - carbon dating?) so it's out in a display. Normally it would be somewhere safer, but it wasn't and I got to see it! Flippin' awesome. I also saw the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Magna Carta, Jane Austen's Persuasion, and the Beatles original lyrics. I didn't really care so much about the Beatles, but my roommate was super excited to be able to listen to it and read it "In his own HAND!!!" at the same time. But they've got some beautiful illuminated manuscripts. Unfortunately to see most of the specialized things (like the Anglo-Saxon poetry I wanted to see), you have to have a reader's card, which you only get if a professor or somebody writes something saying you're doing original research, or really awesome. You can't just see it for kicks. Sad.

Even sadder: The British Library sells copies of the Twilight series in their gift shop. Personally, I don't think that drivel should be allowed to absorb the same air as the Beowulf manuscript. But clearly that's just me.

We saw the 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre, which was rather small and intimate, and the guy behind me said it was one of the smallest in the West End. I thought it rather contributed to the overall feeling, and I had fun.
Next week we've got Twelfth Night, which the RSC is putting on. I also got some leads on other plays the RSC is doing, and they usually have a way for students to pay 5 pounds instead of, say 50. I'm interested in The Little Dog Laughed, which has an actress I like in it (as well as Keira Knightley's boyfriend), but I don't know if I want to/can pay 20 pounds for a ticket. That's with the same day student discount. Hmm. But the group organized a trip to see Six Degrees of Separation, which I know nothing about other than it's acclaimed.
Tomorrow is Screenwriting and History. We've got to have a premise done, which I'm ripping off from Kurt Vonnegut - the professor strongly recommended stealing from books - and then we're watching Little Miss Sunshine.
And then I think it's low key. I'm planning my spring break and trying to find a time and the motivation to go to Camden market.

We're a quarter or so done with the program. Scary.

"You're so Cathy on the moors!" - Maggie Karls

The poor girl had to miss the Concert by Candlelight at St. Martin's-in-the-Field, because she felt pukey. The concert itself was superb consisting of Bach, Schubert, Handel and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The musicians were very good, although I didn't quite agree with the soloist's interpretation of Autumn. In my opinion, he took far too many liberties with tempo and articulation. However, he did have a beautiful tone which was also helped with the amazing acoustics of the church. The church itself was beautiful in the way that old architecture always is. The concert would have been made perfect if poor Maggie could have been there. And then, to add insult to injury, her flat flooded. We are going out tonight (after homeworking and practicing up a storm) to rectify the unpleasantness of the last two days with Cadbury Egg Milkshakes. It's amazing the healing powers that chocolate possesses.

And on a happier note...HOLY FREAKING TARK! I just bought my rail ticket to go to Haworth next weekend. After spending way too much money, I have a room booked for Friday and Saturday night at a B and B called The Apothecary. HOW SWEET IS THAT?!?!
For those unaware of what or where Haworth is, or are unsure of why I'd want to go to a place deprived of the excitement and enjoyments of London, I will tell you. Haworth is located in West Yorkshire, also known as Bronte Country. And here comes the collective understanding sigh from you readers followed by eye rolls and mutterings of, "Why in God's name would she want to go out to the desolate moors of West Yorkshire in January where she's sure to get stranded and then promptly catch pneumonia and die a tragic (albeit romantic) death on the heath?" Well, let me tell you why. I need to get out of the city. I love London, but I want to breathe proper, unpolluted air, and I want to walk for miles. I want to see grass and trees instead of concrete and cigarette butts. I want to be Pocahontas and feel the colors of the wind through my hair! Right, wrong continent. Anyway, as for the cold, I'm Minnesotan. I'm a hearty, onion-layering, Northerner. And Mom, I will be wearing my wool socks. Father, I will have on my hat (and a hood) and mittens. So no pneumonia for me. I promise.
In addition to the promise of seductive hiking paths, the Bronte parsonage is open as a museum for visitors, as are the ruins on the moors that critics believe inspired Wuthering Heights. ACK! I am such a nerd! But I am so ecstatic. Needless to say, I've been re-reading Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Secret Garden. SO EXCITED!!!!

Ok, Lauren, breathe! Phewwwwwwwwwwww. Okay, I'm good.

Yesterday my programme took us to Windsor Castle which was also fantastic! Clearly, I need to marry Will or Harry so I can live there. The castle is absolutely ginormous and lies on top of a hill, the highest point of the village. We were so lucky to be able to see the Queen's state rooms as she wasn't there, as well as the gigantic dollhouse given to Queen Somebody in the year of Sometime. While talking to a girl beside me, we agreed that the sight of this insanely intricate, fully-furnished and plumbing-efficient mini-house made us want to play with our American Girl Dolls. Before being set loose in the town of Windsor (where Shannon and I visited 3 chocolate shops), we visited The Chapel of St. George. Alas! we were not able to take pictures of this most amazing church. The ceilings, sculpted in the "fan" style as well as the stained glass and the general air of ancient history created a most delightful atmosphere. At one point, I walked over the bones of Henry the VIII and his favourite wife, Jane Seymour. As surreal as it was, I could not help thinking in my brain, "Hah, Henry, you wicked, wicked JERKFACE! How do you like it now? I'm a little woman standing on top of you and not being respectful or subservient in the least...well at least my thoughts aren't." Pretty unreal. Before departing we took a walk down to Eton and got to view the buildings of the famous Eton College. This boarding school for boys aged 13-18, is the Alma Mater of Princes Will and Harry (otherwise known as my future husbands), and was founded in the 1500's or something ridiculous like that. Not only is the architecture seeped in history and tradition, the boys' uniforms include Edwardian collared jackets with tails. Walking down the cobble-stoned streets, past Christopher Wren's old residence and then Shakespeare's, I most definitely felt the seductive allure of living in such an interesting and idyllic community.

Alrighty. I must tear myself away from blubbering on, unless of course you want to hear all about the homework and practicing I must do this afternoon and evening? Oh, you don't? Well, another time then.

Ta!
Lauren
P.S. Dad, you have an Inn in Eton!

calamity

Well, our apartment is falling apart. A pipe has sprung a leak and is dripping all over the hall, and some of the electricity is gone - just the main hallways and rooms, though inside the rooms it's okay - we've got lamps and curling irons and such.
I have felt like I'm going to hurl since about 7:00 last night, and sleeping hasn't helped at all. And other people have felt sick or gotten sick, so there might be something going around.
And we're supposed to leave for Windsor in 40 minutes.
Crap.

Aladdin and my Grandma Would be Proud

Good evening Ladies and Gents!
Tonight I went to an Italian restaurant with Shannon where we split a Margharita Pizza. We then proceeded to stuff the extra bread rolls into our bags alá Aladdin. My grandma, who lived through the Great Depression, taught me well.

The highlight of my day was wandering around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens for a couple of hours. Once in the park, I felt like I was in Narnia (you would love it, Karl) as I stepped out of the noisy, chaotic bustle of London, and into actual nature. It was the first fresh, unpolluted air I've breathed since being here. In the spirit of my sister, I went "adventuring" off the beaten track, and got lost a few times. I had a lovely time in my muddy state, excepting the occasions when pigeons tried to molest me by flapping their germ-infested wings in my face.
I hope to convey this experience through pictures since my words cannot do it justice.

Con amore,
Lauren

Oh, and...

Apparently our Contemporary Britain professor used to know Gary Oldman.

British school boys

I wasn't planning on writing about An Inspector Calls because I didn't like it. This is the second play I've seen here where the scenery or artistic elements have been better than the acting. It's quite disappointing. However, I will talk about the English school boys in front of us who were quite funny. They were supposedly 15, but looked about 10. As soon as they heard our accents, they were all "Are they American?" to one another and I just bluntly answered them, "Yes." They asked where we were from and we replied "Minnesota, although you've probably no idea where that is." They insisted they did but admitted they wouldn't be able to find it on a map. The leader of these boys was this very short boy who was wearing a bright blue polo shirt that nearly went to his knees. He was asking us the most questions including "Do you have Dr. Pepper in glass bottles?" "No." "Dr. Pepper is my favorite drink in the whole world. Do you like ice hockey? What team do you support? Not, the Minnesota Wild. They're rubbish!" I was quite impressed with their knowledge of US sports teams. When one of the guys from our program mentioned we were from Wisconsin, the boys immediately went "That 70's Show!" which I thought was hilarious and they said that "Wisconsin is sick" which I thought was even more hilarious. They also expressed the desire to go to Six Flags because they had heard the roller coasters were "dirty" which they reassured us was a positive term equal to our version of "wicked." During the play, they also cracked us up because they would laugh at the most inopportune moments. For example, the kid in front of us guffawed EXTREMELY loudly when a woman on stage slapped her fiance and sent everyone around into a fit of giggles with his classmates whispering at him to "Shut up!" Their random bouts of laughter made the whole play much more enjoyable.

snogs.

Also, apparently PDA is okay here, because people are snogging everywhere. On the Tube, on the street, the V&A, the mummy room of the British Museum. Really?

Inspector!

I continue to be unimpressed with JMW Turner. Some pictures are pretty, but he should stop comparing himself to Rembrandt and the like, 'cause it's not doing him any favors. I like Rembrandt a lot more than I used to, and I definitely like him better than Turner. Turner had some pretty ones, but I think his paintings tend to be rather ill defined. They're great from a distance, but up close I want some detail. I'm not sure what will happen when I see more of the Impressionists. Poor Monet. But for one of Turner's paintings, my response was, "I hate it. It sucks."
But that was over fairly quickly and relatively painless.
The Tate Britain's cafe has Pepsi in glass bottles, and the lady at the cash register had to pop the top off for me. Overall, Coke has been better here, Pepsi has been worse. I like that it's real sugar though.
We hung out at Trafalgar Square for a while. There was a guy simultaneously juggling and unicycling, and he wasn't wearing a shirt. Besides that, it was the photo ops that I liked best. It's really pretty there, and there's all these monuments, including giant lions that people apparently like to climb on.
We also went to a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown (which I learned today is overpriced), and the food was pretty good. The waiters were very concerned with the state of my tea and kept checking the teapot then pouring me more. I don't quite know why.
We hit up a couple bookstores. I decided to wait on a book about the Anglo-Saxons, but I went back 5 MINUTES later for it and it was gone. SO MAD.
By this point I really had to go, and I ran into the theatre just as the doors opened and I flipped out because the door was stuck. One of the ushers yelled at me, "Twist and pull, love, twist and pull!" and I figured it out and a crisis was averted. And I've finally been called "love". Score!
(In retrospect this doesn't sound like a cool story, even to me, but it was a happy moment. And the usher was cute.)
I enjoyed An Inspector Calls. The set was amazing - they had built this little house, which was smushing the people inside and they had to duck to step out of the doors. And it eventually swung open to reveal the inner workings, and then tilted so all the dishes fell out and smashed and the lights burst. (I think it was indicative of the institution of upper-class privilege being brought down, but that's just me). I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it said that the original was done in a single-room setting, whereas this version put the house in context with the surroundings. The play also had a framework of WWII, although the majority was set in 1910 - when the Inspector talked about the people being brought together by fire and destruction and such, it seemed to me like he was talking about people coming together in WWII during the Blitz.
Normally I don't like plays just because they've got a good message - they've got to be interesting too - but I was really interested in the culture of the characters, especially set against the backdrop of WWII.
Theatre geek moment over.
Today was our second Contemporary Britain class, where we talked about our conceptions of Britain and the stereotypes surrounding both our cultures. I impressed my professor by mentioning Spike Milligan. It was fun overall, and I like that the professor is willing to make fun of us (especially when he makes fun of the annoying girl in the back).
Tomorrow is Screenwriting (eek) and History of London, and we've got Windsor this weekend.

A Myriad Museums

I am a fountain of knowledge. My brain is teeming with little known facts about museums, art, British trivia...seriously Rick Steves, wanna go?
So maybe I haven't retained quite that much information, mostly because there is not enough room in my little brain to absorb it all.
On Monday after class, Shannon, Alex and I went to the Courtauld Gallery located in Somerset House. This so called "house" would do better to be renamed mansion as it takes up a whole city block and has a giant skating rink in the football-stadium sized courtyard. The Courtauld houses a large exhibition of impressionistic art ranging from Monet to Manet, Degas to van Gogh. In the large rooms of the house that act as the gallery, pictures are hung around the room and not distanced from observers with glass or rope. Upon viewing van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, I had the most terrible instinct to touch the canvas that the artist's fingers had once graced, but I resisted.
Among the highlights of the Courtauld were the bronze statues of dancers crafted by Degas. They were so incredibly beautiful and life-like as he captured not only the physique of the person, but the spirit of the movement as well.

Yesterday my art class visited the Tate Britain (different than the Tate Modern) to see an exhibition entitled J.W.Turner and the Masters. Our assignment is to write on three of Turner's paintings, and yet I found myself more inspired by the masters he attempted to copy; artists like Rembrandt and Botticelli. Ah well. Good thing I'm getting a B.A. in B.S.-ing.

After the exhibit I visited an amazingly awesome bookstore complete with cobblestone floor and musty book smell before heading over to the Wyndham Theatre to see "An Inspector Calls". This play, a kind of who-dunnit, was a bit overly-dramatic, but made fun by the grade-school boys in front of us who were in hysterics. These kids, oh gosh, they were hilarious. Once they caught whiff of our American accents they started interrogating us! When they found out that we were relatively close to Six Flags, they got exceedingly excited proclaiming our roller coasters to be "dirty" (which apparently means good) and "sick" (another word for cool). Shannon will explain in more detail on this as I am not doing it justice.

Sorry this post is so gosh darn drab, but you see, I am absolutely exhausted. As you've probably given up on this boring tangent by now and stopped reading, I will not hesitate to end this ramble immediately with a portly British man's valediction. "Good Day, old chap!"

Baker Street!

I did mostly nothing today. No classes on Monday means that I end up with a 4 day weekend, which I adore. I went grocery shopping twice, and I wandered in the direction of Baker Street.
When Conan Doyle was writing, there wasn't actually a 221B Baker Street, but Holmes is so popular they created it. They even had a blue plaque on the house, which is normally given to residences of writers, artists, musicians, and so on - but Holmes got one with his status as "consultant detective". I didn't get a chance to go inside the museum or gift shop there, but when I have a bit more time I'm definitely going to take a look. Also, there was an old-timey bobby outside the door.
By Baker Street is Regent's Park, which had a lot of birds, including some herons and oddly colored ducks and geese. They really did sound like a cocktail party. Beyond that, I think I like Hyde Park better.
Hyde Park is becoming a daily thing for me. It's therapeutic after being around all the tall building with no sky or trees. And I really love seeing the dogs.
I also went to the pub to watch the football match tonight. It wasn't a premier league game or anything, Newcastle vs. West Brom, so pretty boring. And the pub seems like the kind of place you go when you already know people, not when you're trying to meet people, so my roommate and I didn't really talk to anyone. But in the course of the game I saw one guy get elbowed in the nuts, and another one got headbutted in the face accidentally. So that's good. We might try to go back when there's a better game on - Tottenham has one coming up that should be good.
Also, I got carded trying to buy a Pepsi. Really?

Jasper Fforde!

I'm sure most of you are wondering who Jasper Fforde is and why I am about to dedicate an entire blog post to him, but you are about to find out. He is a British author who has written a number of books that I absolutely love and I got to hear him talk at a nearby bookstore tonight and I am now as crazily hyper and ecstatic as Lauren and Maggie were upon seeing Henry Cavill. When I read his books, I took the dry wit and the brilliance and speculated that this was what the author was actually like, and thank goodness I was right. He was really funny, witty, and charismatic and therefore even better than I had imagined.

So, first, the books of Jasper Fforde. The first book I read by him was called The Eyre Affair which was about a woman, called Thursday Next, who lived in a kind of parallel Britain where the Crimean War has been going for over 150 years, the country is essentially run by the Goliath Corporation, and literature, especially Shakespeare, is a HUGE part of society. Thursday is a veteran who now works as a literary detective, which essentially involves determining the legitimacy of pieces of writing claimed to be written by someone famous. However, her job gets much more exciting when a very clever and incredibly evil villain goes inside Jane Eyre and kidnaps her and threatens to kill her. So, Thursday must go inside the book in order to solve the mystery. Do you see why I love this? It is an amazing combination of literary and science fiction which seem like two completely different types of people, but markets to me perfectly. I would say that it leans more on the literary in that Jane Eyre and Shakespeare are not the only literary characters who pop up and the further into the series (oh yes, there are currently five books in the Thursday Next series), the characters become more obscure, the sciencey stuff gets more complicated, and we are taken completely into the world of fiction (which has its own police force called Jurisfiction). Also, if you like word puns or funny names, these books are also for you. For example, Thursday's boss is named Braxton Hicks.

Tonight, Mr. Fforde was talking about his new book, Shades of Gray, which is not like anything he has written before. He commented on how all his other books use characters that other people have created so he felt that he's been cheating a bit when he writes these books because 30% of the work is done by the reader who has to identify the character and connect with this book and situation to find out the joke. This time he wanted to write a real novel in a world completely his own with characters completely his own. This book takes place in a post-apocalitic world 600 years in the future where a localized crazy-strict government (think British small town version of Big Brother) has commodified color. Everything is gray except for the colors you are allowed to see based on your class, with red being the lowest class and purple being the highest. Needless to say, he has gone more science fictiony, and I'm not sure yet if I'll read this book. But listening to him talk was so cool.

He took questions after he has talked about his new book and many of them were about the Thursday Next series that I adore. One was about a possible movie, which Mr. Fforde said wouldn't happen. He said, and I completely agree, that the books are about reading and writing and it wouldn't make sense to make it into the movie. He also said there was too much going on to be able to condense into a 90 minute movie...although that usually doesn't stop them. The only way he would sell the rights for a movie, he said, was if he decided he needed a new kitchen and needed money to do so. Another question was about who would play him if a movie were made about his life. He said Robert De Niro or Meryl Streep as she's "quite good." But my favorite question was by a very British woman, and since I am in London, pretty much everyone there was British, who asked if American audiences understood the Thursday Next novels as they take place in Britain and therefore have many British references. I found this a very funny question and probably should have raised my hand to respond, but Mr. Fforde replied that his books are actually just as popular in America as they are here, which surprised him.

I'm sorry if I am being boring you, but this was one of the best nights of my life. It was so cool to hear him and then to briefly talk with him as he signed my book. His first comment to me was if I knew there was a river named after me, which I said I did as well as an airport (they are in Ireland for those of you who don't know what I am talking about.) But the best part was I asked him how he liked his U.S. book tour, from which he was just returning. He said he liked it very much and asked me where I was from because obviously I sound American and he said that he didn't get to Minneapolis this time, but that they have it on the list in the future. So hopefully Iill get to see him again!

So in conclusion, I'm so glad I found out about it, which was completely by accident. For any of you who have not read his books, you should! If you like literature, read The Eyre Affair. He also has a Nursery Crime series featuring Detective Jack Spratt which are also very good. Or try his new book. He has an amazing imagination and some crazy things pop up in his books. He admitted that he doesn't know how most of his ideas end up in the books, but somehow they do. I thought he was very honest about his writing process in that a lot of times, he leaves an open end in an earlier book that he knows that he can somehow connect back to in a later book but has no idea how until three books later when he manages to work it in. Anyway, I promise I'll stop gushing on and on now and leave you with my favorite quote from the last book I read by him, called Something Rotten. Yes, it features Hamlet and this quote is by him about the real world to which Thursday has brought him:

Hamlet: "If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Over-long, detailed to the point of distraction - and ultimately without a major resolution."
Thursday: "Perhaps that's exactly what we like about it."

A Weekend of Shopping

Before, I get into all the shopping, here is the promised Henry Cavill photograph. I'm sorry it is so dark, but it is quite clear that it is him. Although, he was definitely the highlight of the night, I really enjoyed The Gloucester Arms, which we have officially adopted as our pub for obvious reasons. I am proud to say that I got a pint of cider and was able to drink the entire thing in about 2 and a half hours, which is pretty impressive considering I dislike alcohol. It tasted pretty good actually.

Anyway, on to the shopping. Maggie and I went to Primark on Friday morning. It is a huge department store something like Walmart, although I've never been to a Walmart. The point is, it is super cheap. T-shirts are only 2 pounds. It was super crowded, but I managed to get a t-shirt, flannel shirt, and sweatshirt for under 15 pounds. Pretty good for pricey London. But I have to say that the walk over there was just as fun. We went through Hyde Park which has the most amazing trees. (Cue photos of trees). The black and white one has Maggie at the bottom taking her usual cool, artsy photos while the other one I really liked because it looked like something out of an Impressionist painting. I didn't know they actually could look like this!

Then we had afternoon tea, which made us truly feel we were in England now. I think I had three big cups of tea, two scones, two sandwiches, and an eclair. It was all SO good and we were all very stuffed. Lauren and I then proceeded to do some major sale shopping at H&M where I got two shirts for 6 pounds. So far, I'm very proud of my thriftiness; however, I did spend a little more on a really cool skirt today when we went to Petticoat Lane Market, but it was worth it. It was actually sunny today (!!) so we decided to take advantage of it to do something outside. However, sunny does not equal warm so we were still very glad to come home to the warmth.

This week should hopefully get us more into a routine of balancing classes with other activities. Our schedule includes another play, another trip to the British Museum, a trip to the Tate Britain, a Vivaldi concert by candlelight, and a trip to Windsor Castle. On top of that, I discovered that one of my favorite authors, Jasper Fforde, author of The Eyre Affair, is in London tomorrow doing a book event very nearby. Talk about perfect timing! So with all of this going on, there will be more exciting news from London very soon. Cheerio for now!

Oh, Look! Another Dead Body!

Hey Mates,
Between the dead body they found yesterday morning in Kensington Park and the perfectly preserved ancient people on display at the British Museum, it's been a day of gruesome intrigue. No wonder I felt like listening to the third movement of Shosty 8 this morning. And actually, the way people are carrying on in my flat, I really prefer my new dead friends to the crazy partiers of floor 3. At least they are quiet and respectful. My flatmates are very into drinking. Every night. Even school nights. And they're not funny drunks; they're obnoxious. At this point, punching some people seems appealing. However, I will not resort to violence! Mostly because I would not stand a chance against a 170 pound - drunk-off-his-ass-"gent". Besides, my tongue is sharper than my fists, though I have been good at keeping that docile also. If this carries on, however, I might have to unleash the beast.

As Maggie mentioned, we met up with our friends Lisa and Erin at a pub called Gloucester Arms, which is quite close to our flat. And there we saw HENRY CAVILL! Yes, Henry Cavill, the dreamboat himself! Shannon took a stealth picture of him, which I'm sure she'd be delighted to post on the blog, so all you doubters can see for yourself that it really was him.
Besides the obvious excitement of Sir Loverpants, I had so much fun hanging out with Erin and Lisa. They are great girls and so much fun. The hard part came when it was time to say good-bye as we knew we would not see each other for 4 months. And in true Grandma Dell fashion, I cried. Good-byes suck!

The next day was High Tea. Shall I list all that we had to eat? Ok. Ahem. Three kinds of sammitches, eclairs, cupcakes, scones with clotted cream and preserves (!) and tea. The thing is, the waiters kept bring out more food, and we kept eating until we were about to, you know, forcefully HURL all the sugar from our body. Lots and lots of sugar. And this is coming from yours truly, the sugar addict. I have the highest sugar tolerance of everyone I know, and it was too much for me. Would you permit me to ramble on about scones for a minute? Thanks for obliging me. SCONES! OH MY GOD! They are...well, they are like big, flaky chunks of bliss on one's tongue. Ever since I first read The Secret Garden I've wondered what clotted cream is. Dear reader, it is better than whipped cream. Julia Childs would certainly approve as it contains about 1,000 calories. Not that you mind when you're eating, because it's so rich and delectable that all you want to do is shovel it into your mouth, bowlful at a time. And this is what I was thinking about during our elegant and dainty tea. I'm sure the Queen never gets this overzealous about clotted cream. By the way, do you think it's called clotted cream because it clots one's blood and therefore clogs one's arteries? Interesting...

As aforementioned, we visited the British Museum yesterday, where our tour guide informed us that Brits never lose battles. In her words, "We win, we almost win, or we don't talk about it". In addition, she prepped us for some of the more controversial exhibits like the Greek statues and Egyptian mummies, by stating that the British never steal, they "acquire" objects. Probably the highlight of this trip was the Rosetta Stone. Seeing it right before me, and not in a textbook was so exciting! It's amazing how advanced ancient civilization was.

Well, I have to run now as Maggie, Alex, Shannon and I are going to Petticoat Market this morning and I was instructed not to be late.

Adieu, adieu, adieu, to you, and you, and you.
Lauren

pub adventures

Well, today I had the rest of my classes. The screenwriting class seems intimidating but fun. We're going to watch a lot of classic movies (not necessarily old) and analyze them, and we're eventually going to write half of a full length screenplay - about 50 pages. The actual writing seems scary, but I think the analyzing will be fun. The History of London class seems awesome. Only half of the classes are lecture - the rest are field trips to museums and sites that are relevant to the course. And the professor is adorable and (I think) very English. He couldn't get the projector to work, so he said, "Right, there's a problem, I'll have a cup of tea and hopefully it will be fixed". This was followed shortly by "I had my cup, it's not working. What the hell is going on?". Maybe it was stereotypical, but I thought it was cute. And I talked to him about John Snow, the doctor who figured out that the cholera epidemic in the mid 1800's was spread via the local water supply. I read a book on him, called The Ghost Map, and he suggested I do a presentation on the water supply system and sewerage. It doesn't sound that interesting, but if I can talk about the spread of epidemics, I'll be happy.
Geek moment over.
We then went out to a pub near out flat with Erin and Lisa. There was sparkling conversation, of course, but there was also Henry Cavill!
Yes, the ridiculously handsome man from the Tudors was in our pub (we've adopted it), and I freaked out. I think we all did. He's beautiful.
I didn't ask for an autograph or anything, because it looked to me like he wanted to be left alone, but I think Shannon got a (discreet) picture.
Our first movie star. Super exciting.

NHS debates and opera

I had my second class today - Contemporary Britain. The teacher seems pretty cool, and very approachable and knowledgeable. Not about traffic apparently, as he's never driven and was a bit astounded by all our questions about driving rules, but about London and Britain he seems to have it all at the tip of his fingers.
We talked a lot about the monarchy and the Queen, and what she's really like (nobody really knows, other than a few random facts). And then yours truly inadvertently started a debate about the National Health Service, and health care in general. He said that however much people complain about it and try and reform it, nobody wants to get rid of it. The political parties may debate on the best way to reform the NHS, but they're united in their support of it. And that caused contention.
Justin (the professor) says that people have heated political debates here, and can be totally opposed ideologically and politically, but they remain great friends, which I personally don't see much of in the US. Both he and Mary have said that people in the US judge quicker, and they judge by things like opinions, beliefs, and sexuality. They have said (and I have yet to verify this for myself) that in the UK, people judge slower and on the basis of what you do. An affair wouldn't necessarily ruin a politician's career here. So a slower judgment on the basis of deeds leads to more understanding and an ability to be friends despite different political leanings.
And then I watched the Incredibles. The BBC has a website where you watch the stuff that they showed the day before. I love love love it.
I had two opportunities to hear opera tonight. One was in the Piccadilly Circus tube station, with a guy holding a long tremulous note, and one was a girl in the lower area of Covent Garden market. She sang "I Could Have Danced All Night", and one Italian one that roughly translated to "Dad, if you don't let me marry this boy I'll kill myself". The Italian one might have been a bit over my head.
But the wandering around tonight was fun. I went to Piccadilly Circus and walked around for a while. Dusk really doesn't seem the time for Piccadilly - either in the morning so everything's visible, or at night so the lights stand out. Dusk = lame. But I took a couple back streets (if there is such a thing in that area) and ended up in Covent Garden. It was a combination of cool stores that are way too expensive for me, and little stalls of crafty things. I saw some neat jewelry and really cool photographs. It was a bit of a zoo, since it's by a lot of theatres, but I found a place to get waffles with frozen yogurt on top, and it was pretty cool.
Tomorrow is my full day of classes (all two), and I'm sure that Screenwriting at least will have some stories.
I'm hoping I don't have to go back out tonight, but I think I'm pretty well out of groceries AGAIN. Despite all I buy and eat, I'm never full.

intrepid exploration!

I seem to have run out of things to talk about. I've only had one class so far, and it was all at the V&A. Further in the week I'll have more, especially with my screenwriting class.
Right now I need to figure out timing and such - how long it will take to walk places, or take the tube, so I can actually do things before class. Right now I've been confining myself to grocery shopping and walking around the park.
Speaking of, I love the park. It is apparently bigger than the principality of Monaco, and there's so many people and so much to see and so many dogs. Really, the dogs are therapeutic. I miss my parents and friends, but I miss my dog even more. There are some things that people just can't provide - such as the willingness to jump in one of the few non-frozen sections of the Serpentine, a big pond. Why? For the fun of it. And then his owner had to direct him to get out - "No, not that way...yes, good boy, come on, NO, the other way, come on...."
Also, at times in the park I felt like I was in The Birds. I've never seen it, and I don't much care to, since having a flock of seagulls swoop over my head was plenty today. I'm surprised that most of them are still there - I saw ducks, Canadian geese, swans, sea gulls, starlings, Eurasian coots, one European Robin who seemed out of place, and of course, the pigeons.
I hate pigeons. They're akin to squirrels, in that they gross me out and walk in front of me without knowing where they're going. They're less twitchy, I'll give them that, but they also seem to have more diseases and such. I don't know why I think that, but I do.
Oh, and I got locked out of my room today. It's surprisingly easy to get Metrogate to let you in though, so that's good.
Class at hte V&A was good. We had to choose three works by any of the artists we're studying. We saw John Constable and JMW Turner today, and I decided I like Constable better. Turner seems to do sunny seascapes which are beautiful but kind of boring, I thought. Constable I think uses light and color better.
And then we were free to explore. Amazingly enough, you can take pictures throughout the museum. It's brilliant. I will have to go back a couple more times before I can begin to decide what to say. I loved it. We saw statues, paintings, clothing, furniture, giant plaster casts of monuments, really old books with illuminations. There's an entire section devoted to ironwork, and one of carving which I thought my Grandpa would have liked.
And now I'm crashing.

The many entertainments of London

Wow. I don't know where to start since we've had such a busy few days. I'll also try not to repeat too much of what Lauren talked about.

But first: a cockroach update. Many of you have expressed concern for my cockroach situation in that where there is one, there are usually more. Just to reassure everyone, there are cockroach traps throughout the flat and I have not seen another one since the day I've moved in. I hope I will not see one ever again.

Anyway, I'm going to start by talking about classes. I am in Contemporary Britain, Introduction to London Theatre, British Artists and Nature, and The History of London. I have had the first three and am excited by all the field trips and the obvious enthusiasm of the professors. The best part for all the classes is the promise of going somewhere outside the classroom because although I'm an English major and therefore love books, some things are better seen in person than in a book. Plays, of course, are so much better when they are performed than if you are just reading the manuscript. As Lauren said, we saw War Horse last night. If the horse puppets (which is so not the right word) hadn't been as incredible as they were, the play wouldn't have been good at all. However, the horses were astounding. We were really close to the stage and able to see all the intricities of the construction of these machines...yeah, machines is almost a better word because of the mechanics of how the legs moved were almost like watching the inside of a car engine. The puppeteers were amazing because they have to move with it, control everything from the legs and head, the shivers running over the flank, the swishing of the mane and tail, and the flicks of the ears, and make all the sounds a horse makes. All this while being as inconspicuous as possible. I thought that since we were so close, we would lose some of the realism that perhaps others, further away could enjoy because they couldn't see the people inside the horse or notice their expressions. But being close actually enhanced it because every movement was so realistic. By the way, there were two horses big enough and strong enough to carry people. Aside from the horses and the beautiful singing, the play wasn't that good. Not very good acting plus a really long and kind of underdeveloped story almost overshadowed the coolness of the horses. Almost.

Today, we went to the Victoria and Albert museum, which is just around the block and down the street from us. Ever since I saw the movie The Young Victoria (which everyone should see!), I have been a little obsessed with Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, so anything related to them, I am more than happy to experience. Of course, the museum has everything you could possibly imagine in it, so I will be stopping back many times in the future to see a few rooms. Yay for free museums!

This morning before class I took a walk in Kensington Gardens. It's still too cold to do this, but I did anyway. This picture is from the Round Pond in the Gardens. It is completely frozen except for right around the edges so it was quite amusing to see the birds swimming with others standing on the ice only a foot away.

Well, I think that's all for right now. I don't have any classes tomorrow, so I'm going to see which museum I can go explore on my day off.

A horse, Mr. Belushi and Queen Victoria.

Ok, folks. I finally have something interesting to write about. Yesterday I had two classes, Contemporary Britain followed by Introduction to Theater. Both professors appear to embody the infamous sarcastic British wit, which makes me actually look forward to school. Crazy, I know. Intro to Theater seems especially interesting as our homework is to go to a play a week and write a review! I love London! So last night, my program took us to see the War Horse and it was...well...I don't know how to describe it really. It was kind of a paradox - both horrible and wonderful, boring and intense, realistic and imaginary. Oh jeez. Now I sound like my horrible lecturer from last semester. GAH! Anyhow, this play is about a boy who joins the WWI military in search of his horse that his father stupidly sells to the cavalry. It really doesn't sound like a play I would go and see, does it? The answer is no. Not at all. First of all, it has the name of an animal in the title. I make it a point never to see movies/plays/read books with animals in the title. Secondly, the animal name is preceded by "war". Strike two. And finally, "horse" is not a metaphor for, oh I don't know, the drudgery and strength needed by the men to survive WWI. Oh no. It is a play about an actual horse. Needless to say, I was not in my comfort zone.
Now thank God these horses weren't real. They were puppets handled by three puppeteers. Two inside the horse, and one outside controlling the head movements. "Puppets?!" you might be saying at this very moment. "Like Kermit and Elmo and Miss P-P-Piggy?! How can they possibly seem realistic?" Believe you me, they are nothing like the muppet puppets. These horses were absolutely incredible. Despite being made out of a wood frame and covered by some thick netting of sorts, their eyes, their movements, and their sounds all refuted the probability of the audience's primary perception of them as unreal. Given this, as well as the wonderful acting, it was not at all unusual to see ladies (and some men) dabbing at their eyes throughout the production. Yes, this included yours truly. Do not mock until you see the show!
The negative side of this play was the loud volume, including surprising gun shots (my ears were ringing), and the length of the play, which was three hours. That's right. Three hours. Now if you know me at all, dear reader, you know that I love going to plays. Even long ones. But this, was TOO long. It ended so late at night, and we were already exhausted. I feel like a few of the intense scenes could have been cut (if only to give my heart a break from pounding quickly against my chest), as well as some of the more wandering dialogue. All in all, I liked this play. I don't know if I'd see it again, but I realize why it is getting such rave reviews.

Being so overtaken with the show, I completely forgot to mention that we went to a pub called Belushi's before hand. Since the play was in Drury Lane (yes, like where the Muffin Man lives), we got off the Tube or (CHube as it is pronounced) in Covent Garden. OH JEEPERS! Covent Garden is the grooviest place EVER. It has tons of cute shops and lovely cobblestone roads. When I got out of the tube station I immediately felt like I was in a Dickens' novel. So Maggie, Shannon and I walked around before settling on Belushi's which looked like it had relatively cheap food. We walked in, and may I just say, that the poster-smeared bar was way cool. Like way more hip than I could ever be. Despite my Minnesotan attire, my 'fro, and my thickly bespeckled appearance, the lovely Scottish bartender treated us very nicely indeed. We had a lovely dinner giggling over his amazing accent and wonderful propensity to call us "his darlings". In the midst of the cold (and often rude) English reserve, it was nice to talk to a kind and helpful person.

Today I went to the V&A, or the Victoria and Albert Museum, which I LOVE! I went with my art class, but as soon as we were done looking at the mandatory paintings, we could do what we liked. I saw so many AMAZING exhibits including costumes worn by Maggie Smith and Margot Fontayne, old architecture, tapestries, and about a kajillion groovy sculptures. This place is insane. There are apparently 7 miles of corridor in the museum, so not suprisingly it's easy to feel lost. I loved it! I felt like I was in Misselthwaite Manor! I am going to go again soon - it's such an easy walk and there's so much to see that I feel I could go there every afternoon for the rest of the program and observe something new every day.

Well, I have to practice now, so ciao!

~Lauren

book hunting!

I discovered that, if all your flatmates are partiers, you can probably wake up early and be first in the shower. I thought I slept fairly late, but apparently I was an early riser. Who knew.
I went book hunting today - there was one textbook that Amazon was having problems with, so I decided to go the Waterstone's near us. I was too early, because I guess none of the stores open until noon, so I went through Hyde Park for a while. I got to see all sorts of dogs - it seems like terriers are popular here, and I saw a fair amount of whippets and dachshunds. Totally made my day. This one spaniel came up to me with a big stick in its mouth and decided to circle my for awhile, then left with his people. It seems like in downtown Madison, dogs aren't nearly as friendly - or maybe their people don't let them be. But here the dogs were let off the lead to socialize as they liked.
After the park I managed to find my bookstore, only to have all the lights go out. They herded us out, and walking back a lot of the shops were similarly dark. Considering it's a big shopping area in a posh neighborhood, I'm not quite sure what was going on. But I had the information for another Waterstone's on Piccadilly, so I decided to try there.
The Tube was fine, no big deal. I only had a couple stops, and that went smoothly. My destination was near the Ritz hotel, which seemed huge and gorgeous and a little out of place with the bright lights adorning it.
And then I realized that all I had was an address, and since I was on the street with well-known things, like Fortnum and Mason's, and Hatchard's, none of the buildings had numbers. So I chose a side of the road and direction, and headed off.
I couldn't find Waterstone's, so I stopped into Hatchard's (where the Queen buys her books!) and tried there. The man at the desk was very nice, considering he had a royal client and I looked like an American schlub. Since they were out of stock, he recommended Waterstone's, and mentioned that the one nearest me (with all the lights out) had a whole pile of them, but the one on Piccadilly had a few.
He told me where to go, and I discovered the largest bookstore in Europe. Waterstone's is 6 stories, almost like a Barnes and Noble's, but quieter and nicer and people go get the books for you if you ask. They have a cafe on the highest floor with a great view. I love it there.
I can't believe I only got one book. And not even one I liked.
Tonight my big excitement was going to the Kensington McDonald's. It's ridiculously nice. There are wooden tables and leather stools and chairs. Even the crappy fast food is posh. Also, they had Fanta there and it was a weird urine-yellow color. Not cool.
I was the American schlub even at McDonald's. Figures.

naughty bits abound

Today we did the touristy stuff around London. We hit up Buckingham Palace briefly and saw some of the guys in bearskins. We did manage to see Westminster Palace and Westminster Abbey, although we couldn't stay long. We did a quick run around the ritzy part of London, with the Aston Martin and Porsche places and Stella McCartney. The highlight of my day was seeing where the Queen buys her underthings. After the tour I was pretty well exhausted and I don't remember much, although I have the pictures.
I discovered Boots, and I'm thrilled. It's basically a Walgreens, selling toiletries and the like, but for some reason it seems better.
Has etiquette changed on other people in bathrooms? Twice today in the flat I was in the loo, and I wasn't doing anything embarrassing, but I had the door shut and two people came in without knocking! The guy at least said sorry. But is it now okay to ignore the shut door of the loo and barge in for whatever reason? I was and am flabbergasted by this. I like my privacy, especially when my naughty bits could very well be on view.
Anyway. Tomorrow (which is actually today here) I'm going to try to find a good bookstore. I have to find a textbook that is apparently confusing Amazon.

A Walking Advertisement for Minnesota

So everyone is very posh here. And I mean very posh. Londoners are always on the cutting edge of fashion and dress according to whatever trend presides at the moment. Thus, I've seen girls with stiletto boots, fashionable pea coats, hats that are too thin to suit their intended purpose and skinny tights or leggings. No wonder they think this weather is so cold! They don't know how to layer like onions! Walking next to these glamorous model impersonators, I feel like a complete hick from nowheresville. Not that I mind because I am warm. I know how to dress like an onion. So 5 layers later, I can barely move and look like Ralphie in his snowsuit from "A Christmas Story". Yup, I'm a fashionista.

Quick tangent: peanut butter. There is no peanut butter anywhere. I finally found one brand in the 3rd supermarket I tried and am sadly disappointed by its flavor, or lack there of. Americans need to teach the Britains how to make quality peanut butter. Until then, I remain unimpressed. Tangent over.

As aforementioned by Maggie, we went on a walking tour yesterday with the fantastically witty and hilarious Allie. Apart from seeing where all the millionares live and learning that our flat is worth about 5 million, we explored Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and the surrounding area. After seeing Kensington Palace, we saw where T.S. Eliot lived and other groovy folks. I walked on the spot where J.M. Barrie created Peter Pan! Needless to say I was freaking out.

Today we went on a coach tour with our program and saw the sights of London, including but not limited to: Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, the National Theatre, the Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, DIAGON ALLEY(!) and The Eye. Our tour guide, Britt, was a hoot and I learned a lot. I shall have to go back to these places when it's warmer in order to better explore them.

After the tour, Shannon, Maggie, my roommate, Ellie, and I splurged on Indian food. It was SCRUMPTIOUS! I ate. And ate and ate. And ate and ate and ate. I couldn't stop. I don't know what it is about London, but it makes me hungry! Then we went grocery shopping and cell phone shopping and came home. To our frozen tundra of an apartment. Where I tried to take a hot shower. Hah! Hahahaha! The water was a trickle and decided to turn off completely when I had just put conditioner in my hair. While I was freezing and glaring nastily at the shower stall, the bide started speaking, gurgling away. I don't know how but it appeared that the water meant for the shower was somehow going into the bide. FUN TIMES IN ENGLAND! Anyhow, I ran across the hall and used another shower which was so warm and delectable, it was like Heaven in a bathroom.

Tomorrow I must find practice facilities because my first lesson is on Thursday and I have not practiced in too long. Yikes!

Cheers!
Lauren

Midwest-like Cold

Who would have thought that coming to London, a supposedly mild climate, would not mean escaping a Midwest-like cold with the unfortunate addition of dampness which means that the cold is that much harder to shake off once you are inside. Sadly, that is what it is like outside. The usual promise of precipitation still occurs, but we are witnessing the below freezing equivalent of drizzle: snow flurries. I actually like it better than drizzle because it doesn't require an umbrella, but I would really prefer that it not be cold anymore. Ok, I'll stop complaining about it now. But apparently the weather is the only appropriate subject one can talk about on the tube without getting strange looks, so consider this practice.

We went on a lovely bus tour today with a different guide, Britt, who was wonderful. She is a professional tour guide to the extent that she is being trained for giving tours to the Olympic athletes when they come in 2012. She knows everything about London and absolutely loves everything about it, too. She is going to be around the entire time we are here, and I'm very excited to ask her all about her recommendations. So, on the 3 and a half hour bus tour we saw every big London monument you can think of plus a bunch of cool places that we will have to go back to, as we all said, "when it's warmer." London is so big that it is actually divided in 32 bouroughs, with each bourough having it's own mayor plus one mayor for London as a whole. As Samuel Johnson, writer of the first official English dictionary said, "If you're bored of London, you're bored of life." There is so much to do here, it will be impossible to see everything, but at least there will always be something to do.

After the bus tour, we had Indian food at a nearby restaurant and we all realized that this was the first real, sit down meal we've had. We have been eatting kind of randomly from random shops or from the grocery's we've gotten, but it was nice to have a real meal. It was very good food. We also finally got cell phones which will be useful. You don't realize how much you depend on them until you don't have one.

Hopefully we will meet up with our friend, Erin, tomorrow and maybe go to the museum. With this cold weather, it is best to stay indoors!

adaptive parrots

Who would have thought that I'd have more to write about.
And this is partially because, although my roommate got in at 2:30 last night and is apparently "exhausted", she is still awake and writing and chatting and texting and having the light on, which means I can't sleep, although it's 11 and I'm approaching exhausted. But my other roommate is apparently out, so she'll come in later and wake me up anyway.
Picking the bed that faces the door was stupid. Any time someone opens the door I get light right in the face. And it's bad feng shui to boot.
Maybe bad chi is flowing in and I'm getting all of it. I'll go to Chinatown and buy a ba gua mirror then. Not only will that remove the bad chi, but it will annoy (and possibly blind) anyone who comes in late. Good plan.
The tour around Kensington was good. We went through Hyde Park and saw the parrots that live there. According to the lovely tour guide Allie who I'm hoping I can take home with me, someone had them as pets and let them loose, and they've reproduced and adapted. Hence the shock of bright green parrots in a snow-covered tree.
The neighborhood is super posh. We saw the armed guard glaring at people outside the Israeli embassy, and the Bentley parked outside Kensington Palace.
The tour showed us a street called Millionaire's Road, or something to that effect, AND a Pizza Hut.
Despite the tour being pretty great on Allie's part, it kinda sucked, weather-wise. I was told, "it's not that cold, you won't need boots or even rain boots", and then we tromped through the snow in the park while some of us were wearing sneakers with holes in them. And due to the damp, I couldn't shake off the cold.
Napping with a hat and a couple of layers helped with the chill, and the orientation went well.
Post-orientation, we (Lauren+Shannon+me) went shopping at a place called Marks & Spencer, or M & S, but will always be S&M to my brain. They have pretty good food, and I got a pillow. We successfully navigated the side streets and made it to Kensington High Street, which made me proud of us.
And now I want to go to bed. Maybe my roommate is waiting for me to go first. I really hope so.

At least the plane ride was okay...

It hasn't been so hot for me here yet. The plane was okay, mostly on time and all that.
One of the nice things was that we got to fly over England at night, so it would be pitch black except for these copper freckles of lights. Once we got closer to London, it turned almost mauve with all the lights, and I watched the entire landing (which I normally don't do because I'm keeping the plane from crashing through sheer force of will). So that was fine.
And then we landed.
this was at 11:00 at night.
By 11:30, we left the plane.
By 12:30, we had finally made it into the student immigration line.
By 1:15 am, we hadn't moved in the student immigration line, and one of the airport workers was trying to chat up a blond girl with dimples from Tulane.
Then Lauren was brave enough to ask the nice airport lady if we could jump to the line that HAD moved, and we did, and we got through super quick.
Then came the taxi queue.

My impression in America has been that, if you and a bunch of other people are waiting for a taxi, you push and shove and elbow each other, and whoever wins gets the taxi. Or you call ahead so there's one waiting. But you don't form a queue.
But we didn't know this, so we joined what looked like a clump and got yelled at. The exact words were, "I don't mean to be rude, but we have been waiting a very long time and....", which I think means "I really want to be rude, go away".
Considering that taxis were coming about 1 every 10 minutes, for a line of 100 people, that's pretty understandable, if still annoying.
But the nice American lady called the taxi people, and we finally managed to leave about 2:10 am.
I thought the cab ride was okay. True, the cabbie did ignore the signs that said "Watch your speed" and "Slow down", and the giant patch of ice we skidded on, but I was okay with that until he started talking to himself.
The hotel wasn't too bad - for a place to sleep, it did fine. The people at the desk were less than helpful. It turns out that the floors don't go 1 2 3, it's GROUND 1 2 3, etc. Part of my confusion was he said we had to take the lift to the first floor.
But we slept and had tea and it worked out.
And after that, yesterday wasn't so bad. We managed the Heathrow Hoppa and the Tube pretty well. Other than some stairs at the Gloucester Road station (with no lift), I think it went pretty well. We found the check-in place, and then the flat with minimal trouble.

Despite being mostly settled, I'm still crabby. I don't know if it's culture shock or what, but people aren't nice and I'm generally impatient with everyone and everything. And I don't sleep, which doesn't seem like jet lag because I don't get tired during the day or anything. I just don't sleep at all. Seems more like insomnia to me.
But we found the sandwich shop, and we've got orientation tonight and I'm thawing a bit. So it's getting better.

Shannon's travels

My trip here was not nearly as traumatic as Lauren and Maggie's, but still quite long. I didn't get much sleep on the plane due the constant turbulence and the 3 or 4 crying babies. Luckily, I sat next to a very nice British guy (Alex) who was only 2 or 3 years older than me and in grad school studying English and American literature. However, we talked more about movies, football (both American and soccer), and tennis than about literature. When we were coming in over England, it was covered in snow, which made it look a lot like the Midwest. Alex was convinced that the plane had simply circled Minnesota for 9 hours and we were actually still in the U.S. Despite the snow, the tube was still running, so I got on the Piccadilly line and went to Gloucester Road and got to the place where I get my key to my flat and then, finally, got to my flat.

Our flats are on Kensington Road and are right across from Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens and down the street from the Royal Albert Hall. Kensington is a very rich, fancy neighborhood and we are surrounded by foreign embassies. I live on the sixth and very top floor (which is A LOT of stairs), but is also the smallest amount of people. While the 1st and 3rd floor each have about 15 people divided into 4 or 5 rooms, we have only 4 of us that share a common room, small kitchen and bathroom. The other 3 girls sleep in one room while I somehow got assigned the only single room in the entire program. I don't know how it happened, but I'm very fine with it... until I discovered that it was also occupied by a cockroach, which I luckily managed to kill relatively quickly. The picture here is the view from my bedroom window. All the ceilings are very slanty, and we have a lovely view of Hyde Park out the common room window. Most importantly, since we are on the top floor, it is quite warm up here. So, am I liking my flat? Well, with a warm, quiet, now cockroach-free room, it is pretty hard not to like it.

Today, we went on a short walking tour around Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, and the Kensington area. Our guide, Allison, was extremely amusing with funny little quips about whatever we were looking at. It was very cold walking around for two hours, so Lauren, Maggie, and I got some samdwiches and came back to the flat to warm up until our official orientation.

That's all for now!
Shannon