A Lame Day

Today was a struggle. I got up late again (but not as late as the day before!) and it just felt like I never woke up. I was in a daze. The whole time I was commuting to class I just thought how nice it would be to be home, watching stuff on the internet in pjs and with tea. I get to school and we are informed that our lecturer’s National Rail train broke down and he wouldn’t be in for another hour. GAH! I was half awake and grumpy that I was sitting in the common room until 11. I read (which made me more tired) and then finally he came. The lecture was on Inigo Jones the 17th century English architect. I perked up fast.. I really like his work and style. If I could design my own house, I would use his drawings. (I guess I wouldn’t actually be the one designing then!) Then the lecturer started reading his entire presentation and flipped through slides quickly…. I had a hard time staying awake. I learned nothing. At all.

The afternoon class was supposed to be fast. An hour usually.. the worst we have ever had is an hour and a half. Of the three people who went today, two of them took an hour. We are supposed to take 20 minutes. I was so restless and my professor was sitting right behind me so I could doodle or anything. It was torture. During questions I wanted to raise my hand and ask them why they needed so many examples to not make a point, but didn’t want to be evil. They really didn’t have a point. I don’t understand! The last girl did, and she took 20 minutes. The other two just showed every example under their subject (for ex. Children, and royal portraits) They had no thesis. One just showed every portrait of a child, and the other every portrait of King Philip and King Charles I! GAH! It was torture.

Tomorrow is a study day! Woo! I am going to actually have to shut off my internet and WORK! That isn’t any fun! :) Less than two weeks now!!!!

A Monday

Gah this morning was a typical, bad Monday morning! I woke on time and then laid in bed for an extra 15 minutes! Yes it was a stupid idea. I still made it to school before lecture but I only had 5 minutes to eat my Cheerios. (by the way for the month Im home Im not touching peanut butter, carrots, or Cheerios!) I went into the lecture room and we are told that we have to wait 15 minutes because our lecturer is stuck on the tube. So I read some more and continually checked my phone to see if Orange had texted me! The lady came and talked to us about silver. It was interesting this time because she is a social historian and told us about how the silver was actually used. I thought that was way cooler than how it was made! Maybe I should take the social historian route!

After was lunch and then back in the lecture room at 1pm for our professional development. It was nice to only have an hour or so in between class instead of an hour and a half! For everyone who says that Art History is for nerds and geeks (ok maybe it is!) but you should have seen the guys who came in to talk to us! One was a few years older than me in a very expensive suit, the other looked just like Elton John. Dead serious. He is the coolest art person I have ever met. The younger one works in a company gallery. Sounds intense and really cool! And it looked like he was making some money too! Everything in their stock is probably all 30,000 pounds and up. The Elton John looking one started his own business and is a dealer. I want his job. He sells old master painter works. I mean like 1 million pounds apiece master painter. Amazing. I also don’t want to work for Christies. The more I hear about it the more I don’t want to work there. Also I learned that auction value is not the accurate market value (Dear Antiques Roadshow you may want to think about that!) If you get two idiots in a room the object can do way better than it should, or the opposite could happen. He told us a story about a painting (cant remember the artist!) being auctioned that had an estimated value of 1 million pounds. It went up to 35 million pounds because there were two Russian men in the room who hated each other and didn’t want the other to have it! Then everyone thought their paintings by the same artist would be worth that much too but of course they aren’t! Also he dissed Christies pretty hard about not identifying things correctly. He bought a signed and dated painting that was worth 150,000 for 3,000 because they didn’t see the signature and he did. How bad is that! He said that a lot of his friends that are dealers have done the same thing! I want his job!

After the talk it was only 2:15 so I headed over to the British Museum because I had gotten lost every other time I had tried to go. I found it this time only to learn that the exhibit I want to see cost 8 pounds to get in to. I was too tired to appreciate it and honestly I didn’t know if I wanted to see it THAT badly so I wandered downstairs to say hi to the Rosetta Stone and head home.

When I got home I was one grumpy girl. No word from Orange so I took matters into my own hands! I set up my router and hoped that it worked. To my surprise IT DID!! I literally jumped around my flat and almost cried I was so excited (sad I know but when you have no friends the internet is nice to have) I should have been doing work but instead I watched Greys, had Skype dates and went to bed HAPPY! :)

A Normal Sunday

Today was a normal Sunday. I woke up (earlier than I expected actually. I was up at 9!!) and started my laundry. I sat on the couch and read while I waited! When it come out it was time to head to Sainsburys where I only spent 12 pounds! I am so excited! And that is with buying cookies! I have 18 extra pounds from this week’s food money! I think the trick was that I ate some cheerios right before I left! I wasn’t as hungry! I came home, but everything away, and cleaned the flat! Every surface got its weekly cleaning in! The I continued to read my book while I ate lunch and then headed to the library.

I am hoping that my trip today was the last one. I cant stand that library anymore and I hate not having the internet. If I don’t get it tomorrow I may go crazy and lose my sanity. I cant read anymore. I read ¾ of my “new” book today. Oh if anyone wants my copy they can have it! I will gift it to you! It’s The Way We Were…. I didn’t cry at the end. I literally sobbed. Full out sobbing. I hated the book so if you want to cry your heart out this book is the right one for you. My nose is still runny and I finished it a good 25 minutes ago. Basically I am done being positive about me not having the internet. My patience is too far gone for that. Its been like 6 weeks and Im not know for my patience to begin with.

Next on the list for tonight is reading academic things so I can start the hardest paper I have ever written. I think it is going to be difficult to explain something in 2500 words when I have NO idea what either guy is saying.

Oh I looked for my electric meter today… I almost died finding my water meter but I cant find my electric. There isn’t anywhere else for it to be! Im going to have to bug Jack and text him tomorrow. Oh why I almost died… I found a cupboard above the stairs (so if you are walking up stairs and turn around there is a cupboard but you have to lean out over the stairs and brace yourself on the walls to poke your head in) Ask my sister… Im a snoop. I admit it. I like looking in cupboards! So I saw it and opened it. All that was in it was a bunch of junk, some tools and the water meter that doesn’t even work because we aren’t on the meter system for the water! Grrrr….

I should go actually do work. I have done such I great job at putting it off all day that I feel guilty….

Thanksgiving Potluck

Today was my Thanksgiving! Right now I am full and loving it. Lets back up though to this morning! I woke up and looked at the clock… 8:30. What?! Cant a girl sleep in around here? So I refused to get up and instead rolled back over to rest some more. Half an hour later (or so I thought) I decided I should just get up and be productive before I ate my weight in food. I rolled over and it was 11:15!! I thought I had just closed my eyes for 25-30 minutes! I really had to get up now! I hopped in the shower (I was way too lazy to shower last night!) and got ready to go. Then I realized I would be ridiculously early so I read a little bit of my new book! (I am currently reading two books. The Death and the Virgin (which is basically a textbook but I LOVE it) and The Way We Were which a lot of people are reading at the moment and I heard it was good. So far so good. Well if any of you know me and reading… I cant read for 5 minutes. It just doesn’t happen. So next time I looked up it was 1:30 and I needed to get everything together to go!

Getting there was painless. Thank goodness the Jubilee and Victoria line was work free today. And Lesley gave us really good directions so I got there without any problems. I was the third one there (at 2:30) so I hung and talked with the girls and more slowly arrived. We ate at 5:15 and there was SO much food that everyone brought! It was really good (even had brussel sprouts!) It was just different though. I did eat a bit of everything… including the turkey. I ate Turkey without bbq/sweet and sour sauce. I was proud of myself! And my plate was literally heaping with food and I was so hungry that I didn’t even care that everything was running together and touching. It was a Thanksgiving garbage plate! (for those of you who know what that means!)I ended up leaving at about 10:00pm. It was fun but it just got to be a little long for the girl who finds it tiring to make conversation with people that you don’t really know all that well. I didn’t it for 8 hours. I think I deserve a star or something. My contribution to the meal was two bottles of wine (I asked what Lesley needed!) I should have only bought one because I took the second home with me! There was about 12 girls there so I thought 2 would be better but a lot of people ended up bringing a bottle. I can never remember which color goes with what meat and I thought white went with chicken and turkey is close to chicken! I bought a red just in case too! And then I was worried that people like the sweet instead of the dry! It was stressful but it all turned out just fine! Question to the wine people out there… is a Riesling just a NY/Eastern coast of USA thing? I found ONE bottle in the store and it was like 18 pounds. They had every other kind but no Rieslings. (which I was bummed about because I went to college in the Riesling heaven!) Just curious! So now I have an even better offer for people… a couch to sleep on (aka double bed) and a bottle of Chardonnay. Someone visit me! :) (especially my sister who wont come home for Christmas and picked Hawaii over seeing her little sister in London!)

Speaking of Rieslings…. I really miss HWS. A LOT. I think I could be their poster girl. Compared to this post-grad experience HWS is a million times better. Everyone in high school should tour it. Compared to Christies the professors are so helpful and willing to help to at any time. I miss being able to just walk in their office and chat about an assignment without being completely intimated and having to schedule an appointment. I didn’t realize how good I had it I guess. And I had SO much more work there which sucked at the time, but Im realizing how much that helped me learn the material. Here I sit in lecture and then the topic is done. I am thankful that I pick things up quickly and am good at memorizing things. Otherwise I don’t know how I would learn things here. Maybe because it’s a post-grad course that they except us to do our own things?? A girl at the potluck tonight is at Christies doing her second Masters and she said this course was a LOT harder than her other one. WHAT? This is so easy work wise. I don’t understand. Anyways I miss HWS and being around friends all the time. I would even go to Saga happily right now. Even if it wasn’t a Sunday Sunday.

I need to clean my flat. I have gone into lazy bum mode and everything is just all over. Tomorrow wil be busy with laundry, cleaning and starting my paper. Well reading for it. I have no idea what Kant is saying! 100 dollars to the person to tell me all about Kant, Bourdieu, and Hume and relate them. In 2500 words too. Im in so much trouble.

Its midnight so off to bed!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!?

This was the weirdest Thanksgiving! It didn’t seem like a holiday at all! First of all I debated whether or not a need to wear my coat this morning!! Secondly it was a normal day. I woke up late and didn’t get out of bed until 10 minutes before I was supposed to be leaving! Somehow I was only 3 minutes later than usual walking out the door! The commute was nice, quiet and easy! I arrive at school and walk into the common room and…. The Christmas tree is up. Already. Ok I LOVE Christmas but that’s a little early… And its fake which makes it worse. So Merry Christmas one month and one day early! I sat besides a Christmas tree and ate my cheerios. Everyone was telling each other Happy Thanksgiving and it was funny that the international students were asking what it was. I don’t really think they get it. The one girl was like “so you guys just eat because you are thankful?” hahah well yeah.. I guess so! The British, French, Austrian, Spanish, and everyone else were walking around telling every American Happy Thanksgiving. It was cute.

Lecture was torture. It was by the man who showed us around Burghley, the guy who went 45 minutes over! Well he only went 15 over in the morning lecture so I guess we were lucky! Im so glad we are in the 17th century. Man has stopped being a backward caveman in the art world by this point and things start to get interesting.. especially in the decorative arts world! Its just that our lecturer was so boring. He did the afternoon lecture too on materials and techniques of sculpture. I literally almost fell asleep. I mean he defined “in the round” for 15 minutes. (in the round= you can walk around it) Yeah its that simple. I was so happy when 3pm hit! (well 3:10. He went over)

Then I rushed home to run to the library to skype mom! I heard Straight no Chaser in the background. What a year to miss the parade! Gah! I am craving Thanksgiving food (minus the turkey). I think my body knows that “hey its been a year! Its time to binge eat on good comfort food!!” It is just weird not being in NYC.

I should have been starting my final paper tonight and trying to figure out what my philosophers are saying! I didn’t though. I don’t really know how I wasted so much time without the internet but somehow I did! I got a letter from orange with my account info for my internet so I signed on my account and the estimated connection day….. TOMORROW! I am trying to not get too excited in case it doesn’t happen but…. IM PUMPED! Hopefully tonight was the last time at my library using the internet amongst the homeless.

I miss Dr Holley

I did not want to get up this morning! I was sleepy and this was supposed to be my sleeping in day! I did drag myself out of bed though and headed to the doctors. The nice thing is that it is a 30 second walk. Literally. That is where the nice things about it end. I hate it there. I want Dr. Holley. I go in and show them my little appointment card. I sit down and see my name scrolling on a sign so I get up and ask what that means. Apparently it means that I can go in. So I go in and instantly pray I never need to come back. Ever. It looks like a summer camp nurses office. Great. I find my nurse and get asked 55 million questions. First I need a next of kin in the UK. Really? I say Mary Tanner but I think I gave her the wrong phone number so that was pointless. Next was all the “have you ever” questions (surgery, broken things etc…) All my answers are no. I think she is getting frustrated she isn’t getting any juicy details. Next it is weigh/measure time. I love getting measured! I am 5 foot 8.5 (if she converted the cm to inches right for me) and I got weighed. She enters in my info and the computer calculates my BMI (yeah camp nurse offices don’t have that but still… you should have seen this place) and I then get a lecture about eating because Im under the ideal weight. She literally interrogated me and didn’t believe that I eat carbs (hello grad student living off of a loan… I live on pasta), do I eat meat etc etc. By this point I don’t like woman. Then we go through family history (which I should probably learn better at some point in my life). She then tried to get me to get screened for EVERY STD under the sun. Umm no thanks. And then the golden moment “did you bring your urine sample??” Ummm no. Didn’t know I needed one. Off to the potty I go, hating my life more and more every second. I survived this appointment but barely. I never want to go back. So I loved Dr. Holley before this experience, but my love for him grew EXPONENTIALLY.

Today I have wild plans… reading for class, going to the library and maybe starting to think about my really hard paper. Yeah… back to the normal life of having no plans.

Ballet

I woke up excited this morning. It is so fun to have plans. For someone who doesn’t ever have plans, having plans is a big deal! So I woke up happy that I only had to sit through one lecture today, and excited to go see Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House! The commute this morning was nice an quick. The tube was empty and even Baker Street seemed less crowded! My Jubilee train arrived at a perfect time because I walked to the other platform and the Circle line train was pulling in! I love when that happens! I got to school and had to hold back tears because Matthew died in Anne of Green Gables. I actually had to skip most of it just so I wouldn’t get all choked up. Im pathetic! But then Anne and Gilbert FINALLY became friends so it is all good! I love these books!

Lecture today was on glass. It was actually pretty cool and I learned a LOT. I was just wiggly in my seat! I have decided that I am not going into glass however because no one really signed their work. How lame and boring is that? I need a medium that people marked their stuff! So other thing is on my no list for my thesis!

Without the internet I have been doing a lot of reading! It started with seeing Jane Austen in my local, stinky, library and went from there. Persuasion was first, then Emma, and I just finished Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen certainly became a better writer as she went! Much like J.K Rowling!) I have also read The Red Queen, Anne of Green Gables (the first one), The Hangman’s Daughter (really good!), and am now on the second book in the Anne series. Not too shabby for a month! I also have Death and the Virgin to read which should be good. Its all about the death of Amy Dudley!!! (for those of you who just said “who?” its Robert Dudleys wife who was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth and Amy was found dead at the bottom of the stairs. Murder or accident?? I think Queen E 1 and Dudley were a little more than just “friends”) Anyways the lack of internet sure makes one read a lot (and play chess against the computer. I think I am getting worse actually…)

So there is a huge Leonardo Da Vinci (never call him Da Vinci!) going on at the national Gallery. I feel like I SHOULD see it but I don’t really WANT to. As an art history major I am not a Leonardo fan. Yes he was a genius, and his brushwork is amazing but there are plenty of other artists who I like better. Leo’s machines on the other hand… cool! :) I decided I was an embarrassment to the art history world if I didn’t go. So I went on last night to buy my 8 pound ticket (another reason I didn’t want to go.. its not free) and they are sold out. The show is sold out except for 500 tickets that are set aside per day. GAH. Now if I want to go I have to get up early on a study day to run down to be first in line to get a ticket! The website says the queue can be up to a 3 hour wait. Ok… not really feeling it.

Ok Im off to take a nap before I get ready for my big night out! The big question I have to answer is bring my big ugly purse, or my cute little clutch that I have never used? This would be an easy answer is I didn’t have to consider my comfort and safety. Can I take London on in heels or do I need to wear my flats and bring them??? Hmmmm……

So I decided on the ugly purse and I was grateful because on my way home I was in pain and whipped out the flats! I left “early” at 5:45 so I would be at the Opera House at 6:45. Well it’s a good thing I did because I cannot walk in heels. I probably looked like an idiot. It took me forever to get to the ATM, and then I was like this is dumb, Im taking the bus to the tube. It was 6:05 by the time I got to the tube. My line hits the Piccadilly line at Green Park so its really easy to get to Charing Cross but I forgot about the switch… you have to walk a tunnel that seems longer than the Lincoln tunnel. Sigh. I made it though! By the time I emerged from the tube station at Charing Cross it was 6:40. I took a guess on which way the Opera House was and I was right! I picked up my ticket easily enough but then I had to find my seat by myself. I have to say for a fancy of a place that it is, there isn’t many people to show you were to go. So I read signs and got to the in house restaurant. I probably would have turned around but the couple in front of me said something about the escalator and I followed them. They were right and we went up and the next level was the bar (the royal opera house knows what they are doing. They have CLASS) I was just like oh great it’s a dead end and Im just at the bar. I walked down it and saw a huge window that looked down on the restaurant. It was amazing. I really should have taken a picture (I will next time!) The entire structure was glass and it was at least three stories high and it looked like a giant greenhouse. It was impressive!

I looked out the window to waste time, but then I didn’t know if I had to buy a drink to be in the room (turns out you don’t) so I kept moving. I finally saw a sign for my section! Woo! I made it! So I headed over and its roped off. Gah. So I went up and down the hall looking at pictures of Joan Sutherland (apparently she is famous. I learned something at least!) While I was on the far end of the hall, one of the workers told a guest that the auditorium didn’t open til 7. Everything made sense then! So I looked a little longer (I was early!) And finally they opened the doors!

I was the first and only person to go through the “lower Slip” door so it was nice to slowly find my seat! I was close to the stage, but the ledge cut off the lower left of the stage. I saw most of the show, but was frustrated when I couldn’t see! The Royal Opera House was impressive!! I was really really high up which was fun.

The ballet itself was good. I loved the dancing, but the story was LAME. It went from her being a baby to pricking her finger, to waking up and partying. AND there was only one fairy and she told Philip to go to Sleep Beauty. It wasn’t even his own idea. I don’t know… I could have done the story better but the dancing was cool! Oh Aurora wore a pink tutu for most of it except at the end she had a white one. I was disappointed. She should have worn blue!

Overall it was a good night! Worth 15 pounds to see! When I make 80,000 a year plus, Im going to have season tickets in the very front row!

BLAH!

Today was so normal and boring that I have nothing to say really!! I will be better at blogging once I get the internet. Promise. I just hate sitting in here to right it and I wanted to go out to the library right away because if I didn’t I would have never made it here! Tomorrow is Sleeping Beauty (the Royal Ballet verison!), and Wednesday is my doctors appt (with how my life goes will probably not be normal!) SO I am sorry for being a slacker but check back on Wednesday for a new and JUICY post :)

P.S If I don’t get the internet soon I will go crazy. It like waiting for Christmas morning but having no idea when it is… its torture for impatient people like me!

LAZY!!

This morning was even better than yesterday. No alarm and I didn’t wake up until 10:45. I don’t remember the last time I slept in that long! It was awesome! It did put me behind on the Sunday schedule though! I went shopping and somehow got a lot of stuff and had 8 extra pounds left to put back into the Christmas fund! Woo! Next week I will need even less because I got two peanut butters, my cheerios and fruit for this week and next week. (the pears were on sale this week!) AND I got a .84 pence coupon off of anything next week. That’s almost an entire pound!! Woo! :)

I got home, put everything away and ate lunch. I am getting tired of peanut butter. I am not having a pb sandwich the entire time Im home! Then I headed off to the library to skype, post my blog and attempted to post pictures to facebook. My internet wasn’t good enough so facebook kept freezing when I tried to put up pictures. Sigh. Then I came home from that and played some compy games (spider solitare, freecell and chess) Im horrible at chess. I barely win on the easy mode! Then I….. finished my paper! I just need to footnote a few things but my Word started wont let me do it. I have to do it at school! So I consider myself done for the moment! Just two footnotes away! I wish I could start last paper but I cant without the internet. So I don’t know what im going to do tonight. Dinner, shower, dishes and idk. Try to pass the night somehow.

shopping and wanting everything

Mornings without an alarm going off. What an absolutely perfect way to start ones day? No rude, frightening, annoying buzzer to jerk you from sleep! (in my case its actually “This is why Im Hott” :)) SO my day started off well… I didn’t have an alarm but I somehow woke up at 9:15. I decided I was lying in bed for a bit more! I was out of the house by 10 though with my packed lunch! (I pack my lunch everyday because why pay to eat lunch out??) I had run out of peanut butter however, so it was a nutella sandwich… just not the same.

It was a beautiful day out and the tube closures didn’t affect me! (that is the first weekend that they haven’t!) I was thinking about going to the Tower of London today but the district line was out and it just would have been a hassle to get there. So todays epic adventure was the V&A and Harrods. I went to the V&A to get my library card for the National Art Gallery. I got distracted by the jewelry rooms so it took me a bit of time to make it there! :) I get there and walk in, and I get pounced on by an old lady… I cant have my bag in the library. She explained that I needed to put in the cloakroom (which is on the other side of the museum, two floors below me) Ok. I then asked if the registration was in the next room. It was but not on Saturdays. Really?? So needless to say I did not get my library card today. Im telling you… it’s the hardest thing to do in this city!!

So I wandered around the museum and my fetish stuff from yesterday kept cropping up. (why is all of this stuff even in this museum??) I decided not to get philosophical but instead wandered into the amazing gift store. I had walked through it before as it acts as the connecting hallway from the sculpture to the main foyer. The stuff in there is so fun. It is here that I found my lego ring and lego earrings! :) I decided I didn’t need the necklace! They have all sorts of cool and quirky gifts! It was really fun to look around in the store. After that I walked down a block to the infamous Harrods.

I had been in Harrods once when I was here with Uncle Billy, but only on the first floor. Harrods is amazing. The decoration of the store itself is worth seeing. I didn’t get downstairs to see the Diana shrine, but everything else was awesome! For me the fun of being in Harrods is seeing what is out there, and man are there some awesome things. Yes it is expensive (I had fun guessing how much something was and then looking. Usually it was a shock!) Everything was designer. It was awesome. The shoe dept was better than any shoe dept I have ever seen. I was in a trance over a pair of 190 pound cherry red pumps. I have no idea why (never had any wish to own a pair) but they were beautiful. I don’t know what it was about it!

I found the cheaper tourist section (Harrods Gallery) and its everything embossed with the Harrods name. I got a cute little bear ornament and my London magnet for this trip (for those of you who don’t know I get a magnet everywhere I go. I have already been here but I decided to get a new one to mark this trip!) It was fun to see all the stuff! Oh I also got a really obnoxious bag that I am somehow in love with. It was originally 40 pounds and apparently no one liked it because it was 3 pounds. THREE. It is pretty big, and ummm…. Well Bright Metallic Gold with little H’s all over it. I feel like a preppy girl owning it! Look what HWS did to me! A girl wearing sunglasses that took up her entire face in the store, and wearing those fur shag boots also picked one up. At that point I almost put it back down!!

After that I went on the search for Wedgewood! I got vey distracted along the way. I found my floor (I don’t know what to call it! Its not womens but its not teenager…) I walked off the escalator and just stopped. There was this dress…. It was red and it was the most beautiful article of clothing I have ever seen in my life. I think I stood there for 5 minutes in the aisle just staring. It was strapless, knee length and was in red and a soft purple. Both versions were gorgeous. They were both 179 pounds. I just stared. Finally I moved on and was struck by another one (this time white with huge jewels) I touched it and it was the highest quality dress I have ever touched. I looked at the price tag (1,995 pounds) and then instantly took my hand away! If that first dress would have been in dollars I would have bought it and worn it to class or something just to wear it. They had a fur coat in a light grey over the light purple version… it looked classic and elegant. Sigh. I wanted that outfit. I didn’t look to see how much the fur was though!

I wandered some more and found the Harry Potter Shop. It had the real costumes from the movie because harrods was teaming with Warner Brothers to sell the tickets to tour the sets (im doing this! Just don’t know when yet!) I merchandise was no different from Hamleys Toy store but the costumes were cool! I wanted to touch Hermione’s dress (check out facebook for photos!)

I decided to move on and try to find the Wedgewood. Instead I found the baby dept. Who doesn’t LOVE looking at mini clothes! Especially when they are designer. There was the cutest little pick sweater and it was the softest thing I have ever touched! I thought omg this cannot be cashmere. No one would be that stupid to stick a drooling, pooping child in cashmere. I was right… it was pure cashmere at 79 pounds. Seriously?? I couldn’t find an article of clothing under 30 pounds. There was an extremely pregnant woman shopping with her husband and they both had their arms FULL of stuff. I cant fathom blowing 1000’s of pounds on baby clothes that the kid is going to either ruin or grow out of in 3 weeks! I wandered over to the designer section where I was asked when I was expecting. Yeah… I may lay off the digestive cookies. I laughed and said I wasn’t and she said how nice it was that I was shopping for someone else! Yeah.. didn’t admit that I had no business being in this department and I was just looking to see how crazy the prices were! Did anyone know that Armani does a toddler line?? If you are a millionaire that is a good reason to have a boy. The little toddler girls would be drooling over him because he would be the best looking kid in class. They clothes were amazing. The sweaters, pants, shoes all mini versions of the Armani men’s collection. Everything was adorable. I decided to then to leave before any other sales associate thought I was popping up offspring and started to seriously look for the china department.

I found it finally (3rd floor) and I walked in the fine dining wing and I could almost hear the “awwww!!!” (imagine that singing sound…) Everything was shimmering and it was so good that I couldn’t afford a thing because my obsession with dishes became 20 times worse. I saw the Jasperware Wedgewood from way across the room and headed towards it. There was a divine (yes it was that beautiful) black, blue, and white Jasperware Teapot with 4 little teacups. 9700 pounds. Ok… I decided maybe I should lower my standards and head to the Wedgewood China dept and leave by dreams of owning a Jasperware teapot in the dust. I headed over and a sales woman asked if I needed help. This is where I pretended! I said no thank I was just looking and getting some ideas of what I would want. (this is true!!! I was getting and idea of what I wanted!) The lady understood and said that there was a wedgewood deal buy 2 get a 3 piece free. She actually thought I was seriously looking! In harrods!! It must have been the Coach shoes! It was fun to pretend though! I did find an ok teapot. 135 pounds. It was stunning, but very geometric. Then… I turned around and saw it. The table displaying Wedgewood’s highest end china pattern. My jaw literally dropped. It is STUNNING. Deep blue, gold and white.. awesome. The only problem is a dinner plate is 179 pounds. I didn’t dare touch the teapot to see how much it was. It was perfect. Josiah Wedgewood is probably looking down on it very impressed. I walked around the table 15 times… like a vulture. I cant even imagine how much money was on the table of 8 place setting. Each showing the dinner plate on top of the decorative plate, with salad plate, cup saucer…. I wish I took a picture. I was drooling. I left the dining section depressed and dejected. I am never going to be able to buy a Wedgewood teapot! No set of china will come close to that pattern and everything in BonTon is looking pretty pathetic now…

I headed home, and then to the library. Tonight has been relaxing and there really isn’t much to say about it. Tomorrow is my cleaning/relax day except I really need to work on that paper that I am almost done with. Its not due until the 16th but I need to turn it in on the 9th, and that is 3 weeks away. I have to turn in my hard paper too so I want to get this easier one out of the way! Off to work or read Anne of Green Gables! One or the other!

Todays (sundays) post will go up tomorrow! Sorry!

Friday

Today was a good day! I woke up to Erin messaging me :) I was running a little late but it was worth catching up with her! The tube today was on time and the commute to class was easy! My former favorite part of my commute is now my least favorite. I used to love Baker Street. I still do, but its just crowded and a hassle! I didn’t used to have to walk through it, just look at it through the window! I read an article today that they are working on making the Jubilee line even better (that’s my line!) for the Olympics because Wembley Station (which is 3 stops away from me) is an Olympic stadium. My excitement for the Olympics coming here is dwindling. My quiet tube is going to be horrible. They are estimating another 1 million people on the tube during the Olympics. GAH!

I got to school fast and had a lot of time. Today I picked to start Anne of Green Gables. I love Anne. She is one of my all-time favorite characters. Gilbert and her are my favorite couple too. She names plants too (which I just noticed) so that makes her even cooler! (I have a habit of naming my orchids and I just named my rose bush Adelaide!) And she has red hair :) than mine but though! I love how she says that red heads cant wear pink even in imagination! Oops… I break that law!

Class was on Spanish art which was really awesome. I love some of the work! I hate a lot of it too! Im learning that art is not as innocent as I thought. We are learning all kinds of sexual conations (which I knew about some) but the Dutch especially have some crude since of humor! And the violence in the martyrdom scenes! He showed us the easy ones to look at and spared us the worst ones. We saw some gross stuff! People being skinned alive, a woman having her breasts torn off with pincers (cant remember what Saint that is at the moment…) But it was all intense!

Fridays afternoons = issues and context. The class this week was SO short… I was walking out the door of the building at 3:03! Only an hour and a half long! Today was Karl Marx, Foster, and Freud. All I could think about during Freud was Frasier!! Haha. I love that show! Anyways Freud was pretty crazy and I learned all fetishism and sexuality (of course… its Freud after all!) It was the first time reading Freud and it was really interesting. Here Ill teach you a basic chart.

Violence Sex
. insulted . see pretty girl
l l
. punch guy . . date her
l l
. fight (kill the man) . sex
That is the normal flow of events, but in some peoples mind instead of the flow downwards, the lines get crossed and the goes through the middle dot. So instead the flow is see pretty girl, date her, kill her. This happens with murders with sexual implications (the SVU unit!) I thought it was interesting. Anyways we eventually applied fetishism to art… and how it affects the value of the piece of art. The more detail= more fetishized=more valuable. And then we brought commodity into it and how that affects the value. Like a cup from ancient Greece… to that society it was just a cup but we fetishize it and put it ina museum under lights as a piece of art. It was all kind of mind blowing but I think I got the basics! Also flowers are ruined for me in a way. I We talked about Georgia O’Keefe and her flowers. I have learned about the sexuality behind her flowers at HWS, but we looked at flowers in general in fetishism. Gah. Roses are ruined…. Just read William Blakes poem! Poor Adelaide is just never going to be the same for me (she is my rose!) Basically that was class!

I got home by 3:45 and didn’t know what to do with myself! I decided to take a trip to the big Sainsburys to buy a new pan. I am literally eating my old one. It is burning off in the inside and little flakes end up in my food. I decided that this was not a good idea and I should invest in a new pan and frying pan! I also treated myself to a clock so my phone doesn’t have to be on ALL the time through the night and be my alarm in the morning! I didn’t realize that it needed batteries however… gah. Then I came home, read the Evening Standard, and made leftovers for dinner. Somehow its 8pm… don’t know what I have been doing! After this Im going to plan my day tomorrow, shower and go to bed early! Maybe read some more of good ole Anne :)

Oh I am excited.. I was invited to a Thanksgiving next Saturday by some girls at school! I am really excited about it! I feel like I have people to talk to at school, but I don’t really know them so I am looking forward to “thanksgiving”!

Ill try to do something epic tomorrow… I feel like my blog needs some spice!

What you ALL have been waiting for.....

Dear Everyone....

Here it is. The last word of the Dragon from her Lair. It only took me five days to open it! I actaully feel kind of bad. I can hear her say it so I can hear her evilness in the beginning but besides that I feel slightly bad. Well I read it and its over!!! This probably will not be nearly as exciting or juicy as you all wanted it to be!

An Email:
Hi Anna

I was so sorry to find you missing when I returned from France .
I had no idea that you were considering this for what ever reason ............?
Please could you be kind enough to give me some indication for your leaving as it is something I should be aware of for the future.
I have been trying to contact you on your mobile/cell with no luck , maybe you have changed your number again.
Hope you are happily settled and coping with the course!!!
I enjoyed your brief stay and company - I miss you!
Thank you for leaving everything clean and tidy.
LOLLxxx

So there it is. I wont go to the library tonightsince it closes at 6 so my blog about today will be up tomorrow (or worse case Sunday)

A Nomal Day

For some reason todays commute was a pain. I guess I shouldn’t complain because I haven’t had a problem with the Jubilee line since I have moved and the District line was ALWAYS a pain. But today the trains were 5-7 minutes apart and we sat at every platform for quite a bit. I didn’t get to Great Portland St until 9:45 and usually Im there at 9:30.

Class was morning was good actually. It was on 17th century Dutch art which I basically know nothing about. I really like the Dutch paintings though… besides the still lives. There are too many under lying meaning that ruined the pretty pictures of beautiful stuff for me! I love the landscapes, marine, and genre painting though.

In the afternoon we had materials and techniques of paint surfaces. That was fun, but my brain hurt afterwards! He would show us a tiny portion of an old master painting and we had to tell him who painted it. By the end my centuries were confused and all the brushstrokes were looking almost the same! Another problem was that I am realizing that I didn’t get a lot of later art history at HWS. I am a pro at the Renaissance (ok not a pro but I know a lot of stuff) but once you get into the Rococo I don’t know artist’s names (except for the obvious ones of course!) and by Impression I only know the superstars! It was a fun class though!

Tonight Im going to work on my footnotes for my paper and if Im really ambitious Ill finish writing it. I don’t really know what to do with myself after class now. Im tired so I don’t feel like running all over the city, but I have nothing to do really at home and STILL no internet. I finished my reading for Friday yesterday and I am writing a paper that is due Dec. 16th. Yeah…. I feel like I need a life! I also would love an income… that would be awesome actually. I don’t like not making money!

Off to the library to post this. Sigh. I am so tired of going to that library…..

Oops I forgot Tea Time Tuesday :)

Sorry about my last post! I was so grumpy! Today I am in a much better mood! The exact opposite of yesterday actually. The morning was the same… lecture this morning was all about Rubens and Van Dyck which was what my presentation was about, and the paper that I am writing right now is about. Basically I didn’t have to be there. I didn’t even take notes. It was good though because Patty was the lecturer and he is hilarious! I need to see a scene in Monty Python about Rubens apparently. Ill have to youtube it when I get the internet TOMORROW!

The afternoon class was painful… this is the class that we do the 20 presentation for and that’s it. We have 20 minute presentations, say a few words and go home. Its all fine when the presentations are halfway decent. The three today had no point. Literally. They had no reason for being. They didn’t have a conclusion or even an argument. It didn’t help that for all the presenters English is a second language. The one lady literally showed us 40 images from the baroque and just told us what emotion she thought was coming through. It was completely subjective. The one was a segment of Caraviggo’s The calling of St. Matthew and she said the boy looked innocent. Umm…. They are gambling in the streets… Not so much. Oh it was embarrassing… so Patty is really really funny. He just says most honest un-academic things about images and the artists. He made a joke about one of Rubens works and no one laughed… except for me! (well the older woman chuckled some but it was mostly me) And it wasn’t just a chuckle... I thought it was really funny! Sigh.

After lecture I had 2 hours to kill before tea. I wandered the library, wandered to Oxford St and then made my way to Charing Cross. I was dreading it… I am kinda tired of forcing conversation and I remember her being nice, but it was four years ago that I saw her and she talked a lot to Uncle Billy. Well she is really really nice and so talkative that it wasn’t work. It was fun. The room was nice and she didn’t like it because they had changed it from a “cozy scruffy place” to a well… classical, romantic room. Tea was good, scones delicious. I was so hungry that it was hard to eat politely. My stomach was growling and Im nibbling on my two scones trying to make them last! Apparently she lives right next to the Burghley House (the really big one… our first field trip) She was disappointed because she wanted me to come for a weekend and show it to me. Best part about it… she treated which was good because I walked in and thought “crap this will be expensive”. I forgot to ask her how Will and Kate’s wedding was… I thought about it right at the end, but didn’t know if it was appropriate. She seemed cool enough that it probably would have been fine but I didn’t know!

I came home, ate dinner and am writing this. Next is the paper, some reading, a shower and off to bed. Im getting up at 8 on my day off because the internet dude is coming anywhere from 8-1. Kinda wishing it was a 2-3 hour window… not a 5 hour one! Grrr…. But it will all be worth it! Yay for internet! I am so excited. Sitting on my own couch surfing the world wide web. Im just going to watch greys forever until Im caught up! :)

Epic Fail of Stromboli size proportions

I woke up this morning at 8am just in case my workmen man would come. It was like Christmas morning. My alarm went off and BAM I was awake, up, dressed and sitting on the couch. I sat there rocking back and forth just like I have sat on the top of the hallway stairs on Christmas morning for the last 21 years of my life. This time though I wasn’t telling mom to hurry (she is the slowest person on the planet on Christmas morning! Sorry mom but you are!) it was the workman dude.

At 9:15 I heard a door slam. I went to my front window and saw a communications van. Woo! I was excited and hoping it was for me. It was! He ran up to me (my intercom does work which is incredibly exciting) and I pushed the little button to let him in. (which also worked!)He is really nice and I am writing my blog while he is here because my flat is so small I have nowhere to go but I don’t want him to feel like I am watching his every move. I was going to write my paper but im too excited to think about Sir Anthony Van Dyck at a time like this. It is sad how excited I am for the World Wide Web, and for Grey’s Anatomy! I will be able to keep in touch with everyone so much better now too! EXCITED! (if you didn’t already know!)

Ok well while Im sitting here Ill tell you all about some things that I have been forgetting. Number one is somewhat a mystery to me…. Maybe you can help me out. The last few days I have been to tired to read on the tube. Im just not awake yet so I have been people watching. There has been a girl applying copious amounts of makeup everyday. I don’t understand. Why would you do your makeup on the tube? First everyone stares at you while you do it. Second, everyone knows the copious amounts that you are applying. Thirdly we are MOVING in a tube, and fourth the mirror is so small that they just look dumb. So I don’t get it. Literally everyone stares… it’s like a show. And some girls really cake that makeup on. I just don’t understand. Get up 5 minutes earlier and do it in the comfort of your home and pjs.

Ok the guy is still here and I just want to pounce and ask how its going and whats he doing. That would be incredibly annoying! Sorry you are all getting the play by play of the excitement! He just moved to go outside and trace it. Whatever that means! I hope that means he is almost done! He has the cap in here back on so that must be good! Yay I am so close to living the good life! (i.e having internet on my couch..) Really people… you take it for granted. For those of you reading this in the comfort of your home and who didn’t have to walk 4 blocks carrying all your crap to a hangout for the homeless that has stupidly short hours….. be grateful!!!!

Ok after an hour and 15 minutes he is GONE!! I have to wait about 15 minutes he said for the router to recognize the internet and then Im all set to go. Im so excited. I did a little jig when he left! Hahaha. It was so awkward for a minute…. He looked really embarrassed and asked to use my bathroom. I didn’t care but I felt bad that he was so embarrassed to ask. Im now sitting on my couch staring at my router. Haha

Ok Epic fail on the internet. The light never came on…. Because Orange needs to activate my account and it takes 7-10 working days. O my goodness. I almost was mean and then I thought of all of us minions answering the phone at Chautauqua! Im a perfect customer thanks to that experience! So I was nice and said ok, and then threw my phone at my pillow. (it was my 10 pound phone, not my droid). I sunk into a depression making lunch and then decided I needed to accomplish things! I ate lunch and headed out to register for the doctors. I thought it would be annoying but it was really simple. I didn’t know the dates of my shots and the lady was just like eh whatever. Alright… so that was easy. Then I made the mandatory check up appointment for next week. Next stop was to make myself exempt from the council tax. Its about 900 pounds a year so I really did not want to pay it. That was also painless! I have done a lot today which makes me feel better. I have even worked some on my paper, and now I only have to do my reading for Friday. I am all set up to watch Greys… but I don’t have internet. Grr.

I want to completely re-do my wardrobe. I love the style here. I get dressed up a lot here… like no jeans dressed up. Its nice to wear legit clothes and look nice instead of sweats. Im going to stick out I think when I come home! I want so many pairs of shoes and I was in H&M yesterday (LOOKING not buying! I walked out without a bag!) and I wanted every evening dress there was. Where do people wear these too?? I wanna wear them! I wish H&M was my closet and Aldo supplied my shoes. (or Coach… :))

Well that was my roller coaster of a day. Im waiting to skype mom in the library and then off to do homework and have a quiet night at home. I am loving the stress-free living! I am COMPLETELY settled now that I have a doctors and got rid of the council tax. I cant believe I have moved to London, found a flat alone, moved, figured out my droid and SIM cards, bought internet, found a doctors, figured out water and electricity bills, became exempt from tax all on top of going to school and I have done it all alone. Im pretty proud of myself. USA…. Bring it on! I can do anything in the US if I can do it here!

O one more note…. The entire population of London hates America. I guess we are demanding crazy security stuff for the Olympics. It really is crazy.. what we are demanding. I should look it up again in the paper and tell you all! We want Britain to up everything to crazy numbers!

Ok off to surf the web until mom comes on!

Grumpy Gills

I have been in such a bad mood all day today and its getting worse as this is the loudest library on the planet. Didn’t know that screaming children, annoying teenagers and talking on cell phones were the norm for libraries. Apparently it is for this one. Not to mention that you cant find a book in here because of the of organization of it and none of the books are where they should be. Grrrr…. I told you all I was in a bad mood!

Today wasn’t even all that bad. The morning lecture was all about Bernini who I have studied a lot before but he never really gets old! Then the afternoon was the V&A. That was incredibly boring and seemed to last for freaking ever. So I don’t really know why im so incredibly grumpy but I am.

OK I just checked my email, my HWS one that I haven’t checked in ages because its mostly junk mail now. The dragon emailed me! I haven’t opened it because I don’t want to deal with her tonight. I cant believe that after a month she emailed me! Gah.

So basically Im going to go home to peace and quiet. Maybe work on my paper, maybe not. Then im off to bed early to see if that puts me in a better mood tomorrow!

I LOVE Sundays

Sunday is becoming my favorite day of the week. First of all it’s the only day of the week that I don’t set my alarm. By Saturday my flat is driving me crazy. During the week my flat slowly goes downhill as I usually only do the dishes and a general pickup of random things. Saturday I just look around and think how badly I need to clean and.. run out the door to roam London! Haha. Sundays is the day to fix all of that! By the time I feel accomplished and my flat is sparkling, from the toilet and the kitchen, to the mirror and the floors. My laundry is all ready for the next week and I can just chill in lazy clothes. I love Sundays!

I may become a complete overachiever… I think Im going to work on a paper that is due Dec 16th today. I have already started it, but I really want to get it done because I have my issues and context paper due on the 16th also and that paper will probably be the end of me! It will be HARD and this paper I am working on (on Rubens and Van Dyck) is really easy and my presentation is kind of fresh in my head so I may as well get one done and out of the way. And I would really love not to change my flight home because I cant finish my paper on time. (I fly out before the 16th. I didn’t realize we would have extra time after the term to hand things out) So I am going to be an overachiever! That way I wont be stressed and wanting to roam London during Chrismtas but being instead being stuck in my flat writing.

Something that I think I keep forgetting to mention…. The Fountain of Life Bookstore (the Christian Bookstore I live above) is out of business. At least that’s my guess because it hasn’t been opened a day that I have lived here!

I feel like my blog is boring these days! I have nothing really fun and crazy to write about! Sorry if im putting you all to sleep!

Lord Mayor's Parade!

I am exhausted and so very very cold, but today was a really good day! My alarm went off at 8am on a Saturday which was depressing! I was out of the house by 9:15 (yeah.. I laid in bed for a bit) I bought another month of my tube pass and headed to the parade! I just want to say once again that I hate the tube on the weekends. I know they are upgrading for the Olympics, but do you HAVE to shut down an entire section of the underground system?? Just saying. So after I got off at Baker Street to grab the Circle line I realized that it was down, so I took the Metropolitan line to Liverpool Street. I was worried because the parade started at 10:45 and there was NO one on the tube. I just thought that everyone was already there and I wouldn’t be able to see a thing. (you cant leave your flat go to the Macy’s Day parade an hour and a half before it starts and expect to see!) So I was worried. I get out of the tube and it is still quiet. I pull out the smartphone (I forgot my map!) and walk towards one of the parade streets. There was barely anyone there. I got a front row spot! Granted I was behind a row of soldiers, but I could still see when the parade went around the corner. I could see everything coming down the road, and then turn. It was awesome.

This parade was so stereotypical British. Picture Sherlock Holmes era Britain in your head… that is what the majority of the parade was! Actually the couple next to me told me all about the parade. The Lord Mayor is elected for a year. Each guild has a leader and they can become sheriff, and then out of the sheriff they are elected Lord Mayor. So the parade was a ton a guilds that still exist from the middle ages. Some have just been creates, but most of them are old. There was the horse tack guild, glovers, bowers, arrow makers, gunsmiths, etc. it was fun. Inbetween the guild was the military. Basically it was the guild and the army. It was cool though. The military know how to march and their uniforms are really cool. So the parade was really fun! Freya texted me saying that she was running late (she was going to the later parade. It starts at the Guildhall, goes to St Paul, and then back) I went to the Banquet Hall before meeting up with her. I am glad it was free (thanks to my membership!) It was worth seeing def! The architecture was amazing (thanks to Indigo Jones) and the ceiling… painted by none other than Peter Paul Rubens. Charles I was beheaded here… it was one of the last things he saw! Crazy!

I then went to Mansion House tube stop and from Freya. WAY more people were at the later parade. The crowd was 10 people deep! I was glad that I had already seen it. When it was done we met up with her friends (I learned that the guy I had met on Sunday was her boyfriend!) so it was his and his two friends. They were really nice, but the one was a little much. Its hard to explain… he was just very British. That was Robert. Edward was a lot nicer and chill. We went to St Pauls since we were so close to see the tent city. (I don’t know how big it is in the States… the tent city protesting capitalism.) I don’t know exactly what they are protesting, but you cant really stop capitalism by sitting in front of tents for the day… Just saying.

At four we met up with some Christies girls. We headed to a bridge for the fireworks. There were SO many people. The fireworks were amazing over the river. They didn’t last long though.. only about 15 minutes which was disappointing and the finale was not a finale! But for 15 minutes they were the best fireworks I have ever seen. I had an amazing front row spot. I was just good at snagging those today!

After everyone was trying to pick a pub to go to and everyone had different opinions. I ended up just calling it a day. I had been out since 9:15 and standing for that long, so I was tired. If there would have been a def plan I may have tagged along. Honestly I didn’t want to spend any money either. I didn’t spend a penny today!! I was so proud of myself! (well except for my tube card but that is a need to get to school and such!)

Tomorrow is a trip to the library, laundry and cleaning. I am looking forward to sleeping in!

FRIDAY!

If anyone wants to fall asleep don’t take pills… just pick up a copy of Gadamer’s book and read the chapter “The Ontology of the Work of Art and Its Hermeneutic Significance” It will put you to sleep… it worked for me! Last night wasn’t as productive as I had hoped because of good ole Gadamer and Gell. I fell asleep!

Today was a normal morning except for the fact I actually got out of bed when I was supposed to! (it helps taking a 45 minute nap before dinner and then going to bed at 10!) I went to school and watched as people sprinted around trying to print off their projects and freaking out because the color printer broke. That is why I get things done early. I ate my cheerios and instead of reading watched the drama unfold. Hehe. I am evil I know… but it was entertaining.

Lecture today was Caravaggio. Gah. It was the same old story, but with one of the really awesome guest lecturers who is really entertaining. At least he left out the debate of was Caravaggio gay or not, and liked little boys. That is so old! I observed for the first time today Armistice Day. I am so stupid. I never connected why Veterans Day is on November 11th. Gah! I felt so dumb. Anyways at 11am we had 2 minutes of silence for the end of WWI. Everyone had a poppy on today (actually all of November they have worn them!). Remembrance Day is bigger here than at home. Maybe its because where Im from… but besides getting a day off we don’t do much. Maybe its because we were more removed from the War and we weren’t effected like Europe was, or Britain for that matter. I don’t know… it was interesting anyways.

Then I ate lunch and hung out with Freya. It is just annoying that we have to wait from 11:45-1:30 for class. When we don’t have work we eat and just sit around waiting. I would rather have class again at 12:30 and be out earlier!

As I am every Friday… I am intellectually drained. Our seminar today was long and difficult. We got out 15 minutes earlier than normal but it felt 45 minutes longer. Gadamer was really hard to understand and Gell was boring and so logically that it was common sense. The only thing I really got out of it was Winston Churchill was just as good as the Nazi’s in the propaganda department, and the history of the development of the unicorn. The unicorn part was really interesting actually and I understood it (which is amazing) Basically a unicorn was conceived of by the Swedes/Northern parts of Europe that were near the coast. There were long beautiful horns that were sometimes washed up on the beaches and they were collected. (They were actually from the Narwhal it turns out!) Anyways they took a pre-conceived notion of the horse (which was very important to their society) and added the horn to it and the myth unfolds. (Apparently only “pure” people could catch a unicorn. That would be virgin girls. The unicorn would be drawn to their purity and lay their head in their lap where the virgin girl would kill it for its horn. Yeah… weird. ) Anyways the point of this is that mystical creatures are created by a culture. America could not invent the unicorn because they didn’t have horses until the Spanish. So our brain is influenced by society (duh) and in order to have an image of the unicorn you first need the idea of the unicorn. Only after you have the concept that a unicorn is a horse with 1 horn can you have the word and finally the image. (then the Christians take the unicorn for a symbol of Christ.) Hopefully everyone just learned something! And just think… you learned it for free!

We talked about other things too that were way more theory based but I didn’t really understand all of it and wont try to explain it to you. I felt better that no one understood it though. A lot of stuff about agents, patients and such. It’s a long story :) Oh I completely forgot… I was so happy! My professor is another person on the short list of people who doesn’t think much of the Mona Lisa. My list is up to three… Myslef, Dr. Michael Michael and a guest lecturer.

I rewarded myself with a coffee on the way home and grabbed an Evening Standard. I feel so un-aware of what’s happening in London when I forget to grab my free paper. I love free papers!

Tonight is the trip to the library for internet. I have to look up the Lord Mayor’s Parade that I want to go to tomorrow. I need to know the route. It goes up to St Pauls in the morning and back down in the afternoon. Freya is going in the afternoon but Im going to try to get there in the morning. If I have a good spot and saw everything I wont wait for it to come back down. I ay try to find Freya though in the afternoon and watch it with her so I can do something with someone. Then the fireworks are at 5 on the river which will be cool. I probably wont have internet access tomorrow because the library closes at 5! Everything will go up on Sunday! I have 5 more days (including today) without internet. Im so pumped. I am going to try to get a paper started this weekend so when I have internet I can watch greys in my pjs until I catch up!

One Day From Friday!

Today was a crazy day even though I only had a morning lecture! I got up on time for once and headed off to school. I read my really good novel (Im almost done!) and ate breakfast and went to lecture. It was a pretty normal morning. Lecture was really good. It was the introduction to the 17th century. Patty is such a good lecturer and so funny that the class seemed like it was a half an hour long instead of an hour and a half! Basically he went through what France, Spain, Holland, and England were doing in the 17th century. He made fun of all of them (except Holland). Apparently they were the only civilized ones in this era! (minus their involvement in the slave trade) It was funny anyways, and true! Someone was dumb enough to mention that America wasn’t starting any religious wars (we were talking about the 30 years war) and he that was true. We were just murdering women in Mass. Protestantism gone wild. (Salem Witch Trials) So no one escaped the jokes of Patty except Holland. It was fun and I learned a lot. I still need to write out my kings and queens though into a chart and list artists beneath them. I only know the obvious ones like Rubens is under Charles I!

Realizing why I love Europe… in America a cabin made in 1770’s is amazing and “old”. I tour castles made 200 years before that! The bad part about doing a masters in London… I never want to do work! There is too much to see!

After class I finished and turned in my project. I don’t know how I feel about it. I don’t know what else I could have done, but Im worried I didnt do enough. Gah. We shall see I guess.

Then I headed home and stopped at Sainsburys for peanut butter. After that I went to the bank to get my debit card. FINALLY! And then it was to the library to skype mom and upload posts/pictures. For those of you who have read every post… you have read 52 pages and 32,866 words. Congrats! :) This is the longest thing I have ever written I think!

Tonight is reading for my horrible Friday class and then Im done for the night. This week has been rough so Im ready for the weekend!!! Sory about my horrible posting practices this week! Ill be better now without a project!

Hampton Court!

Today was EPIC!! Kensington Palace better step it up with their next exhibit on Queen Victoria (opening March 26th!) because if it as bad as the last one Hampton Court is my new favorite. Its crazy because of the crashing together of two very different periods, but they are separate enough to be ok.

Getting up this morning was horrible. I was really running late and then decided to take the bus to save time. I waited for 5 minutes and it didn’t come, so I walked to the tube (after wasting time) and just as I got to the station the bus pulled up. Grrrr… I took the Jubilee line down to Waterloo Station where I met Freya to catch a National Rail train. I took my very first English Train. Oh my goodness it was so incredibly easy. After doing it in Italy in Italian, buying a ticket and finding the train in English was a piece of cake!

Hampton is very easy to get to! It’s a 30 minute ride from Waterloo and the station is the last stop so you can even sleep and be ok! Once you get off at the station, you literally walk across the bridge and its there! I thought it was a lot taller than it actually. I also thought it was a lot bigger, and then we went inside the façade and it WAS! It was a bit confusing… some of the Palace is Tudor era, the other part was built by William and Mary, and Queen Anne even did some work. So you leap a good 200 years when wandering about.

I LOVED the Tudor section but then again I love the Tudors in general. I cant believe Im admitting this… but I LOVE King Henry VIII. Besides killing two of his wives… he is pretty cool. Crazy but in a really interesting way. I love him. And Elizabeth I… epic queen! And the clothes of the era. Its all just cool so if any if you like the Tudor era, go to Hampton. If not but you like the 17th / 18th century go and see the other wings. Modest but pretty :)

I just want everyone to know how good I was… the giftshop was AWESOME and I bought NOTHING. They had really good looking book, every Alison Weir novel, mini sets of amour, and the best… a coffee mug that when it’s hot the pictures of the 6 wives of Henry disappear! Hehe. I didn’t buy anything. It was hard but I held out! I did want to get a postcard but I forgot to go back for one! I will just have to get one when I go back!

Happy Birthday Mom!

First of all… Happy Birthday mom! :)
I was so tired this morning that I didn’t know what my alarm was. I was hearing it in my dream but I had clue what it was. Needless to say I got out of bed late this morning and have been in a sleepy daze since! Lecture this morning had so much potential…. Rudolph the 2nd and cabinets of curiosity! It was still good, but I wanted to hear more about Rudolph and Peter the Great. The stuff was really cool! I wanted most of it. We talked about collections and basically I have all the qualities of a compulsive, obsessed collector. That’s awesome… Whatever :) It was a cool lecture but I wanted to hear more about the “crazy” collectors! Oh and thank you Harry Potter for teaching me what a bezoar is. We saw one mounted in silver and the only way I knew it was a stone from a goat/sheep was Harry Potter. Thanks JK Rowling!

At 1:30 we had materials and techniques on…. Furniture! Something I know absolutely nothing about. (well now I know some!) It was really cool and I am never going to be able to tell woods apart but it was interesting! After lecture I needed to look stuff up on the internet for my project that I REALLY need to work on tonight. It is really time consuming. I don’t know why they hate us to much… they took away our study day on a week we have project due. I actually would have used the day to study this week! I do have Thursday afternoon off but I want to print it off on Thursday so Im not fighting for a computer on Friday morning. I miss the HWS world. I had the internet and my own printer. Such luxury.

Gah to Mondays

This wont be very long because I am tired, slightly grumpy and very sick of being at this smelly hangout for the homeless (aka my local library). Last night wasfn! It was so much fun to be in the sports pub atmosphere and see all the crazy sports fans. It was very funny that there were english guys rooting for Buffalo and no one really knew where it was. On guy was amazed I was from around there (its hard to get them to realize I live in the middle of nowhere so Buffalo is freaking close enough!) and he said he google mapped the stadium and his quote… “Do you know its in the middle of Bloody nowhere?” Wow. Yes. Yes I do and actually compared to my home town that is not nowhere… that is civilization. Also one of the questions on the British NFL station came in from the viewers and the question was “Why are the Buffalo Bills named the Buffalo Bills?” Seriously? No one knew and the announcer said that they had to research it. Later after some commercial breaks they thought it was because of a guy named Buffalo Bill but they didn’t really know who that was. And I was the only person in the place that knew the cheerleaders were Buffalo Jills. Really?? You call yourselves fans? It was fun though, and the cider was good!

I got home late, and to bed late, so I am sleepy today. Lecture this morning was 16th century Netherlandish paintings. For those of you who feel sorry for me its ok… Im happy as long as we are out of the Renaissance and of Italy! The afternoon session was our first professional development. It was interesting and depressing at the same time! The one panel dude was the coolest guy. He was Australian and sounded JUST like Hugh Jackman… nothing bad about that! He also is in charge of the arms and amour at the V&A so he was really cool. The other girl didn’t sound as cool when she talked… but she works for the Queen so that’s legit. I wanna work for the Queen!

After school I went to get my dumb British Library card. What a HASSLE! I thought libraries were supposed to like you to come in and read. Nope.. not the British one. Then I ran home, grabbed my compy and headed to the library where I looked things up but I really want to go home. I may soon! Tomorrow is an easy day which I am thankful for! Hopefully I can get in bed early tonight. I am tired!

Sunday Morning

This morning as been the routine Sunday morning, but I slept in a lot later than last Sunday! I got up at 10:30 and got dressed. Grabbed my list and headed to Sainsburys. I wasn’t expecting to spend much and I didn’t besides the fact that I tried to have soup for lunch yesterday and didn’t have a can opener to open it. So some of my extra food money went to a can opener so I can eat the food I have. Gah! It is so frustrating.

I went to Sainsburys looking like a complete crazy because for some strange reason I didn’t brush my hair out after my shower. I just took it out of the towel and went to bed. I have no idea what I was thinking. (apparently I wasn’t it) So today my red locks are CRAZY. In a ponytail it looks like I rubbed a balloon all over my head, down it looks like I stuck my finger in an outlet. Its one bad hair day. Its in a bun at the second in a sad attempt to control it!

Im home sweating from carrying my groceries, and because its so hot in here. It was a turn on the heater night last night so I always roast for the day after. Im working on laundry so at least the clothes and bedding will dry fast today! :)

I just have a feeling I wont get a ton done today either… I am going to head to the library at 2 and then I do in fact have a football watching date at 6pm tonight. Go Bills!! Freya and I are meeting at the Charing Cross Tube station so I have to figure out what line that is on. I have been by it on a bus, but haven’t ever been through it on the tube!

Ill post about tonight tomorrow!

Lazy Day!

Today has been a lazy lazy day and I LOVE it! I havent spent many weekends at home (especially Saturdays!) so today was a nice change. I have a busy week this week (no study day!) and I project due Friday so I really need to get the majority of it done this weekend. It isnt hard just time consuming! So the blog is probably going to be more boring than usual as Im writing and reading for most of the day!

Today woke up at 9am thanks to the construction going on around me. I decided it was Saturday so I laid in bed. At 10 I got up and tea and biscuits for breakfast. Im obsessed! :) Digestive cookies are SO good. I tried the caramel ones this week… not as tasty but the texture is cool so I approve! After breakfast I went down to the post office to pay my very first bill. I feel very adult like, but refuse to admit that I am actually in the real world! I am set now for my water until March 31st so that is nice! (I don’t have meter so it is just a flat rate for water!) I thought the post office closed at noon on Saturdays… nope! They are open til 5:30 which is good to know! I headed to the library for internet…. I thought they opened at noon. Nope again! They open at 9 on Saturdays. Silly me!

The rest of the night is going to be boring. Project writing and reading. I am excited to have time to read FOR FUN! I want to get through Emma so I can start my new book. I also want to start one of my two final papers this week. I know its early, but my presentations were early and I have already done the research. I need to write before it all leaks from head! My other paper is going to a horrible one to write (for Issues and Context) so I need to get the easy one out of the way!

I didn’t get much done actually as I ended up reading Emma and then closing my eyes which turned into an hour and a half nap. Great. When I woke up I didn’t feel like doing work so I just made dinner and did things other than doing work! Off to bed!

T.G.I.F

It was one of those Fridays that you are just immensely happy that the weekend is almost here! I have to say this week FLEW by! Actually I am now halfway done with the term as of 4pm today. It has been 5 weeks already which is crazy! I am 1/6th of the way through the course. Time is flying by in a sense, but on the other hand I feel like I have been here forever! I am settled int my flat now and it feels like home. The pictures on the wall help and I am just feeling settled and not like a nomad anymore which is really nice!

Another thing I love about Fridays is that I feel like I actually have time to write my blog and not just go through my day linearly, but add some stuff about my life here in general. It is so therapeutic! I sit in pj pants, eat McVities Digestive Cookies, drink tea, usually listen to James Morrison and unwind! Yup those are my Friday nights! Exciting! :)

So first my day, and then random thoughts! I got out of bed ten minutes late this morning which was bad! I didnt seem to care though as I moved like molasses and didnt get out the door until 9:05. I ended reaching the bus stop just as the 266 was getting there so I decided to hop on and I ended up reaching the tube station at 9:10 which is my normal time! I love the bus! I read again on my tube ride in just so I could feel cool! Once I got to school I ate my cheerios and read Emma. (This book really needs to get better. Especially since I have a Phillip Gregory book that is calling me to read!) I have a potential date on Sunday night that I am really excited about! Freya asked if I wanted to watch football with her at a pub on Sunday night! (American football... as in the Bills!) So Im really excited to have a friend date and to watch the Bills considering that I only watched one game before I left for London. If they lose on Sunday you can go ahead and blame me. Apparently I am a curse because I have been watching them suck for 22 years and when I leave the country they are amazing and beat the Patriots. Anyways I hope that it works out and Freya ends up going so I can. (She and I both need to get our project done and if she isnt far enough she wont go to the game and it would just be way more fun with someone!)

Lecture was torture. It was Way of Living: Renassiance Silver. It sounds really cool, but Andrew has too broad of topics for me to get much out of it. Maybe Im just used to really specific lectures at HWS because we have a semester for a narrow topic, and these are more survey. I dont know, but I barely sat still through it.

After I ate quickly so I could get a computer in the lab. (Fridays are the hardest days!) I surfed the web which was so nice. I miss it! Then it was off to my favorite class.... Issues and Context. GAH! We discussed Hegel and Foucaunt (probably spelled his name wrong) Basically I should now be certified by New York State to teach History. We discussed the methods of looking at history and therefore teaching it. Oh my goodness my brain hurt. Basically its linear or 3-D. Everyone teaches it linearly and we should take a more 3-D model approach. If you think about it everyone is taught history mainly by memorizing dates and its important because it is and you move on. (At least that is how I learned it, but then again I went to PCS) its good to have a strong footing in the basics of dates, but you should have a lot more. Ok Im not going to go into it, but history is important, we suck at teaching it and we need to look at history discontinuities to really learn. Thats what I learned in two hours.

Yeah my mind was blown and I had a headache before the course, and had a really bad headache after! I headed home (reading the newspaper on the tube!) Oh the Evening Standard.. its a free newspaper that is like the USA Today and I know about London than I do about the States, and I know more about the States by living in London then I ever do at home. Free quality newspapers... the best idea ever. It really makes the Post-Journal look pathetic... sorry PJ!

I have decided in the last month and some weeks that I have been here that if I ever lived here permanently I would not have children, or if I did it would never leave the house until it could walk. I watch women battle the tubes and subways with strollers. It must be horrible. Oh and moms walking with strollers.... such a pain. i dont understand. They walk (actually they stroll) down the middle of the sidewalk with their "prams". Yup called prams which is awesome! But shouldnt they be in a hurry with tons of errands or something. Why do they walk so SLOW. They clog sidewalks, tubes, and buses. It doesnt help that the prams are literally huge. They are the Cadillacs of strollers. Its almost like they are a status symbol. I have seen some AWESOME prams. Legit ones that look like they were handmade in Sweden or Switzerland... some country with cool, modern design. The baby is just chilling in ultimate comfort. My favorite is when the mom has the stroller packed with shopping bags and the kids is being dragged around and forced to walk. The entire thing just looks like a hassle.

Not living with the Dragon gives me SO many freedoms, one of them being cooking without being criticized. Its nice not to dread dinner time. Cooking though is interesting! I havent made anything unedible (yet... it is bound to happen. Im a college kid) I realized that when I was abroad I had a cookbook (thanks to my sister!) Well I forgot it... so I make stuff up. I also have no means of measuring anything. I always think back to my Curious Cook class (For those of you who dont know.. I took this class to cover my chemistry requirement thinking that the chemistry of cooking would be easy. Yeah.. not so much!)Professor Forbes (the scariest woman on this planet. Anyone seen the Rescuers or something like that? When Penny has get rescued from the cave and the evil lady. Forbes looked like the emancipated lady) always said that measuring was the WORST thing you can do. You must follow your instincts. Ok that may work for seasoned cooks, not college kids. Anyways I am making things up without measuring cups. Every night is a new adventure. Everything so far has been good but I am waiting for that one night that I invent something repulsive! No worries you all will hear about it when it happens! Maybe when I get the internet in my flat I can look recipes up! Tonight its a bunch of random leftovers of meatballs, rice and mushrooms! Oh and Im used to having a microwave... I only have an oven now! Im telling you.. its an adventure!

We signed up for the tours that we are going to take when we go to Oxford at the end of the term. I got the good ones! I got to the board quickly after lecture and still barely got Furniture and Silver with Andrew, and Christ Church Painting with Rebecca. Im excited and it is still a ways off! This Wednesday is Hampton Court! I have heard a rumor that we have to get there by ourselves which Im hoping isnt true because we have to catch a train from Waterloo and I have a feeling that will cost money! Its too far out for my oyster card to get me there for free! We shall see.

That’s it for the night! Off to read and go to bed! (yup Im skipping the shower. They are overrated.)

One more day til Friday!

First of all before I go into today I forgot (in my rant about how bad Kensington Palace looked) there was a highlight. There were these “informers” running around who were actually kinda annoying minus one of them who seemed to kind follow me. Anyways he was really funny and obviously loved his job. He was telling me about the ceiling (which you could barely see from the lighting of the stupid exhibit!) and he asked me “whats the best way to look at a ceiling?” and I said “use a mirror”. Well he thought that was a good answer because most people don’t know but he said no. its not the best way and he laid down. Right in the middle of the room. I thought “you have got to be kidding me. Can you DO that? Is that legal exhibit edict?” So I laid down with him. In the middle of the floor and looked up. He is right. It’s the best way to see a ceiling. I don’t know if other people were that happy with us but there I was laying in the middle of the floor with a guy all dressed up (miners head light, weird glasses, grey robes) staring at a Renaissance ceiling. So that is way the picture is so straight on. He made me take it laying down. It was a lot of fun! I may start doing that! So if you are in a palace with a painted ceiling and someone is laying in the middle of the room, don’t think their crazy! :)

Anyways on to today. I was slow getting up (this is a consistent theme isn’t it?) and my flat was toasty warm because last night was a heater night! (my heaters have two levels. On and off. Cant control it. So if they are on for a night (electric is cheap at night here) they heat the flat so much that I am good for 2 nights of not having to turn them on.) I headed to class after a huge debate of what to wear (I wanted to wear pjs).

This is pathetic but I feel so cool riding the tube into class in the morning. Going to NYC every year I always wanted to be one of those people who read on the subway and were anxiously looking out the windows at what stop they were on. I am now one of those people. :) I feel so cool! Hahah Its kind of sad isn’t it…. :)

Lecture today was a rough one. 16th century ceramics. Im sorry but ceramics aren’t cool and awesome until you hit the end of the 18th century when the French are making kick butt porcelain in the Roccoco style. That is when things get interesting. I cant wait until next term when we are out of the Renaissance. Im starting to hate the Renaissance and those Italians.

Im typing this at class waiting for my handling session of ceramics at 3. What a long gap! I should be doing some research but eh. Ill get to that in a minute! Im debating about registering at the British Library today for a library card. Its seriously worse than opening a bank account. Its pathetic.

Ok I didn’t make it to the library. My class in the afternoon went until 4:30 and it was DARK when I got out of class. Also I now know why the Brits drink tea all the time because I just experienced London rain. O my goodness I had an umbrella but my feet are all wet and it was cold, and dark. Very depressing! I wanted to run into Sainsburys on the way home so I didn’t take the bus. Gah. Oh and Sainsburys…. That was interesting.

I get all the stuff I wanted and head for the “till” (the cashout). I get in line behind an older man. You know how old men can either be really adorable and cute, or really creepy? This one was creepy. He looks at me and then puts down the divider on the belt. (side note… this is a very serious thing. If someone comes up behind you, you put down the divider. Otherwise you get stared down by the cashier and the person behind gets huffy. It’s a serious thing those dividers!) He puts it down and said “oh you can relieve those arms of yours now.” I was just like ok… thanks. He looks at me and said “do you need help??” Ok I have three things. I was just like “no… I got it” and stood there and read ads while he stared me down. Then its my turn and creepy guy is gone. The cashier is about my age. I smile and say” hi how are you” like I always do. He says hi and then starts checking me out. (my groceries!) All of a sudden he says “can I see some id?” I just stared at him. There is not really a strict drinking age in this country except you can get ided because they don’t want pre-teens and teenagers buying it. (understandable) . I have bought cider before not getting ided at all because I just don’t feel like I look like im 15. So I stare at him and say Oookkkk. I show him my passport (which I have in order to use my American Express credit card. Yes its fun carrying around my most important document with me) He looks at it and says “Anna… (emphasis on Anna) I thought you were a lot younger. You look so young” and smile at me. I just stare at him and said “really” and he is like “Yeah that’s good though right? Compliment” and smiles. Ok… so I pay and he says “where are you from” and I just look at him and said “well like my passport says, the States” and he asked what part and I said New York and he of course said “o the city!!!” I didn’t want to encourage him talking to me so I just said yes instead of NEW YORK IS A STATE with rivers, mountains, lakes etc!! I shove everything in my bag and the best part of the entire conversation… “its too bad im working… I have a bigger umbrella. I could have walked you home” Really?? Does he really think this stuff works? I just said “o too bad” and left. That’s my local grocery store. Creepers and crazy cashiers.

So that was my night and I have to go back out in the rain so I can skype mom and post this post along with Tuesdays. (Sorry I forgot Tuesday!) Then I have to come home (def having tea and biscuits!) and read for tomorrow (art history theory) and hopefully go to bed at a decent hour.

Happy November 1st! (aka the post I forgot to post!)

Ahhh its November. That means the month for Christmas is coming! I am very excited!! I know I know.. its too early to be excited. Since the British don’t have Thanksgiving they are already getting ready for Christmas. Oxford is slowly starting to decorate and windows are popping up. Love it :)

I forgot to mention about yesterday… the National Gallery has the BEST bookstore. BEST. Its all art history so it doesn’t get any better than that. I wanted every book in there. I didn’t buy a THING! (someone please be impressed and proud of me! I resisted the art history book temptation)

Today was crazy and long. I was at school early again to tweak my powerpoint and print my notes and handouts. Then I ate breakfast and read some of Emma (Dear Jane Austen…. It better start to get more exciting pretty soon because I don’t like Emma and its slow. Just saying) Then our lecture was on Renaissance furniture. It was cool, but so broad (we covered the medieval ages to the end of the Renaissance) that I feel like we just brushed the surface. Hopefully next week Ill learn more in our furniture handling session.

After lecture it was lunch, and reading over my notes. I was nervous that it was too short. But then I decided not to worry about it because there was nothing I could do about it now. So I read some more of Emma.

The presentation actually went well. The only thing I was mad at myself for was not making the point about Van Dyck being a narcissist. It was one of the things that was so obvious that I forgot to mention it. Oops. My tutor did though so whatever! Patty (Patrick but everyone calls him Patty) is really cool. All the older women in my course have a crush on him. Its funny. He is really laid back and funny though so its fun to have him as a tutor.

After class I felt so much better! I have a project due next Friday but Im not too worried about it. I feel relieved! I went down the street to Rymans (the stationary store) and got a flimsy notebook to put ticket stubs in (like a scrapbook that I did for Rome) some envelopes, and some pens. Then I was so close to my favorite place that I headed to Piccadilly and went into…… Fortnum and Masons. I wanted to see if they had anything on sale from Halloween. I didn’t even know if they “did” sales. They do. :) Fortnum and Masons have these large wicker picnic basket things filled with bottles of champagne and chocolate truffles. (yes I want one) They start at 150 pounds. That is a half empty one. Anyways so they are known in a way for this wicker hampers that are full of goodies. Well there was a mini 6 inch by 6 inch one that was full of chocolates for Halloween. 35 pounds. Gah. I was looking at it and I flipped it over… on sale for 5 pounds. YES! So I have a replica of the wicker basket and really awesome chocolate. Some of them are “exploding Chocolate frogs”. I thought those sounded epic so I bit into it (at home of course after I had bought them!) I chewed… nothing. I was severely disappointed. I took another bite and BAM. Me whle mouth was tingling. Basically it was tiny invisible poprock kind of things in the chocolate and your whole mouth buzzes. Awesome.

I came home to a package of Halloween candy! (thanks mom!) and then mad dinner really fast. I ran to the library a little late and did some things. Then was the skype date with mom til the library closed so that is why this post is late at being posted! Sorry about that! Tonight I am going to get caught up on neglected things and head to bed early. (hopefully) Tomorrow is an adventure of some kind in the morning and then the V&A (the Victoria Albert Museum Katie in case you forgot! Hehe) to look at my object for my project and if Im not too tired Kensington Palace! (my membership finally came so I get in for “free”) Kensington was my favorite part of London last time I was here so I am excited to head back!

"Study Day"

Yeah did do all that much studying today on my study day! I did some, but mostly I gave myself a day off to roam the city and relax from my stressful last few days. Today was good overall but with some frustrating moments!

First my alarm went off at 9:15. I was hoping that I would wake up on my own before that, but I guess I needed the sleep! Then I just laid in bed! So I didn’t get out of the door until close to 11! Oh well! Oh before I left I did accomplish something! I called HSBC and said where is my debit card. It was mailed to my flat on Oct 13th… yeah. They canceled it and ordered a new one which I can pick up at my local branch in 4 working days. FINALLY! I would really like to withdraw money from my British account and use my loan money instead of my American Five Star bank account. One thing down, Council Tax and registering for a doctor to go!

I left around 11 and headed to Westminster. I hadnt been to the pier yet so I wandered down that way and finally saw Parliament from the famous side! The river! I saw the Eye up close, and went to see my favorite person…. Queen Elizabeth I. If you are confused I went to Westminster Abbey (where I became even more jealous of Kate Middleton that she was married there. Impressive! I cant even imagine what it felt like to be walking down that nave in that dress! Sigh) I went in the gift shop first so I could get a postcard of Elizabeth’s tomb because I knew that pictures werent allowed inside. Then I went in the closest door (later I realized I went in backwards and I didn’t buy a ticket so I think I cheated the system somehow) Once inside I searched for Elizabeth (obsessive I know but wanted to see her!) On the way I looked at everything. I LOVE the portraits on top of tombs. They are so peaceful and tell so much about fashion. I tried not to think about the rotting flesh and crumbling skeletons that were under them, but it was really hard. There was one tomb that was so poignant. I cant even describe it.. I wish I could take pictures! Oh and there was a group of boys there on a school field trip with little uniforms. Katie.. if I could have I would have taken a creepy picture just to show you how adorable they are! :)

I finally found Elizabeth and walked around her. Mary Queen of Scots is in the same room with her and I thought that was kinda mean to put the Queen would was beheaded by the other in the same room. Then I thought about it and it’s the wrong Mary! Haha Its James I mother, not Bloody Mary!

Oh also very exciting thing happened today! While in the gift shop I found….. a poster of the Kings and Queens! YAY! I am so pumped. I also got the pocket guide so I can study whenever. I love kid things. They are actually really helpful and visual. I have to start memorizing kings and queens! I also got a postcard with Will, Kate and my friend Rowan. Ok I only met him once, but he was the nicest person. A skinny santa…. That how I would describe him! (Rowan is the Archbishop of Canterbury btw)

After Westminster I headed to do school work. I went to the V&A to look at my object for my artifact analysis. This is the extremely frustrating part of the day. I couldn’t find the Renaissance Gallery that I wanted. Yeah I basically cant use a museum map. (and the map kinda sucked!) Anyways I think I walked around for 45 minutes before I found it and when I found it, I realized it was right off to the side of the main museum entrance that I went. Awesome. I did see my professor though when I was wandering around. He apparently was the curator of the V&A before going to Christies. Impressive. I learned so much in the 10 minutes that we hung out. I wish I could have a personal professor whenever I went to museums. He told me some stories about the museum itself. It was fun. I did eventually find my Pilgrim Bottle also, so everything turned out. It was just a frustrating 45 minutes. (side note, it may have not been 45 minutes if I hadn’t got incredibly distracted in the Roccoco interiors section. I was drooling)

I decided that although I was tired, that I would head to Kensington Palace because it was so close. I wandered through the park (my favorite I think) and headed towards the Palace and my favorite thing in London. I got there and the outside is under construction so it looked very ugly. Gah! I feel like everything is under construction now because the tourist have gone home and the Olympics are coming. A lady asked me to take her picture in exchange for taking mine so I have my picture outside of Kensington which is cool! I went to the entrance and I was pumped the “Enchanted Palace” exhibit but a little worried because there was a huge a sign that said “Let go of all expectations traditional experience –The New York Times” I thought Hmmm… that could go both ways and it seemed like it was almost a desperate move to get a quote from the New York Times that wasn’t killing it. I have to say it was the WORST exhibit I have ever been to. I want to meet the curator and ask what the HECK he/she was thinking. It was horrible. It was supposed to be Enchanting which meant there was all of this weird lighting that you couldn’t see the best part… the ART in the walls, ceiling, and the interiors itself. Maybe its just me and I love it so much that I feel like they ruined the best thing in London. Thank goodness it was free for me (im a member of the historic palaces) and I can not wait to go back when they have the palace back to normal. I think the Enchanted Palace ends in January.

I then made my way back home. I need to head to the library to post this and then come back and do things around here. I need to get caught up on “life” things!

Happy Halloween!

Actually Im not a huge fan of Halloween… but Happy Halloween to those of you who are. Apparently its not that big around here either. There was an event at the library that kids came dressed up for on Sunday, but last night I didn’t see any kids out in costumes. Maybe its just hard to trick or treat when you have to buzz to get into flat buildings?? I don’t know but it was a quiet night and I didn’t even have to worry about chocking a little kid by feeding him Starbursts. All and all a good evening :)

Monday itself was a pretty busy day. I went to school early so I could fix my powerpoint (gotta love not having powerpoint on my laptop. Must fix that problem over Christmas) It doesn’t help that I throughly hate powerpoint in general. Its so overrated. I hate making the slides, and people can either lecture well with it or it’s a disaster. Anyway I worked on my powerpoint before lecture, shoved some cherrios down my throat and went to the lecture room. Lecture was all about living in the Renaissance era. It was pretty interesting because all she did was show us country houses and palaces from France and England. There never gets boring. Other than that however, it was not that informative. But it was fun.

After lecture I…. you guessed it! Hit up the library and then shoved lunch down my throat. Our afternoon class was at the National Portrait Gallery with is on Trafalgar Square so it was a walk to get there! It was good to walk another part of the city though. I need to go back and explore, but I probably shouldn’t considering all the really want to check out are the little hole in the wall bookstores that are covered in dust. (those bookstores are the best kind. Add some dust and tower books up to the ceiling and Barnes and Nobles would be heaven. Kinda like the Strand actually… but with coffee!) Anyways the National Gallery is AMAZING and I only saw a bit of it. We whizzed past master works to get to our era of study and I was drooling. Class itself was boring. I am going to sound really conceited… but I knew all of it. We were identifying saints in images and what that attribute is. I talked SO much because I knew all of them. Man in the wilderness looking hungry with a lion…. St Jerome. Man in study with red cardinals hat… St Jerome. Mary Magdalene: red hair/jar of ointment. Virgin Mary: blue robes, fainting, or vase of water. St Catherine… a wheel. St Peter… keys etc etc….or mythical gods. Diana with a Bow etc. It was cool to see the works in person and nice that I didn’t have to take notes!

After class I stopped at a souvenir store and picked up 3 posters of fake painting of London scenes for a 1 pound a piece to add some life to my flat. Then I ran home to write my notes for my presentation, and make a handout. (P.S here handouts are a huge deal. Every lecturer must give a handout with notes. I can see an image list, but not notes. I made my people work. I gave them dates and images and if they really wanted to know they could write down why the dates were important for themselves. It’s a Masters Program! Im not giving them everything!)

Off to bed !