Let's Go to London!

On Wednesday, my next-door-neighbor Jake and I took a day trip to London. We mainly went to visit the Tate Modern Museum of Art, which is right on the Thames, but we also did some city exploring. First off, we ate lunch for 5 pounds in China Town - who knew there was a China Town in London? I certainly didn't. It was here that I introduced Jake to the wonderful phenomenon of bubble tea!

He approved.

"Let's take pictures in front of thing shrine-thing."

"...and this!"

I really loved the Tate Modern - especially because it was free of charge... We spent a good 2 hours there, but then were forced to leave because the museum closed at 6. I really appreciate a good museum buddy. It seems that so many people breeze through and then get bored within 45 minutes (I know this was me when I was forced to go to all those art museums as a kid! David, you know what I'm talking about.) I suppose all of that torturous meandering through museums as a kid was actually a beneficial part of my upbringing, though I certainly didn't think so at the time. Remember Calvin's dad from Calvin and Hobbes? "It'll build character!" Just like that.

Whenever I go to art museums of any sort, I always leave with my museum guide covered in the scribbled names of artists who I liked and wanted to remember. Here are some of the pieces I was particularly struck by:

Marcel Dzama

Eerie and light comic-style of drawing - I am intrigued.

Henri Michaux

Simultaneously a giant mass of birds and ocean waves.

Giorgio de Chirico

Wonderful shadows.... and bananas.

Jannis Kounellis

Its hard to tell from this photo, but the two birds (taxidermy, for sure) were stuck to the wall with real arrows. Loved this piece and its mixed mediums. Made use of space in such an interesting, full and active way.

There was this one room that was literally plastered, floor to ceiling, with Soviet propaganda posters. Very powerful.

Rineke Dijkstra

One hour after birth, one day and one week. Think I remember seeing this in a photo book somewhere. In the real thing, the women are life-size.

After the Tate, we wondered over to a couple of bars in Soho. An interesting feeling, being one of the only females in an all male gay bar..! Good times. The last stop of the night was at this tiny, underground cabaret where the singer of the evening sang Disney songs. I was a bit bummed that it wasn't drag night, though. (Mondays, not Wednesdays.) On the drink menu, we found a bottle of champagne for 349 pounds, and then felt classy and mature in taste because we were quite obviously the youngest people there, and were at a place that sells 349 pound bottles of champagne. We settled for 4 pound bottles of beer.

I went to bed at 2:18, thinking I would wake up late, but no! I woke up at 8:45 to glorious sunshine peeking in through my curtains. I then went to a volunteer work party at Stanmer Park (right next to campus, the one I have pictures of in my second post.) They have a substantial community garden project going, similar to the other one I volunteer at. Everyone there is so friendly and good-natured and down to earth (no pun intended..) Definitely my kind of people! We were planting fruit trees for a future orchard, so I dug a really big hole, and it was SO satisfying, though left me feeling as stiff as a board the next day. While we were moving logs out of the way to plant the trees, I found lots of snails and even a little toad!

I had to leave early to go to class, and the lovely people there literally forced me to take food with me for lunch. I then found out that the class had been canceled. :(

Now for a lightning quick itinerary of my Spring Break travel plans. I will be going to: Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Zurich, Geneva, Rome, Athens and Istanbul. So excited!

More on this soon.

A Bunch of Rocks and a Giant Bathtub

Last weekend we went to see Stonehenge. See?

They give you an audio-tour gadget, and you walk around this set path listening to your headset and then that's it. It took about 15 minutes and then me and the people I was with were ready to get back on the bus! We thought getting back on the bus after only 15 minutes would be a little too absurd, so we ventured on over to the official Stonehenge Gift Shop, where we found some real gems. At the Stonehenge Gift Shop we found: Stonehenge earrings, a Stonehenge belly-button ring, a Stonehenge baseball cap, Stonehenge sweatshirts, Stonehenge picture books, a Stonehenge umbrella and best of all, Stonehenge socks. I wonder what it would be like to be one of the people who works at the Stonehenge Gift Shop. (Question: "So where do you work?" Answer: "Stonehenge.") But the best gem of all? Free samples of lemon curd and jelly and biscuits! I love free samples so much.

Don't get me wrong, it was neat seeing Stonehenge and all (especially since the weather was cooperating for once!) but it just wasn't exciting as this led me to believe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zdyo4vJuCU

Tourist.

Even more tourists!

While walking on the path, I kept getting distracted by this curious metal trailer. What on Earth was it doing there? Who lives there? Maybe The Gatekeeper of Stonehenge lives there? Seemed kind of out of place for the middle of nowhere England, right next to Stonehenge.

I was entranced by the size of this puddle. I walked over to throw stones in while my group of people went to get on the bus (only 30 minutes early! Better than 45 minutes..) A few minutes later I got on the bus too, because throwing stones in a giant puddle is only fun for exactly that amount of time.

The next stop was Bath. I kept peering into the murky green water of the Roman Baths and thinking how awful it would be if I fell in.

Fierce Roman guy.

Fertility-Dog-Tobacco-Pipe? What.

Royal Crescent.

Then we got tea, of course. Sadly, not everyone appreciated the adorable little tea house we found..

I am in the process of making epic travel plans for Spring Break, which is a whopping 5 weeks long. So stay tuned!

David Comes to Visit and I Go More Places

Heads up: this is a MASSIVE and long-overdue post.

PART I

Last week my brother David came to visit. After having been evacuated from Niger because of terrorists, David suggested that he take a little trip to England, and so we arranged for him to come and visit me for a few days before heading back to the States. Needless to say, it was wonderful to see him and hear about his experience in the Peace Corps. But knowing me, I was glad to see that over 6 months in an impoverished West African country didn't change his sense of Silly! Silly is fun.

David was quite enamored with the little grocery store located at the ground floor of my house, so as a result, we made multiple "grocery" trips each day he was here. Too many decisions and awe at seeing so many goods all at once and so readily available left us with this:

(I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it wasn't that bad either.)

Not to mention: "Strawberry Dreams" - some sort of marshmallow concoction which were inhaled within 30 seconds, various gummy candies, a chocolate donut with sprinkles, Digestive biscuits and more... Kind of like a 10 year old kid with a weekly allowance and no Mom around.

"I got some gummy snacks...!"

Also, David REALLY likes feta cheese. Like, a lot.

Then David got thirsty.

After stories of Niger and spontaneous Shakira/Ke$ha dance-parties in my room, David showed me his traditional Nigerian garments - nice, nice! Especially walking across campus to the post office.

On his last night in Brighton, we went out to dinner at a Chinese/Oriental buffet which basically had everything you could ever conceivably want to eat. Including cutesy deserts and deserts with smily faces! Mmmm.

Bye, David!

PART II

Now to catch up for a bit on the traveling I've been doing.

Let's see... two weeks ago we (international students) went to Windsor Castle. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed inside the castle, which of course, is where all of the splendor was. I loved seeing all of the elaborate and over the top bedrooms and drawing rooms and parlors and dining rooms and whatnot, but I think my favorite room was the room which contained the various "trophies" the Royal Family "acquired" as a result of imperialism. Maybe this is because I like history. But it was actually a little eerie to see all of these objects, because in your head you inevitably connect them to imperial conquests and colonialism and all of the people who were subjected to British rule. There was a massive sculpture of a tiger's head, constructed out of pure gold with gems for eyes and crystal fangs, which came from India. There were also numerous gold crowns and various gold sculptures from Mali and other African nations. So much gold.

I love doors.

Look, the moat is now a pretty garden.

More of me...

Out and about.

Okay, so there is a very special place in my heart for all things that are cute and slightly pathetic. Walking around, we found a bunch of ducks and swans all vying for some bread crumbs (tut, tut.) There were a bunch of little black baby swans swimming around with all the adults as well. But there was this ONE little guy who just couldn't swim fast or well enough to grab a crumb! He was trying so hard but all the other ducks and swans kept rushing by him, and at one point an adult swan even bumped into him. So, unable to catch a crumb, he ended up just swimming around by himself while all of the other swans and ducks huddled together eating crumbs. The whole thing was so cute and so pathetic I could hardly even handle it! I turned into a blubbering mess ("Go, go! You can do it, little guy!") and took about 15 photos... which looking over later, were all basically the same photo.

After he got bumped into...

Moving on! Last weekend we went to Stratford Upon Avon, which was absolutely adorable. There are a number of new shops, but the town still feels like an old English town of yore. We saw some Shakespeare related sights (his grave, the house he was born in, Anne Hathaway's cottage...) and just walked around the town.

Bendy houses.

Anne Hathaway's cottage. Like a time machine!

Hello.

And then it was... Tea Time!