Beth Hijacks Elaine's Blog

DAY ONE


Well, as can be surmised from the title of this blog, Elaine is not the author of this post. It's Beth, her delightful older sister with lots of free time to write a blog during her "holiday". Thus far, I've spent two days in foggy London and have had an absolutely magnificent time.


I had a fairly good flight to the UK; there was little turbulence and I was seated next to a friendly guy from London who surprisingly had just been working in Indy (I flew direct out of Chicago).  Lamentably, there was a toddler next to us on his first flight and he apparently did not enjoy the experience during the last leg (he was using his gymnastic capabilities to maneuver himself out of his seatbelt on several occasions). The little tyke sure knew how to wail... Other than that, though, it was a good trip and Elaine was there to greet me at the gate.


Though I had only had roughly 4.5 hours of sleep, my excitement to be in London surpassed any feelings of exhaustion. I just sucked it up and drank some coffee -- as Elaine said, "We'll sleep when we're dead." We took the underground to her dorm, she gave me the grand tour, we ate at this awesome little eatery called Nando's which serves scrumptious Portuguese-African food, and then we were off to Notting Hill to hit London Goal #1: finding the Travel Book Shop and Blue Door from the movie Notting Hill (delightfully nerdy).


 First, one must know certain things about travelling in London and the overall London experience.


1. If you're sleep deprived, there is a Starbucks every three blocks to accommodate your caffeine needs.
2. London is the optimal location for people-watching, particularly in its underground. No two people wear the same article of clothing.
3. It's extraordinarily multicultural. People travel in from ALL OVER the world -- it's incredible!
4. You stand in a "queue", not in "line". 
4. Whilst traveling, you're bound to see a whole bunch of European men wearing pants that are way too tight. It's just uncomfortable.


I discovered all of these things during my first one-hour journey on the underground to Notting Hill. When we arrived at our stop, we wandered for a little bit (admittedly, we were a little lost) and we eventually found our way to Portobello Road. Much to our surprise, it was a Market Day. It was extraordinarily crowded, but also TOTALLY WORTH IT!!! The entire road was packed with little shops and kiosks selling antiques, fresh produce, etc. It was really neat to watch; there were musicians lining the streets playing for all the passers-by.

We navigated our way through the crowd (the market's incredible - it goes down the entire street for blocks and blocks), finally stumbling upon the Travel Book store and taking plenty of pictures to document our presence there.

Elaine and I in front of the Travel Book Shop

We also found the Blue Door from the movie... we think. It was kind of tucked away and while the travel book shop had tons of people stopping outside to take photos, the house with the blue front door was closely sandwiched between a coffee shop and a building for rent with no way to distinguish it as a site of note.  We also found the beautiful garden from the movie and reenacted a scene by pretending to climb the gate. Yeah, we're pretty nerdy hahahaha. See photos.

"Whoopsy-daisy!"

... maybe the blue door from Notting Hill?

Elaine and I got to wandering and stumbled upon the following in the very high-end neighborhoods of Notting Hill.... it was terrifying.

Yeah, that's a giant gorilla statue in somebody's front yard. Only in London...

After walking until our feet were about to fall off, we got back on the train and went back to Mile End, where we went and had a beer and burger at a pub called the Half Moon. We randomly ran into Elaine's friend Emily (twice... as we were walking down the street). We then took a nap to prepare for the Butler Bulldawgs game.

I'm not sure if any of you happened to watch this game, but it was INTENSE. In any case, I was super stoked and was causing a ruckus in Elaine's dorm at about 2 o'clock in the morning. DAWGS ARE GOING TO THE SHIP AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Below, you'll find one photo of one of my many reactions.

 and thus ended Day One in foggy London.

DAY TWO

The second excursion for London was Wimbledon. We took the tube out to lovely Wimbledon and upon arrival perused the Wimbledon museum, wherein we took several photos of us geeking out over old tennis gear. We also played a highly entertaining competitive swift-reaction game that supposedly simulates how well one would react to a fast-hit serve. I narrowly won, 26-25 (which I think is especially impressive, considering how short I am and how high I had to reach to hit the little buttons). We had an excellent tour guide who showed us all around the grounds (we couldn't step on the courts because they have to be so strict with grass height) and we even got to go in the press room. Also, Elaine and I dressed in Wimbledon colors - I in purple and green and she in purple and white. And yes, we did that on purpose.

Yes, we will condescend to answer your questions...

After buying a hat in the little shop (I couldn't resist!), I let Elaine help me navigate the underground system back to her flat. Also, at one point on the trip, I am 97.5% confident that we saw Marjorie from America's Next Top Model snuggling with some Londoner on the train. But I digress. Elaine and I made supper that night -- I made a stir-fry of rice, peppers, and onion and Elaine baked some chicken she had marinated. It was delicious!

TASTY!!!! (The food, not Elaine...)

We had to get dinner done early and get a nap in, as we had to get up at 2 a.m. to watch the Bulldawgs play in the Championship for the SECOND consecutive year :-) I'm so proud of my Dawgs!

DAY THREE

On the third day, we took a big train ride to Alton to walk so Jane Austen's house in Chawton. Alton is the epitome of English countryside. It was absolutely adorable. The people were very friendly, and the shops and houses looked like something out of a postcard. 

We followed the Jane Austen Trail to her home, where we found all sorts of treasures relating to her life. The one we were most interested in was her writing table, where she would sit every morning to  create characters like Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Tilney, or Anne Elliot.

Jane Austen's writing table

There were also several children's games there to help little ones learn about her life, including alphabet letter magnet games and little dollhouse plays involving characters from her books. Elaine and I derived way too much entertainment from these games, hahahahaha. We thereafter walked to a church right down the road to see where her mother and sister were buried. We spent most of our day out walking, as it was gorgeous in Alton. In town, we ate some Kebabs for dinner served to us by an Indian gentleman who looked at us like we had three heads (mainly because we ate all that he served us lol) and then came back to London.

DAY FOUR

The fourth day was spent in London. We went to the center of the city to take a trip on the London Eye, which is a gigantic ferris wheel from which you can see most of the city. It was VERY VERY high up. We braved the trip and it was well worth it. We could spot just about everything in London from up there. Elaine was highly entertained by me, as I repeatedly mistook the Houses of Parliament for Buckingham Palace. I need to brush up on my British knowledge... lol.

The Houses of Parliament, NOT Buckingham Palace!

After riding the Eye, Elaine and I used our amazing ability of finding cheap yet delicious places to eat in London to encounter Giraffe, where we had a very tasty meal of a burger (Elaine) and a turkey chili-quesadilla (Me). We walked along the South Bank area, which was gorgeous and very new as there is an initiative to restore that area; it used to be run by brigands and scallywags (e.g. pirates). Elaine showed me the Tower of London, the London Bridge, and the City Hall (aka Ken's Testicle). Blog-readers should know that if you must take a walking tour of historical London, Elaine is by far the most informative and hysterical tour guide you could possibly have. I swear she memorized everything her teachers told her in class about London architecture and the monarchy. In order to get Ken's Testicle explained, you have to ask Elaine for the story; she tells it too well.

We got back a little bit early to get ready to go see Love Never Dies on the Strand (which is the equivalent of Broadway in the U.S.). FYI Love Never Dies is the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. It should be mentioned that this blog could also be titled "Beth and Elaine's Week of WIN: London Style". One such example of this? We bought the cheapest tickets, but because it was an off-peak day we got BUMPED UP to a lower circle of the theater, in the center thank you very much. It was awesome! The show was very very good, and throughout the rest of the trip Elaine and I have been listening to its music. I highly recommend it to anyone considering making the trip :-)

DAY FIVE

Elaine and I had another chill day in London. We got up early to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. However, it was so crowded, there was very little action, and it was a hot sunny day in the park. We stayed for 10 minutes then left to go enjoy the day. We took pictures all around downtown, I tried unsuccessfully to climb a giant Lion statue in Trafalgar Square (thing was MASSIVE), we found the statue of George Washington, and we also went to King's Cross station. Why did we go to King's cross? TO FIND PLATFORM 9 3/4 OF COURSE!!!!

Walking straight through the wall as if it's not even there!

We also went to the British Library, where unfortunately we couldn't really take any photos. However, we did get to see the Magna Carta, the Codex, Jane Eyre in its original writing from Charlotte Bronte, Catherine (a childhood story from Jane Austen in her own handwriting), and Handel's original Messiah. Not too bad for one day, I'd say.

We did a little shopping on Oxford Street to get some touristy nifty gifties for friends back home in The States. The jet lag was catching up so I spent a hefty part of our day stopping to get some coffee, haha. We went straight from shopping to go see The Children's Hour, which is a play starring Keira Knightly, Elizabeth Moss from Mad Men, and Ellen Burstyn. The show was absolutely phenomenal - the acting was incredible! Elaine and I had a fabulous time. We had another WIN during this particular day -- after the show, Elaine and I happened to stroll back to the other side of the theater outside to the stage door where a crowd was waiting. We happened to catch Ellen Burnstyn, Elizabeth Moss, AND Keira Knightly walking out. We got their autographs, and Elaine snagged a couple of pictures...

Ellen Burstyn

Elizabeth Moss

Keira Knightley

DAY SIX

This I can confidently say was Elaine's and my favorite day. We took a train out to Chesterfield in order to take a bus to visit Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. Chesterfield is a way's out, and the bus ride is a little bit long as well. You also have to walk a mile and a half on a dirt walkway through sheep farmland to get to Chatsworth. For these reasons, we did not arrive at the house until 3 p.m. IT WAS SOOOOO WORTH IT.

If we could describe Chatsworth House in one word, it would be "indescribable." If you give us a lot of words however, we could also say that it holds countless priceless treasures and the weight of history. It is full of majesty and grandeur and splendor and WEALTH. Our interest in choosing Chatworth was due to its importance in the movie Pride and Prejudice as the setting for Pemberley (Darcy's estate). Although we appreciated each item and room we recognized from the movie, at some point you just have to sit back and be awestricken at how beautiful the place is. The gardens and farmlands alone are 106 acres and are expertly groomed. It features a hedge maze, magnificent fountains, and a botanical garden.

It’s owned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. We walked through bedrooms, studies, living areas, and just rooms that we supposed they had thrown on just for the hell of it. Each room was filled with treasures – statues, silver, gold, paintings, jewels. I don’t think we walked into a single room on the first floor that didn’t have a ceiling beautifully painted with figures of Christian scenes. The best part of the house by far was the gallery of statues, which was featured in the movie as well. Chatsworth House boasts the largest collection of Neoclassical sculptures in the world. It was absolutely breathtaking. 

Main staircase.

Silver garden trowels. Seriously.

The Statue Gallery.

Pulling an Elizabeth Bennet.

A gallant chap who attended the room pointed us in to the little shop by the side of the gallery, which held the bust made famous in the movie as the image of Mr. Darcy. It was set very high up on the wall, a little bit hard to access. The reasoning behind its setting? Many girls such as ourselves had come to visit and had KISSED the sculpture. The result was damage to the bust via lipstick stains. For the record, Elaine and I both concurred that we would never do that, simply because it’s nasty and we don’t know who would’ve kissed it prior. Also, it’s just weird. Another highlight in the house was a sculpture that for some reason they had not placed in the gallery – the sculpture of the Vestal Virgin. Below you’ll find a picture of it – of course, this was in the movie as well and was even more breathtaking in person.

Beautiful. Our favorite sculpture.

We also went out to the gardens. It was filled with sculptures and fountains. We ate apples outside, just like we had seen in the movie. It was gorgeous out – maybe a little chilly. I fulfilled one of my life goals when we stumbled upon the actual hedge maze. We found our way to the center, which held a lovely white weeping-willow-esque tree.

So much confusion!

We took plenty of pictures, got a little sunburnt, and just enjoyed the day. We sincerely wished we had more time there. We didn’t actually get to explore all of the grounds, due to a very unfortunate set of circumstances: their vastness and our tardiness.

We hadn’t anticipated how long it would take us to get to the house. Again, if you recall, it required a train, a bus, and a mile and a half walk to get us there from London. We had been strolling along, it was around 5:00 p.m… and we realized…. that the bus ran hourly… and we had misestimated the time…. And we only had like 20-25 minutes to get to the bus stop or we'd have to wait another hour, which would mean we’d be in a real situation with our travel time for the train. And we were on the far end of the grounds. Elaine and I had to run-walk through the sheep fields (which were dotted with sheep poo) to get to the bus on time. It was hysterical – we were a sight to behold. We hopped the little “land mines”, ran past old bitties and parents pushing their prams when we managed to get to a trail, I did NOT have on gym shoes so I was in my nicer black shoes (dumb decision), and as we rounded the corner to get to the main road we see the bus turning onto the street to get to its stop. If Elaine and I had been a mere 2 minutes later, we would’ve missed this bus. It. Was. INTENSE. 

VICTORY!!! Made the bus!

We took the beautiful trip back to the main town center (Chatsworth House is set up on the hill, so you get a nice view going down of the town below) and wiped the sweat off our brows. Thankfully, we did have time to get some dinner at a restaurant. It was called “The Abacus” which by the way is an ancient mathematical counting tool (yep, knew we’d get my mathy-ness in there somehow). Elaine had a burger and I had amazing curry. We did make our train ride home and spent the whole time talking about how badly we wanted to be Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

DAY SEVEN

Though tired from our previous day’s excursion, Elaine and I remained undeterred and soldiered onward in our travels. Day Seven was spent in Bath, wherein we found the ancient Roman baths and walked the streets that Jane Austen loathed (lol) but which frequently appeared in her books.

Another title for this blog could have been “Elaine and Beth’s Ambitious Travel Plans.” We did learn our lesson from the previous day - we made our train with plenty of time to Bath and had charted out exactly what we wanted to do in the city and how long it would take us to get there. We were filled with pride for our epic train-catching abilities from the previous day’s activities, and were maybe overly confident and optimistic for Day Seven’s travels.

Yet, Fate had other plans for us. Sadly, a mere 5-10 minutes from arriving at our destination of Bath, a man jumped in front of the train before us and was killed. When this happens, all trains in the area must stop and wait for the authorities/undertaker to do their business. It was very tragic for this poor person. After the authorities had accomplished their duties, we were two hours behind schedule for our day trip. We had planned for 5 hours there… and after this incident we would’ve had roughly 3 ½ hours in Bath… if we hadn’t made some interesting choices later. But first, I’ll explain what we did during the day.

Bath looked exactly as I had always imagined it. The building were all of the same light-colored stone. It’s a spa area, so it has a very tranquil feel. We first went to the Roman baths and learned some fascinating things regarding ancient Roman bathing rituals. Some fun facts:

1. Men and Women bathed together – not a sensual thing, they just bathed.

2. The Romans believed the hot springs were heated by the Gods. In this particular bathing house, they give special deference to Minerva and had built a temple to honor her.

3. People would write curses if for example someone had stolen from them or if they were in a fight with someone and would throw them into the water so that Minerva could address their needs. Some of the curses were pretty hysterical. I believe one involved a stolen purse. The punishment asked for was DEATH lol.

We also got the opportunity to drink some of the water (after it had been treated, of course). It has 42 minerals in it… and you can taste each and every single one. It was disgusting.

After touring the Roman baths, Elaine and I went to find the Assembly Rooms, where Jane Austen would’ve danced in her day (sensing the pattern?). It was pretty fun and we looked pretty weird imitating a ballroom dance in front of the workers there bahahaha. It appears as though the assembly rooms are still used today for weddings and other affairs.

"Gentlemen were scarce and there was more than one woman sitting down without a partner"

Not that that would stop us.

 Afterwards, we walked the streets of Bath. We stumbled upon a really neat tea house where I had some fabulous Chai tea and Elaine some scrumptious caramelly-chocolate cake.

Now, you may be wondering how we managed to do this in about 3 hours. Welp, we didn’t. We had train tickets for an “off-peak day” meaning we could take any trains we wanted during the day that had our same train layover locations. Now, Elaine and I had one stop on our way to Bath in a small town, and had that same stop for our return voyage. We decided not to take that same return trip and use another. However, this other trip left later (good) but had two trains to take that weren’t on our tickets (bad). Elaine and I may have broken the law a little bit…. Because we definitely took those trains. Oops. When the train attendant came by he looks at us and says, “Oh, yeah, I’ve already checked your tickets, haven’t I.” Elaine and I said, “Yeah, yeah, you already did.”  And he went on his way.

Yeah, he never looked at our tickets.

We ended up spending our complete 5 hours in Bath and didn’t get caught train-hopping!

DAY EIGHT

We had one day of travel left in us to go to the university-town of Oxford. At this point, Elaine and I were both pretty tired AND wary of travel delays, hahahaha. Surprisingly, there were no unanticipated roadblocks travel-wise this day. We leisurely perused the streets of Oxford, saw some its interesting architecture, and had a day free of worries. We had wanted to go to Christ Church Cathedral there to see the Great Hall from Harry Potter but it was closed (sad day). However, there was a fair going on outside the cathedral… however, I’m not entirely sure it was open to the public. There were some fancy-pants people there. In any case, Elaine and I went in. We got to try some free whiskey and some gin-and-tonic so I think it was worth the risk of getting kicked out.

We got to see the Bodlein Library, where unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in its upper half which held all the books. We did get to take photos of the main annex, however, which was where the hospital scenes from Harry Potter were filmed.

We also happened to have the fastest-talking tour guide in the world for this library. He also had a fairly thick British accent so we really had issues absorbing whatever it was he was saying, hahaha!

We walked around on the outskirts a little bit and found the Eagle and Child, where C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien began their little literary circle, the "Inklings." The pub is still in service, so we just walked in and started taking pictures around people while they ate. Kind of awkward, but worth it.

We also went into the Science museum there, and saw one of Einstein’s chalkboards preserved with his work.

We had a very relaxed day and simply enjoyed a leisurely pace. We managed to get back to London without any trouble. I spent the rest of the day packing for my journey home.

DAY NINE

This was my final day in London. I spent it simply hanging out with Elaine, packing and getting things ready, and getting to the airport. Little did I know I would get a 21 hour layover and have to spend the night in a hotel with all my fellow agitated passengers. Our replacement flight was even delayed an hour; I thought I was going to hurt somebody hahahaha.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. I felt so happy and blessed to be there with my best friend who also happens to be my sister. I can’t wait until Elaine comes home and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to have explored the English countryside with her.  

FOOD!!!

For those who may not be aware, the food in London can be quite different from at home, and since I've been here, I've experienced many new dishes for the first time. I'd never had Indian before coming here, and now I can confidently order the least spicy items on the menu. A street called Brick Lane is very close to my university, and it is renowned for its curry. When I tell Londoners that I'm from the states, rather than ask me if I've seen Big Ben or been to Buckingham Palace, they ask me if I've had curry on Brick Lane yet. Masala has become about as popular as fish and chips. I haven't had any fish and chips of course because I am opposed to 1) all potato products and 2) deep fried meat. I'll probably have to have it before I leave though, just so that I can say I did it.

There's a wonderful Mediterranean place close to Queen Mary called "R Bar," which has delicious food. One of the most impressive things about it, however, is its presentation. They served food in small wooden boxes and from metal hooks. They also have cocktails made with liquid nitrogen that freeze the drinks and billow smoke.

My "Icy Blue Lagoon" drink.

I think R Bar is super proud of their liquid nitrogen and try to use it whenever possible, including in the center of their calamari trees.

As I said, they're all about the presentation.

Another dish that I tried for the first time is mussels. I met with my friend Amanda Lane, DG alumnae and current London grad student, at a restaurant called Belgo. They had a great deal where you could pay the price of the time you ordered certain meals: we ordered at 5:50 so our mussels cost 5:50. I actually really loved them! I also got to try some Belgian coconut beer and chocolate beer, and though I love chocolate, I liked the coconut version much better.

The lovely Amanda Lane and a delicious bowl of mussels. Her beer choices were less fruity and much stronger than my "chick beers."

As I've been trying new food here in London, I've also exposed my English friends to a few American foods. My friends Emily and Eleanor had the great misfortune of never having had s'mores. You know what they make over campfires? Toast. Boring. So, some American friends and I had to introduce them to the art of roasting marshmallows and mixing them with chocolate and graham crackery goodness. Unfortunately, graham crackers aren't really available here, so we had to make do with cookies instead.

This is one of my s'mores, and it was one that I didn't accidentally catch on fire on the stove. I had to document its perfection.

Needless to say, the girls loved s'mores--who doesn't? Emily even tried making them at home with her family, but she said they didn't turn out as well as they did during our s'mores night.

My friend Emily enjoying her first s'more. Her life will never be the same.

We were trying to think of other "American dishes" to share with our English friends, so I decided to make Scotcheroos for them. I had a few setbacks in the process. From all that I could gather via Google, they don't actually sell corn syrup in the UK, so I had to find an alternate for that and used honey instead. Also, their version of butterscotch chips is not the same as ours. It's more like toffee. When I tried to stir the chocolate mixture for the topping, the butterscotch made it sort of whipped like a mousse. I figured it might calm down if I got it off the heat, but when I tried to spread it on the rice krispie part, it got into a big clumpy mess. I had to scrap that attempt, and I remade the topping with chocolate only.

My failed topping. The yellow bits are Rice Krispie pieces that came off when I scraped the mixture off.

I also don't have any measuring cups, in addition to not having an understanding of the conversion between grams, ounces, and cups anyway. I just had to eyeball my measurements to see if it looked about right. I didn't know how it tasted before I brought it my friends to share, but they all liked it, and it didn't taste too off from how it tastes back home.

The finished product! No measurements, no corn syrup, no butterscotch, but it still looked like it is supposed to look.

We also brought one other American food into the lives of my English friends, though I didn't help with making it. Some of my fellow Americans made French toast for my friend Emily's birthday breakfast. They do have French toast here, but apparently they don't use cinnamon or eggs on it. Emily described their French toast as "bread and oil." We made her American French toast, which she agreed was tasty. There was also quite a spread of other breakfast foods, all of which were delicious.

My friends Annette (American) and Emily for Emily's 19th Birthday breakfast.

Also for Emily's birthday, we watched Little Miss Sunshine and had cake! Alex also played "Happy birthday" on the violen while we all sang along off-key.

Happy birthday to Emily!

One more food-related anecdote: Every Thursday, Queen Mary hosts a Farmer's Market in the center of campus, and I enjoy buying a sandwich and drink there before class. At the apple-juice stand, I was buying a bottle of really delicious fresh apple juice, and I only had a 10 pound note for the 1 pound 50p bottle. I asked the man at the booth, "Can you make change?" and he exclaimed, "I love the way you talk!" I was confused, so he continued, "Can I make change? Like what, pull it out of the air with magic? That's hilarious!" Turns out that's not really an expression they have here, but at least I haven't complimented anyone on their "pants" yet. (Here, pants=underwear, as my friend Jean Rebarchak learned the hard way)

I'll try to make a blog post soon about my trip to Brighton, and my friend Macy arrives tomorrow morning so I'll be sure to document our adventures!

Drapers and Projects

They had a Superbowl party for the Americans (and the higher-number-than-expected British students that cared) at the campus bar Drapers, and a free box of nachos and a drink came with the cover. I, of course, was cheering for the Packers because 1) I hate the Pittsburgh Penguins, another Pittsburgh sports franchise and 2) Ben Roethlisberger is an accused rapist, and I'm not okay with that. If only the Colts were in it! I would have been so happy... I only ended up staying for half of the game and the half time show because I still had reading to finish for the next day, but it was a lot of fun. Lots of people showed up and we had really good seats. The biggest bummer, however, was there were none of the Superbowl commercials because it was airing through a British network. I had to watch them all online the next day. Instead, we had to watch a British guy who obviously knew nothing about the sport interview the same two former NFL players every time the game was supposed to cut to commercial. It was torture.

My friend Joyce and I watching the game. We sat with a big group cheering for the Packers.

I went to Drapers again the next night because we had a lot of fun there. I went with my friend Emily, with whom I have 3 of my 4 classes. We had a lot of fun, but there were some creepers so we went back to her room to hang out away from them.

Ah! Creepers!

For my architecture class I had to write a paper about a building or structure, and as I put in a previous post, I wrote about the Albert Memorial. My friend Joyce decided to write about the Natural History Museum, and I wanted to tag along because it seemed like both a cool building and a fun place to go touristing. 

An view of one end of the entrance hall. The building was awesome and innovative for its time.

At the museum, they were having an exhibit entitled "Sexual Nature" about the reproductive habits of various animal species, and we went through it because who could pass that up? It was actually very interesting, and a lot of it was similar to stuff I'd learned in my HoScho biology class last year. Most of it wasn't awkward at all... except for the animal porn. It wasn't like animals doing their reproductive processes (those videos were fine), it was a video of this woman dressing up as different animals and describing/demonstrating their reproductive practices. It was the weirdest thing ever and we couldn't watch the videos without laughing. It was tempting, at the end, to purchase our own DVD copies of that magical program in the gift shop, but somehow we managed to resist.

They also played "mood music" throughout the exhibit. Bowchickawowwow.

For a different class, (Text, Art, and Performance in London) I had to make a portfolio analyzing four different "experiences" I'd undergone. One of these, which was required for class, was an audio tour that guided us around part of East London. I went with my friend Emily (see above) since we had the same class. The tour was called "The Missing Voice" and it told a story about a woman walking the streets of London and guided us along the path she walked. It was a bizarre experience, but also very interesting. There were sound effects like cars passing and people talking, which were sometimes hard to distinguish from the noises outside of the recording. Both Emily and I were worried would accidentally get hit by a car or something as we walked around with our headphones in, so it was good we went together. 

The walk began at Whitechapel Library and ended here, Liverpool St. Station. I changed the picture to faded coloring for my portfolio because it felt appropriate for the story told in the recording

Another experience I did for the class was going to an Art Gallery called the White Cube. I chose it because it was free and seemed easily accessible, but I was rather surprised when I walked into the huge gallery space and saw giant paintings of celebrities on the walls. I was expecting high art, and I found myself looking at Taylor Swift and Leo DiCaprio. The exhibit was titled "Most Wanted," and the artist was an American. The purpose, apparently, was to address the commercialization of celebrity as well as to bring low culture into the realm of high culture through formal portraiture.

Though for the most part, I just felt bemused.

In another architectural excursion, we had to meet in Trafalgar Square for a walking tour with the professor, and while we were waiting for him to show up, we were entertained by a large group of FC Barcelona fans cheering and chanting. There was apparently a big game between an English team and Barcelona that day, and they were all rather drunk and very entertaining to watch.

Barcelona fans playing a steel drum and yelling in Spanish.

Sorry if this post seemed kind of random. I'm basically going through my pictures and picking out what I've done in order. I have more that I can add soon, so look for another update in the near future!