Wednesday, October 10th
Today was another field trip day for my classes, and it was one of the better ones at that. I took the Tube to Southfields, which is pretty deep into South London, a neighborhood about which my professor remarked, "This is the real London." Although I think she's biased because it's where she lives. Even if she took us there because she only wanted to walk a few blocks that morning, it was still a lovely neighborhood that was quite a nice red-brick contrast to the white-washed walls of Kensington. We went to a very small gallery that was oddly placed in the middle of a residential neighborhood, it was only one room and the artwork was only displayed on two of its walls, but it was my favorite art gallery that I've been to here. The project was called "Welcome Stranger" and consisted of the artist going to different places in the community and sketching the people that he met and recording his conversations with this great assortment of people. Think of it has a hybrid of art and sociology. We were lucky enough to have a long discussion with the artist himself and the gallery owner, which brought a priceless insight into the art and the gallery itself. In all honesty, if we wouldn't have had the artist there to tell the wonderful stories of these people, I probably would have written the exhibit off as yet another pretentious exercise in modern art. It was very interesting, actually more inspiring than anything.
I then went to Southwark with my History of London class. We went to the fantastic St. Magnus Cathedral on the north bank of the Thames, which had great architecture and even a better history. The priest actually sat us down and gave us a "lecture" on the history of the site and the church. It was the most interesting 10 minutes I've had in that class, and I think my sub-par professor realized this and cut off the priest with a "Oh, thank you, that should be a good introduction" to the disappointment of the rest of my class. By the way, St. Magnus is the only church/cathedral in London to be named after a Norse saint - well I thought that was interesting. We then "traced Shakespeare's steps" through streets he never walked on and redeveloped neighborhoods (the new Globe Theatre is actually about two blocks from the original, which was kind of a let down to learn). We went to another lovely cathedral, the Priory of St. Mary, which had beautiful fan-vaulted ceilings and an interesting excavation in what used to be the yard that shows all of the layers of building and development down to the original Roman road. After visiting a few former brothels that are now boutique hotels and shops we headed home. I'm writing this on Sunday evening, and I can safely say that this was the last remotely-touristy thing I did. Wednesday night was spent studying and hanging out the girls' balcony downstairs.
Thursday, October 11th
Studied/Procrastinated/Watched television shows on my computer all day. Girls' balcony at night.
Friday, October 12th
Same as Thursday.
Saturday, October 13th
Same as Friday.
Sunday, October 14th
Same as Saturday sans procrastination, watching television, and girls' balcony.
I may not update this until after Italy because I have midterms this week (I leave for Italy on Thursday), so I figure I'll post my itinerary for my wonderful (and horribly expensive, thank God for credit cards) 12 day break.
Thursday, October 18th
Fly into Rome with Jenny, Lisa and Stephanie.
Friday and Saturday, October 19th and 20th
Explore Rome with aforementioned friends.
Sunday, October 21st
Florence, meet up with Tim, hopefully.
Monday, October 22nd
Florence/ head to Cinque Terre
Tuesday to Thursday, October 23rd to 25th
Cinque Terre (by the way, supposedly one of the most beautiful places in the world)
Friday, October 26th
Sirmione (a small village on Lake Garda in Lombardy)
Saturday, October 27th
Venice
Sunday, October 28th
Milan
Monday, October 29th
Spend night in airport, fly out of Milan at 6:30am, class and fifteen minute Parliament presentation at 1:30pm - should be interesting.
Today was another field trip day for my classes, and it was one of the better ones at that. I took the Tube to Southfields, which is pretty deep into South London, a neighborhood about which my professor remarked, "This is the real London." Although I think she's biased because it's where she lives. Even if she took us there because she only wanted to walk a few blocks that morning, it was still a lovely neighborhood that was quite a nice red-brick contrast to the white-washed walls of Kensington. We went to a very small gallery that was oddly placed in the middle of a residential neighborhood, it was only one room and the artwork was only displayed on two of its walls, but it was my favorite art gallery that I've been to here. The project was called "Welcome Stranger" and consisted of the artist going to different places in the community and sketching the people that he met and recording his conversations with this great assortment of people. Think of it has a hybrid of art and sociology. We were lucky enough to have a long discussion with the artist himself and the gallery owner, which brought a priceless insight into the art and the gallery itself. In all honesty, if we wouldn't have had the artist there to tell the wonderful stories of these people, I probably would have written the exhibit off as yet another pretentious exercise in modern art. It was very interesting, actually more inspiring than anything.
I then went to Southwark with my History of London class. We went to the fantastic St. Magnus Cathedral on the north bank of the Thames, which had great architecture and even a better history. The priest actually sat us down and gave us a "lecture" on the history of the site and the church. It was the most interesting 10 minutes I've had in that class, and I think my sub-par professor realized this and cut off the priest with a "Oh, thank you, that should be a good introduction" to the disappointment of the rest of my class. By the way, St. Magnus is the only church/cathedral in London to be named after a Norse saint - well I thought that was interesting. We then "traced Shakespeare's steps" through streets he never walked on and redeveloped neighborhoods (the new Globe Theatre is actually about two blocks from the original, which was kind of a let down to learn). We went to another lovely cathedral, the Priory of St. Mary, which had beautiful fan-vaulted ceilings and an interesting excavation in what used to be the yard that shows all of the layers of building and development down to the original Roman road. After visiting a few former brothels that are now boutique hotels and shops we headed home. I'm writing this on Sunday evening, and I can safely say that this was the last remotely-touristy thing I did. Wednesday night was spent studying and hanging out the girls' balcony downstairs.
Thursday, October 11th
Studied/Procrastinated/Watched television shows on my computer all day. Girls' balcony at night.
Friday, October 12th
Same as Thursday.
Saturday, October 13th
Same as Friday.
Sunday, October 14th
Same as Saturday sans procrastination, watching television, and girls' balcony.
I may not update this until after Italy because I have midterms this week (I leave for Italy on Thursday), so I figure I'll post my itinerary for my wonderful (and horribly expensive, thank God for credit cards) 12 day break.
Thursday, October 18th
Fly into Rome with Jenny, Lisa and Stephanie.
Friday and Saturday, October 19th and 20th
Explore Rome with aforementioned friends.
Sunday, October 21st
Florence, meet up with Tim, hopefully.
Monday, October 22nd
Florence/ head to Cinque Terre
Tuesday to Thursday, October 23rd to 25th
Cinque Terre (by the way, supposedly one of the most beautiful places in the world)
Friday, October 26th
Sirmione (a small village on Lake Garda in Lombardy)
Saturday, October 27th
Venice
Sunday, October 28th
Milan
Monday, October 29th
Spend night in airport, fly out of Milan at 6:30am, class and fifteen minute Parliament presentation at 1:30pm - should be interesting.
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