Past Week

Sorry for the delay in writing. My boyfriend came into town for the past week so I was hanging out with him and showing him the city. (Which he loved). The night he landed we took the tube back from the airport, which took about an hour and a half from door to door. Well airstrip to flat door. I felt bad because he hadn't slept the night before and was on the plane and then stayed up late here. (Brining him back to the airport when he left, he said he didn't really remember the tube ride to my flat when he first got here). We put his stuff down in my apartment, made him some food and then walked up to the river so he could look around for a little bit and to see what the river looked like at night.

Here he is with Parliament behind him. The next morning for one of my classes I had to go to a museum, so Dan ended up coming with me to look around. The museum was okay. There were a lot of artifacts there which isn't really something I am interested in but my favorite part was the aquarium downstairs. The jellyfish case was the best, even though I hate them so much. They are really pretty creatures, although they hurt a lot when stung.

Later that day for work I had to go to another museum with some of the students. We went to the Imperial War Museum, which covers WWI and WWII. The different types of machines and planes that they used during these wars were pretty awesome. The only part I didn't like was the children of war exhibition. It just made me sad how so many children were separated from their parents during the war. Although because of it, some of the children led a better life outside of the city in the countryside. Below is a picture of the main lobby in the museum with all the machines.

Thursday consisted of Dan attending my afternoon class, since he slept in while I went to my morning class. Afterwards we took the train to London Bridge Station and walked home from there. It took about 45 minutes to an hour to walk back. But that's because we took our time. We walked a little bit across the Millennium Bridge and there was an art piece in the window outside the Tate Modern Art Gallery, which was lit up with orange. I saw somebody else taking pictures in front of it, so Dan and I did the same thing.

The rest of his trip here we just hung around the city, going out to eat, seeing a few movies and just spending time together. For your viewing pleasure, a picture of the two of us waiting at the bus stop. We were on our way to see Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. (Great movie by the way).

After the movie, since all the food falling from the sky made us hungry, we went for sushi. My favorite, favorite place to eat sushi in London is a place called Yo! Sushi. You go inside and there is a conveyor belt running around the tables that have different pieces of sushi sitting on them. You pick up the ones you want and then keep the little tray it came on to be counted at the end. Each different colored tray is a different price. So it can add up pretty quickly. It is really good though. I hope they bring it to the United States at some point. I think there might be one in Boston, but hopefully D.C will get their own at some point.

The night before Dan left, we went to the London Ice Bar. It's inside but made completely out of ice. They give you big hooded capes to wear, gloves and our drinks came in cups made of ice. It was pretty cool. Literally. You could only stay in the bar for 40 minutes though because it is so cold in there. Apparently they change the design of it every three months, so maybe I can go again to see what it looks like next time. This time is was decorated to look like you were underwater. Being in a room though made totally of ice, it gave you this odd feeling. Kind of like you were floating. Maybe it was the fact that I was supposed to feel like I was underwater anyways.

Here is a picture of the street that the Ice Bar was on. It was really cute. Lined with tons of different places to eat.

Bringing Dan to the airport was really hard. I didn't want to have him leave. But I know he will be back in December with my friend Rob. Dan and I are also going to Greece and Italy in April for about two weeks before I fly home for my dad's wedding. So I get to spend time with him then. The day after Dan left I had classes and then a walk in Brick Lane to take pictures. Here are two of my favorite ones that I took. The last one is a panoramic of a wall that is completely covered in graffiti. The people who write on this wall are allowed to. It's a local project. I love and miss you all. xoxo.

Stonehenge and Salisbury

So today I woke up at 6:45am, after going to bed at midnight and waking up numerous times throughout the night as I have been doing for the past week. Well the waking up multiple times, not the 6:45am thing. I met up with the students for API (my work) and heading up on a minibus to Stonehenge and Salisbury for the day.

Stonehenge. Yeah. Well. Not that amazing. You can't even get within 50 feet of the rocks. It's one big circle to walk around it and you have headphones to listen to. To be honest, I didn't listen to the headphones. Because how much can they tell you about rocks that they don't even know much about. Plus it was cold and I didn't want to stand in the windy open field for long. And I was hungry. I mean don't get me wrong, the rocks were cool. But, they were just rocks. I wish I could have gotten closer.

Salisbury was really nice. It has a cathedral with the tallest spire in Great Britain. It was really pretty from the outside. I didn't go inside when the group split up. I decided to walk around the town instead. It was really cool because a lot of the area was pedestrian only, so we didn't have to worry about walking around and potentially getting hit by cars. There is so much history in the town. There is an original copy of the Magna Carta. And the buildings are from the Tudor time period. There was even one building that the front was all crooked because one side of the floor sank and the other side didn't. It's still in use today though.

Big Dog/Little Dog

Not sure if you can read it, but it says Salisbury, MD

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Sorry I am not writing much. I am beyond tired. Miss you all. xoxo.

Second Set of Classes

So my core course classes started yesterday. In the morning I have my talking practice, which is basically a critique for work that we bring in each week. We started talking about some peoples work already. I hadn't brought anything in since I didn't know I was supposed to. I felt bad. I am not sure if we were told and I missed it, or the students knew that a talking practice meant we were supposed to bring in work. They can be pictures of anything. There were other people who didn't bring in stuff so I didn't feel as bad, but I did volunteer myself to bring in work next week. Mostly to make myself feel better about not having anything. I started taking pictures with my point and shoot camera today while walking around with the students for the study abroad program. We went to the Tower of London so I took some pictures there. They are close ups of random things. I didn't want to take the touristy pictures. I have to bring in a sample of 20 pictures and put them in a power point, since apparently that is how we present them.

My night class is called Through the Lens. It's all lecture which is half interesting, half I want to go to sleep since it starts at 4 and goes until 6. And it's right after I eat food since I wouldn't be able to eat until much later. It talks about photographing through the city. There are going to be night and day walks around the city where we can take pictures and then discuss them. One of the walks is when Dan is in town to visit. I asked the teacher if he could come for the walk and he said and the proceeded to tell the class that anybody can come to the walks, spouses, friends, kids, family pets. I was like oh geeze. But it's nice that others are allowed to come. I am looking forward to the walk at night where I can take pictures. I need to either borrow a tripod from the school or see if I can find a cheap one. I left mine at home since I was having packing issues and figured I could borrow one from the school. I might just find something to prop my camera on though. That usually seems to work out alright for me.

Tomorrow the study abroad program is going to Westminster Cathedral in the morning and then moving into their housing in the afternoon. They stay in the hotel for the first few nights of the orientation. I get to stay too for a few nights. It's nice to get away from my flat, but at the same time, packing up things and bringing them somewhere else is slightly annoying. Oh well. Free breakfast. Sunday we are going to Greenwich, which I am going to bring my camera and take more pictures if it is a nice day. There is a market there too which I wanted to start taking pictures of. I like the idea of taking pictures of markets because there are so many different types of people in such a small space. I am planning on going to a local fish market. Problem with this is that it is only open from 5:30am-8:30am. The sun comes up around 7am and the Tube starts running at I think 5am. It's supposed to be really big. I took pictures at a fish market in Sicily and had a lot of fun with that. With the exception of one of the guys trying to sell us a live octopus.

Monday the students have their orientation which I drop them off for and then I am pretty free for a while. With the exceptions of some day trips and random outings for the program. I am looking forward to them though. It's just the all day stuff is a little rough on my body. Plus I am going to be spending the rest of my life in the library doing all the reading I have to do for this year. I have a four hour gap on Thursdays between my two classes so I figure get lunch and then spend it reading and doing my homework. Well I use the homework term loosely since I only have a few papers to do for each term and then my final dissertation to graduate. Anyways, I am probably going to head to bed soon since I have to wake up early tomorrow.

xoxo.