Ha! I win.

Sorry it took so long to get the photos up. Apparently I had to upload them one at a time. Yes it was annoying but I love you all so much I did it. So proud, I know. These pictures are from just two days of me shooting for class/fun. They are with my big camera, not my point and shoot. The first set of images is from a protest that I attended. It was probably one of the most peaceful protests that I attended. It was protesting the polices officers and the right to search anybody they want. Especially if they feel that it can deal with terrorists. So basically any photographer if they feel is photographing something that can end up helping terrorists, they can search their belongings. It could be just a random tourist taking a picture of a police officer or a building. Apparently a world known architectural photographer got searched. I am giving a really bad description of what it was all about sorry. It was fun though. Everybody was so nice and having a really good time. I think I was there for about an hour or so. I went with one of my friends from class. It was cool to go to. The protest was called I'm a Photographer not a Terrorist.

He was just standing there letting anybody take his picture. There was a huge circle around him. It was so funny seeing all these cameras pointed at a puppy.

Below are some images that I have started taking for my dissertation. I am writing on the topic of being bored. Yes, being bored. Apparently there is a lot of theory about this topic. I am writing how a tourist can be bored in a city like London. I am trying to take your typical tourist images and taking them in a way that you might not be able to recognize what the London Icon actually is. If you can figure it out more power to you, but for the project it's not really one of my concerns. I will give you what they are though just to be nice. :)

Dock Over the Thames

Thames River

(When the tide is in, this walkway doesn't exist.

It is located on the beach heading right into the water)

National Theatre

Spring Term

I am still trying to figure out why they are calling it Spring Term at school. It runs from January to March. Not really spring if you ask me. Maybe because my spring break is included in it? Anyways. I turned in both of my essays a few weeks ago. I think they turned out alright. Both of my parents edited them so they could give you a better idea of how they are then I can. I had just read them one too many times for me to care. I am just hoping I pass with decent grades. Especially the Anthropology of Art class. My core course essay I think I did pretty decent on.

My spring term classes are pretty much the same. I don't have Anthropology of Art anymore but I now have Navigating Urban Life. It's basically about urban communities and stuff like that. There is a lot of information thrown at us at once. And a lot of theory. I dislike the word theory. It makes it seem like what they are telling you is a guess not an actual 100% proven answer. That's just me being annoyed by a word though. I already have my essay topic for that one and am trying to start working on it now. I want to get it done as soon as I can. Especially since I will be doing a lot of traveling for the rest of the year.

Next month my Aunt Brenda is coming out to London for a few days and we are heading to Brussels and Bruges for the weekend. I am really looking forward to it. Especially for the Belgian Chocolate, Waffles and Beer. At the end of March one of my sorority sisters who is studying in Madrid is coming for a few days. April 14th-21st I will be home in Maryland for my Dad's wedding. I will be in New York at the end of May/beginning of June for two friend's weddings. With maybe a trip down to Maryland for a day or two. Then back in New York for two weeks for Dan and I's one year anniversary and a wedding for his friend. Then I will be back for good no later then August 20th. Our lease is up then. All during this time I have to write two essays, a dissertation. Go to Ireland and Madrid (Madrid if I have time and money before my friend leaves) and make room for a friend or two to visit. So I should be a little crazy busy. I wanted to get a job here but it's looking like I am not going to have time to. I'd rather focus on my papers anyways. I am going to try and get the regular essays done by the end of February if I can, even though they are not due until the end of April. I know that's a long stretch for me, but I am going to try.

I am having problems with my internet right now and loading pictures. So I am going to try again later. Just wanted to post something though.

xoxoxo

Work

So I have been in the process of writing two essays for my classes. Here they make you write your essays with word counts, not pages. Both of these essays have to be 5,000 words a piece, which roughly translates to 8 pages single spaced, on A4 paper. Doesn't sound too bad right? Too bad one of my essays I had NO CLUE what I was writing about. I managed to get to 4,000 words but I don't even know if I answered the question properly. As long as I pass I am fine with it to be honest. These essays are basically my grades for the class. That and showing up. We don't have other homework and classwork that we do. We attend lectures then seminars after to discuss what we heard. There are no such things as A,B,C,D for grades. It's fail, pass and pass with distinction. The pass with distinction is basically your A and B grade. Pass is your C and D. From what I can understand. They hardly ever give A grades out here. Teachers just don't do it. Well, they do, but your essay has to be THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER WRITTEN! So I am pretty sure my Anthropology of Art one will not be one of those. My Through the Lens class I am writing about the ethics of war photography. That I should be good with. I know photography and I am reading up on the war aspect of it. It was originally due this coming Thursday but they pushed it back until Tuesday of next week because of the weather.

Speaking of weather. I understand that a lot of Britain has gotten snow and a lot of it. But come on London. One inch and a little bit of ice and the whole world shuts down. Go to NYC and deal with their ice. Their subway still runs, Taxis are still going and the buses are moving like there isn't any snow. Any snow here, there are delays on the tube, people can't figure out that their cars WILL drive in the snow and basically the whole city shuts down. I'd like to see these Londoners spend a winter in upstate New York. Good luck with that. :) On one hand I find it really funny, but the other hand I find it so unbelievably frustrating. I guess I am just used to going out in the snow no matter how much there is.

I've been lazy today so I guess I should try and get some of my essay done. But just wanted to write a little note and try to be good about updating this.

xoxo

Ten Days with the Boys

I am not that great with updating, I know. I'm sorry. I want to write, but then when it comes to me sitting down and actually doing it, I forget or can't get the words in my head onto the computer for all of you to read. I was never good at writing a diary. I think my diary goes from '96 and then the next entry is '98 and so on. But I think when I do write, they are pretty good entries. Correct me if I am wrong. :) Anyways, I am back in London after two weeks at home. The day after I landed back here, the boys, meaning Dan and my friend Rob came to spend ten days here with me. They landed around 8PM. I wasn't going to meet them at the airport since I had just made the commute the day before, but I got bored by myself and ended up surprising them at the airport. Neither of them had very much sleep the night before so we just stayed in the apartment the first night once we got back. We had to go a different way to my apartment then I would normally take because of course, one of the tube lines was down so they could work on it (This happens EVERY weekend). There might not be ten days worth of talking about, some days we didn't really do anything worth mentioning or remembering. Just hung out and took it easy.

The next day we tried to go to the British Museum. By tried I mean we made it there, but because people were still on their vacations it was so crowded. We tried to see the Rosetta Stone and the mummies, but it was 4-5 people deep and wasn't worth it. We ended up going across the street to a pub for dinner and a drink then headed back to the apartment. We didn't stay out too long because we woke up late as it was.

Rob looking over the edge of the British Museum. Dan watching.

The next day we just walked around for a bit and took it easy, I think it was raining, that's why. We ended up going back to the Ice Bar since Rob wasn't here when Dan and I went last time.

Rob with his drink while we were waiting to go in the Ice Bar.

Us inside the Ice Bar. It was cold!

The next day we woke up early and went to the Tower of London. I had been there tons of times already but it was fun going with friends instead of work. The boys enjoyed it a lot. We didn't get to see the Crown Jewels because the line wrapped around some of the buildings. I told them that they were nice to see, but you see them better in a book. The only difference is you don't get to see them sparkle. We saw Henry VIII's armor, the torture chamber and the chapel. The torture chamber I hadn't been in since '92 when I was here with my family. They had it set up differently this time. No mannequins in the torture devices to scare me. I remembered being scared then, but I was also 6, so I am not sure if that counts.

The boys standing outside. Dan cheesing.

Catapult with the ice skating rink in the background (They open rinks around London outside during the winter).

So excited for Tower Bridge!

Being Goofy.

Rob picking the statue's nose.

Tower Bridge at night.

The next day was New Years Eve. We took it easy for most of the day. I made dinner which consisted of rice, broccoli, and chicken. The chicken I baked but I pushed fresh garlic into the chicken, then poured a tomato with mushroom sauce on top of it, then on top of that I put cheese to hold the sauce on the chicken. It was yummy (I made the same dish again later in the week, but this time with a tomato/salsa sauce, totally changed the taste of the dish. YUM!). Afterwards we went across the street to get a drink, then walked up the street to watch the fireworks by the London Eye. It was crowded but a lot of fun. There was a group of drunk people and one of the guys was trying to convince Dan that Rob was Dan's younger brother. Rob it two years older then Dan. They were singing and having lots of fun. There was a DJ playing music before the fireworks went off, so people were dancing and singing. After we just headed back to the apartment and played Monopoly and just took it easy. It wasn't too bad walking back since I live so close. It even started snowing while we were walking back. Not a slow snow either, just all of a sudden it started pouring snow! People started cheering in the streets.

It's not an extra large beer (just a pint) I just have a small face.

Drunk British Guy wanted to be in the picture.

Waiting for the fireworks.

Happy New Year!!

Awesome fireworks!

Rob and I.

Watching a movie on my computer since even if we got a DVD player, our movies wouldn't work on it.

New Years Day we went to Greenwich and walked around there. We tried to go up to the Prime Meridian line but people were still off work so there was such a crowd to see it.

Greenwich Chapel.

Rob and Dan outside the Chapel.

View from the top of the hill. The Docklands in the far back and the Queen's House in the foreground. (No queen has ever lived here, it's a museum).

Us at the top of the hill. It's cold.

The Docklands lit up at night.

We woke up early the next day and headed out to Windsor. It takes an hour via train to get there. I didn't check to see if the Queen was there that day. All of the pictures are from outside. We couldn't take any inside sadly. I love it there. It's my favorite place I think. My favorite rooms are the ones overlooking the back gardens and there are tons of sofas and chairs. I'd love to sit there and read. Sounds like a good day to me.

Dan and I out front.

Dan and Rob so excited!

Dan excited to be sitting in the space where they used to shoot people out the windows (A guard box for lack of better terms).

Me waiting in line to go into the Castle.

Dan goofing around.

Chapel. Henry VIII is buried here. So it the Queen Mother.

We went out later that night to get ice cream. Leicester Square had a Winter Carnival set up with rides and games.

I honestly can't remember what we did the day after. I think we just took it easy. We did go out to dinner though at Planet Hollywood.

The boys at dinner.

Happy Birthday to me! For my birthday we dressed up and went to see Peter Pan. It was in a round theater. And at the top of the tent there was a white screen going around the whole theater so that is where they did the different backgrounds so they didn't have to have it on the stage. The characters would come out from under the stage or there was one side of the circle where the could come out like a regular stage. I enjoyed the play a lot. The characters were really well played and funny. The crocodile was made out of clothes hangers and clothes pins, ties and men's shirts. There were two people who controlled it by riding it around the stage. Rob and I decided we wanted one.

Dan and I in the lobby of Peter Pan by the Christmas tree.

The lobby of Peter Pan. It was in a tent outside the O2 arena.

The weather has been so cold here that the fountains in Trafalgar Square froze over.

The last day the boys were here we went back to the British Museum to look around. It was a lot less crowded so we actually got to see some things. They enjoyed it a lot I think. I walked the guys to the tube station at 4:30 and they ended up not getting to the airport until 6:30. It should only take an hour to get there, but because of the little snow that happened here, it messed everything up. Their flight ended up being delayed, they got patted down right before they got on the plane. They almost didn't let Rob take a coffee mug he bought his dad on the plane. Then they had to wait on the plane while it was delayed and then a security breech, (don't know what happened with that). And then eventually got to take off. Their flight ended up leaving almost 3.5 hours later then it was supposed to. They ended up getting back to their houses at 6:30am. They flew out of New Jersey and had to get the car and everything. I felt so bad. They had a fun time while they were here. I had fun having them here. It's too quiet without them.

Jessie gets back to the apartment with her brother on Monday and until then I have to work and essays they are due Monday and next Thursday. Classes start up this coming Monday, but my first class isn't until Thursday. I only have Thursday and Friday classes this term. I will be back in Maryland on April 14th and then again in July and for good either at the end of August or the middle of September. My friend Alex from elementary school is starting grad school out here soon so she arrives in two weeks. So that should be fun. So I promise to update as best as I can for the rest of the time I am here. If I am not updating, it's because honestly, nothing is happening.

Miss you all.

xoxo