Latest Adventures

OOOooooo K. This is a big post. But It's good, so pay attention.

This is a man we saw by Leicester Square (Where you buy the theatre tickets). I think what he is doing is technically illegal (there's a specifies Speakers' Corner for this business) But he was adamant that we tell the Queen the truth about these secret societies. They're bringing down the world, starting with fashion icons!

Quite a beautiful shot (if I do say so myself) of the fountains at Trafalgar Square.

Yes. I was there. Here's proof.

Attack of the ANIMALS!!!

No matter how stately your stance, a pigeon on the head ruins all.

These painted elephants are all over the place. They were "unveiled" a couple days ago. Different groups and people painted them to raise awareness of the dwindling Asian Elephants.

Me. (and Sara). Kissing a lion. Can we all please note my hair?

Look! It's a little baby one!

(I take this stance every time I pet an elephant.)

And before I leave the animal section I ought to relate the time I wandered around Hyde Park and came across the Round Pond, filled with ducks, pigeons, and swans. A couple different families were rather forcing their kids to enjoy the wildlife. The kids were screaming, surrounded by these feathered animals pecking the ground for bread the kids had dropped in fright.

One dad went to go console his daughter, picked up the bread and tried to hand it to her. He started to feed the birds (tuppence a bag...) turned around and literally came face to face with a swan. I kid you not, the thing was HUGE. The swan was up to the man's shoulder without even extending itself and it just stared at the man, like, You gonna give me that bread or what?

The man picked up his daughter, skittered off, leaving the bread behind.

Yeah Harry Potter!!!

(my eyes are closed because I was magnifying my wizarding powers. Alas I did not make it to Hogwarts. I will simply have to try yet again.)

Regent's Park

So beautiful! They have parks like this everywhere. And everyone uses them. Everyone. It's wonderful and amazing.

Today I went searching for this cemetery called Bunhill Fields where Daniel Defoe and William Blake are buried. It was soooooo enchanting! And beautiful. And wonderfully aged.

And the bonus?

This old man was taking a nap in the middle of the through street. A nap. In the pathway. In his jazzy. This is why we love London. Or old people. Whichever.

But even without the jazzy napper, this place is wonderful.

I saw a worker crawl under the fence (you couldn't actually walk between the headstones--which makes sense, they're old and wearing away quickly). He was rather limber for an elder man. But I think he just checks the quality of the stone but doesn't necessarily keep them tidy. I mean, look at the plant growth on the tombs.

Last but not least here is a picture of my roommate eating something.

It was a giant something from some questionable restaurant sold to us by a girl who doesn't speak English. I'm not sure what ethnicity it was supposed to be, as I got an "English Breakfast" while Janna got this ginormous sandwich thingamabob--the spinach kind, not the meat.

It was rather amusing because I was under the impression that I was getting a sandwich, but instead was served eggs, ham, bacon, baked beans, toast, sausage, cooked tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms (breakfast what?). Janna thought she was getting a pastry sort of something, and here ya go. All was forgiven, however, because we were hungry.

All Hail Macbeth!

On Saturday our group went on a Shakespearean tour on the other side of the Thames. We went around some really old parts of the city, saw some of the original sites, as well as places where the plays supposedly took place. When we left the weather looked about like this:

As we lunched in Borough Market (delicious by the way. I chose a wild boar sandwich. The Brits seem to have a special something for sausage. My sandwich was just one cut in half on a bun. But surprisingly wonderful) the weather turned a bit, but nothing to be alarmed by, as it made for excellent pictures:
(Me across the way on London Bridge [the second as the first was shipped to Arizona by the whim of some ridiculously rich person])
We went to the Globe (the reproduction, also not the original) to see Macbeth. Here is one of the bagpipers that opened the Scottish play. I don't think I was technically allowed to take a picture of him, but he played for like 10 minutes, I had to do something.
This is a paper hat that folds out to fit your head, purchased by many of the elder members of the audience, as it is lightweight, space compact, and terribly handy. I thought it made them look like ice cream cones.
Here is a close up in case you were wondering what was going on in the background. It's a kind of nylon tarp with slits for the groundlings' heads. It is supposed to further layer the audience so feel like Dante's different levels of hell. I, for obvious reasons, was further up--though i was slightly jealous as the groundlings could better see Macbeth's abs and amazing back. The man was devilishly attractive. But then the creepy witches would run underneath the membrane and scare everyone who couldn't see them.

The porter had a fabulous seen where he walked around with a bucket of guck and threatened to throw it out over the audience. When he finally threw the bucket's contents all the heads disappeared as people ducked, then slowly popped back up one by one.

The sky continued to darken until the fifth act when the rain finally broke. It wasn't so bad at first, but then just got worse and worse. The biggest raindrops I've ever seen. It was enough to cancel a whole slew of sports games, but the actors kept on going. They and the groundlings were completely soaked through and then it started hailing. Naturally Macduff came up to greet the new king once Macbeth was killed, shouting, "HAIL!! Hail!!! Hail! (and for good measure) Hail hail the king!!"

Naturally I forgot my coat and umbrella on my bed, so I was soaked before too long. We bummed around West End a bit afterwards (since we saw a matinee) and got something to eat. We all were cold and wet and slightly miserable, but I thought it quite a proper London adventure.

Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, and the like

So many many pictures. It's late and I feel I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. Our flat is right across Hyde Park, which is absolutely perfect. Beauty, everyday!

My entrance. (Never mind the date in the corner. I fixed it later.)

Our flat is just a couple windows the the right of this shot.

I thought this was an interesting composition. I'm not sure what was up with this day, but he did look slightly despondent.

Big Ben and tourist central. So many languages were being spoken, it was amazing.

Fuller shot.

The sandwich was dancing, and it excited the kids into running over to him. Their chaperone was disappointed. "Oh no kids! The corporate big man has got you again!"

I took the long way around to get to the other side of Westminster and Big Ben, kind of got lost, and stumbled across the gorgeous little garden/cemetery. I walked around a bit before realizing the slabs were large headstones, not walkways. Oops.

A close up. Most of the tombstones were so old they could only be partially read, most dated from the mid 1800's.

So many beautiful flowers in bloom.

The shot of when I finally came around the other side (after going around the hospital, some schools, that garden, and other such things. The grid system is nonexistent here, and there are so many tall buildings that you are always surrounded and you can never get an orienting view).

A bouquet left beside a statue/monument of an avid player in women's suffrage.

Westminster Abbey is very large. I mean, look at those people. They are practically ants.

A neighborhood right next door. Absolutely charming.

I paid to go to the bathroom. Fifty pence. Which I didn't mind in the slightest because the sign said "public loos" They also offered this. If you read the fine print it says it chews like gum and freshens breath and you spit out when done. So why exactly isn't it gum?

Pretty bird. It totally knew it was the center of attraction (I wasn't the only one taking pictures). Every so often it would look over all smug like, pleased it had posed itself so advantageously.

Breath-taking willow in St. James' Park.

They have pelicans in their ponds. Also strict sign saying not to feed them. Would anyone dare, however? They look like they could take of an arm in one bite. Pretty--but from a distance.

More neighborhood beauty.

Other things of note:

Two mid-twenty-year-old Italians asked me where to find the Peter Pan statue (they had previously been having a heated Italian debate over it). I gave them the correct location (pat on the back)

Our fire alarm went off tonight, and apparently you can't turn if off yourself (aka waving a towel in front of it), so it took fifteen minutes to stop the loud loud racket. RA was not pleased.

Contact lenses are causing me problems. Saline solution stings. Ripped another contact. Hope tomorrow goes better.

So far there have been many lonely moments because everyone came here with friends. Except me, apparently. But I am working on integrating myself with the groups, occasionally resulting in sometimes awkward/stalker-ish behaviour (look! british spelling snuck in!). Temporary problem that has put a damper on some things. Hopefully it'll right itself soon and I won't have to be the hoverer of conversations anymore.

Went to the Victoria and Albert museum today. That place is HUGE and has a lot of awesome stuff. Will return.

Also went and saw my first play! Directed by the famous Peter Brook. I sat on the "pit" which is the floor in front of the stage. Cool stuff. There was a live musician the whole time.

IF you've read all this, I commend you. It's a lot of nonsense. To quote Pascal "I didn't have time to make it shorter."

London-- Initial Reactions

London. London london. Sooo happy. After so much thought and dreaming I'm actually here. I'm here. It still feels weird, dreamlike probably due to the fact that I've been on numerous planes and time zone changes. But no worries!

We went out on a grocery store run and I was finally able to see the place with my two eyes uninhibited by altitude, windows, or overwhelming luggage. The streets are rather narrow, and windy (as in winding). The architecture in my neighborhood is beautiful, very attempting to impress, but only as a second thought, as if the street was made for its own beauty and purpose, knowing all the while that the world would envy it. It feels like New York somehow imbedded onto a Jane Austen canvas. There is modernity, but only on the inside. The facades are layered brick, and the inside is Gap and H & M, and grocery stores.

(Just as a side note, there are some construction workers on a scaffold just outside my window working on next door, but as the distance between our windows is maybe 10 feet I keep looking up and making eye contact... awkward.)

Some things to remember:

1. A pound is not a dollar, in value or in looks.
2. Look right when walking across streets (even thought we know they drive on the opposite side of the road, it still is confuddling every time a car drives past)
3. Stores go up and down, so if you CANNOT find the blasted cereal it's probably above or below you, not around you.
4. London also buys their bananas from South America. I never thought of us eating the same produce, but there you have it.
5. They use a LOT of coins. Don't underestimate the coinage.
6. Try not to stare at construction workers outside your window because they are not actually attractive. And they know you're looking, so now they think they're attractive.
7. Pretend jet lag doesn't exist and see how far you get. (not far)

That's just a quick jot. I've only been in the city for like 4 hours or something. So more to follow, along with pictures.

Hello. I am a chicken. And I lay jelly-bean eggs.

Growing Things

So my younger brother has been more than a little obsessed with health lately. He's done a whole bunch of research and now has created in interesting, intense, all-health routine that involves sprouting your own wheat and grinding up for flour (for bread, etc).

He rinsed his own wheat over a week ago and look what he found down the drain on Easter.

This wheat sprouted in the disposal and grew at a rapid rate, and was so intertwined amid all the gears that the disposal could not work. Mom stuck her hand down to see what was the matter, and found this.

It took a while, but he managed to wrestle most of it out.

Let me tell you, it was such an odd experience to put your hand down the sink and find a thick blossoming lawn there.

Happy Easter!

TRIP OF MY LIFE!!

So I finally bought the majority of my plane tickets. I had a lot of finagling to do because my brother decided he didn't want to miss out. So he's joining me after my program and together we are going to frolic around Europe.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are our destinations thus far. We don't have too much time, but see if you can guess where we are going! (It's not that hard)

HOLY COW HOLY COW HOLY COW!!!!

I leave in 3 weeks!