Some very very delayed photos and some more recent ones:
mishmash
The visit to Paris and Rome made me decidedly more atheist. We visited seven churches while were in Paris and Rome and the amount of expense, the usury, the pomp all turned me further away from religion. The churches are filled with shops and people trying to sell you things. They have their worship schedules rigidly aligned and the people who work there often seem menacing and downright rude. Knowing that the vast majority of the wealth I saw displayed in the Vatican came from horrors such as crusades and theft made me even less interested in anything that claims to be holy.
Another thing that’s helped, watching Chariots of Fire again yesterday. “I can run on a Sunday because it violates God’s law!!” blech. I seriously gritted my teeth for about an hour of that movie, partly because of the religion and partly because of the horrible music.
Other thoughts….
A good public transportation system is so important. Why don’t we have public transportation in the US? Although it would be super different from here. Here no one speaks or makes eye contact on the tube. In Texas you’d know everyone’s life story by the time your stop came up.
Also, here in the UK there is a huge emphasis on reducing your carbon footprint and doing every little thing you can to improve the environment. I think it’s a really important thing to focus on and it’s great that the society over here does really seem to place an importance on it. It’s never about moving and living in a tent in front of Westminster (you won’t really get that unless you live here), it’s about eating pb&j more often or eating less meat or making sure you recycle, turn off your lights when you don’t need them, use more efficient bulbs, don’t run your heat all the time, walk more, reuse shopping bags, etc. Really basic, easy things that are just common place here and that should really be considered more in the US. I am definitely going to try to continue some of the habits I’ve picked up here that benefit the environment when I return home.
I’m really concerned about the US economy. Britain’s economy is so strong and robust and comparing it to how weak the US economy has become with the housing and employment crises (not crises yet, but from the sensational news stories I’ve read I’m worried) and several top economists warning of a recession really scares me. I don’t think getting a new president in will really make a difference because none of them are really different from Bush other than that they might have a different official political affiliation. Either way they will still be a politician. Although, I can say that the only Republican I was considering supporting has already very easily lost my support so it looks like I’m voting for a dem, libertarian, or Stephen Colbert. Yet again, not like it is going to matter much. I can definitely say that the state of American economics has convinced me to try to work in Japan after graduation just so I’ll have a positive work experience on my resume and can make some pretty good money while having a good experience. Then I’ll come home and work on putting my contribution into the American economy.
I was kind of worried that living abroad would make me anti-American to some degree. It’s done quite the opposite, although I admit I’m more depressed about our future now. I feel like America has this amazing opportunity to be so much more than it’s allowed itself to be so far. I’d just like for the US to get back to being an international hero rather than an international bully. Perhaps the two go hand in hand though? I do feel like part of the problem is that the US is simply too large for politics to truly be affected by people. Example, here in England a MP (member of Parliament) represents some 2-6 thousand people. In the US the representation is more like 1:750,000-1 mil. I don’t know what system of gov’t would be preferable to fix that, but I think it does make it less democratic. But the British political system has major issues that, as an American, I really don’t fret myself over but were I to become an expat, that would really really worry me on a completely different level. I think it’s only right that I’m very worried about the US considering how greatly it will affect me because I don’t want for our country to go through a recession just as I’m leaving uni. Not the best thing for a new grad to experience. -_-” As if I don’t have enough to worry about being a recent English grad right?
And that’s the best thing about being a study abroad student I think. You get to see your country through different eyes and really see it from an international context. I think you can’t help but feel a bit more critical but also a bit more proud of being from there because you can see all the negatives highlighted, but you know all the positives as well. Although to be fair, the UK prefers the US to the French, Germans, or Italians. I swear I’ve heard way more slurs against them than anything said about the Americans here.
On a completely different tack, I was at the Tate art museum the other day for the Millais exhibit (amazing!) and Michael and I looked at the entire museum and it was phenomenal. Millais and the Pre-Raphaelites are phenomenal. Seriously, google “Millais Ophelia” and look at it and realize that seeing it on a computer screen is about 1/1000th of the enjoyment and awe compared with seeing it in real life. Also if you can see “Christ in the House of His Parents” by Millais, it’s amazing. It’s awesome to see Biblical scenes painted as if real people were in the Bible (gasp!) rather than serenely perfect people. If there is one thing I wish I could share with everyone from home so far it would be the museums here. The British Museum, the Tate, V&A–all fantastic. We’re going to the Science museum tomorrow I think so I’m pretty excited about it too. I’ll let you know how it was, maybe without a few hundred words of ramblings beforehand.
Like I said, this is a mishmash.
paris
So after the awfulness that was Rome, I was more than a little apprehensive about Paris. I had never heard anything particularly bad about Italy and the negative stereotypes I had heard about Italians had all come to be from the English so I was pretty skeptical about them. I had always heard that Paris was dirty and that the French were horribly rude, so I was really worried I would have three more days of the same kind of crap that Rome had been.
Thankfully, Paris was amazing. We got there pretty late at night and took our long coach ride into the city. As we exited the airport the first thing I saw was a giant restaurant called “Buffalo Grill” and a big McDonald’s. It honestly just looked like a part of Texas at that moment which made me really homesick. That’s right, a Buffalo Grill and a McDonald’s make me yearn for home. Anyway, we got into the city and we couldn’t figure out if we were at a metro so I asked a man in as much French as I knew and he very cheerfully said yes and pointed us to the right place. I already felt better about Paris. We took the very efficient metro to our stop and since it was very late and we were very tired, we ate at the big McDonalds right outside our stop. We obviously couldn’t order very well in French but the lady was very nice and tried to help us in English as much as possible.
Anyway, we headed down a slightly shady road but then we were at our hostel. It was midnight but there were like six people working on the door and we just kind of stood awkwardly waiting to see if we could go in. One man noticed us and called to the others to let us pass and helpfully told us reception was inside.
We checked in, got into our little room and passed out, exhausted.
I’m adding in a lot of detail about how helpful everyone was on purpose. In Rome there was literally ONE person who offered us help. In Paris, on our first few hours there, we received considerably more help from people than we did the entire time in Rome.
Anyway, the next morning we got up and headed to Sacre Coeur. It is a beautiful cathedral meaning “Sacred Heart” (or something like that) and it is situated high up in the city. We, idiotically, climbed all these stairs to get there without realizing there was a trolley up. But we got there, took photos of the beautiful cityscape and then visited the chapel. We took some photos and bought the requisite post cards then we heard singing. Mass was beginning. We listened for a little while. It was really pretty to hear them say the Lord’s Prayer in French and the singing was lovely. Afterwards we decided to pay 5 euro to climb to the top of the dome. So we climbed up this little spiral staircase for what seemed forever and then light broke. It was the midway point. We huffed and puffed our way up to the top and finally got up there. We had a panoramic view of the city. It was beautiful. We huffed our way down and then took the trolley down to the base. We wandered around looking for a cheap meal and finally settled on a not so cheap meal. I tried to order beef tartare, not realizing what it was, but the waiter tried to explain it to me but he didn’t speak any English. I finally just pointed to steak and garlic sauce. It was good but way too expensive for a little steak. Michael ordered sausage and it was vile. Vile.
Anyway, afterwards we headed to Notre Dame. It was impressive but considering we had already seen five churches in the last week it was much of the same. Afterwards we stopped and paid 5 euro for two espressos. Good, but not as good as Rome and very expensive. Anyway, afterwards we headedto St. Chapelle, another church. It was one of my favorites actually. Very pretty. Afterwards we exhaustedly walked to the Pantheon which held the tombs of Marie Curie, Rousseau, and some other important people whose names I can’t remember right now. Foucault’s first pendulum was there which was pretty cool.
We were exhausted so we decided to get a snack and head back to the hostel. We rested for a little while but were too worn out to go out and do anything else so we just went down the road about two minutes and ate at a “Indian Restaurant Palace.” No one else was there and we couldn’t figure out why because it was amazing and not that expensive. Afterwards we went to bed.
So the next morning we woke up and got to our metro only to discover that there was a 23 minute wait for the next train. We couldn’t figure it out since the day before it had been so efficient. We waited and watched a drunk foursome (it was like 10 am) hassle people for money for a while and then the train came. We got to the Louvre and were in awe of the beautiful glass pyramid and walked up to the line, happy to find it quite short. It wasn’t until we saw the sign that said, “Permanent Collections Closed due to National Transport Strike, Temporary Collections Open” that we realized. For whatever reason, the Louvre and other museums close down if there is a Nat’l Transport Strike so we didn’t get to visit the Louvre. We’re going back to Paris in a few weeks so we weren’t too concerned about it and instead headed to the Arc De Triomphe. We ate at a Quick (like a McDonald’s) and Michael tried to order my meal for me but she couldn’t understand him so I said the same thing only with a better accent and she understood. She told us our amount in English and seemed so excited that she had gotten it right…lol it was really cute.
After our cheap lunch we walked down the Champs Elysees. I sat down to rest at one point and some creepy Dutch kid came and sat down next to me and begin speaking to me in awkward English for a while….lol it was kind of funny but weird. The bad thing about going to Rome first (other than going to Rome) was that by the time I got to Paris I was just exhausted from walking for four days straight and it made it more difficult to appreciate how great Paris was.
We stopped on the Champs Elysees to get a coffee or something bc it was so cold and we went to this nice looking cafe and a hot chocolate was 5.50 euro. I was like eff that so we walked a little bit more and saw a McCafe….lol so we bought some very cheap hot chocolate at a McDonald’s and walked along the Champs Elysees.
After walking for forever we tried to figure out what to do next. We had thought about going to the Musee D’Orsay but with the Louvre closed bc of the transport strike we felt sure that it would be as well. It was only like 2 pm but we didn’t know how long it would take us to get anywhere so we waited at a tube for about 15 minutes to head toward the Eiffel Tower. The train took longer than our patience did although we did enjoy watching a big black guy do ballet moves while listening to his iPod. We walked on to the next tube stop, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and waited for a while. It was as I smushed onto the train that I realized that people who travel for a living, like Anthony Bourdain or that girl from Passport to Europe, really don’t have the best jobs. It’s exhausting and there are always issues and even if they aren’t having to deal with all the crap, it is still an incredibly tiring experience. Anyway, we got out too late and had to walk some ways to get to the Eiffel Tower but we got there and got in line. It was funny watching the French guards with their giant automatic rifles running to kiss at puppies to love on the dogs around the tower….very strange. Anyway, we waited for a while then managed to go up. Michael had gotten it into his head that he wanted to take me to one of the restaurants on the Eiffel Tower but it was so expensive that I convinced him otherwise (with some aid from the menu). As I was sitting and waiting for Michael to do something I saw this little one-legged pigeon trying to get food. Another pigeon was eating everything he could get so Michael and I found some fries and made sure he got them. We’re softies for a pigeon. The Eiffel Tower is very impressive and lovely but at this point I was so tired and hungry I was ready to go. So we headed down and went to this gorgeous little restaurant. Our waiter looked so quintessentially French but was very nice and helpful. We ordered a 3-course meal each and I ordered some red wine and Michael got some white wine. I started my meal off with escargo which is of course snails with olive oil and pesto, very yummy. Michael had a hard boiled egg and mayonnaise which was actually really good. Then I had rump steak with veggies. It came with half a ton of mushrooms, green beans, cauliflour, and a very yummy sauce. Michael had “chicken supreme” which was actually chicken korma but still very good. We finished with Michael having toffee flan and I had creme brulee. We split almost everything and it was really good. It took us over two hours to eat but that’s just how it’s done there and it was really wonderful. As Michael gave his debit card to pay the waiter looked at it. It has the batman sign on it and he was like, “Batman? Are you batman?” and Michael laughed and said maybe. The waiter then looked at me and said, “That would make you….j’mappele….Cat woman!” It was really funny. It had already gone 9 by the time we left so we watched the Eiffel Tower light up for a little bit then headed home.
When we finally caught a train these two drunk guys, with one being pushed in a pram got on. They started to talk to Michael and me but obviously we didn’t understand them. I told them “Je ne comprende pas” and they were very nice (and very drunk). lol it was a very odd experience. There was also this woman sitting behind us the entire way who hadn’t moved at all. I got really worried about her so I asked a nice looking older couple next by if they knew if she was okay. They told me to try to wake her but that she was probably just really drunk and there was nothing to do (they literally told me all this in broken English and miming, we understood each other). I tried to pick her up and had to literally sit her up completely before she came to and said something to me angrily in French. I just let her flop back down and got off. We got out too early (my fault) and had to walk in the dark unfamiliar streets. We were kind of scared but there really were no problems and we made it back to our hostel with no issues.
We left early the next morning, got to the train station, got on for free because during a strike everything keeps running but you don’t have to pay for anything. So we saved 16 euro and got to the airport in no time. We finally got home, exhausted, dirty, and hungry for kebabs. It was a great week and I’m excited to go back to Paris. Don’t ever listen to anyone who tells you they’re rude or that it’s dirty. It’s amazing. As long as you’re polite and willing to take some risks and attempt some French they are more than willing to help you out and are really pleasant. The city is gorgeous, not dirty at all and it is just the most beautiful and enchanting place ever.
rome
Let me just preface this by saying that I hated Rome. Absolutely hated it. You’ll see why. Be warned, I use some strong language. Also be warned that I calmed a lot of it down from what I truly feel.
So we get into Rome in the evening. We get to the Termini station, which is the main station for just about everything in Rome-trains, metro, whatever else they have. So we get there and we’re hungry and just want to find our hostel. We decide to grab a quick bite at McDonald’s since it’s familiar and easy to order from. We walk toward where our hostel is and find it quickly as it is about a block away. The walk there is kind of sketchy but we soon discover that is just how Rome generally looks-sketchy. We get to our hostel and walk up the four flights of stairs with our backpacks on and get there. A very creepy man answers. He has long greasy hair and looks like Lurch and something else just generally sketchy. He was really nice though and we got into our room which is a standard kind of hostel room. We decide that we are too freaked out by the unfamiliar surroundings and the sketchy creepiness we’ve already seen so we stay in, eat, and go to sleep.
Day 2 – Colosseum
We started off the morning with the woman at the hostel (an older woman who only spoke Italian and who also only had like 4 fingers total) making sure Michael held the bag close to his body, either that or to hug himself all day. We also petted a big scary looking but really sweet dog. Apparently that was how everything at the hostel was, scary in appearance but really not bad at all.
We head to the Colosseum, taking the very weird metro where the trains and metro stations are covered in graffiti. There are only two lines in Rome because they have so many underground ruins, so we walked a LOT. We got out at the Colosseum, confidently walked past the Roman Centurion clad con-artists and walked up to the “Pre-Paid” line. We showed them our voucher which says, “This is the voucher you need” three or four times on the paper. They refused us, saying we printed out the wrong thing because it did not have the image at the top. It clearly has our payment information, our validation number, and it repeats itself several times that it is, in fact, the paper we need. We looked for an internet cafe to print out the “correct” one, couldn’t find it, so we got back in line while Michael tried to get them to take it. They said they believed us that we had purchased it but wouldn’t let us in. So we bought our tickets again and walked around the Colosseum angrily.
The Colosseum itself was impressive but since we were too furious to purchase the audio guides we really didn’t get much out of it. Afterwards we walked through the Palatino, which was very pretty. We stopped to rest and Michael and I fed some pigeons from our hands which was kind of cool. After that we walked to the Piazza Venicia and looked at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We ate lunch at a horribly touristy little shop where an angry Italian woman chased these four clueless Chinese teenagers every time they got up from their seats.
After lunch we headed to the Pantheon, which is a church built on top of an ancient pagan temple (like most things in Rome). It was interesting and pretty and we went to a few shops along the way where Michael bought me a cute necklace. I got some gelato and we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. It was massive and lovely and from there we went to another little shop where we saw absynthe. We didn’t buy any but we were tempted. We did buy some limoncello because it is so big there. Afterwards we got to the tube station and got home to take the ELEVATOR OF DOOM!! It was an old fashioned elevator where you had to close three doors to get it to go and it was terrifying. But we were tired so we didn’t really care. For dinner we ate at W.O.K. – World Oriented Kitchen. It was in the Termini station so we didn’t venture far from home. It was really good Chinese food and just what I was in the mood for. We noticed that there were barely any non-Italian restaurants in Rome, other than in the Termini station.
Day 3 – Vatican
Italy is known for its coffee and rightly so. We had seen many locals order an espresso and then down it in three gulps and leave. We decided to try it on the morning of the third day (a little Biblical sounding there) and so we did. It was really really good actually. We ended up downing many more espresso shots throughout the rest of our time in Rome.
After fueling ourselves with an unhealthy amount of caffeine, we headed out on the metro to the Spanish steps. We climbed them. They’re just steps. We then went to the nearby Keats-Shelly Memorial house. It is the house where Keats died of tuberculosis. It was cool, nice for the literary connections it offered between Rome and America and the UK. It’s important to point out that we were at this moment in the nicest part of Rome, where Gucci and Prada have their stores, and it still looked dirty and sketchy. We ate some really great pizza for pretty cheap at this little place and then headed to the meeting point to go to the Vatican. We were the youngest there and while waiting for forever we got a cappuccino, which was another amazing product of Italy. Afterwards we stood in line for over an hour to get into the Vatican. We got in and had a really great tour guide. She talked to us about the courtyard of the Pinecone, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Museums, and St. Peter’s Basilica. We walked for about three hours through these things. The Vatican Museums were fascinating but were, ultimately, museums, a collection of their stolen loot from the many crusades and abuses fostered by the church. After the museums we headed to the Sistine Chapel. I personally felt like it has been overblown. It was fascinating and really detailed and you could look at it for years and never see every detail, but it is also just the work of a man who was forced to paint something he didn’t want to by the church. It was gorgeous and intricate, but also reeked of religious pressure. Don’t think me too cynical, it was amazing, but when you walk through these beautiful places and you hear about some of the ways and reasons they commissioned it, you can’t help but feel you’re looking at little more than the spoils of war and slavery.
Saint Peter’s Basilica gave me much the same impression. It was beautiful and overpowering. It is so tall you can’t fathom it and there are letters high up on the wall that look tiny but are actually six feet tall. Every picture in there is actually a mosaic, an intricate and gorgeous mosaic. We were sitting in a pew looking at a mosaic above some tomb to an important religious figure and there was this Vatican official who was soooo rude. He was an “asshat” as Michael called him. He would tell people to shush loudly, people who were not even close to the tomb. He would push people out of the way if they weren’t going in the right direction to see the tomb or if they were taking too long. He was so incredibly pompous and rude, and he wasn’t the only one of the lot.
After seeing the Basilica (as much as was allowed), we went out to get our bag. Our bag that held our passports, iPods, identification, etc. They couldn’t find it, wouldn’t help us get it, wouldn’t allow us to go back to the museum. They were completely rude and unhelpful. I was near tears I was so frustrated and finally we found out that they would allow us to have it at 6 pm. It was 4:45 at this point and we had planned on going to see a few other churches before 6 pm. That obviously wasn’t going to happen so we just sat in the Vatican until six and got our bag, cursing the Vatican as we left. I cannot even explain to you how frustratingly unhelpful and useless the Vatican staff were. I also cannot explain to you how many people we spoke to who were horribly uninterested in being of ANY use. This makes two of the biggest monuments in Rome with completely useless and frustrating staff members and procedures. Blech.
Afterwards we were so frustrated and so annoyed with Rome we just wanted food and alcohol. So we made our way to a little restaurant, sat outside and ordered food. We started with bread and olive cream. Michael had gnocchi with Gorgonzola and I had veal with ham and sage. We shared 1/2 a liter of white wine and had a mixed cheese with swiss, soft, spicy, and Gorgonzola cheese. We finished up with tiramisu. It was great, one of my favorite meals in Europe so far. It was not too expensive either so we were happy as we made our way back to our hostel.
Day 4 – Grope and Castle
So as my title might suggest, on day 4 I got groped. We were getting on the metro to visit the Castel St. Angelo before our flight left. It was really crowded and Michael and I got separated and some mother fucker decided rubbing up against me would be a good idea. I elbowed him hard and managed to get away. At this point my feelings for Italians had worsened into sincere hatred, not helped by a woman shouting at us because we improperly pronounced “nociola” (hazelnut). Anyway, we got to the castle. It was alright. Had some really beautiful frescoes but I was so annoyed with everything in Rome that I didn’t really enjoy myself much. I did soak myself in a water fountain quite unintentionally though, which didn’t help much. In Rome their water is all really fresh and so you can drink out of like giant water fountains without it being a big deal at all.
After the castle we headed back to our hostel, got our belongings, said good bye to the nice but somewhat creepy hostel keepers, went down the elevator of doom one last time, and happily got on our bus to leave fucking Rome behind.
You know, I’m not normally an angry person who is willing to believe that everything must be like my first impression, so on the way to airport I really tried to rationalize that maybe we had had just had bad luck. That was until I heard an American couple talking about how awful Rome was. We were actually stuck in the bus, waiting to get onto the plane and he was saying how inefficient the entire city had been and how bad his experience was. We told him some of our experiences and he said, “Even if they gave me a free ticket back, I’d never accept it.” The funny thing about this was that they raffled off a free ticket back to Rome on our flight to Paris. He didn’t win it but we all felt a little better to realize that Rome really had been as bad as we’d believed.
from rome
I leave for Paris today. I’m ready to leave Rome. It’s been alright but definitely ready to go. I’ll update extensively when I get home but for now I’m alive and doing well. Will try to post from Paris but no guarantees.
pre-rome and paris
On Thursday in my British Life and Culture class we had a homeless lady come and speak with us. She has been homeless for sixteen years and it was heartbreaking. Homelessness is much more prevalent in London than at home (it’s also a giant city and has free health care) so it’s really very common to see several homeless people on the street in a day. It definitely put my own life into perspective a bit more.
Today I spent five hours in the British Museum. I saw the Portland Vase, bogman, Sutton Hoo findings, the Neriad Temple, the artifacts from the Parthenon, Cleopatra’s mummy, the Rosetta stone, and so many other amazing things. It was phenomenal. I think we managed to see about half of it and it was really phenomenal. Everyone must go.
I leave for Rome and Paris tomorrow and I’m half excited half nervous. I think it will be awesome but we’re only going to be in each for about 2.5 days which really doesn’t feel sufficient. We are going to see the Vatican and the Colosseum for sure though so I’m excited. I’ll take four million photos and upload as many as I can before I come home for Christmas…although it might take me that long.
But right now, I’m just eating Pralines and Cream ice cream with real CREAM an it’s amazing. I’m going to weigh 2 stone more when I come home, but god it’s good.
Anyway, I’ll be gone but feel free to send me emails and messages because it’s pretty nice to come home to messages. 
If I get access to a computer while I’m gone I’ll try to post a brief message telling everyone I’m still alive.
oxford, borough market and modern art
This too might be something of a long post because I’ve delayed posting about big events too much.
Oxford: We went on Friday to what was my favorite city I’ve seen so far in England (not counting Ireland and Edinburgh, as they’re not in England). It was amazing. There are 38 colleges in Oxford University and they’re all very independent and spread about the city. They were beautiful and austere and ancient of course. By the end of the walking tour we all felt quite positive that we needed to apply to attend graduate school there. It was not only because of the lovely city and the beautiful colleges, but also because of the tutoring system that they use. Instead of having set courses you must attend, they have tutorials that you must attend. It is usually one-on-one or no more than 3 people in a group with a fellow (professor) who is knowledgeable about the same field the student(s) is interested in. The student must go there every week and the fellow will give them topics to write on, suggest lectures to attend, books to read, etc. The student must write on the topic then read it to the fellow the next week and the fellow will usually tear it apart then suggest some ways to make it better. It’s really interesting and sounds like a nice idea for an education. They have long holiday breaks and are really not in school for very much time, but this direct education system makes it better than if they were in a huge lecture hall or if they were being given huge amounts of rather simple work (in my case).
And that’s the thing that I’ve realized about Southwestern. The work is rarely hard but it’s always massive. I’d rather have some truly difficult assignments that I spend hours labouring over than to have twenty-five assignments that I can do with relative ease but that take me two days because I have so much. This semester is great because everything is pared down considerably (as it should be), but I know next semester when I’m hopefully taking my capstone, it will be hell.
Anyway, Oxford also has some amazing literary connections. Harry Potter was filmed in bits of Christchurch and the Bodleian Library (which I’ll be talking about later) as well as other areas around town. The Eagle and the Child pub is where the Inklings met. The Inklings are a group of writers which include Tolkien and C.S. Lewis who would often gather in the pub and read aloud their writings. It was here that Tolkien told Lewis that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was crap. It was pretty cool to see the colleges where Tolkien, Philip Pullman, Mr. Bean, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carrol, and Michael Palin (of Monty Python) were students and to discover some of the things that inspired them.
After our walking tour and an amazing lunch at the Eagle and the Child we went to the Bodleian Library where Clive Hurst showed us some of the rare children’s books from the Opi collection and other collections. This was primarily for the Children’s Lit class but it was also really interesting to see these ancient books and see how they reflected the ideas of publishing, religion, class, education, etc. of the day.
I think it is fairly decided that we will all be returning to Oxford on a school trip which will explicitly be to tie in the connections from the literature we’re reading and the amazing city.
Borough Market: So yesterday we went to the Borough Market. We were planning to go last week but we were lame and didn’t. It was amazing. There were all these stalls and a huge crush of people trying to get to the organic cheese, fruit, jam, meat, rare cheeses (there were tons of cheese), wine, baps (a dusty roll sandwich thing), unique beers (I bought a banana beer!), olives, etc.etc.etc. There were tons of people there buying their environmentally and economically friendly free-trade, organic, no plastic used anywhere within a hundred mile radius products. It was awesome. We bought some hazelnut carrot cake, a chocolate brownie, chocolate pecan cake (wee bits of each mind you, we aren’t that unhealthy), some tomato and basil bread (good god we bought a lot of carbs), banana beer, cherry beer, and some garlic and basil olives. It was all-in-all a great day with amazing food and we are really hoping to be able to return.
After the market we headed to Tate Modern. Now, I like some modern art and I hate others. Michael apparently hates all modern art considering how surly he was about all of the “silly” bits there. But we did it. We trudged through the entire museum, quietly laughing at the people who spent 35 minutes looking at a painting a four year old could have done (and I secretly believe, probably did do) then would nod their head and walk away to the next ridiculous bit of “art.” There was Waterlilies by Monet which was lovely, some Matisses which were…yeah, some Jackson Pollack which I honestly cannot remember because all of the surreal (literally, surrealism) paintings kind of bled together in my mind. There were some very interesting pieces like a foam machine, a giant metal circular thing, live birds, etc. It was all-in-all an exercise in tourism to be able to say you were there. We went, it wasn’t all bad but it was certainly not our taste. It particularly irked us to see these inane pieces where someone literally just splashed paint onto a canvas and then a long bit of writing explaining how brilliant and important this piece was. There were pieces which were monochromatic, completely orange or black and yet these exemplified the gaping void of humanity or the fiery passion of life which can only be contained within itself. Trying to make meaning out of these things which were indecipherable. It’s like no one ever once stopped to think, “Hmm….I wonder if good ol’ Jackson Pollack needed to make some extra dough when he painted this one. All the others are somewhat intricate (if a little haphazard) but this one he obviously did to make some extra money between big paintings and he just wrote some drivel about the purity of art to make up for the obvious slapdash job he did.”
Anyway, that’s way more time than modern art deserved.
Today I think we’re going to hit up some of the British Museum. Obviously it would be impossible to tackle the whole thing at once so I hope we can get it done in 2-3 visits. Sorry for the ridiculous length of this post, but now you can never say you didn’t know my feelings on modern art.
edinburgh and york
This is going to be a long post, so get ready.
We rose bright and early on Friday to get to King’s Cross Station to catch our train. We all took a photo at Platform 9 3/4, although Michael and I had already gotten photos there. We boarded our train and were there for several hours. We finally arrived in Edinburgh at around 4 or so and immediately boarded a coach to take us on a panoramic tour of Edinburgh. We drove around the volcano that the city is situated on and saw some of the lochs and the lovely city. Many photos were taken, naturally. Afterwards we went to our hotel, the Tailor’s Hall. The Tailor’s Hall is situated above the Three Sister’s Pub, which we were all psyched about. We thought it was going to be totally awesome to be above a rocking pub at night. I’ll get back to that later.
Anyway, I got in my cute hotel room and discovered I had a bathtub. Now I haven’t had a bath in 2 months and so I immediately forgot there was a city outside to be explored and instead took a bath. It was totally worth it. Afterwards Michael and I and some other people headed to The Standing Order. The Standing Order is a Wetherspoon’s pub built in an old bank. It’s pretty cool, there was a vault and everything. It was quite cheap as well so I ordered a lamb shank with veggies which was amazing. We also ordered some haggis and shared it. It was actually really good and if I hadn’t known what it is I probably would have enjoyed it more. We had some drinks, chatted, had fun, then headed back to the hotel. I was exhausted even though it was only like 9 pm so I watched some TV then went to bed.
Now living on Cromwell Road I’ve become a much heavier sleeper. I can sleep through sirens, drunk people, and car horns, but trying to sleep above a pub/club that was literally only 2 floors below me was nigh impossible. It was so incredibly loud, the floorboards pulsated with the bass beat. Thankfully I had my iPod with me and was able to get some sleep. I got up the next morning, got breakfast, then headed out with Michael to the Edinburgh Castle. We didn’t get to go to Dublin Castle so I was really excited to go to a castle and it was a lot of fun. It was expensive, 11 gbp/person but it was still really interesting and well-maintained. We saw the Crown Jewels, or the Honours of Scotland which were…alright. We saw the Stone of Destiny which they say might have been Jacob’s Pillow. It was just a stone with handles in it, but, whatever.
Afterwards we went down the Royal Mile which is basically a mile of tourist trap stops. It worked, but I mostly just bought souvenirs for my family. I think the only thing I bought for myself was a little Nessie doll and that was more because I didn’t want to spend money but wanted a souvenir than anything else. I really wanted a cashmere plaid scarf made there but the cheapest I could find them was 20 pounds and I couldn’t excuse paying $40 on a scarf. Michael and I had lunch at The Tron, a very cheap pub which was nice. We then walked down the rest of the Royal Mile with the intention of going to the palace but we got there and decided that 8.50 pounds was entirely too much to spend on seeing yet another palace. We’ve seen Buckingham, we’ve seen Brighton, we felt like we were good on palaces. If we go back to Edinburgh we might see it, but we weren’t terribly interested then. We walked around Holyrood Park and took photos of stone statues that were really interesting. We also got photos of King Arthur’s Seat (the small volcanic mountain) which was gorgeous.
We headed back to the Tron and got a pint but there was a Rugby game on so it was super loud so we left soon afterwards. On our way back to the Tailor’s Hall we got a flyer for a free shot and no cover at a bar/club called Siglo. We got some friends and went back. It was alright but kind of iffy. We headed back to the hotel and the ridiculous noise level, watched some X Factor (Simon Cowell is on it!), then went to sleep, yet again with an iPod since it was incredibly loud.
The next morning we got on the train and headed to York. Most of us were pretty disappointed that we didn’t have more time in Edinburgh. It was so interesting and I really wanted to go see the Highlands or something. Michael and I are considering going back over Thanksgiving for a 3 day Highland tour we found. We hope it works out.
Anyway, we got to York and got to the hotel. It was a very modern hotel which was incredibly strange after spending so much time in buildings and areas that are easily three times as old as America. It was already 5 pm so there wasn’t a whole bunch for us to do except take a wee nap then head out for dinner. Michael and I went to a Turkish BBQ place named Kapadokya 50 and ate there. It was pretty good and interesting. Afterwards we just returned to the hotel and read until we were exhausted.
The next day we had to get up very early to begin our 3 hour walking tour of York. York has a large amount of Medieval and Roman ruins and there is a city wall built in Roman times, renovated in Victorian times, and used presently which was quite interesting. We walked around the city, saw ruins of an old abbey, the walls, graves, etc. It was interesting but when the tour ended, we only had 3 hours to eat and see the city. We ended up eating at a Chinese buffet, collecting our luggage and going to the station. It was such a whirlwind tour of York that it barely felt worth it at all. I mean it was nice and interesting but really too short to be worth all the traveling time it took.
Anyway, we got on the train and when we got off the sunny pleasant weather of York was replaced by the dismal rain of London. We got on the coach and had to quickly get back to our flat to deposit our luggage and go see a play. We were all exhausted but having paid for tickets to a play we felt we should go. It was good but I was more than ready for bed when I came in last night.
Whew, so that was my weekend. I know more things happened and I can’t really describe how lovely it was. There are pictures which I’ll be working on posting this afternoon after class. I think Michael and I are trying to plan a trip to the Scottish Highlands over Thanksgiving break so hopefully that will work out because I’d love to see the beautiful landscape. Anyway, I’m back and I’ll be going to Rome and Paris in two weeks!!!
