1. Glasgow- Because Laura had is recommended to her, + Jill knows somebody who lives there. 2. Edinburgh- Because Sarah has a friend who is studying there. 3.York- Because it means that we get to visit Fountain's Abbey! (Be jealous, be mad jealous.) 4.Liverpool- Because Sarah loves the Beatles.
Now, I realize that this itinerary makes it look like I didn't want to go any of these places, but that is not the case! I really wanted to go around the UK during my break, because I feel like I really want to experience where we are and rushing all around Europe is not my idea of a good time. But! I didn't have my own independent ideas of where I wanted to go, so I let other people make the decisions for me, and I am very happy with them. Oh, and I am mad stoked to go to the Abbey. Srsly, landscape/architecture <3. ___
(The photo is some dogs we saw tree a squirrel while out with classes. It has nothing to do with what I'm talking about, it's just that my camera is still without memory card)
Yes, here it is people, the entry you've all been waiting for- "Oh my gosh, I have a million things I want to do and my semester is already half over."
Many of the things I want to do are time specific- seeing the tulips in Green park, visiting the Royal Mews, or seeing the Museum of Tea and Coffee are all things I cannot do until mid-March, at earliest, because they're not open/available until then.
Only a few of the things I want to do haven't been gotten to because I've been lame- many many art exhibits, a few specific pubs/restaurants, and several movies.
However, the bulk of things I want to do haven't been gotten to because I only just realized I want to do them- the History of Hats exhibit at the V + A, and about a thousand plays. There are not enough days in the week for the number of plays I want to see. I think I've only just started looking into the theatre because I've moved past the getting comfortable phase, vaguely into a bored phase, and now into a wanting to do things phase. Which is all part of the process, I'm sure.
Overall I feel alright, and I am somewhat anxious to get back home to familiar, less expensive territory, but I feel that very familiar New York feeling of gearing up to rush around just about everywhere.
Soon: a new memory card for my camera, more pictures, and a preview of my Spring Break (which starts on Friday, aaack!)
Long time, no blog- I am exceedingly sorry! My family visited this week, and I was so busy running around having fun with them that I was barely near the computer at all.
Here's a short list of things I have done:
-Jazz/Bellowhead concert at the Southbank Centre, Silent Rave in Leicester Square -Visit to Canterbury + the Cathedral -Delicious French food at "La Poule Aux Pot" with the family -Saw "Taming of the Shrew" -Bought some pretty headscarves at Liberty of London -Multiple sleepovers at the flat my family stayed in -Visit to Warwick castle, broke my camera -Saw a great production of "The Tempest" -Visit to Avon, went to Anne Hathaway's house + Holy Trinity where Will is buried.
So I've been busy!
My camera broke when I was sitting at a picnic table- it slipped out of my pocket + hit the ground. I didn't think anything of it, and went on with my life, but the next time I tried to turn it on it made a scary grinding noise + wouldn't cooperate. Needless to say I was very upset, and thought I tried not to let it spoil my day, but I'm still very disappointed. Fortuitously, my parents were in town this week, so they let me have the old family camera (which is kind of on it's way out anyway), + took mine home to see if it can be repaired.
I'm a little disappointed, because though I had wanted a new camera for some time, I was hoping to buy a nice camera- probably a few steps down from an SLR. There's a lot of research involved in buying a new one, which I just really don't have time to do right now. AND, I had been planning on buying a new computer (a desktop) this summer- I don't have the extra money for a camera.
But I have my parent's camera, + I have learned my lesson- keep the camera in a case.
A few days ago, I got an email solicitation from a guidebook-making company (which shall remain nameless), telling me one of my photos had been selected as a finalist to be included in their upcoming guidebook on London. My compensation? My name under the photo.
[Note: Don't watch this if you are easily offended by foul language.]
For how I feel about that, check out Mr. Ellison's feelings at about the 1:31 mark on the above video: "And what are people going to say, ooh, I really like the way that guy gave that interview. I wonder if he's ever written a book? Let me go and buy- there's no publicity value."
I don't really see why this company thought I would like to give them the photo for free. It's the same reason I pretty much refuse to get an internship where I am not getting paid/compensated in some other way (free food/housing/education). I think it's almost criminal how companies are allowed to get free slave labour from students who give up an entire summer to make photocopies for a law firm when they SHOULD be getting paid instead.
The funny thing is that it's not really that great a photo anyway:
It's a crummy little snapshot, + if they had a camera and maybe half an hour they could go take the same photo themselves. But instead of doing the legwork, they feel the need to (basically) screw me out of my money, even when it says "All Rights Reserved" right there on the photo page.
I know this is the internet, this is the new age of freedom of information, + I am a hypocrite if I have stolen even one song from the internet ever. But lately I have been really getting into supporting artists, keeping my money with local businesses, and buying handmade, so stuff like this really rubs me the wrong way.
And hey, at least they asked first. I noticed the other day that my stats had gone way up on one of my photos, I checked the site that they were being linked from- it was a forum on Cirque du Soleil. I am completely behind that- the guy posted a link to my photo instead of just stealing it, and it was being used as part of a discussion. But I would have liked a little note from the guy linking it- just a little hello, how are you, would you mind if I..? Because the answer would have been an invariable yes, and then I would have had a little connection with somebody, as opposed to wondering why my photo was being stalked.
Coming Soon: My visit to Brick Lane, and a short wondering on Hipsters.
On Saturday we got up early and (after a little wait) climbed onto the bus to Stonehenge. It was brisk, but not unbearably cold, and very bright- it had snowed + there was not a cloud in sight. However, because it had snowed, most of the path around stonehenge was closed, meaning everybody there had to cram onto the cement strip on the Northeast side of the site- so think about 250 (or more!) people cramming into the same space, with everybody trying to take pictures of themselves with the rocks in the background- I can't tell you how many people's pictures I must have walked through. However, it did mean I could get a photo of the whole thing without a ring of people walking behind it, so click over there if you want to see the really great panorama I was able to take.
Back onto the bus for the ride to Bath, where we had tea/lunch at the Jane Austen museum and then took a tour of the Roman Baths. We got free audio guides, and I was really glad we had, or else I wouldn't have understood anything that was going on. They were really really cool.
A little description (for those in the know, feel free to skip this bit): There was a central hot spring, called "the Sacred Pool", which nobody was allowed to bathe in, but was the central source for the water used in the rest of the complex. However, apparently the common Roman people used to toss things into is, as offerings or pleas to the Gods, so historians have been able to use the coins that were thrown in to date the usage of the pool- unsurprisingly, it got less popular as Christianity pushed its way through the empire.
There were the various different rooms that were involved in the process of bathing constructed in a linear fashion through the complex and the big central pool that most people take pictures of was the main plunge pool (the big picture above). It was filled/refreshed via the mind-bendingly complex plumbing system set up by the Romans, and is only green now because the roof is missing, so sunlight has allowed algae to grow. However, we're not allowed to swim in it today because the floor of the pool (at 1.3m deep) is a solid sheet of lead (seemed like a good idea at the time to the Romans). That, and the rest of the complex is kind of deteriorating... we wouldn't get the full effect.
The water was very warm + relaxing- I can see why the Romans thought it was a holy thing. I really enjoyed my time in the building, looking at the architecture and daydreaming about staying in a spa.
Back out in Bath, we didn't really have enough time to visit the various museums we had wanted to see, and so sort of wandered around, taking pictures of the various churches + the river Avon. After snacking on some pasties (the pie, not the glittery thing) and buying a new pair of gloves (I lost mine, quelle sad), it was back on the bus to go home and rest, but there were some fantastic views out the window on the way.
Feel free to check out Flickr for many more pictures of my trip, and click below for a video of the baths!
Today I bought a small red 2009 planner, to replace the deteriorating calendar print-outs I had in my purse.
I'm slowly realizing that the Moleskine city notebook is not that great- I have to carry around a separate map, because the ones in the front of the notebook are not thoroughly labeled and difficult to navigate (pun intended), and I don't even really look at it that often. It would be better if I could take the tabbed "fill it in yourself" sections in the back of the city notebook and put them into the back of my planner, along with another section for overall lists (movies to see, books to read, clothing to keep an eye out for), because the tabbed list-enabling portion of my moleskine is the only part I've been using for the past few weeks.
The problem with having a little tiny 2009 planner is that there's no place for homework or to-do lists, meaning I have to re-activate my archaic and over-complicated post-it note system, which doesn't necessarily work that well anyway.
I think this need to over-organize stems from my continuing angst that we don't have desks in the apartments. I don't really want anything all that complicated, just a place that I can leave my computer and all of my papers, like a pop-up card table. I'm the kind of person whose creative process involves spreading all pertinent notebooks out across my desks and making as big a mess as possible and leaving it there, so shuffling my belongings from bags on my (half) bedside table out to the kitchen counter and back again is stressing me out.
'Sure', says part of my brain, 'just get over it! Enjoy being in London!'
But this is part of the package- learning about myself. And the bit that I'm learning right now is that I need some kind of designated place where I can just be and not have to worry about inconveniencing anybody, or being messed with.
Oh, and that I have a problem with notebook consumption.
This photo is from last night, but when I woke up this morning, there were about 7 cm of snow on the ground, and all of the London schools were closed.
Sarah + Susannah + I went out to go to Harrods, and after waiting for 15 minutes for the bus, we were informed by a passing local that the buses weren't to run today. Okay, on to the (more expensive) tube, then.
Entire parts of the tube system were shut down. The place was packed, with everybody going nowhere in particular as most things were shut down- hospitals were only accepting emergency calls, and most businesses I walked by were closed.
As a New Yorker, this inability to deal with the snow is vaguely amusing- everybody is trying to stomp around in the same shoes they usually wear and looking quite grumpy about it.
They're all going to be surprised tomorrow when they wake up that the entire city has turned into a skating rink, since NONE OF THE SIDEWALKS ARE SHOVELED.
You would think they would have at least a few shovels stored somewhere, but... for right now (while the temperature lingers just above freezing) everything that isn't in front of a fancy hotel is coated in about an inch of slush. Yum. My toes are happy because I very specifically didn't pack my snow boots, thinking I wouldn't need them. Oh well. It's still kind of funny.
