After the exam we had the last cultural activity wt the AIU group. Cultural Drinking. Basically we went to four different pubs in the City of London. I do not like to bring my camera out with me so i have to pictures and I also missed most of the information because I was first late arriving due to forgetting my oyster card and having to go back to my flat to get it, and then I was chatting with another professor and student on the tour in the back so I didn't hear much of what tony had to say about the pubs.
But i did learn some cool things about the City of London.
- We saw part of St. Bride church. This is the church that inspired the traditional tiered wedding cakes. I forget who the first cake was made for, but the Lady who was about to get married commissioned a baker to make a cake for her wedding. The baker was not sure what type of cake to make and he was wandering down the street when he looked at the steeple of St. Bride's church, and he then used the design to make the Lady's wedding cake. Therefore being called The Bride's cake. I wish i had a picture of it :(
- We walked down the street that Shakespeare lived on and saw his apartment.
- We walked by the Globe theater again and got a little bit of history on it. When it first opened It only cost a penny to stand in the gallery and two pennies to sit in the surrounding structure. It would be crowded and people would just show up with there pennies.. there was no tickets. In order to keep a system there were men who waited at the entrance collecting the pennies in boxes. They had no where to store these boxes so they built an office for storage of them... Creating the first Box office.... pretty cool!
We did not attend the last pub because we wanted to get up early the next morning and we weren't going to any particularly special pub.
Friday
Krista, Lisa and I got up earlier than the 0ther girls and went out to St. Paul's Cathedral. I was sooooo excited to get back here. I absolutely LOVE the cathedrals. They are soooo magnificently beautiful!
Of course I was not allowed to take pictures inside :(
The no picture rule is probably the worst rule anyone ever came up with. However in Ellie's opinion "pictures are for people who can't remember". haha.
a lot of the artwork on the ceiling in this cathedral was mosaic... There was tons of it! I can not imagine how long it must have taken them!
While we were at st. Paul's we were able to have some reallllly awesome experiences.
First we were able to go down into the Crypt! This was sooooooo freakishly awesome! It was really spooky and eerie. It reminded me of the movie Da Vinci Code when they are running around in the basements of the cathedrals. SOOOOOO COOL!
We were also able to go to the top of the dome! (528 total steps 278 feet above the cathedral floor) There are three level's on the way up.
Level one: 257 steps, 98 feet from cathedral floor, The Whispering Gallery
This Level is still inside of the cathedral. It was AMAZING! To be able to see the paintings at the top of the dome up close and personal was astonishing!! You can see in the diagram the smaller arch... that is the ceiling of the whispering gallery/ the inside of the cathedral. There is a little walk way and bench that surround the inside of the wall. This level was sooooooooo cooool! If it is quite enough and not too many people up there at the same time you are able to whisper next to/into the wall and it will travel around the entire room! You do not even have to press your ear to the wall to hear it. On the other side of the room you can hear what someone said as if they were right next to you. Krista, Lisa and I had a lot fun whispering to each other!
Level two: 119 more steps, 75 feet higher, The Stone Gallery
The staircases were all spirals the whole way up... and they got more narrow with each level as well!
this level was really pretty and it was outside! so you could see for miles! It was just a teaser of the next level.
Millennium bridge...
sooooo beautiful!
Level three: the last 152 steps, and 105 feet higher, The golden Gallery
This view was absolutely AMAZING! It made me very very sad that i did not get to see Paris from up high. We were able to walk around the whole thing so i tried to take a picture from every view point... but it was hard because it was crowded and they were herding us around so they could keep people moving through.
I was in love with this :)
Then we had to go down :(
Going up i didn't have a problem. But going down... i felt sick! It was sooooo steep and when you are traveling in a constant circle you get a bit dizzy as well.... not a good combination.
It was also about lunch time... so our next stop was food! :)
There was a Paul right outside :) and I have been craving one of those olive bread tomato mozzarella sandwiches i got from the Paul in Paris so I was hoping they had it because the one close to our school does not. And i was in luck!
just look at how awesome it is! you can seee the olives! YUM YUM YUM!
it made me sooooo happy :)
it made me sooooo happy :)
Then we walked over to tate modern.
and i was able to get my pictures of the ones i had missed during my class.
Métamorphose de Narcisse - Salvador Dalí
It is the story of Narcisse (more greek mythology). He was a hunter who was known for his beauty throughout the land. Girls would fall in love with him as soon as they saw him. He was very proud of being known this way and walked all over the people who fell in love with him because of his beauty. He had so much vanity that when he first saw his own reflection in the water he fell in love with himself and could not stop staring at himself in the water... so he sat there starting until he died.
The Three Dancers - Pablo Picasso
It is a personal story of Picasso and his friends on a night in Paris. They met a performer (girl in the middle) who Pablo's friend Carlos Casagemas fell in love with. This outing ended in the suicide of Carlos because of his envy and the triangular love affair the performer was involved in.
This is a better picture of the tree!
I thought this was sooooooo cool because the artist carved the tree from the block of wood. The only way you are even able to tell is when you see the block at the bottom and the up close marks of his carving where the tree part connects to the block.
pretty awesome....
Ithaca Mirror Trail - Robert Smithson
Okay so this was probably my favorite thing. I am not sure why it was drawn to it. I've never heard of this artist before, and we did not learn about it in my survey class, but i reallllly liked it. I think it is hard to see in the picture but It is eight pictures of a mirror placed in nature. On a trail in Ithaca, New York. The map in the middle is the trail with markings as to where is placed the mirrors. I was really intrigued by how the mirror was used. It was not intended to record the sites but rather to let the beauty of nature reflect back at itself.
Just another picture when Leaving the Museum.
I also thought this was hilarious.
The Thames river is pretty dirty looking... but in reality is very clean. Salmon live in it and they can not live in dirty water.... It probably helps that they have these rubbish eating contraptions haha!
After our morning of fun we headed back tot the flat. We had to clean everything and finish packing to move out the next morning. this was soooo weird to think about! It was our last night all together. :( Krista and Lorrie were leaving at 3 am to go to Ireland for a few days and Emily was leave at 6:30 am to go to Chicago for a night the to Vegas with her family. Ellie is staying here another 5 weeks for an Internship and I am moving into her flat for the next week and a half. Krista, Lorri, and I had originally planed to go to Italy for 5 days and then to Ireland and Scottland for the remainder of our trip. But they got a little spooked out about not knowing Italian and rumors of men who have no decency at all. Plus they wanted to save some money. So when they decided to go to Ireland and then fly home early I decided to stay in London because I would have rather gone to Italy and Germany. I was hoping I would be able to find some girls who were staying here for the next 5 weeks to go with me on a weekend somewhere but they all have internships that are starting this week so they want to sick around London. My mom also entertained some ideas of sending some family our here to travel with me but nothing worked out being so last minuet. I am not heart broken though. There is still so much of London that I haven't seen! So i'm sure I will have plenty to do while i'm here :)
Then to celebrate our last night together as a group we headed to Abbey road. The famous cross walk on the cover of the Beatles album, right next to their recording studio. Of course we had to attempt the picture....
No one was ready.... and The traffic was pretty busy... but at least we tried :)
We left our mark on the wall outside of the studio as well :)
Because it was our last night together we all went out to dinner.
As we were walking and looking for a place to eat we witnessed a very scary accident. I am extremal surprised that no one was injured. A Pizza hut delivery boy on a moped was driving straight when a man in a delivery van turned right into the back end of the moped and did not stop. He kept driving until the wheel popped off of the moped... and was stuck under the van. The poor delivery boy was thrown off the moped and thankfully in the opposite direction that the man was driving. The man in the van got out and started yelling at the boy. WHAT?! telling the boy to look where he was driving. The boy was so confused! saying "what?! you could have killed me!" A few of the men around stood up for the boy and told the delivery man that it was most certainly his fault and he is lucky that the boy is not injured. Then they are started yelling at each other. We left at this point figuring that the boy had enough people on his side... and we were all pretty shaken up.
We ended up finding a very cute little restaurant for dinner and then headed back to our favorite Pub in Camden. Camden head.
bouncers and random British people....
Krista and Lorrie Obviously left early so that they would be able to catch their cab at 3:15 Am.
We started a conversation with the security guard this night and found out that he body guards for people like Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and ACDC when they are in London. We were clearly skeptical but he proved it showing us some wrist bands and telling some stories. He was really nice! and we asked him why he was at Camden Head and he said simply becuase it is his favorite pub in London.
haha cool! it's our favorite too! :)
haha cool! it's our favorite too! :)
This is our new favorite body guard....
It was entertaining to talk to him because he would be in the middle of a sentence and then all of a sudden he was gone taking care of someone who was causing problems. He never missed a thing. And while we were talking to him some girl decided it would be a good idea to hit me with her purse as she was walking by..... Yeah she seriously took her big purse and swung it at me.... I guess she thought ellie was looking at her funny.... Silly girl did she not realize I was becoming friends with the body guard.?.. He kicked her out immediately. haha.
It was realllly weird and sad waking up to an empty flat. I just had to do some last minuet cleaning and move all of my stuff into ellie's flat. There is a girl living in Ellie's flat that is here at AIU for another two years and she has already been here for about 5 months. Jolene, she occasionally hangs out with us and is a really sweet girl! Just to give you an idea of how sweet she is... She went home this week to visit her family. So because she knew I didn't exactly have a place to stay and was crashing with ellie she left her room open for me! along with her key to the building so i can come and go as i please instead of relying on the other girls who live here. She also left her fan out for me because it gets so stuffy and hot in these rooms.... no air conditioning in London.. seriously something they should look into... it's unbearable most of the time! However I can not believe she did this for me! It was completely unnecessary but I am very grateful! :)
When I got to Ellie's, Emily was still there.... Her phone died in the middle of the night so her alarm never went off and she had missed her flight to Chicago! I felt so bad for her! She was very upset about it and we spent a lot of time trying to help her figure out her cheapest options to cancel flights and hotels and get her to Vegas so she wouldn't miss her vacation with her family. As sad as it was for her that she missed her flight Ellie and I were selfishly excited that we got to spend another day with her. :) hehe.
It was very relaxing day, which was nice because the day before was soooo busy.
Keven Lisa and I headed to The Odeon ( a cinema) to see Eclipse. We were all a bit curious as to how seeing a movie would be different in London, or if it would be exactly the same.
It was different. We went early just in case it would be crowded. (eclipse only came out at midnight this Thursday over here.) But we were the first ones there. I am not too sure Camden is a typical place for people to go to the movies... Once seated inside we thought it was cute how they tried to attempt the feel of a theater rather than a cinema. Big curtains covering the screen, with spotlights. They played some music for a while and then the curtains opened for commercials. We haven't been watching any TV here so seeing commercials was really funny. Non of them really stood out though. After the commercials were the Previews. You know how when you go to a movie in America when you arrive the commercials are already playing and the previews start either at the time of the showing or a little bit before... Well here the commercials do not even start until the showing time.... And you are allowed to bring your own food. So there were families around us basically eating dinner. It was kind of cute. When the previews finally finished (20 mins after the start time) the curtains closed again.... huh?! the three of us were a bit confused but everyone else wasn't fazed at all so we just waited. and a few minuets later they reopened. Annnnnnddddd more previews came on. haha. we were a bit sick of previews at this point. But there was only two or three this time and then the movie finally started.
It was bad... but that was expected. Twilight is just one of those sick obsessions. You go into it knowing and expecting it to be horrible. And it is exactly what you expected, but you are still excited to see it and can't wait for the next one. It's so horrible that it's actually really good...
We didn't do much else. Just hung out and decided to stay in.... I was able to call my dad and wish him a happy birthday :) and we wanted to make sure Emily made it to her flight the second time...
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