Kensington Gardens

Today was a pretty great day. After sleeping in, Claire and I took the tube to Kensington Gardens, home of the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and the famous Peter Pan Statue. The Gardens are beautiful, although lacking flowers for the most part but then again, it is turning into fall around here. 

You can rent these nice lawn chairs to enjoy the sun in. 

I think this is the Princess Di Memorial Fountain, but there is some debate.

The Peter Pan Statue! 

I loved how all the birds were lined up, one on each post.

The Gardens were full of beautiful trees.

One of which Claire and I climbed.

And of course there are inviting paths all over the place. 

The gardens are a nice oasis from the city and are actually connected to Hyde Park but I still haven't made it into the park yet. I will eventually. 

After returning to the flat I booked my flight to visit some family friends in Annecy, France. I'm very excited to meet Annabelle, her husband Matt, and their baby Yuna. I'll be out there the first weekend of November. 

Later this evening Hilary and I went to Prince Charles Cinema, an old, restored movie theatre. The lobby was not impressive so we weren't expecting much from the theatre itself but man were we wrong. The screen isn't huge and the seats aren't stadium style but every seat is upholstered in leather! We saw the 1927, silent move, Metropolis. We didn't realize it would be silent, we were just expecting an old, black and white movie, but it was really cool to see a movie in which you have to rely on the music, the actors expressions, and the occasional subtitles. We both really enjoyed it and finding the Cinema lead us into China town which we will be returning to soon. I didn't get any pictures of Prince Charles Cinema or China town but I may go back, we'll see. 

Cars

London seems to be filled with nice cars. 

Audi R8

The National Gallery

This past week has been a bit crazy but at the same time without much to report. 

Tuesday was filled with class and a play at the Lyric, not to mention it was my birthday. I did not enjoy the play at all and my day was filled with reading Shakespeare's Henry IV part I. Wednesday consisted of two classes and Henry IV at the Globe that evening. Thursday was class again followed by the National Gallery and figuring out accommodations for my upcoming trip to Italy. Yesterday I slept the day away and then simply went to a nearby park with Claire and later went out with a big group of Hendrix students to a local pub, Shakespeare's Head. 

The absolute best part of the week, and in the top three of the tip so far was my trip to the National Gallery.  The museum as a whole is huge (a trend in London it seems, these gigantic museums) so I've only covered a small portion of it but already I'm in love. I have seen pieces by Goya, Caravaggio, Turner, Manet, Monet, and many others, not to mention the Rembrant and Degas pieces that I know are there somewhere, I just haven't found them yet.  

Caravaggio has been my favorite painter for a while now. After writing a paper on one of his works freshman year of college, I fell in love with his pieces and what he did for the art world; namely, depicting reality rather than the ideal. As I entered one of the galleries in the National Gallery I immediately spotted two pieces he painted across the room. I hurried over to them but then was suddenly disenchanted. His piece, "Supper at Emmaus" has been one of my favorites but seeing it in real life I noticed a glaring problem. One of the figures hands is out of proportion to the rest of his body. Now, I am a bit confused because Caravaggio should have noticed this and could have easily corrected it, being the master painter that he was, yet he didn't. I can't come up with any reason why the hand would be out of proportion but there it was. So, now I've been disappointed by my favorite artist but I do still love his works and can safely say that he is my favorite Baroque painter that I have come across so far. 

I didn't leave the museum disappointed at all. In the next gallery I found a collection of Turner's studies on atmosphere.  Turner was one of the first painters to explore the concept of painting atmosphere and concepts like motion and speed. His "Rain, Steam, and Speed" took my breath away. I had seen it in several of my textbooks before but never found it to be very remarkable other than in concept but seeing it in real life was a whole new experience. I stood looking at that piece along with the others from the series for twenty minutes before tearing myself away. I took a picture of it but I won't post it here because of it's poor quality, I just can't do the painting justice, but please look up images of it online.

Coming back from the gallery, I was on a high from seeing all of these works by artists that I had only read about up until now. I can't wait to go back and explore more of the museum with the particular hope of finding a collection of Rembrant's self portraits. Between being in my absolute favorite environment and managing to walk there and back alone, without getting lost, I felt more at home in London than I had so far. I am loving being here and am sure that I will hate to leave come December. 

Brighton

Me and 8 others went to Brighton yesterday and even though it was overcast and a bit chilly, the day was a blast! Brighton is an hour train ride south of London, right on the shore. Our British Life and Culture teacher, Susie, lives there so she met us at the station with her 9 month old dalmatian and showed us around for a bit before leaving us to explore on our own. 

Susie and Roxy

The pavilion for "dirty weekends" built by royalty in 1820, later used as a hospital for Indian solders during one of the world wars. 

There are two piers, one got burned down by the owners of the other.

It was very windy by the water.

Can you spot the sailboat? 

Nick went for a real swim.

I chose just to put my feet in. The rocks hurt so I wasn't in the water for long. 

After doing some shopping we had a traditional English tea. 

Heather and Claire

We discovered that there were speed trials going on along our walk towards the cliffs. 

There were a lot of different types of vehicles, this one was my favorite. 

Dinner time after much exploring. 

All in all it was a great day. 

Madame Tussauds

Madame Tussauds is a world famous wax museum that's only purpose seems to be to give people the opportunity to pose next to celebrities. I can honestly say that it was the weirdest place I've ever been. At first I resisted having my picture taken with these somewhat poor representations of celebrities (their faces were very good but their bodies were definitely not to scale with their real life counterparts) but I caved in when I realized that that is the only thing to do at Madame Tussauds. 

So, here are some ridicules pictures of me and my friends. Enjoy.

 You can buy yourself an Oscar Statuette for £10 ($16!)

To pose with certain celebrities you have to pay for a professional to take the picture. Those include Obama, Robert Pattinson, the King and Queen, and Michael Jackson.

Tower of London

This past week, Heather convinced me to pay to see the Tower of London. I hesitated at first, figuring that I could see so much at the free museums that it wouldn't be necessary to pay to see something historical, but I'm glad she talked me into it. 

I didn't end up taking too many pictures but here are some highlights from our visit. 

The torture chambers. 

The first beefeater I've seen. 

A catapult. 

I did not take any pictures inside the different towers but I also saw the royal jewels, the largest punch bowl and serving ladle I've ever seen, and the armament which included suits of functional armor and weapons made for previous kings. 

The British Museum

The British Museum is stuffed with artifacts from all of the world, spanning thousands of years, one of the largest museums I've ever been to, and just down the street from my flat. Nick and I went on Sunday to check it out and were there for only two hours. In that time we only made it mostly around one floor without really stopping to read anything, just walking through. I didn't take too many pictures because there were just too many things to photograph but I did try to take photos of the items I thought you all might be most interested in. 

Julius Caesar

A giant chess board.

This ship is actually a clock!

As is this globe.

We were being watched at all times.

Big Ben!

This past weekend I finally got to see Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye! Now I feel much more like I'm in London. Of course the area is pack with tourists like I've only seen at the Eiffel Tower but it's only about a 15-20 minute walk from my flat which is nice.

An Update Coming Soon

I promise that I will update you all soon. In the meantime here are some pictures that don't take too much explanation.

The London Eye and Big Ben

My hair likes being wavy in the UK

Apparently almost all sinks have two faucets out here. One hot, one cold.

And the best "fail" picture ever. Not even staged.

Commenting

I wanted to let everyone know how to leave a comment. I know a few people have been confused about how to do it.

There are two ways to post a comment but you do have to be a follower of my blog and you have to have a gmail account to be a follower.

1. Click on the title of the post you want to comment on

At the bottom of the page this leads you to, you will find a comment box

Write your comment and click "post comment" right underneath the box

2. Scroll to the bottom of the post. 

Click on "# comments" (the # will be an actual number)

This will lead you straight to the comment box

Write your comment and click "post comment" right underneath the box

Me, Kate, Becca