Wednesday. 21/04 (this is how they write dates in europe)
I went to St. Aloysius again for the first time since spring break. though i hadn't seen them in 2 weeks, the kids were all very happy to see me. this week's theme seemed to be life in the sea, so i helped a few children decorate and color construction fish. except, not many of them were excited to do it, so i was a little hurt when they unabashedly told me that they didn't want to do the activity with me. afterwards, i went to out recess with the kids for the first time. i usually take my coffee break then, but since the weather was so beautiful i decided to go play with them. they were all running around like crazy, so i just sat on one of the benches and watched them play, and periodically kids in my home room would come show me something or ask me to help them with riding the wooden train.
in the middle of recess, something absolutely bizarre happened. one of the slightly older boys from another homeroom looked at me and screamed "go back to america!" multiple times while running around. it made me speechless and left me dumbfounded. it was my first seemingly anti-american sentiment that i've felt since i've been in london, and it came from a 8-yr old. i had no idea what to think. i could've easily brushed it off as a silly comment from an immature little boy, but it's left quite an impression on me.
after recess, i experienced quite a charming culture shock. the class had gathered for an impromptu 'show and tell.' one of the boys sheepishly stood up, hiding something behind his back. then, he proudly whips out a bear key chain. so, ms. raggio enthusiastically reacted "oh, it's a bear." the boy turns to his teacher and says "no, it's not a bear. it's an ARSENAL bear." all of a sudden, all the 5-yr olds in our classroom starts rowdily chanting "ARSENAL! ARSENAL!" (arsenal is football team that originates around the king's cross area) in response, ms. raggio jokingly says "nah, i think chelsea's better because i'm from east london." the children passionately disagreed proudly showing their local team loyalty. such strongly loyalty to football and to their local team at such a young age showed me how football is so deeply embedded in british culture.
at 11am, i walked out of the classroom to a beautiful day and decided to grab lunch. I had previously looked up this cafe/breadshop called gail's bread that serves great freshly made natural bread. it was in hampstead, an area i'd never been to so i decided to walk there knowing that it'll take me at least an hour.
from euston station i started walking northwest towards hampstead. on my way i passed through camden, and this familiar area helped me connect two seemingly isolated parts of london.
uphill towards hampstead
north london, leading to hampstead heath is very residential and has beautiful architecture.
finally, after about an hour and twenty minute stroll I arrived at Gail's Bread!! no tourists. just a local bakery. so many different kinds of loaves of fresh bread! amazing sandwich on mixed olive bread. yummmm
Thursday. 22/04
my one thursday class was cancelled, so i slept in and spent most of the early afternoon working on a paper. then, around 4:30 i headed out to attend the annual Shakespeare lecture at the British academy near the river, south of piccadilly circus. The british academy was founded in 1902 in order to promote the humanities. The only reason i attended was because my Shakespeare professor, Michael Hattaway, was giving the prestigious lecture that night. He spoke on the subject of "Shakespeare & Fairies" unfortunately, much of his lecture was stuff he already talked about in our class, so it was very repetitive. so, i enjoyed the lecture much more in ambiance than content. about a 100 people showed up, and my favorite part was the reception afterwards where we were offered wine. felt particularly intellectual attending an event at the british academy. afterwards, my friend from the class and i went out for italian and hung out for quite a while.
then around 9:30, i headed for Stansted airport for pick up my friend DANA, who was visiting from florence, italy!!! we were both super nervous that the volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajokull volcano in iceland would cancel her flight, but thankfully flights started resuming mere hours before her flight! i got there at 11:30 when the flight was supposed to get in, but of course, it was delayed. Dana finally came out through the arrival gate at 1, and though i was tired I was so excited to see her and just glad that she was able to make it through the volcanic ash.
Friday. 23/04
only after a couple hours of sleep, dana and i were ready to start the day bright and early. the first stop, the british museum! Dana is absolutely in love with ancient greek art, and she has been dying to see the elgin marbles from the parthenon since forever ago. i had saved the elgin marbles to see with her, so i was equally excited. what's interesting is that dana was the first one to tell me about the debate surrounding elgin marbles, and got me thinking about cultural property. so it was perfect that we'd get to see it together. we walked around the egyptian and roman sections for a while, then went on a 30 min free tour of ancient greek art that covered greek pottery and the very first sculptures. then, we went on our own to see the ...
one of the most complex compositions of the elgin marbles. unique v-shape
absolutely beautiful.
gown clinging to the figure's body! the ruffles are unnecessarily plentiful so it's not naturalistic. but they accentuate the delicacy and sensuality of the figure
sculptures from the pediment.
we spent a good half an hour in the parthenon room, completely awestruck. greek sculptures like these always make me wonder if this level and kind of craftsmanship if completely obsolete and irrelevant today. the medium of marble is not very common, and the perfect human anatomy does not seem to be artists' priorities these days. i'd love to see a contemporary artist following greek ideals.
our motto for the weekend was "we can do whatever we want." we didn't set any particular agenda, but we just simply played things by ear, going with the flow. not stressing out about cramming every landmark tourist spot into 48 hours, but simply soaking in london that i know best.
since we were hungry for lunch, we headed to covent garden, which is my favorite area of london. we grabbed delicious pie, and sat at st. paul's piazza watching a rather terribly awkward street performer.
dana loved her butternutsquash and goat cheese pie. mmmm...
then went through soho, and spent a couple crazy hours in topshop at oxford circus. what's perfect was that the entire went on sale just in time for dana's arrival. then walked down beautiful regent st. towards piccadilly circus, trafalgar sq. and finally to westminster to see parliament and big ben.
westminster abbey.
we crossed the westminster bridge to southbank and walked northeastwards along the thames. it was just as exciting for me because i had yet to do that. got to see a lot of cool things like the southbank center, and new views of london from the south of the thames.
lovely dana & me
cool new area called gabriel's wharf. very boardwalk-esque open area with a bar crowded with peoples. would love to come back for dinner and to hang out at night. after an hour-long walk along the thames, we headed over to brick lane to meet with one of dana's friends for amazing indian food....food coma.
we covered most of central london on foot, and i surprised myself in knowing all the paths and areas as well as i do. tiring, but productive, day.
saturday. 24/04
on our way to tate modern in the morning, we stumbled upon borough market, one of the places i've been meaning to check out! it's this cool farmer's market under a bridge right next to london' bridge underground stop.
one of the best things ever in borough market. this is a cheese sandwich stall. what they do is that half half-tubes of cheese sitting under fire, so the exposed surface of the cheese is sizzling and that's what you get on your sandwich with rocket and other delicious stuff. must try the next time i go back.
spent the morning at the tate modern. saw a fantastic exhibition on theo van doesburg and the international avantgarde, including some stuff about the bauhaus. there, we bumped into katie, dana's friend from italy and we headed to camden together.
camden is another one of my favorite spots in london, as is for many other college students. my favorite thing about camden is not the shopping, but the food there!! cheap street food from tons of different cuisines, and so many different kinds of desserts. had a fantastic lunch there and spent a couple hours afterwards walking around shopping at vintage, second hand stores.
after camden we were planning on going to the national gallery, but we were too tired and didn't want to stress ourselves out with sight seeing. so we headed straight to leicester sq to buy tickets for les miserables on the west end theatre district. we spent the interim two hours chatting at milk bar, and walking around soho.
then at 7:30 we headed to queen's theatre to see les miserables, the MOST EPIC SHOW EVER!! i've seen a couple broadways in new york, but everything i've been before pales in comparison. the music, acting, set design, story. everything was perfectly beautiful, and i cried multiple times during the show. whereas other shows were spectacular entertainment, les mis left me speechless and genuinely moved me. watching les mis with dana on saturday night in london was probably one of the best decisions ever.
after the show, we grabbed thai food, which is not available in florence like most cuisines. and that was the end of our perfect weekend. we were extremely lucky to have been blessed with beautiful weather for the weekend as well.
showing dana around london got me excited about london all over again, especially because together we stumbled upon areas/sights that are new to me as well. but playing tour guide made me realize that i know london pretty well, and i have my london with my favorite spots and etc. also, both of us, having studied abroad, are determined to go back to nyc with the same exploring mentality. there's so much to see in manhattan alone, and my being in london made me realize that i'm not quite the new yorker that i thought i was.
sunday. 25/04
dana and her friends had to get an early flight, so i dropped them off at the bus station at 8am. not wanting to come back to my room, i grabbed coffee and started reading my book lewis carroll's "through the looking glass." as soon as the bus left and i stepped into the cafe, it started raining as if to reflect my mood. but by the time i left, it stopped raining so that I could walk through hyde park.
took the tube to lancaster gate on the northern edge of hyde park/kensington gardens, and near the giant serpentine lake. thankfully, the drizzle had stopped so i was able to stroll along the water in the peace and quite of sunday morning. few runners, dog-walkers and lots of birds chirping, and a slight mist blanketed the park.
the main reason i came to hyde park this morning. to see the richard hamilton exhibit at the serpentine gallery that ends today. richard hamilton is a painter/collagist, and he famously coined the term pop art. i thought the exhibit would feature his famous collages, but instead it was a handful of images dealing specifically with representation of conflict. it was interesting, but not what i had expected. it was a good fifteen minutes in the gallery especially considering it was free. i felt particularly cultured, going to a small gallery on a sunday morning when only two other people were there. very, almost intimidatingly, quiet. made me focus on the images more.
along the serpentine
all in all, beautiful weekend that has left me with absolutely no motivation to do work. but i'm ok with that.
gorgeous, koo. reading your posts makes me feel warm and comforted. glad you saw les mis and enjoyed it--some of the music is overwhelmingly powerful.
ReplyDeletewhat is the milk bar?
love you.