20120720

Tuesday: I feel like life is settling down here. The mania of being in a different country is finally wearing off and I'm happily enjoying simpler exercises here. Instead of running around the city in search of the next exhibit, museum, or attraction, I'm hungering to find myself a group of locals to get attached to and learn about the daily life of someone who always has this plethora of activities within their grasp. It's calmer now. Though I also wonder if I will look back and regret not manically grasping for every Must-Do-When-In-London attraction.
Right. So, today we had class in the classroom! A rare event for Creative Writing! After class I went home and sat down to write my paper, finally, for London and its Literature. After re-reading the Sherlock Holmes story I had decided to write my paper on I finally, sort of, came up with an idea for a potential shade of a sort of thesis. I think London is intoxicating the critic right out of me. I'm drunk on potential, unable to do much in the way of thinking, and have become more of a jellyfish, floating around, semi-guided, but with no real thought processes. Maybe the shine wearing off of this new penny (pence? Though pence don't really look like they'd ever shine...) will be good considering I have another paper due next week! To continue... Around 9 a group of my American friends gathered outside my window and threw pebbles to get my attention. Not really but waxing poetic is likely a good thing since I have to write some poetry after this blog. They texted me and I relented and packed up my paper and went to a hookah bar with them. I was delusional to have this imaginary hookah bar in my head where I could sit down with my paper and my friends would all quietly chatter to themselves unless I needed help, in which case they would all offer fantastic suggestions and I would finish my paper before the shisha needed new coals. However, somehow, this was exactly what I thought would happen... So, midnight. The hookah bar closes and I never even looked at my paper. Of course. What was I thinking?!?! Time to pull an all-nighter!
"MOM!" I barked into the phone. "My paper's due tomorrow and I have no idea what I'm doing!" What kind of English major am I? Dr. Morgan's voice echoes this thought. The kind that will never amount to anything! (Funny how I never really had a voice or personality for thoughts like that until I met Gwendolyn. Hmm...) Mom, of course knows exactly how to get me to shut up and begin to pull threads from the weave of stories and begin a paper that has the potential to be magical! This one, would not end up being magical. Though I think it'll rate me a pass at the very least. 9:30 am rolls around and BAM! the email sent noise swooshes satisfactorily out of my speakers.

Wednesday: No sleep. Clowns will eat me.

This is me wandering around inside my head, trying to recall the first half of Wednesday...

 Luckily I have the second half fairly well documented which reminded me that we spent the first half talking about Sherlock Holmes! Here's the Sherlock Holmes museum at 221b Baker Street!

 And here's a movie of the walkthrough of the house!

Once we were finished I desperately called my friend Sophie, trying to figure out what to get her from the gift shop since I know she's a Holmes addict, to no avail! It's alright, I think she'll like a surprise gift just as much as something she'd picked out for herself.
After I left. I found my way home, magically, and to Sainsbury's where I somehow managed to remember all of the things on my grocery list! I got home, put the groceries away and proceeded to pass out at what I feel was around 19:30 but was likely closer to 20:30... maybe...

Thursday! The Tate Modern and Tate Britain museyrooms! Creative Writing field trip! Here are some of the exhibits that really caught my eye:

 Yeah, it's a 7.5' tall packing peanut.

 After the Tate Britain, we caught the boat on the Thames to Tate Modern!

View Larger Map

Here are a few pictures from the boat ride.

And Here's a pretty cool little row of trees in front of the South Bank entrance to Tate Modern!

This made me think of my buddy Joshua Collins. That's his mustache's name!

Images from Tate Modern!

Okay, if you aren't in the know, I love Salvador Dali. Dr. Michael Sexson showed this to us in several classes and I've now gotten to see the real thing! i took too many photos I think but I wanted you to be able to zoom in pretty well and see the neat little things happening that aren't obvious upon initial glance.

Movies from Tate Modern:







On the walk back to Waterloo.

I found that cafe on my first try! The one we went to on... my birthday I think, after Henry V; The gals got a brownie thing and I got chamomile tea.

Right next to Waterloo. I'll be writing about this...

Tiny little plant I needed to take a picture of:

Look! Real crows! Not those little sad things I saw earlier. Now I'm not sure what those other birds are...

Ready for a surprise?

Just behind this pillar?

Remember I was talking about my buddy Joshua Collins? Yeah, this guy is his doppelgänger! At first glance I could have sworn it was Josh just here in London to mess with me. Meet Olli!

Found this online!

And that basically wraps up my week! Today is the beginning of another long weekend so I'm basically just going to top up my O2 phone, eat a lot, sleep some more, maybe go to a movie since I've been craving popcorn for ages now, then jump into homework tomorrow!
Ciao for now!