A Visitor from Home

This past week has been a hectic one, but fun, primarily because my mom came all the way across the Atlantic to see me! It was so exciting to see someone from "my old life" and show them all the things I have been up to here. We did a lot of fun sightseeing including:

- taking in the christmas lights on Oxford and Regents streets

- Checking out the British Museum, yet again for me. Never get tired of that place. Got to show mom the fabulous Reading Room and look at all the fun mummies which I missed my first time there.

- Went to the Museum of London. I'd never heard of this one before, but it was pretty cool, I would recomend it. It traces the history of London, starting in prehistoric times and leading all the way up through modern day. It was really interesting, especially having spent the past three months here getting to know the city, to see it's evolution and the ways it has changed and evolved as a physical place.

- Went to the Victoria and Albert Museum (we just went museum crazy this week)! I was pretty impressed by this one, it is an absolutly gigantic decorative arts museum. My internship this past summer was at a decorative arts museum so I had some interest in what they had to show. I loved this modern glass chandelier that was in the lobby, it is made out of hundreds of blown glass piecs all strung together. I also really enjoyed their Canova sculptures, he is one of my favorites, and the exhibit they had on fashion. By the way I love the fact that, like DC, all of the museums I have mentioned were completly free. I just wish I had more time to explore them all...

- Went to the Charles Dicken's House Museum which I have been meaning to check out ever since I got here. It is literally a block away from my house. It is a house where Dicken's lived when he wrote Nicholas Nicholby and Oliver Twist, and it is now a museum about his life. He was an interesting guy that Dickens, he was a prolific writer, social activist and performer. He had 9 children, was a notorious flirt and at 50 something years old he left his wife for an 18 year old actress. Men...

- Went to not one but two West End musicals. I love musicals, I just can't help myself. This week I was lucky enough to see two! We got cheap TKTS booth tickets for Guys and Dolls starring the famous stage actor Patrick Swayze as Nathan Detroit. It wasn't bad, but Patrick left a little something to be desired I thought. His New York accent was not very good, not nearly as good as the one most of the brits pulled off.

Then Monday night we got tickets to see Evita! My mama spoils me, she knows my unstoppable (and inexplicable) love for Andrew Lloyd Webber. What can I say, the man knows how to do a musical! It was a really impressive production and I loved it. I remember seeing the movie when it came out in theaters and this was so much better. Thanks mom! now if i could just figure out a way to see Phantom of the Opera before I leave...

Over the weekend we went out to High Wycombe and spent time with my Aunt. That was a nice little vacation from the hustle and bustle of London. We did what I always do when I'm with that side of my family-shop! We hit up all the thrift stores in town (quite a lot suprisingly) a cute street market and ASDA, the british Walmart. It was a lot of fun, I also spent time reading and paper writing. Oh and watching british tv. I soooo wish I had a television here, I am missing so much! hilarious talk shows, absurd quiz shows and Strictly Come Dancing, the british Dancing wiht the Stars. And my new favorite East Enders. This is a class british soap opera about the East End of London. It was so much smarter then American soap operas (ie things actually happened) yet so much more devious. Truly brilliant.

So it was a fun week, but now it is super hard work time. I have around 10,000 words to write by the 15th, and beleive it or not I have it light compared to some!

Praha Part Two

Even though Prague was subjected to a double whammy of destructive occupations, first the Nazis then the Soviets, there are still an amazing amount of churches and synagogues perfectly preserved. The churches have far outlasted the faith of the people- this city is something like 86% atheist, but they have the most beautiful religious buildings. The most impressive in my opinion was Saint Vitus Cathedral. St. Vitus is actually in the center part of Prague Castle, one of the biggest castles in the entire world. It was kind of cold and rainy so I didn't see most of the castle, just the cathedral with it's amazing stain-glass windows which were glowing despite the pouring rain. I actually saw several different beautiful churchs in Prague, all roman catholic and Renaissance or Baroque in style. They shared similar painted ceilings, huge frescoes and gold gilding. I haven't been to Rome (yet) but these were the most beautiful churches I've seen thus far.

Europe is of course full of grand churches, but what is unique to Prague is the pefectly preserved Jewish Quarter of the city called Josefov. Almost all the Jews in the city were wiped out by Hitler (I think there are about 600 left in the city today) but he left the buildings just as they were. Sickenly, he meant them to serve as a museum of the "extinct race." The lucky thing is that all these synagogues are still there, you can visit them all for one price, including the oldest synagogue in Europe (it is confusingly called the Old-New synagogue) and a really elaborate Spanish synagogue. My favorite part of the Jewish Quarter was the Old Jewish cemetary (Europe's oldest jewish cemetary). Yes, I have a thing for cemetaries. Yes, I know that is weird. I just really like them okay? What made this one interesting was the unique arrangment of tombstones. The cemetary has been around for so many years that people have been buried in layers one over top of one another, which has cause odd rippling and sinking in the ground. As a result the tombstones are extremely crowded together, leaning against each other, on top of each other, sinking into the ground, just general chaos. It's a little hard to describe but very interesting to see.
Other cool things I saw in Prague included the Charles Bridge. This is a medeval bridge which crosses the Vlatva river and has these amazingly huge religious statues dominating it, such as the one on the right. We went there are sunset and watched the sky change from gray to pink to purple, blue and black. Very beautiful and very romantic. I also really enjoyed waundering the old quarter of town. I happened upon some very cool shops and this cute outdoor market selling fruit, food and souveniers. Prague was a very pretty city, it fit exactly into my ideas of Old Europe. Still, after four days in the city I felt like I'd pretty much seen all of it and I was ready to move on.
Coming up: Budapest- aka the best city in the entire world (except maybe london)!

Day 12: Shopping til I drop (pretty much literally)

So despite the extreme weakness of the dollar compared to the pound (a fact I am constantly aware of) London just has too much to offer for me not to go out shopping once in awhile. As predicted my book collection is steadily growing- and I haven't even gotten my reading list yet! This weekend I experienced two iconic London shopping experiences, which couldn't be more different from each other.
Friday afternoon me and the ladies went down to Harrods- the greatest department story on earth. I'm sure you all have heard of Harrods, it is the largest, most expensive, least practical store you will ever see in your life. They sell everything. Clothes, furniture, toys, tv, live animals, there is even an entire supermarket in there. Nobody actually shops there but it is a huge tourist attraction. It is incredibly opulent, this is a picture of the Egyptian Hall, the main entrance way. We spent a good three hours waundering around the story and marveling at everything they had. I didn't buy of course but we did purchase a creme brulee from one of the bakeries to split three ways. It tasted like luxury.

Today to even things out we went down to Notting Hill and the Portabello Road Market. Again I bet most of you have heard of Notting Hill, at least from the movie. I didn't get to see all of it because it was kind of rainy but the Portabello Road Market was amazing. Picture booths set up for essentially miles selling produce, sweets, clothings, jewerly and knick knacks. We spent 4 hours there and didnt even make it halfway through the mass of stalls. It was so exciting looking over the tables full of old books, mismatched tea cups, scarves, antique brooches, earrings, bags, stamps, watches etc. I will definatly be going back there. In fact if you are expecting a Christmas present from me it will most likely be from there. Today I bought an amber ring for ten pounds and a pretty blue scarf for five pounds. Certainly much cheaper then Harrods! I also had a delicicous lemon and sugar crepe and saw the travel bookstore where Hugh Grant's character works in the movie Notting Hill. Haven't seen Hugh Grant yet but I am working on it...
I am so exhausted. All of this constant activity is wearing me down. I will almost be releived when class starts on Tuesday and I will have a chance to sit still for awhile!

Day 6: Book Junkie

Ooh I'm getting busier, it's getting harder to find time to sit down and write. This is a good thing I think, after all I didn't come to London to hang around in my room all day right?
Yesterday I slept in which was marvelous then walked up to the British Library which is only about 15 minutes from my dorm. On the way by I pass by Kings Cross Stations and the beautiful St. Pancreas Station, the building which looks like a castle in the picture. It is actually not a station anymore but is being turned into a Marriot hotel or something. Someone told me it was originally a hotel before it became a station but I am not sure about that.
The British Library was absolutly fantastic for a bibliophile like me. It is basically equivalent to the Library of Congress, with a copy of every book published in Britain. The really special part is the special collections they have on display in the "Treasure Room." Really amazing stuff, a first edition complete works of Shakespeare, Jane Austen's writing desk and written notes on Pride and Prejudice, the Magna Carta of course, and the oldest complete bible in existance from the fourth century. I spent several hours admiring everything. My favorite was the first copy of Alice and Wonderland, the one that Lewis Carrol hand wrote and illustrated to give to Alice. I also really liked their exhibit on the Beatles. They had lyrics scribbled on the backs of cocktail napkins and scraps of paper. I was able to see the very first conception of In My Life (it's very different) and Yesterday. They won't let you take pictures in the Treasures room so here is a picture of Isaac Newton outside of the library. I'm not sure why he is naked and bending over like that, it's rather compromising don't you think? Me new profile picture is me in the little cafe of the library, sitting in front of this huge, 5 story column of book cases surrounded by glass.
I can already tell that I am going to get in trouble in this city. I can't help it, I can't control myself. My one real vice is books. I've already passed by many many cute little book stores which I've resisted thus far. But it's only a matter of time before I stumble into a used book store and lose it. There are so so many, and I haven't even been to any of the street markets or the area known for it's book stores. My major problem is how am I going to get all these books home???
Later last night went out to eat at this English chain called Wagamama's. It is Japanese food mainly and was quite good. Then we went down to Soho and waundered around. I saw several transvestites, althoug they might have been prostitutes, it was unclear. Soho is very flashy, a little like New York but with sex shops crammed in next to the giant theaters where they are running Les Miserables and Mary Poppins. Saw some awesome gay pubs which I wish I'd taken pictures of. We ended up visiting a couple pubs, although not the gay ones, actually met some british people ( a good start) as well as some australians. The weird thing about London is everything winds down really early. The pubs all close at 11 and the tube stops running at 12:30 so nobody is really out too late it seems.
Today I am off to visit my Aunt in High Wycombe. If I can figure out the trains that is...