London, Week 1

I really still can’t believe I’ve already been in London for a whole week. It’s gone by so fast and I feel like I’ve done so little, not to mention there is still so much I want to do. I’ve pretty much made peace with the idea that I’m probably not going to get to do it all (just means I have to come back right?). Checking into the Warner Bros. Studio Tour to find out it was booked through late August definitely cemented that idea, at least. But there is still plenty in London to do and see.

The first taste of that was Monday’s orientation, and later city tour. Not only was this the day I walked the most in the past two weeks (over 10 miles, which is about a mile more than the 9+ mile days of Edinburgh), but I did about the most easily prove-you’re-in-London thing and took a selfie in front of Buckingham Palace. Because you kind of have to if you’re there, really.

The aforementioned selfie

One of the funniest, in a way, things about orientation was the idea that professor-student relationships are apparently quite casual here in the UK and you should expect to be on a first name basis. This itself was not the funny thing, but that, being an art major, I was already in that position with a number of my own professors. From talking to other students, those with an art-influenced (including theater) major had similar experiences.

But back to London. Tuesday’s first British Art in London class saw us at the Whitechapel Gallery for the London Open, where there was more variety of art in a single room than I think I’ve ever seen before. The space was open and full of light, despite the giant landscape piece in the middle that I grew to kind of love.

Blackwall Reach, Rachel Champion, 2018

Thursday was a trip to the National Gallery, which mostly just made me excited to go back to. We focused on just a few things but there was a maze of rooms I still wanted to explore, and quite a few pieces that just in passing I could point out from having seen on my own or in art history classes.

The National Gallery

Friday held a trip, just for fun this time, to the Science Museum, which is basically on our campus. I might be a little biased but the space galleries were probably my favorite. I mean, they had, among recreations and models of various rockets and even the Apollo 13 lander, the actual Apollo 10 command module.

Made sure to caption my snap so I couldn't forget

Then I wandered slowly back through Hyde Park. I walk through every day on the way to class but I took time to just explore and enjoy myself. It was at this point I tried something I’d seen before but never done for myself—taking close up photos of flowers, keeping the subject in focus but mostly blurring the background. I instantly fell in love with both these and the other photos of the nature I saw there. Even though London is this huge city, the amount of green space goes a long way to keep it from feeling too dirty and overcrowded.

My new favorite hobby

Saturday was our trip to Oxford (though sadly it did mean missing London Pride). There was such an amazing amount of history at the university (and it’s several dozen colleges) that I couldn’t help but keep thinking about how so many of the buildings and places were just older than the United States. The England-Sweden World Cup match, however, got the attention of most of our group so instead of 40-odd people joining the many, many, other large groups out for walking tours, it was just myself and two friends. I actually really enjoyed this, and we had a chance to see the famous skyline of buildings and spires that are most recognizable in Oxford.

The city's 'dreaming spires'

Today, Sunday, we got to see a pretty amazing performance of Hamlet at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Despite the whole groundling tickets mean you stand for almost three hours in place, it was a really interesting, different, and wonderful show. There was a Deaf cast member so they had utilized British Sign Language in the show. Some of you know that I took four semesters of ASL but, as I expected, BSL is so very different from ASL that I understood pretty much none of it. Still, I thought it was a really neat addition, and I enjoyed it.

I'm a big fan of panoramas

While there are some tentative plans in place, and one definite thing I’m excited for, all I can say with much certainty about the coming week is that I’m looking forward to it, as I expect I will be until that means leaving London. Also I've used both the tube and bus now, which is very exciting, and also I owe my success entirely to the CityMapper app. And like a little bit of Google Maps, but mostly for walking there. I'm really thankful for GPS and technology this trip.

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