Wow…what a weekend. It’s been a LOT of fun, but I’m extremely tired. ☺ You already know about Friday, so I’ll go back to Saturday. First let me clarify, I don’t have class on Mondays. Yes, no class on Monday for the entire semester. It’s wonderful.
Okay, Saturday: Jenn and I went to the Tate Modern Art Museum. Modern art isn’t exactly my thing,
but I know that some Monet is kept there, so I thought I would check it out, and in the process, give modern art another chance. I think this is a good time to interject why I feel the way I do about that genre of art: the last time I was at Tate, something about the human body was one of their exhibits. The first thing I saw was a room with a movie, and on the screen there was a man running around naked in an empty room. Art? Really? I didn’t want to throw in the towel after just one piece, so I kept going. The next piece I remember was a collection of 30 or so different pictures that all contained ways to flip people off in different countries. At that point, my friends and I left to make our own modern art with the sugar packets in the café.Anyway, this experience was much better (with the exception of the snot dripping giant head in the picture above). In fact, I want to go back. There are a good number of pieces that still confuse me as to how they are considered art; a canvas painted brown with a coral colored stripe on the side doesn’t invite me to think about anything, and doesn’t really take any talent to do. But, there are several artists that I really enjoyed and have “invit
ed” me to come back and look a little more closely. My favorite artist there goes by the name of Cheri Samba or Cheri Cherin. Check him out. After that Jenn and I went over to St. Paul’s Cathedral (on the other side of the river) via the Millennium Bridge. That was really the most exciting part. Except for seeing lots of manpris. Tis the season! (Manpris-->)Saturday night we met up with some of the people from our program and hung out for a while. Sunday was just as uneventful. Julie, another girl in my program, and I went walking along Oxford Street. It’s the most known street in London because of it’s shopping. It’s pretty close to my flat, so I’ve been perusing a couple of times. This was the first time on the weekend…. I wouldn’t recommend it. Busy.
Today, on the other hand, was quite the day. My roommates and I got up early this morning to go to Leicester Square and observe people attempting to break the record for the most people dressed like zombies in one place at one time.
What, you say? Yes, you read it right. Apparently CNN thought it was worthwhile to cover as well; here is a link to their news story on it. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2007/08/27/black.uk.zombies.record.cnnThen we headed out to the Notting Hill Carnival, the world’s largest street fair. And large is right. It was fun…there was a lot of fun music, and such, but in order to even have a moderate amount of fun with all those people, you have to be absolutely sloshed. Which I was not. But I’m glad to go to see what it was all about. We didn’t get to see any of the Vegas type costumes, but there were a lot of good smells (lots of ethnic food cooking) in a completely charming neighborhood on a glorious day in London. Here is the BBC link to what I was SUPPOSED to see at Carnival. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6965859.stm
On our way home, we found out another portion of our group was relaxing in Hyde Park, so I went to join them.
Hyde Park is gorgeous…absolutely amazing. Thanks, Sarah, for correcting me on the location where Finding Neverland was taped. Kensington Gardens are the place, and there is a Peter Pan statute in Hyde Park (right
next to Kensington Gardens) commemorating where J.M. Barie chose to write the book/play, and today, I visited that statue. I can’t say enough how wonderful Hyde Park is. I love it.After that, the group I met up with decided to head to Trafalgar Square to get some TexMex food. Although it’s somewhat of a rarity in London, you can find it. And it is wonderful…or at least tasted that way because it’s somewhat similar to what I know from home.
Maybe now you understand why I’m so tired. Classes start again tomorrow, so the next few days won’t be quite as exciting as the last few.
P.S. Sorry for the sidesways pictures. I don't know how to rotate them on blogspot here.
