Me and Benny boy!

Bung Hole Winery.

Guiness Stache.

My professor loves liberty.  He also feels we should change our national emblem to the skunk.  This is him at Speaker's Corner this morning.

Mrs Jones!  

Peter our tour guide.  He's an old english theatre chap.

Me and St. Paul's.

The hot, muggy, sketchy tube.

Melted cannon lions at Trafalgar Square.

Mount Gay Rum!  This makes me incredibly immature.  hehe

My lovely little room.

My lovely dorm the Nutford House.  My room is on the fourth floor, second from the left.

View from the right of my room towards Edgeware.  Take Edgeware South for a few blocks and you'll hit Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park.

The ladies and I at the Duke of York for Dawn's birthday, which was also our first night there.

Speaker's Corner

My first Sunday in London was a very lazy one. I spent a good two hours over at Speaker's Corner watching my studio art professor, Duane, dressed as an S & M skunk speak about foreign policy. It was odd to see a professor do something like this because all of my professors in the Health and Human Services would actually be offended by his act. They are all just too conservative for my taste, ha. But apparently Duane stayed till around 3 pm speaking with people. I walked around to a couple of other speakers, one reminding me of the character Mrs. Jones from The Happening. She was super frightening and was screaming at the homeless man heckling her. She just kept telling him to not get 'friendly' with her.

After that I made myself a little lunch and attempted to watch Boys Don't Cry on the web. I fell asleep and ended up taking a 3 or 4 hour nap. I'm partially upset with myself for doing so but I needed to. The other night we didn't get back till at least 3:30 am and toured the hell out of London yesterday. I needed that rest otherwise my body may have just pooped out this week.

After dinner Elodie and I walked around to the souvenir shops, bought some awesome post cards, grabbed an ice cream cone, and headed to Hyde Park to listen to The Police. We heard the very last song of KT Tunstall's concert but heard a great deal of the Police's set. If we walked over to the front gate we could even see the stage and the screens a bit. It was so unreal. I still can't believe that I saw/listened to Eric Clapton and The Police in the past couple days and only a few blocks from my dorm.

I still felt dreadfully homesick today. I'm not homesick for America or Ohio, just for the people. Everyone here is friendly, awesome, and a blast to hang out with but it's so much different to share this experience with a stranger than with my closest friends. Elodie is here but I want everyone else here too. I want to go to pubs with my favorites and I want to listen to Eric Clapton with my dad by my side, I want to tour the galleries with my mom and Mindy, I want to share this with all of them. It breaks my heart that I've made it to Europe before my parents but I have my grandmother to thank for that. I don't think I would be here if I didn't have the inheritance money from her and my grandfather. I wouldn't of let my parents pay for this trip. It's mine because I paid for it. I am still dependent upon them for living expenses while here but I've already decided to pay them back for every cent spent. It's not their job to pay for me anymore. I want to be independent from them. I'm 23 I have to be.

I am also struggling with this figure drawing class. I don't have much faith in what I do. I like some of the stuff I draw but I'll get half way through drawing someone outside or on the tube and give up. I am just losing faith in my abilities to do anything creative. My major never really allowed me to think out of the box. Only counseling did. I hope tomorrow's drawings are better. Elodie likes them, though. But she's not my professor.

I posted pictures on Facebook but they are a bit tiny. I'm not sure why my pictures came out so small on my computer. That's not cool. But they are fun to look at!

Goodnight from Londontown....well Westminster really.

Britt

Eric Clapton in Hyde Park

The past couple of days have been hectic and busy. Haven't been able to update but now on a Saturday night I do...eeps!

Friday: consisted of my first studio class. We went to White Chapel gallery near Aldgate East. I'm not really sure what the area was all about but it was grungy and contained many fun looking shops with DIY type of clothes and even an anarchist bookstore. The gallery is supposed to be super prestigious but whatever I saw there was a bore and disappointing. Dwayne (I know he spells it a different way) decided to take the shitty artwork as a way to give us a lecture on how to improve anything that we make by taking what we dislike about the pieces and saying "I don't want to do anything like this...blah blah" type of stuff, which was actually quite interesting how he put it. After the gallery we headed over to Plumber's Row a couple blocks away to an art store. It was quite huge! The store was called Atlantis. Bought a few things and listened to my prof drone on about each type of paint, brush, pen, pencil, crayon...and so on and so on. He talks to much really.

After studio class a group of us hopped by the dorm before 300J to drop off a few things. We got caught in one of London's downpours for the first time. Realized I bought the tiniest umbrella but it was quite useful, though. Our 300J course that day was held at a gallery called the Hertferd House. It's an absolutely gorgeous building that resembles an over the top type of plantation house from the outside. We learned a way to try and interpret art on our own, got the chance to walk around by ourselves, pick a piece, and interpret it. I picked Joseph and his Brethren. I don't have the artist written down at the moment because my prof has my page from my sketchbook.

That night we decided we all had to go out and really dance the night away in London. I tried to look up places and over near Paddington I found a place with no cover before 10 pm. So we went in a group of 13 people! Ha. We all had buddies but got there just in time to find out you had to be 21 at this specific bar to get in. So we lost 3 girls. They ended up going to buy drinks and drank here so I'm glad they ended up having a good time because I spent a good half an hour after feeling like the worse person ever for choosing to go there. But I really had no clue what the place was about. The rest of us decided to go to Leicester Square to meet Racheal's friend from Oxford at a dance club. We knew we would have to pay a cover but didn't realize that it would actually be an arm and a leg. Well 3 more girls didn't want to do that and ventured off so me, Kaitlin, and Racheal all went in to meet Matt and Amy who ran ahead and paid the money to get into this club called Ruby Blue. It was 10 pounds, which roughly equals $20. I had an intense urge to vomit afterwards but that soon turned into 'I have to have the best time ever right now!' So Amy, Matt, and I had a crazy ass time dancing the night away. The drinks were expensive still but no more than they would be at our local pub. I've learned that guys here have no shame or dignity when it comes to dancing with the ladies. I got a few taps on the shoulder and a few guys who just casually walked up to dance with me. Luckily, I had Amy and Matt to wisp me away when I needed it. But it was dance rape city and just got really down right annoying. But one guy (one of the tap on the shoulder guy) danced with me for awhile. It was really just comical because he just danced really funny. I mean I will most likely demonstrate when I get home to all of you. But anyways he bought me a rum and coke and I had to oblige and hold a conversation with this boy afterwards. So his logistics: from Montreal, interning with a company for finance here, his name is Dimitri, kind of looked a lot like George R. from school adding to his creepiness, and has been here for a month or so. The end of our conversation he asked me to go for a walk with him outside. I basically yelled in his face 'NO WAY! I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH YOU!" and backed away. He was really taken by surprise. Then I calmly added I needed to go find my friends and walked away. He tried to dance with me a couple more times and I just kept pushing him away and he was like 'What wrong? You no want to dance with me anymore?' I just told him I wanted to dance with my friends...basically the truth without saying all that.

End of my night consisted of drunk skyping Sean to tell him I was homesick. It was an awful feeling last night that I had. It was overwhelming. So America and my loves, I miss the fuck out of you.

Today consisted of a tour of London's attractions with some Ladies. I went with Liz, Kaitlin, and Mel to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral (where we couldn't go in due to some ceremony involving Deacon's and the Lord Bishop of London), the South Bank, a walk across the Tower Bridge, and over to the Tower of London. We paid to get into Westminster Abbey so Liz could find her father's favorite composer's tomb to sneak a picture of for him. Apparently her dad tried to find this tomb when he was here in college and ended up standing right on top of it when he was giving up. Near this composer's tomb was fucking Charles Darwin. That blows my mind. I also saw King Henry VII's tomb, Queen Elizabteth I and Queen Mary I. Also The Queen Mary of Scot. There were so many more important names of tombs I saw but didn't write them down and now I can't remember. Needless to say it was an incredible day of sightseeing. We stopped at a fountain area with children playing on the Thames where we had the most perfect view of Tower Bridge. It was phenomenal and relaxing. On our ride back we took the Bus so we could sit up top. It was a cute time.

Tonight a few of us headed over to Hyde Park to listen to Eric Clapton play. He was the headliner for a music festival two day deal for Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday. So many stars played literally 3 blocks from my dorm today including Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, Beck, John Mayer, and Jason Mraz. Phenomenal! Tomorrow night the Police are headlining so we are going to go have a picnic per se over there. There is also no open container laws in this city so we were able to have some Spritzer and Captain for refreshments as we listened.

The other most exciting event of the day was that Liz and I have booked a trip to Paris. We are leaving the morning of the 12th of July and coming back the next night. It's going to be a quick, SUPER EXPENSIVE trip but it's Paris. By saying things like that makes it much easier to not kill myself over spending so much money all the time. Last night was just us saying "Well we're in London" over and over.

I may also be able to upload pictures tomorrow if Elodie's camera works with my computer!! Eeeps I'm so excited for all of you to see my lovely city!

I also talked to my daddy for the first time since being here on the phone today! It was so lovely and I got to tell him about Eric Clapton! I really miss my family and wish they could be here.

Time for bed my loves so I can wake up for the lovely traditional English breakfast of stewed tomatoes, beaans, eggs, and mushrooms. Blech.

xoxo,
Brittface

3 Days in London and I've Learned a Few Things

Things I've come to realize about this city:
1. Always take a light jacket, coat, or cardigan with you everywhere you go no matter what. The weather is silly and decides to be super cold then super hot then super windy all together. It's bizarre. Bought 2 cheap sweaters and cardigans today from H and M since it is so cold!
2. You will most likely climb multiple levels of stairs daily making it not so bizarre to have comments about your fit butt daily. Climbed 193 steps up from a tube stop today at Covent Square.
3. British people think we have THICK accents. Some man told me that I had a thick accent today.
4. Always carry cash. Even some big coffee shops don't take credit.
5. Tell your bank you are leaving the country (I know that seems obvious but this girl forgot to do that).
6. Buy water and carry it around. It's fucking expensive to buy a bottle of water here while out. Sometimes up to $4!

I've learned a few other things but can't think of them at the moment. I'm sure there is more to come that I will learn. I think I have the Underground system down to a T. I feel so smart and independent. This morning I didn't have class so I bummed around my section of town...which is Maryleborne. It's North of Hyde Park and close to Speaker's Corner. Everything is Arab and super ritzy too. I like it so far. I walked down some random streets and all the way over to Marble Arch. Found the Animals of War monument dedicated to all the animals that have died in the wars. I tried to sketch it but all of my proportions were silly and off. But you know, it really isn't that bad of a picture. Then I walked over to Hyde Park for a hot second. I took some pictures of all the chairs but didn't have time to walk around. I then headed over to the British Museum. I made it there all on my own without any problems other than walking in the wrong direction for a hot second. I sat there for awhile in the gardeny area in front and drew pictures of people eating and reading, and a light post. Then I walked back to find some food at the main street. Ran into some ladies from my group and had a cheap sandwich and a diet coke for lunch. This buying lunch everyday thing is no dice. So expensive. So I went to the grocery store tonight with a couple ladies, Jenn and Racheal, to buy some more lunch food. Blech...I feel guilty for the amount of money I've spent already.

During my first Art History class today we talked about the Partheon and the Elgin Marbles. These are stone marble slabs and statues that were pretty much stolen by the British from the Greeks. Now there is a large controversy about what should happen. Should the British give them back? If they do will that create even more controversy with other pieces of art that other nationalities want back in their country? Should they share? I really enjoyed listening to people chat and had a cute and good discussion with some ladies in my group. Afterwards we all went to look at the mummies. The British Museum houses real mummies and one is an actual preserved body. It's 100% ridiculous. I felt guilty taken a picture of this body but someone was videotaping it. Now that's even more bizarre. Lost Elodie for a hot second and then when we reunited headed over to Covent Square to eat at a super cute Vegetarian restaurant. It was super delicious and I had cous cous and a quiche with sweet potatoes and red peppers. PHENOMENAL! And super cheap. I can't remember the name of this place...but I will be going back and will take a picture of how cute it is. After that we went with Elodie's friend, Jessi to a pub nearby that plays loud punk music. It seems so Americanized there and it was quite lovely and super cheap...for here anyways. You could get a Corona 2 for 1 from 3 - 8 pm everyday. We were dumbfounded at first at the number of people drinking Corona.

Just went to the grocery store and now I'm super exhausted. The ladies and I are talking about going to Ireland. I should go check what they found for tickets. We are also trying to find cheaper tickets for Paris. Can't wait for each day! Eeps.

Tomorrow morning I have Figure drawing and then my critique in art class in the afternoon.

Soon soon calls from me.

xoxo
britt

Thursday morning in London

It's a Thursday morning but I don't have anything to write about this morning so it's moreso about yesterday happenings.

In the morning we took a bus tour of London starting from the west side (Wesminster) where our dorm is located all the way to the East where the actual City of London resides. I just found out yesterday that only 1 square mile of this city is actually London. Everything else is Wesminster. But anyways our tour guides name was Peter and he is this adorable british retired actor. He was hilarious and I could not figure out what jokes were actually jokes and what was the truth. I was convinced that the toilets near St. Paul's Cathedral really did play God Save the Queen when you sit down but no...that was a joke. When returning back to our dorm around half past noon Elodie and I ran errands. We were trying to make it to an art supply store but ended up taking the wrong direction on the tube and came out at Trafalgar Square. That is where the National Gallery is and just behind there is another art supply store. So our mishap was no biggie. We bummed around, took some pictures, watched the worst street performer ever. All he did was make fun of the Scottish people and tell people to sit down. It was dumb. We were convinced he was just trying to see how long he could keep people watching with out actually doing anything. But I did see him do a little breakdancing when I walked by later. We headed back to our side of town and went to the pharmacy and grocery stores. I bought some Captain Morgan's rum that was actually bottled in the UK. I found that to be quite silly. After I spent the longest time taking a shower since it was just a light spray we went around the corner to a pub called the Duke of York. Apparently tonight is quiz night. I hope that proves to be a blast.

I have taken so many pictures so far that I would love to post but still can't get my computer to recognize my camera is attached. It's bumming me out. I turn it on, I try to review, I downloaded Kodak Easy Share Software, but nothing. It's totally pissing me off.

I'm not sure what my plans are for this morning yet. I don't have class till 2 pm so I was thinking of walking around Hyde park and then heading towards wherever my afternoon Asian Art History course is. I almost feel like I should bum around with Jody's Art History class sometimes too because they will probably go places I want to go. Like today I think they are going to the National Gallery. Hmm...well I feel like the only person who isn't in that class on this trip. Jody just seems really dry and I didn't want to be bored the whole time. Anyways enough of that. I need to get ready and get out of here before I fall asleep.

xoxo,
britt

hopefully pictures coming soon!

Day 1 : part DEUX

So far being tipsy in Londn has been fabulous. So hard to type. Just spent two hours outside drinking champagne and telling embarassing stories. I love these people! I even got Elodie to go out with us:)

Now to my first pub!

eeps
xoxo,
britt

Day 1 in Londontown<3

Disclaimer: Didn't have wireless internet like I thought I would in our dorm rooms so I wrote down stuff in MWord. Holler day 1!

--Having to blog in Microsoft word is silly but the Nutford house does not have any working wireless Internet in the rooms. It’s no biggie, though. For starters we finally arrived in London at 9:30 am (early in fact!) after being delayed in Columbus and being fascinated by a tram inside of the terminal of the Detroit airport.

My room is pretty cute. It’s small but bigger than my single my freshman year of college in Ewing. I took some pictures that I will be uploading sometime soon after I get an Ethernet cable and figure out how to load pictures onto my computer. I feel dumb for not being able to figure that out. But eh, what can you do?

Els and I are about to head out to walk around town, check out the stores, and grab a few things before dinner. We just finished our first group meeting where we were all falling asleep while listening to Jody (main professor) talk. After talking with Dwayne about the studio art classes I’m pretty pumped. I am not very good by any standards so it will be uncomfortable for me to show others my stuff. Just like when I write I hate to share it with others. Blogs and journals not so much but English papers or letters, I just can’t show to anyone. Especially since all of my friends have been gifted with the ways of words. I am not so well spoken sometimes. I am better than I used to be but I get frazzled and just stutter a lot or repeat words. It’s kind of a silly thing I don’t really think about that often.

Things I need to buy:
o 2 sketchbooks
o writing utensils that once on paper can’t be erased
o Ethernet cable
o Alarm clock
o Britrail pass!!!

Things I need sent to me:
o My friends
o Meow Meow
o Journal Sarah gave me for my birthday
o The Room…couldn’t find where I put it when moving out since I didn’t have the case at the time


Some kid with crazy hair and a beard named OJ lives in a hall with Elodie and I. It’s just people and us 3 we haven’t met or empty rooms. I am trying to chill some champagne for later but Els has already declared that she doesn’t want to go out. Blech. Okay, maybe it’s alright to bash her for being a party pooper at least.

xoxo,
BrittFace