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