Feminist London - Day 9

Today I had a very trying morning that thankfully was more than made up for by a wonderful day at the Tate Britain and Tate Britain, and the fact that Spain won the World Cup! Go Spain!

Anyway. I had to put money on my oyster card today, couldn't do it with either my debit or credit cards, got lost trying to find a bank to get cash, finally got the money on my oyster card, walked forever to get the bus to the Tate Britain, only to have the bus diverted for about 20 minutes because there's some kind of marathon going on in London. When I finally get to the Tate, everyone had gone to the other entrance, so I was freaked, thinking that I had gone to the wrong Tate first. Whew.

Luckily, I met up with the rest of my group pretty quickly after I got into the museum. The Tate Britain was lovely, but I think I really preferred the Tate Modern. This was one of my favorite paintings:

From Feminist London July 11

Picasso "The Three Dancers" 1925

I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I sneakily took a couple. We took a boat between the two Tates, where I discovered just how nasty the river Thames is. The water is completely brown! Yuck.

Later we went to the Marylebone pub to watch the World Cup. Most of the crowd were for Spain (as they should have been) but there were two really loud and obnoxious Netherlands supporters. We showed them though!

Another museum day tomorrow - The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery - but we're free to go to those whenever we want. A group of us are sleeping in and then going out for waffles. Yum!

Feminist London - Days 7 & 8

Sorry for the belated post! We went out for a drink Friday night, and I got back around 11:30 - too late to blog when I knew I had to get up early to meet Eddy's parents in the morning!

Friday started with a bit of a mishap. We were headed to the Women's Library, when we realized that we only knew how to get the tube station nearby, not how to get from that tube station to the library. It's a pretty obscure place, so of course no one on the street knew how to get there. When we finally found it, the tour had already started and Dr. Smith was a bit peeved with all of us.

From Feminist London July9

The Women's Library is just what it sounds like: a research institution devoted to women's history, women's issues, feminism, etc. It has a huge archive of material to do research, and the idea was that we'd start doing research on our final papers there. I'm still not sure what I want to write mine on, but it was still really neat to go and see.

After that we explored the area around Brick Lane, the historic Bangladeshi area of London. We watched the film Brick Lane for our course, which is the story of a Bangladeshi woman's experience in London - I really enjoyed this film! Lots of shopping followed, until we were exhausted by the heat and headed back to the hall. We went out for a drink later to celebrate our first week in London!

From Feminist London July 10

Today, I got up early and met Eddy's dad and step-mum at the Tower of London. We had a terrific time! The crown jewels of the English monarchy are on display there - which are just stunning - and they had an exhibit on royal armory from Henry VIII's time until today. It was still super hot, but not as bad as yesterday. Later we went to Covent Garden, a big shopping and restaurant area for Indian food. Lovely! I had some trouble on the way back to the hall, as they had closed down certain parts of the underground for repair, but I finally made it back safe and sound.

Tate Britain and Tate Modern tomorrow!

Feminist London - Day 6

Another fairly slow day today! Which is sometimes nice. We had a class discussion day, and had Finn McKay, the founder of the London Feminist Network. She was super nice and told us all about her organization, the activism work that it does, as well as a brief history of the modern UK feminist movement and how it's changed in the last 30 years or so.

After the talk we went out for delicious thai food and I somehow ended up going on a shopping spree with a bunch of the girls afterwards. (Seriously. I have no clue how this happened. I was walking with them, thinking that we were just going back to the hall and all of a sudden we're in an H&M.)

This happened later as I was trying to go to Regent's Park to do some studying and then caught up with people going grocery shopping - all of a sudden I'm carrying tons of groceries back to the hall.

From Feminist London July 8

Later some of us got together to watch the film Brick Lane, the story of a Bangladeshi woman's experience in London. We'll be visiting Brick Lane tomorrow after our tour of the London Women's Library, and I'm expecting some good food out of the visit!

Feminist London - Day 5

Not too much happened today. We spent the morning exploring Westminster Abbey, which is totally overwhelming. Not only is the building so impressive from the outside that you feel that you will never be able to take everything in, the inside is stuffed full of people - living and dead. There are tombs and memorials to fascinating people in every nook and cranny of the abbey. You would have to stay there for days to adequately see everything.

From Feminist London July 7

Sadly, I didn't have that much time or stamina. They provide you with a guided audio tour - narrated by Jeremy Irons no less (at least the English version) - that takes you around to the most famous attractions. As a group we did what Virginia Woolf tells all women who make their living through writing and literature to, which was visit the grave of Aphra Behn, the first English woman to earn her living through her writing. So that was pretty cool. Though, as she is a pretty obscure figure, you could tell that all the people around us were wondering why were getting so excited over a completely unremarkable grave.

I, of course, was really excited to see Poets' Corner, where many famous artists and literary figures - including Chaucer!! - are buried. As I was walking away, I happened to find a floor panel dedicated to Caedmon, the only Anglo-Saxon poet whose name we know. He isn't buried there or anything, but I thought it was really cool that he's celebrated there.

After I finished with the abbey, jet lag must have caught up with me, because I was super tired. I headed back to the hall for a quiet afternoon and evening of study. Lovely.

Class day tomorrow.

Feminist London - Day 4

Well, I was expecting today to be a pretty relaxing, but it ended up being super busy! We had our first class session this morning, discussing Mary Wollstonecraft and Bathsua Makin for 10-12. We don't have a classroom anywhere to do the actual class portion of the course, so we went to a nearby park and sat in a lovely gazebo.

I had planned to go by myself to visit Southwark Cathedral today - the cathedral where medieval poet John Gower is buried - but Anna and Christina decided to go with me, making the trip much more exciting.

From Feminist London July 6

Instead of just going to the cathedral (which was stunning - though I was quickly informed that I couldn't take pictures inside without a permit...I snuck some of Gower though), we ended up finding the ruin of a medieval palace, a random Elizabethan ship, and the Clink Prison museum! Apparently the Clink Prison is where we get the slang term "clink" from. It was a bit silly, with spooky lighting and random noises, but really fun. It's one of those places where you can put your friends in the stocks and take pictures and things.

We found some dinner after that at another Italian place. I officially need to go to a pub and get fish and chips! But we were given a little coupon book on the Big Bus tour yesterday, with a coupon for the Spaghetti House, so we figured we might as well.

Off to Westminster Abbey tomorrow!

Feminist London - Day 3

Today I am absolutely enamored of the London bus system. It's great! Not only are the double decker buses just fun to ride on, (though kind of terrifying if the bus starts moving when you're only halfway up the stairs), but there are maps at nearly every station that outline the major routes and alphabetically list destinations that you might want to go to. So, after our bus tour was over and I wanted to head back to the Hall while Anna and Christina wanted to continue shopping, I just hopped on a bus and easily found my way back. Seattle has a whole lot to learn!

The London bus tour was fun, if a bit touristy. I took tons of super blurry pictures as we were riding around, but it was really cool to be able to see all the well known spots of London within 2 hours. We drove by Big Ben right when it was striking 12!

From Feminist London July 5

We went to Harrods after the tour and I bought prezzies for people, so be excited. Then I headed back to the hall to do some studying - tomorrow is our first class day, so I have some reading to do!

Feminist London - Day 2

Happy Fourth of July Americans! I feel a bit unpatriotic here, but oh well.

It was a bit of a slow day today, which was nice since we're all still jet lagged and fuzzy brained. I got up early and walked around Regent's park, which is HUGE and only a few blocks from our hall. I'm going to try to get up early and go for a walk every morning.

From Feminist London July 4

We all met as a group for breakfast as a little coffee shop near by, and then split up to explore on our own. Most of us took a bus to Camden Town where Dr. Smith had recommended a 99p store. We stocked up on needed supplies and then explored the market area.

I've spent to rest of the evening studying - catching up on my reading for this course and then doing some GRE prep. I have a ton of vocab words to work on! Yikes!

Sightseeing tour tomorrow!

Feminist London - Day 1

Well! I made it to London! I flew by myself internationally for the first time, waited a god-awful long time at customs, took the tube, lugged my suitcase up many stairs and finally made it to Marylebone hall, but only after walking up and down the street for about 15 minutes before I realized that I needed to get to the other side to get to where I wanted to go. Whew. Of course, by this time it was only 11, and I couldn't check in until 2.

I finally did check in, and settled in to my itty-bitty room, with it's cute, but slightly claustrophobia inducing bathroom.

From Feminist London July 3

It's like an airplane bathroom, only with a shower.

Sadly, all the members of our group are scattered throughout the 20 stories of Marylebone Hall, but I was lucky enough to be on a floor with two other girls - Christina and Annelise - who I went to dinner with (Italian - yum! The nearby pub was too full of soccer hooligans to go). The group is meeting for breakfast tomorrow at 10 - which seems super late to me - but then we have a free day for the rest of the afternoon. I don't have many plans yet, so we'll see what happens!

Finals. Yuck.

Blarghl. Blarghl Blarghl Blarghl.

That's how I feel right now. I have almost 6 pages of an 8-10 page paper done, and my brain has simultaneously turned to mush and taken up residence somewhere other than my head.

2 more pages to go. Blarghl.

Music Sunday - WWAD??

I've been so caught up in mid-quarter stress that I haven't posted in ages, but here's a little Adam to get us through it. 3 more weeks and 3 ten page papers to write until the end of the quarter!