This week has turned into the week of plays! We went to see "The Woman in Black" today, which was just a terrifying as I remember it. Dr. Smith assigned the book that the play is based on for our class, so we discussed that before hand and then headed off to see the show. There were a bunch of younger school groups in the audience, so there was so much screaming during the scary bits! I don't think I've ever seen a play or movie where the audience actually screamed like that. It was quite funny really. I absolutely loved the show, and am planning on writing my final paper on a feminist analysis of the books. I think it's such a good ghost story!
We have another free day tomorrow, and I'm going to see two plays! I'm going back to the open-air theatre at Regent's Park to see "Macbeth" and then I'm going with Anna and some family friends of hers to see a play called "War Horse." Her grandparents are insisting that she go meet some of their friends who live in London (who she's never met before) so she's dragging me along for moral support - I can't protests, since I'm getting a free meal and play out of it.
Only five more days left! I'm so bummed!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Feminist London - Day 17
I feel much more lively today! Hurray!
Since I was so tired yesterday, I decided to take today pretty easy. Anna and I headed to Leicester Square this morning to try to get half priced tickets to go see Les Miz (which, sadly, we were unable to do). After that, I spent a long time at Regent's park, just walking around, taking way to many pictures of birds (they have black swans!) and doing some studying for my class and for the GREs.
During my stroll around the park, I happened upon their rather famous open air theatre and decided to splurge and by myself a couple of tickets. I went and saw Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" tonight, which was just lovely.
They set it in 1940's Casablanca and added a couple of song and dance numbers - hilarious! My seat was way in the back, but I still had a great view of the stage. I'm going again Wednesday afternoon to see Macbeth, which I'm hoping will be equally as enjoyable. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see any actual Shakespeare when we went to the Globe, so I'm making up for it by going to these two shows!
We have a class day tomorrow and then we're seeing "The Woman in Black" in the afternoon. This week is just filled with theater!
Since I was so tired yesterday, I decided to take today pretty easy. Anna and I headed to Leicester Square this morning to try to get half priced tickets to go see Les Miz (which, sadly, we were unable to do). After that, I spent a long time at Regent's park, just walking around, taking way to many pictures of birds (they have black swans!) and doing some studying for my class and for the GREs.
During my stroll around the park, I happened upon their rather famous open air theatre and decided to splurge and by myself a couple of tickets. I went and saw Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" tonight, which was just lovely.
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| From Feminist London July 19 |
They set it in 1940's Casablanca and added a couple of song and dance numbers - hilarious! My seat was way in the back, but I still had a great view of the stage. I'm going again Wednesday afternoon to see Macbeth, which I'm hoping will be equally as enjoyable. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see any actual Shakespeare when we went to the Globe, so I'm making up for it by going to these two shows!
We have a class day tomorrow and then we're seeing "The Woman in Black" in the afternoon. This week is just filled with theater!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Feminist London - Day 16
Tonight I feel really worn out. I'm not sure why though. Today wasn't really an active, walking around town kind of day. I think all the activity from the past 16 days has just caught up on me and now I'm just exhausted.
Today we went to the Globe Theatre to see a play. Not a Shakespearean play, sadly. There wasn't anything playing that Dr. Smith could relate to our class, so we ended up going to a reading of the 1682 play "Virtue Betrayed or Anna Bullen" by John Banks. This play was written as a kind of sequel to Shakespeare's "Henry VIII." The two plays were ofter performed concurrently in Banks' time.
I honestly don't have anything really intelligent to say about the play, because I'm super tired. More tomorrow.
Today we went to the Globe Theatre to see a play. Not a Shakespearean play, sadly. There wasn't anything playing that Dr. Smith could relate to our class, so we ended up going to a reading of the 1682 play "Virtue Betrayed or Anna Bullen" by John Banks. This play was written as a kind of sequel to Shakespeare's "Henry VIII." The two plays were ofter performed concurrently in Banks' time.
I honestly don't have anything really intelligent to say about the play, because I'm super tired. More tomorrow.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Feminist London - Day 15
Whew. I'm tired.
Today was a free day, so Anna, Lidia and I spent the day at the British Museum! It's so big! And so full of stuff! And people! The last time I came to the British Museum, I left the memory card out of my camera and could only take about 5 pictures. I guess I wanted to make up for it this time, so I took about 300. Which, in retrospect, was kind of ridiculous.
We spent 4 hours in the museum and there are still big chunks of it that I haven't seen. I skipped most of the sections that Eddy and I saw last December (I had to go back and take pictures of all the medieval stuff) and looked at the Asian, African, Middle Eastern and parts of the European artifacts. It's an amazing museum! And I'm so tired now. I always forget how tiring it is to go to museums, especially giant, overwhelming ones like the British Museum.
It's worth it though.
Off to the Globe tomorrow!
Today was a free day, so Anna, Lidia and I spent the day at the British Museum! It's so big! And so full of stuff! And people! The last time I came to the British Museum, I left the memory card out of my camera and could only take about 5 pictures. I guess I wanted to make up for it this time, so I took about 300. Which, in retrospect, was kind of ridiculous.
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| From Feminist London July 17 |
We spent 4 hours in the museum and there are still big chunks of it that I haven't seen. I skipped most of the sections that Eddy and I saw last December (I had to go back and take pictures of all the medieval stuff) and looked at the Asian, African, Middle Eastern and parts of the European artifacts. It's an amazing museum! And I'm so tired now. I always forget how tiring it is to go to museums, especially giant, overwhelming ones like the British Museum.
It's worth it though.
Off to the Globe tomorrow!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Random
I just logged on to facebook and noticed that it's suggesting that I become a fan of Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, and the TV show House, all because I'm a fan of Barack Obama. Apparently people who like Obama like all of those things as well. I'm really amused by this.
Also, I just saw the preview for the movie about the creation of facebook. It looks pretty dreadful and I really don't understand why anyone would make that movie. Is it really that dramatic of a story? I guess I need to see it and find out.
Also, I just saw the preview for the movie about the creation of facebook. It looks pretty dreadful and I really don't understand why anyone would make that movie. Is it really that dramatic of a story? I guess I need to see it and find out.
Feminist London Day 14
Day fourteen! I can't believe that it's been two weeks already! I'm not nearly ready to go home yet.
Today was another museum day (though, to be honest, most days are museum days!) We went as a group to the Florence Nightingale museum, as we had briefly studied her along with Mary Seacole (another nurse working during the Crimean war) in our class. The museum is pretty small, but details her life, her work during the war, and how she revolutionized nursing. For a small museum, it packed in a lot of information!
After a group lunch at a nearby Japanese place
I headed off to the Imperial War museum, which was way more depressing than I remember it being. Really, I guess I should have seen that coming. I went through the sections on the First and Second World War, the British Secret Service, modern international conflicts, and the Holocaust memorial. (I didn't take too many pictures from this museum, cause I thought that would be a little tacky). It's a really well done museum, but it's left me feeling a little gloomy.
We have a free day tomorrow and I think a bunch of us are going to tea in the morning and then to the British Museum. Eddy and I went last Christmas, but we barely saw any of the museum; hopefully I'll be able to spend a lot more time there tomorrow!
Today was another museum day (though, to be honest, most days are museum days!) We went as a group to the Florence Nightingale museum, as we had briefly studied her along with Mary Seacole (another nurse working during the Crimean war) in our class. The museum is pretty small, but details her life, her work during the war, and how she revolutionized nursing. For a small museum, it packed in a lot of information!
After a group lunch at a nearby Japanese place
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| From Feminist London July 16 |
I headed off to the Imperial War museum, which was way more depressing than I remember it being. Really, I guess I should have seen that coming. I went through the sections on the First and Second World War, the British Secret Service, modern international conflicts, and the Holocaust memorial. (I didn't take too many pictures from this museum, cause I thought that would be a little tacky). It's a really well done museum, but it's left me feeling a little gloomy.
We have a free day tomorrow and I think a bunch of us are going to tea in the morning and then to the British Museum. Eddy and I went last Christmas, but we barely saw any of the museum; hopefully I'll be able to spend a lot more time there tomorrow!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Feminist London Day 12 & 13
Sorry for the belated post! I tried to do this last night, but blogger was being funky.
We've had horrible weather for the past couple of days! It's been all cold and rainy.
Having been warned that London in July would be horribly hot and sunny all the time, I so did not pack for this kind of weather. I only have one pair of pants! Oh well. I have my raincoat at least, so I'm not totally unprepared.
We went to Anti-Slavery International yesterday, the oldest non-profit social-justice organization in the world. We had a woman from Seattle give us a lecture on human trafficking in our area before we left, so this talk was meant to compliment what we already knew about human trafficking in the States and show us what goes on in Europe. The organization focuses on more than just human trafficking, but that issue was mostly what we talked about. It seems like a really cool organization, that works on a national and international level to end modern day slavery (which, I'm sure, many people don't even realize exists.)
Today was a bit tense because we've been having a bit of in-fighting within our group. I suppose that's bound to happen when you have 11 adults spending so much time together, but it definitely throws off the whole group dynamic and makes everything uncomfortable. We had a big mix up in communication this morning, dealing with a group plans for today, and a couple of girls just blew up at each other. Thankfully, I wasn't involved!
Anyway. After everyone cooled down, we went to a coffee shop to have our class discussion about our visit to Anti-Slavery International as well as our readings about Mary Seacole and Florence Nightengale. I love how informal our class days are. All we do is just sit together and talk about stuff, which I think is how the best classes go. I sometimes feel like this class could be much more focused on the academics, but I don't mind too much that it's not!
I went with Uliana, Diana, and Ryan to the Natural History Museum after our class, which was enormous!
We were able to get through the exhibits on dinosaurs, insects, plants, human physiology, and marine invertebrates before the museum closed at 6. We spent a good three hours there and barely covered a third of it! I would love the opportunity to go back, but I doubt I'll have time.
Off to the Florence Nightingale Museum tomorrow!
We've had horrible weather for the past couple of days! It's been all cold and rainy.
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| From Feminist London July 14 |
Having been warned that London in July would be horribly hot and sunny all the time, I so did not pack for this kind of weather. I only have one pair of pants! Oh well. I have my raincoat at least, so I'm not totally unprepared.
We went to Anti-Slavery International yesterday, the oldest non-profit social-justice organization in the world. We had a woman from Seattle give us a lecture on human trafficking in our area before we left, so this talk was meant to compliment what we already knew about human trafficking in the States and show us what goes on in Europe. The organization focuses on more than just human trafficking, but that issue was mostly what we talked about. It seems like a really cool organization, that works on a national and international level to end modern day slavery (which, I'm sure, many people don't even realize exists.)
Today was a bit tense because we've been having a bit of in-fighting within our group. I suppose that's bound to happen when you have 11 adults spending so much time together, but it definitely throws off the whole group dynamic and makes everything uncomfortable. We had a big mix up in communication this morning, dealing with a group plans for today, and a couple of girls just blew up at each other. Thankfully, I wasn't involved!
Anyway. After everyone cooled down, we went to a coffee shop to have our class discussion about our visit to Anti-Slavery International as well as our readings about Mary Seacole and Florence Nightengale. I love how informal our class days are. All we do is just sit together and talk about stuff, which I think is how the best classes go. I sometimes feel like this class could be much more focused on the academics, but I don't mind too much that it's not!
I went with Uliana, Diana, and Ryan to the Natural History Museum after our class, which was enormous!
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| From Feminist London July 15 |
We were able to get through the exhibits on dinosaurs, insects, plants, human physiology, and marine invertebrates before the museum closed at 6. We spent a good three hours there and barely covered a third of it! I would love the opportunity to go back, but I doubt I'll have time.
Off to the Florence Nightingale Museum tomorrow!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Book Review - Selling Olga
Selling Olga: Stories of Human Trafficking by Louisa WaughMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
We read Selling Olga for my course, as an introduction to a more modern feminist and social justice issue - having spent most of the class reading older texts about the women's rights movement, this text was definitely needed to ground our course in what is going on in the now. Before leaving Seattle, we had a speaker come in to talk about human trafficking in Seattle; this text offers an interesting comparison between the two situations.
Louisa Waugh sets on a mission to research human trafficking, focusing mainly on Europe, more specifically the Balkans, Italy, and Britain. The books is a record of her trip throughout these states to discover the root causes of human trafficking, to see what is being done to aid those who have been trafficked, and to hear the testimony of these people, to see just what happened to them.
The text focuses almost exclusively on sex trafficking, which I found to be somewhat problematic. Waugh states that one of the aims of her book is to refute the claim that all people who are trafficked are victimized sex slaves, yet she seems to confirm this stereotype by focusing so heavily on sex trafficking. She briefly mentions that trafficked migrants are also forced in construction and agricultural work, yet only cites one example.
Despite this, the stories of the trafficked women that the books mainly focuses on are completely devastating. One of the major strengths of this book is their testimony of how they were trafficked, what happened to them, and how they escaped; Waugh (I assume) leaves this testimonies in the women's own words, making them extremely powerful. Ultimately, the books is an excellent introduction to the problem of human trafficking across Europe.
View all my reviews >>
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Feminist London - Day 11
Ahhh. Today was a much needed day of rest. Originally we were going to have a class day in the morning, discussing our trips to many museums of the past few days and Virgina Woolf's A Room of One's Own and then do a walking tour of the area where the Bloomsbury group - a group of artists and intellectuals that included Woolf and her husband - lived and worked. But when we met in the morning, we realized that a gray and rainy day was not the best setting for a walking tour! The walk is postponed until Friday and we all had a free afternoon.
We were unable to reserve a classroom on the University of Westminster campus for any of our class days, so we've been having class in odd places. The first time we had class in a nearby park, the second in the hall's common room, and this time in the kitchen of the 19th floor, where some of us are living.
I spent the afternoon reading Selling Olga, a study of human trafficking in Europe. We're visiting the headquarters of Anti-slavery International, one of the oldest non-profit, social justice organizations in the world, so the books is meant to give us a background on the practices of human trafficking going on today. The books is a fascinating, if depressing read; after reading so many historical texts relating to feminist issues, I think its really good that we're dealing with a more contemporary issue that disproportionately affects women.
On a cheerier note, Anna and I bought a six pack of chocolate mousse from Tesco's for 78p. We were super excited.
Yum.
We were unable to reserve a classroom on the University of Westminster campus for any of our class days, so we've been having class in odd places. The first time we had class in a nearby park, the second in the hall's common room, and this time in the kitchen of the 19th floor, where some of us are living.
I spent the afternoon reading Selling Olga, a study of human trafficking in Europe. We're visiting the headquarters of Anti-slavery International, one of the oldest non-profit, social justice organizations in the world, so the books is meant to give us a background on the practices of human trafficking going on today. The books is a fascinating, if depressing read; after reading so many historical texts relating to feminist issues, I think its really good that we're dealing with a more contemporary issue that disproportionately affects women.
On a cheerier note, Anna and I bought a six pack of chocolate mousse from Tesco's for 78p. We were super excited.
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| From Feminist London July 13 |
Yum.
Feminist London - Day 10
Sadly, there will be no pictures today because I completely forgot to bring my camera!
Today we had another big museum day and went to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Since we were all so tired from yesterday's big museum day, we went out and got waffles and ice cream for breafast, so we'd have sustenance throughout the day! We didn't meet as a group, but Dr. Smith had us all go and see the Rokeby Venus by Velazquez. In 1914, a woman who was part of the British women's suffrage movement took an axe to it as a form of protest. When I went to see the painting, I was surprised by how hard it was to detect the damage that she had done; the museum had repaired it so well that the cut marks looked just like the normal cracks in the painting.
I found the Portrait Gallery to be a bit dull, but really enjoyed the paintings of the Tudor period. The more modern paintings were also much more interesting to me, as they were painted in an (obviously) more modern and experimental style, but there was a whole lot in between to slog through.
Class day tomorrow!
Today we had another big museum day and went to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Since we were all so tired from yesterday's big museum day, we went out and got waffles and ice cream for breafast, so we'd have sustenance throughout the day! We didn't meet as a group, but Dr. Smith had us all go and see the Rokeby Venus by Velazquez. In 1914, a woman who was part of the British women's suffrage movement took an axe to it as a form of protest. When I went to see the painting, I was surprised by how hard it was to detect the damage that she had done; the museum had repaired it so well that the cut marks looked just like the normal cracks in the painting.
I found the Portrait Gallery to be a bit dull, but really enjoyed the paintings of the Tudor period. The more modern paintings were also much more interesting to me, as they were painted in an (obviously) more modern and experimental style, but there was a whole lot in between to slog through.
Class day tomorrow!
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