London: The Pros and Cons.

Well folks, here is the part of the trip I tell you what I LOVED about living in London for two months, and what I absolutely will not miss a bit. 

Firstly, on a positive note... I loved: 

1. Public transport: you can literally get from one end of the city to the other in no time. All while saving your carbon footprint on the earth. 

2. The weather: I personally adore fall temperatures, and here, it's been like that almost every day. A little rain here and there, sunny most of the week, and then cloudy breezy fall days. It has been wonderful! (but make sure you pack correctly)

3. The tea, obviously. Who does tea better than the Brits?

4. The museums: I swear the British did good when they plundered the world of national treasures because the museums here are absolutely jam-packed with amazing artifacts. I have spent more time in the museums here than I have spent doing anything else. There are such a vast array of museums tailored to such different themes and I am sincerely going to miss having something to enthrall me all the time. 

5. The music and dance scene: Even though house emerged in America first, Britain surely turned it into something way better: dubstep! I will probably miss this aspect of nightlife THE most, because I LOVE to dance more than anything, and here you have class A dance halls in al the cool boroughs: Shoreditch, Liverpool, Camden, you name it, they've got a fabulous club. 

6. The infusion and importance of the British youth cultures within every aspect of daily life: from the mods, to the punks, glam rock, rave scene, and now flash mobbers, the Brits have the richest youth cultural history and there are literally traces of its past everywhere you look. Not to mention the Brits take the histories of these youth cultures as national patriotic heritage, imbuing their modern culture with the flavor of past youth rebellion. It gives this city such a lively spirit!

Things I will certainly NOT miss: 

1. All the pushing and shoving. And lack of patience, politeness, and kindness in general. The Brits are brutal. Enough said. 

2. The food: I cannot wait for Panera. Over here, your cheap 'faster food' consists of Prets, Costa Coffees, Cafe Nero's, and McDonalds. Not very appetizing or healthy. 

3. Taking classes! YAY!

4. The small quarters. Elyse and I basically slept in the same bed... despite being in our own twin beds. 

5. The police and ambulance sirens: you think American sirens are annoying, just come over here and take a listen. Not to mention, they happen every second. 

6. The insanity over the royal family: I'm sorry. I just don't care about royalty. 

It has been such an amazing experience and I am so thankful to have gotten the chance to see and do all I have! 

Bye all, and see you back in the States! 

High Tea Farewell Event

Today, the IES program planned a farewell event for us to Fortnum and Mason for a legitimate high tea. It was beyond adorable. Apparently, this place is pretty high class, seeing as our tea was in fine china, and we were on the 'penthouse' floor of the building. Outlandish I tell you! 

Exterior sign: glam.

My meal: so much sugar in so many small pastries. 

The gals: me, Elyse, Jory, and Anna! 

Can we all just appreciate the fact that Jory has a fascinator on.. :) 

The whole table! 

Jenna! 

The entrance to the first floor of food and tea. 

Anna, Elyse, and Kristen, Jenna's sister. 

Cheers Manresa Road! It's been a wonderful time. 

-xox-

My last few days in merry ol' England...

Hello and farewell! I am heading out of London tomorrow morning bright and early. So I have been making the most of my British time the past couple of days. 

Last night, because I'm such an oh so cultured European now, I went to a beautiful classical music show at St. Martin's in the Fields at Trafalgar. The orchestra played Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel- beautiful! Not to mention at candle light.. however, Jory and I kind of took the cheap route, and only bought 10L tickets, seeing as the show was for listening anyway... here was our view! : )

It was a truly beautiful Anglican church, and we realllly got to see how beautiful the pulpit was... ; ) 

Plaster ceiling: so much detail, even though you cannot see it in this photo! 

We had really fun foreign ladies next to us who kept making us move down further, because the "old people" next to them kept telling them they were crowding their space. Stuffy British old people. 

After the show, Jory and I walked around London at night. We did this for two reasons: 

number one- zero crazy tourists walking into you constantly 

number two- we hadn't seen the sights lit up! It was a beautiful warm night, ideal for a stroll, and we got such great shots. 

Clock Tower and Parliament. 

Clock Tower and partial Eye. 

I LOVE this shot because the cars are moving and everything is so infused with light despite it being really dark outside. 

Jory and I outside of Westminster!

Westminster- the point where Kate Middleton walked in to become Princess Kate. 

River stroll... that was soon interrupted by a crazy police speedboat chase. It was AWESOME! I wish I had grabbed a photo of the police boat- it was hilarious- straight out of a movie. 

Then we came across the memorial for the Battle of Britain. This long bronze carved wall commemorated those who participated in the battle- it was beautiful. So many different figures had been carved into this one memorial!

Then today, I FINALLY got to see the Tracey Emin exhibit. If you aren't familiar with who Tracey Emin is, just picture a really angry deranged pro-female sexually liberated woman who makes the craziest art out of blankets, found objects, and neon lights. She's extremely vulgar, extremely sexual, and had been extremely abused, so it's fair to say her art represents all of her experiences. It was so outrageous on so many different levels. Since we couldn't take photos in the exhibit, here are some I had:

After that ravishing experience, Jory and I just walked around the Southbank, taking pictures of the setting up of the VINTAGE festival, which I am so bummed I am missing. The Vintage festival is basically this HUGE party for three days (Fri-Sat-Sun) in retro style. The National Gallery is turned into a huge retro shin dig, with areas sectioned off based on era: 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and up to the present day. From food to music to clothing, everything is transformed based on the era it is representing. However, tickets were 60 L...per night.... and that was the student price. Oh well, it still would have been fun! : ) Here are some shots of the surroundings that will soon be the Vintage festival.

"dayyyyyy tripppaa" 

This Beatles song, according to my Professor Richard, was written about the fans of 60's music that just "rode" the fashions and fads for fun, instead of being a true part of the culture, who were called "faces."

Then we saw some really awesome painted buses! 

This one was FULL of shtuff! Really interesting! 

-xox-

Brighton!

Last Sunday, my program took a trip to Brighton, the seaside town at the bottom of the country. I was required to go as a part of my British Youth Culture class, but anyone from the program could have attended. It was an all day ordeal, but very much worth it! 

I sat with Elyse on the bus, and two of our guy friends, Eric and Phil (Eric goes to Michigan) are roommates as well, but we think they might be something more...(not really, ;D) They are so cute and are always hugging, slash talking to each other, slash are in everrryyy single photo together. They really aren't gay, they just are the best of friends, and it's pretty adorable. 

Here is a classic bromance shot of the duo below: Phil sleeping on Eric's shoulder, awwwwwwww! 

NOW, Brighton! We had the sunniest, most beautiful day to walk around for! It was amazing!

Beach, even though it is mostly rocks and shells, it is still beautiful.

The pier. 

...closer.

Where you get THE BEST fish and chips!

Carousel. On the Beach. Right.

So because I was there for my class, our group took a separate tour with our professor, Richard, who showed us all the hot spots and cultural niches of the city. This particular spot, a hostel called the Grapevine wasn't particularly important, other than for the fact that they used the 'mod' target in their advertising sign. This target is the ultimate symbol of the mod era and has really been capitalized in Britain in 'selling' youth culture, almost as a commodity, as something cool to associate yourself with. Before in the late 50's through late 60's, the mods caused one of the most hyped moral panics of Britain's history, and now this youth culture is glorified and romanticized to sell business and culture as commodity. That's consumerism at it's finest. 

Alice in Wonderland boutique. Brighton is not only known for its awesome seaside party life, but also for it's non-tourist antique and vintage boutique-ing. There were stores upon stores of legit vintage, winding streets with graffiti, and awesome food. I wish we could have stayed the whole weekend.

James Brown in Britain: AMERICA CONQUERS!

Run DMC!

Real Banksy. Awesome!

The Asian Palace at Brighton- it's outrageous! It is huge and completely decorated within the Chinese culture. I didn't really care for it, that's why this picture is very bad, but I did buy a post card if anyone wants to see how it really looks. 

And lastly, to end our journey through Brighton's finest, a picture of how our bus ride home went: 

Eric and Phil sharing their iPod and dancing to music together, awwwwwwwww! 

They are too cute. 

-xox-