Day Forty Six: I'll Tell You About Wales Tomorrow

I spent my whole weekend in Wales. It was a fantastic weekend and I have decided that I may have gone to the wrong country from my studies, haha. Wales is beautiful (in more ways than one), exciting, historical and I am so very proud that it is part of my heritage. I am too exhausted to write about my adventurous weekend, including castles, coalmines and monasteries, but I promise you that tomorrow I will tell you all about it. I also promise that you will want to experience the great land of Wales for yourself, especially you Jones family!

Till Tomorrow!

Day Forty Five: Rollercoaster of a Day

I woke up really early so that I could creative writing homework before class, turns out there was none but I could not fall back asleep. I laid in bed for an hour and then went off to class. Class was great today, I really like the students in my creative writing classes, as much as I complain about the workload. I got sorted on all the work I have to accomplish, basically over 1,700 words are due for four different assignments which i have to have completed in two weeks. Keep in mind that I am in Wales this weekend, hopefully getting into London on many of the few days before I head off to Norway next weekend (!!!) and then I go back to class. So, I am going to have to get organized.

I had another, 'you're american?' experience today. In class she was checking our assignments, and could not read a word because I spelled it wrong. I told her what it was, and the boy next to me said, "well, it's fair enough, english isn't your first language so really your doing great." I looked at him and he continued, "your from Denmark right." I could not help but laugh right in his face, which became very red as I said, "I am from New York." At least he knew there was a state of New York, hahahahahah. Ladies and Gentleman, I am now from Denmark. I am not sure whether to take it as a compliment, as I apparently seem European, or an insult, as he said that English was not my first language. Oh man, great times. I am making good friends in that class, so that is a lot of fun.

After class I went to the library with one of my new friends and we rented a book that was highly recommended by a fellow classmate, and American! I found one in the class I thought was all English, he never spoke in the beginning. I have that now to read in my travels to Norway and Wales.

My later afternoon was not so hot, I had a little trouble with college issues, and I became very upset. It was quickly remedied when some other new friends came over tonight for dinner. I did not even know they had arrived because I had fallen asleep on them, don't worry though because Allie played host.

We had a very nice dinner which Allie quickly put together; pasta, roasted veggies and our friends brought a salad. We had a nice time visiting and eating and then we began watching Harry Potter. My friend Ruthie apperntly knows all the places in London that they filmed/based sets off of/important locations from the Harry Potter. Next week we are going to go on our own, basically free, Harry Potter Tour! I have seen the Great Hall, I have seen the Library and now I will find everything else that is in London for Harry Potter.

That was pretty much my day. I am heading off to Wales tomorrow, as I have mentioned multiple times in this entry, so again I will be going off into my hand written journal. Like Italy I will take snip-its from the journal and share them with you on my blog Monday... or Sunday night depending on where I am.

Love you all! Talk with you when I get back from Wales.

Day Forty Four: A Day not in class but in London

PICTURES: 1) View of the London Eye and the Big Ben. 2) The lion from Trafalgar Square. 3) The fuzzy lights of the blue trees under the London Eye. (THIS TIME I TOOK ALL THE PICTURES!)

Today I had to meet my Visual Arts: An Introduction class at the National Gallery. We were to spend the whole day learning about museums and what jobs you can go into at museums, so needless to day it was right up my alley. I took a lot of notes on the three main jobs they talked about 1) archivist 2) restorer 3) curator. Sad thing is, I think I would be happy with any of those jobs, so it did not really help me pick a particular one out. I guess I will just go into the business and fall where I fall until I really know for sure where I want to end up.

The National Gallery may very well be my new favorite place in the world. Minus the part where it smelled like the Baseball Hall of Fame, that was a funny discovery. I became uneasy in a weird familiar way and I realized that it was the smell. I almost laughed out loud when I recognized the combination and the smell which equaled my reaction every time i went to work at The Baseball Hall of Fame which is apprehension and despair, haha. It was really wonderful walking through the rooms though, I was seeing art work that I have been studying for the last three years! I knew things the other students did not, thanks to Allen Farber, such as all the old paintings being painted on wood.

I was especially excited when on our miniature tour we stopped in front of one of my favorite paintings. I love Rubens and we stood in front of one of his landscape paints, more specifically the one of the estate he bought to retire in. It was more glorious close up, the details, the large size, it was beautiful. I did not even listen to our guide for the first couple of minutes because I was so thrilled to be standing in front of it. Rubens is a fantastic artist. I could go on forever, but I will spare you the details of an art history minor. The rest of the paintings he had us look at where amazing historical and amazingly detailed, it was so great.

Afterwords, we could have wandered around a bit, and we did for a little bit, but I was very overwhelmed with the information we received and being so unexpectedly confronted by paintings I have looked at for years live. I suggested that I was ready to go home. We ended up walking around the city until 7:15ish (???) and then took the train out. So, I guess we walked around for 3 hours after the class trip ended. London is so pretty at night. Oh highlight of the night, I accidentally haggled for sugar covered almonds, haha. I was curious so I went over to ask the man how much they were and he said 2 pounds, a pound less than the other guy, and when I thanks and walked away he goes I'll give them to you for 1.50. Which I decided to take, because I haggled by mistake and I was excited. They were delicious, so it was a good buy, and 2 pounds 50 less than I could have originally paid, haha.

Next week is reading week, so when I get back from Wales (!!!) I am planning on spending that whole week, until I leave for Norway (!!!), in London. I am going to visit the National Gallery and explore it on my terms, the National Portrait Gallery (with an exhibit about the Beatles), I want to do at least one theater trip and I also want to be a tourist and ride around a double-decker take a tour of London Bus. SO, that is my plan.

<3 you!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that we went to one painting that the wood it had been painted on was so rotten and falling apart that they had to restore it. By restore i mean a 20 year process where they took off the wood base piece by piece, splinter by splinter off the oil based painting. Then when they managed to get it all off they put it on an aluminum backing. That is dedication. That is pretty much an entire career. I could do that.

Day Forty Three: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

PICTURE: This is a still from the movie I saw tonight: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (http://www. scifiscoop. com/news /new-photo- from- the-imaginarium- of-doctor- parnassus/)

It was a slow morning of organizing, stomping my foot to get the sound on my TV to work and ... making breakfast. I made a English muffin (CRUMPET!) with an egg (soft yoke), it was delicious. Then i went to class.

Class today, British Life and Culture, was really active today. We had a guest lecturer come in to talk to us about British Theater. It was really interesting. He was an actual actor, but i cannot for the life of me remember his name. He has done television, East Enders for all those who know it. There was one girl in class who was very rude and outspoken, but not in a good way. She was fitting right into the American stereotype and not in the good way. Her generalizations were very rude, so to shut her up a bit I attempted with my own cross fire and argued against her point. I have no idea if it worked, but it made me feel better. The lecture was very good.

After class, and after getting rent, I got a few friends to go out for Pizza and a movie. I have been dying for a pizza, and i really just needed to sit in a theater and watch a good movie for good times sake. The pizza was delicious, we went to the Pizza Express. I got just a simple cheese pizza and it was set up a lot like the ones we got in Italy.

The movie was great we saw The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which i recommend that you all see. Well maybe only the adults, it is not really a kid movie. It was visually stimulating, very beautiful, with constant and many moving pieces. A lot of imagination went into it, and it was very creative with both the storyline and the way it was presented to the audience. I loved it. This is the last movie that Heath Ledger worked on, during filming was when he died. His friends Colin Farrel, Jude Law and Johnny Depp came in to finish the great masterpiece the Heath started. I cannot really explain to you how, because I want you to see for yourself, but they filled in the places that Heath was unable to finish. With the combination between the actual storyline and the behind the scenes storyline the lead message becomes unabashedly clear. The harder to find messages, well I need to see it again to really get it, but they are very clever. Please, you yourself a favor and go see this movie, at least exercise your brain a bit with it. Do not let the visual images scare you from a great movie. (In case you cannot tell, I LOVED this movie). The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Allie and I had a good talk on the way back to our room. I think I am going to go to bed early tonight. I have to wake up to head into London tomorrow morning for class all day. I think I will like it because it is all about working in museums. We are going to the National Gallery, which is in Trafalgar Square.

Good Night, love you all and miss you!
<3

Day Forty Two: Chicken

Today, I ate chicken.

It was a bad day.

Thank God for Wales this weekend.

Day Forty One: Greatttt Day

PICTURE: The two tops guys from TAPS, Jay and Grant. (http://www. realtelevision. net/wp-content/uploads /2008/10/ghost- hunters.jpg)

So today was an awesome day. I cleaned a lot, finished last weeks creative writing homework (haha) and also i learned to amazing things.

ONE: Taps, my absolute favorite ghost hunting show ever, is coming to Cooperstown! There is a Ghost Hunting conference January 8th to the 11th and guess who is stalking it. I cannot afford to go to it, though i bet it would be a lot of fun. They are going to go through the Farmer's Museum and the Feminmore Art Museum (plus a few other locations) and go ghost hunting! Oh man, so exciting. I sent a little twitter message to Grant (one of the lead guys) and asked if there would be a time for the locals to meet him, so we will see what happens.

TWO: One of my best friends in the world just got engaged!!!!! Allison Dutkowsky got engaged to Austin Lipari and they are planning to get married in 2010. I am so unbelievably happy for them, and I am certain they will do very well together! <3

So, 2010 is looking to be a fantastic year! I am going to finish the evening by going to the Albert with Allie (my flatmate not recently engaged) to get brownies and ice cream. AWESOME!

Also: i am ironically watching Taps: Ghost Hunters right now!

Day Forty: I have been in the UK for 40 days....!

Today was interesting and if you know me you will quickly understand why. I spent all of this Sunday being religious, to a point I guess. I woke up at 9 (btw we went back and hour today) and meet my friends Stacie and Erin at a local church which tends to cater to all Christian's and university students. I originally went because i was tired of doing nothing but school work and i really wanted to get entirely immersed into something that was guaranteed to full of mostly British people.

Not having been to church in awhile it left me a lot to think about. I wont go into great detail on here, but basically they touched on a lot of issues that had been bothering me with organized religion. So, that happened.

It was a lot of fun though. There was a sermon and then we went to someone's house and had a free lunch. We talked for a lot of hours and that was really good fun. One kid did not know there was a New York state, he thought it was only the city. It was really funny, cause he kept bringing it up later in conversation because he could not get over it. Priceless. Anyway, there was another service later... which was more of a group thing i guess. I was not really helpful seeing as I am, me i guess, haha. I listened more than I spoke this time. After that we went to a pub... haha, and i got chips (fries) because it was dinner time. I should probably eat something now but... i would have to make it so.

Anyway I enjoyed today a lot. It was nice to get out and about and forget about school work after the last couple of day. Now i have something to do on my Sundays which i will consider more of a brain exercise than a following though. At least until i can settle my own ideas about it. Plus the british boy there were... really cute, haha.

Anyway, that was my day. Day forty here in the UK, i have been here forever!