Weekend in Bruges and Ghent!

This weekend, I went to Belgium with my art history class! We are studying Renaissance art in Florence and Flanders, so this trip was heavy on the history and art, luckily for me!

We left St. Pancras station at around 9am on Friday morning, getting into Bruges (after a train switch in Bruselles (sp?) at around 1pm. We went to a hostel called Le Passage at the west end of the city. Then, we went to a private viewing at the Groeninge Museum, where we got to look at lots of paintings up close and personal. An exhibit was in the works, so many of the paintings didn't have glass covering them, and one huge Jan van Eyck painting was leaning against the wall. I got to sit right next to it, which apparently is something few art historians ever get to do!

Saturday was a busy day. We started out with a walking tour of the city, including checking out the Markt and the Burg. A great fast food option in Bruges turned out to be fries (do NOT say "French fries"... locals are very touchy about French culture in Belgium...) For lunch, me and some friends checked out a fry stand, and I got mine with curry ketchup which was phenomenal. We sat in the Markt square and basked in the sunlight while eating fries. After lunch, we went to the Church of Our Lady to see Michaelangelo's "Bruges Madonna and Child" which is one of the few Michaelangelo sculptures outside of Italy. Then, we went to the Memling Museum which is housed in the old St. Jaan's Hospitaal. Forrest and I went to Bruges last summer, so a lot of this was redundant, but it was fun being with an art professor who knew a lot of information pertaining to what we were looking at.

Saturday night was a night I'm sure I'll never forget. It started out with me and a few girlfriends going to "BRAS", which is a bar that played terrible techno music. It was pretty quiet, though we witnessed a barfight and subsequent police intervention at the bar next door. Some other Grinnellians and Oberliners showed up at BRAS and they wanted to go to a club across town next to the Bauhaus Hotel. We all ended up going, and it was pretty dead when we got there. One of the girls proceeded to get really drunk and had to be taken care of. At this point, though, me being the ridiculous person I am, I had introduced myself to some 20-something Belgian locals, Janna, Christoph, Pieter and Andrew. When the rest of the Grinnellians and Oberliners left at around midnight, I decided to bite the bullet and stay, considering my new Belgian friends told me that clubs usually don't start getting busy until 1am.

I had THE BEST time. These Belgians were so incredibly nice to me. They spoke in English the whole time for my benefit, and they bought me drinks. It was super cool to see nightlife from the perspective of a local. The music got progressively better and the club definitely filled up. I had a great time dancing and hanging out and didn't end up leaving the club 'til (Mom, skip this part) 4:30am! Bruges is a very safe and well-lit city, so I decided to walk back to the hostel alone. I definitely felt safe, and communing with the belfry tower in Markt square was pretty cool.

So, after 3 hours of sleep I got up and went with the group to Ghent, or "hent" as the locals pronounce it. The train ride was about half an hour, and once we got to Ghent we did a little sightseeing, grabbed some lunch (fries again!) and then went to St. Bavo's Cathedral to see Jan van Eyck's "Ghent Altarpiece", which was seriously incredible. Then we got on the train back to London!

I DID take pictures like my mom told me to, but my camera's low on battery right now and it takes a while to charge, so if you want to see pictures, try checking Facebook in a day or two.

an okay play, paper, mOdErN ArT, brits, pizza

Busy week!

Tuesday night I went to see "The Pitman Painters", a play based on a true story, in which miners enroll in an art course and begin painting pictures, only to confront the issues of class that lie embedded in the institution of ART. I enjoyed the play: it was mercifully short and the dialogue was witty. All in all a lovely performance.

Most of my week was consumed with writing my first PAPER for my four-credit black culture course. To give you an idea, I titled it: "The Black Death: Racial Politics of Disease". Basically, I wanted to explore the ways in which racism is perpetuated within the context of modern medicine. This was prompted by a classroom discussion in which myself and an Oberlin student argued about blood donation. In the U.S. (not sure about the U.K.), men who have sex with men aren't allowed to donate blood, and neither are people from Africa or people who have had sex with someone from Africa. I understand that statistically it makes sense, especially in the context of HIV/AIDS, but they check all the blood anyway before it gets used in transfusions. I'll give you a verbatim quote from this particular discussion, courtesy of this Oberlin ignoramus: "Whose blood would you want, a white person's or a black person's?" What?!?!?! WHAT?!?!?! I seriously couldn't believe my ears. Fortunately, another professor told me today that my academic advisor (and the professor of this black culture course) commented on the debate and basically said that I did a good job using facts and information, whereas this Oberlin dude just got really emotional. I think he fell for the trap I set when I said, "Statistics aren't real: they're completely fabricated." Ha.

Anywho, I also visited the Tate Modern this week! SUUUUPER cool stuff in there. I really enjoyed the Picasso's, and I saw Monet's "Waterlillies" and a Rothko. It's kind of a haul to get there, but I'm sure I'll be going back a few more times this semester. Last night, I went out on the town with some true-blue Brits I met a couple weekends ago. They're older and they all have jobs and stuff, but it was cool to hang out with authentic brits. We went to a dance club called "The Roxy", which played great music. Of course, this was a Wednesday night, so I felt it a little this morning, having to be in class at 8:45am... oh well. You're only young once!

Today was packed full of classes, but my friend Claire (from Oberlin) and I went to get PIZZA after history class. We went to a place called Pizza Express, and it was surprisingly upscale. We got a pizza with spinach, goat cheese, onions and balsamic vinegar and another with chicken, jalapeno and red peppers and chili oil. SO good. We cut the two pizzas in half and each had half of each variety. We were starving and definitely ate ALL the pizza.

Tomorrow, it's off to BRUGES for the weekend for my Renaissance art course. I feel kind of pretentious because I've been to Bruges already, so I won't be getting the look of wide-eyed wonder that I'm sure most everyone else will. It's a lovely city, though, and I'm looking forward to checking out all the amazing art!

A better play, Oxford, Oxford Circus, dancing at discos

The second half of this past week was much better than the first half. Wednesday night, we saw Troilus and Cressida at the Globe, and we got to stand in the pit. Three hours is a long time to be standing, and it was pretty cold right under the open roof, but I thought it was great. I was trying to imagine myself as a lowly peasant in Elizabethan England, and how this would have been the primary source of entertainment. Shakespeare's plays are so amazing to see being performed. I remember being in high school and having to read the plays, and while I enjoyed them because I'm a huge nerd, other students didn't really like them. There's something about hearing the lines being spoken in an active context that just makes the plays that much more interesting.

Thursday was my busy day of classes, and Friday I went on a field trip with the neuroscience class (I'm not actually IN the neuroscience class, I just wanted to come along for the ride) to OXFORD! What an amazing town. The whole place is built upon the premise of academic pursuits, which sounds perfect to someone like me. We went on a 2 hour walking tour of the city, and our tour guide was affiliated with one of the colleges of Oxford University, so she new a lot about the academic side of the city. We got to go into all these college quads and dining halls... it was spectacular. I certainly wouldn't mind doing some post-graduate study or even teaching at Oxford, and the tour guide said that a lot of Americans come to Oxford for those things. While in Oxford, I lunched at a pub called The Eagle and Child, where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to drink and discuss their work. They left notes written on the wall in the Rabbit Room, clearly in various states of intoxication. I definitely got a sense of history just sitting there. It was so atmospheric in that pub, and thankfully there weren't too many tourists. I had a steak and ale pie and it was incredible. Also in Oxford, I explored Blackwell's, which is a book shop that caters mostly to students. Their underground room is apparently the largest room of books for sale in the UK! There were so many sections... History, Biology, Metaphysics. Super cool.

Saturday I mostly bummed around and tried to start this paper for my Black Atlantic class. Midway through I decided to hit up the shopping district in Oxford Circus. It WAS A CIRCUS. Saturday is apparently a big shopping day here, and there were a surprising number of tourists for it being so late in September. I checked out the major stores, H&M and Urban Outfitters, but didn't find anything phenomenal. I then ducked into a little hole-in-the-wall store and found the COOLEST faux-leather jacket. It was pretty inexpensive, and most Londoners have some variation of this jacket, so I felt justified. Don't want to look like a turista, right?

Saturday night I went out with some Oberlin friends. My flat-mates had a "cocktail party" here, but I had already made plans. We met up for a drink at the Oberlin flat and went to this bar/club called The Den in SoHo. There was a pretty ridiculous cover-charge, but once we got in we stayed until around 2am, so I think it was worth it. I still have yet to figure out the club scene, because it seems like most places I go on the weekend I'm the youngest person there. Not that these clubs are packed with old guys, just that they're all late-twenties, early-thirties. Where are all the students?! It was a fun night, though. Pretty low-key, except for the married guy that kept pestering me and my friends!

Tomorrow I don't have class, so I'm thinking of making a day of museums and hitting up the Tate Modern, which I haven't been to yet! Gotta love the free admission to all these amazing museums!

The worst play, rain, vegan buffet, blue boots.

I should preface this post by letting you know that all plays/field trips I write about are FREE (or rather, are included in the tuition costs for the semester). I'm so thankful to be getting all these opportunities to do things without spending a fortune!

Monday night, I went to the Royal National Theatre for a performance of Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage and Her Children". I can confidently say that this was the worst production of any play I've ever been to. I left during intermission - something I've never done before. I love art and am genuinely interested in seeing art performed, even if I'm not in love with it. I seriously couldn't stomach this performance. The play is set in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), though Brecht was writing in the 1930s. This play is strongly anti-war and anti-fascism, which I appreciated, but a central element of the play really bothered me. Brecht is considered to be an innovator of theatre because of his development of "Verfremdungseffekt", literally "alientation" or "distancing effect". As a result, the audience is not supposed to identify with any of the characters, and this particular post-modern production made sure the audience was fully aware, the entire time, that they were watching a play. Mother Courage is a nasty character who benefits from the war and says things like, "There's no point in keeping one's principles during war." Ultimately, all her three children die as a result of the war, so we're supposed to feel sorry for her on some level, but she was a nasty character. I'm sure I might have appreciated this production more had I read the play first, but going into it blind was terrible.

On Tuesday, I had my first experience with London rain! It rained ALL day, and at times it was coming down really hard. I noticed that it is harder to get around when it rains. I never noticed how uneven the sidewalks and streets are here, but the water tends to pool in these deep and wide puddles, causing major pedestrian traffic flow issues. After class, I decided that since I hadn't eaten much all day, that I'd try the vegan buffet that's right near my flat on Euston Road. I'm not a vegan, and although I'm not a vegetarian anymore, I can definitely appreciate the food. It was SUPER delicious and very inexpensive for an all-you-can-eat place, although I was a little disappointed that none of the dishes nor the twenty-odd dishes of sauces were labeled. Oh well, it was definitely a culinary adventure.

Today, I woke up late and, since I don't have class, decided to procrastinate doing my homework and instead Googled the best thrift stores in London. The one I chose to visit is called the Three Pound Shop over in Notting Hill. Once I got myself there, I spent a good hour and a half digging through huge bins of clothes, books, troll dolls, etc. Even better than advertised, all clothes and shoes only cost 2 pounds, so I ended up leaving with a cute, vintage tee-shirt and a pair of the most amazing, buttery blue leather knee-high boots I've ever seen. The inside label says they were handmade in Italy. Even better, they're completely broken in and in great condition! When they were new, these shoes probably cost $200 or $300, and I got them for about $4. I LOVE thrift stores!

Tonight, I'm going to see Troilus and Cressida at the Globe, which I think will be a better experience than Monday's theatre-going disappointment!

Southwark, Tower, Parliament, Borough Market

Yikes! Sorry for the hiatus. I think it's safe to assume that if there is a long period of time in which I don't write, I'm very busy. Such was the case this past week.

This weekend involved very early day trips around London. Friday morning I woke up at around 7am and went down to the Thames to meet my history class for a morning walking tour of Southwark, the area on the south side of the river where a lot of the theatres (including the Globe) are located. The most summary thing I can tell you about Southwark is that it was, and in some ways continues to be, the "bohemian" part of London; back in the day, the brothels and theatres set up shop there, and there seemed to be a kind of coexistence between the government proper on the north side of the river and the artists/vagabonds that ran things on the south side.

After lunch in a pub called The Old King's Head, we walked over the bridge to the Tower of London. Originally, it was a palace called Whitehall. Henry VIII relocated there from Westminster Palace. It's said to be one of the most secure palaces. In the fortress, I saw the chapel, where Anne Boleyn is buried, as well as an exhibit called "Dressed to Kill", which displayed a huge collection of Henry VIII's armor. It was funny to see his progression from fat to fatter as the years went on. Of course, I saw the crown jewels. They were... sparkly. One of the scepters has set in it the largest diamond in the world. I believe it's called the First Star of Africa. Seriously, it was the size of an egg. I suppose what I took away from this experience is just the level of tradition inherent in the British government. I was trying to imagine Obama (or any U.S. president for that matter) being coronated. There is so much symbolism. For example, the display showed film footage of Elizabeth II being coronated in the 1950s, and it's so interesting to listen to what all these people are saying to her as they're handing her orbs and scepters and mantles and swords... "Protect the Empire"... it was kind of a trip.

Saturday was another early start. We all met at Parliament to go on a walking tour. Very informative and very interesting. I saw the chamber of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and again thought it was telling that the tour guide commanded us "not to sit down" in either chamber. As we are not elected officials, it would not do for us to sit in their places. I did find it interesting that the term "lobby" developed here: any British citizen can walk into the lobby of Parliament and request, in writing, for their representative in Parliament to speak to them about any matter. If that MP is in the building, he or she must come to the lobby and speak to their constituent. Imagine trying to do that in Washington!

After the tour ended, I headed south of the river again to explore the Borough Market. This market is open Thursday through Saturday and features miles of food, clothing and knickknack vendors. I was hungry, so decided to sample some British fare. I purchased a pork pie, and quickly realized my mistake. Imagine a cold hunk of porkchop wrapped in a sticky puff pastry. After checking out some of the free samples (these included sheep's milk cheese, pate, garlic pesto, white and black truffle oil, and a lot of Spanish chorizo), I stumbled upon a kangaroo and ostrich burger stand. Having tried a bite of a friend's ostrich burger once before, I decided upon the kangaroo burger, slathered with homemade mustard and other trimmings. It was really delicious, although one of my vegetarian flatmates took offense when I told her, because apparently kangaroos are really intelligent animals. I told her everyone should try everything once. She disagreed.

Plays, Classes, Pub Crawl, New Friends, ART

Second week of classes and things are already starting to heat up! Yesterday I handed in my first written assignment (alright, so it was only one page long..) for my black culture course. I wrote it on the shift from race-consciousness to class-consciousness in 18th century Britain. As it was so short, I didn't have time to delve into the topic, but basically it interested me that working class white London actually supported runaway slaves instead of conforming to the aristocratic slaveholders' ideas and practices.

Monday night I went to see a play called "Arcadia", which was written by Tom Stoppard and is about the events that unfold in the same house, but at different times. One story is set in the 1800s and the other is set in 2009. Basically, it was a comment/satire on academia and on the nature of knowledge. Very funny, but it went on a bit too long for my tastes. Tonight, I'm going to see Shakespeare's "As You Like It" at the Globe Theatre!

So, after a long day of classes yesterday, me and some cool girls from Oberlin decided to get dinner and go out for drinks, as none of us have class on Wednesday. We went to this cool pub and I ordered British beef lasagne which was SO good, and went perfectly with my pint of Fuller's, which is a London ale that's hand-pumped. After dinner, we strolled down the street to "The College Arms", a student-y bar, where I tried Aspall's cider. So good! It was nice to hang out with some different people, and these girls are definitely a lot more my type than some of the other people on the program. It reminded me of hanging out with friends from Grinnell.

Today, I woke up and did the usual roll-out-of-bed-and-down-the-street-to-Starbucks routine, read some magazines and then decided to head to the National Gallery to get a start on my Renaissance art journal. For the class, 50% of our grade is determined by a journal we craft that is based on one piece of art from the period. I chose "The Arnolfini Portrait" by Jan van Eyck, so I spent the afternoon looking terribly like an art student, taking notes and looking at the painting. Afterwards, I went and saw Van Gogh's "Sunflowers", and "A Wheatfield, with Cypresses", as well as some Seurat and Monet. Lovely, lovely afternoon. Afterwards, I people-watched for a bit in (where else?) Trafalgar Square.

Greenwich, Burritos/Ecuatorianas/Mexicanos, Mayhem

Yesterday we were up quite early for a boat ride down the Thames to Greenwich. The driver, though not officially a tour guide, knew a lot about the river and the ways in which it has defined London over the centuries. We saw all the bridges, the old wharf warehouses, and a boat full of drunk footballers... all before 10am!

At Greenwich, I went with group of Grinnellians that I hadn't spent much time with to the Greenwich Market. So cool! It had a bazaar-type feel, with all sorts of ethnic food, as well as little street vendors selling handmade goods, etc, etc. For lunch, I befriended a woman from Ecuador and a man from Mexico working at a burrito stall. I got to speak to them in Spanish, which was a lot of fun, and they made me the most outrageous burrito I've ever had. Seriously.

We wandered around the market for about an hour, during which I also discovered a guy selling books he wrote telling the history of ancient Rome, only the protagonists were CATS! The titles included: "The Adventures of Spartipuss," "Catligula," etc. So cute. I bought a little canvas tote bag from him that features an interpretation of his own cat, Bleep.

Determined to actually see some things of historical relevance, we went to the National Maritime Museum, which is also free to get into. They had some pretty interesting exhibits, but by FAR the coolest item they had was Admiral Nelson's coat that he wore during the Battle of Trafalgar, and it actually has the bullet hole clearly visible in the jacket from the bullet that killed him. After the museum, we wandered up to the observatory in search of the prime meridian. Pretty anti-climactic, considering it's pretty much just a gilded gold line in the ground, but it was cool to see.

After the boat ride back, we hung around the flat for a bit before my flat-mates decided to go on a quest for Buckfast, a fortified, caffinated WINE. Ewww! However, we are all in agreement that we should try it. What we learned: 1. Buckfast is nowhere to be found in London, apparently it's more frequently found in northern England and Ireland. 2. When Buckfast is mentioned to the locals, they cringe and ask why we're looking for "that rubbish". After the failed quest, everyone came back here and we had a little party. We invited the other Grinnell students and some Oberlin kids and hung around, listened to music and bonded. At around 11:30, we decided to set out in search of a disco right by our flat, called the Social. We found it alright, and the place was SO much fun. The music was great and there weren't too many people, and we danced until the place closed at around 1am. Suffice to say, we'll definitely be going back there again!

Classes, Cheese Balls, War Horse, Trafalgar, Street Food

It's amazing how much happens around here in just two days. Yesterday, (Thursday) I had my three classes, but my art and history courses took place outside the classroom. That seems like it's generally going to be the schedule, at least for those two courses. For the art class, we went to the National Gallery where we looked at some Flemish and Italian altarpieces from the Renaissance. In passing, we saw the Arnolfini portrait, that really famous painting of the solemn man and his pregnant wife. That was pretty cool. Then, we went on our first walk for the History of London class. We started right near the Tower of London, and we saw part of the original Roman wall. London was founded in about 50 A.D. by the Romans, so we're starting that far back. We looked at all sorts of historical markers, plaques and things from Roman times, and it was sort of fun wandering through London with a very knowledgable professor. It's very true that you can't walk down any street in London without walking through centuries of history!

After class, some friends and I went out for dinner before a play. We found this random Dutch pancake house that serves these GIANT pancakes. I opted for fried cheese balls that came with the most outrageous mustard ever. And of course, a pint of Heineken. After dinner we went to the New London Theatre to see a performance of "War Horse", which is adapted from a book that describes the first world war through the eyes of a horse. It was unbelieveable! They used these complicated puppets for horses and animals, and the effect was incredible. Here's the web address of a YouTube trailer if you're curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bni4QqSv4

Today, I didn't have any classes, so I woke up late, tottled on down to Starbucks for the usual, then decided I wanted to hang out more in Trafalgar Square, so I went by myself. They're having some sort of festival there this weekend, so it was crowded and there were these little tents everywhere. After a bit, I walked down Queen's Way toward Buckingham Palace, then back through The Green Park, which was lovely. It was nice to see all the Londoners hanging out in the park, just enjoying the greenery. On the final stretch home, tummy-a-rumbling, I decided to stop in at one of the sketchy little buffet places on Euston Road. For "take-away", the price was only 4 pounds, so I tried some crispy lamb, some teriyaki chicken, some vegetable noodles, and some fried squid. Very tasty! Tonight's looking pretty low-key; we have to be up early tomorrow because the group is going via ferry to Greenwich for a little day trip. Should be fun!

In general, I feel like I'm adjusting pretty well to "city life". I don't feel quite as tired at the end of the day, anymore. I'm missing my friends quite a bit, but I'm enjoying being in a big city. I'm beginning to realize just how capable I am of getting around (unlike some of the other students on the trip). It's actually been a little difficult having to live with other American students, just because I am such an independent spirit and enjoy exploring on my own. How do you tell someone nicely that you'd rather they not come with you somewhere? It sounds kind of harsh, but I'm constantly worried that this experience is going to be more like extended summer camp. I try to be in the flat as little as possible, but sometimes it seems like that's all my fellow students want to do... just "hang out" at home. No thanks!

Errands, .75p doughnuts

No classes today, which meant me waking up at noon and rolling out of bed and down the street to $tarbuck$ for a vanilla latte (surprisingly-not-too-expensive) and a little homework. After the noon-time rush, I headed down to the teaching site to get tickets for a few upcoming plays, to get a course book for my History of London class, and to go to the post office.

On the way home, I stopped at a street vendor to look for a messenger bag (I have a couple really heavy books) and ended up getting a cute, grey canvas bag for 10 pounds. Not bad. Also, Sainsbury's tempted me as I was on the last block home. They have these raspberry jam- and custard-filled doughnuts there for the shockingly low price of .75pence for 5 doughnuts. Suffice to say, I picked up a box. YUM.

First Day of Classes, More Wagamama

Today was jam-packed! My schedule is such that I have all three of my classes on Tuesday's and Thursday's, but no classes on Monday's and Wednesday's! So today I had "The Black Atlantic" from 8:45-10am, "The Early Renaissance in Florence and Flanders" from 1:45-3pm, and "History of London" from 4:30-6pm. Very busy, but also not terribly exciting considering that the first day of class usually just deals with logistics, anyway.

In between my first two classes, I hopped over to Wagamama's for NOODLES ROUND II: this time I tried the chicken ramen, which was, again, outrageously good. I'm quite tired after running around and being in class all day. My flat-mates and I are having a movie night tonight! And tomorrow is going to involve laundry and homework. It feels good to be back into the swing of some kind of schedule, though. I was beginning to feel like I was in limbo; being in a new city but not really having a concrete routine.