I realise these posts are becoming more infrequent, but that is simply because there is less and less I feel is relevant to share. The initial lustre of London life has worn off, and I find myself succumbing to routine, as I suppose one does when one lives in a place for longer than a month or two. After I returned from Paris, I was confronted with much reading and paper-writing. Even though the workload is substantially less than even my first semester at Grinnell, it takes quite a bit of effort to get down to work, what with all the distractions of city life.
More recently, we celebrated Thanksgiving here in London. My flatmates and I attended a Thanksgiving service at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was lovely. Normally, one has to pay an entry fee in order to wander around St. Paul's, though it can be avoided by attending a service, which was the initial enticement. That evening, we went to a potluck dinner at our program director/Irish lit professor's house in Chiswick, and it was a really nice, relaxing way to spend Thanksgiving.
Alas, now London is pulling out all the stops for the Christmas season. Starbucks plays a continual loop of jazzed-up holiday tunes, and Oxford Street and Regent Street are both decked out in lights and decor. Christmas trees are beginning to pop up in front of high-end establishments. This is all rather nice, as it gives the comings and goings of life a little bit of sparkle, but it makes me miss home a little bit. My friend Becca is visiting from Granada this weekend, so we had a little soiree here at the flat last night, followed by dancing at the Social. It was really fun, though I think I will be staying in tonight with my flatmates and having a low-key movie night.
Coming up: a five night trip to Ireland with my Irish lit class! We're mostly going to be in Dublin, though we're making some trips to surrounding environs including Tara, the Boyne valley and Newgrange. After we get back, I have only 2 weeks left abroad. I will be going to a Marilyn Manson concert, making a second trip to Hornchurch in search of my great-grandparents, and writing a final paper for Irish lit. I feel things beginning to wind to a close here, and I'm thankful that I will always have these silly blog entries and photos to bring me back to my time here in London. I do miss home, though. There are a lot of things that will be changing for me within the next year and a half... a lot of plans to be made. I'm looking forward to getting started with all that.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Paris (belatedly)
After much foot-dragging and delay, I present MES AVENTURES PARISIENNES:
I woke to the sound of my cell phone alarm at 4:30am Thursday. Ungodly. I had managed to throw some things in my canvas messenger bag the night before, so I only had to stumble to the bathroom, shove a toothbrush in my mouth, and go. Of course, the tube doesn't open til about 5:30am, which is when my train was set to leave from King's Cross/St. Pancras Internat'l. The buses were also apparently in the weird limbo time from when night buses stop and when day buses start, so I had to walk the 1.2 miles down Euston Road. Kind of scary.
BUT I did manage to make it in time for the train, and I proceeded to promptly pass out for the 2.5 hour journey, waking up only to register the misty morning fog of northern France. When I arrived at Gare du Nord, I was a little taken aback. No Parisian vista upon entering the city? Where's the Eiffel Tower? The neighborhood of the train station and my hostel is on the Rive Driote (north side of the Seine), in the 10eme arrondisement. Kind of bleak and built up, but who was I to complain, I was in PARIS.
After locating my hostel and dropping off my bag, I set off on a sightseeing tour of extravagant proportions. I checked out the exterior of the Louvre, rode around the Charles de Gaulle Etoile (where the Arc de Triomphe is) on a public bus at dizzying speeds, stood under the Tour Eiffel, and climbed Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur... all on only a few hours sleep!
The Paris metro was great, though. So much dirtier than the London Underground, with a faint, lingering smell of urine. My dad told me that the Brits, for all their politeness, have zero courtesy on the tube, which I haven't really seen much of, but SACRE BLEU the French are SO rude on the Metro. Literally, sardine city. For three days, it was hysterical, but I think I'd get sick of it really fast if I had to deal with it everyday. I got a three day "Paris Visite" pass, which meant unlimited access on all public transportation in central Paris. Suffice to say, I did a lot of riding around and sightseeing on public buses.
Day two was LOUVRE DAY. For only 9 euro, I was able to see thousands of the old masterpieces (see Facebook for photographic evidence). My favorite memory was wandering around the Napoleon III Apartements at about 9am... because there was NO ONE ELSE THERE. That changed by about 10am, when the place became inundated with tourists of all nationalities. It felt a little like a scavenger hunt, simply because there is SO MUCH to see and not nearly enough time. The Salle de Rembrandt was pretty phenomenal, as was the Sphinx and the Venus de Milo... I could have done without the absurdity of the Mona Lisa... but I did see it!
Day three involved a coffee stop at La Coupole, a famous restaurant/cafe near Montparnasse where the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Lenin, and Trotsky dined and discusses ex-pat things... like Communism. It felt very modern, but I tried to imagine the place as it might have been then. Apparently the food is to die for, but again, I only had a coffee. I also went to La Cimetiere de Pere Lachaise, the largest cemetary in Paris, where TONS of people (famous and otherwise) are buried. Speaking of scavenger hunts, there was a little info map at the main entrance of the cemetary... basically how to locate the graves of famous people. I saw the graves of Chopin, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. Very cool, but kind of creepy as a tourist activity. An early afternoon departure meant my time was cut short, though I did manage to see Notre Dame (but not Sainte Chapelle) before I left.
Paris was lovely, but I think in terms of my city rankings, London is higher. It's cleaner, and the museums are all (mostly) free. Maybe it's the propensity for rebellion that Paris has about its character. I did witness a riot outside the Barbes-Rochechouart metro station, which was a little scary. A great three-day weekend trip, but I don't think I'd want to live there. Getting to speak French was pretty cool, though.
I woke to the sound of my cell phone alarm at 4:30am Thursday. Ungodly. I had managed to throw some things in my canvas messenger bag the night before, so I only had to stumble to the bathroom, shove a toothbrush in my mouth, and go. Of course, the tube doesn't open til about 5:30am, which is when my train was set to leave from King's Cross/St. Pancras Internat'l. The buses were also apparently in the weird limbo time from when night buses stop and when day buses start, so I had to walk the 1.2 miles down Euston Road. Kind of scary.
BUT I did manage to make it in time for the train, and I proceeded to promptly pass out for the 2.5 hour journey, waking up only to register the misty morning fog of northern France. When I arrived at Gare du Nord, I was a little taken aback. No Parisian vista upon entering the city? Where's the Eiffel Tower? The neighborhood of the train station and my hostel is on the Rive Driote (north side of the Seine), in the 10eme arrondisement. Kind of bleak and built up, but who was I to complain, I was in PARIS.
After locating my hostel and dropping off my bag, I set off on a sightseeing tour of extravagant proportions. I checked out the exterior of the Louvre, rode around the Charles de Gaulle Etoile (where the Arc de Triomphe is) on a public bus at dizzying speeds, stood under the Tour Eiffel, and climbed Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur... all on only a few hours sleep!
The Paris metro was great, though. So much dirtier than the London Underground, with a faint, lingering smell of urine. My dad told me that the Brits, for all their politeness, have zero courtesy on the tube, which I haven't really seen much of, but SACRE BLEU the French are SO rude on the Metro. Literally, sardine city. For three days, it was hysterical, but I think I'd get sick of it really fast if I had to deal with it everyday. I got a three day "Paris Visite" pass, which meant unlimited access on all public transportation in central Paris. Suffice to say, I did a lot of riding around and sightseeing on public buses.
Day two was LOUVRE DAY. For only 9 euro, I was able to see thousands of the old masterpieces (see Facebook for photographic evidence). My favorite memory was wandering around the Napoleon III Apartements at about 9am... because there was NO ONE ELSE THERE. That changed by about 10am, when the place became inundated with tourists of all nationalities. It felt a little like a scavenger hunt, simply because there is SO MUCH to see and not nearly enough time. The Salle de Rembrandt was pretty phenomenal, as was the Sphinx and the Venus de Milo... I could have done without the absurdity of the Mona Lisa... but I did see it!
Day three involved a coffee stop at La Coupole, a famous restaurant/cafe near Montparnasse where the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Lenin, and Trotsky dined and discusses ex-pat things... like Communism. It felt very modern, but I tried to imagine the place as it might have been then. Apparently the food is to die for, but again, I only had a coffee. I also went to La Cimetiere de Pere Lachaise, the largest cemetary in Paris, where TONS of people (famous and otherwise) are buried. Speaking of scavenger hunts, there was a little info map at the main entrance of the cemetary... basically how to locate the graves of famous people. I saw the graves of Chopin, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. Very cool, but kind of creepy as a tourist activity. An early afternoon departure meant my time was cut short, though I did manage to see Notre Dame (but not Sainte Chapelle) before I left.
Paris was lovely, but I think in terms of my city rankings, London is higher. It's cleaner, and the museums are all (mostly) free. Maybe it's the propensity for rebellion that Paris has about its character. I did witness a riot outside the Barbes-Rochechouart metro station, which was a little scary. A great three-day weekend trip, but I don't think I'd want to live there. Getting to speak French was pretty cool, though.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Irish lit, Paris
It's been a while since my last post. Things are relatively the same here, though I think I might be getting depressed. I really miss my boyfriend and the weather is turning colder here and all I'm reading about is the damned potato famine.
I am going to Paris tomorrow, though, which I am really excited about. Maybe that will cheer me up. I promise to post lots of pictures here and write more in-depth about what I saw, I just don't feel like I have anything to say right now.
I am going to Paris tomorrow, though, which I am really excited about. Maybe that will cheer me up. I promise to post lots of pictures here and write more in-depth about what I saw, I just don't feel like I have anything to say right now.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
fall break!
The past few days have been WUNDERBAR here in Londontown. I've been exploring various new and exciting neighborhoods around town, watching tons of films, reading, etc.
Yesterday, I went to a few galleries. I saw a polaroid exhibition near Baker Street. The gallery was super-tiny and everything was WHITE in it, which actually was a nice backdrop for the polaroid pictures. I saw four taken by Andy Warhol, and I think my favorites were ones taken in 2008 by a British artist called Mark Quinn. He splashed paint all over his polaroid prints (mostly of eyes turned upside down). I also went to see a Damien Hirst exhibition. Apparently, he is the richest artist in the world, and very rarely does paintings (I think he does more installations and stuff like that). I didn't really enjoy that exhibition, but it was still fun to go. It is being housed in The Wallace Collection, which is in an 18th century house on Manchester Square. It's a family collection, so there were a lot of other neat displays, including portraits, furniture, china, etc.
Last night, I went to see Clouzot's "Les Diaboliques" (1955), which is part of the vintage film season at the PCC. It was really, really amazing. It seemed clear to me that Hitchcock would have probably seen this movie, and there were a lot of techniques that Hitchcock imitated in his later work, including a sort of suspense-building scene involving a bottle of liquor, a glass, and a vase. Going to all these films is really bringing out the film-buff in me; I bought a (kind of campy, cheesy) book of the "501 Must-See Movies". It's defintiely unsophisticated, but it has a ton of movies with information about dates, directors, awards, etc.
Today, I didn't get out the door until about noon, which was really lovely. I stopped by Sainsbury's for 2-for-1 pound croissants, and then at Pret for 99p filter coffee. This is becoming more of a routine for me - I'm really into croissants right now! Perhaps someday I'll learn to make them. After brunch, I went to Camden! Only three stops up the Northern Line leads you into a kitschy, labyrinthine marketplace with A MILLION semi-identical stalls selling everything from hookahs to Doc Martens to latex corsets (what?!) and everything in between. Being the genius that I am, I managed to stumble across a vintage, vaguely Army/Navy store called "What Goes Around." It. Was. Phenomenal. I have generally resigned myself to the notion that London (especially central London) is just ridiculously overpriced and expensive. This store wasn't cheap, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was really high-quality stuff for cheaper than I've seen in any other thrift store. A purchase was made. I'm not sure if I'm ready to talk about it here just yet (though it was under 40 pounds, Mom, I promise). It is beautiful and outrageous and warm and I think it may be in the top-ten of my favorite purchases of all time.
Still giddy with excitement after my purchase, I stumbled out into the market and decided to take the District line WAY East to Hornchurch, to check out the cemetary in which my great-grandparents are buried. My first impression of "East London" was very working-class, and much browner than central London. There were lots of ugly, cinderblock housing complexes that James said the government owns and lets to the working poor and the unemployed. Hornchurch is all the way out in Zone 6, so it took us an hour or so to get out there. It was already beginning to get dark when we got to the cemetary, and a combination of poor grave markings and fast-fading light meant that the cemetary was being locked up for the night before we could find the graves. I will definitely be going back, though, because now I know the general area the two graves are in, and so it will be way easier for me to find my great-grandparents the next time.
This evening, I went to see Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" (1965), starring Catherine Deneuve. This is Polankski's first film in English, and it was really a terrifying film, in my opinion. It basically shows the descent of a beautiful French girl in London into complete madness. The cinematic techniques were great: sound cut-outs at really dramatic moments, disembodied hands coming out of walls... really good. After the film, I came home and had some Earl Grey tea (another new obsession) and watched ANOTHER movie: Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1940). I didn't like this one as much as other Hitchcock films, but it wasn't bad. It was based on a novel by a French author, but I felt that there actually wasn't much STORY being told. Maybe I was just tired...
That's all for now. Tomorrow I'm going walking in the country up on Hampstead Heath, then I'm going to practice my acting skills while conducting a hare-brained social experiment: I'm going speed-dating at a cafe/bar/record store. More details to come...
Yesterday, I went to a few galleries. I saw a polaroid exhibition near Baker Street. The gallery was super-tiny and everything was WHITE in it, which actually was a nice backdrop for the polaroid pictures. I saw four taken by Andy Warhol, and I think my favorites were ones taken in 2008 by a British artist called Mark Quinn. He splashed paint all over his polaroid prints (mostly of eyes turned upside down). I also went to see a Damien Hirst exhibition. Apparently, he is the richest artist in the world, and very rarely does paintings (I think he does more installations and stuff like that). I didn't really enjoy that exhibition, but it was still fun to go. It is being housed in The Wallace Collection, which is in an 18th century house on Manchester Square. It's a family collection, so there were a lot of other neat displays, including portraits, furniture, china, etc.
Last night, I went to see Clouzot's "Les Diaboliques" (1955), which is part of the vintage film season at the PCC. It was really, really amazing. It seemed clear to me that Hitchcock would have probably seen this movie, and there were a lot of techniques that Hitchcock imitated in his later work, including a sort of suspense-building scene involving a bottle of liquor, a glass, and a vase. Going to all these films is really bringing out the film-buff in me; I bought a (kind of campy, cheesy) book of the "501 Must-See Movies". It's defintiely unsophisticated, but it has a ton of movies with information about dates, directors, awards, etc.
Today, I didn't get out the door until about noon, which was really lovely. I stopped by Sainsbury's for 2-for-1 pound croissants, and then at Pret for 99p filter coffee. This is becoming more of a routine for me - I'm really into croissants right now! Perhaps someday I'll learn to make them. After brunch, I went to Camden! Only three stops up the Northern Line leads you into a kitschy, labyrinthine marketplace with A MILLION semi-identical stalls selling everything from hookahs to Doc Martens to latex corsets (what?!) and everything in between. Being the genius that I am, I managed to stumble across a vintage, vaguely Army/Navy store called "What Goes Around." It. Was. Phenomenal. I have generally resigned myself to the notion that London (especially central London) is just ridiculously overpriced and expensive. This store wasn't cheap, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was really high-quality stuff for cheaper than I've seen in any other thrift store. A purchase was made. I'm not sure if I'm ready to talk about it here just yet (though it was under 40 pounds, Mom, I promise). It is beautiful and outrageous and warm and I think it may be in the top-ten of my favorite purchases of all time.
Still giddy with excitement after my purchase, I stumbled out into the market and decided to take the District line WAY East to Hornchurch, to check out the cemetary in which my great-grandparents are buried. My first impression of "East London" was very working-class, and much browner than central London. There were lots of ugly, cinderblock housing complexes that James said the government owns and lets to the working poor and the unemployed. Hornchurch is all the way out in Zone 6, so it took us an hour or so to get out there. It was already beginning to get dark when we got to the cemetary, and a combination of poor grave markings and fast-fading light meant that the cemetary was being locked up for the night before we could find the graves. I will definitely be going back, though, because now I know the general area the two graves are in, and so it will be way easier for me to find my great-grandparents the next time.
This evening, I went to see Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" (1965), starring Catherine Deneuve. This is Polankski's first film in English, and it was really a terrifying film, in my opinion. It basically shows the descent of a beautiful French girl in London into complete madness. The cinematic techniques were great: sound cut-outs at really dramatic moments, disembodied hands coming out of walls... really good. After the film, I came home and had some Earl Grey tea (another new obsession) and watched ANOTHER movie: Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1940). I didn't like this one as much as other Hitchcock films, but it wasn't bad. It was based on a novel by a French author, but I felt that there actually wasn't much STORY being told. Maybe I was just tired...
That's all for now. Tomorrow I'm going walking in the country up on Hampstead Heath, then I'm going to practice my acting skills while conducting a hare-brained social experiment: I'm going speed-dating at a cafe/bar/record store. More details to come...
Sunday, November 1, 2009
finals and the blissful aftermath
I am happy to report that I made it through my finals (relatively) intact. I worked hard, and hopefully my grades will reflect that. Now it's smooth sailing for the next week until Modern Irish Literature starts. I am, however, overly excited to actually have a LITERATURE class. I picked up an introduction to literary theory the other day, you know, just for casual reading. Mostly, I think I'd like to get a jump on the theory element of literature, as I haven't encountered a lot of theory at all in my studies at Grinnell.
Last week, as a kind of study break, I saw Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious", with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. It was phenomenal. It makes a huge difference being able to see films in theatres, as opposed to on a television or a laptop. This week, the Prince Charles is showing three films I really, really want to see: "Gamer", "Les Diaboliques", and Polanski's "Repulsion". The latter two are part of the PCC's "vintage film season". In a few weeks' time, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is playing, which will be wonderful, I'm sure.
Things here have been pretty quiet the last few days, as we're on fall break now and all of my flatmates have left in a mass exodus to various European destinations. I went out to a nearby club last night for Halloween (I went as "Blackmail": I dressed in all black and put a postage stamp on my shirt), which was pretty fun. Yesterday, I also walked around the Portobello Road Market for quite a while, and I ended up purchasing a leather briefcase similar to the ones I had mentioned before. I got it from a street vendor, and I was pretty impressed with my haggling skills, as I paid 20 pounds for this bag, which was marked at 50 pounds, and which probably cost the original owner about 100 pounds.
Speaking of purchases, I have booked a train ticket to Paris the weekend of November 12th! I'm staying for 3 days and 2 nights, and although my parents are skeptical about me traveling alone, I think it will be a lot of fun to go by myself, because I will be able to see and do everything I want without having to compromise with others about time management, etc. I'm staying in a hostel right on the Rue de Dunkerque, which is near Gare du Nord, where my train arrives. I'm really looking forward to this trip.
Tonight, I am going to a liturgical performance of Mozart's Requiem complete with a full orchestra. It's part of a requiem mass on the eve of the commemoration of All Souls. Tomorrow night, I'll be going to the requiem mass at another church, but the performance is Camille Saint-Saens's Requiem. Lots of classical music!
Last week, as a kind of study break, I saw Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious", with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. It was phenomenal. It makes a huge difference being able to see films in theatres, as opposed to on a television or a laptop. This week, the Prince Charles is showing three films I really, really want to see: "Gamer", "Les Diaboliques", and Polanski's "Repulsion". The latter two are part of the PCC's "vintage film season". In a few weeks' time, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is playing, which will be wonderful, I'm sure.
Things here have been pretty quiet the last few days, as we're on fall break now and all of my flatmates have left in a mass exodus to various European destinations. I went out to a nearby club last night for Halloween (I went as "Blackmail": I dressed in all black and put a postage stamp on my shirt), which was pretty fun. Yesterday, I also walked around the Portobello Road Market for quite a while, and I ended up purchasing a leather briefcase similar to the ones I had mentioned before. I got it from a street vendor, and I was pretty impressed with my haggling skills, as I paid 20 pounds for this bag, which was marked at 50 pounds, and which probably cost the original owner about 100 pounds.
Speaking of purchases, I have booked a train ticket to Paris the weekend of November 12th! I'm staying for 3 days and 2 nights, and although my parents are skeptical about me traveling alone, I think it will be a lot of fun to go by myself, because I will be able to see and do everything I want without having to compromise with others about time management, etc. I'm staying in a hostel right on the Rue de Dunkerque, which is near Gare du Nord, where my train arrives. I'm really looking forward to this trip.
Tonight, I am going to a liturgical performance of Mozart's Requiem complete with a full orchestra. It's part of a requiem mass on the eve of the commemoration of All Souls. Tomorrow night, I'll be going to the requiem mass at another church, but the performance is Camille Saint-Saens's Requiem. Lots of classical music!
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