Half Way Point

I can't believe that we have already been in England for almost two months.  Its crazy!  And I absolutely love it!!!  As you can probably see I have been incredibly busy and have been trying to soak up as much of London as I possibly can.  I have only so much time here and I want to spend every moment to its fullest.  Well after that little explosion of emotions, I will finally get onto the interesting stuff and tell you how I've been and spent these past two weeks :).

The last time I posted, I had just gotten back from Paris; wow does that feel like awhile ago.  Anyways, the Monday following, we visited Tate Britain for my Art & Architecture class.  Before going in, one of the first things I noticed was the little rose bush that was starting to bloom.  This made me think about all of the people who are suffering in the Wisco weather right now...suckers ;).  Anyways, this is the first time that I have gone to this museum and it is very large.  Throughout the class we only focused on a few sets of paintings which spread across only a few rooms.  Its a good thing that we will being going back to this museum in the next couple weeks because there is so much to see.  After Tate Britain we went back to the National Portrait Gallery.  As for my Shakespeare class we read Cybeline.  I have never read or even heard about this play and I actually really enjoyed reading it.

Last week for my internship, I got to help out with a project that they have been working on.  I was tasked with finding inspirational images on design elements that they could use.  I never realized how the company that I am working for likes to really think out of the box and its forcing me to rethink designs that I have done in the past and how I could improve them.

On Thursday, one of the coolest things happened to me, I got to go to a taping of Britain's Got Talent!  That's right, I got to see THE Simon Cowell.  It was really interesting being behind the scenes and seeing how they actually tape the show.  What made this even better was that the tickets were completely free and we ended up getting fourth row!  It will definitely be something that I will remember forever and hey I might even see my self on TV!  How cool would that be?!?

As for the weekend it was Valentine's Day.  Bridget, Jenna, and I went to a masquerade party on Friday night.  It was located at the Coronet Theatre.  It was actually really fun and interesting.  The coolest part of the night was when we went to the area were they had reptiles and you were allowed to hold them.  They had all sorts of lizards, a couple snakes...and a tarantula.  I really wanted to hold one of the lizards and I did!  It was so neat, and definitely makes me want to get a lizard as a pet.  Bridget went and held the snake, but gave it back after it was starting to coil around her neck a little too tightly...

For Valentine's Day we decided to go to the National Gallery.  I had already been here for class, so a little bit of it was familiar to me.  We then decided to get lunch in China Town at Wang Kei.  I got fried udon noodles that had different types of seafood in it.  I didn't know what half of it was, but it was really good.  On Sunday we travelled to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  This was my first time going here and it is by far my favorite museum!  There were so many interesting exhibits here and the way things wee set up it made it feel interactive.  The main exhibit they had up was the history and development of the wedding dress.  I later found out that we weren't supposed to take pictures...oops.  For lunch we stopped at a place called Café Vienna.  It was a cute little restaurant and the food was cheap and really satisfying. 

 

 

Now let me take you to this past week.  As for classes we visited The National Gallery and Tate Britain for the Second time.  I really like that we get to go to all of the museums and that they are free to the public.  It allows everyone to learn and I definitely want to take advantage of it more so.  For Shakespeare we are reading Othello.  The only background I have on this play was from watching the modern day movie 'O' starring Julia Stiles.  I really enjoyed this movie and I'm excited to go and watch the play next weekend. 

Now let me fast forward you to this weekend.  Thursday was Bridget's Birthday and we all got dolled up and went out to a bar called Mahiki.  The interior made you feel like you were in the Bahamas, it was so tropical feeling.  We got a lot of free stuff due to it being her birthday and it was nice to let go and take a break from stressing about all of the homework we have to get done in the next couple weeks. 

On Friday we visited Camden Market for the second time.  We discovered a different part of the market, which we all really enjoyed.  They had a lot of cool local artist's work there and jewelry.  We then got food there, and you guessed it, it was Chinese and it was the best that I have had here.  And it was cheap.  Talking about cheap, we decided to visit Poundland which is the dollar store here.  We are still broke college students after all.  Today, Saturday, we all just took a chill day and went to a cheap make-up store that we found that is located in the Brunswick shopping centre which is located near Russell Square.  We discovered that they had food tents set up in the middle and I got a Polish sausage on a baguette.  It was one of the best things that I have eaten here.  We then went back and worked on some homework.

Tomorrow we are going to watch the Chinese New Year parade and I can't wait.  There are a lot of events going on in China Town, so I will post on that as soon as I get the chance.  I am also going to Germany next weekend, so I will definitely have a lot of stories and pictures to share, be prepared.  I hope you all have a great Sunday and week! -Heather