A Whole Muddle of Things

Hi all. So, it's been about a week since I started this blog and I haven't done anything. Some of you may be angry, while others just don't care. But, I'm going to try and make sure I get at least a weekly update in, but i'd like to get more consistent with an every other day post. We'll see about that.

A ton of stuff has happened since then, but I can't imagine relating all of it to you, so I will refrain and just talk about my favorite parts.

Living in London is a very interesting thing. You are in the city, so there are always tons of people about, walking and going places, eating , sitting, taking pictures, running like mad into Primark (a store sort of like Kohl's in the US, except two stories high). I've discovered, amidst this all, that I am directionally challenged. Yes, directionally challenged my friends. Not that I get lost all the time, but I often have an odd habit of insistently thinking that I am going the right

way, when in fact, I'm going the very opposite. Never did I realize how much I appreciate the Rocky Mountains as a directional guide. If I can see them, which you almost always can in Colorado Springs, then I know they are west, and then follows North, East, and South, pointing me at least in the general direction of where I want to go. However, here, the buildings are so tall and the landmarks all look just about the same- very British.

We have gone to a few events since I've been here, which have been very fun. We went to “Proms” on Monday night. Proms is a musical festival of sorts that takes place in the Royal Albert

Concert Hall (I believe that's the name of it). It's a huge concert hall with beautiful lighting and decoration. There are many different symphonies and groups that will come and play during the Proms, which is several days I believe. We just so happened to get tickets, ironically, to the night that the Philadelphia Philharmonic played.

The music was wonderful. They played a Tchaikovsky (spelling?) (chi-cow-skee) piece at the end which was my favorite. Afterwards the crowd was so enthralled that the symphony ended up giving 2 encores. It's interesting here, because at this event, and then play we went to see the next night, the crowd is welcome to have food and drinks in the stands. Many people had beers and wine, and during intermission at the play, there were people selling little cups of ice cream.

The next night, last night, we went to see Richard III, a William Shakespeare piece, with the star actor, playing Richard, Kevin Spacey (who is apparently a pretty popular actor here, though I don't know him). It was done with a slight modern twist, only apparent in the actors' clothes and in a couple of scenes. It was really awesome. There was this one scene, supposed to represent the citizens of the town and them expressing their views on what was going on, and it opened with a bunch of men in trench coats and bowlers holding onto straps from a rail that went across the stage just over their heads, as if they were riding the tube. It was really funny.

Today, we're going on a walk where we'll go see the Tower of London (which is a big

component in Richard III, cus he locked two of his nephew's in the Tower and had them killed),

as well as the Tate Modern. I'm really excited.

It's been very nice weather here, with some few days sunny and hot, but mostly just nicely cool and overcast. It's only rained twice, and the first time was really mostly drizzles, and yesterday

was the first really rainy day so far.

My hair is doing nice things while i'm here, but I think it's going to be curly the whole time because I tried straightening it two days ago, and it just went all wacko on me (the straighteners here aren't powerful enough and there's too much water in this air for it to stay straight).

It hasn't been all fun and games though. We've been working hard on schoolwork. I haven't had any writing assignments from my Creative Writing class yet, but I have 4 things for art/walks class. Two art projects, plus another one (for two diff. Classes), and then a paper that is art class/walks class related. I finished one art project so far and need to do another one tonight, cus they're due tomorrow. Well, we're about to leave for class before we go on our walk, so that's it for the update today! I can't post this just yet because

I have no internet here, but I will get it up later today, maybe with another update on the Tower and some photos!

Wow! I just got back from a really long, but great day! We had a couple hours of class in the morning, before we were sent off to find our way to the Tower of London.

The Tower is most famous for being a place of executions and imprisonment of important historical figures in British history. When we got there we got a tour from these guys called “beef-eaters” (we asked, they do not know where the name comes from!). It was probably the best guided tour I've ever been on. The guy who led us around, George, talked really loud in a great Scottish accent, so that even the people in the very back (and it was a loud, windy day, and our group had upwards of 80 people in it or so) could hear.

I learned a lot.

For example, to be a beef-eater, you have to have served 22years in the British military, as well as have had 18 years of that as a “non-criminal” (no criminal record basically). Also, the crown jewels reside in the tower, and a huge collection of the British armoury is in the White Tower (which is a building on the grounds). The White Tower is actually the first palace in London to ever be built, but it eventually got turned into a prison, which is ironic. I saw the largest suit of armour ever made in the whole world, which was made for some guy who was 6'8'' !! Also saw the largest diamond in the world, which is in a royal scepter in the crown jewel collection. There also used to be a menagerie held in the pits below the drawbridge to the Tower. There was an archeological expedition that found lion skulls over 600 years old there.

After visiting the Tower for about 3 hours ( a little longer than I would have liked, but some people really wanted to get their fill!) we went to the Tate Modern. It was really fantastic, but I think I wouldn't have enjoyed it so much if Peter (my art professor) hadn't been there to guide a small group of us through, telling us background and stories about the artists and paintings.

We've talked a lot about cultural influence on art and context. It's important, in art appreciation, to understand the context and the time or culture that the artist lived in. In this way, you can better understand why he/she is doing what they are doing; much modern art is very under-appreciated or misunderstood because people don't realize that most artists are just reacting to the topics and rules of their time (usually rebelling against it and trying to improve upon the current system, searching for that nugget of truth and for what art really should be representing). It was very enlightening for me, as an artist, and as an art appreciator.

After that, we scurried home, I took a 25-30 min run around the block, going down embassy street (where all the foreign embassy's live) and through Hyde park, and then we had dinner and now I'm going to go work furiously to get a piece done before tomorrow for art class in the morning.

I have to say, I'm really excited because I found some really neat wooden objects for my 480 class projects that I'm going to do (480 is a self-guided and composed class where the artist works with a professor to create a body of work where all the rules and bounds are made by the artist- really, preparing us to work on our own). I was kinda getting desperate there for some inspiration, but it came! It always does if I have my eyes and ears open.