now, since i have the luxury of a stable, if wired, internet connection, i have added pictures at the bottom of a few posts.
to save you from endless scrolling, they can be found here, here (including pictures of molly's place), and here.
29.6.09
Moving in
this afternoon, post-non-wimbledon (which we prefer not to think of as a wimbledon-fail because we did see what was going on, didn't pay for it, and aren't really into tennis anyway), molly helped me lug my stuff the half mile from her apartment to my dorm. it's small and, well, dorm-like but with a bathroom in the room, and thus better than i expected. the kitchen downstairs features individual cubbies for dry food and mini-fridges divided into even minier fridges for each room. whoever thought of that is either a genius or insane because they are really small. my roommate is a rising senior at kenyon (and does not know becky, rox) and seems really nice. after unpacking my stuff, i met back up with molly for a run through battersea park which was really cool. it's right along the thames and has such sweet things as a peace pagoda and views of the prince albert bridge, which is pastel colored.
afterwards, headed to dinner with the group which was fun. it seems like a good collection of people so i'm excited to see what happens. the highlight of dinner was probably jamie, profs. harrington and durant's four year old son, playing with matchbox cars, making ever-louder noises until prof. harrington leaned across the table and said "jamie, can you please play with your cars in a more demure manner?" i don't think i knew what "demure" meant at fourteen, let alone four. awesome.
meeting for class tomorrow at 9:15. looking forward to it.
but before then i think i need to find a way to get my hands on a bowl and spoon in order to eat my breakfast...
afterwards, headed to dinner with the group which was fun. it seems like a good collection of people so i'm excited to see what happens. the highlight of dinner was probably jamie, profs. harrington and durant's four year old son, playing with matchbox cars, making ever-louder noises until prof. harrington leaned across the table and said "jamie, can you please play with your cars in a more demure manner?" i don't think i knew what "demure" meant at fourteen, let alone four. awesome.
meeting for class tomorrow at 9:15. looking forward to it.
but before then i think i need to find a way to get my hands on a bowl and spoon in order to eat my breakfast...
"I've queued at Wimbledon 2009"; or, once a year people decide they might care about tennis after all
so last night molly and i thought it would be nice to sing by wimbledon and see if we could nab some tickets. despite the fact that the guidebook referenced people camping out all night, we were not deterred. the ticket office opened at 9 so we figured that if we arrived around then, how bad could it be, especially on a monday morning? (famous last words)
after some minor mishaps with figuring which tube line we were supposed to be on due to the train randomly deciding to go to olympia despite saying wimbledon on it, we ended up at the closest tube stop at about 9:20. we walked down the street let's go had suggested and soon spied a line meandering down the sidewalk across the road, which didn't look too bad. crossing, we inquired. "that's the non-tickets line" ah that's us. "this way, then", we were told and pointed in the direction of a field. suddenly, it was clear that the line was very very long, winding and twisting through this parking lot/meadow. a nice old man volunteer informed us that 40,000 would be let in. there were a lot of people there but not 40,000 so we kept walking. we got a "queue card" which informed us of our numbers in line. 9825 and 9826. literally. hmmm. people were sprawled all around in lines, eating, drinking, and sun-bathing (thank god it was a beautiful day). we spent some time reading funny parts of let's go aloud and trying to figure out how long we would last. half an hour later of sitting in the sun, the line 2 over from us started moving. 20 minutes later the one next to us did. at this point we had been in the sun for about an hour and thus molly and i were not too hopeful, in addition to being hot/sweaty/verging on lightheaded. molly asked a volunteer how long and she said that about 9,000 people would get in this morning, then they would reach the 40,000 cap at which point no one could get in until about 4pm. it was 10:45am. we were done. but we had queued at wimbledon if nothing else and had the strawberry-shaped stickers to prove it.
we left the queue and headed for the street. instead of going back the way we had come, though, we walked by the actual tennis club, which we were relieved to find was another half mile of the line down the road. took some pictures, then continued into wimbledon town and hopped the tube home. pit stop in the grocery store and we soon had ourselves some grilled cheeses and tomato soup with a side of strawberries (without the clotted cream) at home. tasty.
molly, queuing.
after some minor mishaps with figuring which tube line we were supposed to be on due to the train randomly deciding to go to olympia despite saying wimbledon on it, we ended up at the closest tube stop at about 9:20. we walked down the street let's go had suggested and soon spied a line meandering down the sidewalk across the road, which didn't look too bad. crossing, we inquired. "that's the non-tickets line" ah that's us. "this way, then", we were told and pointed in the direction of a field. suddenly, it was clear that the line was very very long, winding and twisting through this parking lot/meadow. a nice old man volunteer informed us that 40,000 would be let in. there were a lot of people there but not 40,000 so we kept walking. we got a "queue card" which informed us of our numbers in line. 9825 and 9826. literally. hmmm. people were sprawled all around in lines, eating, drinking, and sun-bathing (thank god it was a beautiful day). we spent some time reading funny parts of let's go aloud and trying to figure out how long we would last. half an hour later of sitting in the sun, the line 2 over from us started moving. 20 minutes later the one next to us did. at this point we had been in the sun for about an hour and thus molly and i were not too hopeful, in addition to being hot/sweaty/verging on lightheaded. molly asked a volunteer how long and she said that about 9,000 people would get in this morning, then they would reach the 40,000 cap at which point no one could get in until about 4pm. it was 10:45am. we were done. but we had queued at wimbledon if nothing else and had the strawberry-shaped stickers to prove it.
we left the queue and headed for the street. instead of going back the way we had come, though, we walked by the actual tennis club, which we were relieved to find was another half mile of the line down the road. took some pictures, then continued into wimbledon town and hopped the tube home. pit stop in the grocery store and we soon had ourselves some grilled cheeses and tomato soup with a side of strawberries (without the clotted cream) at home. tasty.
molly, queuing.28.6.09
Moving to Molly's: in which I gain a friend!
either last night or this morning i heard from molly who had been in edinburgh that she was going to come back earlier than previously planned having finished what she needed to do in scotland a day early. so after a morning of cleaning and doing some reading (for class! imagine!) i packed up my stuff and made a little train comprised of my big suitcase with my little one attached to it and a bag from whole foods attached to that. molly's is a little more than halfway between connie's and the dorms so i was going to have to make this awkward trek in either case. i preferred to do part today and spend the night with her rather than not. but i got some sweet looks as i chugged along the sidewalk, looking pretty grumpy the whole way.
i got to molly's close to 3 and began to explore the place. she's also in a basement apartment with an entrance hallway that turns onto a kitchen-hallway, then a front room off one side that functions as a living room slash bedroom and a back bigger bedroom, and through there a bathroom. (molly's living here with her roommate from the school year madeline) the guy who owns this place is, to say the least, eccentric. there are books all over the place along the lines of proust and freud. and then there's some lighting equipment/spotlights in the living room, just in case it's a little dreary that day, as it can sometimes be in london. in the back room there are two large trunks, one which is labeled military medical supplies and the other military surgical supplies. back there, the mantle of the fireplace has a second function as a florescent light, illuminating everything placed on it from below. the door knocker is shaped like some sort of gremlin sitting on top of a mushroom. and the bathroom features a claw-footed bathtub, a wooden toilet seat with pull-chain, and no shower head. finally, there's a robot on the keychain he gave molly.
he apparently told molly that he cleaned the place up before he came but the thin layer of dust and clutter of junk tells a slightly different story. part of molly's instruction sheet regarding the oven (which doesn't have any temperatures on its dial) include the phrase "i usually turn it until the knob falls off". i guess that's generally a good indicator of when to stop. it's a good apartment though and will do just fine for the summer. we had some fun exploring it. (photos to come--my internet doesn't work here for some reason)
after getting beyond the apartment itself, molly and i donned running gear and a few pounds (the money...) and headed to hyde park. on the way we stopped in a grocery store and picked up two sandwiches, some apples and grapes, 2L of water, and a bottle of wine, all for less than L9! then went over to where people were gathering for the concert. we nabbed some of those stripped deck chairs (molly says "like lawn chairs but classier") and ate and drank while listening to dave matthews band across the divide in the festival. we eventually realized that we were supposed to rent the chairs and ditched them when a man came around to ask about them, so we heard bruce springsteen sitting on the grass! since we were there more for the idea of listening to live music in the middle of london for free (while others had paid upwards of L50 to get in), we didn't mind that we couldn't see the stage or could only hear probably every 3rd word. it was pretty awesome overall. and the people watching was glorious to say the least. toward the end of the boss' set we started heading out and ran back to her place.
some more exploring and discoveries and we have a pretty sweet sound system up and running and some mugs of tea (lacking handles). we also took our first baths in...a while. not sure how clean i feel though. i've offered molly use of my shower. tomorrow we're considering attempting to get cheap tickets to wimbledon but we'll see how that goes. the weather should be good again though, so moving in in the afternoon should be pretty easy.
(i'll try to keep these shorter than this in the future but i had to describe molly's place which is by no means done justice in this post)
the door-knocker. so welcoming!
luminescent mantelpiece--a necessity in any home
molly's bedroom/the living room. spotlight on the bedside table.
i got to molly's close to 3 and began to explore the place. she's also in a basement apartment with an entrance hallway that turns onto a kitchen-hallway, then a front room off one side that functions as a living room slash bedroom and a back bigger bedroom, and through there a bathroom. (molly's living here with her roommate from the school year madeline) the guy who owns this place is, to say the least, eccentric. there are books all over the place along the lines of proust and freud. and then there's some lighting equipment/spotlights in the living room, just in case it's a little dreary that day, as it can sometimes be in london. in the back room there are two large trunks, one which is labeled military medical supplies and the other military surgical supplies. back there, the mantle of the fireplace has a second function as a florescent light, illuminating everything placed on it from below. the door knocker is shaped like some sort of gremlin sitting on top of a mushroom. and the bathroom features a claw-footed bathtub, a wooden toilet seat with pull-chain, and no shower head. finally, there's a robot on the keychain he gave molly.
he apparently told molly that he cleaned the place up before he came but the thin layer of dust and clutter of junk tells a slightly different story. part of molly's instruction sheet regarding the oven (which doesn't have any temperatures on its dial) include the phrase "i usually turn it until the knob falls off". i guess that's generally a good indicator of when to stop. it's a good apartment though and will do just fine for the summer. we had some fun exploring it. (photos to come--my internet doesn't work here for some reason)
after getting beyond the apartment itself, molly and i donned running gear and a few pounds (the money...) and headed to hyde park. on the way we stopped in a grocery store and picked up two sandwiches, some apples and grapes, 2L of water, and a bottle of wine, all for less than L9! then went over to where people were gathering for the concert. we nabbed some of those stripped deck chairs (molly says "like lawn chairs but classier") and ate and drank while listening to dave matthews band across the divide in the festival. we eventually realized that we were supposed to rent the chairs and ditched them when a man came around to ask about them, so we heard bruce springsteen sitting on the grass! since we were there more for the idea of listening to live music in the middle of london for free (while others had paid upwards of L50 to get in), we didn't mind that we couldn't see the stage or could only hear probably every 3rd word. it was pretty awesome overall. and the people watching was glorious to say the least. toward the end of the boss' set we started heading out and ran back to her place.
some more exploring and discoveries and we have a pretty sweet sound system up and running and some mugs of tea (lacking handles). we also took our first baths in...a while. not sure how clean i feel though. i've offered molly use of my shower. tomorrow we're considering attempting to get cheap tickets to wimbledon but we'll see how that goes. the weather should be good again though, so moving in in the afternoon should be pretty easy.
(i'll try to keep these shorter than this in the future but i had to describe molly's place which is by no means done justice in this post)
the door-knocker. so welcoming!
luminescent mantelpiece--a necessity in any home
molly's bedroom/the living room. spotlight on the bedside table.27.6.09
Ben Harper and rain
i went over to hyde park to check out the hard rock calling shows. i think i heard most of ben harper's set which was pretty good even from as far away as i was. but then the two days of beautiful weather (hot for the british but beautiful to a miamian; blue sky with a fair number of big fluffy clouds) gave way to completely black skies and lightning. so i headed home along with most of the other people picnicking outside the entrance.
maybe i'll have better luck tomorrow. also molly may come back to london from edinburgh a day early so maybe the two of us can go together!
maybe i'll have better luck tomorrow. also molly may come back to london from edinburgh a day early so maybe the two of us can go together!
Of kangaroos and modern art
today i went over to borough market to see what they had to offer. i had heard stories from noor about giant brownies and obviously had to check it out myself. the market itself is a series of stalls underneath raised railroad tracks and is basically a million people and every kind of food that you could wish for. after getting myself an oyster card and sorting out the underground pretty seamlessly, i wound up over by london bridge and in the midst of every kind of fresh olive, cheese, or fish you could think up. walking around, i quickly found several stalls selling massive brownies and got one for myself from the third/cheapest one. as i kept walking, people had all sorts of sandwiches so i decided that the next stall i came to with sandwiches, i would get one. as i wandered down one of the aisles, the next one that i came to said "ostrich and exotic meat." perfect.
after i saw everything there that was free, i walked across the millennium bridge to St. Paul's. i didn't go in because i didn't want to pay and plan on going to an evensong later, which gets you in for free. but there was a sign out front that there was a deacon ordination tonight at 5 or 5:30. i seriously considered sticking around for it because i thought it would be pretty cool, especially to compare it to the ones i've seen in St. Peter's and in Miami, but i had forgotten my book to kill time (it was just about 3) and am pretty sure that they weren't going to welcome shorts, a tshirt, and flip flops, even if they were welcoming the public. this fact was reinforced when i saw a woman in her 30s walking around in a pretty dress and a super fancy hat. is that still a thing in the anglican church? covering your head for mass? it was a really cool hat though and matched her dress perfectly. i was glad i had decided not to go to the service because that probably would've been awkward.
view of the thames...
their special of the day was a kangaroo burger and i went for it, with cranberry sauce and sauteed onions. i'm not sure what it tasted like exactly. not quite like chicken. but it was definitely delicious.
with a burger and brownie in tow, i headed west down the south bank of the thames until i came to the tate modern. i think my favorite part about the british museum system might be the price--free (with the exception of special exhibits, but who really has the energy to see those anyway?) i've been there before but i was so happy to see it having taken that modernisms class last semester. alina, buchloh really served us well and you basically would've been in heaven, although i'm pretty sure you've been here before. i got to see duchamp's 3 standard stoppages, which makes so much more sense when it's in front of you than when it's up on a projector screen in a basement lecture hall, and other stuff that i could recognize or contextualize. it was really awesome being able to put what i'd learned to use. (hooray liberal arts education!)
i did go around the back to the church garden and sit there and munch some more on my big brownie, then hopped on the tube and came home. tonight there's the 2nd night of a 3 night music festival in hyde park, hard rock calling. unfortunately, last night i missed the killers, the kooks, and passion pit (which tommy got me for my birthday!), but i'm hoping that i'll be able to hang around outside the ticketed area and be able to overhear ben harper, fleet foxes, and neil young tonight. which would be sweet!
view of the thames...
but probably more importantly, the kangaroo burger
26.6.09
Getting Acquainted
i spent most of today on purposeful walks. to the grocery store, to see the dorms, to see the serpentine in hyde park, to see big ben, and to find an atm (which may or may not be called a cash machine?). all missions accomplished. and i only snuck one look into my guide book for a map and that was just to check i was on the right way which i was, although there was liberal use of the posted maps in hyde park. it's 625 acres and a bizarrely confusing place. for comparison, boston common is 50 acres, the principality of monaco is 485 acres, and central park is 843 acres (thanks, wikipedia). but if you ask me, hyde park gets confusion bonus points for being extremely oddly shaped, in the same way that boston common isn't actually a square but you want to think it's a square but that's only going to put you out in the wrong place completely. only 12 times bigger. but eventually, after some accidental detours, i found my way.
another strange thing about london is that not only do none of the streets actually go straight but they are also all named rather than numbered. you would think i would be used to this concept from living in the gables, but it's pretty disorienting (disorientating--i am in london now; thanks for the prep, david attenborough.) being in a new city. for example, without turning once, today i walked for about a mile and a half down a single road and it changed names three times. alternatively, connie's street is divided into two parts which are actually neighboring streets with the first half the numbers on one part and the other half the next block down. both of which are dead ends. who comes up with this? it would be horrible to have to canvass here. or to invade, which was probably more the point.
anyway, i managed to figure out where i was, where i was going, and where i wanted to be. and found myself some food at the grocery store so now i'm stocked up on cereal, frozen burritos, and soup.
watched sideways after falling asleep apparently during scene 6 last night. connie came home from work and we ate here and then i read and tried to go to sleep, thinking myself exhausted. but i guess it was just a nap because now i'm up again; i blame jet lag. i'll give reading-until-i-fall-asleep another shot.
tomorrow: street markets and maybe a gallery or museum!
oh i also got a phone yesterday so if you potentially have need of my british phone number, email me. although i'm actually not sure what part of the 20 digit number they gave me is necessary to dial yet. but i'll get there.
25.6.09
Just touched down in Londontown!
ok so technically i touched down in londontown thursday morning, but i really like that song so we're going to stick with it.
after an early morning flight out of miami, an interminable layover in raleigh, some serious lsat practice/not sleeping on the plane, and what i thought to be some pretty quick learning of the heathrow express/paddington station/taxi stands i wound up at connie's! i spent the day showering, napping, watching marie antoinette and generally recovering from the flight and jet lag. connie got home from work and we went out to eat a cute place which we decided should only sell dessert because that's what they did best. we had a banaffee fool out of pure curiosity and it turns out that it's banana and toffee and cookie crumbs and creme fraiche layered out in a little cup--awesome. we came home to watch sideways during which i promptly and predictably fell asleep.
connie's apartment is adorable, but i'm excited to move into what can most easily be described as dorms. it's actually a bunch of row houses and i'm can't quite tell from the pictures online whether we'll be sort of in a house or if they renovated it to be some sort of long hallway, which would be an interesting dynamic. i'll find out on monday though! i'm happy to be here a few days early and get my bearings and my time zone straight.
question: i know that here you drive on the left side of the street (and thus have been religiously looking right at every street corner) but does that translate to sidewalks? should i also be walking on the left side of those? it's hard to tell based on other people, but maybe there are just a lot of right-side-walking americans around. i've decided to err toward the middle of the sidewalk just in case. that way i'll be in everyone's way. perfect.
edit: ah, niblett has just informed me that in fact, it does not make a difference. good to know. thanks, dude.
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