Back and badder than ever
Hey dudes! Just spent a week in London, and it was pretty much so out of control that I needed some distance before I could even begin...
Went with my Sherlock Holmes class, which you know is super pimp all by itself, and we had many full days of tourism, tourism, tourism. Some things I saw were: Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey at night, Trafalgar Square with that big statue of Lord Nelson (A naval hero who is one of the many reasons we speak English!) the Globe... all from the outside, so not super exciting.
Went to the Tate Modern Art Gallery, British Museum (MUMMIES!), Museum of London (Boring except the great fire. Burn that sucka down!), Imperial War Museum (who doesn't have enough Holocaust?), Sherlock Holmes Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum (so much Rodin!), Apsley House (Basically a museum commemorating the Duke of Wellington beating Napoleon's ass like a drum) and Winston Churchill Museum down in the bunker under Downing St. where he & his war ministers met. It was SO SWEET to see so many of the world's riches right up close and personal. I felt like I was in a time machine!
Also climbed to the veeery top of St. Paul's Cathedral, the most beautiful place I've ever seen, and checked out Hampton Court Palace (Henry VIII lived there with his 4000 wives) where they had a real maze in the gardens. The Gardens were like an English paradise, something you've always imagined if you've ever dreamed of traveling to the rural UK; daffodils as far as the eye could see, swans, crazy trees shaped like gumdrops, fountains, the greenest green you've ever seen... it was breathtaking.
For entertainment, we got a group together and saw Les Miserables, which was incredible of course. We dined at the Hard Rock Cafe, which I think got its name from the fact that you have to sell rock on the streets to afford entry there. We took a look at their vault, held a $6 million Jimi Hendrix guitar, saw many Bob Dylan guitars, John Lennon's famous green army jacket (suh-weet!), and a billion other things. Mostly I drank a lot of beer because that gets you drunk and you can forget how much money you spent trying to avoid paying $2 for a can of coke. We pubbed like crazy, and I got a shot glass that says "I got absolutely pissed in London" to remember the night I spent puking in the hotel bathroom while my roommate slumbered, lucky girl!
My favorite day was Thursday, when I spent the morning shopping in the hip marketplace Covent Garden, which reminded me a lot of Athens since everyone there was young. I took off on my own after that, unwilling to tour the Tower of London with everyone else for fifty hours and wear myself out before the Jack the Ripper night tour. (Hell yes, that shit was scary!!) Instead of the Tower, I rode the tube (subway) all over town finding my mom a pastry cookbook. It was a wild adventure spread over many hours, and I really got to know the city (and myself) a lot better by the end of it. It is so exhilarating to tackle such a big, foreign place all on your lonesome in the name of someone you love. I just can't express how gratifying a growing experience it was.
I rounded out the trip with some pictures strutting it across Abbey motherfuckin Road (you gotta RACE over that bitch, the drivers don't take shit round those parts) and signed my name in lipstick on the brick wall adjacent to the famous recording studio. On Saturday when I woke up and realized I had to spend the whole day going home, I was suddenly crushed...
I had spent the whole trip missing my Colin, my friends, and family, humming "Back in the USSR" and not being able to wholly enjoy the sights since my mind was on all my loved ones. But I experienced just the most profound sense of loss and bereavement when I got home... I sunk into a terrible depression for a day, a wild mania of celebration the next, and I am now evening things out with a mildly wistful nostalgia reminiscent of the pangs you feel when you remember your dead grandparents from years and years ago when you were little and they were so kind. I had been such a child in London, absolutely immersed in new and exciting experiences, but as an adult I was completely dependent on my own faculties to absorb everything and enjoy my time in the city. I was truly free to imagine what I wanted and make it happen. I felt as though I had been born all over again, so late in the measely week, and by Saturday I had to cut that kid off and fly back across the Atlantic with only little bits of her in my bag. I finally wept at the airport, in the parking garage, once the exhaustion and emotional weights hit me with full force and I was no longer in transit -- even though I felt like I was.
It is impossible to describe the emotional impact of such an adventure to someone who doesn't know firsthand. It is such a whirlwind of intense, confusing emotions -- I know I have to go back and try to finish, bit by bit, what I started. I know you can never really finish something like that, but I have to try. I am so relieved and jazzed about going to New York this fall. It is going to be so much more satisfying being with my partner this time around, and I'll be able to say that I know the city, every bit of her worth knowing, by the time I leave. I will be ready to leave by the time I leave New York; I will soak her up. And I will be ready to hit the ground running once I get there.
If you have never traveled abroad, DO IT! Make school pay for it, if you can. DO IT WHILE YOU ARE YOUNG! It is positively life-changing; there is nothing like it, no love so melodramatic and haunting. I wish I could take all of you with me, and it will be a great pleasure to have guests in the NYC and be able to show you around my crazy wonderland, which I might cease to remember as a wonderland but just as my home.
Exciting Times!!
Went with my Sherlock Holmes class, which you know is super pimp all by itself, and we had many full days of tourism, tourism, tourism. Some things I saw were: Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey at night, Trafalgar Square with that big statue of Lord Nelson (A naval hero who is one of the many reasons we speak English!) the Globe... all from the outside, so not super exciting.
Went to the Tate Modern Art Gallery, British Museum (MUMMIES!), Museum of London (Boring except the great fire. Burn that sucka down!), Imperial War Museum (who doesn't have enough Holocaust?), Sherlock Holmes Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum (so much Rodin!), Apsley House (Basically a museum commemorating the Duke of Wellington beating Napoleon's ass like a drum) and Winston Churchill Museum down in the bunker under Downing St. where he & his war ministers met. It was SO SWEET to see so many of the world's riches right up close and personal. I felt like I was in a time machine!
Also climbed to the veeery top of St. Paul's Cathedral, the most beautiful place I've ever seen, and checked out Hampton Court Palace (Henry VIII lived there with his 4000 wives) where they had a real maze in the gardens. The Gardens were like an English paradise, something you've always imagined if you've ever dreamed of traveling to the rural UK; daffodils as far as the eye could see, swans, crazy trees shaped like gumdrops, fountains, the greenest green you've ever seen... it was breathtaking.
For entertainment, we got a group together and saw Les Miserables, which was incredible of course. We dined at the Hard Rock Cafe, which I think got its name from the fact that you have to sell rock on the streets to afford entry there. We took a look at their vault, held a $6 million Jimi Hendrix guitar, saw many Bob Dylan guitars, John Lennon's famous green army jacket (suh-weet!), and a billion other things. Mostly I drank a lot of beer because that gets you drunk and you can forget how much money you spent trying to avoid paying $2 for a can of coke. We pubbed like crazy, and I got a shot glass that says "I got absolutely pissed in London" to remember the night I spent puking in the hotel bathroom while my roommate slumbered, lucky girl!
My favorite day was Thursday, when I spent the morning shopping in the hip marketplace Covent Garden, which reminded me a lot of Athens since everyone there was young. I took off on my own after that, unwilling to tour the Tower of London with everyone else for fifty hours and wear myself out before the Jack the Ripper night tour. (Hell yes, that shit was scary!!) Instead of the Tower, I rode the tube (subway) all over town finding my mom a pastry cookbook. It was a wild adventure spread over many hours, and I really got to know the city (and myself) a lot better by the end of it. It is so exhilarating to tackle such a big, foreign place all on your lonesome in the name of someone you love. I just can't express how gratifying a growing experience it was.
I rounded out the trip with some pictures strutting it across Abbey motherfuckin Road (you gotta RACE over that bitch, the drivers don't take shit round those parts) and signed my name in lipstick on the brick wall adjacent to the famous recording studio. On Saturday when I woke up and realized I had to spend the whole day going home, I was suddenly crushed...
I had spent the whole trip missing my Colin, my friends, and family, humming "Back in the USSR" and not being able to wholly enjoy the sights since my mind was on all my loved ones. But I experienced just the most profound sense of loss and bereavement when I got home... I sunk into a terrible depression for a day, a wild mania of celebration the next, and I am now evening things out with a mildly wistful nostalgia reminiscent of the pangs you feel when you remember your dead grandparents from years and years ago when you were little and they were so kind. I had been such a child in London, absolutely immersed in new and exciting experiences, but as an adult I was completely dependent on my own faculties to absorb everything and enjoy my time in the city. I was truly free to imagine what I wanted and make it happen. I felt as though I had been born all over again, so late in the measely week, and by Saturday I had to cut that kid off and fly back across the Atlantic with only little bits of her in my bag. I finally wept at the airport, in the parking garage, once the exhaustion and emotional weights hit me with full force and I was no longer in transit -- even though I felt like I was.
It is impossible to describe the emotional impact of such an adventure to someone who doesn't know firsthand. It is such a whirlwind of intense, confusing emotions -- I know I have to go back and try to finish, bit by bit, what I started. I know you can never really finish something like that, but I have to try. I am so relieved and jazzed about going to New York this fall. It is going to be so much more satisfying being with my partner this time around, and I'll be able to say that I know the city, every bit of her worth knowing, by the time I leave. I will be ready to leave by the time I leave New York; I will soak her up. And I will be ready to hit the ground running once I get there.
If you have never traveled abroad, DO IT! Make school pay for it, if you can. DO IT WHILE YOU ARE YOUNG! It is positively life-changing; there is nothing like it, no love so melodramatic and haunting. I wish I could take all of you with me, and it will be a great pleasure to have guests in the NYC and be able to show you around my crazy wonderland, which I might cease to remember as a wonderland but just as my home.
Exciting Times!!