You don't have to be posh to say "psh!"
I'm sorry if these posts are just way too long for people with lives and schoolwork to read--I'm mostly doing it for my family and friends who want to know everything (or how i'm spending the time and money they've invested in my being here).
Yesterday I did nothing. Literally, we were sitting there watching Anne of Green Gables (I know, not exactly nothing,eh? :-) ) and Maria looks up and says, "Holy crap, we never do anything here except eat and sleep. And I'm always tired and hungry." and that summed up our situation so well it was scary. Today i made up for it. Hopefully soon I'll figure out a way between the two extremes.
Today before church, Elizabeth, Christy, Heather, and I took the tube to the Tower to see a run for charity that was being done. The special thing about this run (besides that they were running around the Tower of London and Tower Bridge) was that every runner was wearing a full body gorilla suit. In addition, every one had picked a different outfit to put on over it--thongs, uniforms, hawaiian dancers, hippies, etc. We stood watching gorillas run by, some of them jumping in front of slow-moving cars and making gorilla-noises at the top of their lungs, for like 10 minutes. Towards the end, a gorilla went by on a UNICYCLE. Picture it.
We went to church at AllSouls again and heard John Stott preach--apparently he's a more influential evangelical than Billy Graham. I'd never heard of him before, and i must confess there was nothing interesting enough in his sermon to keep me awake. *feels bad* I stayed awake, but only with a lot of pinching and biting myself. People must've thought I was retarded, heehee.
In the afternoon Maria, Amy, and I went to check out the British Museum--we only had 2 hours to spend there but we wanted to do something. It was second only to my experience at the Globe theatre. The architecture was already awing me, then we took the first turn and practically walked into the glass case with the Rosetta Stone in it. That's when i knew this country girl was way out of her league. I explored mostly the ancient civilizations parts because that's where the Brits put all the stuff they've looted. My absolute favorite part was the Nereid Temple--I walked into a room and there was this Greek temple facing me, with this incredible lighting, these figures suspended in movement, this huge building front dedicated to pagan worship. I can't describe how I felt...i stayed there for a long time and kept coming back to let it soak into my mind, my conciousness. If I had been born in that time, I would have been a very devout pagan. The Greek sculpture section made me itch to bring in a sketchpad (tho i'm worse at drawing than most things) to feel the beauty of copying those lines and bodies, that grace. Jon and Stephen, I found soooooooo many ancient coin displays, i'll try to take pictures next time (yeah i didn't bring my camera cuz i didn't think we'd be allowed to take pics in the Museum, i kicked myself) but they're in glass cases so i don't know how they'll turn out. There's a huge domed library like I've only dreamed about in the center, and I found my way into a room about the Enlightenment that could've taken the whole afternoon. On the way back I got lost in some later stuff--there's a few whole rooms dedicated just to various clocks and timepieces--there were a bunch of clocks from the 16th century that were still ticking quite audibly and regularly. This amazing place just waiting to be explored and reveled in is free of charge and exactly two short tube stops from where I live...can we say i'll be back, about a million times?!
In the tube station on the way back we ran across Jeff and Anne going the other way--they said they were out to find an old Knights Templar church and did I want to come? I had been out all day, hadn't had dinner, had to go to the bathroom, and my feet were really hurting from walking so much cuz i only had china flats on. So of course i turned around right there and went with them. ;-) We had to walk A LOT and it took us forever to find it cuz its in the middle of a gated community, but we eventually got to it. It wasn't open of course, but we're going to go back next Sunday for Choral Mattins at 11.15. I'm really excited--I haven't had much experience with non-Protestant services, and just the name Knights Templar is enough to send chills down the spine, no matter how tame the reality is.
When we got back Karla, Emily, Maria, and Amy had just started watching The Hunt for Red October, and since I'de never seen it, I watched it with them. Jeff watched, too, and it was fun because he kept translating their weapon-talk and it made it sooooo much more interesting and logical. And now I'm updating, and soon to bed. yes precioous, very soon....
I just thought of something mildly amusing...since we don't get dinner (read: lunch) here we've all pretty much bought bread, cheese, juice, and chocolate, and whenever one person breaks something out usually everyone has some. It's a fun kind of community thing, and i'm amused that we're sustaining ourselves on bread and cheese.
Alright, i think that's all. And if you don't get the title, it's something I said to Heather based on some common signs on the London Underground. (some others of which Karla definitely...as Billy Boyd so aptly puts it..."lifted") Love to all, send me notes!
Bryana Mahan
20-26 Aberdeen Park
London N5 2BJ
UNITED KINGDOM
Yesterday I did nothing. Literally, we were sitting there watching Anne of Green Gables (I know, not exactly nothing,eh? :-) ) and Maria looks up and says, "Holy crap, we never do anything here except eat and sleep. And I'm always tired and hungry." and that summed up our situation so well it was scary. Today i made up for it. Hopefully soon I'll figure out a way between the two extremes.
Today before church, Elizabeth, Christy, Heather, and I took the tube to the Tower to see a run for charity that was being done. The special thing about this run (besides that they were running around the Tower of London and Tower Bridge) was that every runner was wearing a full body gorilla suit. In addition, every one had picked a different outfit to put on over it--thongs, uniforms, hawaiian dancers, hippies, etc. We stood watching gorillas run by, some of them jumping in front of slow-moving cars and making gorilla-noises at the top of their lungs, for like 10 minutes. Towards the end, a gorilla went by on a UNICYCLE. Picture it.
We went to church at AllSouls again and heard John Stott preach--apparently he's a more influential evangelical than Billy Graham. I'd never heard of him before, and i must confess there was nothing interesting enough in his sermon to keep me awake. *feels bad* I stayed awake, but only with a lot of pinching and biting myself. People must've thought I was retarded, heehee.
In the afternoon Maria, Amy, and I went to check out the British Museum--we only had 2 hours to spend there but we wanted to do something. It was second only to my experience at the Globe theatre. The architecture was already awing me, then we took the first turn and practically walked into the glass case with the Rosetta Stone in it. That's when i knew this country girl was way out of her league. I explored mostly the ancient civilizations parts because that's where the Brits put all the stuff they've looted. My absolute favorite part was the Nereid Temple--I walked into a room and there was this Greek temple facing me, with this incredible lighting, these figures suspended in movement, this huge building front dedicated to pagan worship. I can't describe how I felt...i stayed there for a long time and kept coming back to let it soak into my mind, my conciousness. If I had been born in that time, I would have been a very devout pagan. The Greek sculpture section made me itch to bring in a sketchpad (tho i'm worse at drawing than most things) to feel the beauty of copying those lines and bodies, that grace. Jon and Stephen, I found soooooooo many ancient coin displays, i'll try to take pictures next time (yeah i didn't bring my camera cuz i didn't think we'd be allowed to take pics in the Museum, i kicked myself) but they're in glass cases so i don't know how they'll turn out. There's a huge domed library like I've only dreamed about in the center, and I found my way into a room about the Enlightenment that could've taken the whole afternoon. On the way back I got lost in some later stuff--there's a few whole rooms dedicated just to various clocks and timepieces--there were a bunch of clocks from the 16th century that were still ticking quite audibly and regularly. This amazing place just waiting to be explored and reveled in is free of charge and exactly two short tube stops from where I live...can we say i'll be back, about a million times?!
In the tube station on the way back we ran across Jeff and Anne going the other way--they said they were out to find an old Knights Templar church and did I want to come? I had been out all day, hadn't had dinner, had to go to the bathroom, and my feet were really hurting from walking so much cuz i only had china flats on. So of course i turned around right there and went with them. ;-) We had to walk A LOT and it took us forever to find it cuz its in the middle of a gated community, but we eventually got to it. It wasn't open of course, but we're going to go back next Sunday for Choral Mattins at 11.15. I'm really excited--I haven't had much experience with non-Protestant services, and just the name Knights Templar is enough to send chills down the spine, no matter how tame the reality is.
When we got back Karla, Emily, Maria, and Amy had just started watching The Hunt for Red October, and since I'de never seen it, I watched it with them. Jeff watched, too, and it was fun because he kept translating their weapon-talk and it made it sooooo much more interesting and logical. And now I'm updating, and soon to bed. yes precioous, very soon....
I just thought of something mildly amusing...since we don't get dinner (read: lunch) here we've all pretty much bought bread, cheese, juice, and chocolate, and whenever one person breaks something out usually everyone has some. It's a fun kind of community thing, and i'm amused that we're sustaining ourselves on bread and cheese.
Alright, i think that's all. And if you don't get the title, it's something I said to Heather based on some common signs on the London Underground. (some others of which Karla definitely...as Billy Boyd so aptly puts it..."lifted") Love to all, send me notes!
Bryana Mahan
20-26 Aberdeen Park
London N5 2BJ
UNITED KINGDOM