Thursday, October 16th
I was pretty excited today because our Art and Paper class was going to a big art warehouse, kind of like the Jack Richeson store near my house. If you know me at all, me in a place like Hobby Lobby or any other art store, is basically like a little kid in a candy shop… It is hard for me to control myself…
I managed walking our with only 15 GBP worth of merchandise. I got a little booklet of textured paper, and some stationary and envelopes of nice textured paper with leaves engrained in it, with the intention of marbling this in my class. When I am done with the marbling, I intend to tie a piece of vellum over the top of the paper to make some elegant, decorative stationary. I’m excited for this and to see how it turns out. : )
I left the store with Aurelia, and we went over to Trafalgar Square to watch the parade and ceremony for the British Olympic athletes. The parade went from the St. Paul’s Cathedral area, ending at Trafalgar Square. We watched as the athletes rode in on 12 different trucks, and then made our way through the masses to the center of the square to watch the ceremony. The athletes were interviewed, and we got to watch clips from the games and the closing ceremony on the jumbo-tron. Later, the mayor of London gave a speech that was really comical, cracking jokes at both political parties, and even optimistic jokes about the recession. The ceremony ended with the military band playing a salute in the traditional British uniforms, and confetti filling the air. You can tell that London is excited to host the games next time, as they should be!
I came back to my room for the afternoon, booked a trip to Wales and my flight to Dublin, and took a nap because I am exhausted. Even the hour I laid down, in which I never really fell asleep, made me feel so much better. I have gotten very little sleep since this entire trip started, and I feel that even sitting for 10 minutes is 10 minutes that could have been spent seeing something in this amazing city. I think I am going to devote a good portion of tomorrow to resting, getting a lot of homework done, and trying to load up on orange juice and not get sick… everyone is getting sick… I am doing my best to get over a cold as well…
I left at around 6 to head out to my second life drawing session with Diane. What a good evening. I have been feeling rather nervous about everything in this class because I have never done life drawing before, and it is much more challenging than I predicted. I have studied quite a bit in the life drawing book that I purchased in the Tate Modern, and I think it helped because tonight I felt a lot better. My gesture drawings turned out a lot better, and overall, everything was quite an improvement from last time.
I got to socialize with some friendly British women, one of which was a window dresser and the other a school teacher. Tea time is also a highlight. The church that we draw in is absolutely freezing. I feel so bad for the model. Tea time makes me happy and warms me up. The biscuits (cookies) are quite good as well…
I came back for the evening, had an intense conversation with Rachael analyzing our dreams, and journaled for a bit. I am currently zoning out to some relaxing music and catching up on the past few days work. What a relaxing Thursday evening… just what I need. : )
NOTE (from a few hours later): I just spent the past hour looking through the contents of my blog from beginning to now, only a month and a half later… wow, I have gotten to do a lot of things in such a short time. What an incredible place and an incredible feeling. I have been kind of stressed lately, and I think that looking back at all of this, reflecting on all of the amazing opportunities I have had over my time here so far is exactly what I needed. I feel like there is so much to see, and that sitting around at all is a huge waste, (and really I still do think this), but tomorrow will be devoted to rest, and checking a lot of things off of my ‘TO DO List.’
Now, as it is 1:00am, I should probably go to bed now…
I was pretty excited today because our Art and Paper class was going to a big art warehouse, kind of like the Jack Richeson store near my house. If you know me at all, me in a place like Hobby Lobby or any other art store, is basically like a little kid in a candy shop… It is hard for me to control myself…
I managed walking our with only 15 GBP worth of merchandise. I got a little booklet of textured paper, and some stationary and envelopes of nice textured paper with leaves engrained in it, with the intention of marbling this in my class. When I am done with the marbling, I intend to tie a piece of vellum over the top of the paper to make some elegant, decorative stationary. I’m excited for this and to see how it turns out. : )
I left the store with Aurelia, and we went over to Trafalgar Square to watch the parade and ceremony for the British Olympic athletes. The parade went from the St. Paul’s Cathedral area, ending at Trafalgar Square. We watched as the athletes rode in on 12 different trucks, and then made our way through the masses to the center of the square to watch the ceremony. The athletes were interviewed, and we got to watch clips from the games and the closing ceremony on the jumbo-tron. Later, the mayor of London gave a speech that was really comical, cracking jokes at both political parties, and even optimistic jokes about the recession. The ceremony ended with the military band playing a salute in the traditional British uniforms, and confetti filling the air. You can tell that London is excited to host the games next time, as they should be!
I came back to my room for the afternoon, booked a trip to Wales and my flight to Dublin, and took a nap because I am exhausted. Even the hour I laid down, in which I never really fell asleep, made me feel so much better. I have gotten very little sleep since this entire trip started, and I feel that even sitting for 10 minutes is 10 minutes that could have been spent seeing something in this amazing city. I think I am going to devote a good portion of tomorrow to resting, getting a lot of homework done, and trying to load up on orange juice and not get sick… everyone is getting sick… I am doing my best to get over a cold as well…
I left at around 6 to head out to my second life drawing session with Diane. What a good evening. I have been feeling rather nervous about everything in this class because I have never done life drawing before, and it is much more challenging than I predicted. I have studied quite a bit in the life drawing book that I purchased in the Tate Modern, and I think it helped because tonight I felt a lot better. My gesture drawings turned out a lot better, and overall, everything was quite an improvement from last time.
I got to socialize with some friendly British women, one of which was a window dresser and the other a school teacher. Tea time is also a highlight. The church that we draw in is absolutely freezing. I feel so bad for the model. Tea time makes me happy and warms me up. The biscuits (cookies) are quite good as well…
I came back for the evening, had an intense conversation with Rachael analyzing our dreams, and journaled for a bit. I am currently zoning out to some relaxing music and catching up on the past few days work. What a relaxing Thursday evening… just what I need. : )
NOTE (from a few hours later): I just spent the past hour looking through the contents of my blog from beginning to now, only a month and a half later… wow, I have gotten to do a lot of things in such a short time. What an incredible place and an incredible feeling. I have been kind of stressed lately, and I think that looking back at all of this, reflecting on all of the amazing opportunities I have had over my time here so far is exactly what I needed. I feel like there is so much to see, and that sitting around at all is a huge waste, (and really I still do think this), but tomorrow will be devoted to rest, and checking a lot of things off of my ‘TO DO List.’
Now, as it is 1:00am, I should probably go to bed now…
This is a video from the end of the Olympic Ceremony and Parade. There were thousands of people lined up along the streets of the city from Marble Arch, through St. Paul's, all the way to the termination point of Trafalgar Square, where I am here. You can see the events taking place on the steps to the National Gallery, and I wish my camera angle could show you better how many people were really all gathered together in Trafalgar Square...
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