LaSt NiTe iN LoNdOn

Saturday, December 13th

I started off this morning with a scramble to make up an entire semester’s worth of life drawing… Having taken this class as an independent study, I really slacked off quite a bit to enjoy the best that London had to offer. At about 10:30, I had a meeting with Diane where she reviewed my portfolio, and lucky for me I do an incredible job of presenting work and making it look like I have put far more time into it than I really have… Needless to say, she loved it and I am getting an A in the class. Mission accomplished.

We ended up talking about another painter who is very influential to her, and then Mya and I talked for a while. I’m sure that also helped…

I went back to my room and packed a bunch of stuff up, worked a bit for my duties for the Student Assistant cleaning the WI room, and then ventured out into the rain with Cody to accomplish the last few items on our to-do list before our departure tomorrow.

We walked through the rain to Kings Cross Station, Platform 9 ¾ from the Harry Potter movies to get our parting pictures here. After taking a few pictures ourselves, a few very enthusiastic Spanish ladies came over and took a few pictures and videos for us too. We exchanged the favor as well. I loved how universally ridiculous the situation was. It didn’t matter if you spoke two completely different languages or had traveled from completely different countries… none of us thought less of the other when we ran full force into a brick wall or tried to push a cart through to imaginary boundaries…











Cody and I had been planning our last night out for quite some time now, ending our trip with the most sentimental of ways. We both, unanimously agreed that there would be no better way to do so than taking one last walk down our favorite part of the city, the west end to Oxford Street.

We started off by taking the tube from King’s Cross to Trafalgar Square, another sentimental moment for me. I had spent so much time there over the past few months, and it would be really hard to part with such a place. But oh boy… we had no idea what was in store for us!

We walked to the top of the station, the lions and columns opening up to us as we entered Trafalgar Square. We wanted to make stopping here a priority because of the huge Christmas tree that was put up in the middle of the plaza, erected while we were gone in Ireland the previous weekend. We were upset that we had missed the ceremony with the tree was first lit, however, what we happened to stumble upon tonight was far more exciting!

Within only a few minutes of wandering around the square, we heard a bunch of loud chanting and yelling. We looked across the plaza and saw a group of about fifteen people dressed in Santa costumes, with megaphones and crazy outfits, coming our way. Within only a few more minutes, we were surrounded by literally, hundreds of Santas filling the entire square.

They started accumulating around Nelson’s column, climbing up on top of the lions and jumping and yelling all over the place. There were a few people looking on, and the Santas started handing out candy to some of the little kids standing around us. Soon after, however, things started getting rather rowdy, and of course, Cody and I ended up being the only two people/regular citizens who stuck around, becoming engulfed in a sea of Santas.

There were all kinds of crazies all over the place. The transvestite Santa with the megaphone was the craziest of them all, but others such as elves, reindeer, and all other kinds also contributed to the mad ness. The Santas yelled out chants such as ‘What do we want!?’ ‘CHRISTMAS!’ ‘When do we want it?!’ ‘NOW!’ ‘What do we want!?’ ‘CHRISTMAS!’ ‘When do we want it?!’ ‘NOW!’ ‘HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!’ It was hilarious! I also rather enjoyed hundreds of British voices yelling out ‘Santa! Santa!” Very funny.

Thing soon got a little bit out of hand… One of the guys who had climbed up on top of the lions had obviously had a little too much to drink… and it was raining… This combined with the slick statues high above ground was obviously not a good idea. He fell off, and although I didn’t see it, I definitely heard him hit the pavement below… even over all the chanting and yelling. Cody saw it along with several other of the more sober Santas around us, and they said that his head hit first. Not good. So, within about 10 minutes of the start of the madness, an ambulance had already been called.

Cody and I started chatting with a nearby Santa and Elf, who gave a few details on the status of the injured Santa, and then started telling us a few details of the event that had accumulated around us. They said that this was the annual Santa convention, and Trafalgar Square was the meeting place this year. Basically, as he put it, the event is an excuse to dress up silly, drink, and march around London being obnoxious and crazy for an evening. Good fun, he said. I would say so!

We managed to fight our way through the crowd, getting heckled a bit by some of the Santas. ‘Have you girls been naughty this year?’ was one of the comments… But we managed to make our way into the National Gallery where I planned to purchase my long awaited temptation: plush toys of Van Gogh and Monet.

After making my 30 pound purchase, we went to another souvenir shop down Haymarket (the street connecting the National Gallery to Piccadilly Circus) and splurged on lots of memorabilia. We continued on through Piccadilly Circus and saw all kinds of crazy characters. A very lively last night in the most wonderful city in the world. The first one we came across was a ‘weightlifter’ right outside of Haymarket by the horse fountain. He had crazy spandex shorts, a leopard spotted shirt, and what looked like a latex swimming cap on. He lifted his air filled, pool toy looking, weights into the air in such a struggle, screaming and giving it everything he had. Accompanied by him, announcing the excitement was a man in a red suit and top hat. What a show! After his fine display and dramatically dropping the weights to the ground, the weightlifter so nonchalantly picked up the blow toy and paraded through the crowd to pick a new spot to begin the show all over again.

We moved on through the excitement, running into other small displays such as this, and musicians through the junction area. Bright lights everywhere, busses, taxis, bicycles and more combined with the chaos of the large crowds and eventful happenings. We walked down Regent Street and Oxford Street enjoying the street musicians, extravagant window displays, and all of our favorite aspects of the way for the very last time.



When we got back to MTH, Cody and I met up with Colin who was planning on taking us out to his favorite place for fish and chips. I could think of nothing better for a last meal in London. He knew of this small little ‘mom and pops’ restaurant on one of the lesser traveled side streets, which was also rated the best fish and chips in the city. We ate there, and it was incredible.

We all went back to our rooms and packed up the rest of our things, and despite Cody going to bed early, I went to hang out with Colin for the rest of the evening after we were done. It was sad knowing that it was possibly the last time that I would see him as well. The times that we have all had on this trip and the places we have gone have created so many memories for us all. It is nearly impossible to believe that I hadn’t known anyone before going on this trip, and how close the four of us had become and the relationships we have developed.

I think what I am going to miss the most about this city is the spontaneity about it, and how you never know what excitement you will face until you walk out the door. There is so much to offer with the arts and I would never be satisfied with enough time spent here, however, it is the crazy, random happenings that make it so exciting. Where else would you go and just happen to run into an Olympic rally, or be bombarded by hundreds of Santa impersonators, watch shows of weightlifters dramatically struggling to lift a blow up toy into the air, or stumble across a group of talented street musicians? That is what I will miss. The character of the individuals in this city.

PaRLiMeNt, PiZzA, PhOnE BoOtHs, & BaGLeS

Friday, December 12th

I spent the majority of this morning packing and getting ready for the departure home. Then in the afternoon I had the opportunity to go on a tour of Parliament with Katie, who had an internship there over the semester. I was really excited but it turned out to be not so great of an experience.

After we left, we ended up waiting outside in the rain and the cold for about 45 minutes for Kara to show up, and then when we finally did get inside, all anyone wanted to do was walk around to the gift shops and not see anything of any importance. We could have waited around for about half an hour to go inside of a session for the House of Commons, however no one wanted to wait. I was really upset about the fact that we were here and basically only got a tour of the gift shops, however, at least I had the opportunity to actually go inside of Parliament.

I went back to my room and packed some more, and then Cody, Rachael and I planned to meet Colin at the Weatherspoon for dinner. He was running late from work and since Cody and I had to catch a show that evening, the three of us decided to go across the street and grab something quick from Pizza Express since we had been told for a long time to try it out. It was great and I will really miss European pizza. Another cultural aspect here is that it is considered rude to eat pizza with your hands. Only a fork and knife is acceptable, unless you order from a Little Caesar’s equivalency. Whereas in the states you look silly if you don’t use your hands to eat it, here you will really be looked down upon if you do.

After dinner, Cody and I went to ‘The Thief of Baghdad’ over in the Covent Garden area and spent a little bit of time watching a street musician in front of the theatre. The play overall was alright, definitely geared more for children, but it was still enjoyable.











We eventually found Rachael, and spent the remainder of the evening in Colin’s room where he got us BAGELS! It was Rachael’s last day in London (tomorrow she was leaving for Tenerrife, in the Canary Islands with Shawn), so we decided to all hang out for one last Harrah with the fab four. All semester we had been hassle-ing Colin to buy the three of us bagels since he had mentioned the fabulous bagel store across from where he worked. Tonight was finally the night.

After a fun filled evening of bagels, phone booth pictures, and launching of dishpacks, we all went our separate ways and said goodnight.

CaBiNeT WaR RoOmS & tHeBLuEs

Thursday, December 11th

Today was the last day of art and paper class. We had a cumulative critique, and then went over by the Tate Britain to see a smaller studio by a paper artist. The work was all small paper pop-up art with incredibly intricate detail. It reminded me of some of the exacto-knife cut-outs that I did for scrapbooking when I was younger, but at a much higher level.

I had lunch and then worked on life drawing for quite a while, as I needed to turn in my portfolio soon with the quickly approaching end of the semester.

After working on my drawings for a while, Cody, Rachael, and I went to Whitehall to see the Cabinet War Rooms and the Winston Churchill Museum. It was really cool and I learned quite a bit about the war effort and Winston Churchill. I have always been fascinated by WWII and it was interesting to see it from another perspective other than the United States. I cannot stress enough how inspired I have been on this trip to learn so many new things and how much I want to research in the future. This will definitely be added to the list.

We got to go down into all of the underground tunnels which held the cabinet war rooms and military planning bases during war, and I actually told Cody and Rachael to go along because I wanted to spend more time here. Absolutely fascinating- the whole thing. Rooms were setup with switchboards and typewriters for all of the communication units, bedrooms for Winston Churchill, his wife, and the other commanding officers, rooms with maps and planning units, assembly halls, and others. There were even wax figures (much more realistic than the Sherlock Holmes Museum, mind you) re-enacting what it may have been like in the rooms.

I breezed through the gift shop and bought something for my cousin and then booked it a block or two away to Westminster Abbey where the three of us were planning on seeing our last Evensong. It was sad knowing that it would be the last time I would ever be in that beautiful chapel what had become such a big part of my daily life.







Another dinner of PB&J, and then Cody, Luke and I all went to the Aint Nothin But the Blues Bar. What a crazy evening.

We got there early so that we could get a good spot, but unfortunately we didn’t get there soon enough. We quickly became friends with an overly excited Israeli boy who was traveling Europe by himself and obviously wanted to take lots of pictures with him and girls to show off to his friends. Oh well, we got a spot to sit down because of it.

There were also these other crazy older men who kept coming over and trying to talk to Cody and I. We talked to them for a while, and it was funny at first because they were rather tipsy and said lots of funny things, but it got old fast and we soon looked for ways to blow them off.

Our evening filled with interesting individuals continued with a short, crazy old man in a Marlboro jacket, dancing and going crazy right in front of us. Ive never seen someone with such enthusiasm and endurance (with the exception of Wurzer skanking for the LIC’s back in the day). We watched him the entire evening and took lots of good videos…

In addition to this distraction, there was another crazy standing right next to us, more specifically Cody. He was a large man with long curly brown hair, and looked strikingly similar to Hurley from the tv show ‘Lost.’ He kept edging nearer and nearer to Cody the entire evening, leaning in and sniffing her hair. Absolutely creepy. Yes, she absolutely freaked out.

And here, all of our crazy characters become linked in a crazy evening of absurdity. Cody, freaked out by the crazy sniffer man decided to take advantage of Isreali’s longing for bragging rights to his friends back home. She decides to sit on his lap and dance and flirt super lots and lots in order to deter attention from sniffer man. Meanwhile, we spend the remainder of the evening all sitting in our crazy group of accumulated people, watching Marlboro Man bust a move to some awesome music.

Only in London…

ThE DaYs ArE DwINdLiNg DoWn

Wednesday, December 10th

Today started off with the last day of history class, in which our incredibly sweet professor brought us all chocolates and champagne. We talked a bit about the English royalty as well, learning how useless the royal family really is. Whatever, I still think the traditions are cool.

I took a bit of a walk by myself after class, my final venture during everyone else’s Shakespeare class time. I went down Oxford Street with the intention of returning the book that I purchased for the Martin Frost workshop, and didn’t end up using. Of course, the walk was much more of an adventure than that. I love Oxford Street and the adventure it brings every time you pass down. Today, I ran into a group of musicians playing Christmas tunes on steel drums. Quite a festive and enjoyable afternoon. :)

After this, I went over to the Tower Hill area, took a walk past the Tower of London, across Tower Bridge, and down to the Design Museum. It was interesting and I spent a lot of time just looking through the gift shop- perhaps just as much time as in the actual museum. There were lots of very good books so I spent a lot of time looking through those and ended up purchasing a really nice one that was full of logo ideas. –awesome!

The rest of the museum consisted of three galleries. The first was furniture design throughout different time periods and locations. Another was pottery design, and the third was an artist who did a lot of artwork in the 60’s and 70’s.

I left to go back to my room as it was now approaching dinner time. Since we got all of our money off of our meal cards, Rachael, Cody, and myself have decided to spend most of our money doing things instead of buying food. Therefore, I bought the peanut butter, Rachael bought the jelly, and we split the cost of bread… and I have been living off of PB&J for the past few days. Yes, this has been my first PB&J experience… ever. I know, I’m a bit deprived. We still get one meal at ISH every day with the 2.30 on our cards per day, and I still plan on getting a final meal of fish and chips before I leave… but this way we save a little bit of cash.

That night, a group of us ended up drinking in the Wisconsin room. We have this poster that everyone is supposed to contribute artwork to, so we drew the tube map across the whole thing having a bunch of churches on one line and bars on the other, intersecting at ‘CHURCH,’ the infamous bar that is only open on Sundays, with every sinful activity you can imagine. We ended up heading over to the ISH bar with everyone, and met up with Colin as well. We were all havin a good time and I played some games with Chad, and at one point we all ended up on the roof terrace of ISH foolin around. Eventually we left to go back to Colin’s room where Rachael and I hung out with him for the evening, and yes, throwing more dish-packs all over the place. By the end of the night, Rachael and I each had half a bottle of straight whiskey and some strongbow… yea, we are idiots.

At some point during the day, Rachael, Cody, and I got our picture taken by the bus stop poster of Twilight. The movie is coming out soon, and Rachael and Cody are huge into the books, and I have started reading it too. It is ok, but I am not quite as hardcore. We are all going to go see it together when we get back to the states. There are billboards and signs all over the tube stops, phone booths, cabs, and busses all over London.