Getting Around

Ok, so I'm going to post these by days, even though I am behind a few. . . So let's go back to Friday.

I woke up in my little room with the window open onto the already-busy street below. Most of my classmates were still asleep when I went down to the little grocery store just two blocks over-- I didn't really need anything, but I just wanted to check it out.

i came back to go to breakfast before class started. It was really good for "dorm food." I had an egg, "bacon" (which is really ham), and toast with their delicious butter and I think it was black currant jam. (I won't tell you exactly what I ate at every meal, but I thought that one was very characteristic!)

We had class next, which is held in a little room downstairs in our dorm. The lecture itself won't be very long-- most of the class will be field trips, which we promptly set out on!

Since the Public Transportation situation was a little iffy, we walked-- down Tottenham Court road and Charing Cross into Leicester Square and then past the National Gallery and St Martin-in-the-fields church into Trafalgar Square! (Where I bought some postcards.) And there it all was, just like in the books, just like in the pictures. We walked down to the Thames river and along the Victoria Embankment-- it was amazing. The river was smaller than I expected it to be, but monumental all the same. We saw the London Eye (the big ferris wheel) and the County Hall. Then we walked down a little more and up some steps-- around a bend and there was Big Ben, larger than life. And it's so beautiful in person! Somehow I never noticed that it had gold all over the top. We walked past Westminster Abbey and up through St James' Park-- the parks here are marvelous-- down the mall to the Admiralty arch and back to Trafalgar square. There are so many names to remember here! And so many beautiful buildings-- if I took a picture of every one, I'd run out of film and not even be finished with one street!

We went to lunch after that, down in the crypt of St Martin's, literally on top of the gravestones in the floor, and then our teacher turned us loose to do an assignment in the National Gallery and then go on to whatever we wanted. I didn't go straight to the Gallery, instead I went into the church, where I caught the last half of the free lunchtime concert-- beautiful! It was some floppy-haired young pianist, and I don't remember now what it was he was playing, but it was nice anyway.

I finally made my way to the National Gallery, where I spent most of the rest of the day. It was wonderful too. I don't think I've ever seen so many famous paintings all in one place. I got to see the Arnolfini portrait, which is hanging on the wall in my room, and some Vermeers and Monets, and many lesser-known paintings which were also very good. I spent so much time wandering around looking at all the pictures that I barely had time to look at the assigned ones and get back to dinner. As it was, I only got to see about half of the museum, so I'll have to go back.

And that was pretty much the day-- I was exceedingly worn out at the end of it, so I stayed in and went to bed.