Anyway, when I got back from reading week I had to research and write a paper on Westminster Cathedral for my architecture class. The building itself is pretty interesting.
My professor describes the layered red brick and stone as "streaky bacon," (a very technical term, I know). It's not my favorite -- I tend to like traditional architecture. Bentley built it in the early-Christian Byzantine style with some inspiration from St. Mark's Basilica in Venice (which I saw while I was there).
There are over 120 different types of marble in the interior, but it is still unfinished (see the dark roof? It's just brick). I thought that was kind of cool though -- it's being built over the ages. Ok, enough about Westminster Cathedral. It's a landmark for a good reason, but after writing a paper on it, I've had enough of describing it. ;)
Not very long after turning in that paper, my friends and I went to The Hayfield (which has quickly become our favorite pub) for karaoke night. It was a lot of fun! They didn't have the best song selection, but as the night goes on it seems better, haha. =) The most interesting story of the night was when two guys (one from Latvia and one from Estonia) decided that they were both interested in me (best quotes: "How you no have boyfriend?! In Russia, you have boyfriend," and "After drink, I hook up, yes?"). I let one of them buy me a drink and walked home with my friends about 10 minutes later, haha. All in all, a very fun night.
The next weekend, I decided to get back into the groove of exploring London, so a few friends and I went to the Tate. I loved all the paintings and had a great time exploring.
I got to see a lot of beautiful artwork, but this was actually my favorite. A bit more modern than I usually go for, but I thought it was pretty cool. If you look carefully, you can see that the mushroom cloud is made up of pots and pans.
At the tail end of February, my friends and I went to Brick Lane (it was my first time, but they had gone while I was in Prague). It is definitely now one of my favorite things to do in East End.
The restaurants have people standing outside soliciting you to come in -- it reminded me of Brazil, but people here actually give you deals instead of just hassling you to come inside, haha. The atmosphere of Brick Lane and haggling is always fun... cheap (and delicious) Indian food with friends just can't be beat. =)
After dinner, Kevin found the fabled Brick Lane 24-hour Beigel Shop! It turns out that it's incredibly inexpensive and even yummier than I thought it would be. East End used to be a big Jewish community, so I thought that I should stay true to my Jewish roots and get a bagel with lox and cream cheese. It was great! The shop also sold a bunch of desserts, but we were too full to have anything else. I'm definitely going back!
The next week, I had a field trip to the Royal College of Physicians (another building that I can tell you far too much about). Suffice it to say that it's a Brutalist building that cost way too much to make. The library is really cool, smells like old books, and has dried human veins varnished on wood and framed, hanging on the walls (they were 17th century teaching aids for physicians). It sounds kind of creepy, but it was actually really cool. There was also an interesting room whcih had old remedies for different sicknesses (among the tools were leech containers, various blood letting devices, old hearing aids, early stethoscopes... the list goes on and on). I would have put pictures up of the interior, but we weren't allowed to take them.
The following Friday, I had dinner with friends at Caitlin's apartment (lemon chicken - yum!) and then went to Drapers (the bar on campus) because they were having a "UV Rave," complete with blacklights and face paint! It was really hard to get the glow in the dark paint to show up on camera... so just imagine us all glowing in the dark, haha. It was pretty cool. =)
Kevin and I being silly, hehe. Great minds think alike -- we wore white because it'd glow the best. =)
I love this picture! Haider jumped in the middle of the picture as a joke, but it definitely made it 10 times better.
The next day, a bunch of us went to the London Zoo! I had a great time. It almost felt like I was traveling back in time. It had a very open feel to it... similar to how it was portrayed in Lady and the Tramp, now that I think of it. There were a lot of open areas, tons of grass, and a lot of the time there would just be an iron fence separating you from the animals. Pretty intimate, but at the same time it is a very old zoo and I wish the animals were able to have more space.
We walked through Regent's Park to get there... isn't it pretty? I can't wait for the flowers to start blooming! It'll be great to go to all the major parks to see the seasons turn.
We spent a pretty good amount of time in the Reptil House (where they filmed for Harry Potter). One of my favorite exhibits was where they tried to make it look like the Soutwest U.S. for a desert rattlesnake.
I think someone forgot to mention that Budweiser is now owned by a Belgian company, haha.
Kevin should really watch where he puts his hands, haha!
What a cute baby monkey! He was really frustrated because he couldn't figure out why he couldn't run away... (his mom's holding his foot down, hahaha!)
We caught the otters at feeding time -- adorable!
This is definitely my favorite picture of the day. It just looks like he's looking at me saying, "What the HELL are you doing?! Did I SAY that you could take a picture of me??" hahaha.
The original Winnie the Pooh and me! Winnie was a black bear cub at the London Zoo around WWI. A.A. Milne's son loved the bear and named his own teddy bear after it... and now we have Winnie the Pooh! =) Yay!
After the zoo, my friends and I went to Byron, this great little hamburger place by Kensington High Street. They advertise that their burgers are "proper" hamburgers and they were delicious! They also had amazing chocolate milkshakes. Yum!
Before I finish this up, I'm going to vent. I've been writing this on a train and the guy who sat next to me just left. He had a brand new unread copy of The Economist (in the plastic!) and decided to read the tabloids instead. Bah! I wanted to take it from him while he was wasting his time on that garbage. *Grumble*... I miss my subscription to the best magazine in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment