Church in a Cathedral....Rembrandt in the Gallery

UPDATE TIME! I know what you want....

:-)

Sunday morning our Euro group went to Westminster Abbey for a 11:15 a.m. Sung Eucharist service. It was amazing inside in the church which was built in 960! It is Gothic style and is the burial place of lots of kings, royals, and poets. I also saw the stones for the burial places of Darwin and Churchill and Isaac Newton. The organ and choir were amazing, almost heavenly in the morning with light shining through the the rose stained-glass window. The church is High Church of England, so we were welcome to participate in the communion. I'm really glad we attended, because I got to feel what it was like to worship there as people have for centuries and not just traipse through gawking like every other tourist.

After we got out, our group split up as usual- going to different tube stations, dispersing across the city. My little group went to see the Contemporary Art Museum (so tiny, and the show wasn't too impressive) and then off to get snacks at the little Sainsbury grocery store. After a short repose, we were off to Piccadilly on the tube. A small group of us girls ate out front of an italian cafe with a very funny (french?) waiter who had us giggling the whole time. We thought we were late to our next engagement, so we took a taxi-van to ...why, yes, Shakespeare's Old Globe!! We stood on the floor down by the stage like the peasants used to in the old days and watched Romeo and Juliet for the evening, under the clear London sky. It seemed so authentic to hear Shakespeare in London at the Old Globe. It was great, despite standing the whole time, because of the intense, middle English language and great talent displayed. And it was the very last showing! Lucky us. On the way back to our little hostel we walked across the brand new Millennium Bridge and we saw St. Paul's Cathedral all lit up.

And today classes started. Sixteen students met in the lounge downstairs for our intro to Photo/Literature/Art History classes. Because we are studying abroad and in such a large group, everything is going to be very flexible and definitely experience based. Sure, we will be using some books and taking a few tests and having some photo critiques, but mostly it is about traveling. We're seeing places, talking to the locals, viewing galleries full of paintings and getting into the culture. Nothing new to me, as I've learned outside of a classroom my whole life (Thanks, Mom!).

Megan N. and Megan C. and I got sandwiches, "crisps" and dessert from Sainsbury (take-away) and again took the tube (which is our main transportation) on to St. James' Park to have a little picnic which seemed very popular as the park was crowded with tourists and locals alike, feeding the ducks and taking jogs or little naps. It was great to just relax and soak in some of the city. Of course before we could do that we had to stake out a bench, as they are very hard to come by unoccupied. A woman actually ran to sit on one in front of us before we could get there. She smiled at our shocked, open mouthed faces. Finally we hovered like buzzards over a group of elderly people who slowly moved on from one wooden bench...the woman turned back and said, "Wow you just wanted our spot!" And I sheepishly grinned and said, "Thank you so much! We desperately wanted a bench to sit on....."

We could glimpse Buckingham Palace through the trees and the London Eye. There are so many places that I want to see still, even though my trip has been full so far.

Our only assignment today was go to the National Gallery and make 10 observations on some of the older paintings (1400-1600). It's definitely not my favorite art history period, but it was amazing to see Rembrandt, Monet, Turner and Van Eyck in person. It's surreal- WAY better than text-book 2 inch reproductions....but also hard to absorb the thousands of galleries. More to come in the next weeks. I'm going into art hyper-drive. Weee.

(the National Gallery)

I'm excited to get serious about photography over here. Tomorrow and the next day I want to take some amazing, NON-tourist photos, but so far it's been kind of hard. If you have any theme ideas for me, please, enlighten me. I need a theme for the semester.