Week 2, or, actually trying to work

Our second week here was a bit more characterized by work than our first week, as we all started to think about our art history papers. None of us have thought all that much about our English papers, since they're due two days later and don't require research. But so several afternoons were spent in pursuit of knowledge about paintings---in my case, the self portraits of Reynolds and Hogarth. Technically I should be working on that paper right now, as it's due on Tuesday and I really need time to edit. Oh well.

On Monday I had lunch and went shopping with Deepa, a friend from high school who is going to college in London. We had meant to go to the Natural History Museum but ended up at Gap instead. We had a lot of fun, though, especially afterward when we took a walk around Harrods and looked at expensive dresses. That night Lissa and I met up with the Bulldogs kids at the pub across the street from their flats, and I finally saw Anna, and got to hang out with Gabor, Casey, and Leang for a little while.

MJ arrived on Wednesday and despite a few problems with arrival time she got here fine and we hung out that afternoon. I dragged her to the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Britain to look at paintings for my paper, and we walked from one to the other, so we walked by the Houses of Parliament, 10 Downing Street, Big Ben and Westminster, among other things. It wasn't a long walk, it was a fairly nice day, and I was glad to finally see a few of the famous sights of London. I'm going on a bus tour this week so hopefully I will actually go inside a few more places.

I went with several of my classmates to see Strauss' Ariadne auf Nous at the Royal Opera House. I'm glad I went, it was a beautiful theater and the first half was funny, but overall the opera wasn't as interesting as I'd expected. We may try to get cheap tickets to Le Nozze di Figaro, but it's pretty much sold out so it may be pretty difficult.

On Friday, after hectic struggles, baking cookie cake, and meeting Heather, we went to Stonehenge for the summer solstice! The group included four of my classmates (Liz, Conor, Nell, Lissa), MJ, Heather, Gabor, myself, and a number of the Bulldogs kids. We had a prime spot on the outside of the circle, opposite from the Heel stone. Too bad it was rainy the entire time and the sun never really shone. It was kind of a crazy night, there were tons of people, drinking and smoking and dancing to drums. There were some people doing different ceremonies, people meditating, people being jerks... We had fun at our little camp site, huddling under umbrellas, singing and making shadow puppets. I went into the circle with Heather for a little while and danced, and then got cocoa and a crepe (delicious).


We got tired as it got toward sunrise, and contemplated trying to leave ahead of the crowd, but decided to stay and see if the sun would show. It didn't, but we still made the 6:20 train back to London and got to the dorm in time for breakfast. We all napped a bit on the train, but that doesn't really count, so this was the second all nighter I've pulled in my life (the first being the last day of Italy tour last year), I'd gotten up around 7 the day before and didn't go to sleep till 10 a.m. (and then only for 3.5 hours). I'm tired but okay, but haven't been able to focus on my work this afternoon so have mostly been doing laundry and relaxing.

I've been here two weeks already! Ridiculous! I have two papers due this week! Also ridiculous! But I'm having a wonderful time, this is a great city and a great country. So glad I decided to study here this summer.