Day 90: British Museum and The Jayhawks

(This is for Wednesday 26 November)

On Wednesday I went to the British Museum, which was just incredible. I'd really like to go back because there is so much to see. Here are a few highlights:

The Rosetta Stone


A mummified fish (Grandpa, do you think you'd do this sometime?)

Some watches for Adam

Also, Adam's favorite


Amazing museum with so many important pieces. And it's free! And probably only a 15 minute walk from the flats. For more photos, click here.

When I arrived home, I was welcomed to my flat by a very large box with my name on it with this inside:

Thanks so much again for the fruit basket, you guys!

Later on Wednesday night, I headed over to Brick Lane for a free in-store performance by Gary Louris and Mark Olson of The Jayhawks, a classic alt-country band from Minneapolis.

There weren't too many people there, which worked well for a quick 20 minute set before the two headed off to the real (read: expensive) show afterwards.

Louris and Olson:

Olson:

Louris:

It was a bummer how short the set was, but so nice that the guys came out to do a free gig. I talked to both of them afterward and mentioned how it was funny that I live in Minneapolis, but am finally seeing them in London. They were really nice guys, and it was a bummer they had to run off so quickly to their show.

After getting home, I watched the new bridge episode of 24, "Redemption." And wow. I didn't think I'd be so excited for the next season, but I'm going to be on the edge of my seat for a while now.

Day 89: Cosmopolitanism, Internationalization, Globalization

(This is for Tuesday 25 November)

For our final official Tuesday night Honours Seminar class we read some articles from The Economist for class and then discussed cosmopolitanism, internationalization, and globalization.

It's crazy to think how different our world has become with technology and the world economy changing. Will this lead to good things? What aspects of globalization are good? Is there some initial philosophy behind globalization, or is it purely economical?

Also, what is the role of the international experience in the London Program?

These are all some questions we discussed, and I will spare you the discussion here... but it was an interesting one for sure, and I'm really bummed that it was our final H Sem class.

Day 88: Monday again?

(This is for Monday 24 November)

Monday again? Already?

Every time it's a new Monday, I feel like it was Tuesday only a day ago. Confusing.

Day 87: Catching Up

(This is for Sunday 23 November)

Caught up with work Sunday and actually showed my face again in Sainsbury's.

Spent a lot of the day at the London Centre working on a theology paper about incarnation. You know, I could have been a theology major; I actually enjoy writing these papers.

Day 86: Winter Wonderland

(This is for Saturday 22 November)

Headed to Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland on Saturday... this goes on from November to January in a part of the park. There are food booths, rides, gift booths, an ice rink, and a giant Ferris wheel.

There were so many cute gift shops, and it was a great way to get into the Christmasy mood, even without snow on the ground.

Also, I almost laughed out loud when I saw this:

A dad was carrying his daughter on his shoulders, and he had a pained expression (though still with a smile) as her hands were pulling all over his face as she tried to get a good grip, including his eyeballs. Did I do this as a child?

Day 85: With a buzz in our ears we play endlessly

(This is for Friday 21 November)

So, the band that I'd listened to a lot on the fjord trip, Sigur Rós, came to London on Friday and I was able to go to the show.

I hate making statements like this, but it was definitely one of the best concerts I've ever been to, if not the best. It's definitely in the top three, but I cannot think of two that were better.

It was at Alexandra Palace which was a really cool buildling, but the actual location of the concert was just in what seemed to be a very large room.

The energy of the band was amazing, and a lot of their songs have great builds, the culminations of which were just infinitely better live than recorded. The lights and effects were amazing, too, including a wall of water:

(from John Gleeson on Flickr)

I didn't bring my camera with to the show because I'd decided it would distract me from the music, but sadly two teenage girls in front of me were able to distract me by holding up their cameras to film basically every song.

Two of the songs ended with confetti falling, which was just an absolute joy. So exciting and surreal; it sounds cheesy, but the effect worked perfectly with the music.

(from jrom on Flickr)

When the show was over, walking out the palace we saw London all lit up at night, which was just beautiful. I already have a thing for Minneapolis's skyline, but seeing the whole of London was so different. Somehow it was a clear enough night out too that we could pick out the Big Dipper and Orion's Belt.

What a show.

Day 84: T minus four weeks

(This is for Thursday 20 November)

Wow. Four weeks from Thursday 20 November till we leave! Students have been freaking out about this, but four weeks really is a long time. I feel like it's a great opportunity to really make a list of things to do before leaving, and it's helped to put my time here so far in perspective.

Day 83: Long way home

(This is for Wednesday 19 November)

I decided to take my time on Wednesday after class to do more homework, but then I took a new way home from school. I think this is one of my favorite ways to see more of the city while I need to walk anyway. There is so much in this city, and I know that even if I were studying here for a year instead of just one semester I would never really "know" the city, which is great in many ways.

Day 82: More homework!

(This is for Tuesday 18 November)

Another marathon class day and paper-working afterward.

It's ridiculous; sunset in London is around 4:00 pm now, so the sun starts setting at 3-something and is down by the time I even start my last class on Tuesdays.

Day 81: Back to class

(This is for Monday 17 November)

Another Monday, back to class... worked on a paper Monday and have been spending time at my internship working on my final project. Nothing too exciting here (or I guess that I remember, sorry!)...

Day 80: Canterbury

(This is for Sunday 16 November)

Slept in a bit on Sunday, but decided to head into Canterbury to explore the city there. It was a much smaller city than Oxford but also less touristy.

I arrived at the East Canterbury Station which was about a 3 minute walk from the city walls and Canterbury Castle (built in 1066):




The city itself was an interesting combination of old and new, and I headed next to Canterbury Cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful.




It's so amazing seeing the history in so many cities around London and in London itself. I really enjoyed my time in Canterbury, and I'm glad that I made the trip out to a smaller city.

Click here for more pictures!

Day 79: Oxford

(This is for Saturday 15 November)

Saturday I headed to Oxford for an alumni dinner I had that night. The alum actually worked in Oxford University's law department, so she said that if any of us was interested in law we could go to the Oxford law fair. A group of about seven or eight of us got in around noon, and three of us made our way over to the fair at around 1:00.

The entrance to the fair:


The fair was great, even though we were the only Americans and probably the only non-Oxford kids there. It was interesting to talk to the people at the booths because most of them were probably about 22-25 years old and were willing to just chat about why they went into law. The UK's system of becoming a lawyer is different than the US's, too, so that made the fair a little less practical for us, but it was okay since we were still a step behind most of the students there in the process. I really think I'd love law school and having a career that requires thinking critically like that, but I'm just not sure what specifically I'd like to do.

Once we'd made our rounds at the law fair, we met up with the rest of the group at Christchurch. The way Oxford (and Cambridge) work is that there is one university which is comprised of numerous colleges (I think Cambridge has 31). The colleges are not for different departments, but are rather communities of living and learning. That's a pretty brief description, but it should do as far as understanding that Oxford is not just one campus but is made up of many colleges.

We walked around Christchurch, which was just gorgeous. Also, the dining hall there was used as the great hall in Harry Potter, so we made sure to get pictures there.




After Christchurch, we headed to a market to get coffee before heading to the alum's house. It was so nice to be in a neighborhood again and to go inside a home. The alum and her family had made a variety of about six or so different Indian dishes; the food was absolutely amazing. It was a great dinner and we had very enjoyable conversation. It was really nice to meet an American who had decided to marry a Brit and settle in the UK (don't worry though, Mom and Dad, I don't think that's my plan right now).

It's great that the London Program works with alumni in the area to give students the opportunity to have dinner with alumni, and I'm really glad I've been able to do two of these dinners. It's definitely given me a perspective of London that I wouldn't have had otherwise (and also better food than I would have gotten otherwise).

(Click here for more Oxford pictures)

Day 78: Best. Class. Ever.

(This is for Friday 14 November)

Friday our English Composers class met up at the Cecil Sharp House English Folk Dance & Song Society to learn about English folk and Vaughan Williams' involvement with it.

We started off with a mini-tour, looking into the library and then learning a bit about the history of the EFDSS in the great hall. We headed upstairs to a smaller room where we then had a workshop. The director of the library there talked to us about Vaughan Williams' involvement with folk music and about collecting folk songs and how that works. I also hadn't realized this before, but most of the songs in Appalachia stem from English folk and have also mixed with African traditional music and gospel.

When he'd finished his short talk to us (he wasn't feeling well), the guy who was going to lead our workshop came in the room. I thought he looked somewhat familiar but couldn't place it for about a minute... then I realized that he was probably (90%) the guy who led the open mic session at the Bruce Molsky show I'd been to in October. As he talked more about his involvement with promoting folk music in London, I became more sure that this was the guy. He'd sung an absolutely beautiful song that was one of the high points of the open mic.

He told us we were going to sing some songs and led us in warmups and soon had us singing a round:

John, John, where have you been all night?

Down in the valley, kissing Sally

Picking up cinders, breaking windows

Riding donkeys, shooting monkeys

I'm a boy who's kicking up a row, row, row

It was fun because everyone actually got into the song, and there was even some foot-stomping and clapping.

After this song, Sam Lee played us different versions of the same song ("The Trees They Do Grow High" - this YouTube video is a good version) to show how the melody and words can change as it's passed along in different places, and then we learned a version of it and sung it as a class. Very pretty song.

After we learned it, Sam Lee brought out the suitcase box instrument thing that he'd played at the Bruce Molsky show that's like an accordion. He sang us an incredibly beautiful song that even kids in the class who don't like folk music were completely enraptured.

After the class, I mentioned that I'd been to the Molsky show and a few of us chatted with Sam before heading downstairs to check out the library. The director of the library showed us some really interesting things and told us a bit about what he was working on currently. He was such a nice guy and was so excited to see students interested in folk music.

I'm not doing this day justice at all, but this was one of the most exciting classes I've ever had. I'm slowly becoming more and more involved with folk music and into the folk community, and I love it. The raw expression of folk music and the tradition just really appeals to me, and as much as I love my current indie type music, it just isn't even in the same field as folk.

Anyone want to get me a fiddle or banjo for Christmas? (Kidding. Sort of.)

Day 77: Bubble wrap!

(This is for Thursday 13 November)

At work on Thursday, the other intern and I had to wrap up some display boards to send to an agency in France, so we got to use the giant bubble wrap roll. I may or may not have taken a small bit of the leftovers for personal use...

Day 76: Climbing again

(This is for Wednesday 12 November)

Happy (belated) birthday, Aunt Jeanne :)

On Wednesday I caught up with work and laundry and then went climbing again at the Climbing Castle.

I'm thinking that when I have the time/money I'd really like to get into climbing more. There are great gyms in the Twin Cities, and I really enjoy the climbing culture and how people are willing to help out others. It's also such a great physical activity that requires mental planning. And the gear and equipment is fun (yes, I am a bit of a gearhead).

Day 75: Marathon class day shortened

(This is for Tuesday 11 November)

On Tuesday I usually have two double classes and then Honours Seminar, which means:
10:45 - 12:00 First half of theology
12:00 - 12:45 Lunch
12:45 - 2:00 Second half of theology
2:15 - 5:00 Economics (with a fifteen minute break somewhere in there)
5:15 - 6:30 Honours Seminar

Kind of a marathon day of classes.

Anyway, this specific Tuesday we got an email during the day from the Honours Seminar professor saying that class would be cancelled that night. Though somewhat relieved to go home earlier, I was actually pretty bummed that we wouldn't have class.

There's something about that class and the way that it's taught that really works well with my learning style, and I think that I definitely have learned more too about what is intellectually stimulating to me. Even with other classes I enjoy, this isn't something you really get the opportunity to have in your life very often.

Day 74: Internship

(This is for Monday 10 November)

I can't believe how fortunate I am to have an internship in London... it's easy to forget how amazing that is; I'm here living in London this semester taking classes next to Trafalgar Square and working at a worldwide agency near Regent Park. Incredible.

Day 74: Sainsbury's Shenanigan

(This is for Sunday 9 November)

Another rainy day on Sunday, I decided to mainly stay in to get work done that I hadn't had time for between getting completely soaked in the rain and the concert the day before.

However, I did go out to the Sainsbury's grocery store down the road with one of my roommates. I finished checking out before my roommate, so I decided to look at some of the sale items at the front of the store. I was really just killing time, but decided to pick up a large jar of instant coffee just to read the label.

When I picked up the jar (carefully, mind you) this somehow set into motion the whole of the jar pile on the shelf, causing me to react quickly to save them by throwing my body and arms in front of the shelf.

However, this then caused my bags of groceries around my wrists to slam into the shelf below, which contained... wine.

Somehow only one or two bottles fell off and broke on the floor between the checkout area and myself. At this point everyone was just staring, watching this bizarre incident unfold on what should be an uneventful Sunday trip for groceries.

I'm standing there in shock, still pressed up against the shelves with all of my limbs, when finally someone who worked at Sainsbury's comes over to try to save anything else from falling. We try to figure out how I can leave the shelf without anything else falling, but a container of coffee falls off and crashes to the floor, thousands of instant coffee speckles immersed in the wine.

I quickly said some kind of half apology/half defense something like, "I'm so sorry - all I did was touch one container of coffee and everything fell!! I'm sorry!" and as soon as someone told me it was okay, that it wasn't my fault, I bolted out in sheer shock and embarrassment.

I hid behind a large pillar to wait for my roommate and so no one could see me from inside.

Perhaps this is some kind of indicator for my true moral sense (should I have stayed inside to help clean?) or perhaps Sainsbury's just needs someone new to stack the sale items in a less idiotic way.

Either way, I tried something new at Sainsbury's that day.

Day 73: Lord Mayor's Show

(This is for Saturday 8 November)

Saturday my friend Kelly and I decided to head to the Lord Mayor's Show procession/parade. It's an incredibly long parade that has all sorts of participants representing different groups.

So because we're so set on going, of course it starts to rain on our way down to Blackfriar's Bridge. The rain got heavier and heavier until it was the worst rain I'd been in since we got to London. Thankfully I'd brought my umbrella, but it really didn't do too much since my feet and legs were soon soaking.

The parade was cute and watching it either really made me feel like a part of London or it made me realize we were probably the only American students dumb enough to stand in the freezing rain for a parade.

It was sweet to see people there who were looking for specific floats. There was a couple across the street from us who waved like crazy when the Polish group came through, and an older man behind us waved at one of the bagpipe groups and sung along with the tune.



What topped off the parade was when the sun started coming out toward the end of the procession and then the rain stopped and we were finally able to take down our umbrellas as the last group went through. Perfect timing.

On the way back, there were some men doing some kind of traditional dancing in front of a pub, so we stopped to watch them for a bit:




But since we were still freezing, we stopped by Starbucks on the way home. I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life; I literally could not stop my hands from shaking. Even with clenched fists the shaking wouldn't stop. The worst part of this was that my chai latte was spilling all over the place until there was only about a fourth of the cup left.

I took one of the longest showers of my life before heading back out into the rain to see Ned Collette perform at The Spice of Life, a small pub show at a pretty nice venue. The show was great, and I got to chat with him a bit at the end - always exciting/awkward.

Day 72: Hendrix, Handel, Hyde

(This is for Friday 7 November)

Friday during English Composers class we went for a walk around some sites that had significance to English music. We went to Green Park where a concert had been composed for a fireworks show and event and then to the home of George Frideric Handel. In London there are little blue plaques up at points of historical significance, and there were two plaques about 4 windows apart on Handel's home: one for Handel ("Composer lived in this house from 1723 and died here") and one for Jimi Hendrix ("Guitarist and Songwriter lived here 1968-1969"). Funny juxtaposition.

After class I was able to finally get to Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park, something long overdue. I took a book and sat on a bench for a while to read, which was a great way to wind down at the end of a week.

Here are some highlights of pictures I took, but check out the full album here for more.

A duck for Grandpa:










After returning to the flats from Hyde Park, I met up with a friend who is studying abroad in Rome but was visiting for the weekend. Another friend in London and I took her on a brief sightseeing walk and somehow managed to pack a lot into it. I brought my camera along for this too, and it was nice to get to some places I hadn't even been yet.

Some photos from that:

Day 71: It's beginning to look a lot like…

(This is for Thursday 6 November)

…Christmas? Already?

Okay, so I guess that's not a very far-fetched idea now that it's actually almost December, but on November 6 this seemed pretty early. I was heading back towards school after work on the bus and thankfully was reading a good book because the bus took about twice as long as usual because they were putting up Christmas lights on Regent Street (or lighting them or something). When I have a good book and good music, I actually rather enjoy getting held up on the bus or tube. It gives you a chance to just slow down for a bit and not worry about things since there isn't really anything you can do to speed yourself up. This is probably opposite of how most people feel about traffic jams, but I much prefer this outlook.

Since I didn't have as much time as I'd planned when I got back to the London Centre, I headed straight out from there with a friend to walk to the Southbank Centre 's Royal Festival Hall for a concert of pieces by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The concert was quite good, though probably more because I really enjoy Vaughan Williams than anything specific about the performance itself. Actually, it's kind of a shame because the conductor, Richard Hickox, died on November 23, and the concert we saw was the last he conducted. Perhaps his health was already in decline at that point, though.

During the intermission, we walked out on the balcony area and looked out over the Thames. The view was beautiful, and I couldn't help but think how amazing it is that I was here in London at intermission for a concert for class looking out at a city with so much history and so many people. I have honestly continued to be stunned every so often when I think about this.

Speaking of Vaughan Williams, go and listen to The Lark Ascending , one of his most well-known pieces, and definitely an English favorite.

Day 70: Museums!

(This is for Wednesday 5 November)

Since I only have one class on Wednesdays from 9.15-10.30, I have basically an entire day open afterwards. On this specific Wednesday, I decided to be especially daring and take on three museums: the National History Museum, the V&A, and the Science Museum.

I started off with the V&A since I'd been looking forward to going to the Cold War Modern exhibit for a while. It was quite the extensive exhibit and definitely was worth the money. I liked how they had a structured organization to the exhibit since it was in chronological order. I learned a lot about the history of not just art and design but also more about the events of the time around the world. Very interesting.

Also managed to get this shot before a guard told me you couldn't take pictures. (Honestly, I saw no sign anywhere saying not to take pictures...)

After browsing through more of the V&A, I headed over to the Natural History Museum. This was aimed more towards kids, which made me even more giddy on the inside when I got to stuff about fossils and dinosaurs:

I'm a big fan of fossils for someone who's never considered being an anthropology major, so I had a field day at this museum.

There was also another exhibit about either just volcanoes or natural disasters in general that I found kind of fun; they had a videotape from a supermarket during a volcano they played in a room set up to look like the supermarket that shook along with the video. Fun. Especially when I saw one poor kid run out on it when the floor started shaking.

Last, but not least, was the Science Museum. I was a bit museum-ed out at this point, so I mostly just walked through the exhibits without reading too much. My problem is that I either like to read absolutely

everything or pretty much nothing at all. Hm.

Well, I did find the exhibit on plastics interesting:

And there was this very cool special exhibit called the Listening Post.

It's this area set up with small screens, and it takes random chatter from the internet and speaks it out loud. Sounds kind of boring when I put it like that, but trust me, it was pretty interesting. I think there was some kind of music, too, and the set up made it feel like you really were listening to the internet. There were different ways the chatter was read, too, and since the displays lit up when there was text there were different patterns throughout.

It was quite a productive day, and I have just a few more museums I would like to go to before I leave now. Also, have I mentioned how sad it is that the sun sets so early here?

Here's a picture taken before 5 pm:

Yep, pretty soon sunset will be before 4 pm even.

Day 69: Mosque Visit

(This is for Tuesday 4 November)

For our Christianity and Islam class, we went to visit on mosque near Regent's Park. It's the first time I'd ever been to a mosque, which was especially interesting. There was a man who acted as our tour guide for our time there who answered any questions we had and brought us in during one of the five salat (prayers) of the day, which was definitely an interesting experience.

He told us a fairly brief story about how he became a Muslim and a bit about what he does, but I was disappointed in how impersonal he seemed. He was a nice man and seemed to be really interested in what we knew about Islam, but he wasn't very willing to truly answer our questions any further than on the surface, and he never really told us with any real personal element about his own beliefs. Our professor was telling us about the other guides they'd had when he'd brought other classes and how varied they were as far as being willing to answer difficult questions about Islam.

Nonetheless, it was a very worthwhile visit and I left with a better understanding of Islam and of Muslims.

Day 68: Econ Paper

(This is for Monday 3 November)

With reference to post-war UK economic policy, explain the shift from Keynesianism to Thatcherism.

First econ paper I've ever had to write... finished this up on Monday. An interesting topic, although I'm sure my paper could have been more interesting.

Day 67: I thought the Sabbath was for rest…

(This is for Sunday 2 November)

…so why do I always end up doing so much homework on Sundays?

Day 66: Castle Climbing

(This is for Saturday 1 November)

  

(Photo from castle-climbing.co.uk)

One of my friends from ND here has a membership at a castle – er, a climbing gym, so we headed there on Saturday. It's called Castle Climbing, and it's predictably a two (or three?) story climbing gym in a castle. Quite awesome.

After stretching, we did some bouldering (climbing shorter walls without harness or rope but very large pads on the floor) for a while. I was pretty surprised how much my out-of-shape body was able to do. I think the adrenaline from the excitement of climbing was enough to keep me going. There is a nice little café there, so we headed there for a break after bouldering.

We watched some people climb for a bit, and when we'd finished our food we headed out to rope climb. My friend showed me how to belay, and we did a bit of a test run with that, too. Quite exciting.

I've always loved climbing and have been meaning to go to a gym in Minneapolis called Vertical Endeavors for a while but haven't gotten to it. I must admit, it's a bit intimidating to go try to climb in front of a bunch of experienced climbers at first, but pretty much everyone is willing to help you out and encourage you.

There's a climbing club at ND, too, so I might check that out when I'm back on campus.

When we were done climbing (and absolutely exhausted) we stopped at a place called Tortilla on the way home – it's the British version of Chipotle, basically. And this is no small thing, since good Mexican food is nearly impossible to come by here. I'm incredibly glad I went... and I might even venture to say it was better than Chipotle!

Day 65: British Composers

(This is for Friday 31 October)

Halloween!!

Since it was our first week back from break, we had our first day in the next unit of the required Images of Britain Through the Arts class on Friday. While my previous unit had been Alternative Theatre, my new one is British Composers.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this class, but I'm now incredibly excited about it. For the first class, we went over what concerts we are going to and then learned about Ralph Vaughan Williams, who drew a lot of his influence from traditional English folk music. For those who may not know, I am a huge fan of folk music. Probably more than I will admit. We learned about the history of how Vaughan Williams was involved in collecting folk songs in England and then examined the use of the modal scale in his works and analyzed them in general too. This is basically my dream class.

So after a nice first day to a new class, I decided to take the long way home after playing some piano at the London Centre (I was feeling a little musically inspired) and finally made it out to the Millenium Bridge. While wandering back to the flats, I also stumbled across a Braveheart memorial type thing.

St. Paul's Cathedral:

 

Cathedral from Millenium Bridge:

 

 

  

Later that night, almost everyone in the London Program went on a cruise on the Thames that some students had organized for Halloween. It was absolutely gorgeous, though I didn't bring my camera. I wish I had pictures from it though! We went under Tower Bridge and also down past Parliament and the London Eye. It's definitely different seeing the city from the river, and I'm glad I finally made it on a boat, especially at night.

Day 64: Bubble wrap, a walking trash can, and war.

(This is for Thursday 30 October)

Another nice day, and as I was walking to school listening to my new morning song (Elbow - "Ribcage" - the percussion makes this song) a piece of bubble wrap floated in front of me and landed right in my path. While stepping on that bubble wrap and savoring the 'popop pop!', I knew that Thursday would be a good day.

Not too much after this, I was in Picadilly Circus and saw a trash can kind of out in the open... and then I saw it look around and take a few steps. I slowed down my pace to see what would happen. It's not every day you see someone dressed up as a fake trash can. I'm not sure if this was part of it, but there was a somewhat eccentrically dressed woman who seemed to be what the trash can was creeping toward, and there was a man walking up behind the woman who also seemed to be following her. I'm pretty sure they were all in on this together, but sadly I had to run to the tube to get to work on time.

After work I headed to the London Centre to meet with the professor who oversees the internships for a midsemester debriefing, which was really nice. It was helpful to be forced to take time to put things into perspective.

As if I hadn't done enough on Thursday, I headed to the Barbican Centre for Late Night at the Barbican, where they stayed open later than usual and had live music. The main reason I went was to see the Robert Capa / Gerda Taro exhibit, "This is War!" The exhibit was nice, and it was pretty neat to see some of the early prints of well-known photos. However, I think that it was kind of missing some extra element. It was obviously captivating because of the subject matter and the importance of Capa's work in the public's view of the war and as flagship work in the development of photojournalism, but it just wasn't the most impactful presentation of his work.

Anyway, enough on that. I think I might try to go to the Barbican sometime again to see more exhibits and to study since they had some nice spaces and a library (and free Wi-fi). Very cool space.

Oh, and here's a photo I took on the way back from the Barbican. This is just a tunnel nearby the Centre.

Day 63: Vote is in.

(This is for Wednesday 29 October)

Okay, so it took me a while but I sent in my absentee ballott 6 days before the election. And I really feel like my vote counts... er, is going to be recounted.

It was a beautiful fall day though; I really think we've been lucky this fall and haven't gotten too much of the "London weather". Since I was running errands in the area, I figured I'd head over to the Waterloo bridge and take some pictures:

Later that night, our Honours Seminar headed to the British Library for a debate about the US Election with representatives from Republicans Abroad and Democrats Abroad. It was pretty disappointing, as neither representative really talked about any issues and both their arguments were quite weak. Still, it was good to discuss it afterwards with the seminar group, especially since our professor is British.