Thanksgiving

So the day started out like any other day. I went through the general morning day routines, but my day began to differ as I packed my suitcase full of casserole dishes and roasting pans. When I threw in a couple mini-looking pitch forks, I knew things were getting serious. With my supplies neatly packed up, I headed out into the frosty english morning to fetch myself a turkey.

It is a bit sad to be without one's family on a celebrated holiday like today. It's even sadder to realize that your mom won't be there to run the kitchen and man the recipes as you watch, your mind alluding to a conductor directing his symphony. Feeling like a kid who dreams of standing up in front of a crowd with only his or her underwear on, exposed and overwhelmed, I stressed that this meal had to be one for the books. Luckily I had my best bud Claire by my side, and we...

***unfortunately I never finished this post, and now it is more than seven months later, and my memory is not quite sharp enough to finish the description of this epic past day. What I can tell you is that my friends and I made a glorious and delicious Thanksgiving dinner while in Kingston. I am now completely able to cook my own turkey, and will never again be frightened (which is an understatement) when the turkey is so fresh that it still has it's ankles attached (which we initially thought horrifically was its head).

Happy Thanksgiving (seven+ months late :x )

busy,busy,busy

Hello everyone!

Sorry I haven't updated lately, I have been super busy since Rome.

Let's see... classes are going well, I have a number of papers due soon so it's a bit stressful. Today I went to look at the space where I will be putting on my expo of artwork that I've done while here. It's nothing spectacular, but will do its job.

Last week in Kingston there was an event where they decorate the town center and dramatically turn on the lights. My friend Patricia and her band performed as well as some other great groups. After hearing Patricia rock it out, we went to check out the market place where they had different kinds of food stands up. The lot of us got a bratwurst, and then moved on to desert. I ordered some freshly made donuts and boy were they tasty!



On the way home I stopped by a pub to meet some other mates and watched a game of football. It ended up being a really exciting match because the team we were rooting for scored a goal within the last 30 seconds to tie the game, and then in overtime they scored the winning goal within the last minute. It was dramatic to say the least.

Friday was my housemates birthday, so in the evening we went down to this great pub called "The Boaters" right along the Thames. It was really fun. The next day we continued the celebration and went to a pub down the road to watch a game of football and rugby. That was my first time seeing a rugby game and it was quite frightening. The players are HUGE, with no necks, and can barely walk because of all of their muscles. It did give me the urge to go and tackle somebody, but I refrained.

That evening Claire and her roommate Synne hosted a housewarming party in the new apartment! It was great fun. This Thursday some of us are gathering again at their place to cook a Thanksgiving feast! I'm going to buy a turkey tomorrow, and hopefully it turns out okay. None of us have ever cooked a turkey so it should be interesting.

Friends and I bought tickets for the Vampire Weekend concert in December, I am stoked!

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

sorry for the vague post, hopefully next week I will have more to share!

Splendor

Boun Giorno!

So I got back from my four day trip to Rome, and I can hardly express what a wonderful time I had!

I left on Sunday evening from London, and arrived late at night (around 9pm) to Rome. I took a bus from the airport to the hostel I was staying at with Claire and Greg.

On Monday we decided to visit St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. On the way there we walked past the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. We stopped for lunch and I got my first authentic Italian meal in Roma in five years. So to say I was excited is an understatement. I ordered lasagna and it was amazing! As we were dining, the weather went from a slight drizzle to an all out downpour. Although we were not happy about the rain, we set off for the Vatican. Monday was a holiday so the museum and chapel were not open. The good part was there was hardly any line, the bad part- it poured. By the time we got into the basilica our shoes were flooded with water.

St. Peter's Basilica houses Michelangelo's 'Pieta'. The Pieta was the artist's only work that he ever signed and has the most interesting of histories. The work was done in 1499, taking less than two years to create. It has received many casualties, the most horrific being in 1972 when a crazy man who stormed at the marble statue with a hammer yelling "I am Jesus Christ" while showering fatal blows that took off Mary's nose, arm, and chipped off numerous other sections. The Pieta was restored, but now resides behind a bullet-proof piece of glass.



The basilica is absolutely stunning, with floor to ceiling marble and epic works of art.







With wet feet and soggy spirits we headed back to the hostel for a change of clothes. For dinner we went to a pizza place that Claire and Greg had been to the day before. When we got there, a line had already formed before the restaurant had even opened! I took this as a good sign and was not disappointed. The pizza was delicious and more than made up for the bad weather that day.

The next morning we left early to visit one of the markets in Rome. In these markets are various types of items such as clothing, jewelry, leather goods, and really bad knock off purses. As you walk through you get bombarded by annoying sales people trying to get you to look at their things. It was fun to look through the sections that had rows of old clothing- many from the 80's that I no one should ever wear again. I am pretty sure that I picked up a fur coat that was made from shaved dog hair- it was really gross ha!



After rummaging through the market, I was in desperate need of real shopping so we popped in a department store near by. It was a gorgeous morning that day so we walked around until we found something to eat. We sat down in a small park area to eat our pizza (can never have too much). It was yummy and pleasant except for the single killer bee with a taste for ham pizza and the swarms of pigeons.

Claire, Greg and I traveled back to Vatican city to visit the museum and Sistine Chapel. I had seen both the last time I was in Rome, but it is sad how much you forget!



It was wonderful and beautiful and was just as surreal as the first time- especially seeing the chapel.



From there we went to the area of the Trevi Fountain for dinner. We picked a random restaurant down a random alley way to eat at. We lucked out for it was yummy. This time I got pasta in a buttery sauce with clams! Afterwards we went and got some gelato at this place that I had been hearing about from Claire since I arrived in Rome. It really was all the rage, and this place had much more unique flavors than any of the other gelaterias. I had honey and ricotta gelato which was divine. We took our desserts to the Trevi Fountain to enjoy.



It is so much fun to people watch in Rome, for there are travelers from all over. It's also fun to laugh about the stupid things that people buy from the locals who walk around forcing their items upon you. On the walk home we came across a guy who was enjoying his gelato almost as much as we did...



He literally had it all over his face and in his beard!

The next morning we visited one of the grandest churches in Rome, the St. Maria Maggiore. It was gorgeous both inside and out.



It had the most amazing marble decor!



It was another beautiful day out so as we headed towards the Colosseum, I took some pictures of the general loveliness of the city.



The Colosseum was just as breathtaking as I remembered...





There is so much in the one area, so we also passed the Arch of Constantine and the Roman Forum...







Next we went off to find the Bocca Della Veritå aka The Mouth of Truth. Legend says that if one tells a lie with their hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it will be bitten off! If you have seen the Audrey Hepburn Movie "Roman Holiday" you will most definitely recognize this!



Clearly I lied...



Next we walked across the River in search of the perfect pizza. Luckily it stayed sunny.



We had lunch at a pizza place listed as one of the best, and it surely was! I had the superformaggio pizza and Claire and Greg got the Buffata and Superbuffata pizzas. I love Italy because everyone gets their own pizza! For dessert we shared a nutella and ricotta calzone. Be jealous.



From there we walked, talked, shopped, and squeezed the very last drop out of our trip to Roma.



As you can see, we ate a lot- nothing compares to gelato, crepes, pasta, and pizza in Rome!

“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn! Look to this Day! For it is Life, the very Life of Life. In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence. The Bliss of Growth, The Glory of Action, The Splendor of Beauty; For Yesterday is but a Dream, And To-morrow is only a Vision; But To-day well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope. Look well therefore to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!”

Bouna Notte!

Ghostly

So this past weekend was Halloween! I did not initially plan on dressing up or doing anything special for the day, but in London Halloween is actually really popular.

My weekend began on Friday evening with a get together at a friend's house. We didn't do anything in particular, just jammed to some great music- Beatles, Rolling Stones- which passed into a long night of being merry and having sing a longs. My friend Vincent is very good on the guitar, and friend Patricia is a wonderful singer. It was a very relaxing and fun night!

On Saturday night a group of friends and I went out to London to celebrate Halloween. I ended up dressing up as an peacock sort of bird, while most everyone else was something scary! It was hilarious painting the faces of the guys, and honestly none of us did a very good job, but it did the trick.



The train ride into London was really humorous because while you are in costumes, most other people are not. So sitting next to an old couple with fake blood all over you and smiling, may not get you a smile in return. We ventured off into the night to find a club that Patricia had heard of, but when we got there it was packed. We went in anyway since there was no cover just to check it out, but it was really stinky and sweaty so we left shortly after. Walking down the street on Halloween weekend in London is really a sight! There are people everywhere in some really creative costumes. The group of us ended up just popping in a bar/club that we came across. It was pretty fun, and we just danced the night away.



Anytime one goes into London for the night, the most annoying part is getting home. It takes forever and you are exhausted, so I was very excited to finally fall into bed and pass out.

"At first cock-crow the ghosts must go
Back to their quiet graves below."

And now off to Rome...

Brilliance

These are the moments where you find out who you are, take chances, and learn the lessons that will stay with you for the rest of your life. If you don't question the norm or put yourself out there, there is no chance that you will ever come close to the person that you are supposed to be. These are the things that I've always known, but being here has given me a greater perspective on them. I don't want to stay in my comfort zone for that is only a restraint that you force upon yourself. When you put yourself out there, that is when you learn the greatest lessons. If you don't jump off of that edge every once and a while, then how can you know how far you can go?

This past weekend I had the chance to travel to Oxford with people from my University. It was the most amazing experience. There was first a walking tour of the city that included going around to all of the colleges of Oxford University. Oxford is the oldest university in England, so there was a lot of history. There are a total of 38 colleges and to apply to the school you must apply to the university itself as well as a chosen college.



The architecture in the city is absolutely stunning. It happened that the Saturday we were visiting, was a day of graduation ceremonies or what not. So all around the city were students dressed in their robes. It was very interesting to see, and to imagine the genius of those individuals. One of the first buildings we look at was the Bodleian library. Underground houses 130 miles of books, and the university had just build another 130 miles of bookshelves. We were told that they would be filled within the next 50 years. The library holds a policy where they are entitled to receive a copy of every book that is published in the UK. I'm not sure how one summons a book, but at the moment they are in the midst of the daunting task of digitalizing the entire library.



The thing about Oxford is that it has housed some of the most brilliant minds that have produced everything from world-famous books, to aspirin, to discovering the pattern to Halley's comet. As a student of Oxford you get much one-on-one time with tutors, which compared to lectures where there are more than a hundred students in a room, no wonder out of the entire University last year everyone but one student passed their course. Sucks to be that one student huh?

After the walking tour, we were able to actually go inside and see one of the colleges- Christ's Church. This is where they have filmed parts of the Harry Potter films. The college was stunningly beautiful, especially on a sunny day like we had.


Can you imagine living and studying on a campus like this??

This is the dining hall. In the picture below can you guess which is Harry Potter's butt-print?




My friend Amanda and I decided to depart from our class and forgo the ride home. We wanted to stay the night in Oxford and experience more of the city. This was the best of ideas I must say. There is a covered market place that has every kind of store you could think of. There were stands selling fresh fish, meat, and game.



Hope you don't think this picture is 'fowl'. haha get it?

There was also this great bakery that had the most beautiful cakes. I got a cupcake and Amanda got this great mini cake that had 'breakfast beans' on top. For those who don't know, a full-english breakfast consists of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and baked beans. The beans on the cake were just sugar of course, otherwise it might have been gross. That night we went to dinner at a famous pub called The Eagle and Child. This place is known for housing the meetings of great writers such as C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien. They called themselves "the Inklings" and would discuss their latest works over pints of beer. The food was delicious, and the atmosphere even better





This was a letter written and signed by 'the Inklings' to the bartender, sorry for the bad quality of photo.

With happy stomachs full of food and beer, we moved on to another pub. Here we enjoyed a Guiness and people watched. We saw some pretty hilarious things. Then we moved on to another bar, where we sat outside under heat lamps and came up with some brilliant ideas of our own.

The next day we went browsing through the city, looking at an array of shops. We stopped in this great antique shop that had an amazing selection of items. They had shelves and shelves of jewelry, artifacts, books, and more. I purchased a hard bound copy of 'The Great Gatsby' and the complete works of Lewis Carroll with the illustrations by John Tenniel. I guess I was inspired, for Christ's Church is where Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice in Wonderland". I also found this great vintage watch. It has a working battery and everything...!

I left Oxford mid-afternoon on the train and headed straight into London where I was meeting some people to go to the Gauguin exhibit in the Tate Modern. It was an amazing collection of his work, I wasn't even aware he did so much printmaking.
Gauguin is an amazing colorist, and I found myself being able to stare at one painting for what seemed like ages just trying to decipher the colors that he put into the work. When I finally got home, I was ridiculously excited to go to bed.

This was such an inspiring whirlwind of a weekend.


"Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos."


**i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Interpretation

It's been awhile since my last post, so I have much to update you all on...

Classes are rolling along and going well, but lot's to do!

Other than that, this past weekend was Claire's Birthday so on Friday we met up at a local pub to celebrate. I made her a really funny card, which I wish I would have taken a picture of. We had a few drinks, had some laughs, and laughed at people dancing.



We ran into George, one of the sons I am living with, and we had a bit of a dance off.

On Saturday I went to Stonehenge and Bath with my British Life & Culture class. It was an early day, but I got to nap on the bus ride there. Stonehenge was first on the agenda. Truthfully there isn't much to do once you gaze upon it, though it is amazing to see it in front of you after reading and learning about it so many times.








I think that the wow factor is inhibited because you are not able to get very close to the structure. There is an outer perimeter roped off, and you get to view it as you walk around. It was quite chilly that morning so we were excited to get some hot cocoa to help warm up. I also tried my first pasty, and it was quite good. Claire got herself a sausage roll, which also was yummy.

After we finished at Stonehenge, we had a 1.5 hr drive to Bath. Bath is in the south west of England and a gorgeous city. We got a walking tour of the highlights, and then visited the Roman baths. This is probably my favorite city so far, it was just so lovely and had great shopping! The architecture was amazing, especially the work done by John Wood and his son.






At the Roman Baths I was in awe of the layout, and the way that they summoned the hot water from the hot spring. Over a million liters rise out of the spring at temperatures above 100 degrees F. The water still runs, and you can feel and see the heat radiating from the "pipes" and baths. You are also able to test the water, it is loaded with minerals. It basically tasted like well water, but with even more iron.

Another 2.5 hours later, we were finally back in Kingston. Claire, Greg, Joe, and I went out to eat at Wagamama's for Claire's birthday dinner, and it was delicious as always. After such a long day I basically fell into bed as soon as I got home and fell asleep.

A week of class and studio work flies by...

And now today I went into London to visit Tate Modern. It was really great, and there are so many works to see. A new exhibition just opened in the Turbine Hall, it is an installation by artist Ai Weiwei. It is called "Sunflower Seeds". The floor of the room is almost fully covered by what looks to be millions of sunflower seed shells. What they actually are though, are porcelain pieces molded and painted to look like sunflower seed husks. Each of the "seeds" are hand painted. A video plays in the next room, which explains the process that the artist went through. The video makes it that more intriguing and amazing. I recommend taking a look!

(http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unileverseries2010/room3.shtm)

After the museum, I stopped by an art bookshop across the street where I browsed for a bit. They had a lot of old gallery booklets along with tons of books of British and International Artists' work. I then decided to just follow the Thames down by the South Bank and wander.





There are a lot of great restaurants and bars along there, and can't wait to go back with some mates. There were also little shops and galleries. I stopped by a book sale that was out on the walkway and picked up a book on Salvador Dali and a book full of Dick Tracy comics. On my way back I went into a shop and found a book that retells all of the literature classics in 'tweets', it was hilariously ridiculous. The shop also had some really funny greeting cards...

It was an amazing yet very long day.

“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world -- in order to set up a shadow world of ''meanings.''

Arrivederci!

Wander/Wonder

Today I ventured into London alone, on a quest to find art and experience the gallery life of the city. I was a bit hesitant at first to go alone, but decided that these are the days to be adventurous. My plans turned out extremely well and I actually began to relish the fact that I could wander alone without having to worry about any one else's plans.

My day began at the National Portrait Gallery, which houses over 1,000 portraits of men women from the late Middle Ages to the present day.

The Gallery is pretty much organized historically, with faces of monarchs, writers, and lots of people that I have never heard of.

My favorite was the self portrait of L.S. Lowry- Man with Red Eyes. There was also a portrait of Isabella Blow by Tim Noble and Sue Webster. If you don't know of those two artists, they are well known for their silhouette self-portraits made out of garbage or other random objects.

This one here is made out of mummified creatures (pic via britishmuseum.org)

and here is the one that was in the National Portrait Gallery of Isabella Blow...

(image from npg.org.uk)

Next I went and checked out the Fourth Plinth which is an empty plinth located in front of the National Gallery that holds commissioned pieces by some great artists. The work that is currently sitting atop of the plinth is "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle" by artist Yinka Shonibare.

After that, I moved away from Trafalgar Square to go gallery hunting. I visited Sims Reed Gallery that was showing work from Richard Estes (photorealist painter), Roy Lichtenstein, and Joan Miro´. Next I went into Olvia Fine Art gallery that was holding an exhibition including Warhol, Ruschenbert, Haring, Wesselmann, and Stella. It was titled "Sold Out: American Pop Art from the 1970's & 80's" I love Pop art so it was really exciting to see the pieces in that gallery. I stopped into a few other smaller galleries, but embarrassingly cannot remember the names. I basically just wandered around the galleries that were by St. James Square and went into the ones that were open and looked interesting.

After my gallery search I decided to take a stroll down Regent Street. I walked into the Top Shop there which I missed last time I visited London. It is huge, and wonderful, and full of great things!

So that was my wonderful adventure into London, and I am absolutely exhausted!

"I do not know why I go on. I do not search for truth. I do not believe in it. But I believe in something. Maybe simply in the beauty of the world which I wander or in the will to live itself."

Mind the gap.