Classes, British Library, Hampton Court, Chinese New Year, BAFTAs, BBQ

This is going to be a loooooooong post, so hold on tight. I'm also not going to say the days I did things, because I just confuse myself and can't remember ... so I'm just going to randomly tell you about activities I did. Sometimes I may throw in a day if I do remember. If this bothers you, too bad, get over it. :)


CLASSES
My Art in London class will be awesome, instead of meeting in a classroom every week, we meet at various galleries. Tomorrow we meet at the Courtauld Institute. We have to keep journals of our reactions to various places and works of art we see. The class covers mostly modern art, which is cool, but not what I expected. I think the professor thinks I'm dumb because I'm an art major and I haven't had any art history classes yet. She asked if I was taking any art history classes while I was here, and I said no (because the one I wanted to take wasn't being offered and it's so confusing to find classes on their website so I couldn't find a replacement.) and then she asked me if that was on purpose. Jerk face.

Then I had a graphic design class which is just called 'Print'. I think it will be a cool class. It's with all British students, which is cool. I was talking to this one girl who said she didn't like the professor, said that he was mean, but she said not to worry, he is really nice to study abroad students. I thought he was just fine. In this class and my other graphic design class (I actually have the same professor for both) we just have one project we have to work on for the whole semester. In Print, each person is going to make their own magazine. It's a little intimidating, but it will be really cool to do. There are probably about 15-20 people in the class.

My other graphic design class is called 'Design for Change'. It's interesting ... there's a ton of people in the class (maybe 50), mostly British students. We got in groups of 5, then picked a topic out of an envelope. Our topic is 'traffic cones'. So we have to do a project with traffic conse. And that is all I know. Should be interesting, eh?

My last class was Theater in London, which I think I already posted about, because it's going to be a really cool class. We'll see a play about every week. Our first play we are seeing is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.


BRITISH LIBRARY
Brit and I went to the British Library on Thursday because we don't have class. I've been there before, but it's still soooo cool. My mind can't even grasp that I'm looking at the Magna Carta, or a Gutenburg Bible, or letters written by Jane Austen, or the first copy of Beowulf, or one of Mozart's songs, etc. They have headphones you can listen to at various points, so I was standing there listening to the Beatles song 'Yesterday' while reading the original lyrics that were written down on a scrap piece of paper with a blue marker or something. It's crazy. And they have this sweet exhibition that has a lot to do with graphic design and the Bauhaus.


HAMPTON COURT
We went on a free trip (provided for study abroad students by London Met) to Hampton Court, one of King Henry VIII's palaces. It was really cool, but unorganized. We took the tube to Waterloo train station, and then took the train to the last stop. But the leader person didn't tell us any of this. It was just all of a sudden "We're going to the tube now, let's go to the station" and she looked annoyed when people would ask her what stop we were getting off at. The Palace was huge, and they are renovating part of it so they covered up the scaffolding with a ginormous tarp with a picture of Henry VIII on it. I thought it was funny. There are really nice gardens, and the oldest hedge maze ever is there (I think, it said something about the Guinness Book of World Records on it).


CHINESE NEW YEAR
London has a Chinatown, and now it is the Chinese New Year! So they have lots of celebrations going on. We went to an event at the British Museum were there was food and different performances and stuff. We went to it with our new Danish friend, Bat-el. We got to see some dances with swords, some girls danced with huge long feathers on their heads. It was really sweet.


BAFTAS - THE RED CARPET
On Sunday, we headed out to go to the Chinese New Year parade. Brit was interested in possibly going to the BAFTAs, (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), it's like the British Oscars. We knew you needed a wristband and had to wait in line and stuff. So before the parade (it was really close to the parade route) we decided to swing by and see how hard it would be to get wristbands and stuff. We talked to this security guy and he whipped out wristbands out of no where so we decided to go for it. Brit got in line, and Tianda, Bat-el, and I went to go watch the parade. It was cool, but honestly nothing amazing, it was hard to see, there were so many people watching it. Then we went back to the line and took shifts to go to the bathroom and eat food. We had to wait to be let in "public pens" next to the red carpet. We were there from 11, and celebrities didn't show up until about 5:00. But it was worth it.

So going to our "pens" there was lots of pushing... it was annoying, but all part of the experience. We met this woman in line who goes to premiers and the Baftas every year, so we got some good advice from her. Before any celebs arrived, they let out two puppies to smell out the carpet to make sure there were no drugs or bombs. And they literally were puppies. They were really cute, but I don't know how well of a job they did. They were really hyperactive and got easily distracted. The first person we saw was Ryan Seacrest, and we had to explain to some British people behind us who he was because they don't have American Idol here. Next to come was Ricky Gervais, the creator of The Office. I was really close to the red carpet, and so I got really good pictures. I didn't have anything for them to sign, but there was only one row of people in front of me, which was sweet. Some celebrities seemed very happy to get the attention and tried to sign as many autographs as they could, whereas others didn't really seem thrilled. Others didn't come to our side of the carpet, so I only saw their backs for a long time and then they would finally turn around when they were really far away. We got these ear phones things so that we could listen to this announcer guy that could see who was arriving, and he sometimes provided comments on what people were wearing.

Notable people I saw include: Hugh Laurie (didn't sign any autographs), Eddie Izzard (British comedian), Andy Serkis (Gollum in Lord of the Rings), Viggo Mortensen (did not seem happy to be there), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter!!!!), Orlando Bloom (did not come on my side), James McAvoy (Atonement and The Last King of Scotland), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood), Daniel Day Lewis (Brit got his autograph, he signed 'Daniel DL'), Kiera Knightley, Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose, Big Fish) ... and more. Here are pictures: http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097518&l=4bb8b&id=73405745 They are on my facebook. See the stars!! It was really exciting and I've never done anything like that before.


BBQ
After the BAFTA red carpet walk, we went to a barbeque that the Brazilians had invited us to at one of their houses by Turnpike Lane. It was really fun. I miss chilling around a fire because that's what my friends and I do all the time at home. They grilled us some delicious chicken. We just sat around and talked the whole night and it was a nice relaxing way to end our busy star-studded day. The tube closes at midnight, and we didn't want to figure out the bus, so we just slept at their house (they insisted), because it was really late by the time we were getting tired. They whipped these mattresses out of no where and sheets and pillows and everything. Just Brit and I slept over because Tianda and Zoe had left earlier and Louise had gone to Daniel's (her boyfriend's) house. We left at about 11 and went back on the tube.


TODAY
Today I went with Louise and Daniel to Covent Garden because she had an interview at a cafe. Then we just walked around for a while. I also cleaned up the room for a while. We bought some cleaner, so I cleaned the bathroom and kitchen area. I'm trying to figure out how to get to Cairo over spring break to visit Amanda. I need to hardcore figure everything out soon before it is too late. This weekend I go to Wales on an adventure trip. http://www.preseliventure.co.uk/
It will be a fun birthday!

More pictures of general London stuff so far can be seen here: http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097511&l=01611&id=73405745

Enjoy! It's bedtime for me, I actually have to go to class tomorrow ....
Night!