After spending roughly six hours at school, a couple of hours at the airport, eight hours on the flight and twelve hours in the city itself, I am finally bringing to you the first blog installment in which we are located in our target destination: London, England.
Today's London adventures weren't really adventures in the traditional sense. Rather, they generally comprised of grocery shopping at UK chain Sainsbury's and settling-in to our apartment living situation. We did spend around an hour at Shakespeare's Globe Theater; seeing it recreated after 420 years so faithfully with the stereotypical cloudy English sky truly blasted me to the past, and all of the anecdotes and stories of the rowdy and raucous crowd heavily contrasts with the polite and kind people we have encountered so far. We additionally spent an hour at the Tate Modern museum of art, which showcases works not only from the UK, but around the world, with such famous names as Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, and many, many more being exhibited there. Some of the work was admittedly jarring, yes, but it also gave me insight into how an artist's mind operates in a greater cultural context, especially from the perspective of how it pertains to the UK and society as a whole.
It was also quite interesting getting used to walking on the opposite side of the sidewalk as well, and seeing all of the little changes from the US to the UK in terms of supermarkets, cars, buildings, and, of course, the people themselves!
I am glad to say with confidence that we were able to do all of this as well as get around safely and securely on the London Underground (one of the cleanest and most efficient subway systems in the world, as it turns out) with very little sleep. As a start, today wasn't so action packed, but I am confident that our newly acquired novice London skills can allow us to have an even better day tomorrow.
Written by Connor Morley
Today's London adventures weren't really adventures in the traditional sense. Rather, they generally comprised of grocery shopping at UK chain Sainsbury's and settling-in to our apartment living situation. We did spend around an hour at Shakespeare's Globe Theater; seeing it recreated after 420 years so faithfully with the stereotypical cloudy English sky truly blasted me to the past, and all of the anecdotes and stories of the rowdy and raucous crowd heavily contrasts with the polite and kind people we have encountered so far. We additionally spent an hour at the Tate Modern museum of art, which showcases works not only from the UK, but around the world, with such famous names as Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, and many, many more being exhibited there. Some of the work was admittedly jarring, yes, but it also gave me insight into how an artist's mind operates in a greater cultural context, especially from the perspective of how it pertains to the UK and society as a whole.
It was also quite interesting getting used to walking on the opposite side of the sidewalk as well, and seeing all of the little changes from the US to the UK in terms of supermarkets, cars, buildings, and, of course, the people themselves!
I am glad to say with confidence that we were able to do all of this as well as get around safely and securely on the London Underground (one of the cleanest and most efficient subway systems in the world, as it turns out) with very little sleep. As a start, today wasn't so action packed, but I am confident that our newly acquired novice London skills can allow us to have an even better day tomorrow.
Written by Connor Morley
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ReplyDeleteSounds like a very busy first day. I hope everyone gets a good night’s sleep!
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