Oh I desperately hope you all recognised the title reference. I mean, of course the world is not ending, but at the same time I do start to wonder...
It's my last night in Austria and I'm doing my best to type out thoughts which make sense. My mind is pulling a Phar Lap and racing round and round in my head. I expect soon it will cop a good dose of arsenic and just die.
By 'arsenic' I mean 'emotional connection to what is going on' and when I say 'just die' I mean 'become overwhelmed and exhaust me into a good night of sleep before I leave tomorrow morning.'
I don't think I'll sleep very well tonight.
Clare
xoxo
Friday, January 13, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
5362 minutes.
My last post was talking about how I hadn't processed I was leaving.
The day after that, it hit me. (The fact that I was leaving, not the post).
It was on Saturday, actually. I went and visited my first host family for the last time. It was bizarre; driving to the train station from their house for the last time. I did that every day for close to 4 months, and all of a sudden it was over. I stood on the platform in the dark and the cold for the last time. I did that every day for close to 4 months. It was almost the same as my first day at school. I hugged them all goodbye and - as I did that first school day - boarded the train nervously, unsure of what was going to happen next. The train pulled away and I waved. As I turned to sit back in my chair, I began to cry. I hadn't planned on crying (but who does?), and I certainly hadn't wanted to think about what was going on. I had pretty much no choice in the matter and once I'd started I couldn't stop.
I should say here that there are some things people prepare you for, and some things nobody can. People can prepare you for culture shock, homesickness, confusion, loneliness and change. Apparently not for the moments you comprehend what is happening. I didn't see it coming and I would have appreciated some sort of warning. I didn't get a little sticky note on my door saying "This is going to happen, and this is how to deal with it". I'm planning on writing a formal complaint about the lack of sticky note.
For the most part, I'm a pretty controlled girl. I don't eat to the point of being bloated at meal times. I don't spend a fortune on clothes I don't think I'll wear, just because I love the item. I don't punch everyone that I want to (it sounds like an average expectation of someone, but it takes a lot of control for me). However, when I cry I lose control. This meant I couldn't stop myself thinking about everything as I caught that train.
I wont talk of what I thought about, because it's all personal stuff that is probably too 'you-had-to-be-there'. There is also a lot, and it's just exhausting to have to think of it all again, let alone type it out.
It's subsided at the moment. I'm feeling drained yet fine. I'm not crying and I'm trying to not reflect on stuff. Just living my last 4 days as well as I can. I feel sorry for the people on the plane with me.
Clare
xoxo
The day after that, it hit me. (The fact that I was leaving, not the post).
It was on Saturday, actually. I went and visited my first host family for the last time. It was bizarre; driving to the train station from their house for the last time. I did that every day for close to 4 months, and all of a sudden it was over. I stood on the platform in the dark and the cold for the last time. I did that every day for close to 4 months. It was almost the same as my first day at school. I hugged them all goodbye and - as I did that first school day - boarded the train nervously, unsure of what was going to happen next. The train pulled away and I waved. As I turned to sit back in my chair, I began to cry. I hadn't planned on crying (but who does?), and I certainly hadn't wanted to think about what was going on. I had pretty much no choice in the matter and once I'd started I couldn't stop.
I should say here that there are some things people prepare you for, and some things nobody can. People can prepare you for culture shock, homesickness, confusion, loneliness and change. Apparently not for the moments you comprehend what is happening. I didn't see it coming and I would have appreciated some sort of warning. I didn't get a little sticky note on my door saying "This is going to happen, and this is how to deal with it". I'm planning on writing a formal complaint about the lack of sticky note.
For the most part, I'm a pretty controlled girl. I don't eat to the point of being bloated at meal times. I don't spend a fortune on clothes I don't think I'll wear, just because I love the item. I don't punch everyone that I want to (it sounds like an average expectation of someone, but it takes a lot of control for me). However, when I cry I lose control. This meant I couldn't stop myself thinking about everything as I caught that train.
I wont talk of what I thought about, because it's all personal stuff that is probably too 'you-had-to-be-there'. There is also a lot, and it's just exhausting to have to think of it all again, let alone type it out.
It's subsided at the moment. I'm feeling drained yet fine. I'm not crying and I'm trying to not reflect on stuff. Just living my last 4 days as well as I can. I feel sorry for the people on the plane with me.
Clare
xoxo
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Less than a week, huh?
It hasn't clicked.
I have been trying really hard to process that I have 6 FULL days left in Austria before I leave it for about 2 years. Unfortunately, I have made no progress. I don't know whether it's still part of the denial stage or whether I'm actually just too confused and deformed by it to be able to feel anything at all.
Sometimes it gets scary. I'll be walking along and then have some sort of emotional seizure where I feel more conflicting...feelings (I can't think of a better word)... in the space of 14 seconds than I do in the average day. Today, for example.
I want beach - I want English beach - I want Australia beach - I want Austrian mountains - I want Japanese forest - I want Kualar Lumpur - I want Solomon Islands - I want beach - I want Australian outback - I want driving home from Canberra at night - I want space and sci-fi - I want African rain - I want Japan in Spring - I want English countryside.
I flicked through epic longings for those various things in around a 14 second time frame. I can't explain how really painful it is. Not in the "Oh my weeping heart, such longings cannot be satisfied so quickly" way. I mean in the "I get super worked up over something and two seconds later change my mind. OH SO FRUSTRATED!"
I don't know if anyone really understands me on this. But I like to think they do. [NOTE: a great pet peeve of mine is having people be all "No, you don't understand me. I'm unique and all because I'm the only one who knows what this is like" when it's very possible multiple people do understand. But that's for another blog...]
Anywhoodles, I have 6 days and am trying to fill them up with happiness and joy and stuff like that. You know, "Make the most of every opportunity!" and other deep, motivational sentiments that last half an hour.
It's been weird for me. I've said goodbye to people I love, without knowing when I'll next see them. I haven't even cried properly about it (Salzburg being the exception). I know I wont see some of them for a long time, and others possibly forever. For some reason, though, I can't understand that. It's like "I hardly need to get upset over this, there's another Rotary weekend in 6 weeks. I'll see them then." and I don't get it that I wont.
It's like when you're excited for Christmas, and then Christmas happens, and a few days later you're still expecting to wake up to Christmas. I just haven't reached the point where I realise it's not Christmas and break down in a flood of tears and agony at the return to greeting people with "Hey" instead of "Merry Christmas!" and eating one-course meals, once or twice a day instead of a larger-than-life all day buffet.
So people keep asking me how I'm going with it all, and that's more or less the answer. Of course I have these rare moments when kilobites of information actually reach my brain and I tear up at what's going to happen, but then my internal hard drive overloads and I wipe the tears away while wondering instead what I'll be eating for lunch.
I'll keep you updated.
Clare
xoxo
I have been trying really hard to process that I have 6 FULL days left in Austria before I leave it for about 2 years. Unfortunately, I have made no progress. I don't know whether it's still part of the denial stage or whether I'm actually just too confused and deformed by it to be able to feel anything at all.
Sometimes it gets scary. I'll be walking along and then have some sort of emotional seizure where I feel more conflicting...feelings (I can't think of a better word)... in the space of 14 seconds than I do in the average day. Today, for example.
I want beach - I want English beach - I want Australia beach - I want Austrian mountains - I want Japanese forest - I want Kualar Lumpur - I want Solomon Islands - I want beach - I want Australian outback - I want driving home from Canberra at night - I want space and sci-fi - I want African rain - I want Japan in Spring - I want English countryside.
I flicked through epic longings for those various things in around a 14 second time frame. I can't explain how really painful it is. Not in the "Oh my weeping heart, such longings cannot be satisfied so quickly" way. I mean in the "I get super worked up over something and two seconds later change my mind. OH SO FRUSTRATED!"
I don't know if anyone really understands me on this. But I like to think they do. [NOTE: a great pet peeve of mine is having people be all "No, you don't understand me. I'm unique and all because I'm the only one who knows what this is like" when it's very possible multiple people do understand. But that's for another blog...]
Anywhoodles, I have 6 days and am trying to fill them up with happiness and joy and stuff like that. You know, "Make the most of every opportunity!" and other deep, motivational sentiments that last half an hour.
It's been weird for me. I've said goodbye to people I love, without knowing when I'll next see them. I haven't even cried properly about it (Salzburg being the exception). I know I wont see some of them for a long time, and others possibly forever. For some reason, though, I can't understand that. It's like "I hardly need to get upset over this, there's another Rotary weekend in 6 weeks. I'll see them then." and I don't get it that I wont.
It's like when you're excited for Christmas, and then Christmas happens, and a few days later you're still expecting to wake up to Christmas. I just haven't reached the point where I realise it's not Christmas and break down in a flood of tears and agony at the return to greeting people with "Hey" instead of "Merry Christmas!" and eating one-course meals, once or twice a day instead of a larger-than-life all day buffet.
So people keep asking me how I'm going with it all, and that's more or less the answer. Of course I have these rare moments when kilobites of information actually reach my brain and I tear up at what's going to happen, but then my internal hard drive overloads and I wipe the tears away while wondering instead what I'll be eating for lunch.
I'll keep you updated.
Clare
xoxo
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Spoilers
WARNING: Contains no spoilers (well, except about the Doctor Who Experience, which is over now anyway)
For those of you who don't like Doctor Who, just don't read this one. You'll probably be bored.
I happen to really like Doctor Who, so I will keep reading after I finish writing this. I will proof-read it.
The Doctor Who Experience is probably named so because they really couldn't be more specific. People have asked me "So what IS it?" and I'd spend a silly amount of time trying to explain it. I should have just said "An interactive exhibition" but that's still not quite what it was like.
I don't know why but they put it somewhere in the middle of pretty much nowhere. Over near the Olympic grounds, and it took me ages to get there. London is really good with public transport. You almost never have to wait more than 3 minutes for a train going in the direction you're headed. Unfortunately, this doesn't apply for all parts of London. I had the great misfortune of arriving where I needed to, a few minutes after my connecting train departed. I had to wait 45 minutes for the next one. Thank goodness I was able to waste time consuming a salad. Not a very good one though. It was oil and pasta and basil and pine nuts and spinach and cherry tomatoes. Sounds good but it wasn't.
When I arrived at the building I was so stressed. I'd called in the morning to book a ticket (after calling 4 times throughout the week and being put on hold for way too long). I waited 20 minutes the last time and was finally put through to a lady who said "You can't book on the day." No doubt you can envision me imploding with frustration at being put on hold for 20 minutes to be told they couldn't help me. It was like a re-enactment of the destruction of the Witch King of Angmar (LOTR freaks represent!).
Super relieved when I learned there were still plenty of tickets. This cool as greeter-guy at the door was all, "Haha you look pretty excited." and we had a mini-discussion about how exciting it was and how stressed I was when I thought I wouldn't get a ticket. He said it was going to be awesome and I believed him.
The first part of it was just a mini exhibition with displays of various D.W. monster costumes and a dalek. You then continue into this small room with all these benches facing a wall. There was a video (you know, it was the Doctor speaking and all these little clips from Doctor Who and he was giving us some message about cracks in walls) and the video ended with a crack forming in the wall, through which we walked into a museum exhibition thingy on some sort of planet. There was one of those people with the bizarre faces from the Library episodes telling us about various objects in the room because it was apparently a museum tour. Then the Doctor sent out a feed and appeared on a screen. He was in a Pandorica chair and saying funny stuff about how it was the same colour as the first one - "BOR-ING! They're so unoriginal!" - and needed OUR HELP to get him out and save the world.
Booyeah.
He did some sonic screwdriver thing and the TARDIS appeared. Yes, it's bigger on the inside. We got to push some buttons to help the TARDIS hone in on the Doctor's signal and some other weird stuff, but then we had to go out a side door into a dodgy hallway. I don't know why but for some reason I was always at the front of the group. I felt cool and manly for that. Being the brave one who isn't afraid to follow the Doctor's instructions. (I was actually pretty scared). We then got to a room with Daleks in it, and they were going to kill us but the Doctor sent out another signal feed thingy and told the Daleks not to kill us because we were "a very low-intelligent life form. A subspecies of human: shoppers." and threatened them with something or other. They let us through to a room full of weeping angels. No, I did not blink.
We eventually got him out of the chair and saved the world in doing so. You're welcome.
After that was a big exhibition of Doctor Who stuff. There were costumes (some originals), props (such as original sonic screwdrivers and a TARDIS used in the 70s I think) and original and replica sets. Videos from the choreographers teaching us how to walk like the Family of Blood scarecrows or cybermen. Information signs about stuff like the original theme song, how it was made, and how it's changed since. You could record yourself saying stuff and it would be played back in a dalek of cyberman voice. "Stop. Hammer time." has never sounded cooler.
And at the very end was a shop. I was pretty disappointed it wasn't selling life-size cardboard cutouts of weeping angels or scarecrows from The Family of Blood, but you come to accept these things. Eventually. Besides, I would have had no way to get it home. *wistful sigh* so I bought myself a 6 pack of Doctor Who pins instead.
I think they should have had Matt Smith and Steven Moffat there for every single group who went through. It would have been a lot more "Doctor Who Experience"y. But I had nothing to complain about. It was as great as David Tennant, and we all know how great HE is.
Clare
xoxo
For those of you who don't like Doctor Who, just don't read this one. You'll probably be bored.
I happen to really like Doctor Who, so I will keep reading after I finish writing this. I will proof-read it.
The Doctor Who Experience is probably named so because they really couldn't be more specific. People have asked me "So what IS it?" and I'd spend a silly amount of time trying to explain it. I should have just said "An interactive exhibition" but that's still not quite what it was like.
I don't know why but they put it somewhere in the middle of pretty much nowhere. Over near the Olympic grounds, and it took me ages to get there. London is really good with public transport. You almost never have to wait more than 3 minutes for a train going in the direction you're headed. Unfortunately, this doesn't apply for all parts of London. I had the great misfortune of arriving where I needed to, a few minutes after my connecting train departed. I had to wait 45 minutes for the next one. Thank goodness I was able to waste time consuming a salad. Not a very good one though. It was oil and pasta and basil and pine nuts and spinach and cherry tomatoes. Sounds good but it wasn't.
When I arrived at the building I was so stressed. I'd called in the morning to book a ticket (after calling 4 times throughout the week and being put on hold for way too long). I waited 20 minutes the last time and was finally put through to a lady who said "You can't book on the day." No doubt you can envision me imploding with frustration at being put on hold for 20 minutes to be told they couldn't help me. It was like a re-enactment of the destruction of the Witch King of Angmar (LOTR freaks represent!).
Super relieved when I learned there were still plenty of tickets. This cool as greeter-guy at the door was all, "Haha you look pretty excited." and we had a mini-discussion about how exciting it was and how stressed I was when I thought I wouldn't get a ticket. He said it was going to be awesome and I believed him.
The first part of it was just a mini exhibition with displays of various D.W. monster costumes and a dalek. You then continue into this small room with all these benches facing a wall. There was a video (you know, it was the Doctor speaking and all these little clips from Doctor Who and he was giving us some message about cracks in walls) and the video ended with a crack forming in the wall, through which we walked into a museum exhibition thingy on some sort of planet. There was one of those people with the bizarre faces from the Library episodes telling us about various objects in the room because it was apparently a museum tour. Then the Doctor sent out a feed and appeared on a screen. He was in a Pandorica chair and saying funny stuff about how it was the same colour as the first one - "BOR-ING! They're so unoriginal!" - and needed OUR HELP to get him out and save the world.
Booyeah.
He did some sonic screwdriver thing and the TARDIS appeared. Yes, it's bigger on the inside. We got to push some buttons to help the TARDIS hone in on the Doctor's signal and some other weird stuff, but then we had to go out a side door into a dodgy hallway. I don't know why but for some reason I was always at the front of the group. I felt cool and manly for that. Being the brave one who isn't afraid to follow the Doctor's instructions. (I was actually pretty scared). We then got to a room with Daleks in it, and they were going to kill us but the Doctor sent out another signal feed thingy and told the Daleks not to kill us because we were "a very low-intelligent life form. A subspecies of human: shoppers." and threatened them with something or other. They let us through to a room full of weeping angels. No, I did not blink.
We eventually got him out of the chair and saved the world in doing so. You're welcome.
After that was a big exhibition of Doctor Who stuff. There were costumes (some originals), props (such as original sonic screwdrivers and a TARDIS used in the 70s I think) and original and replica sets. Videos from the choreographers teaching us how to walk like the Family of Blood scarecrows or cybermen. Information signs about stuff like the original theme song, how it was made, and how it's changed since. You could record yourself saying stuff and it would be played back in a dalek of cyberman voice. "Stop. Hammer time." has never sounded cooler.
And at the very end was a shop. I was pretty disappointed it wasn't selling life-size cardboard cutouts of weeping angels or scarecrows from The Family of Blood, but you come to accept these things. Eventually. Besides, I would have had no way to get it home. *wistful sigh* so I bought myself a 6 pack of Doctor Who pins instead.
I think they should have had Matt Smith and Steven Moffat there for every single group who went through. It would have been a lot more "Doctor Who Experience"y. But I had nothing to complain about. It was as great as David Tennant, and we all know how great HE is.
Clare
xoxo
Thursday, December 22, 2011
All Hail the Mother Country!!!
I doubt you're still interested in hearing about my adventures in England, but I'll blog about them anyway in the off chance that you become curious. Or in case you're a gossip columnist/news reporter who is looking up juicy details about my life and want to know about my time in England without having to interview me directly.
I have learned from myself and discovered you don't REALLY want a word-for-word description of everything I did and saw. That'd be boring. So I'll just tell you a few of my favourite parts.
My favourite part is most definitely the part where I got to go 3 times. Some exchange students have only been allowed once, and others not at all. I'm not entirely sure why, but I got really lucky and was allowed back, so that was a highlight.
Then of course there was seeing my extended family. I stayed with my Aunt, Uncle, and two cousins while there. They live in London (as in, a suburb, but really not that far from the city) and were wonderful and patient with me. I can imagine it would have been stressful for my Aunt and uncle to have me there, but they were all really good to me. My first time there was during their summer holidays. They took me to Hever Castle, the 7 Sisters (like the white cliffs of Dover), the Natural History museum, the Tate Modern, and a bunch of other Englandy/Londony things. Every time it was my last night there we did something special. They let me watch Doctor Who like the Doctor Who freak that I am, and didn't freak out when I was close to rolling on the floor with excitement. The night before I left on my last trip there was the 30th of October, two days before my birthday. We had amazing roast lamb, and then a chocolate cake of wonder, and they even gave me birthday presents. I could have cried had I not decided to maintain my composure and be thankful for all they'd done instead of sad I was about to leave.
All highlights pretty much tie after that. Riding on the second deck of a red double-decker bus (I feel 'double-decker' is not the right term, but I've called it that my whole life so that's how it'll stay) was epic. My Aunt was momentarily confused that I was so excited about it, then remembered it's one of those things tourists get excited about. I'm planning on living in the UK/Ireland one day, and I don't think it will ever lose its novelty.
Hever Castle was AWESOME. It was the childhood home of Ann Boylen and WOW she had the life! The house was gorgeous (it was more of a house than a castle) and the grounds were so pretty. I want to photograph a wedding there sometime. I started planning different photos I would take if I ever did.
The Tate Modern and Tate Britain were really interesting. There were two pieces of artwork in the Tate Britain which blew my mind. Normally I'm all "Well that's interesting but I really don't know what's going on." with modern art. The first was a piece (I'm not sure if you'd call it a sculpture…) by Ai Wei Wei. It was a cone pyramid pile thing, made of sunflower seeds. But the sunflower seeds were actually all ceramic, and every single one hand made. If you think of a handful sort of cone it's pretty cool and makes sense. This cone pyramid pile thing was massive. I would say it was at least a metre in diameter at the base. I'll see if there's a link for it online. I didn't quite understand what was being communicated, but it was so wow to see anyway. It's not that I ever WANTED Ai Wei Wei to be in prison, and of course I naturally thought it was stupid that he's in there for not doing anything wrong, but I now really just want him out. When you make modern art that blows my mind, you're doing something right.
The other was a piece by a guy whose name I can't remember. Basically it was a shelf with a glass of water on it, and then to accompany it was a piece of paper with questions and answers on it - like an interview with the artist but it was part of the piece.This, you have to see for yourself if you can. If not, well look at it here. You don't understand how boggled® I was at the end of it. Yes I did just use ® in this blog. I think I should go into the advertising industry. It takes skill to know the shortcut for © and ®. Just like with umlaut letters. It drives me crazy when people write stuff like "Ich moechte ueberhaupt kein Wasser, danke." It just looks better as "Ich möchte überhaupt kein Wasser, danke." I always try to share shortcut love.
That was a bit of a tangent….
The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery were also a lot of fun. Seeing the originals of a bunch of famous paintings made me feel cultured (and it was nice to see the paintings anyway).
Other points of interest include:
- Kings Cross Station (no, I didn't find platform 9 3/4, it was under construction)
- Victoria Station (not much of a point of interest but I liked it)
- Covent Garden, Carnaby Street, Bond Street (actually, just a lot of Monopoly streets)
- Brighton (just lovely. I teared up at seeing the sea. It had been too long. I also had a guy in an Italian restaurant tell me I'd sat in the table next to me last time I was there. I had to explain 3 times that I'd never been there before. Apparently someone was in Brighton who looks like me…)
- Dulwich (the London suburb. Nice. You could buy a glass of milk at the Dulwich Picture Gallery)
- The National Observatory (including the Prime Meridian. I loved it)
- Notting Hill/Portobello Road/Portobello Markets
- Camden Town
- Buckingham Palace (Jealousy is not a strong enough word for how I feel about the Queen)
- The BBC Proms. I went to St.Albert Hall and heard work by Brahms, Elgar, Holst and someone else. Featuring Julian Lloyd-Webber. I'm jealous of myself for that.
- The Railway Children, performed at Waterloo Station including a real steam train.
During my time there I also met up with 3 different people that I know. Apparently England is the place to be. I also went to the Doctor Who Experience, Cambridge and Comic-con, but those things need separate posts for the overwhelming epic that they are.
I'm running out of teenage-typical adjectives. Better stop this now.
Oh yeah, turns out my Uncle's cousin lives in South Africa. I have a very very very distantly-but-not-really-related cousin who grew up in Zimbabwe. That's pretty neat.
As in cool, not tidy.
Clare
xoxo
I have learned from myself and discovered you don't REALLY want a word-for-word description of everything I did and saw. That'd be boring. So I'll just tell you a few of my favourite parts.
My favourite part is most definitely the part where I got to go 3 times. Some exchange students have only been allowed once, and others not at all. I'm not entirely sure why, but I got really lucky and was allowed back, so that was a highlight.
Then of course there was seeing my extended family. I stayed with my Aunt, Uncle, and two cousins while there. They live in London (as in, a suburb, but really not that far from the city) and were wonderful and patient with me. I can imagine it would have been stressful for my Aunt and uncle to have me there, but they were all really good to me. My first time there was during their summer holidays. They took me to Hever Castle, the 7 Sisters (like the white cliffs of Dover), the Natural History museum, the Tate Modern, and a bunch of other Englandy/Londony things. Every time it was my last night there we did something special. They let me watch Doctor Who like the Doctor Who freak that I am, and didn't freak out when I was close to rolling on the floor with excitement. The night before I left on my last trip there was the 30th of October, two days before my birthday. We had amazing roast lamb, and then a chocolate cake of wonder, and they even gave me birthday presents. I could have cried had I not decided to maintain my composure and be thankful for all they'd done instead of sad I was about to leave.
All highlights pretty much tie after that. Riding on the second deck of a red double-decker bus (I feel 'double-decker' is not the right term, but I've called it that my whole life so that's how it'll stay) was epic. My Aunt was momentarily confused that I was so excited about it, then remembered it's one of those things tourists get excited about. I'm planning on living in the UK/Ireland one day, and I don't think it will ever lose its novelty.
Hever Castle was AWESOME. It was the childhood home of Ann Boylen and WOW she had the life! The house was gorgeous (it was more of a house than a castle) and the grounds were so pretty. I want to photograph a wedding there sometime. I started planning different photos I would take if I ever did.
The Tate Modern and Tate Britain were really interesting. There were two pieces of artwork in the Tate Britain which blew my mind. Normally I'm all "Well that's interesting but I really don't know what's going on." with modern art. The first was a piece (I'm not sure if you'd call it a sculpture…) by Ai Wei Wei. It was a cone pyramid pile thing, made of sunflower seeds. But the sunflower seeds were actually all ceramic, and every single one hand made. If you think of a handful sort of cone it's pretty cool and makes sense. This cone pyramid pile thing was massive. I would say it was at least a metre in diameter at the base. I'll see if there's a link for it online. I didn't quite understand what was being communicated, but it was so wow to see anyway. It's not that I ever WANTED Ai Wei Wei to be in prison, and of course I naturally thought it was stupid that he's in there for not doing anything wrong, but I now really just want him out. When you make modern art that blows my mind, you're doing something right.
The other was a piece by a guy whose name I can't remember. Basically it was a shelf with a glass of water on it, and then to accompany it was a piece of paper with questions and answers on it - like an interview with the artist but it was part of the piece.This, you have to see for yourself if you can. If not, well look at it here. You don't understand how boggled® I was at the end of it. Yes I did just use ® in this blog. I think I should go into the advertising industry. It takes skill to know the shortcut for © and ®. Just like with umlaut letters. It drives me crazy when people write stuff like "Ich moechte ueberhaupt kein Wasser, danke." It just looks better as "Ich möchte überhaupt kein Wasser, danke." I always try to share shortcut love.
That was a bit of a tangent….
The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery were also a lot of fun. Seeing the originals of a bunch of famous paintings made me feel cultured (and it was nice to see the paintings anyway).
Other points of interest include:
- Kings Cross Station (no, I didn't find platform 9 3/4, it was under construction)
- Victoria Station (not much of a point of interest but I liked it)
- Covent Garden, Carnaby Street, Bond Street (actually, just a lot of Monopoly streets)
- Brighton (just lovely. I teared up at seeing the sea. It had been too long. I also had a guy in an Italian restaurant tell me I'd sat in the table next to me last time I was there. I had to explain 3 times that I'd never been there before. Apparently someone was in Brighton who looks like me…)
- Dulwich (the London suburb. Nice. You could buy a glass of milk at the Dulwich Picture Gallery)
- The National Observatory (including the Prime Meridian. I loved it)
- Notting Hill/Portobello Road/Portobello Markets
- Camden Town
- Buckingham Palace (Jealousy is not a strong enough word for how I feel about the Queen)
- The BBC Proms. I went to St.Albert Hall and heard work by Brahms, Elgar, Holst and someone else. Featuring Julian Lloyd-Webber. I'm jealous of myself for that.
- The Railway Children, performed at Waterloo Station including a real steam train.
During my time there I also met up with 3 different people that I know. Apparently England is the place to be. I also went to the Doctor Who Experience, Cambridge and Comic-con, but those things need separate posts for the overwhelming epic that they are.
I'm running out of teenage-typical adjectives. Better stop this now.
Oh yeah, turns out my Uncle's cousin lives in South Africa. I have a very very very distantly-but-not-really-related cousin who grew up in Zimbabwe. That's pretty neat.
As in cool, not tidy.
Clare
xoxo
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