well i think its safe to say that ive had a really amazing and jammed pack couple of days, considering that it just woke up at about 10pm from a spontaneous nap that started at 730pm and seemed to have a mind of its own.  i got out of my bed to see what was going on only to find megan, my roommate was asleep as well, so i think its a good time as i sit in the dark, to update on london life :).

tuesday.

 we went to the british museum which was full of tons of awesome artifacts like parts of the roman parthenon! but i think the coolest thing i saw was a contemporary piece that i stumbled upon in one of the rooms, it was a huge table like 20 ft long that had a black netting that stretched over and off each side.  inside the netting, each sewn to have its out little pocket where thousands of pills. the story behind the piece was that the artists wanted to exhibit the amount of pills of  all different medicines the average person consumes over their life time.  along side of the netting were pictures that portrayed circumstances in which called for the person to take certain medicine.  i think the message was that as humans we consume more medicine in order to maintain our well being rather then allow our bodies to naturally deal with life and take the meds when it becomes an unbearable problem.  think about all the people in history, many living longer than us, that were fine without the medicine we have today. something about it just fascinated me and i totally thought it was something my mom would just nod her head in agreement with haha. anyways after the museum some of us got some lunch in a park for a while before we went back to lee abbey..and we all hung around after tea and coffee and played cards and just hungout for the night.

wednesday. 

we went to a contemporary art museum which had an unbelievable amount of incredible art, the galleries were huge with beautiful wooden floors and each room had such interactive and intriguing pieces, literally every room has something that fascinated me. i took a ton of pictures of the artwork there so check facebook for those :)

later that night just about all of the sixteen of us, we roll deep, went out to piccadilly circus and experienced the night life! it was a blast and definitely a bonding experience for all of us as we danced like idiots for about two hours.

thursday.

we went to the tate gallery, which had so many beautiful pieces of artwork. in one room I stared at a piece for so long, it was called the The Wood Nymph's Hymn to the Rising Sun by Francis Danby. it was so captivating and just simply beautiful, it was the first time that ive ever looked at a painting in a museum and started to cry.  i felt such a longing to be in the painting, to be the figure dancing and praising God as the sun was rising and creating a  golden glow around her. it was amazing. later that night we all went to the queen theater and saw les miserables! it was so good, so full of emotion and outstanding singers.  it was cool to experience the story in an entirely different way after reading the book for our lit class.

friday.

we saw the wallace collection, a museum inside an old mansion.  it was beautiful and had some pieces that totally blew me away. then we met up again to take our london group picture so we went to this farmers market that was close by and it was amazing, i definitely felt immersed in the culture, it was really fun. right next to the market was another beautiful cathedral, i went inside and was moved once again by the history of the place, i prayed and lit a candle to represent the prayer which was yet another emotion and cultural experience.

then we went to the tate modern museum and saw some more contemporary art.  the day was jam packed so i figured id stay around lee abbey for the night.  instead we all went out again to this awesome place, it was an old concert hall with a beautiful inside dance floor that faced the stage where they had live music which was like tech-no/rap/beat-boxing it was so fun and we danced in our own little circle for like 3 hours straight it was amazing, i could have danced literally all night it was contagious, i felt like i was in another world haha.

saturday.

we all eventually surfaced this morning after minimal sleep and me and some of the girls went to the maritime museum. it was beautiful, we walked up this huge hill that looked over london. and we stood at the prime meridian and were in two time zones as once :)

and now im here..probably going to just head back to bed for the night! tomorrows our last day in london before we head to france for the day on monday and then through to italy for the next couple of weeks!!

..ill try to do these more consistently so youre not at your computer reading a novel, but for those who made it through i love and miss you! and will update more soon :) 

ps. i ran into catherine sanderson on a random corner in london!!! haha i was freaking out it was nuts.

these past two days have been so packed with amazing things.

sunday.

a day full of words.  we visited the westminster abbey, a b e a u t i f u l church, we went to the morning service which was so cool, just to be there and be in and be a part of a place thats served and worshipped God for centuries. the choir was so amazing it was such an experience to listen and just look up at the huge stain glass windows and reflect on the history thats there.

then we went to a contemporary museum in london and saw a show that was up for the last day, it was a collection of work from a couple of artists and it was all about text and words incorporated with art.  there was some really cool things that made you think about the power of words. then we explored around the area, a couple of us found this cafe in the middle of a beautiful park next to a pond and sat and had lunch. that night we saw romeo and juliet in shakespeare's old globe theater! it was so beautiful inside..even though we were playing the role of peasants and had to stand on the bottom floor the whole time, we made the best of it haha. it was so well done and i understood certain points in the story in a different way, it was really cool. when we got back to lee abbey that night me megan and scott meet this hilarious guys who claimed to be a professor but was definitely out of it hah you get to meet some pretty unique people here.

monday.

we got introduced to our classes which im so psyched about cause its so different from any other education..basically our teachers want us to learn and take in the world in an entirely different way, through experience and first hand learning..so were visiting museums, going to plays, keeping a daily visual journal and a journal where we reflect only in writing, and taking tons of pictures everyday. basically no textbooks or any of that stuff!

so we went to the national gallery and saw some amazing paintings including some van gogh which were my favorite! and the rest of the day included naps outside in the garden, long talks, and my first beer at a pub hah dont worry mom it was only a half.

LONDON!

im hereeeeeeee!

okay recap for those who don't know exactly what im doing, im study abroad this semester in europe with all art students from point loma! First were traveling to london, then venice, florence, and rome (spending around a week in each spot).  Then well be in paris for the remaining two months! And ill be back in new york decembre une :)

Okay so.. some of you may have heard about the last minute mix-up i had..basically i found out that i was going to be landing in london a day earlier than expected..and i found this out about 10 hours before my flight haha..so thank goodness for facebook and aubrey! i was able to find out where some of the other students who were already in london were staying for the night and i booked a last minute bed in a room with them at the Queen Victoria Hostel.  

So i made it to the hostel around ten last night, the owner was really nice and the place wasnt too sketch haha and then the five of us traveled to Lee Abbey this morning, where were going to be staying for the next week or so while in london! The place is so cool, it use to be a mansion then it was turned into a hotel and now houses international students!  There's a bunch of floors and sooo many different staircases (im dying to play sardines or hide and seek!), and every room has tall ceilings and huge windows, ill put up a picture. 

Tonight we hung out here, waiting for everyone to all arrive and just relaxing, including tea and coffee in the garden room :) We haven't done too much exploring around london yet cause we've been traveling mostly but we have the rest of tonight and tomorrow for that before we start classes!