A 4 part day

Part 1: Whitney, Janet, Margaret and I left at 9:30am for the National Gallery and Trafalgar square. In the center of the square is a giant obelisk monument surrounded by four enormous statues of lions. Naturally, it immediately became our task to mount the giant lions. Unfortunately, the task was more difficult than in looked and we were unable to ride the lions. After our dreams had been crushed by our inability to climb the statues, we decided that it was time to head into the gallery. It might have been my favorite museum so far, with works by Titian, Van Gogh, Monet, Goya, Velasquez, and many many others. It was impossible to see it all in one day, so I agreed to leave for lunch, in the hopes of coming back another day.

Part 2: With the entire class, we met to head out to the Hayward Gallery for a tour with Sarah Kent, art editor of Time Out magazine and a modern art critic. After both the Tate Modern and the Hayward Gallery, however, I've decided that I dislike modern art. Some of the pieces fascinate me for all of 30 seconds, but then I am done with them and I'm ready to move on. The only exhibit that I really liked was more similar to something you'd find in an amusement park than in a museum. It was called blind light and consisted of essentially a boxed in area, surrounded completely in glass. Inside that box was and environment of 100% humidity with bright lights shining from the ceiling. It was bizarre because as soon as I walked in, I could see no more than a foot in front of me - if that. I couldn't even see my own feet as I was walking around. It's incredibly disorienting, and most people ended up hunting down the walls before they were able to once again trace their way to the only exit. Upon leaving the exhibit, I had collected a number of water droplets in my hair and my clothes were a little damp, but it was well worth it because it was definitely one of the coolest things we've done.

Part 3: The whole class then took a little tour of Hampstead (and saw where Professor Levenson and Chase live!). We, unfortunately, did not have enough time to get crepes as we were rushed to get to our musical later in the night. We did get to explore the heath though. It's an incredibly large open space in London. It has a forest, and ponds, and trails, and all the sorts of things one might expect to find in the country - but not in London. It also has a great big old mansion in the middle of it that supposedly houses many famous pieces of art. However, we were there a little too late in the day to be able to tour the house to see those pieces of art.

Part 4: We went to see another musical! I had never heard of Avenue Q before getting here, which is sad because the show was hilarious. It is a parody of Sesame Street (played with giant puppets and all!) that takes place in New York City. The story line consists of the characters trying to discover what to do with their lives (their purpose, if you will) after college. The opening number was a song called "What do you do with a BA in English?" Much to the chagrin of the (majority) English majors in our group, this question was never answered.