"Get out of this city as soon as you can"

The first month of my semester is coming to an end. I feel like I have been here a while, and think I spent that time how I expected to. Before coming to London I thought I should take it easy the first month and stay grounded in the city. I have stuck to my plan without ever really thinking about it. I have been trying to go somewhere new as often as possible-this is an easy aim in London. I'll write a bit about recent explorations, and then tell you about what to expect in the future!

Last week, a few friends and I decided that we would walk to Camden Town because it was really sunny outside and it is only twenty minutes by foot to get there. Camden Town is a couple square miles of sensory overload. It is flocked day and night with market-goers, faux-punk cliques, hipsters, pigeons, tourists, and locals alike. Its architecture is the clearest indicator of its status as an individual, and not just another strip of row houses in Central London.

Interesting contrast: KFC beside artistic building fronts

We browsed a few trendy shops. I have noticed a lot of Chelsea boots around town, but going to the stores in Camden Town confirmed that everyone here wants a pair. The selection offered these, and many styles of desert shoes, as well as less mainstream footwear.

Exhibit A

Poking around the clothing stalls, I learned about a few contemporary brands that seem to be trending, like Boy of London, of which I knew nothing prior to visiting Camden Town. 

This logo is everywhere

I am not usually very interested in clothing, but living in London has awakened me to the need for some wardrobe improvements. Everyone here seems to have a discernible and consistent look. I feel underdressed going out in my beloved black converse here, but I also wouldn't want to be wearing dress shoes around everywhere either. So I have become more engaged with the fashion discourse here because it seems to me that many people in London take it seriously as a form of identity, one that is as fundamental as language or occupation. I get the sense that for many people in cities, these branches of identity are all connected-this is a generalization I have inferred from looking at everyone I see in the streets and talking to Londoners too. Being a student-someone without a real job, without a place of my own, etc-it is easy for me to feel the least put-together person on a given street. So this epiphany arrived unexpectedly at my cognitive doorstep when I was in Camden Town.

There was a great book stall at Camden Lock Market next to the food stalls. (As you can imagine, my attention was direly torn between the two!) I went to the books first. I found a first printing of the ever-controversial unexpurgated Lady Chatterley's Lover, the source of many readers' guilty pleasure in the 1960's. That book has a great history in London-if you're unfamiliar, read up!

Since I am in Europe after all, I figured I would offer my English major friends a bit of Continental Semiotics, courtesy of our friend Roland Barthes. No idea what this passage means, but its title arrested my attention as I flipped through at the book stall.

This tired me out, making me even hungrier than before, so I quit the stacks and got to the stalls. What an overwhelming experience-every stall shouting at every passerby, every kind of food available for the same price. This was a very difficult decision. I lingered by the curries, decided to go for something else since I ate curry at Borough Market. I contemplated pizza, but would have felt too guilty for indulging in American gastronomia. I chose a big ole burrito, which I devoured so quickly I didn't get a picture... However! I did take a picture of the fantastic Berliner doughnut I ate afterwards.

Almonds and chocolate on top, creme anglaise in the middle. £2 well spent.

My favorite thing about Camden Town is the Regent's Canal, which runs through a few different parts of NW London. It's a bit elusive and maybe even out of place in Camden Town-looks more like it belongs in the Netherlands than in London. 

There is an optical phenomenon in the UK that, because of this island's higher latitude, is seldom seen in the US: gloaming. It's the time of twilight when everything turns blue. It is quite amazing to see. Unfortunately, it is difficult to capture on an iPhone camera. I did get a good picture of the night sky though, in that liminal space between day and night.

Can you see the moon?

We went to a favorite local pub afterwards, where I tried mulled wine, which is hot red wine with spices-mine was made with ginger.

Still feeling hungry despite the food stall feast, we went to Sainsbury's to buy snacks. I think it is about time I make a confession here. I am addicted to McVitie's Digestive cookies. Don't be fooled by the title-these cookies are not some kind of spinoff of Ex-Lax. They are biscuits coated with chocolate, and the ideal supplement to tea. They were two for £2. There was much rejoicing.

We discovered something quite shocking on the lowest shelf of the alcohol aisle: wine in a plastic bottle. What?! How does such a thing exist? More curiously, why does such a thing exist? This probably sounds snobbish-I don't mean it to. I'm just baffled-I've never seen such a thing in the US. I thought the bag of wine was the peak of cheapness, but this might just top the list! We did not buy it then, but having been to the grocery store a few times since, I have to say it has lured me back to that same spot every time. I still have not bought it, but it might just have to happen soon...

!!!

On Tuesday, my flatmate Connor and I went to Greenwich Park in SE London, famous for the Royal Observatory and the Prime Meridian. We saw neither of these up close, as it was field trip day for a league of school children probably outnumbering the population of Winooski, VT. That's an exaggeration, but there were enough to lead us elsewhere. The Park itself is mounted on a hill overlooking a view that spans from the Isle of Dogs to the Shard. 

We had lunch there and walked around a bit. The parks here are the best. They are well-maintained and provide an easy getaway from the city. We rode the DLR, a line on the underground that actually runs above ground for the most part, so it was cool to finally take a trip with a view.

Speaking of trips with views...I should explain the title of this post. Last night, a few friends and I went to a really cool bar near London Bridge. I can't tell you anything more about it because it's a secret bar. It's true-we had to know a password to get in! On the way back, a few of us started talking to a guy near the tube station. We asked him what we should do while we are here-this is always a good question to ask because every local has a different answer. He told us, "Get out of this city as soon as you can." He elaborated that the rest of the country is completely different from London, that London and the UK are actually a bit adversarial (something I have heard in class, on the BBC, everywhere), and that he thinks the rest of the country is more worthy of exploration than the city. 

So, I will tell you about some plans for travel in the next month. On Saturday, a few of us are traveling by train to the Cliffs of Dover. We are spending the day there to see some proper woodland and a proper country town. This is happening really spontaneously. One day last week, I was on the Train Line website (http://www.thetrainline.com) and I was trying to figure out what I should do this weekend. I figured I should go somewhere, so I looked into cheap day trips. Dover was one of them, so I asked a few friends and now we're going this weekend! 

My friend Liv just began studying in Florence, and she asked when I could meet up with her soon. I have been antsy to get onto the continent, so I suggested Amsterdam-it's a quick trip for us both and pretty cheap too. So we're going for the first weekend in February. Can't wait!  

I'm not desperate to get out of the city like my new tube friend; but, I am so glad I have some trips to look forward to. One month in, I still love London and there is, of course, still so much for me to do here. I have unknowingly satisfied my goals for January-explore London, meet new people, acclimate to living abroad. 

Let's see what the next month brings!

Mucking About

As I mentioned earlier, I do not have classes on Tuesdays. I am hoping to take full advantage of this opportunity during the semester. My day off is not compatible with weekend travel (unless class is cancelled on Monday...one can hope) or trips to the continent. So, I want to use these days to explore London and parts of the UK I can visit for day trips. For the first of these days, I decided I would venture to Richmond Park, the largest of the city's parks. (Take a look at the park's website: https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond-park) The trip took about twenty-five minutes by tube, switching from the Piccadilly line to the District Line. I packed a lunch and a few books and headed out!

When I arrived in Richmond, I was not quite sure how to get to the park from the underground. I asked someone at the tourism stand, who gave me a map of the town. She gave me directions to the park by way of the Thames canalside, rather than by the town's main road, which is a quicker route. She told me that the canal route would lead me to "a view that the town is quite proud of."

View of the canal walk

View from a dock

Some snow on the ground!

Climbing the hill above the river

Top of Richmond Hill

I took a moment to appreciate the town's pastoral views from the top of the hill. Richmond feels like a provincial city of the Jane Austen/George Eliot variety. It felt a bit disorienting to find this place at the end of a tube line. How can this be a borough of London? My amazement only grew as I entered the park.

A bifurcated road runs through either side of the park, so I tried to veer toward the middle ground, where I found a few long paths to follow. The first path I took was so narrow and overgrown I thought it might be trellised in the spring.

As I walked on, I thought there might be more dogs in the park than deer; it was a gloriously sunny day and everyone was out walking their dogs. Then the trail opened up to broad fields, and antlers loomed above the tussock grasses where flocks of deer sat resting.

Can you spot any antlers?

The closest I stood to a buck...is he bowing out of respect, or is he just eating?

I could see Central London from the furthest edge of the opening. It was a bit surprising to see the city so close to this setting.

If you look very closely, you can barely distinguish the BT Tower to the middle-left of the view

Here you can see how muddy the trail was. I had to stop every now and then to kick the mud off my shoes

The deer are not the only animals residing in Richmond Park. Kestrels and Skylarks were flying all around. I saw a Grey Heron tiptoeing through a pond. Unfortunately I did not see any foxes, but I was told by another wayfarer that there are many dens hidden around the grounds.

The place was very peaceful. I walked for about two hours before I sat down at a bench for lunch.

A lunch with a view

I packed some stale bread to feed the birds. While I was eating, I did not see any birds around me, so I began breaking it into pieces and spreading it around. Within moments, I was beset by a Hitchcockian nightmare-crows swarmed from all directions and circled above like bewinged Nazgûl. Eventually they settled back into their treetops and I went on enjoying my picnic.

Having walked through one side of the park, I decided to cross the street to the other side. I only saw a few other people walking here. The trail sort of disappeared at one point, and my only option seemed to be a long and muddy slope. This, as you might anticipate, ended in calamity. I have great hiking shoes, but as I mentioned earlier, the mud collected on them and made traction fairly impossible. So I slipped...no, I completely wiped out. I landed on my back so quickly the wind was knocked right out of me. I stood right up and gathered myself, only a distant herd of sheep witness to my ignominy. As I set back to carefully treading the hill, I realized that my backpack was leaking. So I stepped off to the side to investigate. Turns out, I landed on my back so hard that my water bottle cracked right down the middle.

My books were drenched too. I made my way down the slope and wandered a bit further until I found a grassy place to rearrange everything. This is a classic example of everything seeming fine and suddenly going awry. I mucked along my merry way.

Muddy shoe...clear sign of a good walking trip!

I approached what seemed a rather regal country house called Pembroke Lodge, perched above the river and its many neighboring meadows. I am not sure if it is a part of the park or not, but I walked around the side of the house anyway. Nobody seemed to mind me passing by.

Pembroke Lodge-pretty posh, right?

This path led me to a small garden overlooking the valley.

I wandered around there for a while and found a tall wooden board with golden lettering there. It is a eulogy for a poet, James Thomson, who wrote poems about this landscape in the Eighteenth Century. John Henage Jesse, another poet wrote the lines. This is a picture of the board, but the text is typed below in case you cannot read the picture.

"Lines on James Thomson, the Poet of Nature"

Ye who from London’s smoke and turmoil fly,  

To seek a purer air and brighter sky, 

Think of the Bard who dwelt in yonder dell 

Who sang so sweetly what he loved so well, 

Think, as ye gaze on there luxuriant bowers 

Here Thomson loved the sunshine and the flowers. 

He who could paint in all their varied forms, 

April’s young blooms. 

December’s dreary storms, 

By you fair stream, which calmly glides along 

Pure as his life, and lovely as his song, 

There oft he roved, In yonder churchyard lies 

All of the deathless Bard that ever dies, 

For here his gentle spirit lingers still 

In yon sweet vale – on this enchanted hill; 

Flinging a holier int’rest o’er the grove, 

Stirring the heart to poetry and love, 

Bidding us prize the favourite scenes he trod, 

And view in Nature’s beauties, Nature’s God.

This was a really special and elusive find. Despite being filthy and sweaty and tired, reading this put me in the right state of mind. I sat down and rested for a bit, taking some time to appreciate the view before me. It occurs to me every now and then that "sit back and enjoy the view" is not just another platitude. There are moments when this is not something I have to think about doing-it just happens organically. In this moment, there seemed to me no other possibility than to appreciate what I was seeing.

Later, I walked back into the town to begin the journey back to the city. I was planning to walk back the way I came, along the canal. As I approached, I realized I needed to find another way back...

The canal was flooded!

And I was thankful for that-another opportunity to explore a new place!

Classes began last week, and even with the commitments required of them I still have a lot of free time every day. Classes only meet once a week for two or three hours, so education here is much less emphatic on the time you spend in the classroom, and requires more work to be done independently. I am taking two seminars for my major and two lectures as electives.

For one of these courses, we attend an hour long lecture each week, and immediately head out to a museum, gallery, or landmark in London. Last week we went to the Museum of London, a social history museum that looks at collective experiences in the city. The museum recreated a Victorian marketplace, which was really cool to walk through, though I couldn't shirk the sense of it being a recreation and not totally authentic. (This is an idea that I'll return to when I get to writing about my visit to the Harry Potter Studio Tour.)

In the Swingin' Sixties collection, I noticed a sign that seemed like a rant about protein (of all things). Apparently Stanley Green protested against the consumption of protein for thirty years on Oxford Street. I have no idea why someone would protest against protein. (There's a possibility for a pun there...protest/protein...any ideas?)

The sign really struck me because I could definitely imagine it in Burlington. It seems like the kind of thing that only someone from Burlington would protest. For any locals, it might remind you of the "Cut Consumption, Not Foreskin!" house on Pearl Street.

The visit raised many questions about the value of art as an aspect of culture. This kind of discussion put me in the right state of mind for a long walk. So I made lunch and took off aimlessly. I ended up taking Charing Cross Road to visit a few second-hand bookshops I've been wanting to go to. I sat in one of them for a half hour reading an enormous tome containing the poet Philip Larkin's letters.

I would have bought it if it wasn't so huge!

If you have not read anything by Philip Larkin, read what's on his Poetry Foundation page and go from there. Here's a poem I've been thinking about as I decide what to do with all my free time:

Days

What are days for?

Days are where we live.   

They come, they wake us   

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in:   

Where can we live but days?

Terse, trenchant, optimistic at first glance, but always intimating the inevitability of tedium and death. In my circumstances, I read this as a calling to live within every day-to make the most of what I do while I am here.

So I left the bookshop empty-handed and continued on to St. James's Park and Green Park, two spaces I had visited briefly before, but had not spent a lot of time exploring. St. James's Park is full of birds-many varieties of geese, thrushes, warblers, and ducks. You won't find a single flower in Green Park and there's a great story behind it. You might remember I mentioned Whitehall, where Charles I was beheaded; the next Charles, the Second, was asked by his wife to give a flower from the park to the most beautiful woman in London. When she discovered that he had selected one of his mistresses, the Queen ordered all the flowers in the park to be removed. This might just be an urban myth, but still you will not see a single flower in Green Park!

I passed through to Hyde Park, which is so enormous it seemed like I was not in the city, only the distant presence high-rises to remind me I was.

Hyde Park at dusk

My next turn led me to a completely different locale: Oxford Street. I cannot overstate how much there is going on along Oxford Street: bus-chasing, saxophone-playing, shopping, shouting, lanterns hanging above the pavement, people walking for all conceivable reasons. Seeing all this, it occurred to me that I had walked for a few hours and had not spoken a word. It is easy to pass through a city in silence. Everybody is going about their days-there is no reason to speak to a stranger.

The next day, I went to my history class on London since 1960. In our seminar, everyone introduced themselves by talking about their neighborhood in the city. An obvious pattern emerged: all the Americans said they lived in Zone 1, and all the locals said they lived in Zones 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8. To further illustrate how expensive it is to live in Central London, I'm including this article that my friend Delaney sent me: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2477291/London-rents-high-cheaper-live-BARCELONA-commute-heres-.html

It was a great opportunity to hear about some other parts of London that have cultures and histories of their own, about which I know nothing. It really dawned on me that being able to walk to class in London is a great privilege. I had never given this much thought, my own home campus being about fifteen-minutes long in diameter.

Later that day, I made Chicken Tikka Masala, which was the same process as the Lamb Curry I made last week. This time I used brown Basmati rice instead of white rice. The white rice absorbs the flavor of the dish, but the Basmati added its own flavor and I really liked that.

Friday night a few of us went to the Barbican to see the RSC's production of "Henry IV, Part I." I saw it last summer, but it was so good and the tickets were cheap enough, so I decided to go again. It was worth it just to see it from a different angle. The first time I was in the left stalls, and this time I was in the back of the balcony. The Barbican is a bit weird, I think. It's in a really elusive location, and the space itself just feels too vast. On a related note, I just found out that tickets at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon are £5 for students if you book in advance! Sounds like a future day-trip to me!

On Saturday, API took an excursion to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. Thinking about Harry Potter makes me nostalgic, but I'm not a die-hard fan, so I felt like I was there to think about a cultural experience that I was part of, rather than to freak out. I think it's interesting that this space has been set aside for the purpose of bringing fans closer to the real experience of Harry Potter. Seeing children at the tour I remembered being that age myself, when my plastic Sting sword made me believe that I too was part of the Fellowship of the Ring.

I was amazed by how much work went into producing the movies. I really loved seeing the models for the sets. The conceptual designers for the series did really incredible work. Here are two examples to show the scale of this kind of work:

This model of Hogwarts was about a foot and a few inches tall by about three feet wide

This model was about twice my height!

This would be a dream job. Seeing all the conceptual sets made me think back to my childhood, when I was obsessed with arranging and rearranging Lego sets (usually Harry Potter Lego sets!). I haven't done that kind of hands on construction since I was in elementary school, and it did make me wonder where that passion went. I got thinking that living in a city has already brought my interest with exteriors and interiors back into my life. I'm always looking at buildings when I walk, often glancing into windows as I pass by-without even thinking of it! It's kind of a habit to just look inside buildings as I walk by. So there's hope-not that I will ever work as a conceptual designer for a movie (because I do not study architecture or film production), but that I haven't completely abandoned my childhood passions as I have grown older.

At the gift shop, I thumbed through a copy of the first book and started reading. Here's the first page, if you want to read along:

Later, I went out to a pub in Covent Garden with a few awesome API friends. We were desperate for some food, and we went around to a bunch of different pubs in the area, but none of them were serving food-at 9pm on a Saturday! Having worked in restaurants, it makes me happy that so many places let their kitchen staff enjoy their Saturday nights. But, I still wanted food. We found a pub around the corner that was serving food late, so we split a platter of fish and chips and had another round of drinks.

All the pubs I have been to have a great vibe at night, on any day of the week. Cafes here are great too. I sat in one the other day, ordered a coffee, and stayed there reading for hours! In America, there's usually a pressure - at least I have felt it - to order more the longer you stay.

I have class in a few hours, and then I have tomorrow off. Since I don't have class on Tuesdays, they will be my adventure days (I hope). Tomorrow I am taking the tube to Richmond Park in SW London. It's the largest park in London, and is a reserve space for deer. I will definitely take some pictures while I'm there.

In the next few weeks I will be traveling a bit-something that would be really difficult if I didn't have a planner (great investment). In a few weekends I'm visiting my mate from SMC, Shannon, who is studying in Bath.The next week I have no classes for study week, so I'm not sure what I'll do with that time yet. Then at the end of the month I am traveling to Berlin for a few days with my friend Delaney, who teaches in Madrid.

Yes, this is a lot of travel. We'll see if it all works out! I hope so-but regardless, I know I can expect to learn a lot as I venture off!

In the meantime, there is so much happening in London-I am lucky to be here!

Currencies, Curries, and Courses

Sorry for the alliterative title, but it is a good precis for this entry. I want to tackle a few more pragmatic concerns of my study abroad experience so far. The first is money. The Euro is doing just a bit better than the US Dollar (€1=$1.18), and the British Pound is doing a whole lot better than everyone (£1=$1.51; £1=€1.28). Because of this exasperating reality, I am keeping track of all my expenses, which is very easy-it's just a word document with everything listed that I spend money on. It has put things into perspective, for sure. Some days it's just downright alarming how much I spend-for instance, the other day I bought groceries, a sandwich and coffee at lunch, and train tickets to visit a friend in February, and together this added up to be a pretty expensive day. So keeping track of how much money I spend does help for budgeting purposes, but some days will just be expensive for whatever reason.

On Friday, I walked with a couple of friends to Borough Market on the South Bank. The walk took us about an hour because we stopped at a shop on Charing Cross Road, and then at a book stall beneath Blackfriars Bridge. The river itself is really amazing to look at. Sure, the water is brown (Boston, the Charles is crystal clear in comparison), but it is a beautiful sight. One sight was really striking-two very different boats moored beside each other: a long rusted fishing boat and a graffitied barge. It was a strange sight-I wonder if their respective owners colluded to make a statement, but it's doubtful.

an aesthetic showdown!

Borough Market itself is an epicureal dream. All kinds of fruits, cheeses, breads, spices, drinks, and for relatively low prices. Check out their website-they have inventory for everything: http://boroughmarket.org.uk/. I ate a curry with potatoes, cauliflower, peas, a few types of rice, and lamb, all in one magnificent box. We went to other vendors, split a dessert, and I bought a bottle of Samuel Smith's ale, which my dad has been telling me I have to drink (and it did not disappoint). 

curry galore

des legumes 

one of many bread vendors

I took some nasty (by which I mean pejoratively nasty...not like cool nasty) pictures of dead animals on the chopping block. But I don't think you want to see that. We walked back by St. Paul's, then took the Central line back to Holborn. 

Winchester Palace and the Shard

Southwark Bridge and St. Paul's

this view never gets old: St. Paul's from Millennium Bridge

The long walk ended with a great pint!

The next day, I met up with my friend Madeleine from home for her 21st birthday. We planned to meet at the station closest to my residence, Holborn. Of course, unbeknownst to either of us, the Central line was under construction for the day. I figured she would find her way over, but experienced a momentary panic. Of course, my paranoia was proven senseless and Madeleine appeared. We walked to the Museum Tavern, already a favorite spot of mine. Fun fact: Karl Marx worked on The Communist Manifesto in the British Museum Reading Room and would go to the Museum Tavern for drinks after a long day of work. Anyway, we had drinks and big English Breakfasts (for lunch).

as you can see, it was delicious

From there, we gamboled down Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Street, and Regent Street-all of which are flocked with people on any weekend night. We then made our way to Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Big Ben and Parliament and then to Charing Cross Road (we walked the same way I went on my orientation tour, more or less). We dropped into The Round Table, the first pub I ever went to in London last summer. We had some good wine and cheese to celebrate! 

Cheers!

It was a fun weekend before classes began. On Sunday night, I felt inspired, so I cooked a curry. The task seemed a bit daunting, but it turned out to be an easy fix. I cooked the rice while I seared the lamb chops, then added chopped peppers. Once those sauteed for a few minutes, I added peas and arugula (what the Brits call "rocket"), and some Tikka sauce from a jar. Had a tall Kronenbourg with the meal. Here's the result:

Looks like things panned out!

Tonight I cooked tortellini with tomato sauce, and tried another beer, Brakspear, Oxford Gold. 

pasta alla inglesa (courtesy of Sainsbury's and Waitrose)

To go back to expenses-after conducting some first-hand research, I can say with confidence that it is much cheaper to eat in than to eat out. I know, this frightens some people, but cooking is really not that hard. Pubs and restaurants are great for a meal once or twice a week, but cooking in the flat is definitely cheaper. The curry lasted me until lunch the next day, and I still have plenty of pasta and sauce for a lunch and maybe a dinner tomorrow night. Rice is really cheap here, so that's always a quick and easy meal. But I'm glad I tried something a bit more experimental for dinner the other night. I never cook, so that goes to show it's not too difficult to do. Tomorrow night, I'm using leftover rice, vegetables, and Tikka sauce to cook Chicken Tikka Masala (what I'm told is the most popular dish in the UK!). I'll let you know how that goes. 

Classes started yesterday, so expect some reflections next time. Also, I thought with all the political developments over the past few days I would share a link to an article that appeared in The Guardian on Friday, which I think explains some important distinctions really well: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/08/charlie-hedbo-collusion-terror-jihadi-twisted-logic

Thanks for reading!