But an update! Classes progressed in their normal, unexciting manner, and then it was Friday. Friday was undoubtedly the best day in London thus far. 50ºF, sunny, and everything. I even went out on a run, which will probably surprise a lot of you. The evening involved going to a pub with friends. First, though, a trip to the ATM resulted in my check card being randomly consumed by the ATM machine. Luckily, I have a backup, but I gotta get that card back from the bank. Now, I didn't eat at all before going out (so, last meal at around 3, which was also the only meal of that day), so after a pint of Guinness and chugging the rest of someone's beer/cider mix (I believe it's called Snakebite?), I had a pretty good buzz going. And so I went to grab some food, which was delicious, and ironically my buzz was gone right after I left the food place. But the night was hilarious. Also learned some new games, but uh, yeah.
Saturday was a lot of fun, with a day trip to Greenwich. It's pronounced Gren-ich (Gren as in rhyming with "wren" and the w in "wich" is silent), which basically makes zero sense. We took the ferry east on the river, and while cold, I got some nice photos which are all cataloged on Facebook and flickr for viewing. But here's one of my favorites from the trip down:
This one occurs closer to Greenwich, and the photo shows some luxury flats (really really really expensive ones at that, apparently at least £1000000 each), and in the back are some financial buildings (i.e. that HSBC building...not plugging them at all, really). The tallest building with the pyramid sort of top is apparently the tallest in Britain, at 850m. Another photo I really liked was this one a lot early on in the ferry ride:
It's really just the London Eye, but the lighting was all strange because of the weather, which makes for good photography, I suppose. But we arrived to Greenwich, and it was really awesome. They have a pretty legit market there, seen thus:
There were loads of ethnic foods and everything. Of course, it turns out everyone wanted to get out of the cold and sit down, so we ended up at a sit-in place called "Phillies," which is owned by a guy who lived in Philly for awhile, obviously. But after we went to that, we decided to come back to the market, but only after checking out the Meridian line at the Royal Observatory. There were a lot of good photos, but here's the favorite that I took there:
It's of the planetarium there, and I really like it. I've realized that most of photography is being at the right place and the right time, so I wouldn't consider any good photos I take to be the strokes of a master of photography, as the camera does most of the lifting and the sun (very rarely around in London) is there to provide the lighting. I mean, I took the photo, so I'm not totally useless. But back on track, the planetarium was cool, and they have a lot of exhibits there which explain a whole lot. Like how the Andromeda galaxy will absorb the Milky Way soon. And by soon I mean, like, billions and billions of years away. So time is ticking, so I should, uh, finish what I have planned. Which is nothing (or everything, depending on the way you look at it).
Also, there was the Meridian Line, nicely splitting the world in two. I hesitated in getting the traditional photo of straddling the line as I wanted to be slightly more original, but I didn't come up with much (my Facebook profile photo is the result). But it does seem strange to realize that, at least by some arbitrary standard, the world starts and ends here, because that's where all time is based off of.
But back to the market! And I got some gifts for people, namely my sisters, and started compiling gifts for friends before making a return trip on the ferry. So all was good. Of course, in total, I ended up dropping £35 that day. Yikes. I spent most of the rest of the day really tired, possibly due to the impromptu run from the day before, from which I woke up extremely sore.
Today has mostly been relaxing. Pretty good. I still get the strange "I'm on a boat" feeling (yes, the song pops up in my head when I say that), which I don't like. But I am done for tonight so I get to relax a bit. Yay.
I leave for Dublin next Saturday, which is awesome, I'll be there for four days. It'll be awesome and exciting. I'm not sure what actually is in Dublin, but I figure that it's a place everyone should get to eventually.
Alright, I'm out, I'll write again soon, but if you want more, talk to me before!
-e.
NP: The Strokes - Is This It
Such a fantastic record. I mean, it's the Strokes' best record, and I love it. Actually, who doesn't love this record?
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