Stereotypical London: The British Museum, Shakespeare and Curry

I think that I have finally recovered from the weekend in Belgium.

 

Monday morning started out depressing because we studied the gin crisis in history and ethnofederalism in Nigeria in polysci. At lunchtime, I went to Sainsbury's (grocery store) to grab lunch since I did not have time to shop on Sunday. I tried out the salad bar there and it was delicious! It is not by weight so you can cram the carton as full as you want! I took advantage of this and filled one side fruit and the other side with two bean salads and two pasta salads. I really liked one of the bean salads and one of the pasta salads that I may have in the future if I do not pack lunch. In the afternoon we debated the use of cognitive enhancing drugs in neuroscience.  It was interesting; however, we strayed way too far away from science, talking about social inequality. That said, it is interesting to hear these topics discussed by non-science majors. After class I went to Sainsbury's (again) and bought tons of groceries for 11 pounds. Sara, Eleanor and I are all feeling quite proud of ourselves because we have been shopping fairly cheaply thanks to the generic "Sainsbury's Basics" brand. After getting groceries I made the trek home which always feels twice as far with two bags of groceries. Nonetheless, I got home, made dinner, changed, and then walked to the West End. We saw a play called the Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. It was a  really interesting satire about Hitler (historically accurate) and had a cool political message at the end. The goal of the play is to make you think and I think it did that well.

Wonderful seats as usual!

Tuesday I was able to do lots of studying in the morning and Eleanor and I booked  our tickets to Italy for fall break! Yay! Art class was interesting as usual, but I think we are all a little tired of art after studying it all weekend. In the evening, I did lots of studying for my mid-sem exam. There were five of us studying together (out of 8 in the class) so hopefully we all understood the material well.

 

Wednesday, we had a walking tour near Holborn for history and then our polysci test. Hopefully it went well! After I had lunch and finished my readings for the day, I was working ahead and losing focus. Because of this, I decided to hop over to the British Museum for an hour. I was not really in the mood to read, so I just looked at the hieroglyphics, tombs, Roman and Greek art and sculpture and the Rosetta stone. They have a phenomenal collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian art and archaeology. When I was in one of the exhibits, I knew a lot of the religious symbolism because of my art history class. It was exciting to have that moment when I realized that art was actually sinking in! The only problem at the museum was that tourists were swarming. Strangely, the crowds were mostly 40-60 year olds from other countries. It is interesting to see the cultural differences between tourists. Some stop in the middle of the exhibit to look at maps, some take pictures of everything, some talk loudly, some try to touch everything, etc. I will not perpetuate the stereotypes here, but it is interesting to not how cultural differences affect peoples behavior at the museum.

After neuroscience class, Mollie and I raced home to eat, change and then head out again. We walked to the national theater to see Othello. The program director of Grinnell-in-London is so accommodating and is wonderful and wants everyone who is enthusiastic about theatre to be able to come so she got us tickets. I am so thankful for the program for paying for these tickets because at 48 pounds they are expensive tickets. It was a spectacular performance and my favorite play we have seen so far! The main actors, Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear, were absolutely breathtaking. Given that I am not taking the Shakespeare class, my seat was in the grand circle instead of the stalls; however I was in row B and had a phenomenal seat. It was cool to have an almost birds eye view of the production. Two of my friends, Sara and Eleanor, were in row A in the stalls so they had the opposite view as they had a view from below. 

This was the best way to show the theatre- the stalls below and the grand circle above.
The stage was a circle and we sat around it. 

On Thursday my art class was cancelled because our professor had to go to Pasadena to open her art exhibition. With so much time on my hands, I went to the Museum of London in the morning. It is a very nice museum that takes you through London over the years. The museum is located within a roundabout so you have to take stairs from a neighboring building and then walk on a bridge to get to the museum. 

Afterwards, I meandered home and took some pictures on the way. It was beautiful outside.

Garden in middle of roundabout

These collapsible bikes are everywhere! 

Borris Bikes- also everywhere! I will never ride one. I value my life too much! (Note the adult on the scooter in the background. Scooters are everywhere, kids ride them, adults in suits ride them!)

Even the bins are branded by the corporation of London.

More branding.

Branded street sign.

Every time you walk into the city of London you will be greeted by a dragon like this. Some are much larger but they exist on every entrance road.

In the evening, we had curry night. Almost everyone from the program went to this amazing Indian restaurant (Sheba Brick Lane). We each had to pay 5 pounds and the program subsidized the rest! They got rice and naan for the table. We also got popadums which was this crispy bread thing with four sauces.  We each got to get a drink ( I got a Magners) and an entree. I got Chicken Makani which is chicken in a buttery, yogurt, ginger sauce. The menu says "Breast pieces of chicken marinated in ginger, garlic and yoghurt, served with rich home made butter ghee in creamy rich sauce."It was phenomenal. Afterwards we went out and went to a local pub/club. It was really fun and then we finished the night with some chips. 

Today, I have been doing some homework and packing for Wales. I will take lots of pictures and update my blog when I get back!