digital film

And now for a film of the wonderful time I had in Brighton this past weekend:

37.9 MB
MacLeod, K. (2009). Clean Air. Location: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?genre=Pop.

photographing the small things in life

Today I got a reader pass for the British Library.  I am quite proud of myself.  But I will get into that in a bit.  First, we stopped in at King's Cross Station to see and take pictures of Platform 9 3/4 like every other stereotypical librarians.  We then strolled over to the British Library for a lovely tour.  In case you were unaware, the British Library is pretty hardcore.  They don't bend the rules for anyone and they measure their stacks in kilometers.  Whoa.  Perhaps the best part of the tour was when we went into the gallery which had volumes upon volumes of amazingly preserved books and manuscripts.  For me, the Sacred Texts portion of the gallery was the best by far.  Some of the volumes dated back hundreds of years.  I got my Bachelor's in Religion with a minor in Art History and wrote my senior seminar paper comparing medieval Christian illuminated manuscripts to Islamic calligraphy.  I cannot describe how awesome this exhibit was for me.  I found, however, that apparently I know Hinduism best of the major world faiths whose sacred texts were on display at the British Library.  I was able to recognize the majority of the figures and stories for the Hinduism display more than for any other faith.

As my flatmates so kindly reminded me just now, the British Library also holds the world's largest collection of pornography.  While it may seem that I would simply add this for a giggle, it is actually interesting to me because I read the book Libraries, Erotica, and Pornography for an assignment in one of my Information Studies classes (this book was not assigned, but rather we were allowed to chose our books for the assignment with professor approval).

But back to my British Library reader pass.  When Mr. Gets, a friend of the family, heard about my trip to London, he gave me a mission.  Now, Mr. Gets is British himself and apparently his grandfather, one J. L. Theodore-Getz, wrote a few books which are held at the British Library.  However, Mr. Gets thought they were at the British Museum so I had to find their true location first.  You see, some years ago, all of the books in the reading room at the British Museum were transferred to the British Library.  So, I took my mission there.  Now, Mr. Gets is quite a trouble maker so trying to ascertain what exactly he wanted from these books was a bit of a mission in itself as he rarely offers a straight answer.  Finally, I found that he wanted any biographical information that might be in his grandfather's books.  So today, I applied for and received a readers pass, requested the books, sat around for an hour to wait for them to be pulled from the stacks, and finally gleaned whatever information (of which there was little) from the books that there was.  It was all a rather intimidating process, to be honest but at least now I can say that I have a British Library reader pass (at least for the next month) and that I made use of its services.

story in 5 frames

Our class went to the Tower of London and stopped by Shakespeare's Globe Theatre today and our photography task was to create a story in 5 frames.  My 5-frame story actually came later, when Elana, Lynn, Kaitlin, and I went on the Jack the Ripper Murders Tour.  Here is my story:

For the record, I was not actually scared by the Jack the Ripper tour.  Our guide was a very good storyteller and that made for an interesting tour.  The real murderer was never actually caught and there are many theories about who it might be.  Before I came over here, I checked out the book Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell which argues that the true identity of Jack the Ripper was Walter Sickert.  I only read the beginning but it sounded pretty convincing.  However, our guide didn't seem to agree with Patricia Cornwell.  In any case, the case will likely never be solved and remain a mystery.

On our way back from the tour, Elana thought it would be a good idea to stop by one of the 24-hour shops on our way and buy the most random thing was say.  We ended up having a weird flavor chip (or crisp, rather) tasting party.  I think my favorite was the prawn cocktail, though it tasted nothing like shrimp cocktail. 

Tomorrow is my day to take the group photo and we are going to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station and the British Library (where I may attempt to get a library card and see the books that Mr. Gets wants me too look into, but we'll see about that).  I am open to creative ideas for a group photo in case anyone has any!

thinking differently

This morning, Dr. Everhart charged me with the task of navigating us to the public library in the Barbican Centre as I am good with directions, though I was relatively unaware that this was public knowledge.  In any case, I got us there in time for our 10am tour appointment.  The Barbican Library is the largest public library in the city of London.  They have a large portion of their library devoted to a music collection.  The Barbican Library is located in the middle of a business district of London so the largest demographic of their patronage is men aged 25-40.  Elana and I couldn't help but note that this is clearly where we need to be looking for our respective future British husbands. 

Our photography focus of the day was "thinking differently" which was not the easiest to capture since we were not allowed to take pictures within St. Paul's Cathedral which was the next stop on our itinerary for the day.  The Cathedral was very interesting nonetheless and we had a very good tour guide, John.  In fact, he showed us the geometric staircase in the Cathedral which was used in the filming of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  So, we just had to see for ourselves.  The FSU Study Centre has a collection of DVDs in its library available for checkout so we went and checked it out to watch.  Sure enough, the staircase appears about 40 or so minutes in.  (Actually, we were investigating where in the movie it would come in and found that perhaps it was in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban instead so I emailed my friends who are hardcore Harry Potter fans and sure enough, they responded with the exact movie and scene in which it appears - yeah, they are a little more than fans.)

To end the day, I went to the grocery store (as suggested by our new BFF Elvis) to get a kidney pie as instructed by my friend Donnie.  Yeah, Donnie said it was just called kidney pie, that there wasn't actually kidney in it.  Yeah, he was wrong.  It was alright.  At least I can return home to tell Donnie that I tried it.

photographing flowers

Today my classmates and I went to Hampton Court to tour the palace once owned by King Henry VIII.  The palace was beautiful with tapestries and paintings everywhere.  There were also expansive gardens surrounding the palace.  In these gardens, our task was to photograph flowers as a way to learn how to use the macro setting on our cameras.  However, the sky was very overcast and threatening to rain all day long so a lot of the flowers weren't open and it was hard to photograph some, the red (and prettiest) ones in particular.  There was a maze on the grounds that Elana tried out...and failed at.  We did however, shoot a rather funny video about our experience in the maze.  I may post this later with Elana's permission, of course.  Anyway, the grounds and gardens were very beautiful but I am going to be rather narcissistic and post a picture of myself for this blog entry:

Purty, huh?  Yeah, we started to get artsy-fartsy after a while.  If you would like to see more pictures - from today and last week - you can click on the link to my photo album on the left-hand side of this page.  Yeah, I finally got around to posting them all after slacking for a week. 

Later this week, Elana and I are planning on going on the Jack the Ripper murders tour.  We considered going today but the weather made a nap look far more appealing. 

podcast

This is my podcast contemplating the differences between the British Royal Guard and the Tomb Guard Sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in the States. Enjoy!

Powered by Podbean.com
2.78 MB

Featuring music from the Royal Guard marching band recorded by Katy Harris Sunday, July 18, 2010.

brighton

My beloved Fran took Elana and I to Brighton today where we shopped and ate the day away.  We had a marvelous time.  The shops in Brighton are different from the ones on Oxford Street where Fran and I went shopping last Saturday.  Brighton's shops are far more quirky though there are mainstream stores as well.  Our lunch consisted of positively delicious paninis and ice cream.  And of course, we went and sat on the beach for a bit as well.  The beach is different than Florida beaches.  I think that I will use that topic (Brighton beach vs. Florida beaches) for one of my projects - perhaps my digital film.  In any case, I took a picture of Fran with my little sheep on the beach:

After relaxing on the beach for awhile, we strolled up to the Brighton Pier where we made sure to get some rock (a type of candy similar to a candy cane but straight and varying in flavors and sizes) for our favorite FSU Study Centre security guard, Elvis.  From the pier we returned to the beach for a seaside drink then ventured on to Jamie's Italian for dinner.  The restaurant is owned by the famed chef Jamie Oliver and it was fantastic.  We ate so, so much food!  Then we returned to our flats stuffed and pleasantly tired.

panoramas

We flew kites today!  And I don't mean to brag or anything, but I totally had the best kite hehe.  Who'da thunk it?  We went to Regent's Park where we visited Queen Mary's Garden and Primrose Hill.  The park had lovely landscaping and millions of flowers, particularly roses.  At Primrose Hill is where we flew our kites, just like in Mary Poppins. 

Later, Lynn and I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum to see the special Grace Kelly exhibition.  It was all her dresses and accessories.  One thing that was really cool was that the last time I was in Europe, I went to Monaco and saw the church where Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier got married, which is also where she is buried.

My flatmates are now dragging me out to a pub so I shall go out with them despite my better judgment and need for sleep.

london in motion

<-- East and West -->

Today we traveled by boat to Greenwich to see the Prime Meridian.  And, of course, we all got a picture of each of us straddling it.  The Prime Meridian, or at least the Royal Observatory through which the Prime Meridian falls, is located at the top of a very tall and steep hill.  Thus, we had to walk all way up this steep hill in order to see this landmark.  Luckily, my flatmates and I have been training for this day for about a week now due to the fact that we are living on the 5th floor of the building and must climb some rather steep stairs each time we make the trek up to our apartment.  We then returned to London to capture traffic in motion from Trafalgar Square.  I learned a bit about how to tweak the settings on my camera so that it will take pictures that give the effect that the subject is in motion.

I later ventured into the National Gallery with Lynn to see some really great art.  That museum is huge!  I didn't even have time to see half of it.  We did however make a point to see the special exhibit, Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries which was really, really interesting.  That exhibit was totally worth going to see.  


In other news, I am a bit stressed about all of our projects that we have to do and turn in in the coming days.  I don't feel like my ideas are as awesome and clever as other people's ideas.  I have always had a hard time being creative on demand.  I know that for either my digital story or my photo book I want to do something about all the art I have seen and enjoyed while here.  And this weekend, Fran is taking me to the beach in Brighton and I was thinking about doing one of my projects comparing that beach to the beaches in Florida.  Something to think on....

black & white

On this Wednesday, the twenty-first day of July, in the year of our lord 2010 we ventured to Stonehenge and the Salisbury Cathedral in the English countryside.  Our assignment for the day was to capture black and white photos.  I took all color photos and later transformed a few of them into black and white pictures.  Tomorrow, we will learn how to create a photo that is mostly black and white but has touches of color.  It was really neat to see Stonehenge and hear the history and various theories about its mysterious existence.  I must say, I am quite fascinated by curiosities throughout history.  After seeing Stonehenge, we drove to the nearby town of Salisbury where we had lunch and toured the Salisbury Cathedral.  Our favorite tour guide Hugh was unable to officially give us a tour of the cathedral because there were volunteer tour guides eager to show us around the building.  However, Elana and I were rather bored by the volunteer tour guide so we caught up with Hugh and asked him to give us the tour anyway.  Hugh is the best.  Everything is better when he says it.  And he is quite funny as well.  He has also toured us around Bloomsbury and Westminster Abbey and he had definitely become our favorite tour guide.

Another person we have come to love is Elvis who works in the reception area at the FSU Study Centre.  Tara, Elana, and I hung out with Elvis for quite a bit last night just talking about how certain terms and customs vary between the UK and the States.  It was quite insightful.  We also found out that Elvis is apparently a Kool-Aid lover, so we might have to send some to him a few packs of it when we return home.

replicas

The day's task involved finding a photo on Flickr taken from British Museum and attempting to replicate it as best we could.  This is the photo I chose to mimic; below is photo I took:

Pretty close, huh?  The subject is a portion of the Elgin Marbles, a topic of much discussion for many people.  I used the lines and angles of the walls, corners, ceiling, and base to find the best position in which to imitate the original photo.  I absolutely love Classical Greek/Roman sculpture.  I cannot even begin articulate the excitement I experience when walking through the museum today.  I was also taken with much of the Asian art, specifically those pieces depicting the Buddha and bodhisattvas.  Here, I am imitating the mudras used by the Buddha to my left:  

After touring the museum, we all had high tea at the restaurant in the museum.  Tara and I felt so fancy, holding our pinkies high in the air while drinking our tea.  I then proceeded to go down to the museum gift shop and buy two lovely books: Symbols and Their Hidden Meanings and London's Strangest Tales: Extraordinary But True Stories.  Those will be a couple of good reads for the plane ride home. 

buildings

Our itinerary today consisted of riding the London Eye, lunch in St. James' Park, a tour of Westminster Abbey, and going to the theatre to see Billy Elliot.  The focus of our photography today was buildings.  Our task was to photograph buildings in a creative and provocative way.  Luckily, there are lots and lots of marvelous buildings here in London to photograph in interesting ways.  Similarly, we had great views of the city in which to capture impressive architectural feats.  Of all the pictures I took today, I chose the picture on the right as my best of the day.  The subject is Westminster Abbey which I was utterly entranced by.  All of the history and culture and art and religion...it was so exciting.

As I said previously, we also rode the London Eye which gave us very exciting views of London for miles.  I'm a little afraid of heights though, so I was a bit nervous on the London eye - especially since the capsules don't stop for passengers to get on and off.  In any case, here's the proof that was on the London Eye, you know, in case anyone needed it:

Our final stop of the day was the theatre for a showing of the musical Billy Elliot.  I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't really too terribly excited to go see it because I was really tired and needed to work on this but I went with an open mind nonetheless.  I liked it but I didn't understand a decent portion of it because the actors had very thick accents and I had no background for the time period of the story.  At least I can say I tried it.

last day before class starts

This morning we went on a historical bus - or coach, as they call it here in the UK - tour of London.  Our original tour guide Shawn hurt his back so Liz gave us our tour.  She was quite funny and gave us a great tour of London.  It made me quite excited to start class and officially tour the many historical and marvelous sites here in London.  One cool thing we saw today was the changing of the guards - here is a video of the guards marching up for there ceremony:



The rest of the day was spent wandering around Old Spitalfields Market where people sell all kinds of nifty handmade items.  Some things were really neat but well out of our price range.  Later, we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant that's a stone's throw from the FSU Study Centre.  It was really good food but I've found that customer service in restaurants is very different here from in America.  American waiters are so attentive to their customers but that is far less true here in the UK.  A good part of that is due to the fact that American wait-staff work for tips while that is not so much the case here.  Just an interesting observation.

touring and shopping

This morning, our guide Hugh took us on a tour of the Bloomsbury area surrounding the FSU Study Centre.  It was fabulously interesting and Hugh was so very nice.  I am looking forward to exploring the area more in the coming days.  I'm also glad that he will be showing us around Westminster Abbey on Monday.

Later in the day I met up with my friend Fran who studied abroad at UF a couple of years ago and lived in the dorm with me and is now living just outside of London.  We had lunch and went shopping down Oxford Street.  It was so, so busy down Oxford Street and the shops were so packed that we gave up on trying anything on or buying anything because the queues were too long.  Perhaps I will go back to a few stores on a weekday; Fran said that it was so busy because it was Saturday.  And even though my feet were aching something awful near the end, I still had a great time.  We took the tube back to Tottenham Court Road - my first time riding the tube!  After relaxing at the flat for a bit, Tara, Eric, Fran, and I went out for dinner at Pizza Express.  It was delicious.  We have now retired to our respective flats after a long, busy day.

seeing the city

Today was the first day we really got out and saw the city.  This morning, our graduate counselor took us on a walking tour of the neighborhood to show us the practical locations surrounding FSU Study Centre.  He pointed out restaurants and shops and whatnot for us and it gave me a big shopping itch.

Afterward, a bunch of us went out to a gelato place that we saw along the way.  Of course, we had to find our way back to the gelato shop, but that was part of the fun.  It was a bit of a challenge to orient myself on the map to find my way around since London is not on a grid map. 

Then Elana and I scratched our shopping itch by wandering around Covent Gardens a bit.  Then we found our way to Leicester Square where I took the obligatory photo with the red phone booths that are so iconic for London.  It's nice to be in a city where you walk so much.  Along with the four flights of stairs we have to climb to get to our flat, we definitely walked off all that gelato!

finally here!

Whew.  It has been a long day.  Or couple of days.  I'm not sure if this is jet lag or just plain tiredness from everything that has been going on.  I got through my first solo plane ride alright.  The train from the airport into London was rather stressful because there was not really enough room for Tara and me to have our luggage with us.  We're pretty sure the other passengers kinda hated us, but oh well.  The cab ride to the FSU Study Centre was delightfully uneventful, though. 

So we are in flat #12, on the fifth, and top, floor of the building.  As with a large portion of European buildings, there is no elevator.  It was quite a feat to get our heavy luggage up all four narrow, steep, winding flights of stairs, but somehow we made it.  Tara and I ended up in the same flat, with two other girls: Alesha and Elizabeth.  The four of us, plus a few others went out exploring a bit and got some lunch and dinner later.  I am very much looking forward to touring and seeing more of London in the coming days, but at the moment, I am most looking forward to going to bed.

the night before my trip

I have everything packed except for the last few things like my laptop (obviously) and whatnot.  Uuuuuhhhh, I think I pack a little too efficiently, if that's at all possible.  I got everything I wanted into my suitcase and had plenty more room so I packed another pair of shoes.  I don't know if you can tell from the picture but I still have quite a bit of room left.  It's 40 lbs, by the way, in case you were curious.  And I think my carry-on (on the right) is less than half full.  I have half a mind to go grocery shopping for non-perishables to fill my luggage.  In any case, I'll have to be sure to buy lots of stuff to fill my suitcase on the way home ;)

getting ready...

So I'm actually pretty nervous about this trip.  At the moment, I am more nervous and stressed about it than I am excited.  This will be the first time I travel alone (the whole plane ride to London part) and the longest I will have ever been away from home (I mean, not my parents' house, but away from my hometown of Gainesville).  I'm trying not to think about it, though.  I've started packing in the form of opening up my suitcase in my closet and throwing stuff in there that I don't want to forget.  I've also started a list of things to remember; things I don't want to pack quite yet since I use them all the time. 

I've got my little mascot in there, smack-dab in the middle of this picture.  It's a little sheep (hence the blog title).  It took me forever to decide on a mascot but I finally chose this little sheep I've had for a couple of years.  She doesn't have a name but I'm open to suggestions....

Ok, so I've explained the random sheep that I packed.  The other stuff tossed in there: paperwork, windbreaker, motion sickness/sleep-inducing pills for the flight, textbook, flip videocamera, London tourbooks... but Twizzlers?!  And two rather large packs of them at that?  Ok, I have an explanation.  So, I have a friend who lives in London, Fran.  We met because she was a foreign-exchange student at UF (where I got my Bachelors) and we lived in the same dorm the year she was here.  Now, I've been asking all of my friends here if they want me to bring them anything from London, so I thought it was only fair for me to ask Fran if she wanted me to bring her anything from the States.  She requested that I bring her some Twizzlers and Diet Mountain Dew.  Well, I don't want to risk the soda exploding in my suitcase but I will certainly make room in my suitcase for Fran's Twizzlers!