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.

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. 

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!