Sami came for spring break, and we basically took London. Highlights included: the SCIENCE MUSEUM(!!!), where we got to play with science experiments involving magnets, shadows, seeing through walls, bubbles, colors, the works (please see my scientific work of art here: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/sociallight.asp?videoID=60f3a7ad79534a9d8a7ea070f9c990df ); Billy Elliot the musical, a really stirring dance production with an incredibly talented 13-year-old boy in the lead role; tea and scones at the Kensington Gardens Orangery in the pouring rain; the Tate Modern as a whole--I love that place; the Vanity Fair exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery; the Irish festival in Covent Garden/Trafalgar Square on Saint Patrick's Day; and cupcakes at the famous Hummingbird Cafe in Portobello Market. Apologies for the dry recollections of what was actually an exciting (albeit long-ago) week.
The science museum's infrared cameras prove that I have some serious circulation problems. Note that my nose is the same color as my hair--which is DEAD:
The Spirit of Saint Patrick! (If our lips look unnaturally pink, it is due to some fierce experimental make-up at B Never 2 Busy 2 B Beautiful, a make-up store unaware of the extraneous nature of that first "b.")
We also experimented with socialized healthcare when my poor beleaguered roommate ate something funky and ended up with hives. We had to walk to the emergency room at 4 in the morning, having been informed by the 999 (not 911) operator that, because she was still breathing, she would not receive an ambulance dispatch for several hours. Super. After being turned away at not one but two doors to the emergency room, we were finally accosted by SECURITY (that's right) and led to the correct entrance. Where Matt the night nurse pumped cortizone into Laura and told us that our majors were useless. Hi, Matt. You're a nurse on the graveyard shift.
Post-allergy, Laura and I visited the Disney store at Covent Garden to make our room decor complete:
Then all us Yale-in-Londoners reunited for a 3-day field trip to Bath, which was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. We saw Stonehenge, historically exciting but cold and ultimately just a pile of rocks (says the camera-toting man beside me to his wife: "Smile and say, 'This is overrated.'")
But then we saw Stourhead, an enormous experiment in landscaping around a beautiful man-made lake with tunnels and Greek statues. It was so serene and gorgeous, frankly breathtaking. I would love to stroll there with a wrinkly friend when I retire.
The pub at Stourhead, no joke:
Also, I HIKED up a mountain!! I do not think Anna and/or Daniel read this, but they experienced my hiking failures in the California heat this summer, and this view from the mountain serves as my proof that it was just the lack of sunscreen and trees:
Finally, we arrived at Bath. I LOVED it. It used to be a big vacation spot for the British aristocracy, but it fell into disfavor in the early 1900s, and has renewed its popularity within the past 50 years or so. It was a beautiful mix of medium-sized town with stores and cafes and nightlife, Georgian architecture set against rolling green landscape, and historic site of Roman ruins and a natural hot spring that once served as a Roman bath.
And Andrea, Josh, Laura, and I went to a SPA for two hours, which was the absolute most luxurious thing I have ever done in my life. Enormous warm bath on the bottom floow, aromatherapy steamrooms with lavendar, mint, eucalyptus infusions, open-air bath on the roof with stunning views of the sun through the clouds and on the mountains. If I had seen this place earlier, I would have stayed an extra week to hang around Bath. It was truly one of the most simultaneously (paradoxically?) calming and exciting places I have ever been.
Fancy schmancy place where we took High Tea with hot cross buns and cinnamon butter, complete with pianist serenading us with Over the Rainbow, Fer Elise, etc:
Side of the chapel, angels climbing Jacob's ladder:
Me outside the chapel:
Bookstores amuse me:
Then today, I attended my first church service ever--Easter at Westminster Abbey!! It was really very interesting to see the ceremony of it, with the precession and the crosses and even the incense, which seemed rather Gothic to me but certainly gave a sense of awe to the whole proceeding. And I took communion, questionably sacrilege I know-- but I figure that the Anglican church doesn't actually believe in transubstantiation anyways, so I can deal with eating a bit of Christian symbolism for the sake of cultural experience. I was also really interested in the differences between the Christian and Jewish service, particularly the representation of G-D. While the pastor's sermon relating the tale of Easter seemed to describe a fluid transition between Old Testament and New Testament G-D, the Christian service was all about G-D's love, which simply does not exist in the Judaic service. In fact, I was really struck by the Christian focus--even rhetorically--on the words "love" and "death," particularly the combination of the two in Jesus' love for humanity allowing him to triumph over death. Judaism deals very little with death or the afterlife, and I couldn't help but feel that Christianity tended toward a more modern sentiment of answering man's fears and desires for continued life after death. It was a more comforting feeling than the Jewish service, I would say, but it also felt simply less ancient to me (a historical fact) and therefore less rooted in the spirituality of generations. In conclusion: I am Jewish through and through. But this was a really interesting experience, and I would love to see a Protestant service someday.
And for an alternative religious experience...Laura and I attended the official LONDON STUDENT PURIM PARTY on Thursday night!! All of London's student Jews came out for the equivalent of Jewish Halloween, and Laura and I dressed up with feathers in our hair (thank you, 96-pence art pack from Tesco), and we serendipitously met fellow costumed Purim-goers on the tube and followed them to the party and it was lovely.
Pretty cemetery (this has nothing to do with anything, but I guess we could extrapolate to the whole being dead/not thing that plays into Easter):
And I feel much better having rectified my blogging delinquency. Naptime :).
P.S. Eurotrip anyone?
