YUM

Yesterday was possibly one of the most amazing of my life.

For my art studio class we went to the London Zoo to some how relate animals to the city...

I don't really get it either, but then again I'm not an Art Studio major.

It was a lot of fun because I love zoos and animals. We were able to get very close to the animals, which I thought was strange, but I was not complaining because I got some cool pictures. I drew some sketches which are incredibly horrible. Not that I mind because I like drawing even if I am terrifyingly bad. I would show them on this blog, but then no one would ever respect me again.

So here comes the most interesting part of the day. As 5 of my study group mates and myself walked back to the flat for a delicious meal, we came upon a photo shoot on the same street we were strolling down. I looked at the model and I though to myself, "He looks too old to be a famous model maybe he's someone famous." I look closer and realize it's Robert Downey Jr!

And of course being the non-conspicuous person I am, I yelled "O my ****ing God. It's Robert Downey Jr.!" He was about 6 feet away from me and looked over and smiled at me. It was as if the sun had thrown the clouds into the stratosphere over Antarctica and let the world enjoy its warm, comforting rays. I felt all giddy and filled with warmth. He was such a hot biatch. 

We crossed the small street to stare at him so we did not interfere with the photo shoot. I yelled across the street "Hi!" like a total fool. He looked over and winked at me. I felt like floating home and once we looked at him for about 5 more minutes, I did just that with a vapid smile on my face. I realize this blog post is less than satisfactory for those of you who do not "know" Mr. Downey Jr. on the same level I now have the privilege of doing and do not care for insane girls loving celebrities, Sorry. 

I am going to Spain on Thursday which means I will be out of the blogosphere until next Sunday or so. Please do not miss me too much. I will try to the same while I am sunning myself on the nude beaches.

Signing off--

LeahMon

So I finally got hit by a car

It is true, kind of. Here I am walking in my very cute and complicated boots that all sophisticated women in London have, on my way to Tesco (think Lily Allen song "LDN"). I am crossing the street and this car comes and I start walking anticipating that by the time I get to where we would hypothetically intersect the yellow van will have moved. Unfortunately this did not happen. Instead I misread the situation, which is something rather new for me. The car stopped short, I was in a crowd of people, and in short the result was me slamming my leg into the bumper. My strange shriek of surprise and embarrassment only caught more attention, which for once was unwanted as it was my stupidity that caused the car to hit me, or rather me to hit the car. 

But do not worry, there is no evidence of this debacle besides the mortifying memory stamped on my mind. Also it did not effect my ability to dance until my feet went on strike and walked home 15 minutes before I did. 

The following day I went on my first adventure on my own. The destination: Regent's Park, a 20 minute walk from our flat. My fair roommate Nala told me where to go and I started with a backpack full of crappy Ramen Noodles, chocolate, laptop, readings, and a towel. After walking for a bit I called Papa Montre. However crisis soon struck as I realized I was about 3 minutes from the Thames River (Description: exactly like the Mississippi except smaller and minus the truly disgusting water, sad river side casinos and restaurants, and radioactive catfish). This was the exact opposite of where I was supposed to go, so my dad being the librarian he is, got on GoogleEarth. He told me the closest park was Hyde Park, which is like 50 minutes from our flat, which was the park I did not want to go to but when fate gallivants into your life you have no choose but to jump on for the ride. So I made my way to the Mall and after wal

king for 40 minutes with a 10 pound backpack I was quickly losing the capacity to walk in the straight-line. 

My dad kept saying I would see Buckingham Palace and past that would be Hyde Park. I thought aloud, "Isn't a palace supposed to be like ginormous? The size of like 50 giants? Shouldn't I be able to see it by now past all these trees?" My dad insisted because stubborn runs through all sides of the family. When I reached the mid-point of the Mall, I saw the little red men with the funny hats and thought that perhaps Papa Montre had not steered me wrong. As I walked forward a rectangular building arose, I realized this flat thing must be Buckingham Palace. Sure it's impressive with the golden gates and fancy Queen Victoria statue... but seriously I thought it was gonna have like fancy towers and such. It was kinda flat, but whatever. I'll go back again with friends so I can pose with the guards without being a loser because I do it by myself.

Signing off-- LeahMon

Got Sculpture?

We went to the Henry Moore Sculpture Park yesterday. It was about an hour and a half outside of London. Of course the scenery was beautiful. Our first tour guide was obviously in LOVE with this Moore character. He knew everything about him, carried little pictures of him in his pocket, and touched every piece of sculpture we saw with a lover's caress. Kinda weird, but at least he's passionate about something, even if that something is dead. The sculpture was really cool (see pictures). 

I also had my first portion of fish and chips from the pub by the park, delicious. We also went into Moore's home and had to wear very sweet dust booties (not like butts, those thing Marky Mark wears when he kills Matt Damon in The Departed). This dude had like the most fantastic personal art collection; Degas sketches, 3 Courbets, Picasso engravings-- serious stuff, million dollar serious stuff. 

My overall verdict is that Moore was definitely a gifted artist, but he seemed to stagnate. 

I also find it a little obnoxious that he started a foundation for himself of his art only, that also does not encourage or foster new sculptors..... not very philanthropic. However, there is no denying his importance to 20th Century sculpture and his very cool, very popular art.

Note to Papa Montre: Don't read this part if you want to sleep ;)

Later that day, in the night time, when the sun goes down, when the freaks come out, a few of us decided to go out to a really cool club/bar we found last week. 

The lights were out, so we went down the street to another bar. We walked into this strange Spanish theme bar and found the dance floor completely empty. Did that stop us from getting down? Absolutely... NOT. We kicked off the dance party with just the 5 of us. Within a half an hour the floor was completely full with people trying to equal our stunning dance moves.... needless to say that was not happening. 

We met these rando guys and it turns out one of their parents owns a oil well somewhere and he is straight ballin' out of control. He bought a bottle of champagne for all of us. I didn't drink it of course because I'm pure......

It was another great night, this time there was no debauchery til 6 a.m. but it's only Thursday.

Signing off--

LeahMon

Out and About

Also pictures of us around London: Colgate Alumni Pub, National Gallery.

Flying Statues

I am currently procrastinating... a bit. We went to Westminister Abbey today. 

I saw the tomb of Queen Elizabeth 1 which is very cool.

I asked one of the guides stationed throughout the Abby where Anne Boleyn was buried. He looked at me like I was a loon and replied that she was where her head had been cut off: The Tower of London. I asked why they hadn't moved her since she had produced the best, kick-ass queen as her off-spring. Instead of muttering "stupid American" under his breath, he giggled. My jokes work around the world! A great triumph.

I took a couple of pictures of me with Big Ben, but they are neither attractive or flattering, so we will save those for another time, say when I want to mortify myself.

But outside of Parliment there were peace protestors.

 See pictures. They avoided us like the plague, but it was nice

 to see some fellow angry liberals, reminds me of my dad. JK-kinda.

I also took a sweet picture of a statue in the square across from the Abbey and Parliment... pretty cool.

The last picture to post is this sweet sculture outside of the National Theatre. We went to see The Waves tonight, which was based off a Virginia Wolff novel.... it was artsy, and if I would have understood more of what the accents were saying and was

n't so distracted by the artsy-ness I would have probably enjoyed it more.

Signing Off--

Leah Mon

Thank You Little Chef

I know the world has been awaiting my triumphant return to the blog-o-sphere.

Things have been absolutely insane across the pond. This past Monday night we saw a play for our theatre class called The Lady in Black. It was easily the most terrifying play I have ever seen (which isn't saying much because I've only seen about 4- all from high school). If you ever happen to come to London, you should def check it out. Around 3:30 that morning a strange man attempted to break into our flat, which was even MORE terrifying then the play. The police, who have very funny hats making it about 3 times harder to respect them, were involved and explained that the man was a security guard who clearly did not understand his job. Our professor MAC came and I didn't sleep until 5 in the morning.

At 8 we met with the people who manage our apartments and switched flats, so we are now on the seconds floor rather than the basement. Our room is smaller, but more cozy.

Tuesday evening about 5 other girls and myself went to see the musical Wicked. Which has been something I have wanted to do since I read the book. It was incredible, the woman who played Elphaba had the most amazing voice of all time, next to mine of course.

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful.

However-- yesterday we went to Salisbury Cathedral (see photo) which was really pretty and we saw the Magna Carta. Cool.

The most interesting thing was to come the following morning. That night we stayed at the classiest hotel in England: Travelodge, and ate such fine cuisine as Little Chef. JQ and I enjoyed 6 Carlsburg Imports between the two of us, but only had to pay for 1 each. Pure Excellence. We awoke at 6:30 and 10 minutes later were beholding the stone beauty known as STONEHENGE. This was an awesomely amazing experience. We were allowed within the fenced off areas and touched those ancient and powerful stones. It was easily one of the most awe-inspiring things I have ever done, besides being born and learning to write. Some may say it is over-rated, but those people are simply fools. 

Next some archaeologist guy took us to all these digs about avenues and whatever.... It seemed like a lot of old ditches and as far as I'm concerned, you see one old ditch, you've seen them all. Aren't we Art History majors and minors? Why would we... But I digress. Stonehenge was awesome and I just couldn't stop taking pictures, for being stone it was quite photogenic.

Signing off--

Leah Mon