The good news is you all have tomorrow off. The bad news is that I live in London, and my weekend isn't as long as yours...Apparently, the Brits don't celebrate Labor Day. How they know when to stop wearing white pants is just completely confusing for me. Now that I think about it, I saw quite a few women strutting through the 60-degree air and freezing puddles with white-washed stems today. Seems like Big Ben should have put London on his top three relocation stations for next year...
Saturday started out with a quick 3-miler, which took me through Kensington and Chelsea, along Georgian-style-studded streets, swarmed with families out to enjoy what I've been promised is the last of the beautiful weather. After showering up and taking care of a little RA business, I stepped into my shoes and hit the pavement. I walked the short distance to the Victoria and Albert, where I registered with the museum library. After answering a quick few questions, I got some shiny new plastic, opening windows and doors to stacks and files of a collection any art history buff would drool over. The library is inside the museum, and literally looks like it was modeled after the Beast's library that Belle just swoons over. Spiral wrought-iron staircases and dusty bindings stacked stories high...be still my heart.
I left the V&A and walked the few blocks up to Hyde Park, found a good plot of grass, and dove headfirst into my newest purchase by way of Waterstone's (which puts Barnes and Noble to shame). After a few hours lost to Fitzgerald's lesser known short stories, I packed it back up and headed to Covent Garden, past beautiful Harrod's, in search of some shoes that wouldn't leave my feet looking like I was breaking in a new pair of cleats during three-a-days at preseason. I took the Picadilly line home, whipped up some stir-fry, and headed out to meet some of the girls from the institute in Notting Hill. We found our way to The Metropolitan Pub (which looks like every other pub in London) and spent the night out on the terrace where I felt like I was back at Charlie's Beer Garden.
This morning I woke up to my first rainy-day, but headed towards the Tube nonetheless. In keeping with tradition, I was determined to spend my Sunday morning perusing the tents of a farmer's market, found through this fabulous website that is incredibly easy to navigate: http://www.lfm.org.uk/. I grabbed a croissant to nibble at from one of the stands, and made my way through fruits, flowers and fresh veggies to collect my produce for the week. A few tastes of fruit-infused pesto later, I was starting to miss my CMR Sunday's, and was wishing I had a Buttery cup in my hand to ease the pain. While London may not have the draw of the weekly SoWa Antiques Market, one thing that Marylebone does have is a raw bar! I learned my lesson this week and will be heading back next Sunday with an empty stomach (first-timer over here). Hopped the 74 back to Kensington, unloaded my bags of fresh food and headed to a cafe down the street to make my way out of the rain, and into a hot cup of coffee and Fitzgerald's The Popular Girl.
On tap for tonight I just have dinner to make and rounds to do through all of the flats. Resting up for this week, as classes start tomorrow! All week long I have 5 hour lectures each day in "Finance." We have to bring a calculator. I'm sure you can all guess how thrilled I am to begin this journey. Stay close to your computer all week, ENG, and get ready to answer those 101 (or, "Finance for Dummies") questions. I'll be looking forward to my afternoons, where I'll start my lectures in Law and Ethics for the Art Market, History of the International Art Market, Marketing and Management, and Research Methods. Let's hope this brain still works!
Soak up some extra sun for me tomorrow!
Cheers!
Guess this means I have to get two coffees every sunday. breaking my heart :(
ReplyDeleteHave a good first day at school!! take lots of notes and make lots of friends!