Spilling coffee, losing phones, can't take me anywhere.

This past weekend was my free weekend. I went into London and stayed with my cousin on Saturday and Sunday night. I caught a ride into the city on Sat. morning with one of the TASIS field trips. I didn't have a plan for what I wanted to do, but Covent Garden seemed like a good tube stop. I wandered. Ended up in Trafalgar square because I heard music and commotion. Turns out it was a gay pride festival. It was great weather for an outdoor festial. There was a band setting up on stage and tons of vendors handing crap out to the festival-goers. There was a sign up that read: "Trans, Lesbian, Mayor of London". I'm not really sure if there was a message I don't understand because I am not a native Londoner, but I took it as the whole idealistic "we're all equal" thing. I like equality.

I hungout for awhile and then went into the national gallery which is right at Trafalgar sq. Whenever I go into art museums I feel like I am "supposed" to start at the "beginning" and see everything in the "correct" order. I'm really glad I have started to overcome this horrible anal tendency I have to follow nonexistant rules. Who makes up these rules I seem to think necessary to follow when I travel? This time, I made an out of order beeline for the impressionists. It's been quite awhile since I've been to an art museum and impressionism is my drug of choice. I felt so giddy, I was holding myself back from skipping through the rooms. Sometimes when I am in art museums I want to start doing pirouettes because the wood floors and open spaces remind me of dance studios (and because impressionism makes me crazy). Somtimes I feel I'm an art museum sell out for favoring impressionism. I wish I could be one of those people who looks at some darkly colored picture of yet another knight from 1472 and sees the beauty. I just see a knight. I often find myself wanting to dive into impressionist paintings and swirl around with the colors and lines (similar to an acid trip, I imagine). I saw two really amazing people in one of the impressionist galleries. As I'm sitting there, looking at Seurat's Bathers At Asnieres, contemplating the advent of divisionism, I am distracted by....first...SILVER SEQUINED PLATFORM ORTHEPEDIC SHOES. Worn by an old woman who is shuffling through the crowd. I was so distracted by her shoes I can't remember anything else about her. Touche for making old lady shoes fabulous. My hat is off. Second, there was a guy wearing a pink T-shirt that had "Space Robots Future Is Now" printed on the back. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? I was so curious I almost asked him about it. I was working up the courage to interfere with his discussion about impressionism, divisionism, or where to get lunch with his female companion when he disappeared into a different room. I'm open to anyone who reads this blog (really, who DOES read my blog?) letting me know what they think this t-shirt was all about. Are the space robots an up and coming band? Does he believe that there are metallic beings from Jupiter on their way to Earth right now destined to clean our houses like that robot maid the Jetsons employed? (what was her name? Did the Jetsons pay her, considering she wasn't human?). Maybe this t-shirt is the latest trendy screen print by the English branch of Abercrombie and Fitch. Thank-you to the Harry and Carol Djanogly Room for this amazing experience with impressionism and wardrobe pizazz.

I was leaving the impressionism section, a little downtrodden because there were no more paintings to keep my high going. Addicts always keep looking for more and more of their drug of choice and keep paying more for their drugs. This was me when I saw a special exibit advertised called Radical Light. Italian impressionists experimenting with adding light to their paintings after learning about how the eye and brain work together to create an image. Woah baby. Impressionism, enlightenment, knowledge, anatomy and physiology. How could this get better? I definitely paid the extra money to see this exhibit. After all, I am an addict. Luckily it was only 4 pounds with a student ID, so my habit is a cheap one. These paintings were fantastic! I really thought maybe someone turned a light on or something. Radical.

I left the gallery after this exhibit, feeling that anything else would be a letdown. Perfect timing. I walked out looking for a place to buy iced coffee and ended up at the gay pride parade. I didn't know there was going to be a parade with the festival. It just kept getting better. Lots of rainbows, costumes, music and facepaint. Wooooo!

After the parade, I actually got iced coffee. Guess where? Drumroll.....CAFE VERGANO 1882. The place in Leister Square, mentioned in my very first blog that Sarah and I are in love with. I found it! The iced coffee was just as good as I remember and the chocolate cookies were pretty fab. as well. Leister Square was packed and so was the tube station, but I made my way back to Stoke Newington to see Amy. We had dinner at her flat and hungout.

Sunday was not good weater. Rain. Cold. Dreary. I jumped a bus to the big flower market and wandered around wishing I could buy a bunch of flowers and then magically not have to worry about carrying them around all day without water or bringing them back to TASIS on the train. I did have a glitch with my morning when I drenched myself in coffee while trying to walk, drink, and read the London A-Z map all at once. I am really hoping the stain comes out of my Seattle hoodie that I love so much. I also got some on my white shoes. Who lets me buy light colored clothing? It started to rain more, I walked. I like rain. Eventually I sat in a Starbucks drinking tea and reading a copy of The Great Gatsby I found in the TASIS faculty room before heading to Camden Market. When I got to Camden it was raining pretty well so I darted from tent to tent while tiny rivers formed on the ground. Once again, the white shoes took a beating. I bought a blue pashmina and thought about the last time I was at Camden with Sarah and we got pashminas and then proceeded to think up a multitude of different uses for them. I also bought a dress that looked cute at the time, but now I'm second guessing....I hate when I do that. (I'm not sure if I'm referring to buying things I dislike later or the second guessing that results, but they both suck)

Sunday evening I met my friend Shantalie for dinner near Oxford street. We caught up over Pizza. It was a good time. I decided to sleep at Amy's on Sunday night at catch a 7:20AM train back on Mon. morning. I made it just in time to pick up attendance cards in the rain. I was so tired alllll day. Also, I dropped my cell phone in the cab I took to TASIS from the train station and got a call to come pick it up in Egham (town about 2.5 miles away). I convinced a TASIS co-worker, Ben, to go on a run there with me on Monday afternoon. It started thunderstorming about 10 minutes into the run. It was refreshing and disgusting at the same time. We were completely waterlogged and cold when we made it back. At least it was a successful trip in that I got my phone back.

It's definitely 12:27AM here which means bedtime. Sianara.