16 Jan

I planned on getting up this morning around 7:30 and leaving for the Strand at 8:20. Instead, I slept in until about 10:30 and didn’t leave the dorm until 11:45. My reasoning went as such: I was only trying to get an early start to scope out my classes and then do some sightseeing during the fleeting hours of daylight. Since finding classes was not going to take long (5-10 minutes?) and I was only planning on visiting the National Portrait Gallery and maybe the National Gallery, getting up at 7:30 didn’t sound like such a great idea anymore. Besides, I’m still sick so the more rest I get the better. I felt better yesterday than the day before, but today I’ve sunk a little and if it wasn’t for the movie tonight, I’d be taking some more medicine right now that will knock me clean out.

I finally made it to the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) around 1:30 and didn’t leave it until just past 3. I started taking pictures of a painting of Thomas More and his family before a woman told me to put the camera away. I hadn’t seen any signs forbidding pictures so I just assumed I could (hey, you can in the Louvre and British Museum!). The portraits were amazing. I started with the Tudors and got to see my favorite queen, Queen Elizabeth I, in all her splendor. I also saw the Bard’s pencil portrait which was small but wonderful. It was quite gratifying to recognize many of the kings and queens and other personages since I’d read about them in some of Shakespeare’s plays last fall. I’m taking a “Court Cultures in the Age of Elizabeth” English class here that will cover, well, court culture in Elizabeth’s court and how the dynamics between the courtiers, the queen, and the populace affected politics and economics and such. Looks like a great deal of fun and the professor seems quite promising so far (she’s the one from the department meeting). I’m really excited about learning more about Elizabeth’s reign; she was only one of the most influential and important queens in recorded western history…the portraits of the Stuarts and Jacobeans after the Tudors were a little boring (though well done of course) only because I didn’t recognize as many of the names. It was nice to see some of the great writers, statesmen, heroes, and thinkers too: Newton, Drake, Nelson (out of uniform!), Burke, Wollstonecraft, Byron (looking fabulous in some Middle Eastern outfit), Shelleys, Davy, Priestly, Sir Christopher Wren (famous architect responsible for rebuilding a lot of important buildings in London after the Great Fire of 1666), and of course, Jane Austen. Her portrait was tiny and done in pencil and watercolor. Her sister, Cassandra, was responsible for the precious drawing that is considered one of the few accurate representations of her. I’m sorry Sachi missed that during her brief time here, and if they would only let me take pictures I could at least show her what it looks like. Oh well.

I left the NPG soon after visiting the Regency era because I was getting a little bored of paintings and I was extremely hungry. I had stupidly skipped breakfast completely and although I bought a sandwich for lunch, I didn’t find a good place to eat it. Cursed rain! Just heavy enough to make everything wet and light enough to make carrying around an umbrella pointless. I swear, England will make a rain expert out of me. Lainey says that British people seem to be impermeable to rain and she will only really acclimate to this area when she too finds herself impervious to rain. Ah, if only that were some superpower you could turn on and off (rain can feel really good sometimes you know). Wishful thinking.

I got back to the dorm around 4 after a solid 30 minute bus ride and ate my long overdue lunch. Then I just chilled on the computer for a while before joining Gregg, Lainey, and Tom for dinner at 6. Vegetable “casserole” with rice…not too shabby. About halfway through dinner a British kid I met, Robert (see 11 Jan) sat at our table and chatted with us for a bit. While the other three talked with some other guy about our cancelled War Studies class the next day, Robert leaned in and asked me two questions in private. “That guy sitting to your left,” he said, “One, is he single, and two, is he gay? [referring to Tom]” For a moment I wasn’t sure what to say. I responded that I was absolutely positive that Tom was not guy but not sure if he was single. Robert then asked me to check that out for him, and I said I would. I asked him what his plans for the evening were and he said he and a bunch of “musicy” people were going up to a place called “The Gardener’s Club” over at Covent Garden. I didn’t have any plans at the moment and said so. We chatted for a couple of minutes more and then he left. Soon after he was gone, I informed Tom of his questions, just so he would be on the lookout and not surprised if he gets any advances thrown his way. It’s rather refreshing how open and honest British people are. That’s one thing I’ve certainly noticed being here. They’re not afraid to say pretty much anything (which is one reason why I think people find their humor either hilarious or offensive) and they treat each other quite frankly. I blame our Puritan heritage.

Towards the end of dinner we made plans to see Brokeback Mountain at a local theater which we did around 8:45. The theater was in a kind of sketchy part of town and I’m glad we went as a pack (I definitely wouldn’t feel safe walking around there alone or with just one other person). After too few trailers and too many ads (especially some elaborate and pointless ones from AOL), the movie began. It was slow, thoughtful, typical Ang Lee (and sheep again, Sach!) and pretty good overall. The guys with us thought it was pretty decent. I don’t see why there’s so much hype about Ledger’s performance though; he kind of grunted for most of the movie. Gylenhaal did better.

It was freezing on the train ride back though I did pick up an interesting souvenir. Someone left a copy of a Russian newspaper on the train. I’m going to hang it up on my door.

Laundry day is tomorrow. We are required (or else...) to change our linens every fortnight between 8 and 9 a.m. on the day we are assigned. I talked to my RA about and apparently they are extremely strict about timing and even fast-forward their watches. Yikes. I’ll be sure to make that deadline…

Random note: While hunting for my classes in the Strand, I came upon a sign advertising a “London Assassins” game. I jotted down the e-mail address and intend on sending them a few queries as to how the game will run. Who knows? I may actually become an agent this semester…

Some things are just universal. Cheers!