Schoolchildren. Massive amounts of little children wearing Day-Glo vests to avoid getting lost/hit by cars walking around in swarms led by loud, obnoxious teachers desperately trying to corral the little monsters and failing. They are everywhere. They are one the Tube, in the Victoria & Albert, in the Natural History Museum, even on effing Earl's Court Road. There is nowhere to go to be safe from them and their annoying chatter about which of the Fashion exhibits they would wear if they were in "the old days" or their constant hogging of any hands on exhibits in Human Biology. I had to fight so hard not to carry one off by their braid and leaving them to rot in the middle of a busy street. When did so many children appear? Why must they all wear matching uniforms and walk around in large groups? Don't they have anything better to do than go on field trips? Shudder. Ok, rant over.
So today I returned to the Victoria & Albert and Natural History Museum since I had the whole day and didn't have a companion who needed to be somewhere. I immediately made for the Fashion exhibit at the V&A since it was what I most wanted to see. It was a great exhibit with both historical and more modern pieces. I, of course, most enjoyed the evening gowns and wedding dresses, but the evolution of underwear through the years was also interesting. I definitely found several dresses I really wanted to own myself. I then went to the Jewelry exhibit to admire all the sparkly things and even got to design my own ring on one of the computer terminals though adiamondisforever.com is much better for that. Hey, shut up, I like sparkly things. The next stop had to be the Theatre & Performance exhibit. The first thing you see what you walk in is an uber-realistic rhinoceros costume from some play where becoming a Fascist is represented by becoming a rhino. It was really scary to look for too long at the costume because you seriously expected it to come to life and start charging you. I kept a safe distance just in case it decided to go Jumanji on me. It was a really interesting exhibit with all manner of items from promotional posters to scale model sets to costumes (my favorite of course) to photos of famous thespians to footage of actual performances. I totally geeked out and basked in the love of theatre. I also saw the Paintings and though the collection was small it was some of the best stuff I have seen and I've been to the Louvre and the National Gallery. I prefer paintings with stories behind them and most of them were like that so that probably accounts for it.
I finally got museum fatigue after realizing I had been in there for about 3 hours so I popped over to the Natural History Museum for a quick look around the Human Biology exhibit. And there I encountered something even more terrifying than the rhinoceros. In fact, it may been one of the scariest things I have ever seen and I will probably have nightmares tonight. Naturally, Human Biology starts with explaining conception, pregnancy, and birth. Gross, but whatever. So I am just innocently walking from one room to another only to come face to face with an enormous fetus. Seriously, a 7 months along fetus 8 times larger than an actual 7 month old fetus. It was this huge alien looking thing on the wall accompanied by a loud heartbeat meant to simulate how the baby hears its mother's heartbeat. I was just in shock for a good 10 seconds, staring in horror before I finally managed to take a picture and then flee for my life. Who thought that was a good idea? WHO?! I had to skip the rest of that part of the exhibit so I could stop having heart palpitations. Luckily everything after that was fairly mundane stuff about how we move, memory, hormones, learning, etc and I was able to put the terror behind me. I briefly ventured to the Minerals exhibit to find more sparkly things and then went into "The Vault" where they have the really good sparkly things including the Star of South Africa diamond. I seriously stood there for two minutes just moving my head back and forth to watch it sparkle.
Since I was in the neighborhood, I set off for Earl's Court to see if I could find the pub Maddie and Mom frequented the summer we lived here. I didn't end up finding it (Mom and I later Google mapped it and realized I just didn't go far enough down the street which yet again proves my lack of looking skills) and instead bought a 75p baguette and noshed on that as I window shopped. I went into two secondhand clothing stores by Notting Hill Gate on the way home but I have never really liked shopping by myself so I didn't look hard or try anything on. Will have to get someone to go back to Portobello and Camden sometime so I buy awesome London clothing.
Well tomorrow I have to return to work after 5 days off and also go to class straight from work. This will be much better than last week since there is no Tube strike but I still don't much like Wednesdays with constantly being on the move from 9 in the morning to 9 at night. I anticipate my third week of work being much the same as the first two so I see manual labor and brat teens in my future. I also realize that I haven't updated on my summer goals in two weeks so I will close this time with just that.
1. Stop biting the inside of my lip (Trying so hard but still not there)
2. Beat my dependency on daily diet soda (Accomplished, I am going to strike this from the list from now on)
3. Make friends despite my socially fearful nature (Accomplished, have lots of friends though not at the level of my friends at home yet)
4. Go for a jog/walk in Hyde Park every day that I am not touring (Starting tomorrow I am going to try to jog every day because it has either been touring or working so I have not done this yet)
5. Take full advantage of my 18 days working at Battersea Arts Centre (I do want I'm told, does that count?)
6. Try new foods that I ordinarily wouldn't, especially British Isles specialties (Chicken tikka masala is excellent but other than that I don't go out to eat enough)
7. Acquire a working knowledge of British slang much like Australian last summer (Say Cool or Cheers or Aces a lot. My co-workers do.)
8. Go to Paris, Dublin, Cornwall, and Chawton (Paris is a check. Plans in place for Cornwall and Dublin. Chawton TBD.)
9. Keep a private journal in addition to this blog (Haven't felt the need to write so I haven't. I think this is a fail besides recording expenses, bus routes, and things I want to remember when my blog is not handy.)
10. Have the time of my life (Been having a good time lately)
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