I’ve done a lot of things as usual. First of all, today we had a fire drill at 8:30am which was really pleasant. Anyway, tomorrow I go to Paris! I’ll update on that once I get back.


On Sunday, I went to The Royal Academy of Arts. It was amazing! I’ve really fallen in love with modern and contemporary art, which I am surprised about. Being in London has only reaffirmed this adoration. The Royal Academy has a really impressive reputation; so I am very grateful that I got to see it. I think I might be going back for their ‘earth’ exhibit coming up.


Last week was eventful at the flat, because we lost our hot water about five or six times, but thankfully this got replaced. Also, in the bigger bathroom the handle came off and so it ran blasting hot water for about six hours until the maintenance person finally arrived. There goes our attempt at being green I guess!


On Monday, I went with my Artist & the City class to The National Gallery. I absolutely love that class, and am excited because my professor is going to guide us through the Louvre in Paris, so it should be even more educational. We went around it for about two hours, but afterwards I really wanted to go back. That’s the beauty about London, museums are free. Some exhibits you have to pay for, but most things are free. I like it, because it really inspires the community to educate themselves with art and history.


Tuesday night we went to Slaughtered Lamb. It was a really nice venue, northeast of us. It had a downstairs area where four bands played. They were really good!


Yesterday, Heather and I went to the National Gallery. We went around part of it. It’s enormous and unless you want to just fly past paintings, you really need to just keep going back. That’s one amazing thing about living here, is that you aren’t pressed for time. You can go back any day. They have a lot of popular pieces of art, one is a piece that I learned about in an Art History class that I’ve always loved: “Giovanni & Wife” by Jan Van Eyck and they have quite a bit of Van Gogh paintings as well, including one of the Sunflowers paintings. I bought a ring that kind of looks like a Sunflower in the gift shop, because I love that piece.


After spending a couple hours there, we went to the National Portrait Gallery. Again, we didn’t go through all of it. There was one piece called “Mike’s Brother” and was an oil painting on masonite. It is actually of Paul McCartney, and is titled that because the artist was friends with Paul’s brother Mike. It was made during Beatle Mania. I really liked the Portrait Gallery a lot. We walked around a little more and found a small stone alley filled with bookshops. I am definitely going back there!


We went through the Charring Cross train station to get to Embankment tube station and happened to see a ferret on a leash. Crazy huh?


Later tonight we are going on a Harry Potter tour and then celebrating Karly’s (she lives in Flat 5) birthday at a place that is having a pirate night. Arrrgh matey.