pilgrimage complete

sort of. I went to england this week, but i still felt like i returned to the motherland a little, being possibly old school american (but probably not?)

London was the longest trip i've been on yet during my time abroad. I was there from Sunday to Friday, staying melissa, an ANGEL of a hostess, and visiting with Emily whose on her way to morocco. At the end of 5 nights, I could say that I had a sense of london, although being a well-signed, touristy city and having a friend who lives there helps a lot, as well as walking instead of using public transit. I knew next to nothing about london before going, especially because I was sort of stressed with the logistics of my big-picture life before going, so when I showed up, i had no idea what I wanted to do.

Main ictivities included (in no specific order, but definitely out of order): Tate modern art museum, this incredible independent tea house, Victoria and Albert Museum, seeing a few important places like buckingham palace, big ben, thames, trefalger (haha i know that spelling is wrong) square, oxford street (shopping district),playing bingo inside an english pub, late-night slightly buzzed food shopping, random 30 min. conversation with an old irish sketch-artist, meeting more irish, english and even ITALIAN flatmates of melissa's and asking them questions, and of course, walking around, talking, eating, and being merry with friends.

I don't know much about art, but going to 2 museums in a rather short time period (at least for me) was really enjoyable, especially with a friend who'd already been and does know much more about art (melissa studies art history). London's museums are very spacious and organized, and even though the amount of stuff is overwhelming, its not stifling to look at, the way I sometimes feel in italian churches, like there is just too much crap in one space. the tate was especially cool, even though I know i saw hardly a fraction. My favorite thing was this peice done by a polish artist (hell if i know his name). {disclaimer: all of the following information i got from mel} The tate is built in what used to be a warehouse, so its got these huge industrial spaces, 6 or 7 floors, of boomy echo-y metal space. In this one spot, the tate allows an artist to use the space to do something with it, anything they'd like, and it stays for a fixed period of time.

So, right now its a ridiculously huge metal box, raised off the group above head height so that u can walk underneath it, and it has only one open side. At the end of the box/rectangle (you can only approach it from one of the short sides) there's a ramp that you have to walk around to enter the huge metal mass. While you walk toward the ramp, u see the underside of it, and it already gives this haunted strange feeling, since your walking below an insanley large metal box, with the inclination that it could fall and crush you at any moment, and yet you sort of have to keep going to see whats inside it. Inside the box there is no light, and this structure is in a room already lacking in lighting of any sort. The walls are pitch black and so you have no reference point for the dimensions of the inside of the box. You can hardly see the other people moving around, even when they're nearby, and its really quite.

Going inside of it was one of the most intense physical or emotional reactions i've ever had to art, be it music, dance, visual art or film. For me, it created a need in me to find one of the walls so as to orient myself, and until i did i was scared and tiptoeing because i didn't want to go to far into the dark. It also flooded me with thoughts of mass graves and the holocaust, because its the type of object that people would be herded into like cows for mass transit, but its at least 2 stories tall, and something that large would never be used for transportation so it made me think of cargo, but there were people inside--i was inside. I dont know how to explain, it just took me a long time to understand how i was feeling and I was completely blown away by something so simple making me react like that.

I had a lot of great conversation, lovely catching up, relaxing, tea drinking and LAUGHING in london. One thing I miss the most about the states is that I understand and LOVE the humor with so much of myself and its draining to be in a foreign country where humor, social interactions, and hello/goodbyes are so strained because we just have different customs that dont always translate, you know? Some things are universal and some things I'm starting to understand, but when I can just laugh naturally with people I know well, i get warm-fuzzies like there's no tomorrow. it's bad. but that's how london was times 10.

From now on, I sort of only want to travel to places where i have friends. Not having to stay in a hostel was a huge relief, and meeting someone as soon as I got off the bus stop was invaluable. One thing that really stresses me out about traveling is all the logistics, and when someone who cares about you expects you, it just makes things so much easier and so much more enjoyable. Speaking of which, I have a free bed in my room right now because my roommate moved, and I'm really hoping no one moves into it so that I'll be able to host guests super easily-with their own bed and everything! I loved melissa's place and her set up, it seems really comfortable. But when I got home yesterday and sat on my bed, i was so happy to be back.

Speaking of getting back, it was ALMOST a disastro. I went to the place where I was supposed to take the same bus I'd taken from the airport to london back to the airport, but the stop was in a slightly different place, which took us about 25 minutes to figure out. My flight was at 11:35 and I figured if I left london by 9:30 at the latest, id still be able to make it (the first time it took about 1:10 to arrive in london) I think I finally got on a bus at 9:35 or so, and immediately proceded to fall asleep because I'd only slept for an average of 6 hours every night of being in london. The driver would announce every once in a while how far away we were, and once we'd finally picked all passengers up from the other stops and were leaving london he said we STILL had an hour, even though it had been like 30 minutes. But my phone was completely uncharged (didnt charge in london-no idea?) and there was nothing i could do but wait, so after drifitng in and out of sleep, i wake up to a 2nd announcement saying that due to traffic we'd been help up and were still 40 minutes away. So that would put me after 11:35 practically. I basically lost hope. Knowing ryan air, the evilest but cheapest of all airlines in europe, i assumed I wouldn't be able to get on another flight, and that they wouldn't accept my luggage (it was slightly too big). I dont know what magic trick the driver pulled, but I got to the airport at 11:25, SPRINTED FROM THE BUS TO MY TERMINAL, stopping only to have my passport checked and go through security, and made it to the flight with a few minutes to spare (or they were just late boarding). I got on the plane last, sat in the last row by myself, slept another two hours, and made it home to bologna. whew. so glad I made it. that would have SUCKED.

Sometimes i wonder why....I keep a blog. Amelia, a wellesley friend studying abroad in london, mentioned that the quantity of pictures i post is overwhelming, and it sort of made me think about my uncontrollable desire to share with people the things I do and see. I suppose that really only manifests itself publicly in pictures and blogging (maybe even facebook activity?) but i guess there's no reason for all of it. I know several people read, but maybe not an audience big enough to warrant the length of posts and quantity of pictures I post. I dont really have patience to edit tho. I just put it all out.

In other news, I babysat last night, will be doing it again tonight, and recently assumed another job teaching a young italian girl english. Classes FINALLY are starting on monday, and I should go book shopping and put the rest of my life together. I feel like such a mess. Next travel stop is france, and I can't really wait to go, except to make as much money as possible before it happens. London was expensive but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Nothing like norway. haha.

stay warm everybody. it snowed in bologna while i was gone and was frickin FREDDO (cold) in london 2 nights.