01
Getting Ready
After we got moved in, I actually had a little time to explore before class started. Between general life maintenance and settling into the flat, I only saw a few things, but they were quite impressive.
I decided it was probably a good idea to find my school before I had to be there at 9am on a Monday. So, I took the tube in and then started to walk to where I thought the school was. What I did not realize was that the school is on a street that runs diagonally and does not start where I thought it did. This meant I spent at least 30 minutes wandering in circles before I eventually realized that I had basically been a block away from the street the entire time. When I finally made it to Great Titchfield Street I quickly found the school and did a bit of exploring there. Luckily it was amazing weather and lots of interesting things to look at.
By amazing weather, I mean the first few weeks we were here it did not get below the 70s in the day and was actually in the 80s most days. Of course the one exception to this was the day Rachel and I got very lost looking at flats and were caught in a rainstorm.
After the school I went to the British Museum and wandered for a bit. One of my favorite things here is that all the museums and galleries are free. It’s so freeing to know you can come and go as you want and not feel guilty about wasting money if you only see a room or two. On this trip I saw The Rosetta Stone, quite a few Greek pots, some Korean ceramics, a temporary exhibit on Life and Death and the African wing, which was my personal favorite. The temporary exhibit showed ways that different cultures deal with life, death and disease. The main installation was a textile piece that had been woven around different medicines that showed the course of a man and a woman’s lives by the medicines they would take. It was surprisingly beautiful.
The African wing is hidden downstairs off a main room and feels gloriously detached from the rest of the museum. They have some beautiful traditional wood carvings and textiles and some intriguing contemporary pieces. A few of the contemporary pieces focus on found products with emphasis on things that are prevalent and negatively impacting society. There’s an amazing quilt when you first enter made of parts of aluminum cans. My personal favorite is “The Tree of Life.” It’s a tree and animals made entirely from pieces of guns turned in by people in Mozambique. It was made as part of an initiative that gave people things they could use in their day-to-day lives, like farm tools, in exchange for guns that are still to be found throughout the country after the close of the civil war. It’s a stunning piece with lizards and bugs around the bottom of the tree and birds suspended above it. Seeing something so interesting and joyous being made out of things that cause so much destruction really conveys the level of hope that I found so enthralling and inspiring when I was in Mozambique.
That Saturday Rachel and headed to Portobello Market in Notting Hill. While definitely worth seeing, it was an overwhelming mass of people. Booths sold everything from crepes and quiches to antique books and miniature rugby balls. The street musicians were particularly impressive, especially a duo playing the cello and oboe. Very soothing and unexpected. On a fun side note, there are special areas where performers are allowed in the tube stations. Anyone who wants to play there has to audition. This leads to some very nice background music while commuting. With a little site seeing out of the way, I got ready to start orientation on Monday.
Flat Hunting
Flat hunting was a seriously exhausting endeavor, especially when combined with the very odd sleep schedules Rachel and I found ourselves on. I was working with the fun system of sleeping for about 4 hours, then waking up for a few, then trying to go back to sleep, while Rachel just wasn’t sleeping much at all. Luckily, as of last night, we both seem to have broken out of these.
Thursday night and Friday morning, we both did massive searches online and e-mailed every possibility. In my case, this meant I e-mailed the same company about 20 times and got some very confused phone calls the next day. Friday afternoon, we went South, to Clapham, to see if we liked the area. Other than recommendations from a few people, neither of us really knew anything about it. After some slightly confused wanderings in Clapham North, we made it to Clapham Common and fell in love with it. The Common is a massive park that runs through the center of the neighborhood and is just gorgeous. On top of that, there are tons of cute bars, shops and restaurants to choose from. We then wandered around and stopped in at every possible estate agent, leaving them our information and what we were looking for. While everyone was very nice, no one had anything at the moment. A few people we had e-mailed responded and arranged viewings for the next day. At this point, we both agreed that Clapham Common would ideal, but we were going to try not to get too attached, since it seemed like there were limited options.
Saturday, we headed down to Tooting Bec, another neighborhood further South to see if we liked it since there were a few more availabilities there. While not as ideal as Clapham Common, it was still a possibility. We then headed up to Vauxhall for a viewing, but the repairman had lost the keys, so that got cancelled. We stopped for a coffee since we had some time to kill and Rachel found a listing for an incredibly cute Victorian conversion flat that the owners wanted to let that weekend, if possible. It was a little out of our price range, but the landlords said they were willing to compromise and we headed out to see the flat. It’s on a street just off the common and all the houses are incredibly cute. The landlord Jeremy was very nice and entertained by our American-ness. We both really liked it, but decided to go see the other options.
The cottage in Tooting Bec was a few miles from the Tube stop, so that got nixed pretty quickly. The next places were in Clapham North, very close to the tube stop, but not available until the end of the month. By this point we were both a little exhausted and had been caught in the rain, because Andrew, the real estate agent for these two, could not tell us how to get there. Andrew was a bit of an adventure. He was very scattered and did not really seem to know any details on the flats other than they would be available at the end of the month. After the first flat, he offered to drive us to the second flat but then proceeded to get really lost, which somehow ended up with my giving him directions. This is particularly funny since he said he grew up in this area and this was my second time there. Now after all of this, the flat he was driving us to was directly across the street from the first flat we had seen.
After that, Rachel and I decided to give Jeremy a call. He still hadn’t let the flat and we arranged to do the contract and deposit the next day. After lots of scrambling, this all came together and Rachel and I have a home! Here’s the google maps link, but I will post more on the actual flat later.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=59+The+Chase,+Lambeth,+London+SW4+0NP,+United+Kingdom&hl=en&ll=51.464255,-0.146562&spn=0.0007,0.002064&sll=51.473899,-0.127716&sspn=0.089601,0.264187&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=51.464255,-0.146562&panoid=c_hMeup7P_3SeGPILBzAqA&cbp=12,231.39„0,5.91
London!
After a lovely international flight that went about as expected, I arrived safely in London. I successfully took the tube, with all my luggage, to our hostel and only injured a few people’s toes along the way. The hostel was pretty basic, but a few minutes to the tube and very clean and safe. I finally got to meet my roommate Rachel and have had a great time getting to know her. The first few days are a blur of frantically searching online for flats and leaving our information with every possible estate agent. We do have a flat though and it is lovely. It’s perfect and I still can’t really believe it all worked out as well as it did. I’ll update on the whole search process and the actual flat later.
Hanoi
Hanoi was truly the start of our time in Southeast Asia. There is a beautiful and terrifying frenetic energy throughout the whole city. Crossing the street feels like a giant game of Frogger. There is non-stop traffic all day. Millions of motor scooters are constantly flying around. The first few times we had to cross the street, Lindsay and I waited until other people were crossing and ran beside them. Not the most dignified way of crossing the street, but very effective. After a few times, I started to see that there was a method to all the madness and by simply walking into traffic, everyone would veer around you.
It seems Hanoi and Vietnam in general were places people either loved or hated. I really enjoyed it. Hanoi is big and dirty and crazy, but there was something about it. I think it was just such a change from where we had been before. There was not as much stuff to do culturally, so it was more about just enjoying the city. There was really delicious food and incredibly cheap massages. I think in 4 days in the city, I had three massages. At $6 for an hour and a half, it was pretty hard to pass up.
One of the prettiest places in the city was the Temple of Knowledge. It’s one of the oldest universities in Southeast Asia. People would go there to study and all the information was written on stone tablets that were placed on statues of turtles. A very different atmosphere, but very relaxing in the middle of the city.
Beijing, pt 2.
The next day we headed for the Summer Palace. It was so beautiful and very different from what I was expecting. The building looked more Moroccan than Asian. The buildings were all red and gold, but they were faded stucco, so it looked a little run down but absolutely beautiful. Around all of the temples, there were paths running through the natural rocks that had been left behind and it was so interesting to see something that wasn’t perfectly planned out there. Most things in Beijing are very well and specifically presented, so to see something a little older and more natural was refreshing.
After the Summer Palace, we headed for the Olympic Park. It was stunning. The Bird’s Nest and Water Cube really are amazing. It’s so interesting because there is nothing happening now, but there is still a feeling in the air like something wonderful is coming. I was so impressed with the buildings. It will certainly be a hard act to follow. It made me briefly wish I had some skill with math so I could be an architect. The buildings really are amazing.
We had originally planned to go to Xi’an to see the Terra Cotta warriors, but we didn’t realize it was a day away, so we had a slight change of plans. Since we had an extra day to kill, we went to the Silk Market. The building is, I think, 5 or 6 stories tall and full of stalls selling everything from fake Uggs to custom made clothes upstairs. Haggling in Beijing is hard work. Lindsay saw a coat she liked, so we stopped at a stall to look at it. Once the people have you in their stalls, they will do just about anything not to let you get out without buying something. We both ended up getting coats and it started out at $600 and we got it down to $30. It took about 30 minutes and we were probably still ripped off a little. On the upside, we both have great coats, which we needed, since there was a cold snap that day and the rest of the time we were there.
On Monday, we headed to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Most of the time in Beijing, I didn’t really feel the police presence or feel the government looming, other than in the red and gold everywhere. In Tiananmen, though, there are surveillance cameras everywhere and tons of soldiers and police officers. Supposedly, there are undercover officers there to monitor what people are saying about the government. Since it was near to the 60th anniversary of communism, there were giant posts everywhere, in red and gold, and large screens flashing messages, I’m guessing about the government. It was really a spectacle. All the while, there was a large picture of Mao, watching it all. His face is everywhere, on all the money and many of the buildings.
The Forbidden City is amazing. Beautiful, massive and of course, red and gold. All of the buildings were red with gold tiled roofs. It is so beautiful and amazing, but it is kind of a place where it all starts to blend after a few hours. At the end, there is a beautiful garden. Lots of trees and sculptures. Instead of the usual “Keep Off”” signs, there was a sign that said, “A single act of carelessness can lead to an eternal loss of beauty.” Very intense and ineffective. People were climbing over the sign to get their pictures taken with it.
Our last day, we shipped things home and wandered in the Hutongs, the old neighborhoods built around alleys. Very nice and calm. A great way to say good-bye to the city before we left for Vietnam the next day.
