My internship work this week was a little different. Tuesday Holly and I had to go to a press viewing at Tate Modern, the modern art gallery in London, for a new exhibition of Yayoi Kusama's works. Kusama is a Japanese artist who literally has dabbled in almost every form of art, from painting to sculpture to film to fashion. Her signature style is polka dots. Personally, I thought it was all a little trippy--she did do most of her work in the 60s after all. The number of journalists and artists there was kind of crazy--it was like this inner circle of London media and hipsters that I most definitely did not belong to. We stayed for the curator's tour since Julie wanted us to, but just as it was about to begin, Kusama herself came in the room. I am not exaggerating when I say that the room erupted. Plus, this lady had a bright red wig on and was wearing head to toe red and white polka dots. Her works filled 14 rooms at the museum, but my favorite was this really cool display she had designed just for this exhibition. It was an infinity mirror room, and it was dark except for these hanging tiny globe lights that flashed different colors. I don't think I realized how big of a deal all of it was until the next day when there was a big piece on it in the Guardian (major newspaper), and I just thought, whoa, I was there! Holly and I each had to write a piece about it afterwards, and I did some proofreading for Julie.
Wednesday we had to do shopping research. Bummer, right? I spent all morning researching different shopping streets in London and finding their marketing contacts for the magazine. Then in the afternoon, Julie asked us to go to St. Christopher's Place and Marylebone High Street and write a comparative piece. Basically my job rocks.
Thursday I had class all day. For my religions class in the afternoon we visited an Anglican church near Kings Cross Station, called Holy Cross. It's in a predominantly Muslim area, but a Church of England parish (which is a geographical area here) is meant for everyone. We met with the priest, and it was really fascinating to listen to him talk about how a church functions in the centre of such a big city. The church itself was very beautiful, but it wasn't overly grand. It was so cold in there though that the priest ended up taking us to his house to warm up for a little bit. We talked about so much, most of it not even relating to Christianity, but it was still fascinating. One of the really cool things he's doing right now is an outreach project in schools. Religious education is a fundamental part of education here, but it becomes difficult when you're teaching in areas where several different religions are represented. What I found so cool was that this priest goes into the schools and works with 10-11 year old students, and instead of preaching Christianity, he teaches them to meditate on their personal faith. All I could think was, how refreshing! At Central, it can sometimes feel as though Christianity is being shoved down your throat, and while that's the faith I choose, I don't think that everyone has believe the same things that I do. I think that with the way the world is today, it can be so hard to be accepting of other faiths. But here this priest is, in the middle of London, teaching students that it's okay to be different, that it's okay to accept others, and that it's okay to think about and grow in your own faith. I think it's proof that there are still good people in the world.
Thursday evening we went on the London Eye with the programme. I was nervous--I hate ferris wheels. I'm not scared of heights, I just don't like the wobbling and rocking. Once we got going though, I was totally fine. It honestly didn't feel like we were moving. And it was so incredible to see London from so high up--my pictures do not do it justice.
Early Friday morning we left for our weekend in Bath. It snowed Thursday night, and Friday was one of the coldest days this winter. We stopped at Stonehenge on our way, which was worth going to but is a little disappointing once you see it. And because it was so cold, we were all back on the bus fifteen minutes before we needed to be. We arrived in Bath around noon, so we had lunch and then went to our tour of the Roman Baths. They were really interesting, but it honestly was too cold. In the evening we had a ghost walk, which was seriously the worst thing ever. Jen, one of our directors, came with us, and even she was holding back laughter because it was so bad. This lady literally had us stand in a circle around a tree and put our hands up so that we would feel a ghost. She kept asking us if we felt something, and everyone just kept making sarcastic remarks about how we couldn't tell if it was a spirit or the cold that was making our fingers tingle. She was genuinely annoyed with us, but it was so ridiculous. Once we'd gotten back and warmed up, a big group of us went out together, which was really fun.
Saturday we had mostly free, so Abby, Kirsten and I went shopping in the morning, had pasties for lunch, and then headed down to the rugby field. The sun was shining, so it felt so much warmer! We watched Bath dominate Newcastle, and we had fun watching the stag party sitting in front of us. Sunday (today) we left Bath for the small village of Lacock. It was pretty, but kind of...I don't know. I don't want to say boring, but there wasn't a whole lot to do or see. We did go to the abbey, where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed, but I wasn't even interested in that because I haven't seen all the movies (the books are so much better). Kirsten and I wandered around for a bit, had lunch twice because the first place had the tiniest portions ever, and then we were back on the bus to London. I was so glad to see my bed! We stayed at the YMCA in Bath, and it was slightly sketchy. Plus there was this group of 16 year old boys staying right above us, and they were obnoxious. So I am really looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight.
That's all for now...much love to you all!
haha, I love the ghost tour story! I seriously wish I had had your internship for all of the awesome things you get to see/do in London! Love you!
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