Brick Lane and Other Stuff…

some artists at work by Brick Lane

I’m trying to be better about keeping a consistent blog, so I’ll tell you a little about last weekend and what I’ve been up to more recently! The last big event was last Thursday, which was Katie’s birthday 😀 We all went out to get Mexican food at this restaurant called Las Iguanas, which was right by the river and had a nice view of the London Eye from outside. Not only was everyone excited to be celebrating Katie’s birthday, but a lot of us were excited to be getting Mexican food because for some reason, ever since we got here, that’s all anyone’s wanted and it’s seemingly hard to come by in New Cross at least. A couple weeks ago, my friend Jordan discovered a Chipotle in London and Grayson and Mo went along to get burritos, but I think I had class and missed out on it. Anyway, Las Iguanas was really good! I got a chimichanga and shared a raspberry tequila drink with Maggie, which was also delicious (but expensive hence the sharing). We then went to a bar in Shoreditch that Sofija had been to, but the upstairs where there’s usually a DJ or live music, was closed off that night so we hopped around to other places in search of somewhere to hang out and dance a bit. We eventually found a bar called Traffik, which was fun and had good music so we stayed there for a while. Unfortunately, Katie’s phone and ipod went missing so that put a damper on things, but overall it was a good night.

Katie and a cat

 

a light tower (?) on Brick Lane

Over the weekend, I went out to Brick Lane (which is also in Shoreditch) with Grayson and Katie. Brick Lane is basically a street full of shops and art galleries but on the weekends there are different markets with food, crafts, art, and vintage things. The best day to go is apparently Sunday because the biggest market happens then, but we went on Saturday and there was still a lot going on. There are also a lot of Bangladeshi curry houses along Brick Lane. We stopped by an artist’s shop where there were about four or five cats just wandering around and Katie freaked out because she loves cats- haha. We also popped into a bunch of vintage clothing stores which were all having good sales, but a lot of the clothes were way too expensive to begin with! There was one cool vintage store that was in like a basement/warehouse area and was almost like an indoor vintage market with a bunch of stands with different clothing and accessories. We stopped and got lunch in The Old Truman Brewery, which is the former site of a brewery that was converted into an open food market full of stands from different cuisines. After eating, we just wandered around for a bit and saw a lot of the street art that Brick Lane is famous for. It was cool to experience the street art there because although New York has a lot of street art as well, the art was framed in a way that seemed more ‘high art’ than ‘street art’ but it was still outside. We passed a couple of large canvases that were just hanging up on the side of a building and there were random sculptures on top of buildings and in unexpected places, which was cool.

my rose plant 🙂

And then today, I finally went to the infamous Poundland (which is just like a dollar store that I’ve heard a lot about…) in the Lewisham Shopping Centre. It was only a short bus ride away and the shopping centre was kind of like a mini mall with a bunch of other shops like Primark (my new favorite store), H&M, and even a Sainsbury’s (our local grocery store). Poundland was awesome though, and I got some good stuff for a very good price. I also picked up a potted pink rose plant from a stand at an outdoor market right outside of the shopping centre because I’ve been missing having a plant in my room even though I’m a notoriously bad plant mother. But hopefully this plant will not die on me and I’ll get to enjoy its presence for a while!

Greenwich Market and Last Week…

Walking around Greenwich…

It’s been about a week since I’ve last posted and I’ve mostly been pretty busy with schoolwork but some other things have been going on too! Last week, I made a trip out to Greenwich (which is an area not too far northeast from New Cross) with some other students to go to Greenwich Market and explore the rest of the neighborhood there. It was a pretty short bus ride getting there from New Cross, which was nice. The tube is pretty good for travelling into and around central London, but out here the buses are a better bet sometimes (and cheaper!). The bus system’s a little more complicated, though so I’m still getting used to navigating it…

Greenwich Market

Of course, we chose a super cold day to walk around Greenwich, but the market was still really cool (no pun intended). There were a bunch of food stands of all different cuisines, including traditional British roasts and sides, Indian dishes, Japanese teriyaki, Italian snacks, and Portuguese dishes. There were also so yummy dessert stands including a Dutch pancake stand (teeny tiny pancakes with lots of good toppings), a churro stand, a vegan/gluten-free cupcake and baked goods stand, and a crepe stand. Aside from the food, the market was filled with local artists’ stands and crafts. There was a lot of nice clothing and jewelry and other fun gifts. The cool thing about the market was the middle part was all outdoor stands but on the edges of the outdoor space, there were a bunch of storefronts that had good food and gifts as well. A lot of restaurants advertised hot mulled wine (which was tempting) and there was a cute little old-timey candy shop.

National Maritime Museum

We spent a while at the market looking around and then got something to eat. I got some great chicken tikka masala at the Indian food stand and then all of us just HAD to get  crepes for dessert. We got to the crepe stand just as the lady running it left to go somewhere, and we waited (very impatiently) for about 20 minutes until she came back, but the anticipation made the ultimate crepe experience much better. I got a crepe with nutella and bananas.. mmm…

The Royal Observatory up on the hill

Our group split up before and a few of the girls we were with went off to find the Greenwich Prime Meridian Line, which is a site to see in Greenwich. The Prime Meridian is the line that marks zero degrees longitude, so it’s special! So we decided  to try to find them and see the line ourselves. We wandered around for a while, following signs to it and found ourselves at the National Maritime Museum which had lovely grounds and big anchors at the entrance. We walked around the museum for a bit and finally found more signs to the Meridian Line, which is at the Royal Observatory. We did find the Royal Observatory after some walking, but we found that it was on top of a very large snowy hill which was pretty much blocked off for sledding. Between feeling like our toes were going to fall off and not knowing how to get to the Observator (we asked a museum guard about it and he basically just laughed at us), we decided to try again on a less snowy day. But we did get a good walking tour of Greenwich!

Let’s see, what else happened last week? I’ve mostly been pretty busy with my courses now that I’m getting into the swing of things here. I’ve had a decent amount of reading each week, which is good, but we never seem to talk about it specifically in class (which isn’t too much motivation to read…) so I’m definitely getting used to things being different than they are at Hampshire. I also did my laundry for the first time since being here just as I was running out of clean underwear. Apparently the laundry at Goldsmiths is not so great and the dryers only dry your clothes partially… and you have to pay for the laundry on top of it. So Maggie and I decided to take a chance on the laundromat in town instead. Ultimately, it was worth it. It was a little expensive but our clothes came out dry and it didn’t take too much time so I’ll be back at least a couple more times!

Tate Modern and a Great Walk Around London…

Me in front of Big Ben!

Yesterday was the touristy day and it was jam-packed with excitement! I woke up to a snowy morning and the snow was actually sticking, unlike the other day when it snowed and turned into slush within an hour… But yesterday the snowflakes were substantial and it pretty much snowed all day. I planned on going out early with Katie and Mo (Hampshire flatmates… and to avoid further confusion, my flatmates are Katie, Mo, Maggie, and Grayson from Hampshire and Samantha who is also a visiting student from the U.S.) to go sightseeing in London today and even though it was snowing, we still wanted to do something fun so we decided to go to the Tate Modern museum. The Tate Modern is cool because it’s all modern art and has cool exhibits, but most importantly it’s free! It’s also in South Bank, which is on our side of the Thames River, so it was a short tube ride away.

One of the many John Heartfield collages commenting on the Nazi regime in Germany

“Variation on the Form of An Anchor” by tristram Hillier

It took us a little while to actually find the museum after exiting the tube, but we’ve pretty much lost all sense of embarrassment about asking for directions in our ignorant American accents, so we got directions and found it soon enough. The museum was huge! Each floor had different collections and there were three floors open to free visitors, so it took a while to get through it before we got too hungry and tired. I really enjoyed a lot of the art (although with modern art some of it is a little unimpressive for me sometimes…). Here are some pictures of things I liked…

Shakespeare’s Globe

After walking through the galleries, we stopped for a hot chocolate break in the cafe at the museum and got some really good hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream– crazy! Then we left the museum and walked along the river to see the view and look for a place to get lunch. We saw Central London across the river and passed by multiple bridges, including Millenium Bridge, Southwark Bridge, and London Bridge in the distance. We also walked past Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (which isn’t the original Globe because that one burned down, but is a recreation of it and a museum) along the river.

At this point, we were starving so we found a burger place that looked nice and got fantastic food there. They had a good discounted lunch menu so we all got burgers and fries for a good price. I got a BBQ burger and a side of fries, which turned out to be really really skinny, but really really good. They even had malt vinegar to put on the fries!

Southwark Bridge

After lunch, we decided to suck it up and do some more sightseeing in the snow. We crossed Southwark Bridge in hopes of ending up by Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, but unfortunately we realized that we were definitely not in the right place once we had crossed the bridge. We ended up by St. Paul’s Cathedral (which is cool too) and we were supposed to be much farter west. We weren’t quite sure how long it would take us to walk there, so instead of hopping on the tube, we decided to chance it and ended up walking a longgg way. It was fun though, because we got a good mini walking tour and saw some more of London

Somerset House

that way. We passed by the Royal Courts of Justice, King’s College, Somerset House, Trafalgar Square, and finally made it to Westminster.

When we finally saw Big Ben up ahead, we knew it was worth the walk. All of the buildings were beautiful and the walk up to the Houses of Parliament was beautiful too. We passed by the Guards Museum and many statues. Everything looked nice in the snow too! Big Ben was the first thing we saw and it was definitely something to see, it was all lit up since it was dark when we got there, and the Houses of Parliament were lit up behind it too. The buildings were so old and beautiful and really big! We had a good view of the London Eye, which was lit up in blue behind everything. Westminster Abbey was also magnificent and a lot to take in. It was huge and had beautiful stained glass windows and very ornate old architecture. I don’t really know what else to say, but I took a lot of pictures so here are some of them!

Big Ben

The London Eye

Houses of Parliament

Westminster Abbey

more of Westminster Abbey

 

 

A Day with Denise…

A couple days ago, I met up with my friend Denise who is a friend from home, who’s also studying abroad in London this year. She’s been at LSE (London School of Economics) since the fall, so she knows a lot more about London than I do… and will hopefully impart some of her knowledge on me.

I met her at LSE and we got free food from the Hare Krishna cart on campus, which provides free meals to people who can’t afford food and in this case, to struggling college students. It was pretty good! We got big helpings of lentil and potato dishes with a side of bread. I got to see a bit of LSE’s campus, which is pretty integrated into the city.

street performer

Later, we met up with a girl from Denise’s home college in the U.S., who’s studying at King’s College this semester. We all got some hot drinks and then headed out to wander around London, heading towards Oxford Street. We went through Covent Garden Market where there are shops and a big plaza. There was a shirtless street performer in the plaza who was standing on top of a skateboard on top of a bike, with a stringless tennis racket around his neck. He proceeded to fit the racket down his whole body by dislocating both of his shoulders (which was admittedly, disgusting), and he got it fully down and stepped out of it.

After more wandering, we found our way to Primark, which is like Forever 21 but cheaper. This store was nuts. It had at least four floors and everything from shoes to clothes to bedding. I got a pair of jeans for £5 and a cute sweater as well as some cheap new boots (because mine are wearing thin)! It took a lot of self-control to not buy everything though, because they had a lot of cute stuff for really good prices…

Adventures in London…

New Cross (where Goldsmiths is) is a little ways southeast of Central London, but it’s a short commute by train or bus into the city. Over the past week or so I’ve ventured into Central London a few times to explore, see some sights, and go out on the town!

Big Ben in the distance

My first trip into central was with my flatmates to meet up with Grayson’s (other Hampshire flatmate) girlfriend by Chinatown. I came into central with Maggie and Sofija (Hampshire flatmates) and we met up with the rest of our group by Oxford Street, which is a central shopping area in London. There are a ton of flagship stores everywhere and it feels like an area like 34th street in New York, but all of the buildings are so much older and very beautiful! There was also a “Twelve days of Christmas”-themed display of lit up banners strung up along Oxford Street that you could read as you walked.

a semi-unclear picture of Chinatown and one of its gates

We eventually split off to get dinner in the area and found ourselves at a Malaysian restaurant which was pretty good! A couple of restaurants we tried out first had a minimum bill per person, so that’s something to look out for especially in touristy areas. We also tried to get dim sum but couldn’t find it past lunchtime. Chinatown in London has a different vibe from New York’s Chinatown, which I’m used to. It seems more laid back and there was a surprising lack of street vendors and shops all selling the same city memorabilia for low prices. Mostly, there were just a lot of Chinese restaurants and some little shops. Chinatown is also outlined by distinctive red and gold gates, similar to Chinatowns in other cities in the U.S..

After dinner, we wandered around through the West End theater district and looked at all of the big theaters and the shows that are playing. Apparently, there’s a musical based on the Spice Girls’ music called Viva Forever, so I’m hoping that there’s some sort of student discount on tickets because I’m not sure I can pass up something that wonderful…

St. Paul’s from afar 🙂

I haven’t had a full day of site seeing yet, but I did go see St. Paul’s Cathedral which was beautiful. I didn’t go inside because the tickets were pretty pricey but just walking around it was stunning. I walked along London Wall, which is no longer a wall but the site of what was the city wall built by the Romans long ago. There were plaques marking the gates with info on the site, which was cool.

A few days ago, I went out to see a photography exhibit at the National Gallery as well. The exhibit was called “Seduced by Art” and was a collection of photography tracing the different styles of pictures throughout time. One theme through the exhibit was photographs that mirrored famous paintings and older

Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery

photographs. I was expecting the whole thing to be a bit bigger but for £6 (student discount), it was definitely worth it. National Gallery is in Trafalgar Square and is a beautiful building with old columns surrounded by colorfully-lit fountains and classical buildings. Nelson’s Column is located in the square too, and was tall and beautiful. I also got my touristy photo by the lions who guard the base of the column. It was funny because I started posing to take the picture and realized that there was a man with the lion above me who was also posing so we got a picture together 🙂

Nelson’s Column

My most recent adventure into London was a couple nights ago when I went to Candy Bar, which is a fairly well-known lesbian club in Soho. I went with some flatmates, another international student, and a British student from one of my classes who agreed to take us around and guide us (we would have been very lost without him…). We took the bus into London from New Cross, which was a little nicer than the tube because we got a good view of the London Eye and the whole city. It took a little longer by bus, but we got to ride on the top of a red double-decker bus so it was worth it for that if anything. Candy bar was really fun and was pretty crowded with a good vibe. There was a nice space for dancing in the basement and we had a really good time!

a sort of blurry picture of me and a lion and a random guy

 

First Week of Classes!

My first week of classes just passed and although it’s been a little hectic (trying to find classrooms and all…), I’m ready to start doing school stuff again. The classes at Goldsmiths are set up very differently from Hampshire’s classes. Here, we have an hour-long lecture for each class and an hour-long seminar (small groups from the class meet separately) after, and each class meets only once a week. It’s different, but I think it will be an interesting experience. I only have classes on Mondays and Thursdays as well, which means I’ll have some free time to get work done and explore London a bit more. In case anyone’s remotely interested, here’s what my schedule looks like:

Monday!

–Race, Racism, & Social Theory (9:00-10:00), seminar (12:00-1:00… or 13.00 in British time!)

• The course is about the development of modern ideas of race and racism and the social and political forces that have shaped them. We’ll be learning about the historical development/explanations for racial classifications and the debates that historically and modernly surround race, ethnicity, and their place in society. I wasn’t registered for this course but wanted to switch into it, and I’m super excited that I got in! A lot of what I’ve been studying with regard to American mass media and popular culture has had to do with race (and pretty much everything else), and although this course doesn’t directly deal with media representations of race, learning more about race and racism from a historical and societal perspective will definitely be helpful and enlightening!

– Leisure Culture and Society (3:00-4:00), seminar (4:00-5:00)

• This course analyzes leisure culture from a historical and market-based perspective. It challenges the notion that leisure is separate from labor, and examines the commodification of leisure and its centrality to consumer culture. Some of the topics covered will be: the development of the culture industry, global tourism, gender and leisure, race/ racism and leisure, and leisure sport and disability. I was mostly interested in taking this class for the culture industry elements of it, but I’m interested in all of it and I’ve already learned a lot of new information just from the introductory lecture. 

Thursday!

– Sex, Drugs, Technology (11:00-12:00), seminar (12:00-1:00)

• This course explores sex/sexuality as a product of history, culture, and society. We’ll look at the ways in which sexuality has become regulatory and normalized and the debates surrounding sexuality, representation, and power. Drugs and technology are introduced as material elements to be considered in the shaping of sexuality and their contributions to the materiality of sexuality. We’ll also look at materiality as a means of rethinking difference, power, and change. This was a course that I was really excited to take, and I’m looking forward to the discussions and topics that we’ll be covering!

– Media Audiences & Media Geographies (2:00-3:00), seminar (4:00-5:00)

• This course looks at a macro-view of how audiences consume media and patterns of cultural power/consumption, a micro-view of specific media consumption including domestic viewership and broadcasting and case studies, and the role of media in bridging/creating distance in a postmodern global media environment. Ironically, this course is taught by a professor whose work I read for an Audience Research class last semester at Hampshire (which is pretty cool). It’s ironic because my class read one particular article by him that we had a lot of issues with and we basically came to the conclusion that this guy seemed like a total jerk. I knew that he taught at Goldsmiths but wasn’t sure if he was still there and now I’m in his class! Naturally, I was a little nervous on the first day of class but he seems like a good guy and the lecture class was pretty interesting (we got to listen to part of the original 1930s radio broadcast of War of the Worlds that caused people to panic because they heard it and thought that Earth was actually being invaded by aliens). I became more interested in media audiences last semester when I conducted my own audience study on Jersey Shore and post-feminism, so I think this course will be a good addendum to what I’ve previously learned and will expand my knowledge in other directions.   

That’s about it for now, other things have been going on but I’ll follow up with another post full of my pictures in London and I’ll talk about the other adventures I’ve been on in my free time!

One Week In…

So as of yesterday, I’ve been here for a whole week! It seems like the time just flew by, but a lot’s been going on. Last week I spent a lot of time exploring New Cross and its neighboring areas, and traveled into central London for a bit (although I haven’t gone official London sight-seeing yet!).

We’re in a pretty cool area and there’s certainly a lot more directly around than back at Hampshire, which is refreshing! Basically, Goldsmiths is right in town so there are a bunch of restaurants, coffee shops, stores close by, and even a big Sainsbury’s grocery store a short walk away. Since there’s a lot to talk about I’ll just outline some key points of the past week:

• I met a lot of nice study abroad students and settled into my flat.
• I had my first British pint at the New Cross Inn, which is a slightly smelly, weird pub with funny people in it, and have since returned a couple of times.
• I ventured into (what we thought was) Lewisham, but I still have to confirm this, and found a street full of 99p. stores (like dollar stores), meat markets, and off-track betting spots. This was where we bought all of our kitchen ware, including a small non-stick frying pan that later somehow caught on fire on our electric stovetop and set off the fire alarm for our whole building.
• I purchased a pay-as-you-go mobile phone that has very confusing volume options and looks like it came straight out of my middle school years.
• I rode the overground/underground into central London and got an Oyster card (which is like a MetroCard but decreases the fare and you put more money onto it as you run out). Also, transfers aren’t free and the rides are expensive!

During orientation, the Goldsmiths staff that work with international students talked a lot about culture shock, and how it will be both good and bad and warned us of the rises and falls of our cultural experiences. Basically, just because I speak the same language, doesn’t mean that things aren’t going to be weird. I’m going to keep an ongoing “culture shock list” and here are a few things that are ‘shocking’ already:

• There are two faucets in our kitchen sinks; one hot, one cold. They both reach extreme temperatures and it’s hard to wash dishes because of it. I’ve found myself turning on both faucets and trying to splash some cold water onto my hands while attempting to clean my dishes with scalding hot water. I don’t know if I’m going to get over this one.
• The British pound is definitely lovely. The bills are colorful and shiny and there’s a beautiful portrait of the Queen on them. However, the lowest bill is £5 and for some reason there are both £1 and £2 coins. I don’t know what logic is behind this, but it’s frustrating to have to dig through all of my coins to find a full pound. Also, the coins can be confusing because they have different sizes (that don’t correlate to value) and shapes, but then again I can’t complain as long as dimes stay smaller than nickels and pennies.
• Apparently here, (at least female) American accents are sexy. Also, the man who told me this had no idea that American women find British accents sexy- who knew? Also, many British people come to the U.S. to visit the South.
  

  potato wedges 🙂

• McDonald’s has potato wedges that you can get instead of fries and they taste like waffle fries.
• There is strawberry beer and you can buy cans of Jack & Coke (that are good) in a lot of grocery stores/delis.

Hello, London!

If you stumbled upon this blog and don’t know what it’s about, I’m Marguerite and I go to Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. I’m currently studying media, popular (and unpopular?) culture, and the politics of representation and power within American media. I also like to write!

My top-notch mobile phone… equipped with a total of two background options, minimal volume control, and T9 word!

I’m a little bit late with my first post on here, but this spring semester (January-March) I’m studying abroad at Goldsmiths, University of London in New Cross. I just flew into London, Heathrow a few days ago and have been settling in here at Goldsmiths. So far, it’s been a pretty good experience! There are five other Hampshire students here with me this semester, four of which I’m housed with in our own flat on campus. So far, orientation has been going on and only study abroad students are on campus for the most part since the British students return on Monday for classes. Most of the study abroad students are also American, which wasn’t what I was expecting but it’s been cool to meet new people from all over the U.S. and elsewhere.

Hopefully this blog will be kept more regularly and will end up being helpful for other Hampshire (or other) students who might want to study abroad in London! I’ll be writing about my adventures and experiences and all of the good (?) food in the UK 🙂