Here We Go A Market-ing

One of the major things I'm going to miss about Europe in general and about London in particular is the whole market experience.

The US doesn't have anything like the markets in London. And each market has its own little quirks. Portabello Road is in the West End and is hugely overwhelming but has a lot of really cool stands. Borough Market is really just food, but I had some amazing hot apple cider. Petticoat Lane is, um, different. It;s big but kind of strange. It just has a weird feel. Spitalfield is really cool but kind of pricey.

Brick Lane is by far my favorite market. I might be biased since I live right near it, but it is really cool. It has some amazing food - Moroccan, Pad Thai, Chinese, Crepes, lots of different stuff. This is the market I go to every Sunday to get fruit and veg and fresh bread. There is also the Up Market in Brick Lane that has a lot of up and coming artists selling clothes, bags, jewelry, etc.

Columbia Flower Market is another place I've been a few times, and after the first visit, I never again made the mistake of forgetting to take an allergy pill before.

Now, I've been to the market in Seattle, but even that has absolutely nothing on the markets in London and other parts of Europe, especially Barcelona.

On my last market trip, I made lots of cool purchases that will be worn/used when I get home.

Three weeks in . . .

So, after three weeks in London, I decided to start a blog about my time here. It's much easier than writing a thousand different e-mails and having to e-mail photos and stuff.

Anyway, so far, it has been fantastic to live here. Campus is in the East End of London, so it's a fun, eclectic neighborhood - kinda arty, and no, not like Urbana. There's this cool art gallery about 5 minutes down the road that has shown artists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Picasso - you don't know me very well if you don't understand my love of almost all Pollock works. When I went, there was an exhibition about individual and group identity that was pretty interesting. The cool thing is, they get a lot of up-and-coming artists and local London artists. Another cool thing is almost all of the museums are free, so I've already been to the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Galleries, British Museum, and there are a whole lot more on my list to see.

Another place that I have been frequenting is St. Paul's Cathedral.

We had free passes to go in and walk around and decided to climb to the top - 530 steps later, I was out of breath, but the view was amazing.




I also went down into the crypt, where I decided that it would be weird to be buried in the crypt of a cathedral. While I'm not religious, a friend and I did attend a couple Evensongs at St. Paul's, which was . . . interesting, to say the least. The singing was cool, but the readings were kind of intense. Also the first night, the organ solo at the ended sounded like something right out of a Tim Burton movie or a slasher movie.

Classes so far have been cool. For my architecture class, we go on little outings every other week. Last week we went to the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Foreign Office.

It's been nice on the weekends to go visit the markets. There are a
few big name markets near us that every Londoner knows to frequent - Brick Lane, Petticoat Lane, and Spitalfield. I think in the coming weeks we are going to go to West London and try out Nottinghill and also search for a good secondhand bookshop.

Luckily we found a bookstore that was closing and had mega sales - 3 books for 4.99 pounds. I ended up getting some good classics - Crime and Punishment, Nicholas Nickleby, and Madame Bovary. I know, pretty deep stuff. But I had to get at least one Dickens novel because I am visiting the Dickens' house in London for one of my classes, and I feel the need to read something of his while I'm there, so Nicholas Nickleby it is.

I've already got a couple trips planned with one of my flatmates - Belfast in Northern Ireland, and then Dover and Canterbury.

Just yesterday, we watched To Kill a Mockingbird, the pastor does a Monday night free movie screening. Anyway, that was the second time I've seen it, and while I've decided that Gregory Peck definitely only belongs in black and white, I absolutely love that movie. Don't get me wrong the book is better, but I think I'll have to purchase that movie when I get home, and reread the book, again, for the fourth or fifth time.

Much more is on the agenda for the coming days and weeks, so stay tuned.