Midsems (aka finals)

Unfortunately I have no pictures, and this is the last week of the first phase of the semester so it's rather busy, but here are some fun things recently:
1. The bloodiest play I have ever seen, a production of the Jacobean revenge tragedy The White Devil at the Chocolate Factory.
2. Black swans in St. James's Park. Also this video of a pelican eating a pigeon in St. James's Park.
3. Attending the 7 a.m. grand opening of a new Sainsbury in which I got both the first Mars Bar and the first baked good.
4. Night openings at the Tate.

More things as I think of them.

Caerdydd and Elsewhere

Last weekend Alissa and I went to Cardiff, the capital of Wales. We spent two days and a night there, and while it would've been nice to see the Welsh countryside, the capital was pretty cool too.

We first went to Cardiff Castle, which started off with a preposterous video and an audio tour (highlight of the tour: the castle's onetime gardener's name, which was Lancelot Capability Brown), and which seemed like a pretty lame time until we took the guided tour through the 19th century buildings. Designed by crazed architect William Burges, one room was simultaneously a tribute to Chaucer (with a statue of him over the fireplace and stained glass windows illustrating the Canterbury Tales), all the birds of Britain (painted on the walls), and famous women who killed themselves for love (woodcarvings everywhere). The library featured woodcarvings of monkeys ripping apart books on the walls to illustrate why the owner of the castle didn't agree with the theory of evolution (also one of the monkeys had the face of Charles Darwin, so there's that).

So basically I love William Burges. I looked for houses designed by him in London, but the only one I could find is currently owned by Jimmy Page and isn't open to the public. For shame.

We went to Cardiff Bay afterwards and ambled about until it got too cold to amble. Cardiff Bay seems to be an extremely new development, and all of the buildings look about as fabulously 21st century as any building I've seen. Cardiff is apparently trying to become a tourist destination (more for Britons than for international travelers, judging from the emphasis on entertainment centers and theater and other non-historical things that international, or at least American, tourists aren't too interested in), and this new development is pretty indicative of that.

We eventually wound up at this club called Oceana which seemed more like five regular-sized clubs in one; there was a separate "Reykjavik Ice Club" with loud trance music and a "French Boudoir" with tons of velvet and something that was supposed to be in Tahiti and other things like that. Everyone had the same haircut and we watched people sort of jerk around on the dance floor for a while and then everything dissolved into a giant conga line. It was all pretty strange. But fun!

The next day we went to St. Fagans, which is something like a Welsh colonial Williamsburg (and pretty much the exact same thing as something I visited two summers ago in Tbilisi) with historical cottages from different regions of Wales and a castle and gardens in the middle. I got a lot of pictures that look like they're in the Welsh countryside but are actually just well-designed green areas that are 15 minutes from central, industrialized Cardiff (see above picture).

We also ate a lot of Welsh food (a lot of which is similar to English food except with more lamb), drank a lot of Welsh beer (Brains (!!!), which is quite good), and tried to find in the Welsh National Gallery what was, according to our hostel host, 'the biggest collection of Impressionist art outside of Paris' to no avail. Then we went home.

This week has been a lot more quiet. I saw Albus Dumbledore in a pretty turgid play early in the week and went to the Tate Britain, which is one of the better art galleries I've seen here. This weekend two Grinnellians who are studying in Madrid are visiting, and today we're going to the Borough Market with them. This is the first weekend in weeks where I've been in London for the whole time, and as fun as traveling all the time is, it's about time for some (relative) relaxation.

The first phase of my program is nearly over, which is scary to think about. I'll be in Italy soon!