Across the Pond
So, I’ve been in London for 3 weeks now, and I’ve been chatting with friends back home on and off, but there are just so many people I miss chilling with that I needed a better way to tell them all about my trip. My buddy Peoples just started a blog, which reminded me that last fall I had to make this page for Intro to Media Tech class. Now I’ve decided to revive it, for the sole purpose of describing the wild time that has been, and is, London, England.
The first thing I saw when I got off the tube (not the subway) and exited the station was a Lamborghini dealership. I could already tell this was going to be interesting. So far (as far as I can remember) I have seen 14 Lamborghinis, 11 Ferraris, 27 Bentleys, 32 Porsches, 7 Rolls Royce Phantoms, 2 Maybachs, 10 Maseratis, and 2 Audi R8s. The people here really like expensive automobiles.
The classes I have to take are, to say the least, barely that. Professor Dustin Morrow is honestly the best teacher I have ever had in my tenure at Temple–he’s just like us. Heck, he even gave me HIS map of Amsterdam from when he went earlier this summer and marked down places to go for my trip next weekend.
The nightlife here is wild, to say the least. The first couple weeks were spent going out every night and exploring parts of the city. We found it hard to adjust to the schedule here at first, as most pubs close at 11pm. But, once we started branching out more and going to clubs, we could stay out later. I will say that London’s Chinese food is amazing, and especially when at 1am you can still sit down at a restaurant and order a Crispy Duck Platter.
The best time I have had so far, though, is the graffiti tour my roommate and I took this past Friday. I bought a book of locations for Banksy artwork, and we set out tag-hunting (it’s worth noting that most of his tags have been painted over, sandblasted, buffed, or covered with wooden boards). We were bummed to find that many of the most elegant pieces had been taken away from us, but the ones we did find were rather incredible. I made a facebook album of the tour, which you can all look at here.
All in all, London so far has been an incredible experience. I can’t begin to explain how lucky I feel that Temple offers this program, and I was accepted into it. The next two and a half weeks are shaping up to be pretty epic, especially with that Amsterdam trip looming next weekend. Don’t worry, there will certainly be a couple coffeeshop blogs if I can find internet service. If not, I’ll be sure to update when I’m back.
Until then, be easy and enjoy those last few weeks of summer.
peace,
-hb
