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ebwerfelman

Ethan - Overseas: Week 2

We've finally reached the halfway point of this trip. I'm not used to vacations lasting this long, but regardless, it's Europe, so I shouldn't complain too much.... right?



Day 8: Dipping Into Various New Locations

So how do you begin a second week in London? You relocate. Not really, but that's what the class and I did. I wish I could say I like the place better, but I'm mixed. While I liked having the more known restaurants and shopping districts nearby, it certainly feels like a downgrade despite the bigger living space. Though the bathroom in our place also had to have its water pressure adjusted by housecleaning since it almost shot out like a fire hydrant. Moving on, I visited the Natural History Museum where part of me got to nerd out over fossils, though I didn't find Big Dippy to live up to the hype. I love dinosaurs, but this didn't grab my attention. However, I got a little blue whale toy for the dogs to chew on at the gift shop for once I return home. That night, I tried a Burger & Pint joint nearby the train station and it turned out to be one of the best burger I've ever had.


I had no picture for Day 9, so have a dancing Diamondhead instead.


Day 9: A First and Mid Business Firm

Despite having the morning off to simply work on my assignment, that afternoon the class and I visited the Pentagram. But if I were to go to the Pentagram, I had to dress nice due to it being a business firm, only for me to realize that none of my nice clothes would fit set location. I traveled down near to London Bridge and eventually picked up a shirt which surprising to me, was on sale for $25. As for the Pentagram itself, I honestly wish I could say I enjoyed it, but... I didn't. I nearly fell asleep over eleven times. It talked a lot about design, packaging, etc, but it wasn't stuff I'm into personally. Though, However, I finally got to try Tonkatsu, a ramen place near my current living quarters, and the food was ridiculously delicious.


Day 10: South Park Gets Religious

Today, to my surprise, turned out to be a work day. So I spent most of the morning and afternoon working on both class assignments and my personal content creation work. I felt I got a lot done of what I needed to, but I still felt I needed to improve in other areas. Moving onward, that night half the class and I decided to go see "The Book of Mormon" a adult play made by the people who worked on South Park. Now I have never visited a Broadway show physically, but I'm a huge fan of shows like Be More Chill & Hamilton, so I knew I had to eventually experience a Broadway show live. Also, this lived up to my twisted and dark sense of humor.



Day 11: Manga At Tate?!

The next morning, we were headed over to the Tate Museum right by our place. I found some of the exhibits interesting, but what really caught my attention was afterwards when I went into the Gift Shop. They had various books dedicated to learning how to draw in manga form, so I picked up a couple of those to become better at character designing (should I need it). Later that day, we visited another business firm, and if I had to be honest, this was a million times better than the last one. Grand Opas found ways to keep more satisfied by showing some of their work behind more notable brands like Oscar Mayer. They also provided crisps and Pepsis which really helped me pay more attention to their business process. Later that night, most of the class went on the ghost tour, and while I was originally interested on checking it out, I decided that I wanted some personal time for myself. I went to a nice restaurant nearby where I finally had my "fish n chips" and chilled for the rest of the evening.



Day 12: Tate 2: But It Isn't Terry Tate Enough

On Friday we went to visit the Tate British Museum and personally, I found it to be uninteresting rather than the museums I've visited so far. However, what intrigued me most was a drawing section where visitors could draw designs based on the pieces they saw. Instead, I sketched some of my own artwork I could utilize for a later date. As for the exhibits, only a few really attracted my attention, but it didn't grab me as much as I thought it would have. For lunch I stopped at "Wingstop" to grab some wings that were surprisingly better than America's Wingstop. I can't really remember much toward the end of that day, but I know I walked all the way to McDonalds by London Bridge, and uh... that journey was something.


Day 13: Night Fall

Another workday this week to get things done for my class. I've decided to revise my initial plan to do two ideas instead of three. However, I barely had much work done because my laptop had died, and I had forgot my plug outlet when I went to both the basement and Starbucks... twice. I have a certain zone where unless I'm working under certain timeframes, then my mind is not in the zone, but there was some areas of inspiration that I did discover for later on. Later that night, I decided to visit Pizza Express since it was the closest pizza joint nearby. I hung around the wharf region and later checked out the lights of London Bridge at night over the Harry Potter bridge, and the view of London was magnificent.




Day 14: The Two Museums Before The Train

For the first part of the day, we visited two museums, The V&A, and the Science Museum. The V&A was okay but I didn't explore much since I've been personally tired. I found inspiration from the center park square that I could use for my final project, but that's up to how it translates into my programs. The Science Museum however, was just a day care for kids. I wish I was excited for it, but part of the exhibits were closed off, and I felt like I was back in NASA's park in Florida all over again, which to me was also very underwhelming. However, the cafe's on the first floor caught my attention, with a great sub sandwich and had I noticed it before, they were selling fresh handmade pizzas... If only I had noticed. To end the week off I went on a very long and dreadful train ride that I won't elaborate on, but as far as train experiences in London so far, this has definitely been my worst yet, and it wasn't due to the time length.


Overall, this week has been quite a work struggle, but it had some very good moments in between. London Bridge At Nightfall and the play was personally my favorite part of the week. But the first week is still winning me over, and I'm hopeful that this third week can reach that level of quality, if not, higher.


This week gets a 6.5/10


"See You Later, Space Cowboy."

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