This is my weekly recap of my travels, foods, and experiences in my second week in London.
Day 8
On the Sunday of our first free weekend, we celebrated Kyndall's 21st birthday! We took an hour's bus ride across the Thames to a little Italian brunch place. Here, we split some baller calamari and I ate prawn spaghetti. After our meal, we walked around and found a T.K. Maxx (same as T.J. Maxx) where I bought hairspray and a handheld tripod. We bused back towards the hotel and had tea and Victoria sponge cake.
We returned to the hotel for a bit to rest before we went pub crawling.
Day 9
Today marked two new milestones in our study away program…The second-week mark and the introduction of our new living situation. This morning, we packed up all of our earthly possessions and sent them away (with one representative) in an Uber to be picked up at the LSE Bankside Dorm/Hotel. We went from St. Giles Hotel, a prime location for shopping, getting takeaway, going to the pharmacy, getting a quick coffee, etc. to LSE, which is almost directly on the Thames and therefore a lot more expensive. Here, we have the Tate Modern and a handful of sit-down/ fancy takeaway spots.
Once our bags were checked, we visited the Natural History Museum. From nearly every ad we’ve seen on the Tube, we knew that the main attraction at this museum was Dippy, the skeleton of a Diplodocus dinosaur that has been on display since 1905. Apparently, he had been removed at one point and that made a lot of the locals very angry and demanded to bring him back (public opinion here is very influential). Once he returned, he had been on a tour of the UK to draw attention to climate change and to donate his proceeds.
After a long day, we decided to head back to our hotel and make dinner plans. Tonight, we decided on the Piccadilly Hard Rock Cafe. After over an hour of wait time, we took a brief look at the Cafe’s shop and then at M&M world, which had a large variety of M&M-themed merch and candy. Once we were seated at HRC, we ordered a plate of nachos for the table that was actually really good. I ordered grilled chicken Mac n cheese which was …okay. Of course, the historical displays they had at this HRC were impressive. This included Beatles artifacts (John’s glasses, Ringo’s bow tie, Paul’s mic stand, etc), Freddy Mercury’s microphone, one of Elton John’s eccentric suits, Ozzy Osborne’s robe, Keith Richard’s and David Gilmore’s white suit jackets, etc.
Day 10
Tuesday was certainly less stressful than Monday as we had fewer responsibilities this day. We were able to sleep for a bit until we had a brief class session in our dorm hotel’s basement (more on the basement to come). Before our main event of the day, we went to a nearby ramen place where I ordered a bento box intended for a kid and was politely told not to do that anymore as it was for children (too bad).
As per Kyndall’s suggestion, we decided to take a tour of Pentagram, the largest independent graphic design firm in the world. Interestingly, the model they use to operate is based on a decision-making group of 24ish partners, which is not common for this field. Pentagram is known for a variety of different design projects, including a special edition label for Jack Daniels, the Pink Floyd box set design, Warner Bros. rebrand, etc. The most interesting takeaway for me on this particular visit was the interdisciplinary approach to design. In addition to traditional graphic design (branding and visual identity), they also develop systems to assist their clientele in various projects. For example, when working with a museum curating a mushroom gallery, Pentagram developed an AI that generated a “mushroom-like” 3D typeface they could use in various designs. This is particularly impressive because it solves the problem of having to hand-render complex, organic shapes like mushrooms every time a particular word or letter is needed. Then, going a step further, they 3D printed these mushroom letters to add an additional tactile element to the gallery itself. They also work with VR/AR and see the benefit of creating traditional work alongside experimental work.
After this enlightening visit, we rushed to meet dinner reservations at an Italian restaurant called “The Jam.” Advertised as a cozy, casual restaurant, the main catch to this place was that they had “upper” and “lower” level tables, like bunk beds, that you had to climb up to get to the top and eat. Unfortunately, they failed to mention that only four people could sit up top, but we had six. So, sitting on the bottom floor, we ordered very okay Italian food. We split calamari that tasted like it could’ve come from Kroger and I had carbonara with very little flavor. To make up for this disappointing dinner, we found a gelato place that was delicious. I got hazelnut!
Day 11
We got to sleep in a bit today and then go to the basement to work on class stuff. This was primarily prep work for our class projects, including mood boards and rough sketches. We got salads at a takeaway place called Tossed which was pretty good and then headed back to the hotel. While half of the group went to a Broadway showing of The Book of Mormon, I opted for a much-needed day of rest and DoorDashed Taco Bell to my dorm.
Day 12
This morning, we were going to go somewhere that I was super excited about! The Tate Modern. In Guy Jordan’s Contemporary art class I took last semester, I learned a lot about the modern art housed at the Tate. After seeing a lot of traditional art, I was ready for a different museum. Of the work featured here, my favorite were the ones that incorporated technology. For example, one installation featured a series of suspended speakers that played bird noises organized like an orchestral piece. When you move around, you can hear the bird noises closer in space. Another piece was a massive tower of radios that were all playing various radio stations. When you walk around the piece, you can make out certain sounds coming from specific radios. Before we left, we participated in an interactive installation where participants are given a sticker sheet and asked to place stickers around a completely white room.
We grabbed lunch at Shake Shack and it was super good. The burger itself was really good, but I was disappointed in the 4-pound small coke that was half water. After a quick lunch, we headed back towards St Giles. to visit BrandOpus, a second advertising agency. One of their major claims to fame is their Oscar Mayer rebrand, which consolidated the brand and made it more fun for consumers.
At night, we booked a London ghost tour on a repurposed 1960s double-decker bus. We rode around the streets of London listening to historical tales of murder and bloodshed. It was super cool!
Day 13
Today was the first day we got to use my app! Kara and I woke up a few hours early to ensure that all of the phones were charged and operating correctly. We assigned phones to participants and instructed them on how to use the app in the state of Britain. As a smaller museum, it was suitable to use this as our first testing grounds.
The Tate Britain is a significantly smaller collection than the Tate Modern, with only one floor. There was an even mix of modern and more traditional art, including works from David Hockney and Mark Rothko.
After this museum, a larger group decided to go have lunch at the wing stop. They had free refills!!!!! We walked through China Town for a bit and in the evening we visited the Amazon grocery store. This is neat because the store is able to read a QR code linked to your Amazon account and after you gather all of your groceries, you simply walk out and it charges your account, no check out required.
After this grocery run, we all came back and had a wine and movie night streaming the Conjuring 2 in the LSE basement.
Day 14
Today was a massive work day for us. We basically worked in the stuffy LSE basement from 10 am to 6 pm, with a lunch break in between. Around hour 1-2, a group of British students came in and spoke LOUDLY to the point that we weren't able to hear ourselves think. (This is a bit ironic considering we've been getting dirty looks for being loud for the past two weeks). They eventually left but shortly after returned to discuss one of the most boring summer camps I've ever heard about. Aside from having two hours' worth of rules for the students, the counselors revealed that it was an investment/economics-based summer camp...which sounds even worse. I also discovered that like how we say "um" habitually during presentations, Brits say "erm." After the 1,245 "erm" I was REALLY eager to get out of that basement purgatory.
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