Londres

"You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." -Samuel Johnson

Sam, no truer words are spoken. I love London, I just do. I love the hustle and bustle. I love the side streets with shops and surprises. I love the mass of curious people that you can spend hours wondering about. I love its history. I love its drama and music and art and museums. I love the winding passageways of the underground. I love getting exercise on the escalators up and down the underground. I even sometimes love getting lost here.

I spent all day yesterday in this glorious city, the city where my obsession of England began, the city where (other than Oxford, of course), I have spent the most of my time in England. My lovely London. I took the train out in the morning and stood on line to get tickets to see Much Ado About Nothing, starring none other than the talented and hysterical David Tennant and Catherine Tate.

From there, I was planning on going over to the Royal College of Surgeons to see their free museum, but I was feet away from the National Portrait Gallery and since I had been doing a lot of reading about the early 20th century, I thought why not stop by and see what they had to offer. There was an interesting exhibit about the 2012 Olympics and Paraolympics, mostly of really crisp and bright photographs that portrayed not only athletes but those who were important in making the 2012 Olympics happen, including of course Lord Coe which made me giggle because of what I had just seen. Please watch, although you may not get all of it... lots of inside British jokes.

I also explored their usual exhibit but stayed away from anything pre-1900. Once you get into the Victoria and pre-Victorian eras, all the portraits look the same and it only helps to know who each individual is. Which I mostly do, but still, didn't want to waste my time. The 20th century portraits are a lot more original, and because of reading about the Mitfords and "Among the Bohemians" and such, I recognized a lot more of not only the subjects of the portraits but also the artists. It was also the 50th anniversary of the death of Augustus John so there was a little section dedicated to his work but also of portraits created of him.

Once I had finished at the NPG, I headed over to the University College of London. I've always known UCL for having the auto-icon of Jeremy Bentham (more on that in a bit), but they also have a ton of free museums. I went to the Petrie Egyptian Collection first. Now, I could have taken a thousand pictures here, so I limited myself only to my favorites. There were just cases and cases of Egyptian artifacts, some over 5000 years old, which just fascinates me. There was also a very interesting exhibit that had to do with Identity and Eugenics and what makes each person an individual and I sat for probably a good half hour looking through articles about different ways that people are born (sperm donors, IVF, etc.) and how each of them copes with their situation. Fascinating.

Before going to meet up with Roni, I had to check out the auto-icon. OK, so let's take a minute to talk about Jeremy Bentham. He was a mover and a shaker in the early 19th century. He was a utilitarian, which emphasized the importance of happiness, as that led to an absence of pain. One of his big ideas was a panopticon, which basically was a circular prison where those in charge could watch the prisoners without knowing if they were being watched. He also is famous for still presiding over meetings at UCL, despite being dead for over 150 years. He specifically wrote in his will that he would be basically embalmed/turned into wax and is now wheeled out during important meetings (although he does not participate in the votes). It is incredibly creepy and fascinating.

From there, I met up with Roni and we went over to the zoological museum at UCL. I thought it would be like the natural history museum but it was mostly a bunch of big room with a lot of skeletons, creatures in jars and skulls. Creepy and sometimes kinda disgusting but again, absolutely fascinating.

Dinner was at our favorite pizza place, eaten in a courtyard at Tottenham Court Road. We got a little turned around but eventually made it to Charing Cross and the theatre. The play was wonderful- David and Catherine were incredible in their roles at Beatrice and Benedict. The play was set in Gibraltar during the 80s so the costumes and the music were wonderful, especially their version of "Hey, Nonny Nonny", which always reminds me of Elvis (Thank you, Reduced Shakespeare Company...). I read (OK, that may be an overstatement... I watched...) Much Ado About Nothing my junior year in high school and so I could easily follow the story and was able to focus on the action of the actors and their nuances. I loved it. After the show, we made it out to the stage door to see David and Catherine. We tag-teamed it and Roni got an autograph from David while I took pictures. It was a good night for all.

Thank you London, for a FASCINATING day!