Hello, all. I am pleased to announce that the time has come for me to share with you, 'Adventures in London, Part Deux.' Now, I know I promised not to do anything that is any way noteworthy until I have commenced telling my London tales, but I feel that it is important that I provide you details of my present situation, as it is, in my opinion, 'blog worthy' so to speak. I am sitting in the library of my visiting sisters' school as I compose this entry, as the elder two, Chanella (12) and Sofia (9), have invited me to speak to their respective English classes today. I assume you are wondering if such invitations were extended, why it is that I am sitting in the library blogging. To answer said question, no, I am not attempting to assimilate with the 5 to 15 year old students, as, considering the height of Danish elementary and middle schoolers, I already fit in quite well. In fact, I would be flattering myself to  say that my stature places me anywhere but the 5th to 12th percentile of height amongst said students. And no, I am not in the library because I wish to check out a copy of 'Tiden med en Teenager,' ('Time with a Teenager'), although a tantalizing read it appears to be. In actuality, my reason for being in the library, not to disappoint, is as such: Chanella's class ended at 10 and Sofia's does not begin until 11:45. Anticlimactic, I know. But anywho ... Going to Chanella's class was so much fun. Her peers asked me a wide range of questions from, 'What is your favorite color?' to 'What is your school like?' to 'What is your favorite soccer team?' an inquiry for which, to no one's surprise, I had a brilliant response. Other noteworthy inquiries included, 'Do you know Justin Bieber?' 'Are there sandstorms in Texas?' and 'Does America have running wanter?' The kids were all so nice and I was extremely impressed with their English. Speaking of English ... I am aware that this introductory paragraph was a bit of a digression, seeing as the intended purpose of this post is to provide details of my 3rd and 4th days in London. So I will do that for you now. Here we go ...


On Wednesday morning, we all had the choice of attending either Saatchi Gallery, a contemporary art gallery, or the Imperial War Museum. Not too surprisingly, most of us opted to visit the former, although three braves souls did choose to accompany our teacher, Niels, to the war museum, which they said was actually quite fascinating. The Saatchi is located in Chelsea and opened in 2008 as a free museum, aiming both 'to bring contemporary art to the widest audience possible' and 'to provide an innovative forum for contemporary art, presenting work by largely unseen young artists or by international artists whose work has been rarely or never exhibited in the UK,' so says their website. The architecture of the museum itself was really great, as were most of the exhibitions inside. I say 'most' solely because there were a few that I would be lying were I to claim to have understood completely. But overall, I thought the gallery had a great collection and I really enjoyed our time there. [See images of exhibitions below.]

After leaving the gallery, three other girls and I walked to Harrod's for lunch. Whilst  on said walk, I became certain that I want to live in London, a decision I insist was made completely independent of the many clothing stores we passed en route to our destination. 


Needless to say, arriving at Harrod's was like a breath of fresh air, primarily because I splurged on a green tea cup that says, of all things, 'Harrod's' on it ... quite the treat for a tea enthusiast such as myself. Lunch was absolutely delicious ... a complete taste bud overload. I do not have the words to describe to you the cornucopia of dining options available so instead I will leave you with a few images of our feasting experience.

After leaving Harrod's, the four of us made our way not so seamlessly to Schillings Law Firm,the most prominent media law firm in the UK (NOTE: Our tube line was down and we ended up taking a 30 minute cab ride of which about 50% was spent going in the wrong direction, a mistake the driver insisted was entirely our fault). While at Schillings, our task was to interview two employees for our Careers in Communications assignment. We met with Phil, a Trainee Solicitor, and Charlotte, the HR Manager, who explained to us the nature of media of law in general as well as life as a Schillings employee. Schillings is a 'niche boutique' firm, housing about 60 employees, that specializes in what they call 'reputation management.' Essentially, public figures of all kinds come to Schillings should any sort of defamatory story be written about them by the media and it is Schillings' job to stop said defamation. The Co-Founder and Senior Partner of the firm, Keith Schillings has not lost a case since starting the firm in 1984, so the firm's reputation carries a lot of weight when it comes to its power over the press. Also, newspapers come to Schillings prior to publishing a story as a means by which they can claim their engagement in 'responsible journalism' should a defamatory or libel case be brought against them. I learned a lot about the industry while talking to Phil and Charlotte and it was definitely interesting to hear about the ethical issues associated with, as Phil states, 'protecting clients from the more nefarious elements of the press.' Below are photos of some Schillings clients:

Madonna

Kate Winslet

Cristiano Ronaldo

J.K. Rowling

Roman Polanski

That evening, we had a group dinner with the other Current Trends in Mass Media class at Brown's in Covent Garden. Below you can see my place tag for the event. 

The dinner was both delectable and stimulating and as a means of carrying on the fun into the night, we decided as newly bonded group of CTMMA and CTMMB students to go to a lovely little neighborhood pub, the name of which completely escapes me at the moment. We then decided to make our way to another venue, but in an unfortunate twist of fate, said venue was closed upon our arrival, leaving us stranded and destitute in the streets of London. So ... we caught the tube home. However, the evening's end was not actually as big of a bust as it may seem, seeing as I found a remarkable Toy Story 3 umbrella that some poor child (or some very disturbed adult) left behind on the train. Considering my umbrella did not survive day 1 of the trip and this one looked oh so lonely, I decided to take it home with me, making the entire evening, in my opinion, quite a success. 


(Before I begin detailing Thursday's activities, I want to make known my awareness of the rapidity with which the length of this post is growing. Fortunately, Thursday was not very jam packed so I will definitely make the remainder of this entry short.)


We started of our day with a Royal London Bike Tour, which was a 4 hour trek throughout the city. It was incredibly fun and also incredibly cold. Fortunately, I found a chic little shop where I purchased the following layering pieces: 

Below are more photos from the tour:

After this, some friends and I were craving a traditional British meal so we made our way to Chipotle for lunch before heading out for an afternoon of filming for our projects. That evening, we went to Cafe Naz, a cute little Indian food restaurant on Brick Lane and then headed to Vibe Bar for Kino London's Open-Mic Short Film Night, which as it sounds, is an open-mic night for ... you guessed it ... short films. Here is a tidbit about Kino as stated on their website: 


Kino London's Open-Mic Short Film Night ...

• Is a monthly film event that is the only one of its kind in London
• Is an inclusive, open platform for the capital’s filmmakers
• Includes a worldwide network of filmmakers, creatives and video technicians
• Is as raw, fresh and exciting as filmmaking gets…

We saw some really great films, one of which you can view below. 

After leaving Vibe, there was a minor mishap that involved me navigating the subway and ultimately finding my group eating frozen yogurt at Yogland, but that is another story entirely. All that is necessary to remember about this incident is that I am sitting here today, typing this blog post, in the safe confines of a Danish elementary school. All other details are completely superfluous. 


So here ends days 3 and 4 of my long study tour. As always, I sincerely hope reading this post was a pleasant experience for you all. Tune in later this week for the fascinating details of days 5 and 6. 


Farvel!


Ord af dagen: "taxachauffør" = "taxi driver" (As in, "A disgruntled British taxachauffør yelled at me for giving him faulty directions.")