He's as cool as the other side of the pillow, he is!

Sorry there was no post for yesterday—I fell asleep on the couch before I could write it…

Yesterday was a pretty relaxed day, mostly because it was only a half scheduled day before our free extended weekend. On the tube on our way to Anglo American we encountered a really sketchy guy. Alex (my new saucy Italian friend) was holding onto one of the poles in the center of the car and we were all standing around because there were no other seats—just like every morning withal the other commuters. This guy gets on a few stops after us and holds onto the same pole as her. His hand is higher on the pole than hers and he pushes her hand down, not an unusual accident for a crowded car. She just looked at him and goes, “oh, sorry.” Instead of responding he continues to try and get her hand off of the pole and says, “I’m very busy and I’m on my way to work.” We thought that surely it was a joke and that at any minute he was going to look up and say, “Gotcha! Welcome to London!” but he never did! Then he looks at her like she’s the crazy one, smacks her hand off of the pole, and while he’s looking down and shaking his head says, “Piss off!” We didn’t really know what to say! All we could do was laugh about it…

We finally made it to class and after telling everyone about our strange tube experience, we had a guest speaker come in to give us another perspective of the city. His name is Jeff Hardy and he is a well-known gay rights activist in London. I really liked hearing him talk about the city in his context and about how the laws for gay and lesbian people have developed recently. He did go into a little too much detail about how gay men meet in bathrooms, but it was still really enlightening to hear him talk about how scary it was, and still is, to be gay. He said one thing that really stuck with me when talking about relationships. He said that he was in love with his partner of over 30 years and commented on how some people, who believe that being gay is wrong, have asked him to explain their relationship. He said, “as if love really has an explanation.” I thought it was very insightful. Then he talked about hate and how he didn’t understand it, but then he mentioned a trip to America. He mentioned that he had a friend in or near Tennessee (I can’t remember exactly) and that he had to drive through West Virginia once and he said, “I don’t know how anything could actually be human in West Virginia.” He also made snide comments about religion and the south and how he shouted that there was justice when he heard that Jerry Falwell had died. It made me so sad that a person who preached to me a second about how hate hurts had just spilled out so much of it so easily. I understand that it came from a place of anger and bias against a portion of America’s population who is grossly generalized as less tolerant, but it still didn’t feel good. I didn’t say anything to him afterward, even though I wanted to, but I just didn’t want to come across as “that American.” It was a little rough.

After that we had the second of our three tutorial meetings. I was with Jane today and we went to Starbucks! She bought us all scones and coffee or tea—she’s SO nice! Then we sat and talked about the assignments and what we were planning on doing for our independent weekend and individual projects. I decided that while I’m here I’m going to do some independent research on progress and it’s connotations. London is constantly being remodeled, rebuilt, rejuvenated, demolished, and added to, and I just wanted to go into the pros and cons of these things. I feel like we’ve dealt with that a lot here, talking about architecture and how buildings are being replaced to coincide with new needs, and about the old versus the new. It just seems appropriate.

When we finished up there we had the whole afternoon free so we went to the British Library saw the exhibit about Henry VII. Everyone here has exhibits about the guy right now because it’s his 500th anniversary or something. It was really interesting, but I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already know about him and his six wives and the rest of the Tudors. Then we went shopping in Notting Hill in the area of the Portobello Market. There were lots of cute dress shops, vintage jewelry shops, and little stands full of antiques. The best part was all of the shoe stores! We just went in and tried on shoes and looked at the outrageous pairs! I was so tired when I got back that I just made some dinner and went straight to bed—even if it was on the couch, by accident.

This morning I got up early to go to Anglo American to print out our ticket for the coach to Windsor tomorrow. It was a chore! It took me about an hour to walk/ride the tube there. There is no elevator in this building and the printer is like 5 flights of rickety, loud stairs up. I got there, got buzzed in and walked all the way up only to find the door locked. So then I walked all the way back down to tell the lady at the front desk what I needed to do. She told me to go back upstairs to the lady in the office up there and get her to unlock the door. Back up. The lady up there said that the lady downstairs had the key, so I went back down the very LOUD stairs while everyone was trying to have class, to get the key. Back up. I finally got to print the ticket out and the lady told me that I had to pay because I printed something out. I had to search through my coins to find the one that’s worth 10 pence and it took me a little while because the coins are SO different here. Then I had to ride the tube/walk back for about an hour. All of that to print 1 page. 1 PAGE!!!

The rest of the day was such a treat though! We got free tickets to Polo In The Park today!! And they weren’t just nosebleed seats—we were front and center for this historic polo match in Hurlingham Park. It was the first time that polo had returned to its original birthplace in over 70 years! There were all kinds of media there, very rich society people, and apparently the Prime Minister! It was so exciting and the game was actually really easy to get into—I loved it! We watched London defeat Moscow and New York (woo! Go America!) beat Buenos Aires. The horses were amazing and the guys on the teams weren’t bad either. Each team had four people on it—three men and one woman. One of the guys on the New York team, Ignacio Figueras is the face of Ralph Lauren. The players really got into it and one guy on Moscow’s team stood up in his saddle on his horse! The only idea that I had about polo was from the movie, Pretty Woman. We even went out during halftimes and stomped the divots!! The announcers said, "beware the steaming divot," just like in the movie!! The best part may have been the announcers! I swear they were drunk the entire time… They made ridiculous comments like, “She’s tangled up in the back field with all the boys, just where the ladies like to be,” and, “He’s as cool as the other side of the pillow, he is!” Hilarious! I got some great pictures of the match…but my camera died before halftime of the New York game. It was really fun, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I felt like such a bumpkin today though! There were all these rich people in their extravagant outfits looking at Jaguars and jewelry and sipping champagne under VIP tents while smoking cigars. It was pretty comical that we wound up there somehow in our sundresses and raincoats! The only downside to the day was that it was absolutely freezing! After the game we rode the tube on the long journey back to Ability and just relaxed.

I’m so tired and I just hope that tomorrow is warmer and less rainy for our trip to Windsor Castle!

More Tomorrow,
Whitney