London is the Place to Be

This past weekend Dr Williams, the head of the UGA honors program, was one of the first of the University VIPs to arrive for the dedication ceremony scheduled for tomorrow to celebrate the opening of the new UGA at Oxford house I'm currently living in. He is an important figure within the Fellowship and to celebrate, we all headed to London (fo free) for an awesome time in the capital of England. We were out the door at 8:30 a.m. and there by 9:30 or 10:00. I'm always amazed at how much I can see of a city in just one day, but the highlight of my time there was really the company. My small group consisted of Sheena, Tracy, Lucy, Sabrina, Calley, and Phoeny, making me the lone male in the group. So I got dragged into H & M for an hour or so and had to eat "small food" for lunch (those of you who know me, also know how much food I need to be satisfied) but what the hell - I have so much fun with them. I took a few hundred pictures throughout the day and I guess I'll just continue the story as I start to post my favorite shots.

Arrival at Paddington Station

Since we've been here, we have been so busy that the tendency has been to sleep any time we are not actively doing something, which turns out to be almost never...

We rode the "tube" as they call it to Westminister where we saw Big Ben (I was expecting it to be bigger honestly), the London Eye, and checked out the Abbey itself. In all honesty the abbey wasn't worth the 7£ it cost to go in. I'm still glad I did though, so I'll never feel the need to go again.

Along the way to Trafalgar Square I came accross this monument to the women of WWII. I know it wasn't meant to be seen this way, but I found it quite amusing and took a few pictures of it, all the while falling behind everyone else.

Trafalgar Square is a fun place if this picture of Sheena and I is any indication. Matt was a little bit unsure behind the lens of the D70 but he captured this moment like a pro.

TIKKA MASALA!!!!!! I shouldn't even really put this up here since I can't explain this inside joke to everyone but damn is it funny. Dedicated to a dear friend, who may or may not like Indian food as much as he used to.

The elusive Trey in thought

Check out that picture of the Homeless man I posted in the New York blog and tell me it doesn't remind you of P Mote as captured here!

Our beloved Jessica, who always hooks us up with food - Fo free!

Above: Dr. Williams himself, with Sheena lurking in the background.

So I have gotten a reputation for taking candid pictures of people but not only is it often so funny (Rachel) but I feel like you can capture a better sense of who these people are when they aren't posing for a photo. Not everyone agrees with me, especially when they don't like the faces they make in public, but hey, they are free to take pictures of me to.

These are some fun ones. Sheena's scary eye inspired me to waste about an hour of valuable time playing with this photo on powerpoint. I really need to get photoshop so I can make some truly cool stuff! *composition most likely inspired by the exhibits at the Tate Modern.

Once you go Asian you never go back

London is full of people, especially in the shopping areas around Oxford Circus. I just couldn't walk through Lingerie, and women's urban fashion very long so I posted up out on the street and nabbed a few nice pictures of passerbys.

I didn't want to post this one at first because it is a little out of focus but I thought it was still worth it. It looks like some sort of TRUTH advertisement.

I caught this dude red handed checking out that girls ass! This one is for Sabrina who just cannot comprehend that anybody would oogle her breasts without her consent.

I got a few of nice shots on the way from the Oxford Circus to St. Pauls Cathedral. I especially like the last one. I mean come on, people think Americans post redundant signs.

I really like the way this last one turned out. I often feel like window reflection shots all look the same but the way the panels skew the geometry of the opposing building gives this shot a more unique character.

What an impudent pidgeon, perched on top of the queens head out front of St Pauls, waiting for his chance to deface this symbol of the British Monarchy!

I feel like this shot captures the bustle of London very well.

Ah the Thames... I love cities with rivers running through them and London was a particularily nice example. My only regret was that there was no way to stick my hand into the water. I don't know why but I have some sort of fixation with actually touching the waters as I was able to do with the Rhine and Danube last year in Germany.

After a full day of pounding the streets of London we were lucky enough to get to see Shakespears, Midsummer Nights Dream in the restored Globe Theatre on the Thames. What an amazing experience it was to be a groundling (thus the final picture) at the Globe even though it was admittedly an arduous task to stand for three hours after hoofing it all over the city. Sadly they wouldn't let me take photos during the show, but you can't always get what you want.

Everyone loves a blurred night shot. See how one of Ryan's eyes remaind intact? It looks like it shouldn't be there, but one tends to forget how tall he really is.

Well eight of us thought it was was a good idea to stay the night in London as it was really our only chance to enjoy the city. Besides who wants to do supplemental reading anyways? The plan was to go out clubbing but... lets just say things don't always work out in your favor. Katie had booked the hotel rooms but didn't write down the directions or the full address. The Tubes close at 12:00 or so and we realized with 10 minutes to spare that the well meant intentions of a young British chap had led us astray. We boarded the second to last carriage heading to Harlesden, an apparently sketchy neighborhood on the outskirts of London. Of course that meant that once committed to our path there was no cheap way to return to the city should we not find our place to stay. No one else had traveled alone or really even encountered anything close to the feeling of being lost early in the morning in a sketchy situation wondering where you were going to sleep and I'll be nice by saying that people were getting quite upset. It didn't help that Harlesden really was as sketchy as people had told us it was. We FINALLY found the hotel only to find out that the reservation never came through somehow. Alex and I were planning to either sleep out on the street or just stay up the rest of the night as opposed to the girls plan of charging up the emergency credit cards but we ended up getting a room at the last minute. To quote Bobby, "Sometimes security outweighs frugality." In this situation I'd personally have to disagree, but I suppose money shouldn't stand in the way of piece of mind if you need it. Anyways, when I said we got a room, I mean one room for all 8 of us. Really that is what I'd wanted from the start and the group was so relieved to be off the street that no one minded sleeping 4 to a bed. The night ended up being a blast - I'll leave out the details if you don't mind - but I will leave you with these group photos we took of the freshly pacified girls and of course Ryan, Bobby, Alex, and I.

Here is a picture of Harlesden during the day so you can get a picture of what the place is like. Not so threatening now, but when there are lots of crazy people walking around in the middle of the night, you wouldn't want to be there if you had a choice.

I was sad to see our group from Harlesden split up but we wanted to see different things with our last time in London. I went with Alex to Picadilly Circus where I agreed to do a bit of shopping with him if he would come to the Tate Modern with me afterwards. As London's version of Times Square, it was worth the visit. We had some spectacular weather which made for some nice photos.

As you might expect, no photography is allowed inside the Tate Modern, but the building is fantastic and the art even better. Maybe I just feel like this because I was just there, but I think I enjoyed this museum more than any other I've been to.

This was the one picture I managed to take inside the museum before I was informed that it was strictly prohibited. Don't think I was being sheisty either! I swear, there were no signs posted anywhere!

There was however a balcony of the third floor where you could take a break and I got some cool photos from there. The man in the cherry picker was working in conjunction with those two men on the ground. I've no idea what he was doing, but I bet he thought it was wierd that I was taking pictures of him.

These are the last two photos I took, reflected off the glass, before we left the Tate and headed back accross town to catch our train home. The first shows the full view accross the Thames, but the second is cooler in my opinion. I just like the way that Alex and I look.

Wow this took a long time to put together so I hope that someone reads this and whoever does, at least enjoys it somewhat as much as I did making it. I'll be heading off to Wales this weekend so expect another entry in something like 10 days.