Taste of Spain & Tate Modern.

Mimi, Kesey, Jordan, me, and Abbey with a guy giving away free hugs. I feel it appropriate for your entertainment to quote what Mimi told the guy; "We don't want a hug, but can we get a picture with you?... Can I hold your sign?"

Abbey, Mimi, Kelsey, Jordan, and me in front of the Taste of Spain sign on Regent Street.

Kelsey, Jordan, Abbey, me, and Mimi on our way to Tate Modern, posing with St. Paul's cathedral in the background.

The former residence of poet T.S. Eliot right down the street from the Atlantic House. An English majors dream. :)

The Tower Bridge in London maybe. I"m not sure, we found out today that there are thirteen bridges that cross the Thames river in London alone. It's a 210 mile long river.
Taken while crossing the Millennium Bridge to get to Tate Modern art gallery.

The sign for Tate Modern with St. Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge in the background.

An exhibit in Tate Modern. Then I got in trouble for having my camera. Don't worry parents, I didn't get locked up for it. When English people scold you it always sounds really sweet.

One of the interesting art pieces designed to be played with. There were all of these random objects in and on top of these boxes.

The walls at Tate Modern art gallery. They had different words on different years, but since I was made in the '80s I figured that's the one I would take a picture of.

The entrances to the exhibits. They have mediums, art periods, and artist names placed randomly around. Some of the artists displayed were Picasso, Warhol, and Oldenberg; just to name a few.

This picture is extremely blurry and hard to tell what it is, but it's a piece that was a little room containing nothing but red objects...from red shoes to red crayons and everything in between. It was really interesting.

A painting by Pablo Picasso himself.

The Tate Modern art gallery. It's 7 stories tall and has art from many famous artists and collections. I could spend life in there and never get bored.

A random guy in a kilt and full Irish dress standing outside of the Tube exit. Once again, on of those things where I just say "only in England."

The French Connection United Kingdom store. It's cool to see it in the actually United Kingdom.

The Taste of Spain festival on Regents Street in London. Regent's street was completely closed down. It's one of the streets in London with all of the really nice stores on it (Like Burberry, Anthropologie, and Brooks Brothers.)

A clown couple singing "You Are My Sunshine". It was creepy and endearing. See video at the bottom of this blog. Haha.

The awesome Apple store on Regents Street. It's so British.

One of the three people standing around the street offering "Free Hugs".

A really unique clothing store. There were shirts hanging upside down from the ceiling. The store was also lit in black lights and had a huge wall taken over by a screen advertising their clothing.

I liked the hounds tooth flags. It reminded me of my mom.

An artist in the middle of Regents Street. There was a large white cube and artists were working on each side of it. As demonstrated in the following pictures.

Another artists working on the other side of the cube.

A finished piece.

Sigh. I love Anthropologie. This also reminded me of my mom, sister, and grandma.

Here are some Spanish Dancers. It was funny to hear Spanish spoken in England, but I will have you know (DAD!) that I could understand most of it. There is also a short video of these dancers at the bottom of this post.

I don't even have to add a caption to this one. Godiva chocolate is a way of life. Right, mom?

I'm not positive why I took this picture, probably because there was too much of a crowd to get good pictures of anything else. I think these bikes were on sale or up for rent to do some touring on. I don't know what made them so cool.

A replica of "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso. And no, I didn't have to look up the title for it. I knew it was "Guernica" when I saw it from this distance. Further proof that my education has not been wasted!

The pandemonium at Regents Street for A Taste of Spain.

I don't know why these videos are right next to each other, but the one on the left is of the Spanish dancers and the right (and sideways) one is of the clown singing "Your Are My Sunshine".

Hi-

The conclusion to another day has crept up on me. I am sitting in my (very warm) bedroom listening to the soothing sounds of Iron & Wine and thoroughly enjoying my evening. Today was a reasonably busy day; it felt really long.

I went with Jordan, Kelsey (two girls from Texas Tech that I met here in London) and Abbey and Mimi to breakfast where I had an English muffin and some pretty terrible scrambled eggs. I MISS American food. After breakfast we caught the Tube (via Piccadilly Circus line) to Regents Street to attend the Taste of Spain festival going on on the closed street. The weather was hot (for England) and the sun was shining. It was a glorious day. We pushed our way through the thick crowd. We didn't get to see much of anything due to the massive amounts of crowds that built up around the attractions. We more of less just did quite a bit of aimless roaming down the street. There were performing Spanish horses there, face painting, art, Spanish dancers, and two people cooking this large bowl of the best smelling food that I have EVER smelt. I'm dying to know what it was. The smell alone was so good. So here is a little Spanish challenge for you all- find out what the BEST smelling Spanish food is and tell me so I can make it. That would be greatly appreciated and possibly end in the winner getting to share this food with me. We ambled through the streets trying not to get separated in the crowd. There were a few interesting things to be seen along the way. There were a group of people with signs and t-shirts advertising "Free Hugs", which a lot of people were taking advantage of. It was a sweet gesture I guess. I heard once that a human being needs at least twelve hugs a day to be emotionally healthy. I believe it. This girl is a big fan of hugs. After the encounter with the free hug givers, we came across a couple dressed as clowns and singing "You Are My Sunshine" to passersby on the street. This was both endearing and slightly scary. After the fight of mass amounts of people to get back to the Tube station we headed to Tate Modern.

Tate Modern is a seven story art gallery across the Millennium Bridge from St. Paul's Cathedral. The exhibits are, for lack of a better expression, to die for. There is everything from paintings by Picasso to a whole room done in Andy Warhol art. There was a room filled with nothing but red objects as well as a dining room set of a tables with chairs so huge that you could walk underneath them. I didn't get any good pictures due to the fact that pictures weren't allowed in the galleries of course, but I strongly recommend (as I always do) that you google Tate Modern and check out what it has to offer for yourself. It is pretty surreal.

After the long day of adventures; the girls and I went to "Stick and Bowl" and got chicken fried rice from the authentic Chinese place. We ate it in the common room of Atlantic House with a Coke and a Twix for dessert. I would say it was a successful day. My last week of class for this session starts tomorrow! Oh how time flys. I would appreciate continued thoughts and prayers. :) I love and miss each of of you.

Always,
Mattie.

AND to Geo P.- A special shout out to my favourite person to have music-based conversations with-- Thank you for all of your comments on my blog posts and for being a faithful reader. It's so encouraging and appreciated. I miss your music knowledge and our shared hatred for Main Event. Haha. I hope you are doing well, my friend. Keep those well-written comments coming.