Last week in London
I can’t believe how fast three weeks have gone by. I’m not ready to head back to the states yet! We have hit up almost every major museum London has to offer, but I still feel like I’ve barely made a dent on this city. This last week has been jam-packed. After a quick trip to Paris, we arrived back in London exhausted. We started the week off seeing a play at the National Theater called The Pitmen Painters. Tuesday we went to two museums and a jazz concert in the evening. Wednesday, two more museums and the Royal ballet’s performance of Romeo and Juliet in the evening. Today and the last few days are equally as busy; I don’t know if I’ll have time to relax and appreciate my last experiences with Eckerd College.
Today pretty much embodied a stereotypical London day. It was raining lightly outside but not enough to be too uncomfortable. We gathered in an East London tube station for a group excursion. Our itinerary for the day was to attend a walking tour of London’s street art. I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. As we were waiting for a couple stragglers, we met our guide, Mike, one of Alli’s friends, and I couldn’t help but think about how young this kid looked and how he couldn’t know that much about art. But I was quickly proven wrong! He was very charismatic and an excellent speaker. It was clear that he had a passion for street art, which is so much more than graffiti by the way. We walked around East London, which is a very trendy area. We saw art by Banksy, Shepard Fairey (the artist who created the infamous Obama Hope posters), and a really cool London street art crew who call themselves Burning Candy. It was so refreshing to see this street art after spending practically every day for the past three weeks in museums. I think that the street art was so awesome because you don’t know how much longer it will be there for the public to see. The art displayed at museums is sometimes hundreds of years old and will probably always be there for you to visit and admire. I’ve seen a lot of awesome street art in New York, Barcelona, and even in Portland, Maine, but I’ve never really put much thought into who the artists were. After today’s tour with Mike, I have a feeling I will view graffiti much differently.
This fall was my last semester at EC. I’m transferring to Maine, where I’m from, this spring. I had a difficult time deciding whether or not I wanted to a winter term trip at all. I’ve spent a lot of time abroad though and I absolutely love traveling and seeing different cultures. I am so glad that I committed to this trip. I can’t think of a better way to end my Eckerd career than with these amazing people in a foreign city.
Cheers!
Annah Bakutis
