Week 6-House guest

Hello, lovelies!

This past week I had the pleasure of hosting my first house-guest, Franny. She is a friend I had back in high school and recently got a scholarship teaching English in Leipzig, Germany. Because she is so close to me, geographically, she decided to come to visit London, and I was more than happy to let her crash on my couch. I wasn't the best hostess, as I have had more homework than usual this past week, what with essays beginning to be due, but we still managed to have fun. Franny and I wandered around the Victoria & Albert Museum as one of her first days here. It was amazing to see some of the floors of the museum that I missed the last time. I literally could get lost in there for days! I recently also registered with their Art Library, so I would have somewhere quiet to study. However, I was told that they have a clear bag policy, and I could only bring pencils into the museum. Isn't that odd?
A couple days I left Franny to wander around the British Museum or the Parliament building on her own. Franny's background is in politics, so she really wanted to visit the Parliament building to see the government in session. While she was exploring, I took to the library, hunkering down to get some of my reading done for a class as well as start developing my new podcast.

This past week my friend Jacqui and I talked about starting a podcast. We hopefully will have the first episode up by next week, after we can figure out all the radio studio scheduling. The podcast is called Human Angle, and it goes into the hidden lives of famous, and not so famous, scientists. Our first subject of study is Hedy Lamarr, 1940's fashion model and inventor of...wifi? Crazy right?

Episodes will only be 20 minutes long, so they're perfect for a commute or a walk around town. Once the podcast is up, you'll be able to find it on iTunes, Spotify, stitcher and wherever you get your podcasts from.  So besides doing some researching on Hedy Lamarr, I've become somewhat proficient in sound-mixing, podcast marketing, and platform learning. Gotta love the internet!

On Friday, Franny and I joined some of my classmates at the White Horse pub down in Peckham Rye, very south London. Some of the students in my program who are from London wanted to show us their part of the city. Franny and I didn't stay very long, as we wanted to be at Parliament the next day for the Brexit vote. It was still fun to see everyone outside of class and to socialize. I'm pretty sure I may go deaf at some point if I keep going to pubs because they're so loud!

Some of my classmates

It may just be that I'm getting old, but I know all of us were yelling at each other just to hear everyone. By about 10:30, Franny and I headed back home, slightly tipsy and having a great time.


The next morning we went to Parliament. Weather-wise, it was a nice day to stand outside and watch protests over the vote. The sun was warm on our backs and the shade was cruel and unforgiving. The line inside was long, and it took us about two hours to get to the front. By the time we did get to the front, we were told that it would take at least another 3 hours to get in, and even then we would miss the vote on Brexit. Franny wanted to stay, and I decided to head home to get some more work done. I kept texting her throughout the day to make sure that she was okay.

She never got into the Parliament building that day but had a fun time watching the protests swell in the streets, as over 1 million people came to demonstrate. The tube lines were closed, so by the time she made it back, she had to do a bit of walking to find an open tube to move into.

The next day was Franny's last day, and so we decided to wander into the British Library and Regent's Park. It was a fairly chilly day to walk around, but it wasn't raining, so at least that was a bonus. The British Library was quiet for a Sunday, and we were able to spend a lot of time in their rare-book room. Since being there last, I could tell that some of the books had had pages turned to show different illuminations, such as in some of the medieval Bibles. I walked into a side room that I missed the first time to see a display of the Magna Carta.

Illuminations from medieval Bible

Amazing experience, and I was glad I found it. After wandering through the rare book room, we decided to walk over to Regent's Park, which was only 20 minutes away. As the clouds clustered together and the wind picked up, we wandered into the park, admiring all the dogs, the football and rugby players out for practice, and the yellowing leaves. Surprisingly, we paralleled the London Zoo and watched some camels enjoying their lunch in peace. I do have to say that Regent's Park has to be one of my favorite places and I'm excited to go back when it's warmer and do some writing. It definitely has a writing atmosphere to it.

As we finished our walk around the park we headed back south to Kensington. We found a cute burger restaurant with gluten-free buns to enjoy. Then back to the flat to watch the rest of this season's The Great British Bakeoff. For those of you who haven't seen the show, it's a huge hit over here and in the States and is a wholesome treat. I didn't think I would get that involved in the show, but I'm loving it. Franny is a huge fan too, so we watched it throughout her time here.
Monday, Franny and I parted ways, as she headed west to Wales and I headed east to school. I looked forward to seeing my classmates again and discussing the dreaded upcoming essays that were looming over us.
Here's hoping I don't die in my pile of readings.
Kenna