Welcome to the Random World of Maggie

Liverpool

When I went to Manchester, there was no way I could miss Liverpool-the home of the Beatles-which was an hour's bus ride away. It was an awesome city, but I'll leave the Mystery Tour pictures for my next entry.

Here's one of Liverpool's museums. You can see how the British adored neo-Classical architecture. Loads of the museums in London are like that also, giving you a sense of grandeur and times passed before you even see the collections.

Instead of looking in at the museum, this is looking from the museum out across the street.

I don't quite remember where this was, but it was pretty cool anyway. This building was a wedge in the intersection of two busy roads. You can see the same type of brick that composes many of the Manchester buildings in the background.

This is Albert Dock's pumphouse, now converted into a trendy restaurant. I didn't get a great picture of the surrounding area, but this was at the heart of one of the biggest ports of the slave trade.

Here's a picture of Liverpool downtown from Albert Dock. It was pretty cool, roaming the streets of this city and hearing all of the Beatle's tunes blaring from the stores. It's great exploring how different English cities are despite their similarities, this one more modern and touristy than its neighbor, Manchester.

Lastly, here is the Catholic cathedral in Liverpool. There's also the largest Anglican cathedral in Liverpool, separated from this one by Hope Street. I was short on time, so I chose to come here to attend the afternoon mass with Gregorian chant which was amaaaazing!

The stained glass up at the top provides a great deal of really cool light, and it leads up to the crown of thorns on the outside (see the first picture).

There was a lot of abstract art in the cathedral, but the main theme of the architecture was circles--lots and lots of circles.

Manchester

It's been a while since I've posted, but it's finals time--which means it's procrastination time! Here are some more pictures for you to enjoy. I have lots backlogged, so here are those from Spring Break when I went to Manchester. I've heard some people call it the Detroit of England, and it does have an industrial feel about it. I journeyed by myself, taking a 4-hour bus ride to the far north and staying in the Hatter's Hostel, where I met loads of awesome people.

This is a government building in the city center.

Don't you love churches in the EU? This one has some pretty sweet gargoyles.

This is right off of Manchester's Picadilly. A busy place, but you can see the type of brick and style that characterize most of Manchester's architecture.

This one's right next to that last building. Cool, huh?

Manchester's library! I really should be writing papers now...

This was just a cool building, a hotel I think. You can see at the bottom the flags of England (St. George's flag--the white and red one) and Great Britain's (the Union Jack--a combination of Scotland's flag and England's).

My Flat

Here are some pictures of my flat in north London :)

This is my street-Kimberley Gardens-which is right off the main road of a vibrant, diverse (mainly Turkish) community in Harringey.

63 Kimberley Gardens

The main entryway--with Tom's mod podge table drying on the floor

My bedroom (my part of it, at least. Thalia's bed, desk, and drawers are behind this view)!

Stairs up to our kitchen (there are 2 in the house because there are 6 of us living here now)--there's a bathroom at the top and bottom of these stairs.

Our kitchen

The roommates-me and Thalia!

Stratford-upon-Avon

On Friday Oberlin-in-London took us to Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare's hometown! It was so amazing. We took a coach through the lovely English countryside and had the afternoon to explore before seeing the Tempest performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Here are some pics of the town--

Shakespeare's birthplace

Shakespeare's burial site in Holy Trinity Church--the bust of Shakespeare has a quill in the hand that is replaced yearly, in case he ever wants to come back and write more!

Me, Ray, Ben, and Thalia sitting along the River Avon*

Me!

Pancake Day!

As many of you know, today was Fat Tuesday. Some celebrate Mardis Gras. Some celebrate Carnaval. England celebrates Pancake Day! I went with my friends Ray and Thalia to the Annual Pancake Day Race right next to the House of Parliament, where members of parliament and members of the press came together to raise awareness for the organization Rehab UK. The schtick was that everybody had to relay, running in their business suits and chef hats around the park while flipping their pancakes at least three feet in the air. Here are the hilarious pics of the area, the race, and the yummy pancakes.

What time is it? Check out Big Ben!

Here are the participants warming up and posing for pics.

They're oh so close, but the press wins!

Can't forget the delicious pancakes, which are not at all like ours. They're more like crepes with toppings of lemon juice and sugar.

Mmmmm, pancakes.

London, Take Two!

Here I am, back in London! I'm studying with the Danenburg Oberlin-in-London Program, which is where Oberlin College sends over two professors to teach a group of 17ish students every semester. I'm taking a Museums course with a history professor (Steve Volk), a London Stage course with a professor from here (Donna Vinter), and a British Colonialism and Identity course with Volk and an English professor (Anu Needham). It's so insane--I get credit to go to a museum and a play each week! I'm looking forward to seeing Judy Dench in one play and Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in another. Cool, huh?

I've been so busy since arriving that this is the first possible time to update everybody. Within the first week, I've found a flat, taken a supertour of Saint Paul's Cathedral (even going to the crypt and back through a secret doorway where they filmed a Harry Potter staircase scene in Prisoner of Azkaban), walked through loads of markets, seen the play English People Very Nice, and so much more. Time has seriously flown by, but I'm making the most of it.

SoOoOo, today's Valentine's Day. Normally not a day for us singletons, but my day rocked anyhow. After sleeping in (I've been sick and pretty much passed out for the past 24 hours), I woke up and did some reading (we've got loads to do). Then I went to the National Theatre to see an interview of Tom Stoppard--the playwright who wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers, and more. He was pretty hilarious, and afterward we went to his book signing. Then Ray and I walked down the River Thames past the Globe Theatre to get some fish and chips before returning to the National Theatre. We met Thalia (my housemate from Oberlin) and Ben (Grinnell student on our program) to watch Shakespeare in Love projected on the roof. Oh yeah, Tom Stoppard cowrote that, too. After a quick tube ride home, I baked some cupcakes with another housemate, Tom. Thalia and I share a room in a house with 5 others--Tom from southern England, Tim from France, Kim from Canada, Ka from China, and Charity from Zambia. They're all uber friendly and chill.

Anyway, there's a pretty brief intro of my time so far. More to come soon!

The Third Hemisphere

SoOo, since my last blog, I've completed a year at Oberlin College and made my way to London, England for the summer with Winant and Clayton. That's an exchange program for people to volunteer in social work. People from England go to New York, and people from the U.S. go to London. Hopefully the English folk are having as much time as we are here! The twelve of us are split up, though. I'm volunteering at Mosaic Clubhouse (http://www.mosaic-clubhouse.org/), a mental rehabilitation center where the staff and volunteers work alongside the members (there's no hierarchy) to build confidence, skills, and self-worth. I LOVE IT! I'm in the house and garden unit, repairing and planting and mowing and more. I've also added some Albanian, Italian, and Farsi words to my vocabulary since being in London. It's such a melting pot, and it's great to see such diversity. Anyways, I wanted to post a few more photos to get this going, but the comuter's being a bit fussy. I've been here for 6 weeks and only have about 3 more to go, but I'll see if I can't catch up a little bit soon.

A Rockin Week

Here are a whole bunch of random pictures of this past week which has ROCKED on so many different levels. I´m doing all sorts of stuff with all sorts of people, from going to Capoeira shows of the guys in my group to hanging out with hippies downtown with Omar and Chuy to riding a bus downtown and shopping with Heda. I´ll just collage all of the pics together to mix it up within the next few entries.