very blessed

I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum with my friend Anderson from the UGA program, ate fish cakes, had tea... weird to see a Cortona friend in another country. It'll be even weirder to see everybody eventually in the states. Anyways, then I went to meet up with Mina and had a shandy with her coworkers and went to watch Sister Act (the musical) at the London Palladium. It was sooo good, much better than I expected. I even cried a little once haha.

Yesterday I went to the British Museum and got my ticket for the Italian Renaissance drawing exhibit, then to the Hunterian Museum and saw tons of strange things: intestines of different animals, ears, eyes, an abnormally large skull, still born baby fetus from 5 weeks to 9 months, dissected animals... it was fascinating, i loved it!

The day before I went to the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the British Library. The National Gallery is still probably my favorite. I went through the most of the museums, saving my loved one for last and came face to face with a plaque with a tiny photo of Virgin of the Rocks saying "We regret to inform you..." It was in restoration. WOW. So I spent the next hour drawing a few Mary faces from the da Vinci drawing they had there instead. National Portrait Gallery had some interesting things but a lot of portraits of British royalty throughout the centuries that was kind of boring. The British Library was really interesting in the exhibit area, the library itself is just huge but normal. There were original manuscripts by several musicians including Handel's Messiah, Chopin... tons of other manuscripts like illuminated Islamic and Christian books, the Magna Carta, pages from da Vinci's notebooks... then I went to Mina's work to meet up with her. I've been to her work for the past 3 days at 5:25pm, getting to know her coworkers pretty well :)

less than a week :(

I've been going going going ever since I wrote my last post. I think that was after the exhibition, so I had 1 week left in Cortona at that point and did everything I could to make the most of that last week. Then we left for Venice early on Monday the 26th. I think Venice is a nice place to visit but the most touristy place I've ever been. It's beautiful but reminds me of a toy store or Disneyland, not like the rest of Italy.

I left Venice on the 29th and flew to Bari to meet Giuseppe, my host brother from 5 years ago. We hung out with his friends for a few hours and then took a bus for several hours to my host family's town. We went out with his friends, went to the beach, I drove a scooter and rode on his motorcycle, ate with the family... I had a really good time, I miss them a lot. Giuseppe drove us back to Bari where he goes to school on May 1, and from there I flew to Brussels. A bus and 2 trains later I arrived in Paris, met Mina, got on another train, and finally arrived at the hotel. We slept in and the next morning Noah met us at the hotel. The food and art in Paris is beyond amazing, I can't really describe it. However, not my favorite city, surprisingly kind of dirty and the people aren't too friendly. Even though I had heard that, it was different to experience it.
Then Mina went home to London back to work and Noah and I flew to Barcelona to meet my mom's friend. I really liked Barcelona. There's no other way to describe Gaudi except as a creative genius. Then on May 7th, Noah and I left. He went back home and I came to London to visit Mina and Shige. We've had a nice relaxing weekend hanging out. They have to go back to work tomorrow so I'll be on my own wandering around the museums. I'm really excited to reunite with my favorite painting (Virgin of the Rocks in the National Gallery, not the Louvre version), and for the Italian Renaissance drawing exhibition in the British Museum. Can't wait!!

So overall traveling has been exhausting but great. Venice, Bari, Rotondella, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, London- that was plenty for less than two weeks haha. It probably would've been less tiring and stressful if I hadn't taken cheap airlines, it makes a pretty big difference. But I'm a student so what can you do... plus I have all summer to relax.

I miss Italy. I'm trying to think of how to go back. I'd love to go to grad school in Florence. We'll see...