Wednesday was my history day, with European history in the morning. Our teacher is giving us an assignment to do in conjunction with our Edinburgh trip, so class started at 10:30 instead of 9! We discussed the Russian Revolution and the rise of fascism; obviously a cheerful discussion. It's really interesting that there is no real definition of fascism, or way to distinguish between it and a dictatorship.
I'm starting to realize that my art history professor, Rachel, doesn't really have lecture time in our class, which is really cool. Each week on our outings, we all choose one painting that exemplifies what we've looked at or caught our eye. Then during class before our outing, we come up to the front of the class and share our piece of art. This usually takes an hour, and then we leave for our outing. This class just exemplifies what I imagined my classes in London to be like. While Rachel assigns us reading to do over the week, she doesn't really hold us accountable for the information in class. I can tell that us experiencing the art available to us in London is so much more important than her talking at us in a classroom. She does talk to us and explain the pieces we look at when we get to the galleries; in fact, these talks usually draw an audience. Rachel is very eloquent and the way she explains the art makes sense. Sometimes I can appreciate art, but I don't understand the back story or why it was made. Rachel makes it click. As the weeks progress, I think art history is my favorite class here. Also, we keep going back to the National Gallery, which is a beautiful museum. It's right by Trafalgar Square, so every time we go there, we see the Square and Big Ben in the background. It's beautiful, especially because we see it as the sun is setting!
On Thursday, I had the room to myself in the morning, so I did some laundry and then some food shopping. I went and scoped out the farmer's market at University of London. Unfortunately, most of it was meat-based or didn't have labels of any allergens, so I just got a seafood paella. I love paella almost as much as I love my markets. My friends make fun of me because I'm so obsessed with markets and on each trip we go on I ask where the closest one is. They're just always cheap and usually have gluten/dairy free food! What's not to love?! I also stopped by Planet Organic, but was a little disappointed. While it did have some allergy free foods the other grocery stores have, it was very pricey. I actually found that they sold much of the things I get at Waitrose or Sainsbury's but was more expensive. I'm glad I checked it out though.
For film, we had to prepare little group presentations about our favorite scene in Romeo and Juliet. Lucy and I chose the balcony scene because we're romantics...The film we saw was "Amour." The movie shows an elderly couple deeply in love who have to cope with the wife's dementia. It was incredibly heart-wrenching and felt very real. I don't think there was a dry eye in the cinema. Everyone came home and ate their feelings in the form of chocolate. The film was well-done, but...depressing. We called it a night early, since we had to be up bright and early for Oxford the next morning!
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