This past weekend I went up to Leeds for Halloween. Saw old friends. Leeds is a beautiful town. Leeds is an active & lovely part of my past. London, I think, is my future. The as-far-into-the-future-as-I-can-see type of future. My desire for a bigger & more open-minded arts community are being met daily so far. Of course, a large part of my dissatisfaction with Atlanta was based around transportation issues, so the freedom I've found here (& could probably find anywhere in Europe), although expected, is so, so nice.Today I'm in Fabrica, the little Italian-run coffeeshop about a block & a half from my place. It sort of reminds me of how much I miss steaming milk. In another lifetime, all I'd need is a coffee grinder & a steaming wand to keep me happy for all eternity.
I'm starting an internship/work placement at the Horniman Museum's Special Collections Centre in North Greenwich next Tuesday. I'm pretty pumped. The museum itself is in Forest Hill, a different part of the city, but I'll be working primarily with the Head Archivist doing collections organization & basic collections management (re-housing documents, accessioning, etc). A little taste of the work I did at the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, which is really nice. I'm surprised at how useless I feel to society when I'm not working. It'll be nice to get into the swing of things again. In another lifetime, all I'd need is acid-free paper & a scanner to accession & digitize for all eternity. It's really telling that I'm obsessed with mundane tasks.
This morning I made my own pop tarts. Basically, little tarts with real fruit & vegetable filling. Apple & pumpkin (not in the same tart). With a nutmeg glaze. I love how easy it is to make a puff pastry. Starting my day with baking was really calming. I got up early, ran across the street to get an apple & ricotta cheese, & now I can't get rid of the smell of butter from my nose after making the pastry.On a similar note, one thing that was hard to do in the move was recreate a spice cabinet. It's the little things that you always forget about when you're moving. I knew I'd have to get the basic things for myself -- bedspread, bedsheets, etc. -- but I forgot about spices. I also decided to get myself a pass for the picture houses of London. Worth its weight in gold. Watching movies by myself is an old love.
I finished reading a book by Hemingway, am nearly through with a book by Nabokov, & just starting a book by Salman Rushdie. I want to read a couple other books I found recently, as well, but feel guilty whenever I'm reading for fun & not for school. I forgot about that guilt. I used to feel it all the time at GA Tech, which was probably more telling of my attitude toward GA Tech, but needless to say, reading is a staple in my recent life. I feel like I need a few extra lifetimes to do all the things I want to do. I have been setting goals for myself recently. One of them is go to to one free museum a week. So far, so good. I've been to the Tate Modern, the British Library, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Guildhall Art Gallery, the Leeds City Art Gallery, the National Gallery, the Stanley & Audrey Burton Art Gallery in Leeds, & the small gallery space in the London Metropolitan Archives. This week I might actually get to the Natural History Museum, the Wellcome Collection, & the Tate Britain because of events I'm going to try to attend. I have a growing list of places to see, though. When most of it is free, why not?
I'm coming home for Christmas! Next week is reading week at school, which means I have a whole week to get caught up on my work. I'm aiming to get my essays done before I leave for Atlanta, which means work-work-work hard-hard-hard so I can have a free head while I'm home. Very excited about seeing everyone again, & getting my sisters good English presents. :)
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