I’m Alive!

Dear Readers:

It is fall break in London for us weary American students, and thank goodness! I needed a break from school, and it came just in time.

Lauryn and I started out our holiday with quite a bang this past weekend, and no, it was not because we hit up any trendy clubs for some crazy Halloween mischief. No, no, instead we braved the cold and tried our hands at sailing for the very first time!

The Elephant Boatyard. The name reminds me of
the “elephant graveyard” in the Lion King. Tee-hee.

We definitely got our sea legs on this trip, and some really numb fingers, too! A family friend of Lauryn’s can be thanked many times for giving us the opportunity to go sailing, and I can thank Deerest many times for inviting me along! Thank you, Deerest!

Lauryn giving me the thumbs up cause she’s a happy sailor.

Point A is approximately where we began our journey, and we sailed over toward
Portsmouth, which you can see on the right-hand side of the map.

We spent two days sailing a 40 foot yacht (the Ariel of Hamble) around Southampton Water going toward Portsmouth. Beginning at the Elephant Boatyard on the River Hamble, we sailed over to Portsmouth (I’m pretty sure we were out on the water about 5 hours) and stayed the night there. Portsmouth is notable for being a major naval port for hundreds of years. It is home to the HMS Warrior and Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory (his flagship at the famous Battle of Trafalgar!), both of which we were able to see. Portsmouth Harbour was also an extremely important embarkation point for the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. It was SO exciting to know that we were sailing in the same place that has been home to so many monumental historic events! We also got to witness some yacht racing when we headed out of Portsmouth on Sunday morning, and that was pretty cool, too!

The HMS Warrior

It was crazy cold! I don’t think I’ve made this clear enough: I thought I was going to get frostbite and die… Really. However, once I realized that the cold was simply painful and not fatal, I had a wonderful time! I can only imagine how awesome sailing in warmer weather must be, and now I’m dying to try it.

All bundled up! I was still freezing, but happy.

Our last few hours sailing on Sunday; everything was so serene that you couldn’t
even tell the yacht was moving except for the fact that you would eventually
pass landmarks. It was a strange experience.

Once we made it back to London (fingers and toes intact) and had a good rest, we were faced with the prospect of Halloween, no costumes, and no plans. Wonderful.

I was just myself for Halloween! Well, for the majority of the day…

We did manage to get a little festive and dressed up a bit (We live next to a costume shop… It’s literally across the street from us), but once we ventured out into the cold London night around 6:30 p.m. and saw the massive traffic jam on our street (highly unusual), we called it quits. We threw in the towel. No crazy Halloween parties, no sir. No, instead we stayed warm inside with the help of some popcorn, crisps, and perfectly chilled Peroni and Budweiser… Yes, we stayed warm with ice-cold beer – ironic, I know.

Halloween!
We weren’t sure what I was supposed to be, so we went with “gypsy.”
Clearly a gypsy with a taste for American beer.

The Addams Family and The Sixth Sense kept us company… It was actually the first time for me to see either of those movies! Hooray for movie nights, monsters with family problems, and little boys that see dead people. So that was last night… Happy belated Halloween everybody! I celebrated post-Halloween by going to see a wonderful musical, Wicked! Lauryn and I went to the matinee performance at the Apollo Vic, and it really was very entertaining and such a nice way to spend the day.

A fun day at Wicked!

It’s red poppy season over here in the U.K.
People wear red poppies in honor of Remembrance Day, which is like
Veterans Day in the United States; you can find these
little plastic poppies being sold around every corner
as part of The Poppy Appeal to support the Royal British Legion.

Aside from all that, I have done some museum wandering this week as well. I made a return visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum, and I got a real treat when I stumbled into the galleries devoted to Britain. I just love the rich history of the U.K., which is one of the reasons I’m here in the first place! I’m definitely going back for more soon! I am planning to see the Hollywood Costumes exhibition at the V&A very soon, which will be super interesting and fun for me! I also had the chance to visit the Saatchi Gallery for the first time on Halloween, and it was AMAZING. I adored it. I wish I could take this place back to the States with me.

My reflection in a work of art on display at Saatchi.

Little Black Jacket: an amazing exhibition at Saatchi Gallery.

Below are just a few of the photographs I saw at the Little Black Jacket exhibition:

Joan Smalls, Puerto Rican model

Elizabeth Olsen, American actress

Alexa Chung – British TV personality, model, and contributing editor for British Vogue;
Natalia Vodianova, Russian model;
Elle Fanning, American actress