Ashley in London

Malta Again!

ashleyinlondon — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:07:09 +0000

I finally remebered to buy more batteries for my camera so that I could upload the rest of my Malta pictures onto my computer. Here they are!

Malta!

ashleyinlondon — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:00:29 +0000

So, last week was our spring break I decided (and was partly presuaded) that I needed to spend my last spring break during college somewhere with a beah. And then someone mentioned Crusaders and I was sold, but I somehow have a feeling that these pictures will speak for themselves…

This was only the first few days at Malta, and I have a lot more pictures but my computer battery is dead and I haven’t had a chance to upload the rest of the pictures. More to come!

Catching Up

ashleyinlondon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:55:08 +0000

So, I have been really bad at this blogging thing and that is probably because every time I add pictures I have to go back in a redo something because it’s been messed up, so I’m going to try something new. No pictures this time and I’ll add a post of only pictures a little bit later. This way I can keep everyone up to date and not have to fight with my blog.

This past week has been really exciting. Friday was a field trip to the Imperial War Museum with my British life and culture class. Unfortunately it was half term and the place was filled with kids, but from what I could see it looks like an incredible museum. Made me think of Dad the whole time. I will most certainly be going back when I can see the displays a little better.

After finally breaking down and doing nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, on Saturday, I headed over to Hyde Park on Sunday with my book and a sandwich. After wandering around for a bit I found that I really, really like the Italian Gardens there. Very quiet, and overlooking the lake in Hyde Park. They are also conveniently across the street from a tube stop. I think those gardens will be beautiful as it keeps getting warmer (which it is everyday. I haven’t worn my winter coat in over a week!)

Monday was another class field trip, but this time for art history. We went over to an old power station that’s been converted into a gallery space. They’ve left a lot of the equipment intact and turned the upstairs area into a cafe, so we had coffee among the machinery. Ironically though, we were served by one of the artists who later came down and told us about his piece, a long wall with ceramic deer skulls. A little morbid, but the way it was lit was really pretty.

My internship has been going amazingly well. This coming week is my last week with the archivist before I move over to intern for the collections manager. But I have been pretty much left on my own this week. Hayley will get me started on a project and then let me lead it! Very excited about that.

Today is another field trip for British Life and Culture (the nice thing about being a group of 7 is that it’s really easy to take us places) to London’s East End. And then Mom and a few crazy aunts get here on Sunday, and then I fly to Malta for a week the Sunday after that. Looks like its going to be another busy week. Cheers!

Pictures!

ashleyinlondon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:53:08 +0000

Imperial War Museum

Inside the Imperial War Museum

Tank! (I think)

Wapping- hydraulic power station turned art gallery

The whole group at Wapping, and you can just see the instructors hat over one of the girls head

Inside of Wapping, the larger gallery space was downstairs

My supervisors display on some of the things in the Horniman archives. I got to help pick the posters out

The National Gallery decked out for their new Picasso exhibitionSome of my flatmates, out celebrating the middle ones 21st birthday last night

No Medieval Gallery

ashleyinlondon — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:21:05 +0000

The Lewis Chessmen, 12th century, and amazingly cool! Almost make me want to take up chess;)

That’s a bit of an overstatment, but the British Museum has closed 2 of the 3 of it’s Medieval rooms since they’re being redone. I thought that I was crazy when I walked from looking at a boat burial into 18th century knick-knacks, but man is that a jolt. So I back tracked and saw a little sign on the door saying that the galleries would be closed until late 2009. Bummer.

Anyway, you never know what you’re going to find in London and the BM is no exception. I came in after class planning to make a bee line strait for the Medieval, and like always, that bee line got a little muddled. I went up the wrong staircase and found this…

Relief carving from the palace at Persepolis in ancient Persia

I tried to take pictures in the Egypt galleries, but all of the stuff upstairs is behind glass so none of the pictures turned out, and the Egyptian stuatues are for another day…

Just a typical day in London… no, really, it was

ashleyinlondon — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:15:21 +0000

I was walking home from my bus stop, and needed to walk a little out of my way to get a new bus pass when I was met with that image to the right. Yep, St. Pauls Cathedral is 295 yards (according to the sign above the door in the station) from where I’ve been getting my bus pass for the last 4 weeks. Crazy, but that’s just how this city has been working. And one of my best friends from high school made it down to London from Nottingham this past weekend. It was wonderful to see her, but I will admit a little strange to see one of my oldest friends in London. And we met in Trafalger Square! (for those of you not in on the secret yet, we joked that we would see each other again in Trafalger before I left for London).To recap- Barbara and I met in front of the National Gallery friday night, then I made her drag her little suitcase down to Big Ben (be nice, I helped too) since you can see big ben from Trafalger Square, and then we caught the tube back to my flat (pictures of soon, I promise). Saturday- we headed back over to the National Gallery (I think I’ve been there half a dozen times in the last month, be jealous) via a walk along the Thames.Then we got sidetracked again when Barbara had to be a street performers assistant. And then we finally got to the museum, we got museumed out by the time we hit the impressionists. We spent too much time in the Cravelli room. Then out to dinner with my flat mates and few of their friends, got in late, and then slept late sunday, so all we really did Sunday was chat and get Barbara to the train on time. So, busy weekend overall, but wonderful! Cheers!

Look, I really AM in London... or have I fooled everyone and gone to Egypt?! Nah, just me at Cleopatra's Needle. You can see the Thames in the background.

Good thing to see Barbara going down a different career path. I don't think that that math thing would have gotten her anywhere

Girls night out in London, and one of the few good pictures of the 2 of us together!

Snow and Internship

ashleyinlondon — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:20:40 +0000

My piles of publicity material, dating back to 1910, all in chronological order, and my lunch!

So, London has seen more snow this past weekend then it has in years. One of my flatmates thinks that she brought the snow back with her from New York. Who knows, but it did cancel class on Monday.

As to my internship, I thought that I would share some photographs of where I work, and what I’ve been doing. Enjoy!

The CUE building, covered in snow. I work about half way down the wall o' windows

The Horniman, taken from my afternoon bus stop

A free museum, always has been, always will be. Plus I love the

Trafalger Square and the National Gallery

ashleyinlondon — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:14:15 +0000

The National Gallery

So, today we had to go to the National Portrait Gallery for the British Life and Culter class. Before and after wandering around in there seemed like a good time to take pictures, pop into the National Gallery and take a very long walk along the river. With all this walking I’m going to be in great shape by the time I get home, but I wouldn’t want to see London any other way. I found Cleopatra’s Needle on my walk home. Unfortunatly my camera battery was dying, so the pictures didn’t turn out very well. I’ll just have to go back some time.

Column commemorating Nelsons victory at Trafalger

Lion in Trafalger Square!

Pigeon on a statue in Trafalger Square. They're not kidding when they say that they are everwhere.

Statue of George Washington outside of the National Gallery. I'm really not sure why he's there.

St. Martins in the Field, off of Trafalger Square

Internship

ashleyinlondon — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:23:34 +0000

I have taken over the back room at the Horniman Library! There are piles of publicity material from past exhibitions everywhere. Ok, not really, but there are quite a few piles, but they are organized by decades. I’ve been going through material dating back to about 20 years after the museums opening in 1891. Then it was just a collection in J. Horniman’s house. And when the collection outgrew his house Mr. Horniman moved his family around the corner, torn down the old house and built part of today’s museum. This is one eclectic museum, and if anyone is ever in London it is worth a look, and it is on a bus route (one that happens to have a stop within a 15 min walk from my flat).

Since starting last Wednesday I’ve been sorting a few boxes of publicity material into decades and today I was able to start putting the 1990’s in chronological order and then cataloguing them. I’ve been having fun getting to see how many different educational programs this museum has undertaken. The early 90’s are full of adult and children’s arts and crafts programs. I even found a week long stone working intensive. Thursday I’ll get to go to object handling training with the curatorial staff and then in a few weeks I’ll be heading over to the Horniman’s Special Collections Center, but until then I get to play around with learning about the museums past exhibitions!

Weekend Adventures

ashleyinlondon — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:20:35 +0000

I thought that I would share some of the pictures from this weekend. On Saturday I went with a few of the girls from my flat (and one who was still in London from a Mason winter program) to the Portobello Road Market. I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked so I’m probably going to have to go back when the weather gets warmer and the fruits are better. Then on Sunday I went with the other girls from my flat to look at Big Ben and Westminster.

Portobello Road, full of people and strange colored buildings

Big Ben, with 2 of my flatmates (I don't think they knew I was taking the picture)

Big Ben again

Never get to see the London Eye from that angle do you?

Westminster, taken while standing over by Parliment

The side of Westminster