“‘I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,’ said Pooh.

‘There there,’ said Piglet. ‘I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.’”

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Today was fancy tea day, and let me just say I have been looking forward to it! I am one of those tea people with the cute cups and a diffuser, etc, plus I’m an Anglophile, so I am always more than ready to enjoy any experience that will make me feel like I am on Downton Abbey. And the cafe at The Natoinal Gallery was so nice, too. I really did feel like I was having a very distinct cultural experience.

Tea time is the best time!

I have always been jealous of cultures  that rest in the middle of the day like the Spanish with their siestas and the British with teatime. I have a bone to pick with American culture for not allowing a time to rest during the day. I think we all need it. I tend to fall asleep in weird places without my midday nap. I also wonder if tea during the day doesn’t help to bring the country together around a proverbial table. It is a tradition which has changed in time. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the experience.

Sophie Ryder’s installations at Salisbury Cathedral created a contrast between the medieval and modern, asking the viewer to think about their surroundings in a new way.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have two friends living in London currently who I have been able to meet up with. One of them asked me tonight what I would miss most when I went home. After thinking for a moment, I answered the value and variety of public art. Many museums are free, books are advertised in the Underground, and contemporary art appears even in places of worship like Sophie Ryder’s sculptures at Salisbury cathedral. Appreciation of art, especially in the public sphere is not very common in America. I am becoming more and more inspired to work on my idea of finding  my own responses to the city captured in image and poetry for my final project. I want it to take the sprit of this place, and use the inspiration that it gives me to create even more art.