I went to brick lane market and spent all my afternoon there. I think brick land is the greatest for vintage lovers. There were thousands of vintage shops, a large underground vintage market, and few overground markets. Every shop has their own styles, like street style, royal style, classical style… People over there were dressed really nice. Although it was a fabulous place for vintage clothes, there was nothing about vintage decorations. Unlike Greenwich market which I went yesterday, Brick Lane Market has only clothes. However, Greenwich market has many strange vintage stuff which is really interesting, like glass bottles, cups, jewelry boxes, old books… And for Camden market, they have thousands of kinds of food from different countries, like Mexican, Chinese, Japanese… I think it is really interesting that London has so many markets which focus on different things. I really hope I would have more time to visit more markets because they are cheap and interesting.

I went to Painting Hall yesterday too. It was absolutely amazing. I can not imagine how could Sir James Thornhill could paint on the ceiling and use perspective skills to make the ceilings looks like a dome. The painting hall is unique because it only uses paint to create 3-dimensional interior.

We went to lots of places in the morning, like the dining hall, temple church. It was really lucky that we can go into the dining hall and see those fabulous paintings and structure in the building. In the afternoon, we went to Allies and Morrison, which is an architecture firm on Southwark Street. It was my first-time visit an architecture firm, so it was totally new to me. And with no doubt, I really appreciate that I can have this chance to see a real architecture firm looks like. Although, to be honest, I did not understand what they were doing, but this visiting at least provides me some backgrounds of the firm. Moreover, the building itself is really interesting. It combines two different time period walls which I think is fit London because they are all trying to have innovation but at the same time preserving historical things very well.

At night, we went to Her Majesty’s Theater to see The Phantom of Opera. I think the installation on the stage is amazing. In the beginning, there was a bunch of glasses in the middle of the stage, which was totally a mess. And then, when the show began, those glasses magically became a huge gorgeous crystal light and rose to the ceiling. In general, it was a really great show.

We went to British Museum in the morning. I think the structure of museum is really interesting because it combined the old building with the modern glass roof. For me, it’s a little bit strange. Also at the connection between modern roof and old building, there are a lot of lights. So even it was a rainy day, the interior still looked bright, just like the sunlight through the glass roof, but the truth is it was artificial light. I think it is really interesting that they use artificial light the mimic the natural light. I felt regret because I do not have enough time to see the entire exhibition in the museum.

I would definitely say that London is now my favorite city!!!  It is just so beautiful. Every single street, every single plot, even every single shop are just soooo beautiful!

We went to Barbican neighborhood, Museum of London, St. Paul, which is absolutely fantastic, and rooftop bar where we saw the fabulous dome part of St. Paul. Before I came to London, I only heard that St. Paul is really huge. Although I looked at pictures of the scale, I never understand until I really experienced it. It is amazing. Also, the photo is taken from the dome, and it is so cool to have the dome like this, enabling people to have a view of the whole city and outside architecture.

Now is only about 12 hours to arrive London, and I am really excited about it. I just finished packing, and hope my baggage is not too heavy. I bring the biggest suit I have and get it almost full. It is not easy for packing things for 9 days, and I always bad at packing. Hope this time I do bring everything I need.

I try to think if there is anything that I forget to bring. I double checked my i20 and passport. I am thinking about the bad weather in London, that’ s the only thing I really worry about. I am getting used to traveling internationally, so I am not nervous at all. But is my first time to go to London, and I really look forward that. In addition, I am a little bit nervous about drawing in London. I think it is really strange for a bunch of people sit there and do drawings.

I experienced several times of short connecting time flight, and I know it is going be really hurry. I also went through several times that because the connecting time is short, and my last flight was delayed, then I did not get the next flight. It was really complex and wasting time. Hope this time, we can get our next flight successfully.