Author: miller.8915

Reflections of Thames

I cannot believe how much fun I had on the trip with everything going on. The trip really masked what was happening in the rest of the world and when I arrived back home, I was astonished at how serious the problem was and how we had just been going on in London not really knowing the vast majority of the isolating from other people. The trip was an incredible experience that I thoroughly enjoyed throughout the entire thing. I enjoyed seeing all the places that we talked about in class and really experiences the spaces in person. One of the places that I enjoyed more than I thought I would was Queens House. The area was very picturesque and the house was extremely gorgeous. I also enjoyed all of the museums more than I would and thought everything was at a bigger scale than what I imagined it to be. I was very sad to go home and I wanted to stay for longer. When I am older, I am hoping to live and work in London and get to experience the place as a hometown. The city is incredible and the views and people there are even better. I do not regret anything about the trip (maybe my phone being stolen) and I cannot wait to return!

 

Lili, Tyler, and I in the London Eye!

Summer solstice arrow at Stonehenge

Glass Staircase at Victoria and Albert Museum

Visiting Tate and Shopping

On the free day in London, Tyler, Lili, and I took the town alone and navigated ourselves throughout the city through the tube and with maps. We went to Tate Modern on our first stop because we did not have much time there in the first place. I could spend hours upon hours at the museums. I love looking at each and every piece when I visit. We got to explore a lot of art that we did not get to see in the first place including art and society. This area was all artists who had more radical ideas about art and used art to depict provoking thoughts. We also got to see a Mara Naar part of the exhibit that was free. I really enjoyed her work because of the simplicity of it and I also recently got a tattoo that looks similar to the one of her drawings. We also went through the Soho area to look into the street wear shops. I found each of the stores really intriguing because of the way they were all designed and set up. I also found them really interesting because something that they do not do in America is blast music in their stores and it creates a really interesting vibe that I appreciated. I also appreciated the fashion in London and how nice everyone looked. 

 

 

Me at Tate Modern on Fountain

One of the Streetwear displays

Another display of the streetwear

London on our Own

Today was the first day that we had the most free time on our own and it was an adventure. We started the day at Westminster

In the Victoria and Albert Museum

Front facade of Westminster Abbey

A food market we found downtown

Abbey with a blue guide who knew a ton about the church and who was buried there. I personally did not know how many people were buried there and how cluttered it all was. I could not believe that we could just step on all the people including Isaac Newton. I also was shocked about how many small rooms were within the church because from famous pictures you never got to see the other parts of the church besides the main nave. We then went to Victoria and Albert Museum for our free choice of museum. I was shocked when I walked through those doors and discovered what was actually in there. I thought that the museum was tiny and only famous because of its origin and not the amount of artifacts and paintings that were actually there. I could spend hours looking at those sculptures. I appreciated the difference in scale between each sculpture, from large to small. We also saw the architecture exhibit and although hard to find, it was amazing and I would love to go back.

Blog 1

I was thinking about the question Aimee asked at the British museum and I was thinking about those kind of questions the entire time I was at the museum before, as well. I think it is not okay that they took the pieces from all of the places around the world. The museum was extremely beautiful and grand and I really appreciated the artifacts as they were but I could feel myself becoming more and more uncomfortable thinking about how they took the pieces. That being said, I think they did a great job at displaying everything that they stole from other people and providing a vast amount of information about every piece and making sure they are cared and treated for. Although, some of the artifacts captions had a fancy way of saying that they were stolen sprinkled into the paragraph. My friends and I are planning on going back to the museum when it is dark to look around more at places that we did not see and to look at everything in anew perspective. Although difficult, I enjoyed sketching the ceiling of the British Museum. You got to look at the detail of the ceiling and understand where the beams were and how the pattern of the structure comes together to form such an extraordinary clerestory.

Tori’s Pre departure

I have been up since 9 am and I am still going strong. However, I am ready to go to sleep. I talked to a guy on the flight from the other group going to London and it seems like they have a similar size group. It was nice to see the cities at night and start seeing the sunrise in the air. The flight from Columbus to Chicago was extremely bumpy and I have not been on a flight that has had that much turbulence ever! I am excited to finally get to the hotel so I can go to sleep and start the experience as soon as possible. I am most excited to start going up into the city of London and seeing places from above. One of the experiences that stands out to me is going up in the London Eye. Hearing that it is timed so we can see the sunset is actually really cool. The other place that I am excited to see is the churches we are going to. Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral should be really pretty and I have always had a love for churches so it will be nice to see three churches at that large of scale.

Victoria’s Bio

This is at a coffee festival !

Hello, my name is Victoria Miller! I am studying Architecture in my second year at Knowlton. I come from a small town near Toledo and Cedar Point called Fremont. There is not much to do in Fremont hence why I chose a large university to attend. Coming from a small town, I have not been able to travel the world as I want so I am most excited to get out of the United States and explore another culture. Another adventure I am most excited for this class is learning how to draw. I have sketched from being in the Architect program but I think my skills will really excel after taking this class and practicing sketching. Once I am in London, I am most excited to see the skyscraper, St. Marys Axe. This is a skyscraper I learned about in the sustainability class and I fell in love with. I love learning about sustainability and the design of this skyscraper was all about sustainability and how the architect really maximized the use of an environmentally friendly skyscraper. Another aspect of the trip I am most excited for is exploring museums. My family has always traveled places to go to museums and it will be a nice experience to see several new museums, especially the Tate Modern.