an evening in the park

Hyde Park just put on this awesome concert/festival series for a week called British Summer Time, featuring some big name artists including The Strokes, Ellie Goulding, The Who and Beck, ending with Taylor Swift on Saturday. Because just about everyone in the program has already spent more money than they should've, and because the cost of a ticket could support our newly founded pub habits for the rest of the trip, we did not attend the concert. We did however sit outside of the venue walls and have a wine and cheese picnic while listening to the muffled sound of a screaming crowd and T Swizzle's most popular music. The weather was beautiful, and there were people all over the park drinking and picnicking (spelling?) and enjoying their Saturday evening. Taylor Swift or not, I definitely plan on doing that again sometime soon.

Adventures in Hyde Park

I LOVE HYDE PARK. We live right across the street from one of the biggest parks in London, and I love it. It's so pretty, and at any given time there are a ton of people walking, running, or biking around it. There are paths going every which way through the park and statues around every corner. Here are some photos I took while out on a run (I went 3 miles straight woop woop).

a rather large pond in the middle of the park

Kensington Palace and Queen Victoria - annoyed at the little girl who got in my photo

I don't even know. This is the backside though because I was too lazy to go around to the front

Honest Burgers' Adorable Menu

nomsquad

Yesterday we went exploring in Camden and stopped for dinner at a restaurant called Honest Burgers. There are multiple throughout London, and for good reason. The food there was delicious! I loved their menu too. They used two different sans-serif typefaces, both in all caps. One was a bold, semi-condensed font used for the restaurant name and main menu items, and the other was a light weight font that listed ingredients. The food menu was divided into a grid-like format with three columns, and boxes that aligned evenly into rows. It had a cute, clean design, using icons of a chicken, a cow, and vegetables to help the viewer easily distinguish where they could find each type of food on the menu. A slightly larger gap visually separated sauces and cooking information from the menu choices above. I also loved the way the paper was held down to a wooden board with rubber bands, so creative!

Imperial War Museum // War Posters

On Wednesday we went to the Imperial War Museum for our literature class. We are studying World War 1 literature, so the main purpose of that field trip was to explore the World War 1 exhibit. In front of the museum were two HUGE cannons. Once you walk inside you look up to see several real war planes suspended from the ceiling. The World War 1 exhibit was really neat and interactive. It had this really awesome life size trench model that you could walk through and hear gunfire and bombs as if you were in the midst of a battle.

the front of the Imperial War Museum

recruiting posters in Great Britain

I loved looking at the old war recruiting and propaganda posters. They used a lot of illustrations, and often included animals that represented a group of people or another country. In the posters to the left, a kangaroo is used to represent Australia, and a lion used to represent Great Britain. Block letter fonts were used often in the British posters, while most of the German propaganda posters used Blackletter fonts. In either case, posters were filled with color and high contrast to grab your attention. 

German propaganda posters

Week one in London

my home away from home

It has officially been one week since I arrived in London. The 10 hour plane ride was a little rough, as was arriving at 7 am on two hours of sleep and having to stay awake the rest of the day. But hey, I'm in London so I can't complain. I've settled into my flat and am getting used to the Kensington area, both of which are nice af). The underground is getting easier and easier to use, and those iconic red buses are becoming my new best friend. Our flat is right across the street from Hyde Park, which is awesome for running through. We had so much fun biking around it earlier this week on rental bikes. Side note: Never ride bikes through the streets of London. The traffic is insane, there are no bike lanes, and people actually die getting hit by cars. Apparently its become quite an issue here.

I was busy exploring all weekend, killing my feet while walking 8 plus miles a day, then was stuck in class for almost 7 HOURS on Monday. I don't know who came up with that schedule, but I don't think they realized students study abroad to explore a new country/city, not to sit in uncomfortable chairs for more than half the day. Thankfully two thirds of our lectures are being replaced with field trips and museum visits so we can get out and see more of the city rather than being cooped up in a classroom with temperamental temperature controls.

So far everything has been fabulous, I'm excited to see what the next five weeks have in store. Until next time, cheerio!