Loose Ends: London, UK

London, UK

October 26-November 2, 2012

  

With my stay in London coming to an end I decided to go to some famous places and see them for myself. On my way to Savile Row I came across a cool bike with an actual steering wheel instead of handle bars, and a license plate.

This is Regent street, a popular street to shop on with many brand name stores, it connects to Oxford Street and leads to Savile Row. The lights above the road were set up in preparation for the holidays, each light structure representing one of the twelve 'Nights of Christmas'.

 This is the street view from the Picadilly tube stop down the road looking at Regent Street and Oxford Street.

Savile Row is a shopping street in Mayfair, central London, famous for its traditional men's bespoke tailoring. The term "bespoke" is understood to have originated in Savile Row when cloth for a suit was said to "be spoken for" by individual customers.  The short street is termed the "golden mile of tailoring", where customers have included Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, Napoleon III, and Mohammad Ali . Being a Design and Merchandising major, I had to visit Savile Row and soak up the fine craftsmanship and history of bespoke tailors.

The Alexander McQueen tailor had some extravagant suit materials and styles. 

The showroom gallery is typically up above, and the bottom of the building is where all the tailoring would be done.

 The quality of these time pieces is unparalleled. As shown in these pictures, the stitches are customly hand-sewn to perfection.

 Each suit is custom sewn and personally fitted to ones build and structure. The time, and delicacy gives these suits a large price tag and puts the gentlemen that can afford them in a class of their own.

Here is an example of some visual merchandising with an antique telescope reaching out to an educated gentleman with astronomic or geographic hobbies. This gentleman would represent a very high class person in financial gain and or social recognition.

After I finished all my classes, and submitted the last of my essays I could finally take a deep breath and continue to my study abroad experience. I was headed to Israel to visit my girlfriend who is also enrolled in a study abroad program fromm Drexel. I am visiting her, and her family will be there the same week. We're set to see many historical sites, and learn a lot of history about the State of Israel.

I got to Heathrow about  4 hours ahead of my flight and to the El Al check-In. I got searched for the first time by security. They looked through my entire luggage and even my laptop. They even asked me about the contents of my laptop, went through my cell phone, and my wallet, I was speechless. I wasn’t allowed to bring a carry-on bag; I was only allowed my glasses cases and a book to read in a plastic bag that I was given.  I wasn’t even allowed to bring iPod headphones! I was personally escorted from the El Al luggage check – In all the way to the security clearance at the gate, only until everyone else got on the plane was I allowed my passports or my boarding pass. Security was very intense but safety is their number one priority, especially in a time of tension with Gaza.

Wales Adventure :London, UK

London, UK

October 18-25, 2012

 Friday afternoon, four of my flatmmates and I went to Wales for the weekend on a retreat set up by the Student Life Center of FIE. The weekend get away was open to the whole study abroad student body, and 50 kids signed up to go on the trip. I was so excited to go to Wales, leave England and to see some country. I was later, even more excited slowly realizing how many of my good friends also signed up for the trip and how we'd grown closer over the past weeks abroad. We all met up at King's Cross Station to catch our first leg of the journey which was a four hour train ride to Swanwick Station. We had to transfer to another train line going further into Wales along the coast. The second train ride was two hours long, and we arrived during a hailstorm! We all stored our bags in a trailer behind a group of buses which belonged to the hosts that the program had sent for us. We arrived at our place we would call home for the weekend, were assigned rooms, and ate dinner. This is the first view I had in the morning.  

Wales - Preseli Ventures

We started our morning at 7:45 with a traditional Welsh breakfast of meat, eggs, beans, bread, and jam. Different pre-sorted groups were assembled at different locations on the property to get ready for the activities for the day. The group I was put into was set to go on a hike along the Welsh Coastline back to the lodge. One of our hosts drove a group of us guys out to the start of our seven mile hike.

 We were filled with energy at the start of the day and were excited to explore Wales. These are two of my good friends Evan and Chris on our hike.

 The views along the coast were beautiful, and the weather was so refreshing in contrast to the cramped London atmosphere.

 Through out our hike we were along side residential homes that were set into the hillside with a 270 degree coastal view.

This is Chris and Evan along a bridge during the hike.

 Roaming hills met with the crashing coastline.

 The trail of the hike weaved through cow fields and sheep fields for miles.

 The Welsh coastline is beautiful yet so treacherous for boats, or wandering cattle.

 These are local Welsh Cattle.

This is a scenic landscape of the Welsh country side. The ruins of a structure are slowly being overtaken by the hillside.  

This hike was surreal, and was the perfect weather for an adventure through the Coastal hillside of Wales.

The sun came out and lit up the rolling hills.

The other native livestock besides cattle, were sheep, and plenty of them!

Every where I looked, I swear it could have been on a postcard, like here where natural erosion has created the tunnel through the coastline in the ocean.

This is the remains of a Welsh fortess being overtaken by vines and undergrowth in the hillside.

This is a group from our trip coasteering. Coasteering was gearing up in a wetsuit, gloves, and a helmet, and then strategically scaling rocks in the ocean, and successfully jumping off them back into the ocean.   

Coasteering was my second activity for the day that was going to take place after hike. After I got back from the scenic hike, lunch was waiting for us, and we then quickly got ready to go coasteering ourselves in the ocean. It was the first time I wore a full wet suit with boots, a vest, shorts, a hood, gloves, and a helmet. It was an exhilarating experience in the water to be at the tides mercy and scaling rocks. We moved up the rocks to jump from cliffs that were 25-30 feet into the ocean below. Coasteering was such a rush and one of the best experiences of the trip. The adventure guides are a bunch of fun and are really fun guys. 

After coasteering, we headed back to the lodge for dinner and relaxation before our last day in Wales with our third activity. Tomorrow was going to be a blast because I was pumped for surfing!
I don't have any pictures because I was in the water but it was so fun. I never realized how strenuous the ocean, and the repetitious actions were to actually catch a wave were. Surfing would definitely be a fun hobby to pick up in the future.

Local Designers :London, UK

London, UK
October 10-17, 2012

William Morris House

 

William Morris was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and libertarian socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement.  I went on a group trip with my ‘History of Modern Design’ class to his home he lived in that has been turned into a museum exhibit of his legacy during the Arts and Crafts Movement. William Morris was a pioneer in creating textiles and furniture for cohesive interior design styles, and how these styles were manufactured to a select portion of English society. 

Hyde Park Car Show

I was passing through Hyde Park, which is located only a few minutes walk past the Natural History Museum and came across a small car show of vintage Bristol cars. These cars emulated British design and fit seamlessly into the London backdrop. I thought the hoods were extremely unique, and I've never seen any other older cars adorning them.  

Here is another class Bistol Car that has the dual rising hoods to expose the engine. The way the hood expands is similar to the late DeLorean cars, or even Lamborghini Butterfly Doors. These cars were interesting to come across and it was cool to see in a community like South Kensington. 

 Petticoat Lane It is one of a number of traditional markets located to the east of the City of London. A few hundred yards to the north is Old Spitalfields market, which has been refurbished, and across Commercial Street, to the east, lies Brick Lane Market. On the Way to Petticoat Lane from Brick Lane, I came across a plethora of design inspired graffiti and street art that blew me away. The narrow curving streets had amazing stencil graffiti that boasted such precision and other pieces that were insanely detailed and would be difficult to execute them as well as they were.

This is Fashion Street, where I came across the densest scene of graffiti and street art.

Pictures that are cut out and adhered up onto surfaces are done by preparing the image in a more secure location and pasting them up quick, and easy, so not to get caught.

Some of these pictures depict famed illustrations imitating Disney.

Other pieces of graffiti were free hand painted across the front of closed street vendors.

This restaurant was tagged in graffiti on both sides (1/2)

Side (2/2)

This image depicts a mythical unicorn split across an alley way.

This is an illustration is spread across a fence .

Old Spitalfields Market

Old Spitalfields Market is a covered market in Spitalfields, just outside the City of London. It is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. There has been a market on the site since 1638 when Charles I of England gave a license for flesh, fowl and roots to be sold on Spittle Fields - which was then a rural area on the eastern outskirts of London.

This is just one angle encompassing the one of the largest portions of market stalls in Old Spitalfields Market. There are assortments of crafts, leather made goods, and food.

Here are some of the crafts, and food tents in the Market.

Hong Kong

         

(Causeway Bay)

          Hong Kong - woow. It's a cooool city. I have been here two and half weeks and I already feel established; have new friends, plenty of activities - I can't keep up, interesting & informative internship, nice people, great weather, delicious inexpensive food, easy clean public transportation..... unique surroundings... I could go on.....

(Traditional Hong Kong meal (vegetarian style) and soooo good)

I came to Hong Kong for an extension of my 6-month co-op in New York. There, I worked for a design and wholesale manufacturing company, Nation Design. I came to Hong Kong to intern at two companies Nation Design manufactures with. I work five days a week, Monday thru Friday. So far, I have worked with the design team and fabric technicians. The company is called Tungtex (Holdings) Co. Ltd., it is located in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

At the end of this week I will visit Tungtex's factory in mainland China, where I will apply and hopefully receive a multy-entry visa at the border of Hong Kong and China. I am very excited to visit the factory in China... I have a few ideas of what it will be like, but am really unsure if it will like I am imagining... China and Hong Kong are now one country, after Hong Kong was given back from the UK in 1997. They now operate as one country but under two governments. Hong Kong is more much more liberal than China. The people in Hong Kong have the opportunity to vote for leadership roles, like we do in the U.S.  But China does not, a couple girls from my internship told me that unfortunately there is no chance that China will ever gain voting rights. China also bans Facebook and Google.

(Lunch with co-workers from Tungtex)

When I first arrived to Hong Kong, I stayed two nights in a hotel in Causeway Bay. Causeway Bay, Central and Tsim Sha Tsui (everyone calls it TST) are the most centralized areas young expats to live. There are a lot of restaurants, bars and shopping in these areas. During my first days I found an flat to stay in for the first month. I was advised by friends and family to wait until arriving in Hong Kong to visit the apartments, before putting a deposit down. Often times the photos online do not represent what the apartments truly look like. Finding an apartment was the most difficult task.. there were several challenges. And it took several realtor agencies and serviced apartment companies before finding the right one. But I eventually found an apartment with a great location, good price, nice young flatmates and clean. It took me one week to adjust to the 12 hour difference from Philadelphia (now 13 hours. My first week was tough... But now all worth it!)

(Views from my hotel)

(Outside my apartment, daily fresh food market)

            There is a great international website you should all check out. It's called Meetups.com, created by an American guy. I have joined a volleyball, tennis, hiking leagues and ballet lessons, all through this site. It is very popular in Hong Kong with young people and has been a great way to quickly get involved and meet new people! Most of the events take place after work and on the weekends. And there are groups for everyone! It's a ton of fun and we often go out after the meetups.

More to come...!

Christa

Local Attractions: London, UK

London, UK

October 3-10, 2012

     Some of the best museums in London are only a ten-minute walk from my flat. Two museums that I have been to for both leisure, and for class research on multiple occasions are the Natural History Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History museum contains exhibits of dinosaurs, the human body, and all the animal kingdoms. The Victoria and Albert Museum has numerous exhibits focusing on the history of design through a plethora of cultures and time periods. I have been to the Victoria and Albert Museum many times with my History of Modern Design class to look at exhibits featuring British Designers like William Morris. We also saw an exhibit on Ball gowns and British glamour since the 1950's.

Natural History Museum

       This is a picture of the entrance to the Natural History Museum. The museum is huge, and it's even free. Part of the museum is restricted to scientists who are actually doing research on some of the objects at the museum in their archives. The museum is a great place to get lost in for the day, and it's also a great place for people watching. Soon there will be a holiday ice rink set up outside the museum when it gets a bit colder.

Dinosaur Skeleton

   This skeleton was just one of the many remains in the dinosaur exhibit. As a kid I had a fascination with dinosaurs. Their fierce size and exotic figures really captivated my creativity and me. 

Interior Hall

      This is a picture of the grand hall as you enter the museum. The architecture is beautiful, and it is spacious enough to display a complete brachiosaurus skeleton, one of the largest types of dinosaur. These museums are so crowded on the weekends; it's unbelievable how many people are concentrated around the handful of museums in the area.

Mechanical T-Rex

       This Tyrannosaurus Rex looks like its straight out of a Jurassic Park movie. I read a fact in the museum that if a T-Rex ever tripped and fell, the forced of the fall would either kill it, or immobilize it. I never knew how tiny their arms really were. Any way, this dinosaur moved and made accurate dinosaur sounds, it was unbelievable how real it looked. 

Mechanical Velociraptors

       These two Velociraptors also moved and made sounds. These were always my favorite kind of dinosaur, but after seeing Jurassic Park they terrified me. They were so life like in the museum, it creeped me out.

Human Body Exhibit

      This is me inside of an exhibit showing the parts of the human brain. The human body portion of the museum was surprisingly interesting to me. It was cool to have interactive exhibits where you can do some hands on learning instead of just reading informative plaques.

Historic Ball Gown Exhibit

       This Alexander McQueen dress was on display in a Ball gown exhibit in the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was very interesting to see how the styles of dress evolved overtime, and how class, society, and pop culture played a role in their evolution.

Modern Art Exhibit

        This piece of art was in the modern art wing of the Victoria & Albert museum. I didn't notice it at first but it was too funny and creepy to not take a picture of t. Many of the pieces focused heavily on shock value, as does this one.

         On my way home I stopped at a local falafel house that I have formed a deep relationship with. I don't normally go out of my comfort zone and try new ethnic foods but London is full of diversity and I tried it out one day. Ever since, I've always stopped in for a lamb shawarma, pita and hummus, or maybe just some baklava. I think I may have to go get some after this post ha ha. The food tastes amazing, and the desert is fantastic.

 Local Baklava