User:Sreyes

Art Around Us

Sofia Reyes Castillo

Me in London
Date	Summer 2017

Overview

I am aiming to influence the readers to believe that art is more than just seeing paintings in a Museum, art has a power in the world. Art has beeing part of my life since I was really little. I attended art classes since i was 6 years old. I have always like to express myself in Art. With this project I want to explore on past art and research how it affected the world around.

Modernist Avant-Garde

Milestone 1

Objective: Explain avant-garde and tell a little about its history and create a guide for avant-garde in London.
Avant-garde means advance guard or Vanguard. In the military, they're the ones out front. They are usually small groups of particularly bold and attentive soldiers that see what's ahead and explore the terrain and seek out the enemy. But what does it mean in art? In this milestone, I wrote about what is the avant-garde, its history and some very prominent artists that have been considered avant-gardists. As my deliverable, I created a Guide to Avant-garde in London. In this guide, I provide many pictures of examples of works of art of the Avant-gardist that I mentioned before andI also included two galleries that show more recent artists.
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Modern Galleries London

A Documentary

Modern Galleries in London: a Documentary

Milestone 2

In this project, I collaborated with Jacob.

Our project summarizes the different types of documentary film and their origins, and looks at the fundamentals behind what goes into making a documentary film. The deliverable we created is a short poetic documentary. Originally we set out to create individual projects that had overlapped: Jacob set out to create a documentary on the Serpentine Pavilion, while Sofia was looking at modern art in galleries, including Serpentine. Once we combined our project into a documentary about several galleries, we decided to focus our background on the history of documentary, using the vast resources available on cinema here in London. The background of the project outlines types of documentary films, with historical examples, and the process involved in making a documentary film come to be. For our creative piece, we shot and edited a short documentary using several of these styles and what we had learned. Our film showcases modern art galleries across the city of London.
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Adding Pigment

Milestone 3

Objective: The goal is to paint five acrylic surrealistic paintings of the most emblematic sites in London exaggerating the use of bright colors instead of the usual gray palette that is seen due to the weather.

The background exposes six different artists from three different fields; painting, literature, and architecture. From the magnificent paintings of Monet to the Breathtaking structures of Sir Christopher Wren and the stories of Charles Dickens together with Hockney's photographs, London is the birthplace of some of the most breathtaking artistic masterpieces. Unique, mesmerizing and complex, yet with a somehow volatile approach, artists throughout the history of this city have each shared their view through their work. Each one is analyzed in regard to the link between their style and perspective, and their setting and life circumstances. The artists are divided in "Artists from the past" and "Artists from the present" and while the first category shows monochromatic and deep emotions about the scenery in London, the second one proposes a new and brighter perspective to the same issue this city has dealt with for years.
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Activity Journal

The activity journal represents an ongoing log of reflections gained through each and every project activity on the calendar.

Week1
Monday May 8,2017	Tuesday May 9,2017	Wednesday May 10,2017	Thursday May 11,2017	Friday May 12,2017	Weekend 1
Westminster Abbey and Tower of London	British Museum	St Paul's Cathedral	National Gallery	National History Museum	Nandos
Week 2
Monday May 15,2017	Tuesday May 16,2017	Wednesday May 17,2017	Thursday May 18,2017	Friday May 19,2017	Weekend 2
Tate Britain	V&A Museum	Tate Modern	Museum of London	Paris	Paris
Week 3
Monday May 22,2017	Tuesday May 23,2017	Wednesday May 24,2017	Thursday May 25,2017	Friday May 26,2017	Weekend 3
Museum of London Docks	Imperial War Museum	Hapton Gardens	Horniman Museum	Bank Holiday	Bank Holiday
Week 4
Monday May 22,2017	Tuesday May 23,2017	Wednesday May 24,2017	Thursday May 25,2017	Friday May 26,2017	Weekend 3
Bank Holiday	Work work..,	Unit London	London Science Museum	The Wallace Collection	Weekend 4
Week5
Monday June 5,2017	Tuesday June 6,2017	Wednesday June 7,2017	Thursday June 8,2017	Friday June 9,2017	Weekend 5
Work on Milestone x400px	Library x400px	Secret Cinema	Stonehedge and Bath	Painting	Scotland Weekend 4
Week6
Monday June 12,2017	Tuesday June 13,2017	Wednesday June 14,2017	Thursday June 15,2017	Friday June 16,2017	Weekend 6
Windsor Castle	Reach the Sky	Serpentine Galleries	Libraries	Soon 400px	Flower Market
Week 7
Monday June 19,2017	Tuesday June 20,2017	Wednesday June 21,2017	Thursday June 22,2017	Friday June 23,2017	The End
Work 400px	Work 400px	Work 400px	Work 350px	Harry Baker 140px	The End 400px

Week 1

May 8, 2017

Westminster Abbey and Tower of London

It was not my first day in London, but it was my first time in many things. It was my first time in the tube. I really liked the experience in comparison to other transportation in cities I have been. It is really modern and clean. Early morning we started the tour of Westminster Abbey. Our tour guide Carl explained the history of the building. Inside the Abbey we couldn't take pictures but I will never forget the incredible memorials to one of the most important people that have lived on earth. I really like the Gothic style of the building.

First we saw the Coronation Chair and The Stone of Scone. I was impressed by the story of the Scottish Stone and how one stone was so important in the history between England and Scotland. Then we saw the soldiers memorial and he explained that they put remembrance poppy on memorials because of a poppy flower that grew in battlefields.Our tour had to last 90 min but becaise of all of the history in this building it lasted almost 2 hours. The stories inside go from kings to queen, even Isaac Newton has a memorial. Personaly I loved Mary Queen of Scoots Memorial. Even the ouside of this building has history. Carl told us a story of a man that sacrifice himself during WWI to save another men life. In his honor they created a memorial in above the entrace of the building. With many other people that did create things.

Tower of London I wish we had a tour for a better understanding of it. But it was really impressive, all the crown jewels, the history of the crown. We got to see the guards and their apparel and how they change guards. A thing that amazed me the most was the animals the the crown had before. From Lions to polar bears. Because of its dangers they no longer have them, they only have ravens that belong to the queen. If you ever go to the Tower of London do not miss the crown jewels. I have no words to describe how Seeing with my eyes this precious fortune.

Later that day I went to the evening song in Westmister Abbey.

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  Westminster Abbey
  Entance

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  Westminster Abbey
  Mosaics

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  Westminster Abbey
  Group Picture

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  Tower of London
  Change of Guard

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  Tower of London
  White Tower

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  Tower of London
  London Bridge

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  Tower of London
  Raven'

May 9, 2017

British Museum

​ After a nice 30 minute walk we got to the British Museum in the morning. I went in and I was impressed by the architecture. From outside it looks like an old building however it is has a really modern roof in the main area. As you get In you observe a giant room with a high irregular ceiling. The ceiling appears like a giant fluorescent light bulb. The marble stairs took us to all the exhibitions. From the times Egypt to America. The museum is I learned a lot about Greek too, it is amazing how much we can understand just by the sculptures in this museum. After we finished watching most of the museum. My group Emily, Olivia, Peter, Cole and Natalie sat a little to discuss an article we were going to create for this museum.

Inspired by my knowledge in the Mayan culture from high school, I contributed to a section in the British Museum referring to America and past civilizations. I had lunch in Russel Square and decided to go to Serpentine Gallery after to work on my milestone. In my way to the gallery I walked across Hyde Park. I found Hyde Park to be splendid! It is huge in comparison to the park I had lunch. I admire all the Londoners walking their dog, ridding their bikes or simply enjoying family time. Before arriving to my destination I came across many monuments including Albert's Memorial. I went into both Serpentine galleries and admired the works of famous modern artists. A particular artist triggered my creativity. She reminded me that "arte es útil" that can translate to arte has a purpose. I made the outline of my first milestone based on her ideas and my creativity.

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  Main Area of British Museum

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  Angient Egipt

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  Jewel of ancient Europe

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  Serpentine Gallery
  Tania Bruguera

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  Hyde Park

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  Albert's Memorial

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  Flower in Hype Park

May 10, 2017

St. Paul's Cathedral

​ ​ In general I have been enjoying my experience at London. Many things impress me. And St. Paul's Cathedral was definitely one of these things. ​I have always wondered why St. Paul's was one of the most popular places in London. When I got there I understood. The structure of the building is astonishing and it is incredible how this building has over stand many fires and has gone many reconstructions. I also appreciated the art within the cathedral. I was impressed first by the art in the roof. It is inevitable to admire the art in the famous dome by Sir James Thormill. Finding an artist was not easy. People were worried that the painter was going to be too catholic. He was chosen because he was British and Protestant. The painting in the dome talks about the life of St. Paul and the Fall and Redemption of human kind. In the three domes found in the ceiling of Quite and Aisle we can find mosaics that refer to God's creation of life. All this I learned though Audio Guide given us for free at the entrance. The audio guides were very interactive and I learned a lot with them, definitely a highlight of the day.

In the rest of the museum I found two pieces of art that I loved Mary by CBloxx, the most famous woman street artist. Out of the three upper galleries two of them where closed but the third one was incredible. The whisper room was what it seemed a thousand stairs up. From this room we could see the cathedral from above. I wasn't expecting to be able to see the building from that angle. After what seemed a thousand stairs we could appreciate more the dome and see the navy and transepts. This gallery also had the ability to transport sound really easily. If you whispered in the wall from one side of the room a person at the other side of the room could hear it.

After we left St. Paul's Cathedral we worked on a cute cafe. I contributed to the St. Paul's Cathedral with The Art from Inside because I was so impressed by the work of Sir James Thormill. After working for a while we went outside. Unusual to happen in London, it was really sunny andno clouds in the sky. I decided to explore and complete items missing in the scavenger hunt. I went to The Monument of Great fire of London near the tower of London. I saw this tall building and wondered if i would get to the top. I asked ans for students it was 3.5 pounds. This 3.5 pounds were definitely worth it, the view was amazing. You can see the entire city.

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  St. Paul's Cathedral

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  West View

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  Mary by CBloxx

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  Great Fire of London Monument

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  View from Great Fire of London Monument

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  A Thousand Stairs

May 11, 2017

National Gallery

So far most of the places we have been were not realated to my milestones. However this ART gallery has everything to do with it. The National Gallery is located in Trafalgar Square in Central London. In front of the building you can always find local artists that do street art with chalk or with demonstrations. this museum contains more than 2,300 paintings. Because the entry is free of charge and it has so many known paintings it is one of the most visited art museum in the world.

Works of art in this museum date from the mid-13th century to 1900. I admired all the works of painters I have studied all my life. Personally my favorite era in art is Modern Art. I have read and written of painters from Monet to Cézanne. I have seen some of their works in museums in American including many in Worcester Art Museum. However in this Gallery I got to see their most famous paintings. Paintings like Bathers at Asnières, George Seurat, Sunflowers, Vicent van Gogh and many of Monet's paintings. Seeing the paintings I knew soo much about was priceless. After taking endless pictures we left. in our way out we encounter a concert going on in the square. Art is in the air in this area.

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  National Gallery

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  The Boulevard Montmartre at Night
  Pissarro

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  Bathers at Asnières
  George Seurat

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  The Large Bathers
  Cézanne

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  Four Times of Day
  Corot

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  Street Artist

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  Street Art

May 12, 2017

Natural History Museum

We came to the Natural History Museum. I felt like I was back in middle school in the class of life science. Every exhibition reminded me of chapters I learned back then. The Earthquake and Volcanos my first one and my favorite one. I have experience what earthquakes are and they are not fun. This exhibition first explane why do they happen. Later it explains the different this that can happen because of the movement of tectonic plates. Crystals are form but also entire cities can be destroyed like Pompeii. I was also impressed by the precautions we should have as Olivia mentions in her section of the Natural History Museum. As I mentioned before this museum reminded me of past classes I took in high school and by the end of this exhibition I had a really strong memory. I remembered when Honduras(home) had an 7.3 earthquake. This happened in 2009. I was 9 years old and I barely knew what earthquakes were. I remember that the next school day we had was dedicated to earthquakes. We learned the Richter scale. In honor to this memory I decided to contribute to the article as Olivia did by creating a section called Measuring and Predicting in the Natural History Museum. In Other exhibitions we saw materials we can find on earth, how the earth was created and many crystals we can find on earth. This exhibition were in the first section of the museum called the Red section.

​ We kept going through the other sections(Blue, Green and Orange). I learned many new things of many new species that live or have lived on earth like the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs exhibitions were impressive. However, I was not nearly as excited as the little kids to see the dinosaurs. After seeing the dinosaurs I thought our trip to the museum was over, however, we still had the Darwin Center also known as the pupil. This 8 story building contains scientist that preserve and study different species in the planet.

As we left the Natural History Museum, we came across the Victoria and ALBERT Museum(V&A). Part of group 2 (Emily, Olivia, Natalie and me) went to the museum in look for a study area we could use to work on our projects. I certainly didn't expect a museum of this beauty and size. We went though various exhibitions and we were impressed by the amount of content each exhibition has. V&A not only has beautiful exhibitions but it is also has National Art Library (NAL) with Reading rooms you can work on and thousand of art books you can read. I went in and was so excited, unfortunately to look at the books I had to get a card as in previous museums. I got the card and now I have access to all this material for my milestone.

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  Natural History Museum

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  Layers of Earth

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  Birds

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  Darwin Center

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  Inside Darwin Center

Weekend 1

Nando's and Starbucks

This weekend was mainly to work on my milestone. Kristy and I went to Nando's for lunch near or flat. I decided to work on my milestone the rest of the weekend. on sunday we went to mass and later to Starbucks to work. We stayed there for hours. I almost finish the background of my milestone and created a few articles that related to my milestone. I created a article for Claude Monet and started one for Vincent Van Gogh.

Week 2

May 15, 2017

Tate Britain

​ This is week 2. We had a warm welcome to London, literally mostly sunny maybe cloudy. I was starting to believe that rainy London was a myth. However, I woke up this morning to rain. As I checked the weather I saw the real London was here. It is going to be cloudy and rainy all week! But that is not going to affect anything just maybe our cloth and shoes. ​
Today we came to Tate Britain. This art museum is located in central London in the waterline of the Thames. From outside it seems like a simple and small museum. However, it has an amazing collection and it is anything but small. As you enter, neon lights in the main corridor are the first thing you noticed. This neon lights form a work of art produced by Wyn Evans. This British artists created this worked called |Forms in Space…by Light with 2km of neon lights.
This art museum exhibits British artists since 1540 and it goes all the way to the modern present. Marked carefully by time each exhibition has a designated time period. It started with portraits of important people in British history. However, as you went along, you saw how everything topics were changing. It went from traditional to modern. I was impressed by both, the old landscapes and the modern canvases and sculptures. Olivia and I finished looking at all the exhibitions but it was not time to leave. We stayed in the Tate Library. I found really good books there and decided to stay there till our weekly group meeting with our advisors.

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  1540

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  1760

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  Angel

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  1870

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  1890

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  1930

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  Forms in Space…by Light (in Time)
  by: Wyn Evans

May 16, 2017

V&A Museum

​ As always Our group meet 9:15 in the courtyards. We went to national history museum last week and we got there no problem using the tube. Today we went to V&A, which it is besides it and it was not that easy to get there. We went to a Honnor Oak station instead of Farrington, our usual. As we got to Honor Oak we saw it was closed from 7:30-10:00am so we had to walk to Convent Garden station. We got there after 30 min of walking and took the Picadilly line to V&A. We got there past 10, which wasn't bad considering we had a delay.

As I mentioned in a previous article, I have been to this museum before. But today I got to see it all. I went from the space exhibition to renaissance. I looked more carefully at exhibits. I noticed that most of them had been donations. For example, The Paul and Jill Ruddock Gallery and The Rosalinde and ArthurGilbert Galleries. In the main floor I saw renaissance and medieval times is Europe but then it was mainly Asia. China with Buddhism, and Japan with their beautiful apparels and much more. However as you went to the other floors I saw Europe at it finest. Amazing jewelry and Silver and Gold.

​The last time I came in through the back door so I went to the top floor first. And the first thing I saw was ceramics. Ever since then I have been wanting to see them again. And I saw them today. The biggest collection of ceramics I have ever seen. It was incredible. I had ceramics from every continent from 3000BC to present. I was so intrigued that I decided to contribute to the Victoria and Albert Museum article with a section in ceramics.

​ After finishing my article with the help of the information in the museum and taking a lot of pictures for it. I went to National Art Library. I stayed there working in my milestone till 5 and had to get back to the flat in a hurry because I was late. I was late to my 7:30 tickets to Wicked. We we went to see it in the Apollo and Victoria theatre near the Victoria Bus Station. This station is 47 min away from our flat so we wanted to our flat by 6. But don't worry everything worked perfectly and we got to se Wicked. The show and the cast was amazing. The stage was so well designed and complemented perfect the musical. I loved it.

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  ​Medieval&Renaissance (1350-1600)

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  ​Stained glass from Mariawald

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  ​Buddhism Asia

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  Pink Floyd Exhibition

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  Courtyard

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  NAL

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  Wicked in Apollo and Victoria Theater

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  Wicked Cast

May 17, 2017

Tate Modern

Our advisors always ask us to write in our journals entries how the places we go relate to our projects. Most of the time I the sites don't have much to do with mine, however, today it had everything to do with my project. I have been studying the origins and life of Modern Art and its artists. Being at this museum gave me the opportunity to see some of the works of most famous modern artists. I also got to know many other incredible artists and their work of arts. Besides admiring works of art I was able to work a lot in my deliverable with works of Picasso and Degas. To explain how incredible this museum was to me I will tell you that today time flied by so fast. Usually I take 1-2 hours to tour an entire museum. Today I got to Tate Modern a little before 10 and went in exactly at 10. I decided to go up to down, so I started in the fourth floor. When I was half way through floor 4 I saw my phone and the time indicated 11 o clock. It was 11 and I was half way through my first floor. It barely felt like an hour. After that I kept going and left at 2 o clock. I only left because I was staving and I wanted to have lunch in the Borough Market. After a short walk from Tate Modern I got to Borough Market. I walked around by all the stands looking for what I was something to eat.

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May 18, 2017

Museum of London

​The last museum of the week, Museum of London. I learned a lot about of London today. From its beginnings to the plague of London. I learned about the people who first populated the area. I also learned about the Black Death. The Black Death began in Asia and had killed thousand of people. "the living could barely bury the dead" from 1346. to 1353. by 1350 the plague had killed 40,000 people. And by the end it killed half of London's population. London was slow to recover after the Black Death, there was more epidemics and the population remained low for 200 years. But by 1348 London was stronger than ever. But that was not the end of the plague they got hit by the great plague again 1665. Shortly after that The Great Fire of London happened in 1666. Ever since I went to St. Paul's Cathedral I was intrigued by the Great Fire of London. So I decided to create an Article about it. For me that is the most I interesting part of this history but there is so much more. How London recovered from the plague and the fire and became a flourished city that everyone wanted to live in. The over crowded London and all its problems. The Wold Wars and its results and Modern London. If you want to learn more about London go to this link. (I contributed in the section of Expanding Cities.) You can also go though the Victorian Walk in this museum which portraits places in London as they were before. Today I also started working on my second Milestone.

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May 19, 2017

Paris

Today I am leaving to Paris and I am so excited. But first I need to finish all of my assignments. I have been working on Journals and Articles and I am almost done. After working all day Like at 7 I left for my bus. I decided to go on bus to Paris because it was cheaper, like a lot cheaper, and I didn't mind the overnight bus.

I got there early morning...

TO BE CONTINUED

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Week 3

May 22, 2017

Museum of London Docklands

Last Thursday I when I was planning my third week and second milestone I noticed that this week locations are far from our apartment. I was used to a location being 15-30min away in the tube. But this week most our places to go are 45-60min away. I took the jubilee line to today's location, Museum of London Docklands. As I got out of my station I followed my map to the museum. Honesty it is said it was supposed to take me 12min to get there and I took more than 30min. But then I finally got there and meet up with my group. This in one of the Museum of London museums last week I went to the biggest one. Today, this one have the story of the docks and that shoreline area of London. First I saw about the ware house. When we finished all the expositions in the three floors. We left. Oliva, Emily and me decided to take a ferry because it was such a nice day. The fare was a bit high but we got a nice view of the Thames River and the Tower Bridge. I had a snack infront of Tower of London reminded all the good memories from our first day here. Times flies by. I decided to go to our flat to change to something more weather appropriate. "The journey starts in floor three" you read as you went in. I contributed to the section of Warehouse in Museum of London Docklands

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May 23, 2017

Imperial War Museum

This morning I woke up with many messages from my family asking if i was alright. I was confused and then I saw the news. In one of the cities nearby, Manchester, there was a terrible attack that left 19 people dead. I can't imagine the pain for the families ok te victims. **** Today our group's activity was Imperial War Museum. As I got there I saw the map to see what I was going to see first. Generally in most museums, the last floor or the 0 floor has no galleries. But in this museum for me it had the most important Gallery. I have always appreciated the importantance of the World Wars,specially World War 1. As the museum says "The First World War shaped the modern world. Some of the ideas which motivated people to fight, seem strange to us now. Others seem familiar. Different generations have taken different standpoints as to what the war meant and we still grapple with its meaning today. What was its impact? What did it achieve? Is it still important? Why do we remember it in the way that we do?" I wrote so much about WW1 in Imperial War Museum

I spend an hour in this First Gallery. In the Secind Floor I appreaciated objects, stories, and videos exploring the turning points in the Second World War. The Second World War transformed the world. Other galleries that you can find in this museum are the Holocaust, Secret War and other temporary galleries. In my opinion the Holocaust Gallery was the most impressive one. It took the fifth floors and part of the fourth. The story of this part of history is shocking by itself but this Gallery gave it a shocking and amazing perspective. I learned so much. In general I learned a lot from this museum. I really liked it and I could definitely come back. Also today I learned that people from Britain are called Britoins, honestly I had never heard it before. This museum is located inside a park and in front of the north entrance you can find pretty roses. I love taking pictures of flowers. I took 100+ pictures just of the outside of the building with the flowers. As we planned, Jacob and I meet up in the White Cube to work on our milestone. Trains and Buses were really delayed today so we got later than we were suppose too.we got there and saw incredible exhibitions and started recording for our documentary. I really liked the structure of the building. After recording we went to a cafe infront of the building that was very modern and had really good shakes.

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May 24, 2017

Hampton Court Palace

Wednesday Today we went to Hampton Court Palace. This is definitely the the farthest location we have been to. I was an hour and 15min away. We got a little delay at the beginning but that didn't stop us. We enjoyed the hot summer weather and explore this beautiful castle. The castle was home to many royalty of England including Henry VIII. William III also lived here and I learned his story. This palace has gone through many restorations that changed the way it looks.

We started exploring the castle and came a cross a very elevated roof and beautiful wall paintings that went all the way up the ceiling. We went in and had a view of the beautiful gardens in the back of the castle. The first door lead to a room full of weapons in the wall. As we went on the hallway there a corridor of opened doors that guided us to different locations were William III lived. It included everything from dinning place to his most private bedroom where only his closest friends could enter at the time. After the last door we reached the stairs,They were really small in comparison to everything else. We went down and the story of William III continued. This downstairs part was more public and it was where he did his parties. The next part we saw was Henry VIII story. In comparison to William's part of the castle this part was more like a museum explaining the incredible history of him and his wives.

This palace is also known for three other things Hampton Court Palace’s Gardens are home to the world’s oldest puzzle maze, a record-breaking grape vine, 3 National Plant Collections, over 8000 trees and 650 acres of historic parkland. The Great Vines planted in 1768, the Hampton Court Palace grape vine is the largest grape vine in the world. Hampton Court Palace’s Gardens where amazing, seeing perfect green grass wonderfully decorated. It was perfect. Kristy and I took so many pictures. When we where just about to leave we went into the maze. We couldn't find our way out but it was fun. On our way out we went by Henry VIII's Rose Gardens. There were some many beutiful roses. Could this place get any better, mazes, vines, roses and more roses. I absolutely enjoyed this place.

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May 25, 2017

Horniman Museum

Before I start talking about my experience in Horiman Museum I will like you to know my best friend is a Biologist. I always get pictures of her animals, from worms to ardillas. Every time we see and animal she says the scientific name and explains to me where does it lives and main characteristics. Being in this museum was like being with her. Honestly it was a little weird seeing animales disecados. But Iearned a lot of how many animals evolved with a clear image about how they look. There are soo many different types of animals and soo much information about them, it is impossible to know it all. One thing that amazed me the most was the use of animals. there was a section dedicated just for decoration and cloth. I decided to contibute to the Horniman Museum page with more information about this.
After we finished inside we went to gardens outside. The gardens had an awesome view of London skyline and many flowers. At the end we also saw sheep and some birds. at the end near the cafe we found a white building that looked like a glass castle. We were almost ready to leave and everyone decided to get smoothies. On our way to the shop we came across this pretty house. We took some pictures. Emily, Olivia and I had to leave, we had a plane to catch.

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Long Weekend

Amsterdam

Fries. Bikes. Canals.

Week 4

May 30,2017

Work on Milestone

​Vacation is over back to work.
Kristy an I went to a cafe with and objective to work. We found a cafe near Covent Garden which was great. There had go food and books everywhere. However, it didn't have Wifi which is essential to our work. We decided to walk towards Trafalgar Square in search of a place to work. As soon as we got there Kristy had an idea. We could work in St Martins in the Fields. She had been there before for concerts and lunch. They had a big dinning area, a gift store and a study place downstairs. We got there and it was so crowded. As we were heading out we noticed that there was a free concert in the church upstairs.

​It was the free Lunch time Concert. The U.K's oldest free Lunch time Concert Series has been entertaining audiences from around the world at St Martins for 67 years. We got to the church a few minutes before the concert started. I admire the art they had hanging from the roof. They started playing and it was magical. The concert was really beautiful. We left St Martin and continued our quest for a place to work. Very near by we found it. It was a library. It seemed small but really quite. We sat down in a free desk and started working. Free wifi and tons of resources this place was great. This library is part of the city of Westminster libraries which are "normal" libraries. "Normal meaning you can just borrow a book without any kind of card or request form like in the British Library and NAL. It was perfect!

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May 31,2017

Unit London

​I kept working on my second milestone. As you may know I am working with Jacob creating a documentary. We have recorded one out of our three galleries in London. Today we recorded Unit London. This Gallery located in SoHo may seem small but it is full of art. Recently famous artists present their work there. We were talking to one of the workers there about the artists and he mentioned that the main artist in exhibition at that time was a street artist but now one of his works in worth about £15,000.

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June 1,2017

London Science Museum

The London Science Museum is a really interactive museum and it is a little different that other museums we have been before. In the ground floor you can find exhibitions about space, rockets and aviation and all normal things for museums. However, as you went up you found different types of exhibitions. For example, the second floor was about the human body. It explained many aspects of the body with interactive virtual games. In the center you could also play with your friends what it seemed like brain games. Chris, Kristy, Sam and I played it and we learned a lot from it. the exhibitions continued in the second and third floor with the themes of Atmosphere and Engineering your future. By the end Kristy said "This is like a huge arcade for learning science". I really liked the museum, It goes really well with the setting of a tech school as WPI is.

Chris, Kristy, Sam and I decided to have a picnic in Hyde Park since we were soo close, and today was the perfect day to do it. It was sunny and warm and many families were playing around. We walked all over the park passing by Albert's Memorial, Keingston Palace, Queens Victoria Memorial Garden, Serpentine Galleries, and Princess Diana's Fountain Memorial. If you read one of my first journal entries you can see that I already observed all this memorials. However, when I last visited it was not summer yet. There was spotted families playing and the memorials where basically empty. As you can see from the picture bellow, the park was full with families and little kind playing around. The memorial was so full we could take pictures inside. We decided to work on a cafe with a nice view of the park.

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June 2,2017

Wallace Collection

Today we went to Wallace Collection, a national museum in an historic London town house with 25 galleries of French 18th-century painting, furniture and porcelain with superb Old Master paintings and a world class armoury. As we went in we were ask to leave our bags in the cloakroom. After we left our bags we went exploring. Chris, Kristy and I decided to go upstairs first. We went up by red carpeted stairs. The First room I went in this first floor was the Large Drawing Room. This room had an amazing chandelier and many other impressive decorations inside the green silk covered walls. I decided to write about this room and other West Galleries in contribution to the The Wallace Collection with Kristy's help. Chris disappeared but Kristy and I kept exploring.We walk along the rooms, each with magnificent decorations and furniture and each covered with different color silk.

We had a couple of questions so we ask one of the persons working there. Her name was Shelby and she told us the story of the Wallace Collection. She told us how Sir Richard Wallace was owner before it was a collection. Wallace was the fourth generation to inherit the collection and he was a great collector himself. After his death his wife Lady Wallace decided to honor her husband by donating the Collection to the country. She Donated the collection to the British nation in 1897 with several conditions. She asked for the collection to be called Wallace Collection and for it to be a close collection. Being a close collection the museum cannot borrow pieces from other museums neither get any new pieces. I found it really interesting, the story of the place is amazing and the works of art it has are even more amazing.

Looking for a place for lunch we came across Baker Street which is really close by to the collection. For all the fans of Sherlock Holmes you probably know that this is the street where he lives in the series. This British series is about a famous detective that solves crimes around London. After lunch Kristy and I went to City of Westminster Library work on Milestones.

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Weekend 4

Shoreditch, Urban Food Fest & BallieBallerson

Kristy and I plannedour Saturday evening. We took a bus to Shoreditch St. and had a whole photoshoot with graffitis on the street. The pictures came out really cool and after that we met the boys at the Urban Food Fest that happens every Saturday during the summer. There was music, giant jenga in the tables and lots of food and drinks to try. We ate there and then we stared to head to BallieBallerson. The 25 pounds you pay to get in are worth it, because it is not only a giant balls pool but it links like they light up with led lights at the same beat of the music. Plus they have a guy that paints your face with neon colors for free inside and they look lit with the black light. They also have a good variety of drinks and dancing in the pool of balls is so much fun. At the end of the day we're all bigger children. The scary part is that in the middle of the night there were another two terrorist attacks in the Tower Bridge and in Borough Market. Which is really scary, because we're not only living really close but also those are places we could have totally been at that night. Again, there is no way to prepare for a terrorist attack.

Week 5

June 5,2017

Work on Milestone

Today Sofia and I woke up really early and worked on the Milestone in the flat for a while, then we had breakfast, I did some exercise and we got ready to go to the Library. We took a bus to Westminster Reference Library and worked there from eleven until five. I read a lot about David Hockney and Sofia about Monet and we each contributed to the Milestone we are doing together. After that we went to the British Library and had our meetings with the advisors. Then we walked back to the flat, had dinner and went to bed.

June 6,,2017

Library

​This week it has really easy for me to wake up. Which is really good for my milestones. I woke up at 7 today, showered and got ready to work. I worked on my bed for a hour or so and then Kristy and I decided to leave at 10. We are doing a Secret Cinema show tomorrow so we had to buy cloths for it. I can't explain much about the secret cinema but I am soo excited. We fortunately found our clothes easily and went directly to the library. We went to our usual Westminster Reference Library. We always go through the same path in Chinatown to get to the library but today we decided to take a different path. This new lead us to M&M world and Lego Store. They were both really cool, very touristy but cool. After a few pictures and a short walk we got to the library. I like it there because they have a big variety of sources and the librarians are really nice. Another thing I love about this library is the location. It has so many things going around it. Trafalgar Square is a fight beside it. You can even see the sign of the National Gallery from the window. You can also find many restaurants and the Apollo Theater is also near by. As I mentioned before Kristy and I are working on the third milestone together. We are going to do some painting. I am so excited for that but first we need to do our background. We divided our artists in two so we have four each. Yesterday I did Monet, today I did Sir Christopher Wren. I learned a lot about him. I knew he designed the dome for St Paul's Cathedral but he did a lot more than that. He was a scientist to. He had an amazing life. Today we had an activity planned in our HUA program, Romeo and Juliet in the Globe Theater. Kristy and I decided we needed to leave early because we had a few stops in the way to the Globe. Neither of us had data in our cellphones so we basing ourselves with pictures of maps and nothing else.we kind our way but a little hard and one of the street was a little creepy but we got to the theater 7:15. We entered and looked for the place to enter. We were on the Yard which meant we had to stand the whole play. 7:30 the play started. First scene: two ladies with their faces painted like clowns where giving birth. Defenitly not what I was expecting. The play just kept weird. I guess it is a modern version of Romeo and Juliet but it was still weird. The play finished around 10. Jacob, Kristy, Grant and I walked back home and passing the Millenium Bridge. We had an amazing view of London's skyline and infront we could see St Pauls Cathedral which was amazingly beutiful at that time of the day.

June 7,2017

Secret Cinema

​ Best night ever!! First of all let's start by the fact that we had been preparing for this night for a week. Knowing we're little of what we were paying for and hoping it would be at least worth it, we bought tickets for the Secret Cinema Moulin Rouge! Two days after making the purchase online we received an email of acceptance to the "Society of Love" as "Children of the Revolution". We were the dreamers, the rebels and the risk takers. Each one of us received a character from year 1899: Kristy was a young African American poet named Fraces Harper and Sofia was an American inventor named Mary Anderson. We were given their stories with the command of reading it, absorbing it and developing it, as well as buying proper clothes for the occasion. The day came, June 7,2017, a Wednesday.

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June 8,2017

Stonehedge and Bath

So today I went to Stonhedge, Bath, and Lacock. I woke up really early and got ready for this amazing day trip with all the HUA members. I have always wanted to go to Stonehedge, it looked amazing in pictures. All of my flatmates and three other girls were waiting in the bus stop. The bus we were suppose to take to the meeting place was delayed. We were all worried to be late, however we were one of the first to get there. Both our professors got there like 15 minutes after and introducing our guide Andrew. He was really friendly and really funny. He also tried to remember all our names which was incredible. We started the day going to Stonehedge. We later went to Bath. At last we went to Lac I learned that the druids were not the ones to make Stonehenge, unlike common belief. The rocks there were put five thousand years ago. They were already here even before Jesus was! Three thousand years before him indeed! That is almost unbelievable! It was really rainy, windy and cold, but that didn't keep Sofia and I from taking great pictures of each other. We spent almost a whole hour doing so, and the rest just wandering around the very expensive gift shop. Bath was alright, we barely had time to eat, I did not like my food and then we did a walking tour. The tour guide started talking about the Tudors and it was funny to realize I knew a bit more than him about the story of his country. He gave some facts wrong like saying that king Henry VIII asked Cromwell to make his marriage to Catherine of Aragon invalid. He actually asked the cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and killed him after he failed. Apart from that I enjoyed the tour guide's stories. There're natural springs in bath, however, if you try to bath in them you're likely to die because of the sulphuric gasses that come out and the many bacteria that proliferate in the environment. I saw several homeless people in the city, and I can't hep but to feel sad every time, I wish I could do so much for them. After Bath, we went to a "secret place" were Godricks Hollow was filmed in the Harry Potter movies. So we looked at the church, at "Harry's house" and we walked around for a little bit before heading back to London. We arrived at eight and we went directly to Nando's to celebrate Chris's birthday that is tomorrow. We stayed there until eleven and we had lots of fun chatting and eating some peri peri.

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June 9,2017

Painting

Today Kristy and I painted the entire morning and left for scotland the next day.

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Weekend 5

Scotland... I Feel in Love.

June 12,2016

Winsor Castle

Vacation is over we have work. Ohh but work is going to Winsor Castle, this is great. Kristy and I arrived a little late but We got to see the change of guard from outside. This castle was beautiful and We took many pictures and I fan-girled with all the Tudor stuff. We saw the so famous Henry VIII tomb, honestly I thought it was going to be bigger. It was beside Jane Seymour and Kristy with the tomb of the Duke of Suffolk who was also one of King Henry's bffs. It was amazing and the views were majestic. I loved the castle and Mary's dollhouse was truly a work of art. It is a shame we could not take pictures in the apartments though but it is understandable I guess. y the end we met a Chinese woman that did not speak English at all but took amazing pictures of Sofia and I. We communicated through hand signals and she told people to move away from the background of our picture. She was so nice and sweet when we said goodbye we hugged her. So adorable, so nice, these people are like chicken soups for my soul. After that, we went to Nando's and then back to London to make it to the meeting at the Library.

Weekend 6

We went to a flower market, so many flowers, So pretty.

Work

I had to work today to complete my projects mentioned above.

Harry Baker

Kristy and I got to meet Harry Baker.