Day 5 VCUK- 13 June 2019

I woke up early and listened to classical music and had a muffin, tea, and grapes for breakfast. Their muffins here are really dry. I uploaded photos from the trip with mom and dad. My tea is still doing that weird scummy thing which is gross. It doesn't happen when I did my other tea it only happens with my earl grey. But I used the exact same earl grey at the artist's guild and it didn't happen so I have no idea.

I'm quite behind in my tourist excursions and there's even more things I want to do too! Mom just told me about a musical that was really good that I should go see and the tickets are only $20 so I might do it.

This morning I posted photos and then got ready and went to AWG(art workers guild) and Wendy Scott came and talked to us about writing. She was a BBC journalist and radio show person but now she's just freelance. She was a really cool person but her talk wasn't too interesting because she just talked about basic guidelines when you're writing like how you should consider your reader when you're writing and use grammar.

After we went and looked in the AWG hall. The building is super cool and old and has lots of weird little quirky things like the pull string toilets. The hall has busts and portraits all over the walls and plaques that list all the members. AWG is still and ongoing group (i think).

Then I went and made lunch (goat cheese and walnut sandwich) and hung out in flat 3. Then Radish and Salsa and I went to the British Library and saw the Da Vinci exhibit. It was all his old notebook pages. It was interesting but not as cool as I thought it'd be. It didn't have any notebook pages of famous stuff. Just a lot of things about him thinking about water. Da Vinci was really a genius for his time. He figured out that the moon wasn't giving off light but rather reflecting light. He also understood how rivers carved their way through land and how water energy could be retained to use and move things. He's really a genius. I feel like generally people today are smarter than anyone back in the past since we now know what they learned as common sense today. But Da Vinci I feel like is smarter than everyone.

After that we went to the Somerset house which is over near the Thames. I haven't been near the thames yet!

It was cute. It's a huge mansion building they made into an art museum. We saw the Get Up Stand Up Now exhibit about Black people and racism in Britain. It was interesting but I was excited to see the British view and struggles with racism but a lot of the art was about the American Civil War and American problems. It's interesting how much American stuff I'm constantly faced with here. I feel like in France I wasn't reminded of America at all but here everywhere I turn or everyone I talk to mentions it. The exhibit was really good anyway. It had a little history on racism in Britain and how after WWII the Queen asked for people to come to the UK from the commonwealths to fill the jobs that were now empty due to death and injury and how when they got here they were ignored and dealt with racism.

After that we took the tube back and I facetimed mom and had dinner.

Then I hung out and watched the new episode of Black Mirror. It was really good as always. I love BlackMirror.

Then I watched Hwarang. I wanted to rewatch it since I don't think I ever finished it. Krista joined me and we watched a couple eps together.

Then I showered and packed for Brighton and went to bed.

Dan Howell released a video today coming out and I chatted about it with B.