The Past Few Days

 Dearest readers,

I'm sorry that I've left you adrift for so long—it’s been a busy couple of days! Now where did we leave off? Oh yes—I was just about to tell you about my lovely Friday in Dulwich. 

Friday

Dulwich, London is a small village (still technically in London) in the South. It is a beautiful little town, full of lovely, friendly people. I went there to view an art exhibition called “Reframed: The Woman at the Window,” as several of the paintings I analyzed in my first chapter of the dissertation featured women at windows. 

It. Was. Amazing.

The curators at the vastly underestimated Dulwich Picture Gallery put together a fascinating show, featuring hundreds of years of art and meditating on the artistic motif of women in/at/by/ant through windows. Below are some of my favorites:

 

The Dulwich Picture Gallery also has an excellent private collection. Fun fact, the Dulciwch Picture Gallery was the first public art gallery in England!

After the Dulwich Picture Gallery, I decided to walk a few yards down the road to visit a local Church. 

Boy, am I glad I did! I ended up arriving right at the stroke of noon, just in time for a lecture by a local historian on the history of the building. It was amazing! He was so knowledgeable, and I would never have thought a small village Church could have such a rich history!

I learned that this beautiful Church was founded by the famous Elizebethan actor, Edward Alleyn. There was a contentious past, with arguments between the Puritans and the Anglicans before, during, and after the Civil War about the importance or relevance of art within the chapel. During WWII, the beautiful several of the beautiful stained-glass windows that had been commissions by Whitefriars (the English rivals to Tiffany’s New York glass) were demolished. 

The Church was partially designed by a famous architect, Inigo Jones. One of the students who graduated from the charity school associated with the chapel (and also founded by Alleyn) was famous British author C. S. Forester, who most likely named his popular Admiral Hornblower character because of the name of a fallen WWI soldier, carved into the Church wall. 

Needless to say, I was impressed! I also made two friends—my first in-depth conversation and budding friendships in England. 

After the lecture, I was wandering the Church and started up a conversation with a local lady named Cynthia. She was very friendly and gave me advice about how to spend the rest of my day. Afterwards, when walking through the Church gardens, I heard a man speaking—he sounded American, so I asked if he was. Indeed—from Virginia! He and his wife were visiting their daughter, Jenna, and her husband. I had a lovely talk with them and exchanged phone numbers with Jenna, who has lived in London for the past seven years. We plan to meet up and get coffee or a drink later this week.

After Christ’s Chapel of God’s Gift at Dulwich, I went to another museum, the Horniman. This was not as much my cup of tea (as the Brit’s say). Very busy, and more artifact-based than paintings. But I did see some cool musical instruments and masks.

After all of this excitement, I was more than ready for lunch and had a beautiful late lunch/dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Then off to home.

Saturday

The next day, I slept in (I was so exhausted after my adventures the day before—I also suspect I may still have been a bit jetlagged). Then headed to King’s Cross Station in search of brunch. I ended up going to this wonderful place called the Caravan King’s Cross on Granary Square. The food was fabulous! I forgot to take a picture before I started eating, so you only get to see my partially devoured plate, but I thought it was worth featuring because of the color on those eggs—look how ORANGE!! So yummy!!

Then I went to the British Library for my first day in the Reading Room (this was the first day it was opened due to the Queen’s Jubilee). A lovely day reading. 

After that, I went back to Primrose Hill to get some groceries. I had decided it might be fun to use my beautiful kitchen for something other than sitting in, so I got all the fixings for an Italian ravioli dinner. Bad decision. About halfway into boiling the water, one of my ovens and the stove lost power—perhaps a fuse? I sent a message to the owner of the house, but didn’t hear back. So I had to improvise. I ended up using the microwave to finish up the pasta and veggies. It wasn’t great, but it actually tasted good! 

Eventually, I found the fuse box and fixed the electricity—I was pretty proud of that! Independence!

Sunday

Sunday, I went to Church, obviously. I had decided to visit a church called London Presbyterian City Church in honor of my Houston home Church which is also a Presbyterian Church called “City Church.” 

It was probably the best decision I’ve made since coming to London. I loved it so much, I took the train back out there for their evening service The main Pastor, Andy, is Scottish, which was really cool since Presbyterianism is the national Church of Scotland. The associate Pastor, who preached in the evening, was from Birmingham, AL. I felt so at home! I also made friends there. One of them, Megan, is an American, We are actually meeting up tonight! She was so kind and sat by me Everyone was welcoming. It was just amazing! 

After evening service, I went to the Queen’s Pub (which is becoming quite my little niche). It’s about a five minute walk from my flat, which makes it particularly appealing, I got some fries (they are the BEST) and a glass of wine, Then on home to watch House and eat one of my Cornetto’s: all hail the Cornetto Trilogy! 

That’s all for now. Yesterday really sucked, so nothing too fun to report (though maybe I will for comedy’s sake some other time). Today has been very productive, but the best is certainly yet to come when I meet up with Megan. Until next time, faithful readers!

                                                                                                                        ~Nina