October 2004

I first posted this on the Medill Global Blog

This weekend, we took a boat trip to Greenwich. It’s a lovely way to see London….everyday, I hop on the Tube to get to work. You tend to miss things, like scenery. Occasionally, we get “buskers” entertaining us in the Tube hallways. I remember grooving to a rousing rendition of “American Pie” in the Tube.

So, boat trip to Greenwich….still part of London. It’s a 50 minute boat ride past the Tate Modern, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and more.

This is from the Tower of London – you can’t see this from the river bank….only from the Thames.

Here’s a nice pix my honey took of me…standing over the Prime Meridian of the World (0� longitude)…it’s at the Royal Observatory

The world time is set Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). This line (it’s tough to see on a grey day) is where the Eastern Hemisphere meets the Western Hemisphere.
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They figured I was exhausted from the body combat class last night….so they took over the kitchen.

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This is the second Tuesday we went out for another theater production…

We saw: “The Complete History of America – abridged” – with Cub, John and Andrea.
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Louie got jealous of Andre’s adventure…so he got his turn on Saturday…I wish people wouldn’t laugh at me when I’m taking pictures of my bears….maybe they’re laughing with me

So…this is his story…in his own words…

had to shove Andre out of the way….he was eye-ing mommy’s bag again….he’s not the only bear who knows how to have fun in this town.

mommy and markie and i hopped on the tube and went to the tower of london. mommy said she was there a long time ago. this was markie’s first trip…like me, Louie.
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thanks to the folks for the sweet words on Andre…for the other sickos who tried to comment…get a life.

Yesterday, at Reuters, the showbiz dude said: “Hey Kris, I have an extra press pass for the Alfie premiere, do you want to go?”

I said yes….

The premiere was at Leicester Square…it was packed with screaming fans and media. My little press pass got me into the “pen”.

Jude and his posse took their sweet sweet time to perform their “Vespers” – parading for the crowd and signing autographers…Reuters got up close and personal with “Alfie”, the director, Sienna, Nia Long and the secretary from Ally McBeal.

I know whipping out my little Elph is not the most professional thing to do, but hey, I’m only young once….might as well.
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My bear from Berkeley, Andre, got bored staying at home…

So…this is his story…in his own words…

ANDRE CLIMBED INTO MOMMYS BAG….ANDRE DOESN’T LIKE BEING IN THE BAG….ANDRE GETS CRAMPED….

BUT ANDRE LIKES LONDON. MOMMY LOVES ANDRE. MOMMY DOESN’T MIND ANDRE TAGGED ALONG. HERES ANDRE WITH BIG BEN. BIG BEN IS BIG.
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We went to church today…

This is the Westiminister Cathedral. It’s the headquarters for the Roman Catholic Church in London. It’s done up in a byzantine architectural style….it has a really cool alter…I’ll take a picture of that next week…

We went to Chinatown after mass.

We had yummy dim sum…for a prix fixe meal – it came out to about 25 pounds….it was filling….but we didn’t get the whole choose-from-a-cart experience. I think it’s because the dining area was too small to move a cart through….Still, I had my shrimp dumplings and all was good with the world.

Yesterday – we went to the British Museum….it was free to get in – but we donated 3 pounds to the upkeep….this place also takes euros as a donation…so I may toss those coins to the museum on my next visit
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I posted this on the Medill Blog…

Yesterday, I went out with a Reuters camera crew to cover this story….

This is hard-hitting journalism….ala Dan Rather…or something…

An American Artist piled up 30,000 bananas in Trafalgar Square….this is outside of the National Gallery….he claimed it was art….Reuters and other british broadcasters thought it was news…

He’s done this exhibition in Ecuador and New York.

Here’s a reporter for the Children’s BBC…he tried starting up his own sculpture of oranges.

There was a gorrilla attack on the art exhibit. The artist was upset after that.

Reuters also got crowd reactions to the art exhibit. The artist gave away all the bananas in the afternoon. This kid was happy because he said he was hungry and he liked bananas.

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This is Regent Street…it’s about a block away from our ground floor flat…

We’re a five minute walk away from Picadilly Circus….My dad reminded me we visited this touristy part of town, more than ten years ago…It looks different…I didn’t remember seeing Virgn Record Stores, Burger King, Starbucks, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut around the Eros statue.
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