London: [noun]- the capital and largest city of England; located on the Thames in southeastern England; financial and industrial and cultural center

THE ANSWER TO THE CLUE IS HERE! I know so many people were sitting on the edge of their seats, constantly refreshing "Dodgy", waiting in grand anticipation for this moment.

This past weekend, on the 23-24, me and my friend Hannah took a trip to London.  My original intention for the trip was to meet with one of my bosses from the summer and his wife but unfortunately I couldn't get in touch with them.  ANGELOOOO!! Where are ya?

We arrived at King's Cross station early on Saturday morning and our first order of business (after eating a delicious meal, of course) was to go shopping.  We went to Oxford Street which is the home of a very large Top Shop.  If you had the time, you could spend a solid five hours in this store and still not have seen all the clothes/jewelry/shoes/purses/food.

After Oxford Street we headed down to Trafalgar Square, and to walk there we went through Piccadilly Circus.   In Trafalgar Square is The National Gallery and let me tell ya, these Brits don't kid around with their art collecting.  In The National Gallery they have so many art works that I have been studying since high school.  For me, it's so exciting to see art works that I know so much information about but have only seen in slides or on the internet.  The first art work we saw was Leonardo da Vinci's The Virgin of the Rocks.  To keep things short and sweet, I love this painting.  Other artists who's works I was excited to see at The National Gallery were Botticelli, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Velazquez and Rembrandt.  Another artist who's work I couldn't believe I was finally seeing was Turner.  I don't want to bore anyone to tears with why I love his work so much so just judge for yourself:

In order of apperance: Dido Building Carthage, Rain, Steam and Spead, Margate (?) from the Sea and The Slave Ship.

So going to The National Gallery was a nice little life altering moment for me.

On Saturday night we went to Freud's Bar with Hannah's friend who is from England and goes to school in London.  The bar specialized in making fancy drinks and I had a Brandy Alexander, solely because of the Feist song. 

Sunday was a wonderful day of riding a double decker bus for the first time since I've been in England, getting lost and finding what we were looking for.  What we were looking for was Brick Lane.  To use Toronto as a point of reference, imagine Kensington Market plus the St. Lawernce Market smashed together and multiplied by fifty.  To say the very least, it was hip.  This street couldn't get any more hip even if every true hipster there ever was moved there and The Sartorialist was there 24/7. 

I already want to go back.

Jamie Oliver: [noun]- a British chef, restaurateur and media personality, known for his food-focused television shows

Crunchy salad and spaghetti with meatballs. 

 Jamie does make dessert Evan, delicious Tiramisu dessert.

Om nom nom.  All this delicious food was from a restaurant called Jamie's Italian (Iloveyou).

p.s. This isn't the answer to my clue, muahaha

Swotty: [adj]- studious, nerdy

There are two excellent reasons for this post to be titled swotty.  The first one is that I was reading The Daily Mirror, a newspaper that does not attract swotty people oddly enough, and they used this word to describe Harrison Ford's Harry Potter like glasses.  I've found writing here is almost always casual and never tries to put forth an air of professionalism.  It's very "real" which I think is hilarious because Canadian websites, newspapers, menus, advertisements, etc. are always using very proper English.  I think the hilarious use of words here probably has a lot to do with the amazing sense of humour which wouldn't be pushed aside for something as insignificant as professionalism.

The second reason is that I myself have been a swotty student lately as my first semester in Leeds is almost half done! The amount of work that I've done does not reflect the amount of time that has gone by since I've been here so I've really had to "pull up my socks" (does anyone know the history of that odd saying?) in the past week or two.  Thus the shortness of this blog post.  But here's a little sneak peek for what's to come at some point this week: two syllables, six letters, and one capital.  Soooo cryptic.

Jacket Potato: [noun]- a baked potato

That definition really couldn't have any less to do with this post but I've really been diggin' jacket potatoes with all the fixings as a meal lately so I thought I'd share.

What this post is really about is the two cool societies that I've joined.  Both of these societies are two of the hundreds of societies that the Leeds University Union offers to the students of the school.

One of the societies I have joined is the History of Art Society.  So far, I'm relatively disappointed that I joined this society.  I assumed, incorrectly, that everyone in the History of Art would automatically want to join this society.  There are four people in the society including me, the vice president and the president.

Friday, October 8th was Leeds Light Night which, for those of you who live in (woooah Allie, that's you) and around the Toronto area, is Nuit Blanche except not as late and not as cold.  It's a night of celebrating the arts in Leeds and a variety of institutions and interesting buildings keep their doors open a little later then usual to take part in the celebration.  I went to this with the History of Art society.  We saw lots of interesting things including a short play in the University's library about a haunted library.

Picture Time!  Sorry for the quality, I had every intention of bringing my camera but then I forgot it so these are phone pictures.

Out of all the things we saw, I was most impressed by this.  This is a giant projection of a kaleidoscope on the side of this building. The awesome thing about this kaleidoscope is that it is made up by images of shoes.

If only this man knew he would be on my world famous blog.  He's basically a celeb now.  That's the massive kaleidoscope.  Anyone walking by could take the kaleidoscope for a spin.  Get it? A spin? Heh...heh..

This group art project took place inside the Leeds City Museum.  Inside each of those balloons, there is a card with people's favorite memory of their time in Leeds.

The other society I joined, I have not been disappointed with for a second.  It is called The Wine Society.  Dad, I wish I could see how exasperated you're going to be when reading the rest of this.  I feel as though The Wine Society should pay me for advertisement as every time I come home a little (/very) drunk from one of the socials, this is how the conversation goes with my flat mates:
Them: So, do you more or less just get free wine at these socials?
Me: Yes
Them: I REEEEEEALLY should join that society.

For the most recent Wine Society event, we got to go to a wine tasting course.  It was all very interesting.  We learned about what food tastes good with what wine and how to properly taste wine.  But the actual interesting part was when, after the tasting, me and two of my friends were waiting for our cab and everyone else had left.  One of the wines we tasted was champagne, Moet champagne to be exact.  There was half a bottle left after the tasting and the person running it GAVE US THE REST OF THE CHAMPAGNE.  It was amazing. 

In summary, History of Art Society - 0, Wine Society - 1

John Elderfield: [noun]- my idol

This dude is the coolest person I have ever seen in real life and that's saying a lot because I met Jean Chretien one time but that's a story for another day. 

So here is how this situation came about:
Griselda Pollock (another idol, look her up), at a lecture: On Saturday, October 9th, the University of Leeds will be hosting their annual alumnist lecture.  Students are welcome to come.  The speaker is John Elderfield, the chief curator for MOMA.
Liza (to Hannah): Wanna go?
Hannah (to Liza): Yah sure.

I don't think at the time it fully registered that Griselda said CHIEF CURATOR OF MOMA.  When I told people I was going to this lecture I was all like "Ya, I think he worked for MOMA or something? I dunno."  For those of you who aren't entirely sure what MOMA is, it's the Modern Museum of Art in New York City and has been referred to as the most influential modern museum in the world.  For those of you who don't know what a curator does, they buy art for museums.  For those of you who don't know me but like to read this blog, buying art for a living seems like some sort of fairytale, super fantasy, dream job to me. 

So on Saturday, October the 9th, I'm walking to my school to go hear this guy speak and I think I realized then how cool Mr. Elderfield might be.  The other kind of cool thing was that at this lecture there were maybe 10 students and a whoooole lotta alumnists, some who graduated in the 40's.  The reason why that is so cool is because Carleton, the university I go to in Canada, wasn't even a university in 1940.

The man who introduced John Elderfield listed his numerous accomplishments which wikipedia has done a lovely job of summarizing here.  If you clicked that link and read the article, you'll know I was already more or less dumbfounded by my new idol.  And then he started speaking.  He talked about his university days of being a fine arts student and painting a mural on his dorm room walls. He talked about how he studied at Yale.  He talked about convincing the board members of MOMA to let him buy certain pieces of art work.  He talked about the time he hung out with Bob Dylan.  He talked about his travels.  He talked about philosophy and art and many other impressive and cultural things.

After I picked my jaw up from off the desk, I realized that I FINALLY have something to tell people when they ask me what I'm going to do with my art history degree.  The answer? I'm going to be John Elderfield.

Leeds: [noun]- a city on the River Aire in West Yorkshire in northern England; a center of the clothing industry

I love that definition, "a center of the clothing industry." It makes not spending money VERY difficult, let me tell ya. 

Here are some long over due pictures of the city that I'm currently living in. 

Speaking of shopping, there are a bunch of different arcades (like this one) in the city.  They are more or less little indoor walk ways between streets with stores in them.  Plus they are all beautiful.

 

More shopping.  Notice the Christmas decorations?

Town hall.  This slightly crooked photo really doesn't do it justice.  It's massive.

 

This beautiful building is a strip club. Ironic? 

Doors to town hall.

I really enjoy how the street signs are on buildings.

Classic red phone booth.

Civic hall.

Leeds city museum.

Amstel: [noun] - a river that runs through the Netherlands. Dam: [noun] -a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to keep out the sea.

Amsterdam: [noun] - a city in the Netherlands created by damming the Amstel River.

This past weekend I went to Amsterdam with my two new traveling friends, Andy and Hannah.  It was so much fun! The traveling bug basically took one of my limbs he took such a big bite after this trip.

Lucky for you all, Andy, Hannah and I tried to be as touristy as humanly possible and took a tonne of pictures.  You get even luckier as Amsterdam is a beautiful city!

You know a city is beautiful when this is the view from your super inexpensive hostel (mind Hannah's head).

 

 

The national monument in Dam Square. To state the somewhat obvious, this is where the original dam of the Amstel River was built.

 Cool advertisement for the Van Gogh museum.

Hannah and Andy at our lovely lunch beside one of the many canals.

Tulip bulbs!

On our way to the Rijksmuseum.  I was most excited about seeing Rembrandt's Night Watch.

That little red building in the middle is a house! The skinniest house in Amsterdam actually.  The owner of the house is taller then the building is wide.

One of Amsterdam's famous canals.

The most delicious pancake in the world.  Ronnie, you would have loved it: a combo of half-mouseying and a happy cracker snack platter.  One half had bacon in it and the other half had apple.

 

Taken before we went on the Heineken Brewery tour.

Amazing fries in a cone with ketchup and mayo.  A low calorie weekend, obviously.

 

 To go with the fries, a Heinz Ketchup bike.  There were hundreds of bikes parked everywhere in the city and out of all of them this was my absolute favorite.