Museum of Zoology

I had the fabulous opportunity through my Creative Writing class to tour the Grant Museum of Zoology privately before its opening for the day. We had the exhibits to ourself in the quiet and chilling room that makes up the museum. It is filled with taxidermy, skeletons, severed animal heads, organisms on slides, and skulls for days. This place blew every museum I have been to out of the water. Words can't even express how wonderful my experience was in the short amount of time I spent there. It is a hidden wonder in London.

My favorite vine of the entire trip.

Just breathtaking

Elephant skull

The preserved jellyfish were amazing to see for a jellyfish lover like myself.

Shameless mirror pictures

Yes. These ARE severed heads!

Elephant heart

The skeleton of an anaconda wrapped around a branch

Walrus skull

Day 25: British Museum and Ku Bar (LATE POST!!)

For our second day of Creative Writing, our teacher took us to the British Museum to give us some plot inspiration. We were asked to pick a single picture from the photo gallery and write a story about it. I chose to write about Keith III by Chuck Close. I think I will spend the rest of my class revising the piece and then use it for my final submission at the end of class.

After class, I chose to tour the rest of the museum by myself. I spent another hour and a half roaming around looking for mummies, the Rosetta Stone and the Lindow Man. To my dismay (extreme dismay!), I could not find the Lindow Man. And to make the day worse, the Pompeii exhibit did not have another opening until three hours later. Still, I got to see some fabulous pieces.

This giant foot really got to me for no apparent reason. Possibly because it is so darn huge.

This kid is into it.

Preserved body in the Egypt exhibit

This is a real mummy. Now I can check that off my list.

People crowded around the Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone

This dance party will forever be remembered.

People getting in my selfies -- I'm not having it.

Greek Sculptures

Inside the British Museum

Entrance to the British Museum

After walking two miles to the next tube station with an attendant to pay for a ticket home (seriously), I rested before heading out with my friends. We went to ladies night at Ku Bar, a local gay bar. I had one of the best nights since I have been here. The music was on point ranging from 1990/2000's R&B to boy bands. We had a blast dancing and spending time in a new place. The highlight of my night, however, was meeting a deaf woman at Ku Bar. During the song "Call Me Maybe," I used American Sign Language to dance to the song. The woman noticed me signing and came over to ask if I knew how to sign. Unfortunately, she was using British Sign Language and we found it very difficult to communicate. Still, I was thrilled to have met a deaf person that found my signing clear enough to know that it was sign language. 

Doing NHM Alone

When my photography class let out after a lesson at London's Natural History Museum, I was frustrated that none of my classmates wanted to stick around. All I knew was that there were several full dinosaur skeletons in the halls of the museum and I was going to see them. I decided to stay at the museum by myself thinking that although it may not be as fun, at least I will get to cross it off my list.

I was pleasantly surprised when it hit me that museum-going is made 13 times better when it is done alone. I went at my own pace. I didn't have to entertain any bored/unintelligent museum attendees. I didn't have apologize for wanted to stay for an extended time at one exhibit or take a brake. Holy muffin! It is more fun alone.

I spent two hours seeing every exhibit I could get into and only left because I feared I would lose the ability to walk in a matter of minutes. Here are some of my favorite images and memories from my day at NHM alone.

Giant Sloth

This guy

Pyrite: a mineral that naturally crystalizes into nearly perfect cubes... woah.

"Table-top of Ancient Roman Marbles"

Dippy's Rear

Dippy's Tail

Dippy's Aerial

Entrance and Dippy

I like this because gorillas are awesome and the reflection is interesting.

Architecture

Mammals

(see Blue Whale in center)

Mirrors in Biology Exhibit

This nugget

When you go to a museum by yourself and need to document it, be prepared to take some shameless selfies.