School Orientation, London Eye, and Salvador Dali

This morning was the orientation for Birkbeck College.  We sat in a room and learned a little bit about the way the semester runs.  We were given the answers to some frequently asked questions, mostly about missing classes or bringing people from home to class with us.  Neither of these are allowed because participation and focus are really important.  They also told us about the library and it sounds like we won't have to buy our own textbooks at all.  They also handed out the student IDs, but apparently they never received my photo so I have to bring one to the registry office to get mine.  I know I sent one with my study abroad application because we had to submit 6 passport sized photos and one shrunken photo which would be for the ID.  I took mine and Jess's to the computer lab back at school to scan and shrink and she got her ID.  I'll have to talk to the study abroad office to see what happened.

After that, we had lunch and went out to ride the London Eye.  Elizabeth had messed up the tickets and I got one that she had drawn an X through.  I had to go to the customer service desk because they couldn't scan my ticket.  I guess she accidentally purchased twice as many as we needed and decided to mark half of them to not use, but then she ended up marking too many and I got one with an X through it.  After a few minutes, we were all set and got on to the Eye.  The view was awesome.  I took a whole bunch of pictures (which I'll figure out how to post eventually).  You can see Big Ben, Parliament and all around the city.  

After, I went to the gallery next to the eye which had a HUGE Salvador Dali exhibit.  The entry was lined with photos of him and lots of his quotes.  They had a large collection of his sculptures and they had some of the furniture his art inspired, including the lips couch!  They also had the actual lobster phone.  There was a series of pen and inks with gold glitter glue added that were pretty cool.  There was also a book that Francisco de Goya wrote and illustrated that Dali had reinterpreted.  He added color to the black and white images as well as adding some weird designs in the background.  When I thought I was finished, there was another room filled with his religious related pieces.  It was even bigger than the exhibit we saw in Bruge last summer and I'm glad I got to see it.  The only disappointing thing was that we couldn't take any pictures inside the gallery.