Yesterday after class, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, but I surely didn't want to come back to Mile End. So since our classroom is just a short walk from the British Museum, I strolled over there and ended up hanging out for about 2 and a half hours. I spent quite a bit of time in the North American and African galleries, before heading over to look at some Egyptian sculpture and Assyrian wall reliefs.
The African galleries were really quite fantastic. The museum's collection of African artifacts isn't anything like the Egyptian or Greek wings, but they've very tastefully displayed it according to cultural categories. Plus, they also have these contemporary artworks done by modern African artists which are right next to all the artifacts.
There was this one just stunning installation. It was a large metal sculpture of a tree, complete with various jungle animals running up and down it. The entire thing was made out of cut up guns. Apparently, some charity in Mozambique after the civil war had this program where, if you would turn in your armaments, they would give you practical stuff like farm equipment. So they gave all these handed over guns to this group of local artists, who cut them apart and welded them into a tree. It's supposed to symbolize the resiliance and creativity of Africa. Not only was it extremely thought-provoking, but the sculpture itself was hauntingly beautiful.
Not much else to say. We've moved on to international investment dispute arbitration in class, as well as a more hands on arbitration advocacy course. I've decided to take a 34 hour trip to Brussels this weekend. Everyone else is going to Edinburgh, a place I've been. I looked online, and found I could get a relatively cheap train ticket from London to Brussels if I leave really early on Saturday and come back on Sunday evening. Slapped that sucker on my AmEx, now I'm good to go. I'm looking forward to being surrounded by Francophiles.
Off to class.
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