Despite my dislike of cities, as a photographer I just can't pass up the opportunities to photograph in London. Efficiency is very high on my list of values, and while I don't mind wandering aimlessly if I'm with someone and enjoying their company, I don't like walking around if there's no purpose. :) So I'm trying to make a rough outline of some "days out" (day trips) in London so I can get to know the city better and find cool stuff to photograph. There's this great site that I'm a member of called Trek Earth, where people put up photos of places they've been. I've been sorting through the London photos by borough, looking for cool places to photograph. That's been really helpful, and I highly recommend it if you're traveling somewhere. People all over the world, even in the teeniest villages, put photos up, so you can see what it's like where they live. I love it. And if you have photos from some far away places you might consider joining and putting them up. Or even from your own hometown- people around the world are more interested in the area where you live than you can imagine.
Can I just say that although London is a very diverse place, if you live near Ann Arbor you have access to a similar level of diversity. They aren't kidding when they call U of M a world microcosm. In the engineering department alone there are people from all over the world whom I encountered and got to know on a regular basis. I think you can take advantage of the diversity right in Ann Arbor if you have the inclination to. There are large communities of people from China, Japan, Korea, India, the Middle East,Somalia, Eastern Europe, all over Latin and South America, various places in Africa....the list goes on. There are wonderful specialty groceries all over town, and even the Krogers have a great selection of diverse world foods. And in Ann Arbor you stand a very good chance of actually getting to know some of those people because you work with them, have classes with them, they're your neighbors, etc. A trip to the North Campus Kroger will put you with tons of Muslim women from the mosque down the street, people from India, Asia...you name it. If you are at all interested in international work, or just want to have an international friend, take advantage of what Ann Arbor has to offer. People talk about London being diverse, which it is, and having a lot of people, which it has, but I honestly think the access to individual people of other cultures is greater in A2. That's the end of my soapbox rant about Ann Arbor. :)
My plan is to go into London a few times over the next 2 weeks, before the fall activities get started. I'm getting a pretty good list of interesting photo opps, and actually some part of me feels like if I conquer London's sprawling madness and try to enjoy it (hard call for a country girl) then I'll be more successful at tackling the other big cities around the world. After I get London firmly in hand, I'd like to aim for some weekend trips to cities in Europe. :) Anyway, things will be getting busy in 3 weeks. The international ladies study will be starting September 11th it looks like, and Bounce a Round (the outreach for moms of preschoolers that I'll be attending to try and meet international moms) is starting up September 2nd. We have a training day for the international team Sept 6th, and I have a friend coming into town Sept 11-16th. We don't know exactly when, but iBASE (the group we'll be leading for 18-20s language students) will also be starting up probably the week of the 11th. Right now I have all day everyday free to photograph, work on projects, etc. But when things get busy I'll have Mondays and Fridays, as well as having bbl studies to write, meeting with international moms during the daytime, and other stuff. It won't be overwhelmingly busy (I'm trying to be careful not to overbook) but still.
Chances are if you want to get to know London without going there you'll have some reasonable photos to look at after I'm done with all this. :) I'm putting my photos onto facebook, but a more thorough place to look is www.gkdunlap.phanfare.com, which is almost a photo blog of our life. :) I'll also try to put a London map up so you can make sense out of all the crazy places I'm going to around the city. :)
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