Wednesday morning we had to wake up pretty early in order to catch the tube and make it to the location we had to pick up our bikes to begin cycling. Cycling was by far my favorite thing we have done in London. We got to enjoy the beautiful scenery while riding a bike. I don’t think it gets much better than that. I found several houses I plan to buy someday. If I ever moved to London I really have no idea how I would decide where to live because there are so many beautiful areas. I guess the cost would probably play a huge factor because some of the houses/flats we passed were quite pricey as are most in London.
I found the cycling to be extremely relaxing. What was supposed to be a leisurely pace wasn’t exactly what I consider a leisurely pace but I wasn’t dead when we were done and I got in a bit of a workout so I can’t complain. We were supposed to ride eight miles total. It sure didn’t feel like eight miles when we were done and even Phillipa said she thought it was less but no one really knows. I was kind of sad when we had to give the bikes back to be honest. We were again the first BSU group to have cycling as part of our Wednesday excursions. I think it helped that we are a smaller group than most, but I hope other groups get to have the same experience.
We completely lucked out with weather too. It was supposed to downpour all day but it didn’t rain the entire time we were cycling…only before and after. How lucky can we get :) This entire trip we really haven’t had to deal with any bad weather so it has just been fantastic! (Hopefully I haven’t jinxed it now!) Once we were done cycling we headed to Hampton Court Palace. The path we cycled to Hampton Court on was actually the route that Henry VIII would have taken to get to the palace so I thought that was nifty. We took about a 20 minute rest and we all fueled ourselves up with treats. I tried pistachio ice cream and although I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it I really enjoyed it.
After our break we all competed to see who could get through the maze first. Phillipa had tried to trick the boys to help us girls win but sadly it didn’t work and they still beat us. Honestly we were kind of taking our time in the maze because it was pretty neat. Next we went inside the Palace. They have costume robes that you can wear while you are walking through. Phillipa thought we would think it was too immature, but honestly she is talking to a group of college kids. We were all about it. We all felt very cool in our attire.
The palace was gigantic. Phillipa took us through Henry VIII’s kitchens and then through some of the main rooms. After that she told us we were allowed to either leave or go do our own thing. Most people left because they were exhausted but I thought the house was incredible so a few of the girls stuck around to see more of it. We ended up staying until it closed at 6:00. Even though we stayed that whole time we still didn't see the entire place. By that time I was completely exhausted and ready to go put my feet up and relax for the evening. We still had a little over an hour train ride home and Jeana and I had to get some groceries. It made for a long day but we rolled into our flat a little before 8:00 and were quite relieved when we got there.
We spent the rest of our evening planning out our trips and purchasing our tickets, which is quite stressful when you’ve already made a few planning errors but we got it all done. It’s nice to have it all planned out and it makes me really excited for what is to come! Hard to believe but I’ve been here in London for nearly a month now. Only two months to go…I am hoping the time doesn’t fly by to quickly though I can say I am ready to see all my friends and family at home!
Wednesday, September 29
Tuesday, September 28
Football London Style
This week has been my favorite in London so far. We have stayed extremely busy this week so I am just going to touch on a few of my favorite points (which will probably end up pretty much being everything!)
Tuesday I had Brit Pop with Rob and it was another extremely fun class. We learned a little more about the Beatles and it just makes me wish I lived back when they were so popular!!! We watched a short video and it was crazy how young they were. There truly is no music like theirs anymore! After that class I tagged along with the consumer health class because we were supposed to go to the Brands and Advertising museum and that’s right up my alley. We got kind of lost while trying to find the museum and never actually did make it there. Instead we went into a little coffee shop and talked about all the differences we had been noticing between the US and here. It was very interesting comparing some of the things and making connections I had not thought of before so I really enjoyed joining the class for a day!
Once the class was over we had to scurry home to get ready for the football match we were attending that night. Some of the girls were already out so they told me to meet up with them down the road to leave. Now this was the first time I had actually ever walked anywhere by myself as we are always doing things together. I wasn’t worried about anything happening but as I was walking I was thinking to myself how this is the first time I’ve walked alone and all of a sudden I feel someone walking very close behind me. Of course I got a little bit nervous and slowly turned my head only to realize it was one of the boys from the program. I am not going to lie I was freaked out a bit. He of course found it hysterical and looking back on it now I do to. Given what I was thinking in my head it was quite funny.
The match was Queen’s Park Rangers (whose side we were on) versus Milwall. The match took place at Loftus Road Stadium which is the home of Queen’s Park Rangers. . Going to a football match is an experience like no other. The teams are true rivals. In the US we say teams are rivals, but here I realized the true definition of a rival. Milwall had their own section of the stadium…the fans were not allowed to intermix. There were policemen everywhere making sure that they could break up any problem that started. The majority of the police were located near the Milwall section. We were in the Queen’s Park Rangers section, only three rows from the bottom so we had great seats! We were right next to the corner that separated the Queen’s section from the Millwall section so we were right in the middle of the action. The entire match the fans were cheering back and forth. It was the neatest sports atmosphere that I have ever been in. The match was great even though nobody scored. I actually really like how the clock never stops because it makes the game go by really fast. If you ask Europeans here what they think of football in America they will tell you it’s stupid because the clock stops every ten seconds. They also don’t see the point in cheering for someone who ran the ball ten yards. It’s very entertaining to hear them talk about what they think of football in America. I was a little disappointed that no one scored because I can only imagine how the stadium would have erupted. When the teams came close to scoring the fans went absolutely mad. Since this wasn’t a championship game no one had to actually win so that’s why the game ended without extra time or anything. Seems sad to me that they played so hard for 90 minutes and no one even gets to claim victory!
When the match was wrapping up the police and other security guards came and lined the walls of the entire stadium from the field. I think this was to ensure no one rushed the field as well as to get closer to the fans to keep everyone in check. At the end of the match the police blocked off the Milwall section and didn’t allow any of them to leave. The rest of the stadium cleared out including a few of the girls and me who booked it out of there to avoid any problems. It’s not that we felt unsafe; we just didn’t want to get in the middle of anything. The majority of the people in attendance were male so we were in the minority for sure. Denise and her family did not book it out of there and stayed to wait until the stadium cleared. In the morning Clark, her oldest, told us all about what he got to see. After we left the people began throwing water bottles and money at each other. Clark found 20p so he was pretty happy about that. I guess it got pretty wild in the stadium. I almost regret leaving so quickly because it probably would have been an experience. Overall it was an experience like no other. We are the first BSU group to go to a football match together, but I think every group should go to one from now on.
Tuesday I had Brit Pop with Rob and it was another extremely fun class. We learned a little more about the Beatles and it just makes me wish I lived back when they were so popular!!! We watched a short video and it was crazy how young they were. There truly is no music like theirs anymore! After that class I tagged along with the consumer health class because we were supposed to go to the Brands and Advertising museum and that’s right up my alley. We got kind of lost while trying to find the museum and never actually did make it there. Instead we went into a little coffee shop and talked about all the differences we had been noticing between the US and here. It was very interesting comparing some of the things and making connections I had not thought of before so I really enjoyed joining the class for a day!
Once the class was over we had to scurry home to get ready for the football match we were attending that night. Some of the girls were already out so they told me to meet up with them down the road to leave. Now this was the first time I had actually ever walked anywhere by myself as we are always doing things together. I wasn’t worried about anything happening but as I was walking I was thinking to myself how this is the first time I’ve walked alone and all of a sudden I feel someone walking very close behind me. Of course I got a little bit nervous and slowly turned my head only to realize it was one of the boys from the program. I am not going to lie I was freaked out a bit. He of course found it hysterical and looking back on it now I do to. Given what I was thinking in my head it was quite funny.
The match was Queen’s Park Rangers (whose side we were on) versus Milwall. The match took place at Loftus Road Stadium which is the home of Queen’s Park Rangers. . Going to a football match is an experience like no other. The teams are true rivals. In the US we say teams are rivals, but here I realized the true definition of a rival. Milwall had their own section of the stadium…the fans were not allowed to intermix. There were policemen everywhere making sure that they could break up any problem that started. The majority of the police were located near the Milwall section. We were in the Queen’s Park Rangers section, only three rows from the bottom so we had great seats! We were right next to the corner that separated the Queen’s section from the Millwall section so we were right in the middle of the action. The entire match the fans were cheering back and forth. It was the neatest sports atmosphere that I have ever been in. The match was great even though nobody scored. I actually really like how the clock never stops because it makes the game go by really fast. If you ask Europeans here what they think of football in America they will tell you it’s stupid because the clock stops every ten seconds. They also don’t see the point in cheering for someone who ran the ball ten yards. It’s very entertaining to hear them talk about what they think of football in America. I was a little disappointed that no one scored because I can only imagine how the stadium would have erupted. When the teams came close to scoring the fans went absolutely mad. Since this wasn’t a championship game no one had to actually win so that’s why the game ended without extra time or anything. Seems sad to me that they played so hard for 90 minutes and no one even gets to claim victory!
When the match was wrapping up the police and other security guards came and lined the walls of the entire stadium from the field. I think this was to ensure no one rushed the field as well as to get closer to the fans to keep everyone in check. At the end of the match the police blocked off the Milwall section and didn’t allow any of them to leave. The rest of the stadium cleared out including a few of the girls and me who booked it out of there to avoid any problems. It’s not that we felt unsafe; we just didn’t want to get in the middle of anything. The majority of the people in attendance were male so we were in the minority for sure. Denise and her family did not book it out of there and stayed to wait until the stadium cleared. In the morning Clark, her oldest, told us all about what he got to see. After we left the people began throwing water bottles and money at each other. Clark found 20p so he was pretty happy about that. I guess it got pretty wild in the stadium. I almost regret leaving so quickly because it probably would have been an experience. Overall it was an experience like no other. We are the first BSU group to go to a football match together, but I think every group should go to one from now on.
Monday, September 27
Monday
Monday mornings always seem to come too quickly. To be honest everyday sort of feels like the weekend here though. I was really tired throughout the entire day but it was still a really fun day. In the morning we went on a tour of Parliament. We learned all about it last Monday so it was interesting to see where everything we had talked about takes place. The inside of the building was really pretty. The way the tour was set up was so that we did the same walk through Parliament that the Queen does at the opening of Parliament once a year. I found it pretty interesting and actually seeing the building helped me to understand how Parliament works.
After our tour of Parliament Elena and I went to our second store that was not opened yesterday to get the rest of the items on our shopping task list. It didn’t take long at all so we were able to go back to our flat for lunch. We had to meet back at the college at 1:00 to begin our afternoon session. In our session we talked about this week’s events and then we got to talking about our shopping experiences. We compared all of our different locations and then we got to try the food we purchased. Some of us were braver than others when trying the food. My shopping buddy Elena was particularly brave and tried the blood pudding. If you want to know what it is you can look it up, but she is the only one in the history of this program that has actually tried it. We also had another first in our group when one of the boys ate one of the OXO cubes. An OXO cube is a chicken broth cube…he was not too excited after he put it in his mouth. We all got a really good laugh out of that one! As we ate the food we went through the questions about the food we had for homework. It was pretty interesting and a pretty nice way to spend the afternoon in the classroom.
Once class was over it was time for our fitness walk. We went to Hyde Park today. Hyde Park is gigantic. I had no clue how big it really was before we started walking around. It’s always nice to see a place like Hyde Park in the middle of London….gives you an escape from the city scene for a bit. I will probably be going back…especially because there were dogs all over the place (not on leashes like normal here)!!! By the time we were done walking I was totally exhausted. Getting back home was so nice. Jeana and I made some quesadillas for dinner right away so we could just relax the rest of the night. We have started making our plans for our weekend trips and are pretty excited about them!!!
Lots in store for this week so I’m preparing myself by sleeping in a little in the morning :) I really wanted to go to the Tate Modern with the Art History class in the morning but I think I’m going to have to venture there on my own sometime because I need some sleep. Tomorrow evening we are going to a football match followed by cycling on Monday morning bright and early! I’ve been looking forward to cycling since the beginning of the trip so I can’t wait!
After our tour of Parliament Elena and I went to our second store that was not opened yesterday to get the rest of the items on our shopping task list. It didn’t take long at all so we were able to go back to our flat for lunch. We had to meet back at the college at 1:00 to begin our afternoon session. In our session we talked about this week’s events and then we got to talking about our shopping experiences. We compared all of our different locations and then we got to try the food we purchased. Some of us were braver than others when trying the food. My shopping buddy Elena was particularly brave and tried the blood pudding. If you want to know what it is you can look it up, but she is the only one in the history of this program that has actually tried it. We also had another first in our group when one of the boys ate one of the OXO cubes. An OXO cube is a chicken broth cube…he was not too excited after he put it in his mouth. We all got a really good laugh out of that one! As we ate the food we went through the questions about the food we had for homework. It was pretty interesting and a pretty nice way to spend the afternoon in the classroom.
Once class was over it was time for our fitness walk. We went to Hyde Park today. Hyde Park is gigantic. I had no clue how big it really was before we started walking around. It’s always nice to see a place like Hyde Park in the middle of London….gives you an escape from the city scene for a bit. I will probably be going back…especially because there were dogs all over the place (not on leashes like normal here)!!! By the time we were done walking I was totally exhausted. Getting back home was so nice. Jeana and I made some quesadillas for dinner right away so we could just relax the rest of the night. We have started making our plans for our weekend trips and are pretty excited about them!!!
Lots in store for this week so I’m preparing myself by sleeping in a little in the morning :) I really wanted to go to the Tate Modern with the Art History class in the morning but I think I’m going to have to venture there on my own sometime because I need some sleep. Tomorrow evening we are going to a football match followed by cycling on Monday morning bright and early! I’ve been looking forward to cycling since the beginning of the trip so I can’t wait!
Sunday, September 26
Tourists
Jeana and I packed this weekend full of lots of fun things to do here in London. We definitely kept ourselves busy with all the touristy things. On Thursday we decided that in order to take full advantage of our weekend we were going to plan the entire thing out. We created a pretty epic weekend for ourselves, but as I have mentioned before nothing ever really goes according to plan here in London. As I go through the highlights I may share a few of the lessons we learned from this weekend.
First off we headed to Portobello market on Friday morning. It was a pretty nice day out to start with and then it started pouring after we had been there for about an hour. The market itself was probably the best one we have been to so far though because it had everything you could possibly want to find at a market. We had fun walking around for a while but got tired of the rain after not too long and when it began really coming down we decided to call it a day. We think that because of the weather all of the vendors weren’t set up so we might venture back some time to check it out. The nice thing about the bad weather was that hardly anyone was there so it was easy to walk around!
In the afternoon we had planned to go to the Tower of London. Since we got drenched at the market we headed home to warm ourselves up and put on some dry clothes. We had to print off our tickets for the Tower at the Library and figured that would only take a minute but we were wrong about that. It’s not worth the effort explaining how their library system works but basically it took us a half an hour to print the sheet and finally be on our way. That put us behind schedule quite bit. By the time we got to the Tower it was 4:00 but we didn’t really think anything of it. Not realizing the Tower closes at 5:30 we just leisurely wandered around and took our time taking pictures and reading the signs. We hadn’t even gone into many of the displays because we were just having a good time looking at the outside. We really wanted to go on the beefeater tour so we found one and asked when the next tour was only to find out that the last one had started at 3:30. To say the least we were really disappointed but we decided to just check out everything else. We went into about two exhibits and then someone came in and informed everyone that the place was closing in 10 minutes! We had only seen a few things but we really wanted to see the crown jewels so we scurried over and checked those out before the place closed. All in all we left disappointed but intrigued so we plan to go back some other time…after we are absolutely as to when it opens and closes.
Then we were off to meet up with two of the other girls as we had planned to go out for a nice dinner together. The tube station we met them at ended up having some delays so we had to wait around for a while. When they caught up to us we headed to the restaurant only to find out it was closed. Then we spent a while walking around just looking for a place to grab sandwiches. In the process we saw this man painting some pictures so we decided to stop and have a look. It’s always fun to encounter random things you don’t expect to see. There was music playing in the background. He painted the face of whomever it was who was singing the songs. It was a pretty fun thing to run into.
Our final stop for the evening was the London Eye. We wanted to do it at night because we get to see the city during the day all the time. Being able to overlook the entire city was pretty neat but I wouldn’t say it was my favorite thing we have done by far. Going on the London Eye just seems like one of those things that you have to do but probably wouldn’t regret it if you didn’t. It was an experience though and we had a good time. There were only about nine of us in our pod so we had plenty of room to walk around and really enjoy the views which was nice.
One thing that did brighten my day was that we got to see a puppy and the owner let us pet it! Always makes your day a little bit brighter when you get to pet a puppy! While I’m on the topic I may as well share with you about London and dogs. Owners here do not keep their dogs on leashes (for the most part) and the dogs just trot alongside them. It’s weird to see because I always think the dog is a stray but then its owner will appear out of nowhere. And dogs are allowed on the tube. The other day Jeana and I were on the tube and all of a sudden we see a black lab just walk off the train. It was the weirdest thing to comprehend. It just didn’t make sense. It was like the dog had gotten on and off the tube all by itself…of course its owner was around but the way it got off made it seem like it knew what it was doing and this was just another day out on the town. But that’s enough about dogs :)
Since Jeana and I ran into a few problems on Friday planning wise we decided to go home and make sure that our day was going to run smoothly. We ended up going to Kew Gardens which is one of the largest botanical gardens. The place was huge and absolutely beautiful. We got there a little before 1:30 and ended up staying until it closed at 6:00. You would think this would be a long time there but there was so much to do! We hardly got everything we wanted to done but we had just enough time. By the time we left we were completely tired and I’m not sure if we could have stuck around any longer. I really loved the place. We are around the fast paced city life all the time so it was great to get away from that and enjoy the outdoors without the sounds of cars and sirens passing by. We also picked a great day to go because it was the only day this weekend that it didn’t rain so we were really lucky in that regard!
We didn’t pencil in much time to relax this weekend so we decided that we should keep Sunday more low key. In the morning we headed to St. Paul’s for church. I really enjoyed the service. The choir was really good though it was sort of hard to understand what they were saying sometimes because of the echo. St. Paul’s is the most beautiful of the three churches we have been to so far in my opinion. I loved how open it was compared to Westminster which was so packed full of stuff it seemed cluttered. After church Jeana and I ate at a little café and then headed to Little Venice where they were giving a free tour. We met up with Janet there and were really enjoying the tour when the rain began. We got absolutely soaked as none of us had prepared for rain. We were planning on sticking out the tour but we decided it wasn’t worth it as we were soaked, it was freezing, the tour was free and we all had things to do at home.
Thank goodness we left the tour early because when I got home I realized that I had to do my shopping for class tomorrow before six as the store closed then! So Elena and I scurried to figure out where the store was and headed there to complete our shopping. We were supposed to go to two stores right next to each other but the one had already closed. Poor planning on our part…this is why I’m not usually a procrastinator! We got about half of our grocery list and found out we did really well compared to most people so that made me feel a little better at least! The store was adorable but expensive so I won’t be doing my regular shopping there! Elena and I might go back for a treat sometime though because they had a really cute tasting area. I’ll save more information on the shopping exercise for later though!
That pretty much highlights my weekend…maybe more than highlights! It was a great weekend overall even though almost nothing went exactly as planned!
First off we headed to Portobello market on Friday morning. It was a pretty nice day out to start with and then it started pouring after we had been there for about an hour. The market itself was probably the best one we have been to so far though because it had everything you could possibly want to find at a market. We had fun walking around for a while but got tired of the rain after not too long and when it began really coming down we decided to call it a day. We think that because of the weather all of the vendors weren’t set up so we might venture back some time to check it out. The nice thing about the bad weather was that hardly anyone was there so it was easy to walk around!
In the afternoon we had planned to go to the Tower of London. Since we got drenched at the market we headed home to warm ourselves up and put on some dry clothes. We had to print off our tickets for the Tower at the Library and figured that would only take a minute but we were wrong about that. It’s not worth the effort explaining how their library system works but basically it took us a half an hour to print the sheet and finally be on our way. That put us behind schedule quite bit. By the time we got to the Tower it was 4:00 but we didn’t really think anything of it. Not realizing the Tower closes at 5:30 we just leisurely wandered around and took our time taking pictures and reading the signs. We hadn’t even gone into many of the displays because we were just having a good time looking at the outside. We really wanted to go on the beefeater tour so we found one and asked when the next tour was only to find out that the last one had started at 3:30. To say the least we were really disappointed but we decided to just check out everything else. We went into about two exhibits and then someone came in and informed everyone that the place was closing in 10 minutes! We had only seen a few things but we really wanted to see the crown jewels so we scurried over and checked those out before the place closed. All in all we left disappointed but intrigued so we plan to go back some other time…after we are absolutely as to when it opens and closes.
Then we were off to meet up with two of the other girls as we had planned to go out for a nice dinner together. The tube station we met them at ended up having some delays so we had to wait around for a while. When they caught up to us we headed to the restaurant only to find out it was closed. Then we spent a while walking around just looking for a place to grab sandwiches. In the process we saw this man painting some pictures so we decided to stop and have a look. It’s always fun to encounter random things you don’t expect to see. There was music playing in the background. He painted the face of whomever it was who was singing the songs. It was a pretty fun thing to run into.
Our final stop for the evening was the London Eye. We wanted to do it at night because we get to see the city during the day all the time. Being able to overlook the entire city was pretty neat but I wouldn’t say it was my favorite thing we have done by far. Going on the London Eye just seems like one of those things that you have to do but probably wouldn’t regret it if you didn’t. It was an experience though and we had a good time. There were only about nine of us in our pod so we had plenty of room to walk around and really enjoy the views which was nice.
One thing that did brighten my day was that we got to see a puppy and the owner let us pet it! Always makes your day a little bit brighter when you get to pet a puppy! While I’m on the topic I may as well share with you about London and dogs. Owners here do not keep their dogs on leashes (for the most part) and the dogs just trot alongside them. It’s weird to see because I always think the dog is a stray but then its owner will appear out of nowhere. And dogs are allowed on the tube. The other day Jeana and I were on the tube and all of a sudden we see a black lab just walk off the train. It was the weirdest thing to comprehend. It just didn’t make sense. It was like the dog had gotten on and off the tube all by itself…of course its owner was around but the way it got off made it seem like it knew what it was doing and this was just another day out on the town. But that’s enough about dogs :)
Since Jeana and I ran into a few problems on Friday planning wise we decided to go home and make sure that our day was going to run smoothly. We ended up going to Kew Gardens which is one of the largest botanical gardens. The place was huge and absolutely beautiful. We got there a little before 1:30 and ended up staying until it closed at 6:00. You would think this would be a long time there but there was so much to do! We hardly got everything we wanted to done but we had just enough time. By the time we left we were completely tired and I’m not sure if we could have stuck around any longer. I really loved the place. We are around the fast paced city life all the time so it was great to get away from that and enjoy the outdoors without the sounds of cars and sirens passing by. We also picked a great day to go because it was the only day this weekend that it didn’t rain so we were really lucky in that regard!
We didn’t pencil in much time to relax this weekend so we decided that we should keep Sunday more low key. In the morning we headed to St. Paul’s for church. I really enjoyed the service. The choir was really good though it was sort of hard to understand what they were saying sometimes because of the echo. St. Paul’s is the most beautiful of the three churches we have been to so far in my opinion. I loved how open it was compared to Westminster which was so packed full of stuff it seemed cluttered. After church Jeana and I ate at a little café and then headed to Little Venice where they were giving a free tour. We met up with Janet there and were really enjoying the tour when the rain began. We got absolutely soaked as none of us had prepared for rain. We were planning on sticking out the tour but we decided it wasn’t worth it as we were soaked, it was freezing, the tour was free and we all had things to do at home.
Thank goodness we left the tour early because when I got home I realized that I had to do my shopping for class tomorrow before six as the store closed then! So Elena and I scurried to figure out where the store was and headed there to complete our shopping. We were supposed to go to two stores right next to each other but the one had already closed. Poor planning on our part…this is why I’m not usually a procrastinator! We got about half of our grocery list and found out we did really well compared to most people so that made me feel a little better at least! The store was adorable but expensive so I won’t be doing my regular shopping there! Elena and I might go back for a treat sometime though because they had a really cute tasting area. I’ll save more information on the shopping exercise for later though!
That pretty much highlights my weekend…maybe more than highlights! It was a great weekend overall even though almost nothing went exactly as planned!
Thursday, September 23
Rainy Day
Today was pretty much a normal day here in London. The day started off with walking class. Today we went through Green Park, St. James Park, past Buckingham Palace and then past the Churchill Museum before ending up at Trafalgar Square where we hopped on our tube home. It seems like a really long walk but it only took us a little over a half an hour. The only bummer about our walk this morning was that it was drizzling the entire time. Denise was going to let us just go home and not have to walk but we all decided to be troopers and take the walk anyway. Luckily the downpour hit once we had just gotten off our tube stop in Kilburn Park so we didn't have to walk very far in the pouring rain. We were all quite damp when we finally got home though. After eating some lunch I headed to the British Museum with the Art History class.
The British Museum is absolutely gigantic. I have never seen a museum that big in my life. We walked through it for 2 hours and hardly saw the entire thing. We passed tons of stuff which means we are going to have to go back again sometime. Plus while we were there I was not feeling to wonderful so I wasn't enjoying it as much as I probably will another time. I was utterly exhausted from this entire week and had not been getting enough sleep but once we got back from the museum I took a nice long nap and am feeling much more refreshed now!
When I woke up Jeana and I started planning out our weekend and the weekends we plan to take trips. It was a bit overwhelming because we plan to go to several places and we just don't seem to have enough time here to do everything we want, but we are slowly figuring it all out. We are quite excited about the weekend we have planned but I'll be writing about that after we have had all our fun :)
This evening since none of us were really feeling our best a few of us girls stayed in and watched a movie together...Rendition. It was really pretty good and we had fun hanging out and just relaxing. Now I'm off to get a good nights rest to be ready for a full weekend of fun things planned ahead! I'm excited to share all my weekend fun later! :)
The British Museum is absolutely gigantic. I have never seen a museum that big in my life. We walked through it for 2 hours and hardly saw the entire thing. We passed tons of stuff which means we are going to have to go back again sometime. Plus while we were there I was not feeling to wonderful so I wasn't enjoying it as much as I probably will another time. I was utterly exhausted from this entire week and had not been getting enough sleep but once we got back from the museum I took a nice long nap and am feeling much more refreshed now!
When I woke up Jeana and I started planning out our weekend and the weekends we plan to take trips. It was a bit overwhelming because we plan to go to several places and we just don't seem to have enough time here to do everything we want, but we are slowly figuring it all out. We are quite excited about the weekend we have planned but I'll be writing about that after we have had all our fun :)
This evening since none of us were really feeling our best a few of us girls stayed in and watched a movie together...Rendition. It was really pretty good and we had fun hanging out and just relaxing. Now I'm off to get a good nights rest to be ready for a full weekend of fun things planned ahead! I'm excited to share all my weekend fun later! :)
Wednesday, September 22
Time to Catch Up
I have tons to catch up on in this blog so I’ll do my best to key in on some of the highlights. Monday we had our British Life and Culture class pretty much all day. We started at 9 am and the class ended at 3:00 with an hour and a half lunch break in the middle of the day. During the morning session we learned the geography of the United Kingdom based on football teams we were required to research as part of our homework. It was quite an interesting way to learn geography. After that part of class we did a webbing activity to start connecting the things we had been learning so far. To end the morning session we were divided up into groups and required to write down five questions we wanted answered while we were here.
We had an hour and a half lunch break after that. During the break we ate our lunch and then Jeana and I headed to the market that is nearby to get our fruits and vegetables for the week. Then we headed back to class for our afternoon session. In the afternoon we discussed how Parliament works and the roles of people within Parliament. Then we did a mock session of Parliament and had to pass a bill. It was again a really neat way to learn about the UK and how the things they do vary from the way we do things. When class was over we got our tasks for the week and I am quite excited about it. I know its crazy I’m looking forward to doing homework but this is homework London style. We have been given a shopping task. Basically we all have been given different grocery stores in various parts of town that we have to shop at and then compare our findings at our next class session where we will also be taste testing the food. It should be quite fun to do! I’ll explain more about the rest of the assignment as we complete those things!
When class was over it was time to go on one of our walks for walking class. We walked through Soho and Chinatown so that was pretty interesting to get to see those parts of London. We only walked for 50 minutes but we were all dead tired by the time we got back to our flats. Not so much from the walking but the entire day in general was sort of exhausting. When we got back Jeana and I had a snack and then headed out to do some grocery shopping. We had looked up a few recipes that we could make and were quite happy with our shopping. We made some yummy Mexican dip when we got home. Even though I was totally exhausted at this point some of us decided to go listen to some live music that was playing down the street and I’m quite glad I went because it was really good.
Tuesday was a much more relaxing day than Monday. I did not have class until 1:00 so I slept in until 11:00 to catch up on some much needed sleep. At 1:00 was our British Pop Music class. This class is absolutely fantastic…mostly because my professor is just excellent! On Tuesday we learned all about the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and a little about The Animals and The Who. We got to listen to music from all the groups and I just absolutely loved it. We all left there wanting to go play some Beatles when we got back to our flats. I just wish there were more classes like this one because it really is an experience.
After class I came back and worked on some homework a little bit. Later in the evening Denise and her family invited us over for some tea and treats. We started heading over there a little after 7:00 and had a great time telling stories and talking about trips we had in the works for the rest of the semester. Currently we are working on planning our fall break trip to Italy and I am quite excited about it!
Lyndon had told us to try to catch some of the football match that was on last night: Tottenham Hotspurs (which is one of my football teams) versus Arsenal at one of the pubs. He said it would be fun to see what the atmosphere of the pub was like and he was right. We decided to catch the end of the game before heading home at the pub on the corner of Denise’s street. It really was a neat thing to be a part of. Everyone cheered when something good happened or booed when they were upset. It was just a fun environment to be in to watch the game. We did have to ask a few people some questions about the match but that only made it all the more fun. Now when we go to a football match as a group next week we’ll sort of know what we are talking about! And apparently we got there at an exciting time because the match had just gone into extra time (same as over time). It was lucky for us because if it hadn’t we would have missed the match completely. When the match ended the pub we were in actually started doing Karaoke. We stayed to listen to a few songs. The people were actually really good. We are thinking we might do some rehearsing and go back and give it a try sometime (I only plan to lip sing but the girls don’t know that yet!).
Now finally today! Today was quite the eventful day. We began our day full of sightseeing at Westminster Abbey. It was quite spectacular and I would say it is somewhere everyone must go who visits London. There really is just so much to see inside and the architecture of the building is simply incredible. It was sort of fascinating seeing the burial sites of all the people we have been studying and learning about this entire trip. Seeing them was also quite odd at the same time because you just do not expect them to really be buried there. Apparently there are 4,000 bodies buried there and it is now completely full. No one else can be buried in Westminster Abbey. A few highlights were seeing the coronation chair and Edward the Confessors burial site. The part I found the most moving was the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The tomb of the Unknown Soldier is the only grave you cannot walk over. People are allowed to walk all over the graves of Kings and Queens but it is specifically noted that no one may walk on this grave. No one knows which solider is buried within the grave as he was randomly selected from four corpses but he represents all the lives that were lost that were unable to be identified. It was quite sad to think about thousands of men who lost their lives and were never identified so I just thought the grave was a really good commemoration of that.
When we finished touring the entire Abbey we quickly marched ourselves over to Buckingham Place to see the changing of the guard. It was a really beautiful day out today so by the time we got there it was really crowded. We stood around for a while but basically gave up on seeing it today. We were only going to see them switch out anyway so I had planned to come back because I would like to see the full ceremony. After that we had until 1:45 to just enjoy the afternoon and eat lunch. There is a beautiful park right next to Buckingham Palace so that is where we spent our afternoon. If I’m not mistaken I think it was St. James Park but I’m not sure on that. It was a beautiful park and just made it for a perfect afternoon. We have all missed seeing the grass and being able to just sit out and enjoy the sunshine on the days when it is shining so our afternoon at the park was fantastic. I absolutely loved seeing all the flowers and the wildlife that was there. The animals here are so much braver than they are in the US. Squirrels just came up to us while we were sitting in the grass. To be honest it freaked me out a little bit. I never really want to be that close to a squirrel again. There were some really pretty ducks and other birds in the water and also some great views of London from the park.
After fully enjoying the wonderful weather and time out in the sun we headed for Buckingham Palace for our tour. We just used the audio guides and got to walk through at our own pace. It was really nice being able to spend as much or as little time in each room as we liked. Though I don’t think I spent a little amount of time in any room. Some of the people didn’t seem to enjoy the tour but I thought the house was absolutely beautiful. There is no other place where you can have as beautiful of ceilings as they have in Buckingham Palace. It may seem like a weird detail to pick out but the intricacy of the ceilings was incredible. The entire place was exquisitely decorated. It really can’t even be described in words. Hearing the audio guide the entire time was a bit of information overload. It was interesting while we were walking through the rooms but honestly I was so into actually looking at the rooms that at the end of the tour I couldn’t remember much of what the audio guide said! The tour was still completely worth every minute. Apparently I took too much time enjoying the rooms though because one other girl and I were the last ones out and some people had been waiting 20 minutes for us. I really didn’t feel bad about it because they just should have looked around more!
Now it seems as if that is one full day and it should probably be over but not quite! Our final activity was actually optional but I wasn’t about to pass up on some potential fun and fun it was. We ventured over to Hyde Park to play a game of rounders. It is basically softball but its rules vary quite a bit. Instead of the goal being to just get around the bases and score when you make it back to home plate, you only score if you make it all the way around to home plate in one run. Basically you only score a point if you get what would be a home run to us or if you’re really fast and the other team can’t tag you out by the time you run around the bases. I was quite excited because I did actually score a point for the team. We played girls versus guys (Denise’s family joined us for the tour of Buckingham Palace so her three little boys got to play with us which was quite fun). The girls played hard but we didn’t end up with the victory in the end…all I ended up with was a grass stain on my pants from sliding into one of the bases to try to get one of the boys out (I actually sort of slipped…I didn’t mean to actually slide. I just hope the grass stain comes out of my jeans!). It was so much fun though and I hope we get to play it again. We are actually hoping that Phillipa will teach us how to play cricket soon.
So that has been my exciting week so far. I cannot believe it is Wednesday night already! Time sure has been flying by! One more day of class and then we have a fun filled weekend in store!
We had an hour and a half lunch break after that. During the break we ate our lunch and then Jeana and I headed to the market that is nearby to get our fruits and vegetables for the week. Then we headed back to class for our afternoon session. In the afternoon we discussed how Parliament works and the roles of people within Parliament. Then we did a mock session of Parliament and had to pass a bill. It was again a really neat way to learn about the UK and how the things they do vary from the way we do things. When class was over we got our tasks for the week and I am quite excited about it. I know its crazy I’m looking forward to doing homework but this is homework London style. We have been given a shopping task. Basically we all have been given different grocery stores in various parts of town that we have to shop at and then compare our findings at our next class session where we will also be taste testing the food. It should be quite fun to do! I’ll explain more about the rest of the assignment as we complete those things!
When class was over it was time to go on one of our walks for walking class. We walked through Soho and Chinatown so that was pretty interesting to get to see those parts of London. We only walked for 50 minutes but we were all dead tired by the time we got back to our flats. Not so much from the walking but the entire day in general was sort of exhausting. When we got back Jeana and I had a snack and then headed out to do some grocery shopping. We had looked up a few recipes that we could make and were quite happy with our shopping. We made some yummy Mexican dip when we got home. Even though I was totally exhausted at this point some of us decided to go listen to some live music that was playing down the street and I’m quite glad I went because it was really good.
Tuesday was a much more relaxing day than Monday. I did not have class until 1:00 so I slept in until 11:00 to catch up on some much needed sleep. At 1:00 was our British Pop Music class. This class is absolutely fantastic…mostly because my professor is just excellent! On Tuesday we learned all about the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and a little about The Animals and The Who. We got to listen to music from all the groups and I just absolutely loved it. We all left there wanting to go play some Beatles when we got back to our flats. I just wish there were more classes like this one because it really is an experience.
After class I came back and worked on some homework a little bit. Later in the evening Denise and her family invited us over for some tea and treats. We started heading over there a little after 7:00 and had a great time telling stories and talking about trips we had in the works for the rest of the semester. Currently we are working on planning our fall break trip to Italy and I am quite excited about it!
Lyndon had told us to try to catch some of the football match that was on last night: Tottenham Hotspurs (which is one of my football teams) versus Arsenal at one of the pubs. He said it would be fun to see what the atmosphere of the pub was like and he was right. We decided to catch the end of the game before heading home at the pub on the corner of Denise’s street. It really was a neat thing to be a part of. Everyone cheered when something good happened or booed when they were upset. It was just a fun environment to be in to watch the game. We did have to ask a few people some questions about the match but that only made it all the more fun. Now when we go to a football match as a group next week we’ll sort of know what we are talking about! And apparently we got there at an exciting time because the match had just gone into extra time (same as over time). It was lucky for us because if it hadn’t we would have missed the match completely. When the match ended the pub we were in actually started doing Karaoke. We stayed to listen to a few songs. The people were actually really good. We are thinking we might do some rehearsing and go back and give it a try sometime (I only plan to lip sing but the girls don’t know that yet!).
Now finally today! Today was quite the eventful day. We began our day full of sightseeing at Westminster Abbey. It was quite spectacular and I would say it is somewhere everyone must go who visits London. There really is just so much to see inside and the architecture of the building is simply incredible. It was sort of fascinating seeing the burial sites of all the people we have been studying and learning about this entire trip. Seeing them was also quite odd at the same time because you just do not expect them to really be buried there. Apparently there are 4,000 bodies buried there and it is now completely full. No one else can be buried in Westminster Abbey. A few highlights were seeing the coronation chair and Edward the Confessors burial site. The part I found the most moving was the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The tomb of the Unknown Soldier is the only grave you cannot walk over. People are allowed to walk all over the graves of Kings and Queens but it is specifically noted that no one may walk on this grave. No one knows which solider is buried within the grave as he was randomly selected from four corpses but he represents all the lives that were lost that were unable to be identified. It was quite sad to think about thousands of men who lost their lives and were never identified so I just thought the grave was a really good commemoration of that.
When we finished touring the entire Abbey we quickly marched ourselves over to Buckingham Place to see the changing of the guard. It was a really beautiful day out today so by the time we got there it was really crowded. We stood around for a while but basically gave up on seeing it today. We were only going to see them switch out anyway so I had planned to come back because I would like to see the full ceremony. After that we had until 1:45 to just enjoy the afternoon and eat lunch. There is a beautiful park right next to Buckingham Palace so that is where we spent our afternoon. If I’m not mistaken I think it was St. James Park but I’m not sure on that. It was a beautiful park and just made it for a perfect afternoon. We have all missed seeing the grass and being able to just sit out and enjoy the sunshine on the days when it is shining so our afternoon at the park was fantastic. I absolutely loved seeing all the flowers and the wildlife that was there. The animals here are so much braver than they are in the US. Squirrels just came up to us while we were sitting in the grass. To be honest it freaked me out a little bit. I never really want to be that close to a squirrel again. There were some really pretty ducks and other birds in the water and also some great views of London from the park.
After fully enjoying the wonderful weather and time out in the sun we headed for Buckingham Palace for our tour. We just used the audio guides and got to walk through at our own pace. It was really nice being able to spend as much or as little time in each room as we liked. Though I don’t think I spent a little amount of time in any room. Some of the people didn’t seem to enjoy the tour but I thought the house was absolutely beautiful. There is no other place where you can have as beautiful of ceilings as they have in Buckingham Palace. It may seem like a weird detail to pick out but the intricacy of the ceilings was incredible. The entire place was exquisitely decorated. It really can’t even be described in words. Hearing the audio guide the entire time was a bit of information overload. It was interesting while we were walking through the rooms but honestly I was so into actually looking at the rooms that at the end of the tour I couldn’t remember much of what the audio guide said! The tour was still completely worth every minute. Apparently I took too much time enjoying the rooms though because one other girl and I were the last ones out and some people had been waiting 20 minutes for us. I really didn’t feel bad about it because they just should have looked around more!
Now it seems as if that is one full day and it should probably be over but not quite! Our final activity was actually optional but I wasn’t about to pass up on some potential fun and fun it was. We ventured over to Hyde Park to play a game of rounders. It is basically softball but its rules vary quite a bit. Instead of the goal being to just get around the bases and score when you make it back to home plate, you only score if you make it all the way around to home plate in one run. Basically you only score a point if you get what would be a home run to us or if you’re really fast and the other team can’t tag you out by the time you run around the bases. I was quite excited because I did actually score a point for the team. We played girls versus guys (Denise’s family joined us for the tour of Buckingham Palace so her three little boys got to play with us which was quite fun). The girls played hard but we didn’t end up with the victory in the end…all I ended up with was a grass stain on my pants from sliding into one of the bases to try to get one of the boys out (I actually sort of slipped…I didn’t mean to actually slide. I just hope the grass stain comes out of my jeans!). It was so much fun though and I hope we get to play it again. We are actually hoping that Phillipa will teach us how to play cricket soon.
So that has been my exciting week so far. I cannot believe it is Wednesday night already! Time sure has been flying by! One more day of class and then we have a fun filled weekend in store!
Sunday, September 19
Weekend
It was fun spending this weekend in the city of London. On Saturday I got up at 10:00 and decided I should do a bit of my homework so that I wouldn’t have to do it all on Sunday. I’m really glad I did because I only did one of our many assignments and it took a lot longer than expected. We had to research Parliament and learn all about how it works. I thought it was really interesting so doing the research wasn’t really that bad. After completing the homework Jeana and I got ready and decided to head back to Greenwich to paint some pottery.
It was a pretty long trip to get to Greenwich, a little over an hour, but we thought it was worth it. We both decided to paint phone booths because really what else could we choose, we are in London! It was a really nice thing to do to just get away and relax for a while. When we were done painting pottery we headed back home. Once we got home we ate some dinner and then got ready to head downtown for the evening. We went to a club and had some fun getting our dance on.
When we got back I had my first attempt at laundry and it was actually quite easy. To do a load of laundry it takes 2 hours and 10 minutes…just to wash! Our dryer doesn’t actually work so we just have to hang our clothes up to dry, but doing laundry wasn’t as awful as I thought it was going to be! This morning when I got up I put in another load and completed almost all my laundry which was quite nice.
After I put in the laundry we got ready to go to church. This morning we headed to Westminster Cathedral. It was absolutely beautiful! The service wasn’t that great since the pastor spoke in monotone, but his message was good at least. Just being able to be in the church was pretty neat as the Pope had just been there the previous day on his visit to Britain. Plus it is only one of the most incredible churches in London. We think we are going to go back another time just so we can look around and see the entire thing because it is gigantic.
After church we decided to grab something to eat before heading home. We walked around for a long time and found that all the little café’s were closed. We were pretty hungry at this point and there was a McDonald’s near the church, which was conveniently right by our tube stop as well, so we decided to try McDonald’s. We knew we were going to try it at some point on the trip just to see what it was like compared to ours at home, so we figured today was as good as any other day! We did notice the ketchup was a bit sweeter and the other girl’s hamburgers were much bigger than the ones from home but that’s all we really noticed. It also didn’t look like a McDonald’s on the inside at all. The place was pretty fancy and could have passed for a much nicer restaurant.
After we got home I hung up more of my laundry and did a bit of cleaning…mostly to postpone beginning my homework. Finally I decided to get started on it though and worked on it on and off throughout the rest of the day until it was done. One of my flat mates very nicely cooked us potato and bacon soup for dinner and it was absolutely fantastic! The rest of the evening we just spent hanging out and preparing for our full day of class tomorrow.
It was a pretty long trip to get to Greenwich, a little over an hour, but we thought it was worth it. We both decided to paint phone booths because really what else could we choose, we are in London! It was a really nice thing to do to just get away and relax for a while. When we were done painting pottery we headed back home. Once we got home we ate some dinner and then got ready to head downtown for the evening. We went to a club and had some fun getting our dance on.
When we got back I had my first attempt at laundry and it was actually quite easy. To do a load of laundry it takes 2 hours and 10 minutes…just to wash! Our dryer doesn’t actually work so we just have to hang our clothes up to dry, but doing laundry wasn’t as awful as I thought it was going to be! This morning when I got up I put in another load and completed almost all my laundry which was quite nice.
After I put in the laundry we got ready to go to church. This morning we headed to Westminster Cathedral. It was absolutely beautiful! The service wasn’t that great since the pastor spoke in monotone, but his message was good at least. Just being able to be in the church was pretty neat as the Pope had just been there the previous day on his visit to Britain. Plus it is only one of the most incredible churches in London. We think we are going to go back another time just so we can look around and see the entire thing because it is gigantic.
After church we decided to grab something to eat before heading home. We walked around for a long time and found that all the little café’s were closed. We were pretty hungry at this point and there was a McDonald’s near the church, which was conveniently right by our tube stop as well, so we decided to try McDonald’s. We knew we were going to try it at some point on the trip just to see what it was like compared to ours at home, so we figured today was as good as any other day! We did notice the ketchup was a bit sweeter and the other girl’s hamburgers were much bigger than the ones from home but that’s all we really noticed. It also didn’t look like a McDonald’s on the inside at all. The place was pretty fancy and could have passed for a much nicer restaurant.
After we got home I hung up more of my laundry and did a bit of cleaning…mostly to postpone beginning my homework. Finally I decided to get started on it though and worked on it on and off throughout the rest of the day until it was done. One of my flat mates very nicely cooked us potato and bacon soup for dinner and it was absolutely fantastic! The rest of the evening we just spent hanging out and preparing for our full day of class tomorrow.
Friday, September 17
Favorite Day
Yesterday was my favorite day in the city of London so far. When my alarm went off at 8:30 I was not ready to get up since the movie the girls and I watched lasted until 12:45 but I got up anyway to head to the National Gallery with the Art History class. I’m quite glad I did. Phillipa gave us a great tour. She is remarkably knowledgeable. I’m not a big fan of looking at art and deciphering what it means but the way she taught us to figure things out about the painting was really interesting. The National Gallery is enormous so we barely saw anything in our hour and a half tour. It’s probably somewhere that I will go back to but I’m really glad I went with Phillipa the first time because she took us to some of the neatest works of art.
Once the class was over some of us girls went to go see what theater tickets we wanted to purchase for the evening. We ended up deciding on Chicago. While we were purchasing the tickets we saw that they were setting up for some big event and as we were leaving noticed that it was for the premiere of Charlie St. Cloud. For those of you who don’t know this is a movie in which Zac Efron stars, who is only my favorite celeb. When we heard he was going to be there tonight we decided we had to come back and see him. Good news for us he was set to arrive after 6:00 but before 6:30 and Chicago didn’t start until 8:00 and was close by.
Some people needed a few things so then we decided to do a bit of shopping. It’s quite fun to go in stores and see the different fashion that London has compared to the US. It’s not super different but they do have their own unique style. Their sizes are quite weird and haven’t figured those out yet.
After we did a little shopping we headed back to our flat to eat lunch and get ready for our exciting evening. We left around 5:30 to make sure that we would beat Zac to the premiere. Since none of us had been to a premiere before we didn’t really know what to do but we just stood and waited for him to show up. A few cars passed by and we kept thinking it was him, but it wasn’t. Then finally they announced he was 10 minutes away and we go to see him drive by. I was literally about 5 feet away from him when he was in the car though the windows were tinted so I couldn’t actually see him. After that he was pretty far away but I could still see him and he was looking good :) I didn’t get any good close up pictures because my camera doesn’t zoom that far but I got a few from far away. Mostly I was more excited about seeing him than actually getting a picture though. It definitely made my night to get to see him and all through the night I’d randomly get excited about it because really who gets to see one of their favorite celebs just by chance!
When 7:00 hit we decided we should probably head toward the theater since we didn’t exactly know where it was located and we didn’t want to be late. It took us a little while to figure out how to get there but we eventually made it following our handy dandy map.
The performance of Chicago was spectacular. I was extremely impressed with the dancing and singing. The theater they performed in was much smaller than I expected it to be and the set up was quite different as well but it didn’t hinder the performance at all. The stage was mostly occupied by the band so the dancers/actors had little room to work with. I had never seen anything like it but it was still really good and I would recommend the show to anyone!
I got to experience so many neat things yesterday it made the day my favorite so far in London. It also really wiped me out and I ended up sleeping the entire morning away today as well as the rest of my flat for the most part. Everyone was feeling pretty tired today as pretty much everyone just wanted to stay in and have a nice relaxing day. I couldn’t sit still the entire day though.
A few of us decided to do a bit of shopping and went to one of the bigger and more popular markets Camden Market. It was pretty neat but I wouldn’t say it was in the nicest part of London. Some areas were a bit sketchy but the actual market was huge. I’m not even sure we saw the entire place but we had fun walking around and seeing everything. We only expected to stay there for about an hour but a few hours went by and we were still there. We finally made it back home around 7:30 I think and we were starving so we made ourselves some dinner and have just been hanging out ever since. It was just another good day in the city of London. :)
Once the class was over some of us girls went to go see what theater tickets we wanted to purchase for the evening. We ended up deciding on Chicago. While we were purchasing the tickets we saw that they were setting up for some big event and as we were leaving noticed that it was for the premiere of Charlie St. Cloud. For those of you who don’t know this is a movie in which Zac Efron stars, who is only my favorite celeb. When we heard he was going to be there tonight we decided we had to come back and see him. Good news for us he was set to arrive after 6:00 but before 6:30 and Chicago didn’t start until 8:00 and was close by.
Some people needed a few things so then we decided to do a bit of shopping. It’s quite fun to go in stores and see the different fashion that London has compared to the US. It’s not super different but they do have their own unique style. Their sizes are quite weird and haven’t figured those out yet.
After we did a little shopping we headed back to our flat to eat lunch and get ready for our exciting evening. We left around 5:30 to make sure that we would beat Zac to the premiere. Since none of us had been to a premiere before we didn’t really know what to do but we just stood and waited for him to show up. A few cars passed by and we kept thinking it was him, but it wasn’t. Then finally they announced he was 10 minutes away and we go to see him drive by. I was literally about 5 feet away from him when he was in the car though the windows were tinted so I couldn’t actually see him. After that he was pretty far away but I could still see him and he was looking good :) I didn’t get any good close up pictures because my camera doesn’t zoom that far but I got a few from far away. Mostly I was more excited about seeing him than actually getting a picture though. It definitely made my night to get to see him and all through the night I’d randomly get excited about it because really who gets to see one of their favorite celebs just by chance!
When 7:00 hit we decided we should probably head toward the theater since we didn’t exactly know where it was located and we didn’t want to be late. It took us a little while to figure out how to get there but we eventually made it following our handy dandy map.
The performance of Chicago was spectacular. I was extremely impressed with the dancing and singing. The theater they performed in was much smaller than I expected it to be and the set up was quite different as well but it didn’t hinder the performance at all. The stage was mostly occupied by the band so the dancers/actors had little room to work with. I had never seen anything like it but it was still really good and I would recommend the show to anyone!
I got to experience so many neat things yesterday it made the day my favorite so far in London. It also really wiped me out and I ended up sleeping the entire morning away today as well as the rest of my flat for the most part. Everyone was feeling pretty tired today as pretty much everyone just wanted to stay in and have a nice relaxing day. I couldn’t sit still the entire day though.
A few of us decided to do a bit of shopping and went to one of the bigger and more popular markets Camden Market. It was pretty neat but I wouldn’t say it was in the nicest part of London. Some areas were a bit sketchy but the actual market was huge. I’m not even sure we saw the entire place but we had fun walking around and seeing everything. We only expected to stay there for about an hour but a few hours went by and we were still there. We finally made it back home around 7:30 I think and we were starving so we made ourselves some dinner and have just been hanging out ever since. It was just another good day in the city of London. :)
Wednesday, September 15
Greenwich
Today was another exciting day. We headed to Greenwich, which isn’t very far from where we are living at all. Upon arrival we did some sightseeing and then headed through a tunnel to get to the other side of the Thames. We then took a look at some of the buildings/museums. First we went through a church and then through another building that I can’t quite remember the name of right now. Each building was quite impressive and the pictures I took of them do them no justice. Our tour guide/professor Phillipa shared so many interesting things with us about the places. She is quite fantastic.
After going through those places we took a 15 minute break. During that time we looked through the National Maritime Museum briefly. It seemed pretty neat from what we saw. After that we headed to the Queen’s house and walked through a few of the rooms. We didn’t get to go through it all because someone was having a lunch in one of the rooms so I’ll probably go back another time and have a look because it was pretty neat. Once we saw that we had an hour break for lunch. Several of us had packed our lunches so we went to a little café and each got a drink and ate our lunch. It was an adorable little place. It’s quite fun to find little places like the one we found. This one was particularly cute because the ceiling was made out of glass and we could see outside and all around us. It looked beautiful outside today though it was quite nippy. But while inside looking out it was a really nice view. After we enjoyed out lunch and warming up we headed out to look at this little café we saw earlier. It was a pottery shop/café and we all thought it was adorable so we are already in the midst of planning another trip out there to paint some pottery!
After lunch we had to meet at the top of the hill where the Royal Observatory is located. The Royal Observatory was by far my favorite part of the day. It was simply fascinating and the views were incredible. At the Royal Observatory you can actually be in two hemispheres at once because the prime meridian runs through the middle of it so we had fun taking pictures of that. There was also an incredible area where a picture of the central area of Greenwich was able to be displayed on a table. This is sort of hard to explain but basically when you went in this room the picture was displayed on the table and it was what was actually happening. It was a moving picture of real life…we could actually see the people who were down there and the cars and boats moving. It was really neat and something I would recommend everyone sees. We went through a few more exhibits there and then had free time until we had to catch our boat tour. Phillipa recommended that we check out the Greenwich market so that’s where Jeana and I headed. It was a cute little place.
It was then time to head back home. We took a boat tour back. It was quite windy out so it made it really chilly when we sat on top of the boat but it was the best way to see the city. We were all pretty cold by the end of the tour and ready to head back home to warm up. One thing that never fails is that the tube is super warm and today we were all glad that it was. Once we got back home we were starving so Jeana and I made another fantastic dinner (spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread). Then we all just hung out and rested after a long day. We had a group meeting at 9:30 and then us girls came back and are now watching a movie that is pretty interesting so far.
Tomorrow I’m going to the National Gallery with the Art History class in the morning and then a group of us are going to go purchase some theater tickets for the evening. We aren’t sure what we are going to see yet but it’s probably going to be whatever we can get the best deal on! After that we might do a little shopping around the city and enjoy the day. The weekend officially starts tomorrow and we have so many things we want to do. Nothing is officially planned so I’m sure we’ll spend some time figuring that out tomorrow!
After going through those places we took a 15 minute break. During that time we looked through the National Maritime Museum briefly. It seemed pretty neat from what we saw. After that we headed to the Queen’s house and walked through a few of the rooms. We didn’t get to go through it all because someone was having a lunch in one of the rooms so I’ll probably go back another time and have a look because it was pretty neat. Once we saw that we had an hour break for lunch. Several of us had packed our lunches so we went to a little café and each got a drink and ate our lunch. It was an adorable little place. It’s quite fun to find little places like the one we found. This one was particularly cute because the ceiling was made out of glass and we could see outside and all around us. It looked beautiful outside today though it was quite nippy. But while inside looking out it was a really nice view. After we enjoyed out lunch and warming up we headed out to look at this little café we saw earlier. It was a pottery shop/café and we all thought it was adorable so we are already in the midst of planning another trip out there to paint some pottery!
After lunch we had to meet at the top of the hill where the Royal Observatory is located. The Royal Observatory was by far my favorite part of the day. It was simply fascinating and the views were incredible. At the Royal Observatory you can actually be in two hemispheres at once because the prime meridian runs through the middle of it so we had fun taking pictures of that. There was also an incredible area where a picture of the central area of Greenwich was able to be displayed on a table. This is sort of hard to explain but basically when you went in this room the picture was displayed on the table and it was what was actually happening. It was a moving picture of real life…we could actually see the people who were down there and the cars and boats moving. It was really neat and something I would recommend everyone sees. We went through a few more exhibits there and then had free time until we had to catch our boat tour. Phillipa recommended that we check out the Greenwich market so that’s where Jeana and I headed. It was a cute little place.
It was then time to head back home. We took a boat tour back. It was quite windy out so it made it really chilly when we sat on top of the boat but it was the best way to see the city. We were all pretty cold by the end of the tour and ready to head back home to warm up. One thing that never fails is that the tube is super warm and today we were all glad that it was. Once we got back home we were starving so Jeana and I made another fantastic dinner (spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread). Then we all just hung out and rested after a long day. We had a group meeting at 9:30 and then us girls came back and are now watching a movie that is pretty interesting so far.
Tomorrow I’m going to the National Gallery with the Art History class in the morning and then a group of us are going to go purchase some theater tickets for the evening. We aren’t sure what we are going to see yet but it’s probably going to be whatever we can get the best deal on! After that we might do a little shopping around the city and enjoy the day. The weekend officially starts tomorrow and we have so many things we want to do. Nothing is officially planned so I’m sure we’ll spend some time figuring that out tomorrow!
Tuesday, September 14
Excitement
Just now we booked our first weekend trip to Wales!!!!!!! We are so excited we can hardly contain ourselves! We will be going to on a two day trip…the first day we will be visiting a castle and sightseeing and the second day we will be horseback riding all day! We will be there October 9th and 10th and we can’t wait!
With that being said the rest of the day was full of excitement as well. This morning we checked out the Science Museum for our walking class and went through an interactive exhibit called “Who Am I?” It was pretty cool and fun. Quite a great way to learn instead of having to read out of a textbook! After we went to the museum we had about an hour and a half before our next class. Denise decided that we should go exploring and find a cute place for lunch so we hopped on the tube and got off at one of the central spots in London. We found a cute little Italian place and I ended up getting margarita pizza and it was fantastic…probably my best meal here so far. On the down side we were slightly late to class because it was a sit down restaurant and we had only planned to grab a sandwich somewhere. But we lucked out because the classroom we were supposed to have class in got moved and we were not the only ones who were unable to find class.
I had my British pop music class today and it was really interesting! At first though I must admit I was pretty tired from a great lunch and was kind of falling asleep but towards the second part of class (each class is two hours long) we started listening to music from America and here and comparing them. We started our class in the 1950s and are going to go through the history up until today. In the 1950s the music here was pretty lame, according to our professor, because they didn’t have their own style like we Americans did. It was really neat being able to see the difference as he played our music and then played British music. According to our professor British music had no soul and were just wanna bes. That’s the short version and does his lecture no justice but it was really interesting.
After that class I was done for the day. I got to come back and practically have the flat to myself which was super nice to just be alone for a little bit of time because that is not something that comes easily here. So I enjoyed my time to myself cleaning my room and just relaxing. I did do a bit of homework too. Later everyone came back and Jeana and I went grocery shopping. We made dinner together tonight and it was fantastic…we were so proud of it that we took a picture of our meal. We made stir-fry from fresh vegetables and frozen rice. Yummmmmy. Quite a filling meal…I definitely ate well today :) After dinner we all just talked and hung out and then decided we should start planning our weekend trips. We booked the Wales trip and have not been researching some other options. Next weekend we are looking into Amsterdam because Ashlins family is going to be there and they said we could stay with them. We’re super excited to begin our weekend travels!!!!
That’s all I have for tonight! Time to sleep so that we can prepare for our day trip to Greenwich!
With that being said the rest of the day was full of excitement as well. This morning we checked out the Science Museum for our walking class and went through an interactive exhibit called “Who Am I?” It was pretty cool and fun. Quite a great way to learn instead of having to read out of a textbook! After we went to the museum we had about an hour and a half before our next class. Denise decided that we should go exploring and find a cute place for lunch so we hopped on the tube and got off at one of the central spots in London. We found a cute little Italian place and I ended up getting margarita pizza and it was fantastic…probably my best meal here so far. On the down side we were slightly late to class because it was a sit down restaurant and we had only planned to grab a sandwich somewhere. But we lucked out because the classroom we were supposed to have class in got moved and we were not the only ones who were unable to find class.
I had my British pop music class today and it was really interesting! At first though I must admit I was pretty tired from a great lunch and was kind of falling asleep but towards the second part of class (each class is two hours long) we started listening to music from America and here and comparing them. We started our class in the 1950s and are going to go through the history up until today. In the 1950s the music here was pretty lame, according to our professor, because they didn’t have their own style like we Americans did. It was really neat being able to see the difference as he played our music and then played British music. According to our professor British music had no soul and were just wanna bes. That’s the short version and does his lecture no justice but it was really interesting.
After that class I was done for the day. I got to come back and practically have the flat to myself which was super nice to just be alone for a little bit of time because that is not something that comes easily here. So I enjoyed my time to myself cleaning my room and just relaxing. I did do a bit of homework too. Later everyone came back and Jeana and I went grocery shopping. We made dinner together tonight and it was fantastic…we were so proud of it that we took a picture of our meal. We made stir-fry from fresh vegetables and frozen rice. Yummmmmy. Quite a filling meal…I definitely ate well today :) After dinner we all just talked and hung out and then decided we should start planning our weekend trips. We booked the Wales trip and have not been researching some other options. Next weekend we are looking into Amsterdam because Ashlins family is going to be there and they said we could stay with them. We’re super excited to begin our weekend travels!!!!
That’s all I have for tonight! Time to sleep so that we can prepare for our day trip to Greenwich!
Sometimes things don't go as planned
A big lesson I'm learning here in London is that things don't always go the way you expect them to...actually they hardly ever do but it only makes everything feel more like an adventure. Life is all about changing plans and figuring it all out along the way, which leads me to my day today. At the start of the day on the schedule we had our 4 mile walk/National Gallery/Globe theatre experience. The walk was only supposed to go until noon...we got done at 1:30. A five hour walk can be pretty exhausting if you haven't had the opportunity to try it out...especially when you've got a nice cold breeze off the Thames in the background. It was a lovely walk but it definitely wore us all out. Since we were supposed to begin our National Gallery tour at 2:00 our professor (who also did the 4 mile walk with us) decided we should move it to Thursday morning and Denise canceled our fitness walk for Thursday morning so that it fit into our schedule. So after some rearranging we were able to have the afternoon to ourselves to rest and that is what everyone did. I'm almost positive every single one of us took a nap...at least we all did in our flat and woke up a bit refreshed.
The walk this morning was chalked full of great information. I will include some of it along with my pictures whenever I manage to get enough time to upload them onto facebook. One story I must include in here though. We were on our tour and Lyndon decided we should stop for a potty break. He told us to make sure we had 50p (pence) if we wanted to go. We all heard this but it was only really in passing and none of us comprehended it until we reached the bathroom and were unable to get in until we put our 50p into a machine that would open up a gate (like you would enter at an amusement park)to let us in the restroom. It seemed like a steep price to pay to use the restroom but if you have to go you have to go. I've seen that in other countries (usually poverty stricken ones) but I was shocked to see it here. The bathroom was very nice though so I suppose it was worth my 50p! We all had a great time on the tour and got to see and hear a lot of interesting information. Our tour guides/professors, Lyndon and Phillipa, are extremely knowledgeable. One of our weekend tasks was to complete some biographical research on a famous person we were given from British history. On our tour we had to present the research we had done and then Lyndon and Phillipa explained how it was incorporated into the tour and the various locations we visited. It was a really neat way of learning the history. Most of the people were the kings and queens throughout history and it was fascinating to see all the connections among them.
When the tour was over we headed straight back to our flat so we could make lunch and rest. After lunch I took a shower because I had been pretty cold all morning and could not seem to get warm. (Speaking of showers...I'm not sure I have mentioned this but there is minimal water pressure here because they have a Victorian piping system. They are working on replacing it apparently but this part of London has not been renovated yet. According to the owner of the flat they replace about 100 feet per month or so and there is like 12,000 feet of pipe to be replaced. So its a lengthy project. But my point is it takes FOREVER to shower here. Not only that I seem to be incapable of finding a good temperature to put the shower on. If you get it to hot there is basically no way to turn the water down and I just have to completely turn the shower off and turn it back on so I don't scold myself. Its a complicated process that I'm hoping I get down fairly soon as I have had very little luck so far. But back to my day...) Then I had every intention of adding my pictures on facebook (as I still have not put up Sundays pictures either) but I quickly realized how tired I was and decided a nap was more beneficial. I got to sleep for almost an hour and a half. My alarm was set for 5:00 but when I woke up I was not ready to get up yet so I stayed in bed until about 5:15. We had to leave for the Globe at 5:45 so I didn't have time to eat dinner but I wasn't hungry as we didn't eat lunch until after 2:00 sometime.
We got to the Globe a little early which gave us time to look around in the shops. Then we waited in line to get into the theater. Once we were inside we were able to take pictures until the show actually started. It was such a neat place. I ended up taking a video of it so that people can really see what its like because I'm not sure my pictures will do it justice. We were on the ground floor (the standing area). The group I was with decided to stand all the way back so that they were against the wall to lean on. I didn't lean on the wall but we had a nice spot. We could have gotten closer but I think the spot we chose was a good one. If I go again I might stand a little closer though because there were a few extremely tall people in my way. (I decided that since its just standing room and its not really on a slant there should be a height maximum for people who are too tall...I'm not sure that'll really pass but I thought it was a good idea!)
When the performance first started I have to admit I was not excited to be there. I was still a little tired and my legs and feet were feeling it. It was hard to understand the actors at first and the play was just downright confusing at the beginning. As it went on the play really grew on me. The actors were hysterical. The beginning was just a little dull because nothing was really happening in the play and they were just introducing all the characters. Once the plot developed the characters personalities came out and it was just a hoot. We all ended up feeling about the same when the play first started so I was glad I wasn't the only one! Standing for that long is kind of tough after such a long morning (even with the nap!). The standing only really added to the experience though and I wouldn't change a thing about it. The second act was fantastic and I was laughing the entire time. We all had a really good time and it was a great experience, one some of us might try again!
We saw "Mary Wives of Windsor"...I guess that might be helpful to know. Basically its about this old, very large man who thinks he is clever by sending a love note to two women (both of whom are married and are very good friends). The women tell each other about the note they get and see that its exactly the same minus their names so they decide to play a tricks on the man. At the same time their husbands so not know that they are playing this trick and one of the husbands goes crazy trying to catch his wife cheating on him. The ladies are very clever and eventually they tell their husbands about what they have been up to and then they are in on it with them to trick the old man. It was quite entertaining and we all got a big laugh out of it. One I would recommend anyone to see.
After it was over we headed back to our flats and all had dinner and now I'm about to head to bed. One quick story about the tube...I found it unique that on the tube we switched over on to get to the Globe they announced over the PA system that we should be careful because pickpocketers were known at the station. In my mind if I was a pickpocketer then I probably would avoid that station as people should be on their guard if the PA is mentioning it, but it was just curious to me. I'm glad they did and none of us had any trouble :)
In the morning I will be going to the Science Museum for my walking class followed by my British Pop Music class. I'm quite excited to meet my professor for that class and to attend the class! Should be a fun day ahead tomorrow again!
The walk this morning was chalked full of great information. I will include some of it along with my pictures whenever I manage to get enough time to upload them onto facebook. One story I must include in here though. We were on our tour and Lyndon decided we should stop for a potty break. He told us to make sure we had 50p (pence) if we wanted to go. We all heard this but it was only really in passing and none of us comprehended it until we reached the bathroom and were unable to get in until we put our 50p into a machine that would open up a gate (like you would enter at an amusement park)to let us in the restroom. It seemed like a steep price to pay to use the restroom but if you have to go you have to go. I've seen that in other countries (usually poverty stricken ones) but I was shocked to see it here. The bathroom was very nice though so I suppose it was worth my 50p! We all had a great time on the tour and got to see and hear a lot of interesting information. Our tour guides/professors, Lyndon and Phillipa, are extremely knowledgeable. One of our weekend tasks was to complete some biographical research on a famous person we were given from British history. On our tour we had to present the research we had done and then Lyndon and Phillipa explained how it was incorporated into the tour and the various locations we visited. It was a really neat way of learning the history. Most of the people were the kings and queens throughout history and it was fascinating to see all the connections among them.
When the tour was over we headed straight back to our flat so we could make lunch and rest. After lunch I took a shower because I had been pretty cold all morning and could not seem to get warm. (Speaking of showers...I'm not sure I have mentioned this but there is minimal water pressure here because they have a Victorian piping system. They are working on replacing it apparently but this part of London has not been renovated yet. According to the owner of the flat they replace about 100 feet per month or so and there is like 12,000 feet of pipe to be replaced. So its a lengthy project. But my point is it takes FOREVER to shower here. Not only that I seem to be incapable of finding a good temperature to put the shower on. If you get it to hot there is basically no way to turn the water down and I just have to completely turn the shower off and turn it back on so I don't scold myself. Its a complicated process that I'm hoping I get down fairly soon as I have had very little luck so far. But back to my day...) Then I had every intention of adding my pictures on facebook (as I still have not put up Sundays pictures either) but I quickly realized how tired I was and decided a nap was more beneficial. I got to sleep for almost an hour and a half. My alarm was set for 5:00 but when I woke up I was not ready to get up yet so I stayed in bed until about 5:15. We had to leave for the Globe at 5:45 so I didn't have time to eat dinner but I wasn't hungry as we didn't eat lunch until after 2:00 sometime.
We got to the Globe a little early which gave us time to look around in the shops. Then we waited in line to get into the theater. Once we were inside we were able to take pictures until the show actually started. It was such a neat place. I ended up taking a video of it so that people can really see what its like because I'm not sure my pictures will do it justice. We were on the ground floor (the standing area). The group I was with decided to stand all the way back so that they were against the wall to lean on. I didn't lean on the wall but we had a nice spot. We could have gotten closer but I think the spot we chose was a good one. If I go again I might stand a little closer though because there were a few extremely tall people in my way. (I decided that since its just standing room and its not really on a slant there should be a height maximum for people who are too tall...I'm not sure that'll really pass but I thought it was a good idea!)
When the performance first started I have to admit I was not excited to be there. I was still a little tired and my legs and feet were feeling it. It was hard to understand the actors at first and the play was just downright confusing at the beginning. As it went on the play really grew on me. The actors were hysterical. The beginning was just a little dull because nothing was really happening in the play and they were just introducing all the characters. Once the plot developed the characters personalities came out and it was just a hoot. We all ended up feeling about the same when the play first started so I was glad I wasn't the only one! Standing for that long is kind of tough after such a long morning (even with the nap!). The standing only really added to the experience though and I wouldn't change a thing about it. The second act was fantastic and I was laughing the entire time. We all had a really good time and it was a great experience, one some of us might try again!
We saw "Mary Wives of Windsor"...I guess that might be helpful to know. Basically its about this old, very large man who thinks he is clever by sending a love note to two women (both of whom are married and are very good friends). The women tell each other about the note they get and see that its exactly the same minus their names so they decide to play a tricks on the man. At the same time their husbands so not know that they are playing this trick and one of the husbands goes crazy trying to catch his wife cheating on him. The ladies are very clever and eventually they tell their husbands about what they have been up to and then they are in on it with them to trick the old man. It was quite entertaining and we all got a big laugh out of it. One I would recommend anyone to see.
After it was over we headed back to our flats and all had dinner and now I'm about to head to bed. One quick story about the tube...I found it unique that on the tube we switched over on to get to the Globe they announced over the PA system that we should be careful because pickpocketers were known at the station. In my mind if I was a pickpocketer then I probably would avoid that station as people should be on their guard if the PA is mentioning it, but it was just curious to me. I'm glad they did and none of us had any trouble :)
In the morning I will be going to the Science Museum for my walking class followed by my British Pop Music class. I'm quite excited to meet my professor for that class and to attend the class! Should be a fun day ahead tomorrow again!
Sunday, September 12
What a Day
Today was a fantastic day overall. We woke up this morning at 9…that came way too early even though we went to bed before midnight last night. I just did not sleep well which is probably why I was pretty tired when I woke up. We got all ready and ate breakfast and then Jeana, Dalton and I headed to meet Denise and her family for a trip to the market. They met up with us at one of the tube stations which had cute mini pictures of Sherlock Holmes all over (see facebook pictures). We had fun taking pictures there later while pretending to be Sherlock Holmes. But we headed to the market and on the way found another market so we walked through that one for a bit. When exploring London you always end up finding something particularly interesting that you didn’t expect to find. We found this cute little sitting area where the trees were shaped in a circle (again see facebook pictures as this is quite hard to describe with words). Basically the trees were all lined up in a circle and the leaves grew around a wire which made them form a circle (imagine the circle as if you were looking at it from the top). It was pretty neat and will easily be explained if you see the picture! But it’s fun to see things like that!
We went to Spitalfields Market which we at first thought was going to be a food market but ended up being more of a high end market with clothing, pictures, jewelry, etc. It was a pretty big market and we had a good time looking around. There were some neat food vendors there so we all ended up grabbing lunch. I had mushroom ravioli and it was quite delicious. After we had finished lunch we had had enough time exploring the market and decided to head home. On the way to the market we had passed a church and Matt wanted to stop in and look at it so Jeana and I went with him to check it out. It was a pretty church but we weren’t blown away by it. It was an older church but a lot of restoration had been done to it and they just had regular chairs inside which gave it a more modern feel as opposed to an old antique looking church. It was still pretty to see though.
We finally headed home and once we got back we just rested for a little bit before getting ready to head to the Thames festival. We walked around the festival for hours. It was really neat but it was extremely crowded. It was a beautiful day out today but it quickly got cold as the sun went down since we were next to the river. We had planned to stay until the fireworks were over but everyone was ready to head back around 6:30. Jeana and I decided to stick around for the carnival because we didn’t want to miss the carnival and the fireworks and we are extremely glad we stayed. The carnival (which was actually a parade) was AWESOME! (I’ll again have pictures up on facebook later). But it was the neatest parade I have ever seen. All of the performers were dressed up in INCREDIBLE costumes and the music was FANTASTIC. We were completely exhausted by the time we left the festival but it was well worth it. I’m a little disappointed we didn’t end up staying to see the fireworks but I know with the day ahead tomorrow it was the best idea. You can only do so much in one day after all. Days here seems to fly by. I think I’ve mentioned this before but it’s true. The days are here and gone before you even know it. I guess it just goes to show that time flies when you’re having fun.
Today was just the beginning of one busy week. On the agenda tomorrow:
8:30 - Four mile river walk on the Thames (we have to leave at 7:00 am in order to make it to the bridge on time as we are meeting in the middle of Tower Bridge, which means we will be waking up quite early tomorrow)
12:00 – End of tour. Time to eat lunch and relax before the afternoon.
1:30 - Hour and a half tour of the National Gallery
5:45 - Leave to go to the Globe to see “Mary Wives of Windsor” where we will actually be standing the whole time right in front of the stage (it’s supposed to be the neatest experience and I’m looking forwards to it!)
Then it’s back to the flats to hopefully blog and then crash! Should be an outstanding day and I’m looking forward to it! Off to bed to be all ready for the start of classes!
We went to Spitalfields Market which we at first thought was going to be a food market but ended up being more of a high end market with clothing, pictures, jewelry, etc. It was a pretty big market and we had a good time looking around. There were some neat food vendors there so we all ended up grabbing lunch. I had mushroom ravioli and it was quite delicious. After we had finished lunch we had had enough time exploring the market and decided to head home. On the way to the market we had passed a church and Matt wanted to stop in and look at it so Jeana and I went with him to check it out. It was a pretty church but we weren’t blown away by it. It was an older church but a lot of restoration had been done to it and they just had regular chairs inside which gave it a more modern feel as opposed to an old antique looking church. It was still pretty to see though.
We finally headed home and once we got back we just rested for a little bit before getting ready to head to the Thames festival. We walked around the festival for hours. It was really neat but it was extremely crowded. It was a beautiful day out today but it quickly got cold as the sun went down since we were next to the river. We had planned to stay until the fireworks were over but everyone was ready to head back around 6:30. Jeana and I decided to stick around for the carnival because we didn’t want to miss the carnival and the fireworks and we are extremely glad we stayed. The carnival (which was actually a parade) was AWESOME! (I’ll again have pictures up on facebook later). But it was the neatest parade I have ever seen. All of the performers were dressed up in INCREDIBLE costumes and the music was FANTASTIC. We were completely exhausted by the time we left the festival but it was well worth it. I’m a little disappointed we didn’t end up staying to see the fireworks but I know with the day ahead tomorrow it was the best idea. You can only do so much in one day after all. Days here seems to fly by. I think I’ve mentioned this before but it’s true. The days are here and gone before you even know it. I guess it just goes to show that time flies when you’re having fun.
Today was just the beginning of one busy week. On the agenda tomorrow:
8:30 - Four mile river walk on the Thames (we have to leave at 7:00 am in order to make it to the bridge on time as we are meeting in the middle of Tower Bridge, which means we will be waking up quite early tomorrow)
12:00 – End of tour. Time to eat lunch and relax before the afternoon.
1:30 - Hour and a half tour of the National Gallery
5:45 - Leave to go to the Globe to see “Mary Wives of Windsor” where we will actually be standing the whole time right in front of the stage (it’s supposed to be the neatest experience and I’m looking forwards to it!)
Then it’s back to the flats to hopefully blog and then crash! Should be an outstanding day and I’m looking forward to it! Off to bed to be all ready for the start of classes!
Saturday, September 11
Relaxation. Terror. Fun.
The day started off a lot later than planned. The majority of the flat ended up sleeping in more than we expected. Jeana and I were both shocked when we looked at our clock and found out it was one already! We all probably really needed the sleep though after being go-go-go all the time. We were starving when we woke up so we made ourselves some lunch and hung out for a little bit. Once everyone got up we planned a trip to Tower Bridge to figure out how long it would take us to get there (about 50 minutes). We have to meet there on Monday for class to begin our 3.5 mile river tour. It was a really beautiful part of the city. Sadly my camera battery died and I did not realize it so I was unable to take pictures today but we’ll be back there tomorrow so hopefully it’ll be all charged and ready to by then!
The Mayor’s festival is going on this weekend which is located on the Thames River. It’s London’s largest festival and it only happens once a year. There are things set up for miles and miles around the Thames. We decided to check it out today since we were already there and we did not make almost an hour trip for nothing! We only saw a small portion of the whole thing, but we got a program and are planning out tomorrows visit! The festival is supposed to have some of the best fireworks around so I am very excited to see those. They are shot off in the middle of the Thames so it should be spectacular! The only unfortunate part about the fireworks is that they are scheduled to start at 9:45 and it takes an hour to get back to our flats, which means we have to leave around 7:00 am Monday in order to make it with time to spare for our tour on Monday. I’m sure it won’t be too terrible though!
At the festival I purchased some candy from this cute vendor. I can’t remember what it was called now but I got four different kinds to try. Its hard candy and you can’t bite into it. It’s quite good and it will definitely last me a long time. Probably the whole time I’m here! But that was my fun purchase for the day. I also picked up a few postcards. Some people had to be back so we headed home around 5:30-6:00. We were all really hungry so it was good we were heading back.
As we were walking back one of the guys wanted to stop for a treat. While he was purchasing his treat some people had ventured ahead. I was just standing and looking at my program for the festival to see what was planned for tomorrow when I noticed that someone was approaching me. I just put my hand on my purse and didn’t bother to look up or do anything, but he kept coming closer so finally I looked up… and began to scream. The person was dressed up like he had just been murdered. He was bleeding from his head and according to Jeana he looked like the devil. So you can imagine my terror. He was an actor of course so I had no reason to be worried but I was scared out of my mind and so I kept trying to hide behind people and he kept walking after me and he didn’t change his facial expression the entire time. I got a bit worried that he was a creeper and not just an actor. The boys who say they will protect us at all times just stood about 10 yards away and laughed…so much help they were in a real time of need! The creeper actor finally stopped chasing me (and Jeana at this point) after he handed me a pamphlet from the place he works at. Let me tell you I won’t be going there anytime soon (or ever for that matter). It was some dungeon place…I still have the pamphlet up in my room somewhere but I don’t know exactly what it is. I definitely had the heebie jeebies after that encounter though. As we turned into the tube station there was another one of the actors (a girl this time) ready to harass the next bystander. Luckily the boys were nice enough to point her out to me so I stood clear of her. Now that it’s over and I’m safely home I can look back on it and laugh at it as a good memory.
Once we got back Jeana and I decided to get our cell phones since we were close by the store. So we did that then we headed home and cooked dinner. We made a nice salad and each had one of our frozen meals. It was quite tasty and we are really enjoying cooking our own meals. We finished watching a movie we started last night while we were eating dinner and then just hung out for a bit.
A few of us did our weekend assignments for class on Monday since we have a full day planned for tomorrow and have just been relaxing and writing postcards since then. It was a really nice day even though it wasn’t filled with tons and tons of things. Tomorrow should be quite fun and I’m probably going to try to go to bed at a decent time tonight so I’m all ready to go tomorrow! We’ll be going to one of the larger markets tomorrow at 10:00 am. Then we are going to come back here for lunch and to drop our findings off. After that we’re headed to the Thames for the festival where we plan to spend the rest of the day!
The Mayor’s festival is going on this weekend which is located on the Thames River. It’s London’s largest festival and it only happens once a year. There are things set up for miles and miles around the Thames. We decided to check it out today since we were already there and we did not make almost an hour trip for nothing! We only saw a small portion of the whole thing, but we got a program and are planning out tomorrows visit! The festival is supposed to have some of the best fireworks around so I am very excited to see those. They are shot off in the middle of the Thames so it should be spectacular! The only unfortunate part about the fireworks is that they are scheduled to start at 9:45 and it takes an hour to get back to our flats, which means we have to leave around 7:00 am Monday in order to make it with time to spare for our tour on Monday. I’m sure it won’t be too terrible though!
At the festival I purchased some candy from this cute vendor. I can’t remember what it was called now but I got four different kinds to try. Its hard candy and you can’t bite into it. It’s quite good and it will definitely last me a long time. Probably the whole time I’m here! But that was my fun purchase for the day. I also picked up a few postcards. Some people had to be back so we headed home around 5:30-6:00. We were all really hungry so it was good we were heading back.
As we were walking back one of the guys wanted to stop for a treat. While he was purchasing his treat some people had ventured ahead. I was just standing and looking at my program for the festival to see what was planned for tomorrow when I noticed that someone was approaching me. I just put my hand on my purse and didn’t bother to look up or do anything, but he kept coming closer so finally I looked up… and began to scream. The person was dressed up like he had just been murdered. He was bleeding from his head and according to Jeana he looked like the devil. So you can imagine my terror. He was an actor of course so I had no reason to be worried but I was scared out of my mind and so I kept trying to hide behind people and he kept walking after me and he didn’t change his facial expression the entire time. I got a bit worried that he was a creeper and not just an actor. The boys who say they will protect us at all times just stood about 10 yards away and laughed…so much help they were in a real time of need! The creeper actor finally stopped chasing me (and Jeana at this point) after he handed me a pamphlet from the place he works at. Let me tell you I won’t be going there anytime soon (or ever for that matter). It was some dungeon place…I still have the pamphlet up in my room somewhere but I don’t know exactly what it is. I definitely had the heebie jeebies after that encounter though. As we turned into the tube station there was another one of the actors (a girl this time) ready to harass the next bystander. Luckily the boys were nice enough to point her out to me so I stood clear of her. Now that it’s over and I’m safely home I can look back on it and laugh at it as a good memory.
Once we got back Jeana and I decided to get our cell phones since we were close by the store. So we did that then we headed home and cooked dinner. We made a nice salad and each had one of our frozen meals. It was quite tasty and we are really enjoying cooking our own meals. We finished watching a movie we started last night while we were eating dinner and then just hung out for a bit.
A few of us did our weekend assignments for class on Monday since we have a full day planned for tomorrow and have just been relaxing and writing postcards since then. It was a really nice day even though it wasn’t filled with tons and tons of things. Tomorrow should be quite fun and I’m probably going to try to go to bed at a decent time tonight so I’m all ready to go tomorrow! We’ll be going to one of the larger markets tomorrow at 10:00 am. Then we are going to come back here for lunch and to drop our findings off. After that we’re headed to the Thames for the festival where we plan to spend the rest of the day!
Friday, September 10
Day 3
Last night Jeana and I probably went to bed a little later than we should have which made waking up at 8:00 a.m. this morning a little difficult or maybe its just everything finally catching up to us! But we woke up quite fast due to some morning excitement. We had walked to the tube stop...almost all the way there when I asked everyone if they had their IDs. One of the girls didn't so we debated what to do but finally decided not to risk it so she ran all the way back to the flats which is a few blocks and back as we waited for her at the tube stop. We left the flat at 8:30 and its only supposed to take 20 minutes to get to the college but it was now 8:45. Yesterday Lyndon gave us a huge talk about not being late so we were freaking out to say the least. We got on the tube and it was 8:57 by the time we reached the final stop but we still had a little ways to walk. We knew we weren't going to make it on time but we did our best by running there and then sprinting up the 6 flights of stairs. We were about 2 mins late but later when we explained to Lyndon he seemed fine with it. It was just orientation today, not actually the start of class so I think that gave us a little bit of room for slack. Plus he was also glad we did not leave the girl behind to fend for herself so all in all it was no big deal but we got a nice light jog in that woke us all up for the time being!
Then we had the whole orientation which we were all in a daze for. Honestly I can’t even remember all of it. It was information overload to the max. It was a lot of good info though just too early in the morning and in a very hot room which only made me want to sleep more. During the meeting we were given our assignments for the weekend or as they are called “tasks.” Its weird getting assignments already since school doesn’t start until Monday actually but they are interesting assignments so its not bad at all. Talking about this actually reminds me of the task I talked about yesterday that I said I would say more on.
We were given a list of questions that we had to find the answers to by asking anyone out in London. We weren’t supposed to look up the answers or ask any of the students at the college. We had 11 questions total and we just had to try to figure out the answers as a whole flat. If we couldn’t figure out the answer we were just supposed to guess. I thought I’d share a few of the questions. Try to figure out the answers and I’ll have them at the end! They were a lot of fun to try to figure out!
QUESTIONS:
1. What is a Pub Quiz?
2. What is ‘the knowledge’ and who has it?
3. What is a ‘Cockney’?
4. If you were in ‘The Clink’, where would you be?
5. What would you get from a ‘hole in the wall’?
6. What are you doing with a biscuit, if you are ‘dunking’ it?
ANSWERS:
1. Most people in Europe have a local Pub that they go to regularly and each has its own national institution such as film or theater. They have Pub Quizzes based on their national institutions which are just trivia questions. Teams play as groups and there are prizes at the end.
2. The Knowledge is a test taxi drivers have to take to ensure they know the area around London like the back of their hand.
3. It is a type of person usually in the working class who have their own vocabulary. It is basically rhyming slang. For example ‘currant bun’ is the sun, ‘apples and pears’ is take the stairs
4. Jail…the name comes from the clinking of the jail doors
5. A ‘hole in the wall’ is an ATM machine so you would get cash from it
6. You would be dipping a cookie in tea
I just thought that might be a bit of fun, hope you enjoyed it! So that was a fun part of class. After orientation was over we decided to go find the grocery stores we had been looking for because we had food but not enough to actually make a meal with. We found Iceland which was very neat. It was mostly frozen dinners but it was all very inexpensive so we all plan to shop there a lot! It was actually a lot of fun shopping…we all felt very grown up. After we went there we went and purchased our hairdryer and straightener which was exciting. Carrying so many groceries wore our arms out by the time we got back to our flats. I’m going to have to start carrying around my reusable grocery bag to carry my groceries home in! So far I never seem to remember it. Once we got back we were all pretty exhausted but we each made our lunch. I microwaved some frozen Chicago style cheese pizza which was absolutely delicious! I will definitely be purchasing that one again. Once we got done with lunch we all got ready to go to Harrods!
We ended up leaving at 3:00 instead of 2:00 because some of us wanted time for a nap. I unfortunately didn’t get one of those in. But we finally headed out and Harrods was an awesome sight to see! I’ll have pictures up on facebook later. We went straight to tea but we took the Egyptian staircase which was incredible. Tea was the most adorable thing. It was a fun experience to have and we all enjoyed being proper and feeling English. We all got tea and two scones which were incredible. They also had the most amazing crème (butter) and strawberry jelly for the scones. Each of us girls at our end of the table were only able to finish one scone each as they were extremely filling and delicious!
After we finished out tea time we headed around to look at Harrods for a little bit. We were all still exhausted though so we only looked at the pet store and then headed home. The pet store was super cute but unfortunately too expensive to get anything for little Abbie but I was thinking about her the whole time!
On our way out of Harrods we saw this adorable bakery so we stopped in and checked out their display. They had decorated cakes that were beautiful and some yummy looking deserts. We might stop back there sometime for a special treat! They also had adorable little animal characters made out of what seemed to be Marzipan…one was a frog and it made me quite happy!
Then we headed back to our flat on the tube but stopped at the grocery store to pick up things we forget in the morning…it seems like we are always going there but we enjoy it! We can’t wait to make a dinner for the whole flat…I didn’t think I was going to like having to cook for myself each meal but I’m loving it. After relaxing for a while I cooked my dinner for the evening which was grilled cheese made with fresh bread and tomato soup. It was quite yummy. I think I’m going to get used to all this fresh bread and then be sad when I don’t have it back at home!
Now we are all just hanging out as a flat and are going to watch a movie and have a relaxing night in which I am quite excited about. Lounging around in sweats could not be any more perfect right now :)
Then we had the whole orientation which we were all in a daze for. Honestly I can’t even remember all of it. It was information overload to the max. It was a lot of good info though just too early in the morning and in a very hot room which only made me want to sleep more. During the meeting we were given our assignments for the weekend or as they are called “tasks.” Its weird getting assignments already since school doesn’t start until Monday actually but they are interesting assignments so its not bad at all. Talking about this actually reminds me of the task I talked about yesterday that I said I would say more on.
We were given a list of questions that we had to find the answers to by asking anyone out in London. We weren’t supposed to look up the answers or ask any of the students at the college. We had 11 questions total and we just had to try to figure out the answers as a whole flat. If we couldn’t figure out the answer we were just supposed to guess. I thought I’d share a few of the questions. Try to figure out the answers and I’ll have them at the end! They were a lot of fun to try to figure out!
QUESTIONS:
1. What is a Pub Quiz?
2. What is ‘the knowledge’ and who has it?
3. What is a ‘Cockney’?
4. If you were in ‘The Clink’, where would you be?
5. What would you get from a ‘hole in the wall’?
6. What are you doing with a biscuit, if you are ‘dunking’ it?
ANSWERS:
1. Most people in Europe have a local Pub that they go to regularly and each has its own national institution such as film or theater. They have Pub Quizzes based on their national institutions which are just trivia questions. Teams play as groups and there are prizes at the end.
2. The Knowledge is a test taxi drivers have to take to ensure they know the area around London like the back of their hand.
3. It is a type of person usually in the working class who have their own vocabulary. It is basically rhyming slang. For example ‘currant bun’ is the sun, ‘apples and pears’ is take the stairs
4. Jail…the name comes from the clinking of the jail doors
5. A ‘hole in the wall’ is an ATM machine so you would get cash from it
6. You would be dipping a cookie in tea
I just thought that might be a bit of fun, hope you enjoyed it! So that was a fun part of class. After orientation was over we decided to go find the grocery stores we had been looking for because we had food but not enough to actually make a meal with. We found Iceland which was very neat. It was mostly frozen dinners but it was all very inexpensive so we all plan to shop there a lot! It was actually a lot of fun shopping…we all felt very grown up. After we went there we went and purchased our hairdryer and straightener which was exciting. Carrying so many groceries wore our arms out by the time we got back to our flats. I’m going to have to start carrying around my reusable grocery bag to carry my groceries home in! So far I never seem to remember it. Once we got back we were all pretty exhausted but we each made our lunch. I microwaved some frozen Chicago style cheese pizza which was absolutely delicious! I will definitely be purchasing that one again. Once we got done with lunch we all got ready to go to Harrods!
We ended up leaving at 3:00 instead of 2:00 because some of us wanted time for a nap. I unfortunately didn’t get one of those in. But we finally headed out and Harrods was an awesome sight to see! I’ll have pictures up on facebook later. We went straight to tea but we took the Egyptian staircase which was incredible. Tea was the most adorable thing. It was a fun experience to have and we all enjoyed being proper and feeling English. We all got tea and two scones which were incredible. They also had the most amazing crème (butter) and strawberry jelly for the scones. Each of us girls at our end of the table were only able to finish one scone each as they were extremely filling and delicious!
After we finished out tea time we headed around to look at Harrods for a little bit. We were all still exhausted though so we only looked at the pet store and then headed home. The pet store was super cute but unfortunately too expensive to get anything for little Abbie but I was thinking about her the whole time!
On our way out of Harrods we saw this adorable bakery so we stopped in and checked out their display. They had decorated cakes that were beautiful and some yummy looking deserts. We might stop back there sometime for a special treat! They also had adorable little animal characters made out of what seemed to be Marzipan…one was a frog and it made me quite happy!
Then we headed back to our flat on the tube but stopped at the grocery store to pick up things we forget in the morning…it seems like we are always going there but we enjoy it! We can’t wait to make a dinner for the whole flat…I didn’t think I was going to like having to cook for myself each meal but I’m loving it. After relaxing for a while I cooked my dinner for the evening which was grilled cheese made with fresh bread and tomato soup. It was quite yummy. I think I’m going to get used to all this fresh bread and then be sad when I don’t have it back at home!
Now we are all just hanging out as a flat and are going to watch a movie and have a relaxing night in which I am quite excited about. Lounging around in sweats could not be any more perfect right now :)
And I thought yesterday was exciting...
Yesterday was amazing but nothing compared to the adventure I had today! To start off with we had to meet at the City of Westminster College for a brief meeting with Lyndon and to get our ID tags because its a very secure campus and they will NOT let you on campus without them...literally they will make you go all the way back to your flats if you forget them. If I do forget mine I highly doubt I'll make that mistake twice! But anyway...we got our schedules for the semester and boy oh boy is this semester going to be the most incredible experience of my life! I was looking forward to my classes before but now that I know what we will actually be doing I can hardly contain my excitement. I would write my whole schedule down but for now I'll just let you know what we will be doing on Monday.
To start out with we will be going on a River Walk: Tower Bridge to Westminster with Lyndon. Then that's it for class in the morning. Normally we have an afternoon activity as well but not this Monday. Instead the Art History class is going to go to the National Gallery and I plan to tag along as we are allowed. Then in the evening we have a group outing where we will be going to Shakespeare's Globe! Quite an exciting start to classes!
But back to today...after we went over our schedule and got our assignment for the evening (more on that later) we had to go register and get our IDs. Apparently you are not allowed to smile in the picture which was very unfortunate but the reason is interesting. If you do something illegal they actually use your college ID picture to give to whoever might need it. So that's good to know not that I plan on them ever needing it! Once we got our ID's we had an hour and a half to ourselves to get lunch before our next activity at 1 o'clock.
A group of us went to the market to get some groceries. The markets have a great selection for almost nothing! They give you so much food that its impossible to eat it all yourself. Jeana and I each bought a few things and plan to split them with each other and some of it still may go bad but if you buy less its more expensive! I'm sure we'll figure it out within a few days. After we left the market we planned to catch a bus back to the flats but we ran into other people from our group and they spotted a bagel shop that they wanted to stop in and it sounded amazing to us (and honestly how can I pass up a bagel) so we headed there with them. The shop was adorable and they ended up having some lunch items so we all got some lunch and a treat for desert. I've actually been trying a lot of new things since I've been here which has been quite a lot of fun. Not completely sure where this adventursomeness with food has come from but I'm enjoying it! I got this Indian/Middle Eastern chicken wrap with vegi's in it. It was spicy but very good! Luckily my desert which was chocolate with some caramel sauce and a pie crust type thing cooled my mouth after my lunch. We had decided to walk back to our flats to see how long it would take us to walk to the college so since we were eating on the way we didn't have anything to drink. So that desert sure came in handy :)
We ended up taking the long route back to our flats (not that we knew that at the time). It was a beautiful walk through some very pretty neighborhoods though. The flats we passed were adorable! It was a gorgeous day out today as well...pretty blue skyes. And according to Lyndon the Brits are very concerned about the weather so I'm going to try to stay on top of that while I'm here. We were supposed to be back at our flat at 12:45 but got there right around 1:00 when our meeting was supposed to start! It wasn't a problem though because there were a lot of us though the rest of the group gave us trouble since we made fun of them in the morning for not meeting on time!
So then we had a meeting with one of the people who are in charge of the flats. Basically she just went over all of the rules and taught us some things we needed to know about the appliances. She told us all about our troublesome washers/dryers. Here in London they are a lot smaller and they wash and dry. She said they pretty much only wash though and to make sure we had a day to let things dry. She also recommended just going to the laundry mat down the street so we'll see. She said to at least give them a try. I'm sure that will be fun. She also told us a lot of the differences between America and here...a lot had to do with the Internet and what we are capable of in the US we aren't allowed to do here. It was a lot of good info, but mostly I was excited the whole time for our guided tour that was about to take place!
We had a tour guide come to our flat and from there we took off to the tube. We got on the tube and headed to downtown London. It was so exciting to finally arrive! We got off at the Piccadilly stop and it was just quite the sight to finally get to see! I of course took lots of pictures the entire time, but not too many to still fully enjoy my surroundings! Our tour guide was great giving us enough information and then moving on. We got to see lots of things including Trafalgar Square, Covent Gardens, the Thames, a bank where they shot Harry Potter, London Eye from a distance, and much much more that I cannot remember right now but I have pictures of! The tour was just amazing overall and I learned a whole lot!
During the tour our tour guide asked "beer" questions every now and then. This meant that if you answered a question correctly then he would buy you a pint when the tour was over. The last question he asked I got right by pure guessing so I won myself a free pint which was pretty exciting! So we headed to a pub and of course I had no clue what to order. Jeana's dad told her Lagers were good so we just selected one of those! It was from Holland somewhere. I took a picture of the name so I'll put it up here once I see what it is again! But that was a fun experience.
Our tour was only supposed to last two hours but it lasted well beyond that which was fine by all of us because it was such a good time. But since it lasted a while longer it was almost 6 o'clock by the time we were ready to leave the pub. Jeana and I were determined to make our own meal tonight but we were so hungry and still had a 30 min tube ride left so we decided to get some food at the market in Covent Garden instead. Our director and one other girl stuck around with us and we were super glad we made the decision we did. The market was adorable and all of the food smelled fantastic. I've been trying lots of new things since I've been here and so I got some Gnoche (spelling?) for dinner. Basically it was just a ravioli with potato inside instead of cheese. I got tomato sauce and Parmesan on top and it was delicious! I was really wanting some of this fresh pasta they have here so I was pretty excited with my choice. Since all of their pasta is freshly made it cooks in about two minutes so the lady just made it while I stood there. I'm hoping to get some pasta tomorrow at the grocery store and try it myself!
After we ate we walked around and looked at the deserts they had and saw a stand with some adorable looking cupcakes so we decided to take a look at them. We each ended up buying some and it was probably one of my best purchases so far! They are absolutely delicious! We also saw a really cool stand that had all sorts of different chocolates...I'm probably going to have to go back and get some of those some time. The market we went to is there every Thursday. After selecting our treats we were going to check out the street entertainment but sadly the group was packing up as we got there. So we decided to venture home as it had been a long day. We had no trouble finding our way to the tube which we thought was impressive after only being downtown one day!
We made it to the tube and down the steps and the doors to the tube were open and at first we were just going to wait for the next one, but Denise said she thought we could make it so we attempted to get on. Denise, Sarah and I made it on but the doors began to shut as Jeana tried to get on. Instinctively I stood in the way of the door closing so that Jeana could get on because we could not leave her all alone in downtown London! I thought the doors would open back up when I did that but they didn't...so I pushed them open and Jeana hopped on. We had a good laugh about it and are still laughing about it now. We're just glad we all made it back though I probably won't be doing that again as I got a few funny stares! :)
Once we got back Jeana and I relaxed for a while after a long day...it was about 7:30 when we got back, basically the first time we had been back all day. So we were ready for a bit of a break. Our legs were worn out from walking but it was well worth it! After resting a bit we decided to venture out and see one of the pubs. Pretty much the whole group went and we had a good time talking and experiencing London! Finally we made it back and now its time for bed because we have another full day planned for tomorrow!
We have orientation at the college from 9-12 and then at 2 we are venturing to Harrods to take a look around and then have tea around 3:30!!!! I'm sooo excited!
To start out with we will be going on a River Walk: Tower Bridge to Westminster with Lyndon. Then that's it for class in the morning. Normally we have an afternoon activity as well but not this Monday. Instead the Art History class is going to go to the National Gallery and I plan to tag along as we are allowed. Then in the evening we have a group outing where we will be going to Shakespeare's Globe! Quite an exciting start to classes!
But back to today...after we went over our schedule and got our assignment for the evening (more on that later) we had to go register and get our IDs. Apparently you are not allowed to smile in the picture which was very unfortunate but the reason is interesting. If you do something illegal they actually use your college ID picture to give to whoever might need it. So that's good to know not that I plan on them ever needing it! Once we got our ID's we had an hour and a half to ourselves to get lunch before our next activity at 1 o'clock.
A group of us went to the market to get some groceries. The markets have a great selection for almost nothing! They give you so much food that its impossible to eat it all yourself. Jeana and I each bought a few things and plan to split them with each other and some of it still may go bad but if you buy less its more expensive! I'm sure we'll figure it out within a few days. After we left the market we planned to catch a bus back to the flats but we ran into other people from our group and they spotted a bagel shop that they wanted to stop in and it sounded amazing to us (and honestly how can I pass up a bagel) so we headed there with them. The shop was adorable and they ended up having some lunch items so we all got some lunch and a treat for desert. I've actually been trying a lot of new things since I've been here which has been quite a lot of fun. Not completely sure where this adventursomeness with food has come from but I'm enjoying it! I got this Indian/Middle Eastern chicken wrap with vegi's in it. It was spicy but very good! Luckily my desert which was chocolate with some caramel sauce and a pie crust type thing cooled my mouth after my lunch. We had decided to walk back to our flats to see how long it would take us to walk to the college so since we were eating on the way we didn't have anything to drink. So that desert sure came in handy :)
We ended up taking the long route back to our flats (not that we knew that at the time). It was a beautiful walk through some very pretty neighborhoods though. The flats we passed were adorable! It was a gorgeous day out today as well...pretty blue skyes. And according to Lyndon the Brits are very concerned about the weather so I'm going to try to stay on top of that while I'm here. We were supposed to be back at our flat at 12:45 but got there right around 1:00 when our meeting was supposed to start! It wasn't a problem though because there were a lot of us though the rest of the group gave us trouble since we made fun of them in the morning for not meeting on time!
So then we had a meeting with one of the people who are in charge of the flats. Basically she just went over all of the rules and taught us some things we needed to know about the appliances. She told us all about our troublesome washers/dryers. Here in London they are a lot smaller and they wash and dry. She said they pretty much only wash though and to make sure we had a day to let things dry. She also recommended just going to the laundry mat down the street so we'll see. She said to at least give them a try. I'm sure that will be fun. She also told us a lot of the differences between America and here...a lot had to do with the Internet and what we are capable of in the US we aren't allowed to do here. It was a lot of good info, but mostly I was excited the whole time for our guided tour that was about to take place!
We had a tour guide come to our flat and from there we took off to the tube. We got on the tube and headed to downtown London. It was so exciting to finally arrive! We got off at the Piccadilly stop and it was just quite the sight to finally get to see! I of course took lots of pictures the entire time, but not too many to still fully enjoy my surroundings! Our tour guide was great giving us enough information and then moving on. We got to see lots of things including Trafalgar Square, Covent Gardens, the Thames, a bank where they shot Harry Potter, London Eye from a distance, and much much more that I cannot remember right now but I have pictures of! The tour was just amazing overall and I learned a whole lot!
During the tour our tour guide asked "beer" questions every now and then. This meant that if you answered a question correctly then he would buy you a pint when the tour was over. The last question he asked I got right by pure guessing so I won myself a free pint which was pretty exciting! So we headed to a pub and of course I had no clue what to order. Jeana's dad told her Lagers were good so we just selected one of those! It was from Holland somewhere. I took a picture of the name so I'll put it up here once I see what it is again! But that was a fun experience.
Our tour was only supposed to last two hours but it lasted well beyond that which was fine by all of us because it was such a good time. But since it lasted a while longer it was almost 6 o'clock by the time we were ready to leave the pub. Jeana and I were determined to make our own meal tonight but we were so hungry and still had a 30 min tube ride left so we decided to get some food at the market in Covent Garden instead. Our director and one other girl stuck around with us and we were super glad we made the decision we did. The market was adorable and all of the food smelled fantastic. I've been trying lots of new things since I've been here and so I got some Gnoche (spelling?) for dinner. Basically it was just a ravioli with potato inside instead of cheese. I got tomato sauce and Parmesan on top and it was delicious! I was really wanting some of this fresh pasta they have here so I was pretty excited with my choice. Since all of their pasta is freshly made it cooks in about two minutes so the lady just made it while I stood there. I'm hoping to get some pasta tomorrow at the grocery store and try it myself!
After we ate we walked around and looked at the deserts they had and saw a stand with some adorable looking cupcakes so we decided to take a look at them. We each ended up buying some and it was probably one of my best purchases so far! They are absolutely delicious! We also saw a really cool stand that had all sorts of different chocolates...I'm probably going to have to go back and get some of those some time. The market we went to is there every Thursday. After selecting our treats we were going to check out the street entertainment but sadly the group was packing up as we got there. So we decided to venture home as it had been a long day. We had no trouble finding our way to the tube which we thought was impressive after only being downtown one day!
We made it to the tube and down the steps and the doors to the tube were open and at first we were just going to wait for the next one, but Denise said she thought we could make it so we attempted to get on. Denise, Sarah and I made it on but the doors began to shut as Jeana tried to get on. Instinctively I stood in the way of the door closing so that Jeana could get on because we could not leave her all alone in downtown London! I thought the doors would open back up when I did that but they didn't...so I pushed them open and Jeana hopped on. We had a good laugh about it and are still laughing about it now. We're just glad we all made it back though I probably won't be doing that again as I got a few funny stares! :)
Once we got back Jeana and I relaxed for a while after a long day...it was about 7:30 when we got back, basically the first time we had been back all day. So we were ready for a bit of a break. Our legs were worn out from walking but it was well worth it! After resting a bit we decided to venture out and see one of the pubs. Pretty much the whole group went and we had a good time talking and experiencing London! Finally we made it back and now its time for bed because we have another full day planned for tomorrow!
We have orientation at the college from 9-12 and then at 2 we are venturing to Harrods to take a look around and then have tea around 3:30!!!! I'm sooo excited!
Wednesday, September 8
Traveling Adventures
Where to even begin. Tuesday morning went smoothly as we woke up and departed for the airport. We arrived at the Indy airport early which allowed for no stress which was a nice thing when I still had a full day of travel ahead! My bag was even under the weight limit (something I had been stressing about for days though American Airlines didn’t seem to care if anyone’s bag was overweight). Then we sat around for what seemed like an eternity before we finally went through security and waited for our first flight.
The first flight was a little rough for the majority of our group. We had two separate flights to Chicago, but the majority of us were on the first flight. We were having a good time talking and joking on the flight until we got to circle Chicago three times before our plane was able to land. Since it was a small plane this did not go over well for most people, luckily I had no problems and no one actually got sick. Once we landed in Chicago we had almost a 5 hour layover before we were set to depart for London. We ate lunch and played some banana grahams. Some of us tried to sleep but no one was very successful. I closed my eyes for a while and that made me feel rested at least. At 4:30 we were supposed to start boarding our plane but it wasn’t quite ready yet. We started boarding around 5:00 and somehow managed to take off fairly quickly.
The plane was nice and big and our whole group was seated in the middle aisle. I was fortunate enough to have an aisle seat. I watched part of Letters to Juliet and then took a bit of a nap. Then it was time for dinner. I forgot I had ordered the vegi meal but I did and it was pretty good – garbanzo beans, rice, and vegi’s with a side salad and some cantaloupe. After the meal I attempted to fall back asleep and according to other members of the group I appeared to be quite successful as they said I was totally out. I felt like I woke up every hour, but in all I felt pretty rested.
When we arrived in London – only 10 minutes off schedule – it was 7 am and we all got off the plane and headed to immigration which was quite the experience. The line looked like it was never ending. We encountered several rude people who continually tried to nudge ahead in line. At first the line was moving at a snail’s pace but soon the workers opened up more lanes and we flew through it seemed. The funniest part about the experience was this girl, who was trying to budge past me the whole time, even asked me to excuse her so she could move my bag to try to get ahead of me. I let her move my bag but didn’t let her cut...I got a laugh out of it. I was only asked two questions by the immigration person and my passport was stamped (my first stamp which was pretty fun!). Then we headed to baggage to pick up our bags and all meet up.
Once everyone was gathered back up we met up with our Director. It was 9 a.m. when we boarded our bus and prepared to head to our flats. The driver told us it would take about 45 minutes to an hour to get to our flats. I think it ended up taking about an hour since we had to circle a few times so he was parked on the correct side of the street (apparently it’s a theme to our trip). The drive from the airport was neat being able to see different parts of London. We were all extremely glad to get out of the bus and into our flats though.
We explored the flats which were a little bit different than what I was expecting. My room is located on the 4th floor so there is no doubt I will be getting my exercise daily! There are two rooms up on the 4th floor and one bathroom. On the 3rd floor is a 3 bedroom room. The 2nd floor contains our living room/dining room area and kitchen. Then the 1st floor contains a single room and just a little entrance area. They seem pretty nice overall. Getting to know how to use everything will be interesting. I believe they are going to teach us all of that tomorrow. Jeana and I have made our room feel a bit like home by unpacking and putting up pictures already. And we have nice purple comforters that have moons and stars on them. Though we just recently discovered the flip side of them is nicer than the side we have up now so we might be turning them over. Overall the flats are really nice.
Once we got to the flats and took our bags up to our rooms (yes I climbed 4 floors with my 50 lb suitcase…luckily Jeana helped me about halfway up or I probably wouldn’t have made it!) we all had to meet in the flat next door for a meeting about the rules for the flat. The guy who explained the rules was sort of intense but I think he got his points across.
Next we ate lunch which was delicious! We had sandwiches on fresh bread with ham, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese along with carrots, fruit and juice. Then we filled out our tube pass forms and headed out to get those. We purchased our tube passes and then boarded the tube for our first experience! We all made sure to “mind the gap” We took the tube to a stop near the college we will be studying at while we are here, The City of Westminster College. We had to walk a bit once we got off the tube but it wasn’t a bad walk at all. Once we got to the college we met our main British faculty, Lyndon, who seems very enthusiastic about the program. I’m quite certain his class will be a lot of fun.
When we left there we headed down the street to visit one of the markets and along the way got some money out of the ATM machine. I love the money as their 20 pound is purple! Makes me not want to give them away, which is probably a good thing! The market was neat…and very cheap! I didn’t get anything today as I was just sort of clueless as to what to purchase but we plan to go back tomorrow now that we are not so overwhelmed with everything and aren’t a little loopy due to lack of sleep!
After we went to the market everyone was pretty out of it so we were given the rest of the day to ourselves and told to only take a short nap and then try to go out again so we could adjust. On the way back to the flats we stopped at a grocery store and I got some Orange Juice and yogurt for the morning. Once we finally made it back we were dead tired so Jeana and I checked our email and both fell asleep almost instantly. Both of us woke up about an hour later feeling refreshed and ready to go.
We unpacked and made our room feel a little bit more like home by putting up pictures. Then several of use went and ate at the pub right next to our flats. I decided to be adventuresome and eat some fish and chips. I figured it was the perfect meal to start this trip out with. I liked it and will probably get it several more times while I’m here. Then we decided we needed to go get some groceries for the next day only to be told most of the shops were closed. Jeana and I decided to go walk around anyway and a few places were open but we decided to just wait and get our food tomorrow as we will have plenty of time. Then we finally headed back here and have just been talking and relaxing. Half of our flatmates just woke up from their “naps.” We thought they were gone all day or we probably would have woken them up!
All in all it was a great start to my adventures in London. I’m even more excited for tomorrow as we will be going downtown and seeing some of the main sights of London. I think I have a handle on the area around us and the tube was not that difficult to navigate so things are looking good! Excited for tomorrow!!! (Props to anyone who actually read this entire thing!)
The first flight was a little rough for the majority of our group. We had two separate flights to Chicago, but the majority of us were on the first flight. We were having a good time talking and joking on the flight until we got to circle Chicago three times before our plane was able to land. Since it was a small plane this did not go over well for most people, luckily I had no problems and no one actually got sick. Once we landed in Chicago we had almost a 5 hour layover before we were set to depart for London. We ate lunch and played some banana grahams. Some of us tried to sleep but no one was very successful. I closed my eyes for a while and that made me feel rested at least. At 4:30 we were supposed to start boarding our plane but it wasn’t quite ready yet. We started boarding around 5:00 and somehow managed to take off fairly quickly.
The plane was nice and big and our whole group was seated in the middle aisle. I was fortunate enough to have an aisle seat. I watched part of Letters to Juliet and then took a bit of a nap. Then it was time for dinner. I forgot I had ordered the vegi meal but I did and it was pretty good – garbanzo beans, rice, and vegi’s with a side salad and some cantaloupe. After the meal I attempted to fall back asleep and according to other members of the group I appeared to be quite successful as they said I was totally out. I felt like I woke up every hour, but in all I felt pretty rested.
When we arrived in London – only 10 minutes off schedule – it was 7 am and we all got off the plane and headed to immigration which was quite the experience. The line looked like it was never ending. We encountered several rude people who continually tried to nudge ahead in line. At first the line was moving at a snail’s pace but soon the workers opened up more lanes and we flew through it seemed. The funniest part about the experience was this girl, who was trying to budge past me the whole time, even asked me to excuse her so she could move my bag to try to get ahead of me. I let her move my bag but didn’t let her cut...I got a laugh out of it. I was only asked two questions by the immigration person and my passport was stamped (my first stamp which was pretty fun!). Then we headed to baggage to pick up our bags and all meet up.
Once everyone was gathered back up we met up with our Director. It was 9 a.m. when we boarded our bus and prepared to head to our flats. The driver told us it would take about 45 minutes to an hour to get to our flats. I think it ended up taking about an hour since we had to circle a few times so he was parked on the correct side of the street (apparently it’s a theme to our trip). The drive from the airport was neat being able to see different parts of London. We were all extremely glad to get out of the bus and into our flats though.
We explored the flats which were a little bit different than what I was expecting. My room is located on the 4th floor so there is no doubt I will be getting my exercise daily! There are two rooms up on the 4th floor and one bathroom. On the 3rd floor is a 3 bedroom room. The 2nd floor contains our living room/dining room area and kitchen. Then the 1st floor contains a single room and just a little entrance area. They seem pretty nice overall. Getting to know how to use everything will be interesting. I believe they are going to teach us all of that tomorrow. Jeana and I have made our room feel a bit like home by unpacking and putting up pictures already. And we have nice purple comforters that have moons and stars on them. Though we just recently discovered the flip side of them is nicer than the side we have up now so we might be turning them over. Overall the flats are really nice.
Once we got to the flats and took our bags up to our rooms (yes I climbed 4 floors with my 50 lb suitcase…luckily Jeana helped me about halfway up or I probably wouldn’t have made it!) we all had to meet in the flat next door for a meeting about the rules for the flat. The guy who explained the rules was sort of intense but I think he got his points across.
Next we ate lunch which was delicious! We had sandwiches on fresh bread with ham, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese along with carrots, fruit and juice. Then we filled out our tube pass forms and headed out to get those. We purchased our tube passes and then boarded the tube for our first experience! We all made sure to “mind the gap” We took the tube to a stop near the college we will be studying at while we are here, The City of Westminster College. We had to walk a bit once we got off the tube but it wasn’t a bad walk at all. Once we got to the college we met our main British faculty, Lyndon, who seems very enthusiastic about the program. I’m quite certain his class will be a lot of fun.
When we left there we headed down the street to visit one of the markets and along the way got some money out of the ATM machine. I love the money as their 20 pound is purple! Makes me not want to give them away, which is probably a good thing! The market was neat…and very cheap! I didn’t get anything today as I was just sort of clueless as to what to purchase but we plan to go back tomorrow now that we are not so overwhelmed with everything and aren’t a little loopy due to lack of sleep!
After we went to the market everyone was pretty out of it so we were given the rest of the day to ourselves and told to only take a short nap and then try to go out again so we could adjust. On the way back to the flats we stopped at a grocery store and I got some Orange Juice and yogurt for the morning. Once we finally made it back we were dead tired so Jeana and I checked our email and both fell asleep almost instantly. Both of us woke up about an hour later feeling refreshed and ready to go.
We unpacked and made our room feel a little bit more like home by putting up pictures. Then several of use went and ate at the pub right next to our flats. I decided to be adventuresome and eat some fish and chips. I figured it was the perfect meal to start this trip out with. I liked it and will probably get it several more times while I’m here. Then we decided we needed to go get some groceries for the next day only to be told most of the shops were closed. Jeana and I decided to go walk around anyway and a few places were open but we decided to just wait and get our food tomorrow as we will have plenty of time. Then we finally headed back here and have just been talking and relaxing. Half of our flatmates just woke up from their “naps.” We thought they were gone all day or we probably would have woken them up!
All in all it was a great start to my adventures in London. I’m even more excited for tomorrow as we will be going downtown and seeing some of the main sights of London. I think I have a handle on the area around us and the tube was not that difficult to navigate so things are looking good! Excited for tomorrow!!! (Props to anyone who actually read this entire thing!)
Tuesday, September 7
Departure
The packing is done. My clothes are laid out. Most of the goodbyes have been said. In other words.....I'M ALL READY TO GO!!!!!!!!
I can't even contain my excitement anymore. Not sure how I am going to manage to sleep tonight but I'm going to do my best to get a good nights sleep as tomorrow will be one FULL day of traveling! So excited to get to know everyone of the other 19 students going on the trip!
Tomorrow my parents and I will be waking up at the crack of dawn (actually I can't even say that because the sun will not be up at 5:00 am!) to get dressed and on the road to Indy where my much anticipated adventure will finally begin! :)
Upon arrival in London, early Wednesday, we have been told we will have a full day of activities planned including:
More from the city of London!!!!!
I can't even contain my excitement anymore. Not sure how I am going to manage to sleep tonight but I'm going to do my best to get a good nights sleep as tomorrow will be one FULL day of traveling! So excited to get to know everyone of the other 19 students going on the trip!
Tomorrow my parents and I will be waking up at the crack of dawn (actually I can't even say that because the sun will not be up at 5:00 am!) to get dressed and on the road to Indy where my much anticipated adventure will finally begin! :)
Upon arrival in London, early Wednesday, we have been told we will have a full day of activities planned including:
- a tour of our flats
- lunch provided by our director
- meeting our main British faculty, Lyndon
- purchasing our tube passes
- becoming familiar with the area
- markets/groceries
More from the city of London!!!!!
Thursday, September 2
Packing
Last night I decided it was finally time to get packed for London. I have been putting it off for quite awhile because I knew it was probably going to be quite the challenge. Its hard knowing what 50 lbs you want to take with you to live off of for 3 whole months, at least for me! Luckily my mom was there to help me as I was apparently underpacking. I'm just hoping that we found a good balance! We did have quite a bit of fun playing with the space saver bags. They really are fantastic at shrinking things. As I packed I got even more excited for departure. Its nice knowing the challenge of packing is almost complete. Just a few more days and I'll be in London!
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