So how am I doing with the whole updating thing?
Much has happened since my last post, mainly all of my globetrotting. I made it out to Paris for a weekend with the ladies and met dear Caitlin there. I will write about that another time though cause there's too much to write and it's getting late. More recently, I just got back from Spring Break which was spent on a whirlwind 14 day trip to Italy, France and Spain. That will be several posts most likely...but for now I will just say I had the time of my life and I still cannot believe all the amazing places I've been and the incredible things I've seen (1200 pictures later..) I honestly feel like the luckiest person alive.
So, after being reprimanded for not updating this in 2 months, I'm doing this little quickster. I have only one month left in London, which I find hard to believe. I don't know how time goes so fast. So I've been determined to get all the things done I wanted to get done when I got here but put off because I knew I had sooo much time here. I'm making some progress this week...yesterday we went to quiz night at ISH and we WON which was amazing and quite unexpected. Last time we went we were 3rd out of 4 teams if that's any indication. Then today I decided to go on a little adventure by myself because I had the day off from work. It was a really nice day, sunny, I think in the 60s...I didn't need a jacket, so whatever temperature that would be. So I set off in the afternoon for Regent's Park and took a stroll around. It was full of people relaxing on the grass and little kids running around, so it was a good day for people-watching. From Regent's Park I walked down to Camden Town which is one of my favorite places in London. There are tons of shops down there and like three separate markets to walk around in so that kept me busy for a while. I even bought a cute shirt/dress dealy for 5 Pounds which is definitely not bad! When I had my fill of Camden I started walking back toward home but then I realized I didn't really want to go home yet, so I decided to try to find the elusive Primrose Hill (which isn't really elusive, we just got lost the first and only time we tried to get there..) Let's just say that this was a great idea. I got to the hill and walked up it and from the top you get a really nice view of the city, definitely the best view I've seen. The problem with London is that for the most part, it's really flat. Panoramics that were so easy to get in places like France and Italy are not so easy to come by here. But Primrose Hill is totally a winner. I could see the Eye, St Paul's, Parliament, and some other recognizable buildings I don't actually know the name of. So I ended up just sitting up there for about an hour soaking in the sun and the view, and people-watching. I definitely have to get back there a few more times before I leave, and go at night once too.
So today was really satisfying and relaxing, as long as you put aside the fact that I should probably have been in the library writing a paper. But the weather shouldn't be nice around finals time, it's just wrong. I will try to write again before I leave the country but obviously my track record so far doesn't really look promising.
Till then, Tea and Crumps.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Monday, 23 February 2009
Peace out, Grex.
Since I finally finished reading Great Expectations for class tomorrow, I decided to treat myself to an update. I've realized that the more time that elapses between entries, the greater the danger of me forgetting to write down exciting/important things that have happened. So I'm going to try really hard to a) write more often and b) develop a memory of steel. So here goes.
The first of my mandatory class trips was a week ago, we went to Hampton Court and Kew Gardens. As usual, all-around gorgeous. I really need to start finding better synonyms for pretty, beautiful, gorgeous, because I repeat myself excessively, but trust me...the adjectives fit. Anyway, Hampton Court is a palace/castle/what-have-you that's from the Tudor period. We of course got to go inside and check it out. We saw the old kitchens, and what they would have looked like, with big fires, meat all over the place, big pots and shiny plates, etc. They had a lot of meat pies laying around on tables and stuff, which reminded me of Mrs Lovett's pies in Sweeny Todd. We went into the little chapel that was there. As per usual, it was very old and very pretty and elaborate. The ceiling was unlike any other I've seen before, I don't know how to properly explain it but I'll try. It had like...stalactite-ish structures that kinda hung down from it, but they were gold and blue and elaborate. Maybe like trees growing upside down, but without a huge mass of leaves and branches. Ok I wish I just had a picture because I totally can't explain it. Regardless, it was nice.
Then we went to the State Apartments and checked out all the rooms....bedrooms, dining rooms, guardrooms, sitting rooms, etc. All were of course very decorated, beautiful artwork on the walls, some had the painted ceilings depicting elaborate scenes of various types. I don't really remember anything specific that was cooler than Windsor was, so the two castles kinda have mixed together in my memory at this point.
The gardens are a different story. This place had some pretty hot gardens. You walk out of the castle and in front of you are three paths, not all parallel to each other though. The middle one goes out straight, and there's one more on each side that stretch out diagonally. Now, along these paths, there are lots of trees that are really looking a lot like something outta Edward Scissorhands because they are totally perfectly shaped. They're basically just big rounded triangles, but they look awesome. Then we went over to the actual gardens, which are just so perfect, I have no idea how people design such things. They're symmetrical and square or rectangle shaped, with all sorts of little trees/plants/shrubs, and designs cut into the grass and the ground, with paths leading around and sometimes a fountain in the middle, and some statues. So after a few of these gardens, all next to each other but separated by hedgerows, there's the Queen's promenade, which is a walkway situated on a little slope next to a garden. This is positively adorable, it basically has a tunnel framework with branches growing up along it, so it's semi-covered, but not really. Apparently if the Queen wanted to go out with her ladies-in-waiting, she had to be mostly out of the sun because if her skin got a little color, people might think she was a commoner working out in the fields all day. Heaven forbid!
Next, we saw the largest grape vine, according to the Guinness Book of World Records (I kid you not). It's been growing for who knows how long, since like at least the late 1700s I think. And that basically sums up Hampton Court.
Next stop, Kew Gardens. Massive place with plants and such from all over the world. I've never pretended to be super into plants or anything, but this place was really cool. We went into a bunch of greenhouses (that were massive, and multi-leveled) and saw a bazillion types of plants, from flowers to cacti to carnivorous ones, to ones I have no idea how to classify. We spent a lot of time just walking around and checking out the outdoor exhibits, if you'd call them that. They had different areas for different countries and types of climate. They also had this thing called the Tree Walk, which is basically a big circle walkway up in the treetops so you can see the whole area. After climbing 115 or so stairs, we got a really nice view of everything. On our way out, we actually ran into a peacock. Literally, we turned a corner and it was just sitting there on the grass. Nobody actually knows how a peacock was there or why, but it was a cool surprise to just randomly stumble upon.
So that's basically it for that trip. This past weekend I went on the other class trip to Winchester and Portsmouth which I will write about next time.
I also ended up going to Greenwich for the afternoon on Saturday with Anna & Ellen. Let me just say, it was a bit of a trick getting there since the transit people decide that since it's the weekend and people don't have to go to work, they are allowed to just close every single Tube line except for like two. This doesn't necessarily make traveling impossible, just much harder than it has to be. Regardless, we made it there after three or four switches. Now, this was a really nice day, probably about 50 and the sun was shining which made it feel that much warmer. We checked out a market that we stumbled upon after arriving for a little bit, and then we decided to just wander the town and see what we'd come across. Personally, the only thing I definitely wanted to see was the Prime Meridian. So we ended up walking along the Thames which was nice, saw some boats, saw lots of massive buildings across the river, saw some people almost get hit by a big wave caused by a large boat... Then we stopped into the National Maritime Museum, mainly to use the "toilets" and check it out to see if it was interesting. It wasn't.
[Sidenote: Bathrooms here are not bathrooms, restrooms, lavatories, or any other crazy name we would use back home. It's either the Loo, or the Toilets. This at first seems kind of just...weird I guess? At first I was thinking, why don't they just say bathroom or something because that sounds a lot better and less...vulgar, I'm not sure if that's the right word, but that's what I've got. But then I thought, no, they're right. It's a toilet. It's not a RESTroom, I don't think people normally do much resting there. It's not a BATHroom, nobody washes in toilets, I hope. It's a toilet. Skip the polite nonsense and call it what it is. I approve, Brits.]
So, after leaving the Museum, we approached the park. This park is everything a park should be. Lots of greeeeen grass, paths, hills, trees, and TONS of people. Families, babies, little kids, teenagers playing football [soccer of course], dogs running around. Oh, that's another thing...nobody here has leashes for their dogs. It seems a little sketchy, but really, they must just be really well-trained cause I've never seen a problem. So we saw the Royal Observatory sitting way up on this big hill, and we knew that's where the Prime Meridian is, so we hiked up this hill that made me feel 100years old because I was pretty much wheezing once I reached the top. Thankfully, I wasn't alone. So we saw the Prime Meridian, which was pretty excellent. Took a bunch of pictures of ourselves standing in two hemispheres at once, etc etc. They had a sort of museum up there, telling about time and astronomy, but we were too excited to go walking in the park in the nice weather to be too interested in it. So we ended up walking around for a while, climbed another hill and got an AMAZING view of Greenwich, and we could even see some of London from there [the Eye, specifically]. So Greenwich was definitely a nice time, I'd like to go back there at least once more, even if it's just to chill in the park for an afternoon.
Ok, I'm off to bed but I will try to write again this week about the other trips and such.
The first of my mandatory class trips was a week ago, we went to Hampton Court and Kew Gardens. As usual, all-around gorgeous. I really need to start finding better synonyms for pretty, beautiful, gorgeous, because I repeat myself excessively, but trust me...the adjectives fit. Anyway, Hampton Court is a palace/castle/what-have-you that's from the Tudor period. We of course got to go inside and check it out. We saw the old kitchens, and what they would have looked like, with big fires, meat all over the place, big pots and shiny plates, etc. They had a lot of meat pies laying around on tables and stuff, which reminded me of Mrs Lovett's pies in Sweeny Todd. We went into the little chapel that was there. As per usual, it was very old and very pretty and elaborate. The ceiling was unlike any other I've seen before, I don't know how to properly explain it but I'll try. It had like...stalactite-ish structures that kinda hung down from it, but they were gold and blue and elaborate. Maybe like trees growing upside down, but without a huge mass of leaves and branches. Ok I wish I just had a picture because I totally can't explain it. Regardless, it was nice.
Then we went to the State Apartments and checked out all the rooms....bedrooms, dining rooms, guardrooms, sitting rooms, etc. All were of course very decorated, beautiful artwork on the walls, some had the painted ceilings depicting elaborate scenes of various types. I don't really remember anything specific that was cooler than Windsor was, so the two castles kinda have mixed together in my memory at this point.
The gardens are a different story. This place had some pretty hot gardens. You walk out of the castle and in front of you are three paths, not all parallel to each other though. The middle one goes out straight, and there's one more on each side that stretch out diagonally. Now, along these paths, there are lots of trees that are really looking a lot like something outta Edward Scissorhands because they are totally perfectly shaped. They're basically just big rounded triangles, but they look awesome. Then we went over to the actual gardens, which are just so perfect, I have no idea how people design such things. They're symmetrical and square or rectangle shaped, with all sorts of little trees/plants/shrubs, and designs cut into the grass and the ground, with paths leading around and sometimes a fountain in the middle, and some statues. So after a few of these gardens, all next to each other but separated by hedgerows, there's the Queen's promenade, which is a walkway situated on a little slope next to a garden. This is positively adorable, it basically has a tunnel framework with branches growing up along it, so it's semi-covered, but not really. Apparently if the Queen wanted to go out with her ladies-in-waiting, she had to be mostly out of the sun because if her skin got a little color, people might think she was a commoner working out in the fields all day. Heaven forbid!
Next, we saw the largest grape vine, according to the Guinness Book of World Records (I kid you not). It's been growing for who knows how long, since like at least the late 1700s I think. And that basically sums up Hampton Court.
Next stop, Kew Gardens. Massive place with plants and such from all over the world. I've never pretended to be super into plants or anything, but this place was really cool. We went into a bunch of greenhouses (that were massive, and multi-leveled) and saw a bazillion types of plants, from flowers to cacti to carnivorous ones, to ones I have no idea how to classify. We spent a lot of time just walking around and checking out the outdoor exhibits, if you'd call them that. They had different areas for different countries and types of climate. They also had this thing called the Tree Walk, which is basically a big circle walkway up in the treetops so you can see the whole area. After climbing 115 or so stairs, we got a really nice view of everything. On our way out, we actually ran into a peacock. Literally, we turned a corner and it was just sitting there on the grass. Nobody actually knows how a peacock was there or why, but it was a cool surprise to just randomly stumble upon.
So that's basically it for that trip. This past weekend I went on the other class trip to Winchester and Portsmouth which I will write about next time.
I also ended up going to Greenwich for the afternoon on Saturday with Anna & Ellen. Let me just say, it was a bit of a trick getting there since the transit people decide that since it's the weekend and people don't have to go to work, they are allowed to just close every single Tube line except for like two. This doesn't necessarily make traveling impossible, just much harder than it has to be. Regardless, we made it there after three or four switches. Now, this was a really nice day, probably about 50 and the sun was shining which made it feel that much warmer. We checked out a market that we stumbled upon after arriving for a little bit, and then we decided to just wander the town and see what we'd come across. Personally, the only thing I definitely wanted to see was the Prime Meridian. So we ended up walking along the Thames which was nice, saw some boats, saw lots of massive buildings across the river, saw some people almost get hit by a big wave caused by a large boat... Then we stopped into the National Maritime Museum, mainly to use the "toilets" and check it out to see if it was interesting. It wasn't.
[Sidenote: Bathrooms here are not bathrooms, restrooms, lavatories, or any other crazy name we would use back home. It's either the Loo, or the Toilets. This at first seems kind of just...weird I guess? At first I was thinking, why don't they just say bathroom or something because that sounds a lot better and less...vulgar, I'm not sure if that's the right word, but that's what I've got. But then I thought, no, they're right. It's a toilet. It's not a RESTroom, I don't think people normally do much resting there. It's not a BATHroom, nobody washes in toilets, I hope. It's a toilet. Skip the polite nonsense and call it what it is. I approve, Brits.]
So, after leaving the Museum, we approached the park. This park is everything a park should be. Lots of greeeeen grass, paths, hills, trees, and TONS of people. Families, babies, little kids, teenagers playing football [soccer of course], dogs running around. Oh, that's another thing...nobody here has leashes for their dogs. It seems a little sketchy, but really, they must just be really well-trained cause I've never seen a problem. So we saw the Royal Observatory sitting way up on this big hill, and we knew that's where the Prime Meridian is, so we hiked up this hill that made me feel 100years old because I was pretty much wheezing once I reached the top. Thankfully, I wasn't alone. So we saw the Prime Meridian, which was pretty excellent. Took a bunch of pictures of ourselves standing in two hemispheres at once, etc etc. They had a sort of museum up there, telling about time and astronomy, but we were too excited to go walking in the park in the nice weather to be too interested in it. So we ended up walking around for a while, climbed another hill and got an AMAZING view of Greenwich, and we could even see some of London from there [the Eye, specifically]. So Greenwich was definitely a nice time, I'd like to go back there at least once more, even if it's just to chill in the park for an afternoon.
Ok, I'm off to bed but I will try to write again this week about the other trips and such.
Friday, 13 February 2009
Month 1
This past Wednesday marked one month in London. I can't believe it's been that long already! But at the same time, I feel like I've lived here forever. I feel like I know my area pretty well and I feel really comfortable here. I can already tell I'm going to be so sad to leave...good thing I miss home, that will make it easier.
I forgot to write last weekend about our excursions and such. It was Kelly's birthday so we went out on Friday and ended up chilling at UCL, which was fun but I was so tired that I didn't end up staying very long. But we got her a cake and stuff and celebrated, it was really fun. Then we took a train to Windsor on Saturday and spent the afternoon there. We walked around the town which was adorable and we saw the castle which was breathtaking. It was ENORMOUS and so old and supercool. We went inside as well, walked around the grounds, went into the chapel and the Dollhouse and the State Apartments too. The chapel was really pretty and had tons of people buried inside it...I think we saw one of the Charles [I or II, I forgot which], and I think Henry VIII. Ah I should have written this last week, I can't remember who was buried there! Some Kings though. It was sweet.
The Dollhouse was super awesome. It was really big, and had real gold in it for the plates and such. It also had real lighting and plumbing...who the heck knows why that was necessary, but it was definitely awesome. It was really detailed and basically any little girl's dream to play with.
Oh, we saw an exhibit too about Prince Charles, comemmorating his 60th birthday. It was really cool! There were pictures of him with his mommy the Queen, his pops, and later with his sister Anne when they were both little. He was a totally adorable little boy. There was also his diploma, I think, and an invitation to his mother's coronation. There was a letter he wrote to his grandma when he was like six in cute little kid handwriting which was really cool. It was basically just a timeline of his life, all sorts of pictures of him as he grew up and important documents and things of that nature. Definitely super neato.
After checking out Charles' gallery, we went to the State Apartments. Totally amazing. There were all sorts of rooms, some had armor in them, with all sorts of spoils of war and stuff, this really sweet golden tiger head thing, some Thai crown, big jewels, and other general treasure-y stuff. They had a guard chamber where they had tons of swords and rifles arranged in cool swirly patterns all along the walls, and other weapons to show how powerful they were and how well protected the Royal family was. I thought of Cory the whole time, I with I had been allowed to take pictures in there! We saw some other chambers, meeting rooms, a dining room with a massive table and pretty chairs with pink cushions that I REALLY wanted to sit on, a bedchamber with a massive ornate bed with a HUGE canopy and big bedhangings that went from the ceiling to the floor. I'm telling you, that bed looked so amazing, I would sleep there forever. I think that was the bedroom that they said Napoleon III [I think?] and his wife slept in when they came to visit cause it had their initials carved into the bed.
Then we saw some rooms that are only open for part of the year, because in the summer they are used for when the Queen comes to the castle to ENTERTAIN GUESTS. So, we were in rooms where the Queen chills in the summer...which basically is really cool.
In general the castle was full of really cool, old-fashioned furniture and some awesome artwork. Lots of the ceilings were completely painted with beautiful scenes, Gods, monarchs, stuff like that. The entire thing is just so fancy and it was really unbelievable that we were able to walk through it and see stuff that is usually meant for the Queen and her guests.
After the castle closed, we walked down to Eton College which is where Prince William went when he was 13 or something like that, apparently it's a competitive school. We didn't get to go in or anything, but we saw it and took some pictures which was nice.
We went to this place called Nando's for lunch. It was a neato place, they had lots of chicken dishes, I know you would have liked it dad! Also, when you order, you have to tell them how hot you want it, they have like a hot-o-meter with different levels, and I was wondering if their hottest would have even registered with dad haha. I got this chicken sandwich with a lime-mango sauce on it, and of course chips aka french fries. It was excellent. They also had rum raisin ice cream, which Anna actually got, but I just laughed about for 5 minutes or so [Cory I wish you were there haha].
So Windsor was a really fun trip.
Then on Monday we had a walking tour for my History of London class. It was, of course, pouring rain all day long [awesomeeee] so we walked around with umbrellas as our feet got steadily more and more waterlogged. It was also cold, thank goodness... The walk was still cool, we got to see some churches, like St Paul's Cathedral [which I still have to go venture to the top of] and St Mary-le-Bow, and the church of St Bartholomew the Great, which is one of the oldest churches in London. We also saw some super old remains of a Roman fort and some other cool things. We went into the Guildhall, which is where meetings were and still are held where the important townspeople and mayors and stuff go...it was really cool. We also saw some remains of a Roman gladiator arena that was found some 18 feet below the ground some time ago. Definitely cool. I would like to go back another time when it's not raining though and wander around some more to explore other things.
Then, that night we went to see The Sound of Music. It was of course still downpouring, so we managed to get completely wet before arriving at the theatre. But it only cost 15 pounds, AND got our seats upgraded, I'm assuming because they didn't sell enough since it was a random Monday night. We had excellent seats, we were in the third row of the second level, I can't really imagine a much better seat in the whole theatre [which was, like everything else in London and England in general, really beautiful and elaborate]. The show was really excellent. They had awesome sets, and this really cool hill thing that the cast could walk on, and it could tilt toward the audience and away from the audience so it looked like they were climbing it...I guess it's hard to explain but it was hot. The cast was amazing, they all sang really well [except Captain von Trapp who had a really odd, low, somewhat off-key-sounding voice, oh well..] The kids were so cute and all were really good too. There was a really weird thing that happened at the beginning though. There was a lady directly behind us that was literally singing the entire first song, and it was SO distracting...she was ruining it because when they would pause dramatically in the song, she could come in before the actress did and it was just generally awful. And we were all getting so annoyed and shooting glances at each other like "what the??" So when the song ended, we thought it was going to be fine, but the lady started like echoing the lines that Maria was saying and it was definitely the most distracting thing in the world and I was not about to have it happen for the entire show, I would have lost my mind. So Patricia turned around and asked if she could please be quiet, and the woman sitting next to her said something I couldn't hear, but I think it was along the lines of "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do..." or something like that. So I was just like ahhhhh where can we move, she is ruining the whole show! And then I just was thinking, she's gotta have some sort of mental problem or something if she physically can't stop doing it, but luckily the people she was with must have talked to an usher because they were moved, thank goodness. I felt bad for being mad since I don't think it was the lady's fault, but regardless, it was ruining the show.
I still have more to write about today; we went to Hampton Court Palace and Kew Gardens for one of my classes [and I got to miss work!] but since this is already like 100 pages long I'll update again later this weekend about that. So far so good though!
I forgot to write last weekend about our excursions and such. It was Kelly's birthday so we went out on Friday and ended up chilling at UCL, which was fun but I was so tired that I didn't end up staying very long. But we got her a cake and stuff and celebrated, it was really fun. Then we took a train to Windsor on Saturday and spent the afternoon there. We walked around the town which was adorable and we saw the castle which was breathtaking. It was ENORMOUS and so old and supercool. We went inside as well, walked around the grounds, went into the chapel and the Dollhouse and the State Apartments too. The chapel was really pretty and had tons of people buried inside it...I think we saw one of the Charles [I or II, I forgot which], and I think Henry VIII. Ah I should have written this last week, I can't remember who was buried there! Some Kings though. It was sweet.
The Dollhouse was super awesome. It was really big, and had real gold in it for the plates and such. It also had real lighting and plumbing...who the heck knows why that was necessary, but it was definitely awesome. It was really detailed and basically any little girl's dream to play with.
Oh, we saw an exhibit too about Prince Charles, comemmorating his 60th birthday. It was really cool! There were pictures of him with his mommy the Queen, his pops, and later with his sister Anne when they were both little. He was a totally adorable little boy. There was also his diploma, I think, and an invitation to his mother's coronation. There was a letter he wrote to his grandma when he was like six in cute little kid handwriting which was really cool. It was basically just a timeline of his life, all sorts of pictures of him as he grew up and important documents and things of that nature. Definitely super neato.
After checking out Charles' gallery, we went to the State Apartments. Totally amazing. There were all sorts of rooms, some had armor in them, with all sorts of spoils of war and stuff, this really sweet golden tiger head thing, some Thai crown, big jewels, and other general treasure-y stuff. They had a guard chamber where they had tons of swords and rifles arranged in cool swirly patterns all along the walls, and other weapons to show how powerful they were and how well protected the Royal family was. I thought of Cory the whole time, I with I had been allowed to take pictures in there! We saw some other chambers, meeting rooms, a dining room with a massive table and pretty chairs with pink cushions that I REALLY wanted to sit on, a bedchamber with a massive ornate bed with a HUGE canopy and big bedhangings that went from the ceiling to the floor. I'm telling you, that bed looked so amazing, I would sleep there forever. I think that was the bedroom that they said Napoleon III [I think?] and his wife slept in when they came to visit cause it had their initials carved into the bed.
Then we saw some rooms that are only open for part of the year, because in the summer they are used for when the Queen comes to the castle to ENTERTAIN GUESTS. So, we were in rooms where the Queen chills in the summer...which basically is really cool.
In general the castle was full of really cool, old-fashioned furniture and some awesome artwork. Lots of the ceilings were completely painted with beautiful scenes, Gods, monarchs, stuff like that. The entire thing is just so fancy and it was really unbelievable that we were able to walk through it and see stuff that is usually meant for the Queen and her guests.
After the castle closed, we walked down to Eton College which is where Prince William went when he was 13 or something like that, apparently it's a competitive school. We didn't get to go in or anything, but we saw it and took some pictures which was nice.
We went to this place called Nando's for lunch. It was a neato place, they had lots of chicken dishes, I know you would have liked it dad! Also, when you order, you have to tell them how hot you want it, they have like a hot-o-meter with different levels, and I was wondering if their hottest would have even registered with dad haha. I got this chicken sandwich with a lime-mango sauce on it, and of course chips aka french fries. It was excellent. They also had rum raisin ice cream, which Anna actually got, but I just laughed about for 5 minutes or so [Cory I wish you were there haha].
So Windsor was a really fun trip.
Then on Monday we had a walking tour for my History of London class. It was, of course, pouring rain all day long [awesomeeee] so we walked around with umbrellas as our feet got steadily more and more waterlogged. It was also cold, thank goodness... The walk was still cool, we got to see some churches, like St Paul's Cathedral [which I still have to go venture to the top of] and St Mary-le-Bow, and the church of St Bartholomew the Great, which is one of the oldest churches in London. We also saw some super old remains of a Roman fort and some other cool things. We went into the Guildhall, which is where meetings were and still are held where the important townspeople and mayors and stuff go...it was really cool. We also saw some remains of a Roman gladiator arena that was found some 18 feet below the ground some time ago. Definitely cool. I would like to go back another time when it's not raining though and wander around some more to explore other things.
Then, that night we went to see The Sound of Music. It was of course still downpouring, so we managed to get completely wet before arriving at the theatre. But it only cost 15 pounds, AND got our seats upgraded, I'm assuming because they didn't sell enough since it was a random Monday night. We had excellent seats, we were in the third row of the second level, I can't really imagine a much better seat in the whole theatre [which was, like everything else in London and England in general, really beautiful and elaborate]. The show was really excellent. They had awesome sets, and this really cool hill thing that the cast could walk on, and it could tilt toward the audience and away from the audience so it looked like they were climbing it...I guess it's hard to explain but it was hot. The cast was amazing, they all sang really well [except Captain von Trapp who had a really odd, low, somewhat off-key-sounding voice, oh well..] The kids were so cute and all were really good too. There was a really weird thing that happened at the beginning though. There was a lady directly behind us that was literally singing the entire first song, and it was SO distracting...she was ruining it because when they would pause dramatically in the song, she could come in before the actress did and it was just generally awful. And we were all getting so annoyed and shooting glances at each other like "what the??" So when the song ended, we thought it was going to be fine, but the lady started like echoing the lines that Maria was saying and it was definitely the most distracting thing in the world and I was not about to have it happen for the entire show, I would have lost my mind. So Patricia turned around and asked if she could please be quiet, and the woman sitting next to her said something I couldn't hear, but I think it was along the lines of "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do..." or something like that. So I was just like ahhhhh where can we move, she is ruining the whole show! And then I just was thinking, she's gotta have some sort of mental problem or something if she physically can't stop doing it, but luckily the people she was with must have talked to an usher because they were moved, thank goodness. I felt bad for being mad since I don't think it was the lady's fault, but regardless, it was ruining the show.
I still have more to write about today; we went to Hampton Court Palace and Kew Gardens for one of my classes [and I got to miss work!] but since this is already like 100 pages long I'll update again later this weekend about that. So far so good though!
Monday, 2 February 2009
school's closed and I can't wait.
Today we had a snow day...first time since like Junior year of high school. So awesome. We literally had like 2-3 inches this morning and the entire city shut down basically. The tube stopped running for the most part, buses too, and all classes were canceled. They were talking on the news like it was the end of the world, "we could get up to six inches!"Dude, if this was Rochester they'd barely bother bringing out the plows for six inches. It's so different here! I guess they just aren't prepared to handle the snow, I've heard it only snows here once a year if that, and this is the most snow they've had in 18 years or something crazy like that.
So I spent the day playing Skipbo with Patricia and watching really cool British game shows. It was a good time. We're all hoping that tomorrow we get another snow day cause we're greedy and we already made a plan for something to do. We're going to try to go see a show if we can, they usually have massively cheap tickets if you get them last minute like we would. So we'll see what happens with tomorrow...
Otherwise, we've been keeping busy. Class monday and tuesday, internship wed-fri for eight hours each day. My internship is going pretty well, although it's shift work which kinda sucks. I either work from 7:30-3:30 or 1:30-9:30, so I either get up super early, or just spend the entire day there. It's a good experience though.
So what else....
On Saturday we went to Cambridge. We took a train [my first train] from King's Cross [Hogwart's Express] to get there, which was cool. The only thing bad was that we kept going through these tunnels and it was the most uncomfortable feeling for your ears in the whole world. It was like intense pressure and just super unpleasant, way worse than on airplanes. It's hard to explain, it was just really weird. Cambridge was really beautiful, we basically just walked around and visited King's College and Trinity College [super old, super gorgeous, supergreen manicured grass that you're not allowed to walk on...you get the idea]. We also went to Fitzwilliam museum which was neato. They have an Egypt section which is totally my thing, I love checking out the mummies and all that. We also saw a place where Charles Darwin lived for a year, according to the sign outside it. Pretty sweet. We went in some shops and we ate at a pub which was nice. I keep discovering new differences between home and here. Example 1: I ordered a chicken bacon club. The bacon was...more like ham/canadian bacon than anything. It was like this big slab of thick meat. It was good but definitely different. Example 2: My drink choices were Coke and lemonade, so I chose lemonade....which upon drinking I actually discovered it was Sprite, which I guess makes sense since it is a lemon-lime soda...but then what do they call real lemonade? It's weird.
We've also gone shopping a little this past week. Went to Primark which is the world's greatest store. They have tons of good clothes, jackets, shoes, bags, even household stuff like sheets and whatnot. And it's all SO CHEAP. I bought a pair of flats for 4 Pounds...a shirt for 4 Pounds and another one for 7 Pounds, seriously with those prices it's a sin to NOT buy things. So amazing. And all the Londoners here are so fashionable and stylish, it's nice to buy some clothes here. I was also in the hunt for a nice peacoat since the coat I brought here was my Columbia one. Don't get me wrong, I love that coat, but I really wanted a peacoat, especially here because I stick out like a sore thumb in that other jacket [not like I don't stick out in every other way, but the jacket is a dead giveaway]. Anyways, I ended up finding a nice one [with a hood! thank goodness] for 19 Pounds, which I thought was an excellent deal. You can't touch that in America.
I guess I'll say a little about food to wrap this up. The food here is pretty different. Apparently they don't have high fructose corn syrup here, which is a big thumbs up in terms of how healthy the food is. The only thing about it is that without it, everything tastes really different, and a lot less sweet. So far the sweetest cereal I have found is frosted flakes [which is called Frosties here, even though it still has Tony the Tiger on it] which still tastes a lot different than ours at home. It took a little getting used to, but it's a lot easier now that I've been here for a while. Ice cream is a lot different, way less sweet. Peanut butter, same, less sweet and more peanutty but still super delicious, thank goodness. And no salmonella as far as I've seen, unlike at home haha. They have doritos here, but they don't have lay's. They have similar looking bags but I think it's called Walkers or something like that. But they do have realllly weird flavors like Prawn Cocktail, Chili Chocolate and something with Duck in it, I'm not exactly sure what it is but it freaks me out a lot. The ketchup is different here too, it tastes a little different. The worst thing though is that they don't have macaroni and cheese [unless I just haven't found it yet]. This is a massive blow to my main diet which I have been coping with decently. I miss it a lot though haha. I've been trying some interesting new sweets though...they have TONS of different candies here. I tried a Cadbury Turkish bar which has turkish delight filling [like in the Chronicles of Narnia...Edmund loves that stuff, so I figured I'd see what it's all about] It was not nearly as delightful as it sounded. It's this weird pinkish filling but it's not liquidy like if you had a raspberry filling or something. It tastes like it does not belong in chocolate though, apparently it's made partly with like rosewater? I have no idea who thought that was a good plan but I'm going to stick to regular chocolate for a while.
Oh and I forgot, yesterday was Chinese New Years so we went to check out the festivities in Trafalgar Square that they had. They had some vendors and decorations, and performances all day long. It was pretty cool, but it was SO COLD and it started snowing so we took a few pictures and walked around for a bit but then we went in the National Gallery to look at paintings since it was right next to the Square. It was cool but for the time being I'm a little museum'ed out.
This weekend we're going to Windsor to see the castle and other things there so that should be cool. I'll try to update again soon when there's more things to write about!
So I spent the day playing Skipbo with Patricia and watching really cool British game shows. It was a good time. We're all hoping that tomorrow we get another snow day cause we're greedy and we already made a plan for something to do. We're going to try to go see a show if we can, they usually have massively cheap tickets if you get them last minute like we would. So we'll see what happens with tomorrow...
Otherwise, we've been keeping busy. Class monday and tuesday, internship wed-fri for eight hours each day. My internship is going pretty well, although it's shift work which kinda sucks. I either work from 7:30-3:30 or 1:30-9:30, so I either get up super early, or just spend the entire day there. It's a good experience though.
So what else....
On Saturday we went to Cambridge. We took a train [my first train] from King's Cross [Hogwart's Express] to get there, which was cool. The only thing bad was that we kept going through these tunnels and it was the most uncomfortable feeling for your ears in the whole world. It was like intense pressure and just super unpleasant, way worse than on airplanes. It's hard to explain, it was just really weird. Cambridge was really beautiful, we basically just walked around and visited King's College and Trinity College [super old, super gorgeous, supergreen manicured grass that you're not allowed to walk on...you get the idea]. We also went to Fitzwilliam museum which was neato. They have an Egypt section which is totally my thing, I love checking out the mummies and all that. We also saw a place where Charles Darwin lived for a year, according to the sign outside it. Pretty sweet. We went in some shops and we ate at a pub which was nice. I keep discovering new differences between home and here. Example 1: I ordered a chicken bacon club. The bacon was...more like ham/canadian bacon than anything. It was like this big slab of thick meat. It was good but definitely different. Example 2: My drink choices were Coke and lemonade, so I chose lemonade....which upon drinking I actually discovered it was Sprite, which I guess makes sense since it is a lemon-lime soda...but then what do they call real lemonade? It's weird.
We've also gone shopping a little this past week. Went to Primark which is the world's greatest store. They have tons of good clothes, jackets, shoes, bags, even household stuff like sheets and whatnot. And it's all SO CHEAP. I bought a pair of flats for 4 Pounds...a shirt for 4 Pounds and another one for 7 Pounds, seriously with those prices it's a sin to NOT buy things. So amazing. And all the Londoners here are so fashionable and stylish, it's nice to buy some clothes here. I was also in the hunt for a nice peacoat since the coat I brought here was my Columbia one. Don't get me wrong, I love that coat, but I really wanted a peacoat, especially here because I stick out like a sore thumb in that other jacket [not like I don't stick out in every other way, but the jacket is a dead giveaway]. Anyways, I ended up finding a nice one [with a hood! thank goodness] for 19 Pounds, which I thought was an excellent deal. You can't touch that in America.
I guess I'll say a little about food to wrap this up. The food here is pretty different. Apparently they don't have high fructose corn syrup here, which is a big thumbs up in terms of how healthy the food is. The only thing about it is that without it, everything tastes really different, and a lot less sweet. So far the sweetest cereal I have found is frosted flakes [which is called Frosties here, even though it still has Tony the Tiger on it] which still tastes a lot different than ours at home. It took a little getting used to, but it's a lot easier now that I've been here for a while. Ice cream is a lot different, way less sweet. Peanut butter, same, less sweet and more peanutty but still super delicious, thank goodness. And no salmonella as far as I've seen, unlike at home haha. They have doritos here, but they don't have lay's. They have similar looking bags but I think it's called Walkers or something like that. But they do have realllly weird flavors like Prawn Cocktail, Chili Chocolate and something with Duck in it, I'm not exactly sure what it is but it freaks me out a lot. The ketchup is different here too, it tastes a little different. The worst thing though is that they don't have macaroni and cheese [unless I just haven't found it yet]. This is a massive blow to my main diet which I have been coping with decently. I miss it a lot though haha. I've been trying some interesting new sweets though...they have TONS of different candies here. I tried a Cadbury Turkish bar which has turkish delight filling [like in the Chronicles of Narnia...Edmund loves that stuff, so I figured I'd see what it's all about] It was not nearly as delightful as it sounded. It's this weird pinkish filling but it's not liquidy like if you had a raspberry filling or something. It tastes like it does not belong in chocolate though, apparently it's made partly with like rosewater? I have no idea who thought that was a good plan but I'm going to stick to regular chocolate for a while.
Oh and I forgot, yesterday was Chinese New Years so we went to check out the festivities in Trafalgar Square that they had. They had some vendors and decorations, and performances all day long. It was pretty cool, but it was SO COLD and it started snowing so we took a few pictures and walked around for a bit but then we went in the National Gallery to look at paintings since it was right next to the Square. It was cool but for the time being I'm a little museum'ed out.
This weekend we're going to Windsor to see the castle and other things there so that should be cool. I'll try to update again soon when there's more things to write about!
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Revolutionary Road Premiere!
Today Patricia, Kelly and I went to the Revolutionary Road premiere. I totally recommend going to a premiere if a) you really like the celebrities that will be there, b) the weather is tolerable and c) you don't mind standing in the same spot for at least 4-5 hours or longer. It sounds really unappealing and believe me it wasn't fun to stand there for so long in the super cold but the payoff was definitely worth it. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were there...they were the only celebrities there but frankly, that's plenty for me. Not only are they amazing at what they do, but they really seem like they're nice people and care about the fans who were standing there in the cold for so many hours. They both looked super gorgeous and I was pretty impressed with how long they stayed out on the Red Carpet. It was probably 40 degrees or something like that, maybe lower, but there was a really cold wind that blew on and off. Leo at least had a suitjacket on but Kate was wearing a dress so she must have been freeeeezing. I mean, we were all in huge winter jackets and gloves and were still being frozen. Anyway, they all walked down the Red Carpet and did their interviews with all the press that was there...which included MTV News [not surprising] but also CNN International which was surprising to me. After their interviews they walked all along where the fans were and were signing autographs...like a ton of them. I was mostly busy trying to get good pictures of them both, which was hard because even though I was about three rows from the barricade, there was a huge push of people from behind, and tons of arms with cameras and people holding up things to get signed. I managed to get a few good ones though. When Kate was going past us I was more focused on the picture-taking but by the time Leo came around I figured that I would actually have a decent chance of getting him to sign something since we were so close. So I whipped out a postcard I had bought at Westminster and reached out toward him and he grabbed it and signed it! You can't really decipher what it says, which I feel like is typical but what do you expect when they're signing their name hundreds of times in an hour? As he was autographing things for people I think he was kinda talking to us although it was really a blur to me. I think I remember someone thanking him and he said you're welcome. Then someone must have asked how he was liking London and he said something like "it's nice, but it's a little cold." An understatement. Another cool thing was that Patricia told me that as she was reaching out to him to get something signed, some guy pushed by her to pass Leo some big laminated portrait or something and Leo bypassed that guy and reached for Patricia's thing. She said the guy was most likely one of those people who sells autographs online for a lot of money so I thought it was cool that Leo wasn't contributing to that and he could tell who were fans and who were people who just wanted the autograph to make money.
Overall it was probably one of the best nights ever. The conclusion is a) I love London and b) Kate and Leo are amazing and I want to go see the movie soon.
Here's the two best pictures I took
Overall it was probably one of the best nights ever. The conclusion is a) I love London and b) Kate and Leo are amazing and I want to go see the movie soon.
Here's the two best pictures I took
Friday, 16 January 2009
Day 3
It is officially the third day in London and I'm already feeling like this is home. It is a beautiful place, and they're right when they say give it a week and it will feel like you've lived here your whole life.
I will say that the seven-hour plane ride was not pleasant. Aside from the fact that my superlong legs never have the room they deserve, there was a sneezing Brit next to me. All I could think of was landing in London with a cold. However, that wasn't the case...thank goodness. We did end up having NO IDEA where to meet the coach to take us to our flats but eventually we found him/he found us and then we boarded the bus. The first views I had of London were super obscured by fog. We even had to circle Heathrow for a half hour or so because the fog was so thick they were having landing delays. It was beautiful though....and it wasn't even the nice parts yet. Mostly old areas with small houses, some playgrounds, really old looking areas. Lots of green. Even though I was so tired that my eyes hurt, I was so thrilled to finally have made it that those moments on the bus were extremely wonderful and I just remember being completely happy.
Our flat is really quite nice. We drew names out of a pot [classy, I know this.] to determine who got which room. Somehow I was chosen first so I got the biggest one and it's a single too. Excellent. The building itself is super old and you can tell, but it's pretty still. We have a nice little lounge and a kitchen, a toilet that is tricky to flush, and a brand new shower. Not too shabby at all. I actually really love it.
We've done a ton of walking since we got here. It's really cool though because everywhere we go, there's always something to look at, dumbstruck. Even if it's just some old building. Everything here just has this old beauty to it, I could literally walk around the entire city and still find new things to ogle at [interestingly enough, I passed an Ogle Street today. Honestly].
I took the tube for the first time today with Patricia to our interview at our internship. It was really sort of intimidating at first. We had no idea what was going on/what to do/how to do any of it. Aside from the general lack of knowledge we had, the entire station was going in 3x fastforward. The morning commuters were buzzing in and out, tapping cards, going through gates, everything was just fast. It ended up being really easy, thank goodness, and pretty cool for someone like me who has never even been on the subway before. Expensive though. But such is London.
Also I feel really stupid being an American here. For one thing, we're clueless about everything and how they do things here, which I feel like just furthers the dislike that people have for Americans. You think it's going to be so similar, since they speak English too and all that, but it's really very different. Even simple things are hard...i.e. crossing the street. You have to be really careful to not get run over. I never know which direction to look, and like I said before, everything here is fast. The one good fast thing though is that people walk fast. Finally. A place where I don't have to be slowed down by people. The only problem is, I'm the slow one now because every time I go somewhere I spend half the time consulting the map to make sure I'm going the right way. Which, might I add, has gone really well so far.
The food here has been pretty good so far. We've had some interesting experiences already...from Pizza Express [which should really be called something like Come In and Order Pizza/Pasta at a Sit Down Restaurant and Wait 45 Minutes for it in a Non-Express-like Fashion] where we had the cooks yelling at the servers and vice versa. Not even kidding, there was like a serious argument that they had, and it was right in front of all the customers on that side of the restaurant....I've never seen something like that before in my life. There's also Wagamama...went there today. It's an interesting place, I guess it's like Asian food...rice and noodles and chicken and all sorts of vegetables, some of which I haven't heard of. It was really good though...really good. I'm trying to expand my food horizons and so far so good. We still have to get Indian food which was supposed to be on like every street corner, but so far I've barely seen any places at all.
There's a TON of exploring/adventuring to be done...tomorrow we're going to Westminster to see all the exciting things there, hopefully get some VIP action and get to go inside some of the famous places. I'll post again soon, maybe with pictures!
I will say that the seven-hour plane ride was not pleasant. Aside from the fact that my superlong legs never have the room they deserve, there was a sneezing Brit next to me. All I could think of was landing in London with a cold. However, that wasn't the case...thank goodness. We did end up having NO IDEA where to meet the coach to take us to our flats but eventually we found him/he found us and then we boarded the bus. The first views I had of London were super obscured by fog. We even had to circle Heathrow for a half hour or so because the fog was so thick they were having landing delays. It was beautiful though....and it wasn't even the nice parts yet. Mostly old areas with small houses, some playgrounds, really old looking areas. Lots of green. Even though I was so tired that my eyes hurt, I was so thrilled to finally have made it that those moments on the bus were extremely wonderful and I just remember being completely happy.
Our flat is really quite nice. We drew names out of a pot [classy, I know this.] to determine who got which room. Somehow I was chosen first so I got the biggest one and it's a single too. Excellent. The building itself is super old and you can tell, but it's pretty still. We have a nice little lounge and a kitchen, a toilet that is tricky to flush, and a brand new shower. Not too shabby at all. I actually really love it.
We've done a ton of walking since we got here. It's really cool though because everywhere we go, there's always something to look at, dumbstruck. Even if it's just some old building. Everything here just has this old beauty to it, I could literally walk around the entire city and still find new things to ogle at [interestingly enough, I passed an Ogle Street today. Honestly].
I took the tube for the first time today with Patricia to our interview at our internship. It was really sort of intimidating at first. We had no idea what was going on/what to do/how to do any of it. Aside from the general lack of knowledge we had, the entire station was going in 3x fastforward. The morning commuters were buzzing in and out, tapping cards, going through gates, everything was just fast. It ended up being really easy, thank goodness, and pretty cool for someone like me who has never even been on the subway before. Expensive though. But such is London.
Also I feel really stupid being an American here. For one thing, we're clueless about everything and how they do things here, which I feel like just furthers the dislike that people have for Americans. You think it's going to be so similar, since they speak English too and all that, but it's really very different. Even simple things are hard...i.e. crossing the street. You have to be really careful to not get run over. I never know which direction to look, and like I said before, everything here is fast. The one good fast thing though is that people walk fast. Finally. A place where I don't have to be slowed down by people. The only problem is, I'm the slow one now because every time I go somewhere I spend half the time consulting the map to make sure I'm going the right way. Which, might I add, has gone really well so far.
The food here has been pretty good so far. We've had some interesting experiences already...from Pizza Express [which should really be called something like Come In and Order Pizza/Pasta at a Sit Down Restaurant and Wait 45 Minutes for it in a Non-Express-like Fashion] where we had the cooks yelling at the servers and vice versa. Not even kidding, there was like a serious argument that they had, and it was right in front of all the customers on that side of the restaurant....I've never seen something like that before in my life. There's also Wagamama...went there today. It's an interesting place, I guess it's like Asian food...rice and noodles and chicken and all sorts of vegetables, some of which I haven't heard of. It was really good though...really good. I'm trying to expand my food horizons and so far so good. We still have to get Indian food which was supposed to be on like every street corner, but so far I've barely seen any places at all.
There's a TON of exploring/adventuring to be done...tomorrow we're going to Westminster to see all the exciting things there, hopefully get some VIP action and get to go inside some of the famous places. I'll post again soon, maybe with pictures!
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