Inevitably, quite some time has passed since my last entry. We are so busy here, we hardly have time to enjoy it. It's making time go by too fast.
Beginning an update is difficult when so much has happened that you don't know where to start anymore. I guess I'll first name off the memorable places we've been for classes, outings, activities and independent fulfillment: Trooping the Colour at Buckingham Palace (with pictures of the Queen and Prince William in the parade as souvenirs) and the Tower of London (castle). We took an hour-long boat ride in the canal that goes through Camden Town (the town I work in), we had lunch at "Speakers' Corner" in Hyde Park (where anyone can go and say anything they want - where the phrase "set up your soap box" came from), and we walked through Westminster Abbey. We spent a weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland (have you seen P.S. I Love You? Then you know what you're missing. It's beautiful).
And photos:
The Queen of England looking right at me at Trooping the Colour: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs337.snc3/29444_404171489307_580174307_4078810_571416_n.jpg
aaand Price William: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs346.ash1/29444_404171444307_580174307_4078803_2700703_n.jpg
Canal through Camden: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs049.ash2/35795_406352119307_580174307_4134839_55132_n.jpg
A speaker at Speakers' Corner: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs089.snc4/35795_406347439307_580174307_4134411_5174256_n.jpg
Westminster Abbey: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs522.snc3/29714_404077354307_580174307_4075401_5576568_n.jpg
My love, Scotland: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs140.snc4/37355_406645744307_580174307_4143220_3281668_n.jpg
Tower of London: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs525.snc3/29844_403461444307_580174307_4057115_8168159_n.jpg
More recently, we took a day-trip to Brighton, England, which has pebble beaches with deceivingly round, smooth, soft-LOOKING pebbles. Walking to the water from our towels one time made our feet numb. There, we toured the Royal Pavilion, which King George IV had built as his vacation home...whiiich he visited twice. TWICE. It was designed to be a fantastical escape; the outside of the palace makes you feel like you're in India, and the inside makes you feel like you're in China. The kitchen was the best room in the place. Then just yesterday, for our British politics class, we visited the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum in Westminster. We learned a lot about Winston Churchill's leadership and life during the war, in addition to how the military lived in the bunkers. The bunkers were set up just like they were when soldiers actually lived there. It was unreal.
And photos:
Brighton beaches: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs109.snc4/35828_408254994307_580174307_4182336_4892067_n.jpg
Royal Pavilion: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs109.snc4/35828_408254979307_580174307_4182333_5832818_n.jpg
Cabinet War Rooms:
Finally, we went to Wimbledon yesterday! Everyone was extremely good-looking and well-dressed, and the tennis players were even better looking. We hovered outside Court #2 (which was closed off due to Andy Roddick's presence inside), peeping through the cracks between security guards. I got some good pictures of him, even though he lost the game. It's OK Andy, I still love you, and so does every other female in the world.
Future hubby: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs060.ash2/36367_408905434307_580174307_4199012_7717808_n.jpg
Sorry to post an entry that's so long and generic, but there was a lot to cover and I'm getting antsy now. We're having a pizza picnic in the park now! Will be more detailed next entry, I promise!
Tuesday, June 29
Wednesday, June 9
A Calm Morning
This is the first morning I've gotten to sleep in since arriving in London. Let me just say that it is ten thousand times better than sleeping in anywhere else, because the grey skies and tiny, whimpering cars didn't wake me once.
Yesterday was my second day of classes: British Media & Society and Film Adaptations. Our professor for Society is hilarious. He is the typical goofy, suspender-wearing dad (except here they call suspenders "braces," with a full head of long, flowing, salt-and-pepper colored hair. Oh, and he is so skinny that two of him could fit in his trousers, and the waist would still button.
After two hours of lecture, he took us to the British Museum to show us the artifacts behind the history of the Aztecs, Plains Indians, Romans and Mesopotamians. Somehow, he managed to tie all of that into British society in the last two hours of class.
Film Adaptions was a little more hands-on than the museum trip. (By the way, we have outings for almost every 4-hour class, so we're constantly seeing new places and people.) Our professor showed us clips from Little Miss Sunshine (supposedly the best beginning to a film ever), Great Expectations (not the Ethan Hawke/Gwyneth Paltrow version...boo), Hamlet (ffffuuuuuu...) and some other movies, then he took us to a tour guide in Bank via the tube. The tour guide is an actor, .k.a. he has been an extra in lots of movies and likes to walk around feeling famous, and he's friendly and loud as hell. He took us all over the City of London, showing us places that have been used as film sets. Most notably were the buildings that were shown in Harry Potter and Bridget Jones' Diary. (Mom, it was so cool. You would have flipped out. I did. Several times.) We walked by scenes from The Theory of Flight, The Heart of Me, East is East, The Avengers, Mamma Mia, Hackers, Match Point, Basic Instinct 2, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (<3 Heath Ledger), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, About a Boy, 101 Dalmations, Young Americans, Mission Impossible, and about 50 other movies. All the Harry Potter geeks on this trip had a ball taking pictures in front of the leaky closet thingy, the hairy guy's house and a bunch of other spots that they recognized instantly from watching the movies 28 too many times.
As far as my own nerdiness goes, (and this is specifically for your pleasure, Mom), we walked parallel to the bridge that Bridget walks across, smiling with her hair blowing in the wind, right after she sleeps with Danial Cleaver for the first time. We also saw her flat in the movie (not as cute in real life), the restaurant that Daniel and Mark Darcy fight in when they crash through the window. Aw, and the shop that Mark goes to at the end to buy her a new diary. We stood where she stands in her underwear, kissing him in the snow! I took on the job of reenacting every character's lines from every scene whose sets we visited. "It's a fight! A real fight!" And, "Mark, I didn't mean it." "I know, I was just buying you a new one." You would've been proud.
School ended at 6pm. Tessa, Rob and I walked across the Tower Bridge for the first time on our way to dinner at an extremely over-priced Indian restaurant. I'm not going to eat out again for weeks. It was delicious, though, and we didn't get food poisoning! After dinner we walked to a really pretty pub that was right on the Thames River. We got beers, sat on the stone wall above the water, and watched the sun set. We had the "encounter" (inside joke) of Tessa trying to convince us that the Tower Bridge was, in fact, the Tower of London. When Rob and I doubted her, she got furious that we didn't believe her since she'd been to London five times before AND had toured the Tower Bridge. In the end, we were right. Aaaand boom goes the dynamite. It's OK, though, because she later argued with us that her way of getting home in the tube was faster than the way we'd been taking, so she raced us home. She won.
Today is my first free day, at least until our meeting tonight at 6-something. I'm catching up on my online class for JMU, buying a camera battery charger, and going for a run around Russell Square Park if it ever stops raining, which is highly unlikely. Also, my boss at Proud Camden called me today and wants me to start work tomorrow at 9:30.
There have been a lot of sights here that, by just looking at them, have changed how I felt about something or another.
The museum's Roman exhibit as a whole was overwhelming. From the detailed sculptures of men and women physically leaning on each other to the stories of warfare and daily life carved, scene by scene, into the stone walls of buildings and homes, first-handedly seeing pieces of work like those felt like an honor.
Here's one of the scenes: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries/ancient_greece_and_rome/rooms_83-84_roman_sculpture.aspx
This is a photo I took of our view from the pub with Rob's camera as we watched the sunset last night: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs658.snc3/32501_399125727814_793197814_4254732_6266024_n.jpg
And another photo I took of the bridge one the sun had gone down: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs618.snc3/32501_399125757814_793197814_4254735_165889_n.jpg
I hope you all at home have more sunshine and warmer weather than we have here. As much as it feels like I'm a different world here, I am still conscious of the fact that your lives, too, are continuing. Keep me updated!
"Lead" by Mary Oliver
Here is a story
to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died, one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A friend told me
of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where
they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.
Are you willing?
This winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died, one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A friend told me
of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where
they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.
Monday, June 7
First Day of School in London
Well, we've had a busy past few days. Since I last updated, I think the majority of our agenda comprised of day-long tours around London: Westminster, Covent Garden, East End (creepy and slummy), and of course, the parks - Green, St. James and Hyde. Those were beautiful. There are two stories behind Green Park being named Green Park. I'll say more about each when it's not so late; our classes are at 9am and go until 1pm...I need bed. To say the least, we all have blisters on our feet, and our legs feel too heavy to lift higher than one step at a time.
Today was my first day of class as a student of London. This morning was British Media and Politics. The first hour was rough to get through. Professor Bradshaw (who is the hugest English nerd I've met thus far) talked about the importance of media, specifically news, for the first hour of class. For the last portion, we took the tube to the London City Courthouse to watch a murder trial. It was awesome! We all filed in the courtroom quietly (the hearing had already begun) as the suspect was admitting to stabbing some guy two times, with one punch to the chin in between stabs. So, I'm assuming he was guilty. He was pleading innocent, though, under the circumstances that he stabbed this other guy in self-defense. I felt bad for him at first because the questioning lawyer was treating him like an idiot, manipulating everything he said to make it sound like this guy was already proved guilty (lawyers are so smart), but then the guy said, "I stabbed him because he insulted my mother." Really? 'Your Momma' jokes are taken that seriously here? He was really drunk when he stabbed the guy, and as soon as he stabbed him the second time and realized the guy was a goner, he ran. I won't judge and say whether he is guilty or not because I haven't heard the whole of the trials, and I'm not as informed as the jury, but.......he guilty. Oh, and the lawyers and judge wore white wigs! I didn't even know those things existed beyond Colonial Williamsburg's reenactments! One of the judges was black and even he was wearing a bright white wig. Awkwaaarrrd.
After the trial, I walked home and took a nap for a couple of hours before Tessa got home (she is my roommate). Tessa, Michelle, Elizabeth and I ate dinner in my flat, then we took the Tube to Covent Garden to get a drink at some of the pubs we'd heard about. It was really nice. We met a man selling roses and he told us about a bunch of cool, cheap, gotta-see type places around southern England. I don't remember most of them, but hopefully the other girls are better with names.
It's been raining all day. Drag. We got really lucky our first week, I suppose, with the sun and warm weather. This seems to be more of what London is usually like. I get depressed when the sun is gone for a good while. I hope it shows itself every now and then. Regardless, this city is too pretty to ever feel let down. God, some of the architecture is amazing. Looking at St. Paul's Cathedral at night made me want to cry. The fact that there was a kilted man playing his bagpipes on the front steps probably didn't help. Also, I vowed to get married in Westminster Abbey...that's probably going to fall through.
St. Paul's: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_GSspXzovugjZMaP8R4124O-9wltkHGECY84MsU4rN3KHP1dSN3Z7G0eb4yTrRY3MOxVuutU29Bu7MmGCKB7PxOT1iseBplQ8zXynBbLHGgia6V8LDzZFcP0tUuMmdus7BYqfhg82j24i/s1600/stpauls.jpg
the Abbey: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Westminster_Abbey_West_Door.jpg
I hope my photos will make up for where my words lack as far as describing my trip. My battery charger is packed up in a box somewhere in Virginia, so I haven't been able to take pictures the past couple of days, but I'm starving until I can afford a new charger here (it costs 40 pounds!). Here's to toast and tomato soup.
Today was my first day of class as a student of London. This morning was British Media and Politics. The first hour was rough to get through. Professor Bradshaw (who is the hugest English nerd I've met thus far) talked about the importance of media, specifically news, for the first hour of class. For the last portion, we took the tube to the London City Courthouse to watch a murder trial. It was awesome! We all filed in the courtroom quietly (the hearing had already begun) as the suspect was admitting to stabbing some guy two times, with one punch to the chin in between stabs. So, I'm assuming he was guilty. He was pleading innocent, though, under the circumstances that he stabbed this other guy in self-defense. I felt bad for him at first because the questioning lawyer was treating him like an idiot, manipulating everything he said to make it sound like this guy was already proved guilty (lawyers are so smart), but then the guy said, "I stabbed him because he insulted my mother." Really? 'Your Momma' jokes are taken that seriously here? He was really drunk when he stabbed the guy, and as soon as he stabbed him the second time and realized the guy was a goner, he ran. I won't judge and say whether he is guilty or not because I haven't heard the whole of the trials, and I'm not as informed as the jury, but.......he guilty. Oh, and the lawyers and judge wore white wigs! I didn't even know those things existed beyond Colonial Williamsburg's reenactments! One of the judges was black and even he was wearing a bright white wig. Awkwaaarrrd.
After the trial, I walked home and took a nap for a couple of hours before Tessa got home (she is my roommate). Tessa, Michelle, Elizabeth and I ate dinner in my flat, then we took the Tube to Covent Garden to get a drink at some of the pubs we'd heard about. It was really nice. We met a man selling roses and he told us about a bunch of cool, cheap, gotta-see type places around southern England. I don't remember most of them, but hopefully the other girls are better with names.
It's been raining all day. Drag. We got really lucky our first week, I suppose, with the sun and warm weather. This seems to be more of what London is usually like. I get depressed when the sun is gone for a good while. I hope it shows itself every now and then. Regardless, this city is too pretty to ever feel let down. God, some of the architecture is amazing. Looking at St. Paul's Cathedral at night made me want to cry. The fact that there was a kilted man playing his bagpipes on the front steps probably didn't help. Also, I vowed to get married in Westminster Abbey...that's probably going to fall through.
St. Paul's: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_GSspXzovugjZMaP8R4124O-9wltkHGECY84MsU4rN3KHP1dSN3Z7G0eb4yTrRY3MOxVuutU29Bu7MmGCKB7PxOT1iseBplQ8zXynBbLHGgia6V8LDzZFcP0tUuMmdus7BYqfhg82j24i/s1600/stpauls.jpg
the Abbey: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Westminster_Abbey_West_Door.jpg
I hope my photos will make up for where my words lack as far as describing my trip. My battery charger is packed up in a box somewhere in Virginia, so I haven't been able to take pictures the past couple of days, but I'm starving until I can afford a new charger here (it costs 40 pounds!). Here's to toast and tomato soup.
Wednesday, June 2
Arrival in London, First Guinness Pint
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
At 6 a.m. this morning, my plane landed in Heathrow Airport in London, England. The 6-ish-hour flight was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated; however, I found myself painfully uncomfortable. At least we stayed in the air when we were supposed to!
Tessa and I sat at Heathrow for hours, waiting for our program director to pick us up. After a long day of orientations, setting up Internet, and slowly settling in, I am proud to say that the first thing I did in my free time today was visit my new internship, drink a pint of Guinness and eat a rump steak sandwich at a local pub. The rump steak was a bad choice, but as always, the Guinness was awesome.
The breakdown: After the rump steak, we took the tube from Russell Square (close to where our house is) to Camden Town, which is where my internship is. First of all, Camden Town is SO cool. It looks like the old, cottage-y cobblestone setting of Moulin Rouge. Proud Camden, which is the photography gallery/live music venue I'll be working at, is in the dead center of the town. The market surrounds Proud, and the entire town is lit up with different colored Christmas lights. The blocks between the metro stop and my final destination (Proud) were creepy to walk at night, but now I know to never do it alone.
On the way back to the metro stop, we stopped in (another) pub and had pints of Guinness. We made friends with the bartender, an Irishman, and he expressed his desire for us to visit again throughout our stay in London. I love new friends! Especially when they serve beer. It turns out that our new friend Mark actually has a brother who bartends at a pub in Old Towne Alexandria in Northern Virginia. Tessa had met Mark's brother awhile back! Small world.
Tessa and I then proceeded to get lost, regardless of our thousands of pages of maps, for about an hour and a half -- somewhere in the short distance between Euston Station and Bloomsbury/Russell Square. Whoops! We made a lot of cool, new friends tonight, thanks to getting lost. The trek back to the house was the most I've laughed since I got here.
I miss James.
Tomorrow is my interview with Proud Camden. Even though I essentially already got the job, the companies still require we meet with them before we start working. They probably just want to know that we don't have three arms or something. I'm excited but nervous. It's such a cool place, I want to make them happy via the work that I do for them. I want to make them Camden Proud. BOOM!
At 6 a.m. this morning, my plane landed in Heathrow Airport in London, England. The 6-ish-hour flight was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated; however, I found myself painfully uncomfortable. At least we stayed in the air when we were supposed to!
Tessa and I sat at Heathrow for hours, waiting for our program director to pick us up. After a long day of orientations, setting up Internet, and slowly settling in, I am proud to say that the first thing I did in my free time today was visit my new internship, drink a pint of Guinness and eat a rump steak sandwich at a local pub. The rump steak was a bad choice, but as always, the Guinness was awesome.
The breakdown: After the rump steak, we took the tube from Russell Square (close to where our house is) to Camden Town, which is where my internship is. First of all, Camden Town is SO cool. It looks like the old, cottage-y cobblestone setting of Moulin Rouge. Proud Camden, which is the photography gallery/live music venue I'll be working at, is in the dead center of the town. The market surrounds Proud, and the entire town is lit up with different colored Christmas lights. The blocks between the metro stop and my final destination (Proud) were creepy to walk at night, but now I know to never do it alone.
On the way back to the metro stop, we stopped in (another) pub and had pints of Guinness. We made friends with the bartender, an Irishman, and he expressed his desire for us to visit again throughout our stay in London. I love new friends! Especially when they serve beer. It turns out that our new friend Mark actually has a brother who bartends at a pub in Old Towne Alexandria in Northern Virginia. Tessa had met Mark's brother awhile back! Small world.
Tessa and I then proceeded to get lost, regardless of our thousands of pages of maps, for about an hour and a half -- somewhere in the short distance between Euston Station and Bloomsbury/Russell Square. Whoops! We made a lot of cool, new friends tonight, thanks to getting lost. The trek back to the house was the most I've laughed since I got here.
I miss James.
Tomorrow is my interview with Proud Camden. Even though I essentially already got the job, the companies still require we meet with them before we start working. They probably just want to know that we don't have three arms or something. I'm excited but nervous. It's such a cool place, I want to make them happy via the work that I do for them. I want to make them Camden Proud. BOOM!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
