Westminster Abbey

We went to services at both Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, which I was really only excited about because of the architecture and historical significance (hello royal weddings!) since we know how I feel about church...

Westminster Abbey is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  It reminded me a lot of Hogwarts which of course gains major points in my book! We were allowed to take photos inside because it was a place of worship and all which I respect of course and I honestly don't think I could have captured the beauty in a photo anyways. So I will try to describe it.

First of all, the Abbey is HUGE.  Everyone thinks it is just the cathedral part and that's it, but no, you're wrong.  There is a whole little square behind the cathedral entrance with a school, places for people to live, and a green for people  to hang out in.  We went in a secret back entrance (oh yeah, special) into the Abbey and it looked like this inside:

 

Pretty nice if you ask me.  Also, I don't know how they got that grass so green, but I want to know the secret.

Did you know that it took several different kings to construct the Abbey over several hundred years?  Well, it did, and you can tell in the first photo by the change in the color of the material used on the side of the spire looking section.  You can also see this inside the actual cathedral which I though was really interesting.  Monks were the first to live at the Abbey, but they were kicked out when Henry VIII wanted to take over the church of England so he could have everything.  He wasn't the nicest guy if you ask me...

We walked through the Abbey for about 45 minutes with our tour guide, John, who was awesome and I would highly recommend for any sort of tour in London, and he showed us the highlights of the Abbey.  I walked on the graves of Isaac Newton, Chaucer, Shakespeare...you name it, and they are probably there.  Of course all of the royals had the most amazing looking tombs and structures that were just so intricate looking and clearly a lot of time and thought was put into deigning them.  Many royals started designing their tombs long before their death, and often included a space for their spouse to lie as well.

One of my favorite parts of the Abbey was a tomb that I had never even heard anything about before and was just some simple, beautiful and thoughtful that I loved it.  This was the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, which is named such because he was chosen from four unknown bodies that were selected in 1920.  Much like the tomb of the unknown soldier in Washington D.C., this warrior represents all of those lost during the war who were never identified and it is a way to honor their work and dedication to their country which I really like.  It is a way for "regular" people to make their way into the illustrious Abbey!

After the tour, we went to the evensong service which was basically just a lot of singing and standing up then sitting down.  The choir was beautiful and the acoustics were amazing, but it was just not really my cup of tea.  However, the High Commissioner of Swaziland was there so that's pretty cool!  I totally brushed elbows with her on the way out after the service.  It was really cool to be in a place where so many important people of British history have walked (and still technically are!) I will definitely be going back to explore sometime.

xx

MY APOLOGIES

I know, I know...once again I am behind.

We were honestly so busy in London that I just could not find the time to sit down and blog everyday because I really put a lot of effort into these posts-and I hope it shows!  I want them to be entertaining for me when I look back, and I want them to be interesting and fun for people to read and enjoy.  Uni classes start tomorrow (what?!?) and I am nervous and can be.  As I type this, my flatmates are moving in (yay for British people!) so hopefully we will be a happy lil flat family soon enough.

Fasten your seatbelts, and here we go folks.

Oh, and here is a thumbs up pic of me in front of the eye.  Basically all of my photos from this trip are of me and places.  Friends? I promise I have them!!

xx

Thursday 5, September

Okay, I know this is several days behind but I am going to do my best to recount what has been going on....

Thursday morning we all had to go in either pairs or groups of three to a different tube station for a writing exercise.  I went to Kilburn Station with Jess M which was about 20 minutes away from our hotel on the tube.  While we were there, we had to observe the people, the station and the surrounding area.  Let's just say that I won't be returning to Kilburn anytime soon!  It was borderline in the hood and pretty sketchy-I was a little uncomfortable being there so we didn't stay for too long-just enough time to gather our info and hop back on the tube.  The streets were not very populated and it looked like an area that people did not really frequent.  However, I did like the fact that it was an above-ground station, which was nice for a change, and there were lots of little garden plots on the platform.

Once we had gathered our notes, we got back on the tube and went over to the Museum of the City of London (quite early, I might add!!) to meet the rest of the group.  Since we were so early, we went to this cute little sandwich place down the street from the museum and hung out for a while, people watching as per usual.  I had a panini with chicken, mozzarella, olive oil and sundried tomatoes.  An exciting thing has happened on this trip already (well, aside from the things we do everyday, that is!)--I like tomatoes now!!!  This is a big deal, people.  Mommy and daddy, I know you will especially appreciate this :)

Also, I can't remember if I have blogged about this already, but when dining out, you must must MUST remember to ask for TAP WATER!!!  We found out the hard way our second day here that you will be charged an absurd 3 pounds for a measly bottle of "still water".  Whatever, it tastes the same to me, Brits.

After lunch, we finally got over to the museum which was basically exploring and showing the history of London.  Some parts were interesting, like the Mayor's golden carriage, the paintings of the Great Fire, the Olympic costumes and the mock village, but the rest of it was not really my cup of tea.  Oh, also, the fact that Prince George's birth was already documented on the timeline of royals was superb.  Well done, museum people.

We went and hung out for a little bit and had some quick dinner at EAT before heading to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, which is based on one of my favorite books of all time.  So of course I went in with really high expectations and as I thought, they fell a bit short.  I give the producers and actors a lot of credit, because I honestly had no idea of how they were even going to stage the performance since half of the book is Christopher talking to the reader, himself or Toby (the rat, obviously).  There was only one set for the whole play, which worked for some parts and not so much for others.  I didn't like how there were randomly extra people on the stage who were not in the scene and found them to be very distracting.  However, the boy who played Christopher was awesome and he did SUCH a good job embodying his character's personna.  The best part (according to the enthusiasm of the audience) was at the very end when the little lab puppy was brought out onto the stage.  Obviously I freaked out because I miss my little Jackson so much!!!  He was such a cute little puppy and just licked everyone's face as he was passed around the stage.  What a lucky cast.  So, even though I didn't think it was outstanding, the play is definitely worth seeing, or at least reading about because the message the story tells is what I really love about it.

More soon!!

xx

Days 2-Bus Time!

So the past two days have been very, very busy!  What is free time?  We don't have much of it and I am very okay with that. I am a day behind (already, I know) but it is almost 1 am here so I am going to catch up tomorrow morning.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we went on the stereotypical Big Red Bus tour all around London.  This was great because it helped to orient us a bit more and we got to take in all of the sights and take (in my case) an absurd amount of photos.  A casual 150 to be exact.  I have to capture every moment! We were on the red line which basically just means that there is live commentary.  These people are great-the brits are even sassier than I am, and they make fun of themselves and their history relentlessly.  This makes for a great tour.  Aside from the text-book facts that they are required to spit out at us, each guide brings a little personality to his or her tour.  Our second guide told us that she was going to marry Prince Harry-glad to know that is not just an American dream!  It was so amazing to see the eye, the houses of parliament, big ben (which, fun fact, is actually the name of the bell inside the tower!) and the tower bridge while we were cruising the streets.

As expected, I am still not used to cars and bikes driving on the opposite side of the road so it is a real struggle to figure out when and where to cross the street.  Luckily, we travel in a big group so I just look to see what others are doing!  So far so good.  Also exciting news is the Tube is actually pretty easy to navigate.  Yes, I am still walking around with my dorky little tourist map, but I, the queen of directionally challenged citizens have not gotten on the wrong one once (YET).  Public transportation is so much easier (and cleaner!) than it is in the US which is great.  However, brits basically never talk (anywhere, ever..) so we get some pretty interesting looks when we talk, laugh or look like we are having a good time.  Quality people skills.

Anyways, we took a break at lunchtime yesterday because we had to find Jim who unfortunately had some travel struggles and just got here yesterday! I went to Pret a Manger (which you can find basically anywhere and are really cheap-great for our stipend life) and had a little sandwich action with some fruit.  No one uses a reusable water bottle here which is SO annoying but the tap water tastes kind of weird so I understand.  After lunch, we pulled an American and went to a Starbucks for some caffeination which was much needed, and it actually wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be! I have found it is better to go to local coffee shops or cafés to get a better bang for your buck though.

After lunch, we went on a great boat tour along part of the Thames over to Westminster.  We had a great view of all of the buildings along the river, as well as some boats that were actually used during WW I which I thought was really cool to see.  Once we got to Westminster, we basically just got back on the bus after taking some touristy pictures along the way--but we will be going back there for the real deal on Saturday I believe!

We had the rest of the day free after the bus tour so obviously we decided to go to Harrods.  OH WHAT A GREAT PLACE! I could live there.  We (Haley, Rachel, Amanda and I) went to the food section first of course and got some dessert action.  I had tiramisu which was fantastic and super wonderful!  Happy girl.  We went to every floor and spent an oddly long period of time in the children's section.  Baby Dior is a wonderful line and I want to dress my children in it.  Life goal number 28738.  Ball gowns, on ball gowns and so many beautiful shoes everywhere!  I will definitely be going back there multiple times.

Last night for dinner, we went to an Italian place and I finally met up with Abby! It was so good to see her and have some Theta love.  We all had spaghetti with zucchini and red sauce with caesar salad.  I have really been craving vegetables since I've been here!!  So that was nice and festive.  After dinner we went to Tesco which is basically just the local market here where you can buy anything from a krispy kreme donut to random vegetables I have never seen nor heard of before.  It is nice and easy and pretty close to our hotel which is ideal.  I have a feeling we will be going there a lot!  We also went to paperchase and superdrug to stock up on school supplies and toiletries-everything is SO EXPENSIVE!! But the pounds are really pretty and I think we should change American money, so I will have to have a chat with the treasury department when I am back stateside.

Finally, my roommates officially experienced the real and weird Larissa last night, complete with me breaking my shaving cream (3 hours after I bought it, I might add) and laughing so hard that I fell into the wall and made a charger fall out of the wall.  Classic.

Tomorrow (Friday) we are going to the national gallery and portrait gallery as well as Westminster Abbey, so I will be excited to write about that as well as today's (Thursday) adventures!

More to come.  Still a bit jetlagged and so confused about when to sleep.

xx

Hello, London!

Well, the first day is coming to an end and I don't think I have ever felt this tired.  Today we arrived at Heathrow around 9:30 am (after leaving Newark almost an hour late...) and it was a bit stressful trying to get through customs, but we all made it!  We met up with Professor Perabo, and then to our surprise she told us that our assignment for the morning was to find, and get to our hotel by taking the tube (Underground).

WHAT.

Let me tell you, this was not how I imagined my first moments in London! But, it actually turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be and the hardest part was staying awake for the time we were riding!  Once we got off at Russell Square (Picadilly Line) we made our way to the Jesmond Hotel, our home for the next 16 days or so.  It is a cute little bed and breakfast and everyone who works here is so friendly!  I love a good British accent.  After settling in, I grabbed some lunch at a little organic market down the road from our hotel with Haley and Rachel, and then we were off on our next adventure of the day: a two hour walking tour around our neighborhood of Bloomsbury.

Oy.

Might I suggest that when you are jet-lagged, hungry and overheated, you do not take a guided tour all over a neighborhood that seems to blend all together.  Just a thought.  Our tour guide Wendy was very enthusiastic, but she could tell that most of us were not too interested because we are all EXHAUSTED!  We all just sort of collapsed after we got back from the tour and we were on our own for dinner tonight. I went to a little place called Fish and Chips with Rachel, Haley, Amanda and Tori and had none other than Fish and Chips!  I have to say, I have had better in the US!  So I will have to search out the best place.

Tomorrow, we are going on the ultra-touristy Double Decker Red Bus tour and I am so excited!!  I will finally get to see all of the amazing places I have only imagined visiting.  I hope central London is ready for the ridiculous amount of photos I'm going to take!  But, for now, it is off to bed and hoping for a great night's sleep so that I am ready to go for our full-on touristy adventure tomorrow!

xx

Study Abroad!

Hello, blogging world!  Like many of my classmates on my program, I wanted to start a blog to capture some (if not all) of the best moments of my study abroad experience this semester.  I will be in London for two weeks, exploring the city, seeing plays, visiting museums-all things touristy, essentially-and then I will move to Norwich, England for 4 months of university.  As an English major this is the ideal place for me to go-rich in history, the home to so many amazingly talented authors, poets and playwrights, and let's be honest-it's just a beautiful place!!  So, I will be sharing my adventures and memories as I take on the life of an English university student.

Right now I am in the midst of packing, and let me tell you, it has been a struggle.  Trying to fit enough clothes for two weeks (let alone 4 months!!) into a suitcase is a challenge, and as an over-packer to begin with, I am not really feelin' it yet.  There is also the challenge of WHAT to wear!  I tend to dress in the J. Crew-esq style, but my professor encouraged all of us to be "euro-chic"--still trying to figure out exactly what that is.. BUT, I am overall just so excited and thrilled to have the opportunity to live in another country and experience a different sort of lifestyle other than my own.  11 days and counting until I take off in Newark!!

xx