The Final Weekend...

It's my last weekend here in London, and I couldn't have asked for a better one! All this week it has been sunny, upper 70s, and hardly a cloud in the sky (most of the time). It has also been surprisingly humid! I suppose that's because we're close to the river Thames...

We make sure to go out and sit in the sun at the park at least once a day, and walking around is a must! The weather is so nice you never want to stay indoors. Too bad it started to be this beautiful one week before we leave to go home!

My only big update is that this Thursday I went with some friends to see "Macbeth" at the Globe Theater (a reconstruction of where Shakespeare originally put on his plays. Remember the pictures from January?) We only paid 5 pounds for our standing room in the pit in front of the stage. This is where the "groundlings" would have stood in Shakespeare's time, and the 5 pounds we pay today is the equivalent of the 1 shilling (1/4 of a penny) they would have paid in Shakespeare's day!

It was a very interesting play, with lots of blood, gore, and murder. Very befitting the plot line! Our only complaint is that they didn't cut some of the boring scenes. Even Shakespeare would cut lines of his plays during production - and it seemed like this director didn't cut enough! But maybe that's just because our feet were really getting sore after 3 hours of standing.

The most interesting part of the production was the director's concept of the audience as the "Underworld". Everyone in the pit had to stand under a large black cloth with only our heads sticking out. We were literally "talking heads"! Of course, not being able to see your feet meant that the actors had a good time running under the cloth, poking, tickling, and popping out to scare the crowd. They even reserved holes for dead bodies to rise out of in the middle of the audience! Naturally you didn't know if or when a body would rise out of the hole next to you. It was spooky!

However, my favorite part of the show was at the end. A few of the actors were hiding next to me in the aisle, waiting to go on for the curtain call. They were supposed to be covered in mud and blood from the battle, but my nose smelled otherwise. As the show ended and the audience started to clap, I whispered to the actor next to me "You smell delicious!" and he laughed and whispered back "Thanks - it's all choc!" (Choc is British slang for chocolate) I guess the fake mud was actually chocolate powder mixed with chocolate syrup for effect! No wonder they all smelled so good...

So that's it, my last "Cultural Activity" for the term. The rest of this week is going to be buckle-down and working on the last bits of projects for final presentations. My last class is this Thursday and I fly home on Friday morning. I'll probably update one more time with a reflection over these past 5 months. Oh how they've flown!

I'll leave you with two pictures from MacBeth, showing the audience in the pit standing under the black cloth:

Weekend Adventure in Wales!!

As promised, here is the story of my awesome Weekend Adventure in Wales! This was a school trip organized by the University, so I went with 10 other students.

Day 1:
Getting there - We took a long 5 hour train ride from London to the western coast of Wales (Mathry, if you want to look it up on a map) and were then escorted to Preseli Venture Camp. This is a private adventure camp owned and operated by experienced guides. It's a very nice facility - with a big lodge with different rooms for guests, lots of nice clean bathrooms (shared by everyone), and a mess hall/lounge with games, a bar, and couches for relaxing. The whole place is situated in the middle of rolling farmlands with a great view of both the coast (20 min walk away) and the quaint town of Mathry on the hill. Meals were home cooked every night by a little Welsh woman - and the portions were huge! Over the weekend had vegetarian lasagna, chicken curry, Welsh stew, jacket (baked) potatoes, and big breakfasts. It was great to come back from our various activities and eat/drink/relax in the mess hall.
The Room - After arriving at Preseli we were assigned our room. There were 8 girls on the trip (plus 2 guys, and a faculty member)and all of us girls slept together in the same large "bunk" room. There were triple bunk beds as well as a loft! I, of course, took one of the top bunks. So much fun!
Exploring the Beach - After moving in we took a 20 min walk down to the private beach. Since there is no road access, only locals and Preseli guests use it. To get there you have to walk down narrow country roads and through a cow field... with cows! But the beach is GREAT. It was rocky and pristine. We spent the evening climbing on the rocks and generally having a good time before returning to the lodge for the rest of the night.
Click the picture below to see more photos from Day 1


Day 2:
Kayaking - For each of the days, our group was split up into smaller groups depending on the activities we wanted to do. I had originally signed up to go surfing, but the conditions were bad so our guide took us kayaking instead. We had single-person kayaks, which was nice because of the different skill levels, and lots of gear to go with it. Our guide, John, then took us to a nearby bay to paddle around. Unfortunately the tide was low and coming in, so the conditions weren't great. We couldn't paddle around the island because, with the low water, it wasn't an island any more! Plus the swells outside of the bay were BIG (8-10 feet), so paddling along the coast was a heart-racing roller coaster ride! I was having a blast, the waves were thrilling to ride on, but other girls who were less experienced were more nervous, so we returned to the bay to practice "riding the waves".
Hiking - After lunch and a quick shower, our group got to go on a hike along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. This is a trail running the length of the west Wales coast (Pembrokshire). The 7 mile section we walked had great, scenic views of the rocky coast on one side - and hilly farmland with lambs, friendly ponies, and cows on the other! There were fox holes, yellow gorse bushes, tons of sea birds (gannets!), and lots of other things to see. It was a great, relaxing walk back to Preseli from the drop point.
Fun at the Lodge - That night we stayed up playing board games, card games, and meeting the other guests. There was one other college group (5 friends from St. Louis) who was also studying abroad in London, so we even made new friends!
Click the picture below to see more photos from Day 2


Day 3:
Coasteering - This was the highlight of the trip. Coasteering is, essentially, climbing/swimming/exploring the coast and jumping off of cliffs! There was a lot of gear involved to protect us from the rocks and cold water (life vests, helmets, neoprene socks, two layers of wetsuit, etc.) but the fun made up for it. Our guides led us on a swim along the coastline, stopping to check out caves, tunnels, and natural canyons where the big waves carried us up/down and back/forth like a fair ride! It was SO much fun!! The best part had to be climbing up the cliffs and jumping back into the water. It sure took a lot of courage! Our biggest jump was about 30 feet, but it sure felt like more when you were standing on the top. At the end of the trip we swam/hiked/climbed our way back to Preseli for a shower and lunch.
Returning Home- After lunch we had to pack our things and, sadly, return to London via train. I was really sad to leave. The area was unspeakably beautiful, the weather was GREAT (especially the day we went coasteering, perfect!) and we had such a good time. I know I would like to return to Wales someday and spend more time exploring the small, quaint towns along the Pembrokeshire coast.
Click the picture below to see more photos from Day 3


So that's it! Thanks for reading about my fun trip to Wales. Only 2 weeks left until I return to Oregon! I'm so glad I got to take this trip before I left.

On the British Election...

Before I post my big Wales update, I thought I should give a brief note on the British Election. It works something like this...

- One month before the election, the Prime Minister goes to the Queen and announces he believes an election should be held. (Usually these things are planned in advance, and an election MUST be held every five years)

- The three main parties (Labour, Liberal Democrats, and Conservative "Tories") then have one month to campaign. This is usually a very quiet matter. Parties are only allowed to advertise via signs and billboards, and personal campaigning - NO TV or radio! And since most Londoners don't have cars or yards, there are few signs/bumper stickers around the city.

- Voting happens for only ONE DAY. So no mail in ballots! Voters must go to their nearest polling station (of which there are many) only on the day of the election. And, instead of voting for a candidate, voters choose their favorite party!

- The leader of the winning party (selected by party members) is then made Prime Minister, and the party also selects a cabinet for him. Seats in the House of Commons (Parliament) are assigned according to the percentage of districts who voted for a party. (For example, the party with the greatest percentage of votes will get the most seats in the Parliament House of Commons.)

- A party needs 326 seats to have a majority in Parliament. If no party gets 326 seats, it's called a "Hung Parliament". This happened THIS YEAR, and hasn't been seen since the 1970s. At this point, the three parties begin negotiating to reach a solution.

This year, because of the hung parliament, a lot of political negotiations took place. Both the Conservatives and Labour began courting the Lib-Dems, asking that party to "share" their seats. This is known as a coalition: two parties add their seats together to make the majority, with the larger party taking the most power. Gordon Brown and Labour said that, if the Lib-Dems joined them, Gordon Brown would step down as party leader. However, the Lib-Dems saw more opportunity with the Conseravtives, and joined them!

The current status is this: Labour (led by Gordon Brown) has left office and Conservative leader David Cameron has taken over. However, because of the joint coalition, some of the Cabinet seats are held by Lib-Dems, and Lib-Dem leader Clegg is "Deputy Prime Minister". It will be very interesting to see how these two parties - each with VERY different viewpoints - will compromise in power.

For a better understanding of how the coalition will work, I recommend reading: THIS ARTICLE from the BBC.

That's all for now, keep an eye out for my Wales Weekend Adventure, posted tomorrow!!

Update Before the Wales Update

Hello everyone, I know you may think I've been neglecting my blog - but I swear I haven't! It's just that not many interesting things have been happening this term. I suppose there are some short updates, but nothing big and not many touristy-trips around London (since I saw them all last term). BUT, I did just return from an "Adventure Weekend" in Wales, so I'll have a big post - with lots of pictures and stories - very soon.

In the meantime, here are some short updates from the past month:

- Dad and Anita came to visit at the end of April. We toured a lot of the major sites in London (Westminster/Big Ben, Covent Garden, St. Paul's, etc.) went to a pub on St. George's Day, and they ran the London Marathon. It was good to see some familiar faces in the city!

- On a particularly nice day I decided to go lay in the grass in the park. However, I ended up getting a big mosquito bite on my foot! I guess I'm not used to British mosquitoes, because the bite itched and caused my whole foot to puff up in an allergic reaction. So when people tell you there are fewer insects in Britain, just remember the ones that ARE there can bite!

- I took the bus for a quick visit to the Natural History Museum for a class project. On the bus ride home we got stuck in some major traffic, but gave us a chance to see the start of the Gumball 3000. I had no idea what it was at the time, and just thought it was cool to see all sorts of fancy-looking race cars driving down the street. I looked up the info later... The Gumball 3000 is a road-rally/race which travels 3000 miles around the globe. They start and finish in a different place, but the race is always 3000 miles long. This year the race started in London and finished in New York, so we saw the cars straight out of the starting line, on their way to the Dover ferry to France. After that they'd drive to Copenhagen, take a boat to Boston, and finally drive to New York. The best thing about the race is the cars. They have race cars, sports cars, and even funny cars like the Batmobile!

Other than that things have been based around school, homework, hanging out with friends (going out to dinner/baking cookies in the room), or running around the park. I'm really excited to go home: only 18 days!.

So be on the lookout for the Wales Adventure Post, coming this week to a blog near you!

A Long Overdue Update!

Hello family, I know it's been a while but I've been up to a lot of things. Most of this has been homework (my color theory class requires painting every other night!) and classes. But I have been doing some fun things too...

- My room mate, Katie, and friends Misty and Lauren have dinners or go out to see the sites once or twice a week. We had a delicious Easter Dinner with salad, chicken, mashed potatoes, and tasty desserts! It's great to have a close group of friends to hang out with and spend time doing "homey" things.

- I took a brief weekend trip to visit the boyfriend Stan at his home in Maryland. It was a beautiful spring trip, full of warm weather, sunshine, and fun adventures. We had a bonfire, went hiking, biking along the Potomac, and looked for fossils along the Chesapeake bay. I couldn't have asked for anything more - except maybe a longer weekend! Here's a sunny picture of us at the top of the cliffs overlooking Harper's Ferry:


- My friend (and former GW room-mate) Sam Tamboline is in town for her spring break. We walked around the touristy sites and also attended a celebration of Shakespeare's birthday at the Globe Theater. They had a free "open house" with demonstrations, exhibits, and workshops onstage. The weather couldn't have been better, either: 65 and sunny! I think I'm getting a tan again...

- A lot of you may be wondering about the volcano that's been erupting in Iceland. Here in England the only problems we're experiencing are flight cancellations. I've seen no ash in the sky or on the ground, there's no haze in the air (even on sunny days), and the sunsets are only a little bit prettier - that I've seen. That being said, a lot of plans have been disrupted by the ash in the upper atmosphere. People are stranded in Germany, Greece, and Sweden and have been unable to get rides back in time for classes tomorrow. The tourist industry really suffered this weekend because tourists couldn't fly into the city. On the other hand, hotels are booked up because business people can't leave! Trains, buses, and ferries are all packed with people trying to find other ways of getting out of the country. People like me, who are lucky enough to have nowhere to go, are just sitting tight and hoping that things clear up soon!

That's about it. In terms of school it's coming down to the wire! Mid-terms are almost over and there's less than 5 weeks before I'm flying home for the summer. I'm ready to be home, though, with free laundry, American food (tex-mex!), and a soft bed.

Bath, Hiking, and Boat Races!

As promised, here is the new post detailing my exciting week - with pictures!

First, on Friday of last week we took a trip to the town of Bath, about 2 hours away from London by bus. The town is one of the oldest cities in England, and was one of the largest cities occupied by the Romans in the early 1st century (that's 50AD!) The town is famous for being the only natural hot spring in all of the UK. Water seeps through the limestone ground, heats up, and is forced to the surface through a gap in the bedrock only in the town of Bath. The Celts and Romans both used the hot spring for bathing and healing purposes, as well as a site for religious worship. Over time the hot springs and bathing pools were covered up with rubble and built over. It was only in the late 1800s that the ancient baths and temples were rediscovered! However, even without the presence of the hot spring, Bath remained popular with the elite for summer holidays, social galas, and was even England's fashion capitol in the Victorian era! Our visit to Bath consisted of a tour of the town - where we got to see upper end Georgian homes where people like Jane Austen lived - a visit to the British Fashion Museum, and then an audio tour of the ancient Roman bath complex. I was impressed by how advanced the Roman buildings were for 76AD. They used lead pipes to carry hot water from pool to pool, had a system for heating floors, and even had the world's first hot tubs and massage rooms! At the end of our tour we had high tea (tea, scones, and pastries) in the "Pump Room" above the baths. We then took the long bus ride back to London to complete the day.



On Saturday, we took another school trip to go hiking in the Surrey countryside. Just like our hike the first term, this was a trek up and down hills through southern England, seeing farms, forests, and small villages. My friend Misty and I even took a daring trip across stepping stones through a river early in the day. Plus the views from the top of hills were great, and I particularly enjoyed a sunny lunch sitting in a tree! At the end of the hike, just before returning to the train station, we stopped in the small town of Mickle for pints of Shandy (lager and sprite) with the locals. Mickle is also famous for having a small cathedral built in the early 1300s!



The rest of the week I spent getting through classes and homework. I also moved rooms because my new room-mates and I had very different lifestyles and sleeping schedules. I'm so much happier now living in the flat with my friend Katie!

Today Lauren, Katie, Misty, and I went down to the Thames to watch the epic Oxford/Cambridge boat race. This is the "Superbowl" of collegiate rowing. The Oxford/Cambridge rivalry is legendary, and hundreds of thousands of people show up to watch the two crew teams battle it out. We positioned ourselves at the start of the race - with a great view of the boats as they first took off, and then moved to a big-screen to watch the finish. We actually got to witness a little upset. You see, Oxford has traditionally always won this race, and was favored to win today considering the water conditions. However, Cambridge won and even finished by a huge lead! People were excited and surprised by the upset. We were just happy to get to see history in the making! After the race we had dinner in Covent Garden before returning home. We're getting together for Easter dinner tomorrow - so I'll have more updates then!



In the meantime, enjoy the pictures above and talk to you all soon!

Note Before Next Post.

Hi Everyone, just a note before my next post: I'm not sure if you've noticed, but my Flickr photo albums can only show the 200 most recent photos. Any photos past 200 are archived, and unavailable for viewing. (Hence why you can no longer visit any albums before my spring break!)

This weekend I had the chance to visit Bath and go on another school hike around the countryside of Surrey. It was a busy, fun-filled weekend with lots of photos. Unfortunately, uploading these photos would mean my spring break photos would no longer be available. I want people to have a chance to look at the spring break pictures before they disappear!

So I'm giving you FOUR DAYS to look at the Spring Break photos before I upload the pics from Bath/Hiking. On Friday I will be posting last weekends adventures (with pictures) and some of the Scotland photos will no longer be available for viewing. Keep this in mind and check out the photos before its too late!

Of course, the blog posts will still be available for reading, it's just the pictures that will get archived. And if you want to see the pictures after they disappear, just let me know and I'll e-mail them to you. This is just a heads up before they start to be archived!

Spring Break in Scotland - Day 5

Day 5 - Hiking Ben Vrackie in Pitlochry: On my last day in Pitlochry, I decided to try my most challenging hike yet. The mountain peak of Ben Vrackie is 2,000ft over the valley floor, and hikers can take a well-laid but steep path up, over the moor, and all the way to the top of the mountain for great views in all directions.

Though I had hoped to have as clear, sunny, and beautiful weather as the day before, my last day turned out to be rainy and overcast. Low-hanging clouds covered the top of the mountain - even reaching to Clunie on the other side - making the thought of a hike seem rather daunting. However, I had been told the path was very clear and well marked, so I shouldn't have a problem due to rain or fog (except maybe when trying to enjoy the view at the end).

So I started my hike. The path started in the same direction as my first hike (Craigower) but turned to the left to climb up the shoulders of the mountain and up towards the summit. First I crossed some hilly moorland, which stretched over the smaller peak of Bealach, and then made it to the small Loch a'Choire - a beautiful mountain lake which was covered in a thin sheet of ice. This lake was very pristine and perfect, with the tall mountain of Ben Vrackie just on the other side. From Loch a'Choire I could see the stair-case like path up to the top of the mountain. Unfortunately the top of the mountain couldn't be seen because of the clouds!

Passing by the Loch, I began to ascent the mountain itself. There were occasionally patches of snow which I needed to trudge over in order to continue up the path. At one point the path was even covered by a stream, originating from the winter snowmelt. The hardest part was making it over the slick icy patches, and not falling through where the snow was soft and melting. There were often points where I would step, break through the top foot of snow and end up in a hidden stream which was eroding the underside of the snow bank. Naturally my shoes and legs got very wet! At one point I was crossing a medium-sized snow field to reach the path I could see on the other side. I paused for a moment and listened... there was a gurgling, gushing river sound - but I couldn't see the stream. Then I realized: The river was under my feet! There was a big snowmelt, likely with waterfalls and a good stream, just under the surface of the snow. I moved very quickly (but carefully) to try and get out of the "danger zone" and on to solid ground before any snow gave way and left me falling into the river below.

At about 1/2-2/3 up the mountain climb the entire path became covered with a snow field. I couldn't see where to go, but there were a few footsteps leading up and back through the snow. I began to continue, following these footprints, but realized that I was losing good vision ahead due to the dense clouds. While I may have had these few footprints, I didn't even know if they were going in the right direction! What made it worse was, at the point I decided to turn around, the frozen surface of ice had made it difficult to get a good foothold. It was just not my day to make it to the top of the mountain. I have to console myself with the idea that A) It just would not have been safe for me to go forward into the clouds/snow, and B) I probably wouldn't have had any kind of view, because the top of the mountain was in a cloud bank.

And so I made my way back down to Loch a'Choire, and decided to take the optional side path around the Loch, over Bealach ridge, and back towards the city. However, this proved difficult due to yet more snow-melt streams, mud, and at one point I even lost the path because of a snow bank! Fortunately I could see the sign post at the top of Bealach, and so trudged through the heather until I got back onto the main path. I was a little worried, though, that I would have had to backtrack a long way to make it to where I had begun the hike.

So my last day was certainly my most adventurous. Fortunately I made it back safely and with many good, wild pictures of the "gateway to the Highlands". Also, lucky for me, my B&B hosts were very generous to let me come back to the room, shower, nap, and dry my clothes by the fire even after checkout! They let me stay until my night train (10:45pm) came into Pitlochry.

The last part of my Spring Break Adventure was taking a sleeper train back to London. Silly me, I didn't book a sleeper berth, and therefore had to content myself with two extra-wide seats to curl up on. If I bent my knees and curled up a bit I could fit in my row of chairs just fine... It wasn't the most comfortable night's rest (we arrived in London at 7:45am), but it certainly beat just one chair, or no sleeping room at all! Maybe next time I will consider booking a berth, rather than a seat.

The following pictures conclude my epic adventure in Scotland. I hope you enjoyed!

Spring Break in Scotland - Day 4

Day 4 (Wednesday) - More Hiking around Pitlochry On day 4 I took one, longer hike rather than two short ones. Since walking is so popular in the highlands - and around Britain in general! - there were many options I could have hiked during my trip to Pitlochry. I chose the Clunie Walk, which went in the opposite direction of Craigower, on the other side of the valley in which Pitlochry sits.

The walk started out normal enough, the path wound steeply through forests which looked a lot like the Oregon cascades. Birds were singing in the trees and the sun started to come out, which was very nice as the forecast predicted rain. And even though the day was warm (about 45-50 degrees), there was still snow on much of the path and old logging road which the walk followed.

When I reached the top of the Carra Beag hillside I expected to reach a viewpoint, just like the day before. However, what I found was far more breathtaking and awe-inspiring. I had finally reached the Scottish Highlands. I had wound farther around the mountainside than I expected, and found myself facing a wide open plateau covered in ankle-high purple heather. There were a few small foothills once in a while, with tall highland peaks wherever one looked. Because the clouds had cleared up I had a perfect view of Ben Vrackie, the nearest snow-capped peak to Pitlochry. I even had a spectacular view down onto Pitlochry far below! I took a small side-path to the top of a rocky outcropping and had lunch, watching the river, clouds, and mountains on all sides.

Suffice it to say the path, winding through the heather and over the hills, was fantastic. I had never been in such a foreign environment - but it was all SO BEAUTIFUL! The pictures hardly do it justice. Eventually the Clunie path left the plateau and wound back down, through the woods, and into the city. I returned in time to take a nap at the B&B before dinner, and yet again curl up by the fire with a borrowed book for the evening.

I think this walk had to have been my favorite. The sunshine, new scenery, and great views all made it the perfect easy hike. See the pictures below!



Side Note: Classes start back up again tomorrow. I only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though, which means I have a lot of free time to do homework and explore the city!

I also received my grades from last term and was happy to see As for all three classes. I'm especially proud to receive an A from a professor who outright stated "I don't give As"! Since the grading system in Britain is different - a B is the equivalent to an American A - I didn't expect to do as well as I did. Pity this whole semester doesn't factor into my GW GPA!

Spring Break in Scotland - Day 3

Day 3 (Tuesday) - Hiking in Pitlochry On Tuesday I woke up to enjoy my first Scottish Breakfast at the B&B. The food was DELICIOUS! Probably one of the best breakfasts I've ever had. The only way it couldn't compare to Ireland is that famous Irish Brown Bread - but otherwise... That breakfast is probably one of the things I miss most about Scotland. There were yogurts, fruit, cereal, juices, AND a platter breakfast of various things like roasted tomatoes, haggis, "tattie scone" -a potato pancake, eggs sunny-side up, toast, sausage, and black pudding. Dad and I had black pudding in Ireland, but it was in no way nearly as good as the black pudding at Carra Beag. I actually LIKED it! Of course, not all of these foods were served together, but you got to have your pick from all of them. As you can tell, the breakfasts were so filling that I never really got hungry for lunch, which meant that all I had to take hiking with me was some veggies (in a little snack bag I bought) and crackers - just in case. I had energy for the whole day!

After that wonderful breakfast I took my first hike: Craigower. "Craig" means rock in Scottish, so anything with Craig means "on a rock" or "by a rock" or "rocky", etc. Craigower was a very nice, slightly hilly walk up to a lookout point over the Garry river. The path was nice and even all the way to the top, and walked through trees, forests, and some small glens. The first part even went through the Pitlochry Golf Course! I took pictures of the great golf course views for Keith. Overall, the terrain reminded me very much of Washington State. There were tall pine trees and more hilly mountains (like the northern Cascades, or San Juan Islands) with a little bit of left over snow from the winter.

Since Craigower was a short day hike, I managed to make it back to Pitlochry in time to take another short walk before dark. This time I walked around Loch Faskally. Again, very much like the pacific northwest, Pitlochry derives their power from a hydroelectric dam on the river Garry. Loch Faskally was formed when the dam was installed into the river. And, just like Washington and Oregon, Pitlochry's dam incorporates a fish ladder for migrating salmon! Pitlochry was one of the very first cities in Scotland to have a fish ladder, and it is one of their prize "sites". I thought this was funny, considering I come from a land where fish ladders are also very important! Just another coincidence which made me think that Pitlochry felt a lot like home...

When I had finished walking around Loch Faskally, admiring the lake, woods, and local buildings, I went home and ate dinner (chicken and ham "pie" with roasted leeks and "tattie mash" - YUM!) and then curled up by the fire to read a book from the B&B.

One thing I should mention about Pitlochry is that it happens to lie in the path of the Royal Air Force training route. This means that 4-6 times per day, jet fighters (between one and three) come screaming through the valley, rounding the hills and tracing the path of the river. When I was walking the hills, they were so close I could see the pilots! I think I was only 500ft away from the jets at one point. Naturally, this was VERY loud, and kind of an annoyance when you weren't awed by how fast and agile these planes were... but fortunately they went by infrequently, were gone in a matter of seconds, and never flew at night! My B&B hostess said that they probably flew more on the nice days because they had such a great view of the beautiful highlands. I think she's right: jet fighter is probably one of the best ways to see Scotland! I'm jealous of all the beautiful scenery they saw from the planes.

That's it for Day 2, check out the pictures by clicking below:

Spring Break in Scotland - Day 2

Day 2 (Monday) - Arthur's Seat and Train to Pitlochry - on Day 2 of my break I woke up, checked out of the hostel, and went to go hike on Edinburgh's dormant volcano: Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is located in the larger Hollyrood Park, which belongs to the Queen. It's essentially a large expanse of rugged hills, grass, and lakes right in the middle of Edinburgh. There are a number of paths (hundreds, maybe?) which loop around and cross the park, making it a hikers paradise. Most of these paths are well worn by tourists climbing up to the summit of the volcano for the absolute best view of Edinburgh, as well as the surrounding Scottish countryside.

I took a number of different paths to try and cover as much of the park as I could until 4pm, when I had to catch a train to Pitlochry. One of the paths I picked had a recent rock slide, so in order to go on I had to do a bit of climbing boulders, which was fun. The rest of the time I wandered from area to area in the park, taking LOTS of pictures of the scenery. The park is very rugged and hilly, but most everything is covered with soft peat moss and grass.

Though the clouds were heavy, there wasn't any rain (fortunately). The only problem of the day was very strong winds. I would guess that it was constantly 30mph, with gusts up to 80mph. I was almost knocked off of my feet a couple of times! This was especially scary at the very top of the mountain, where a stumble could have meant falling back down the rock face. I clung to a tall rock when taking pictures, just to make sure I didn't fall over! For the last part of the hike I chose a path that went right along the edge of some steep cliffs (the same ones I had walked next to at the beginning of the day). My heart was in my throat, peering over the edge. I was just glad that the winds were blowing AWAY from the edge, not towards it!

After the hike, when I was tired and hungry, I went back to the city to sit in a Starbucks, read my book, and wait for the train to Pitlochry. The train itself was pretty quick, only 1.5 hours or so. Since Pitlochry is a relatively small town of 3,000 it was easy to find my B&B just off of the main road. The B&B is owned by two Austrialian expats (a few of many that I met on my trip. I think I met more Aussies than Scotsmen!) who now live in Pitlochry while their daughter has started her first year of University in Aberdeen. The B&B - called "Carra Beag", after a nearby peak - is very cute. I had a single room upstairs with an ensuite bathroom. Downstairs there was a small library with a fireplace and comfy couches. I enjoyed reading books and relaxing by the fire when I was done with my hiking!

That's it for the second day. Click below to see pictures of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.

Back from Spring Break: Scotland!

Hello Loyal Readers. Hopefully you're all ready for spring! I just returned from a wonderful five days up in Scotland, where I hiked, climbed, and relaxed by the fire. The vacation was exactly what I needed after my first term in London. Not to mention the highland scenery was breathtaking!

Over the next couple of posts I'll go day-by-day over my adventures in Scotland - from Edinburgh to Pitlochry - and provide plenty of pictures as well!

Today I will go over Day 1 (Sunday) - Arrival at Edinburgh: On the morning of Sunday I woke up early and took a 5 hour train trip to Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. I arrived to sunshine and warm weather for the rest of the afternoon as I walked around Old Town, the Royal Mile, and visited Edinburgh Castle.

First I checked into my hostel for the night. I've never stayed in a hostel before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I had reserved a bed in a 4-person all-female room, and lucked out that (because it was a Sunday) I only had one roomie. I never even got to know her name, as she was in bed when I came home, and got up at 4am the next day to catch her flight! But the hostel itself was nice, colorful, relaxed, and definitely catering to the college crowd.

Walking around Edinburgh, I was surprised how OLD everything feels. While in some ways it could be a European city, with cobblestone streets, villas, verandas, and stately buildings - it still has a very British(or perhaps Scottish) feel. I've never been in a city quite like it. There was a great sense of history to the place!

The terrain of Edinburgh is very unique too. The city is built upon the remains of an old dormant volcano. The high grounds provided great lookout points over the Frith of Forth (bay) and the surrounding lowlands. Edinburgh castle itself is built on one of the old volcano "peaks", while Arthur's Seat (discussed tomorrow) is the tallest mountain and sits right in the middle of the city! The streets are, obviously, steep and rolling. Everywhere you look up you see buildings stacked upon buildings, with the castle and Arthur's Seat looming above everything.

I walked for a bit around the Royal Mile and Old Town, which make up Edinburgh's city center. Then I went up to tour Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle is Scotland's version of the Tower of London. It's not just one castle, but a bunch of fortifications, castles, and other administrative buildings built on a central point - over a span of many years.

Just like the Tower, Edinburgh Castle holds the Scottish Crown jewels, and was the seat of power for a long time. The Scottish Crown jewels are much older than the English Crown Jewels because they were secreted away and hidden from Cromwell, who would have melted them down like he did the jewels in England. For this reason, Scotland's crown jewels are less "sparkly" but much older. Along with the Crown Jewels, Edinburgh Castle holds the Stone of Scone, a large square boulder which was believed to be sacred. All the kings of Scotland, and even some kings of England (when the stone was taken by the English), were crowned while seated on the Stone of Scone.

Unlike the Tower of London, though, Edinburgh Castle has fantastic views of lower Scotland from its ramparts. I was lucky it was sunny, and could see for miles in each direction - even to Fife over the Frith of Forth (say that one ten times fast. =P ) The castle is very scenic, a great reminder of Scottish history. I'm not surprised they used it extensively in the filming of "Braveheart".

When it was time for dinner, I went to a cheap traveler's restaurant - recommended by the hostel - where I had my first Haggis. The food was actually very good, almost gourmet! I know many people are turned off by the idea of haggis, but if you ignore how its made, it is actually rich and delicious. I would describe it like a meatloaf with rich gravy and added "stew" ingredients like barley and carrots. Not as "meaty" but instead more savory. I liked it! Which is good, because haggis is a staple of Scottish cuisine both morning and night. It's traditionally served, at dinner, with "neeps and tatties" or mashed turnips and potatoes.

During dinner I met a fellow traveler who was staying at the same hostel as me. She was an accountant from Australia who just recently moved to London, and took a week off to visit Scotland. You'd be surprised, but the most common tourists in Scotland are TONS of Australians and Spaniards! After dinner I went to a pub next to the hostel, and it was owned by an Australian expat. I continued to meet more and more Australians as the night went on.

While hanging out with other tourists at the pub was nice, my favorite part of the evening was playing chess with a Spanish college student. He spoke almost no English, so I had to dredge up what little I remembered of High School Spanish to speak with him. Good thing Chess needs no language to play! It was a very intense game. I have no doubt the Spanish kid was a better player than I am, but he made a mistake early in the game which lost him his queen, so I won in the end. (Hooray!!) It was very intense, however, with all of our other tourist friends coming over to check and see who was winning. After the game, I stayed and talked "Spanglish" with the Spanish student and his friends. They said I spoke good Spanish, but my accent was funny because it was from South America, not Spain. I think they were flattering me too much on the "good Spanish" part...

So I had a lot of fun for my first day. Meeting other tourists, exploring Edinburgh, and soaking in the first rays of springtime. For more info and details on my day of exploration, just click on the picture below!

Goooaaaallll!!

Yet another weekly update from across the pond. It's Finals Week over here and everyone is busy working - whether on business presentations, fashion outfits, or house plans in AutoCAD - everyone has "hunkered down" and is working on their final projects. I have a lot to do this weekend as well, but I'm 99% sure I can get it all done in time!

The only big thing this week was going to see an England football/soccer game! England's national team (England United) qualified for the World Cup, and played Egypt last week as a "friendly" match, or warm-up game. AIU provided us with student tickets to the game for a good price, so I took the chance to see the national team play.

A few interesting facts:
- Wembley Stadium is the world's tallest stadium because of the giant structural arch going over the top. This can be seen from all over the city.
- Wembley Stadium holds over 100,000 people. There were 80,600 people in attendance during England vs. Egypt, making it my largest stadium experience ever. Bigger than the U2 concert, but not as big as the Inauguration!
- England United's colors are red and white, the same colors as the English flag. The Union Jack is the flag of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). The English flag is white with a large red cross.

We had GREAT seats for the game, facing close to the middle of the field, but there's hardly a bad seat in the stadium. I was lucky that my seat was in the second row back from the balcony, so I had a nearly unobstructed view of the entire field. The game went well, and England won 3-1 (which was expected). However, it took nearly the same amount of time to get back from the game as it did to watch the match! This was because of the Looooong lines to get into the tube station. The good thing was - as we were CLEARLY Americans from our accents - lots of people asked us where we were from, how we liked the game, etc. Everyone was very friendly!

So that was my English soccer experience. While it wasn't a terribly exciting game (Beckham didn't even play!) it was still fun to go!

Well, off to write more papers. I'm so excited for Spring Break! Click below to see pictures from the game:

Happy New Year!

Time for a weekly post, this one wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year! That's right, last Sunday London celebrated the start of the Year of the Tiger. We went to see the celebration, and I took lots of pictures for you to see at the end of this post. (I'll work on getting the videos up next)

We first went to Trafalgar Square for the opening performances. We got there rather early and were able to score a good spot near the front facing the stage. The first event was the lighting of firecrackers. Now, these aren't the type of fireworks that shoot up into the air and burst, but the Black Cat kind of firecrackers that pop and make noise and smoke. There were about 5,000 of them! I think they were supposed to scare away the bad spirits for the start of a lucky year, but I'm not sure. What I do know is that, during the fireworks, one of the cartridge ends hit me in the face! I was sure surprised, and my friend Frankie (who lives next to me), saw it happen and pointed out that I had a red mark on my forehead from the firecracker. It was pretty funny I guess.

After that there were a number of diplomatic thank-you speeches by people nobody knew. Before the ceremonies could begin, the "eyes" had to be painted on the dragon and lion costumes. It's a Chinese belief that painting the eyes officially brings the animals to life. So all of the important people came back onstage to paint each of the costume's eyes. This took about 30 minutes in total... and was quite boring.

FINALLY the performances started. There was a very brief dragon dance, followed by a gold-medal winning Lion Dance. These two brothers share one lion costume, and actually do their performances on 6-10 foot poles positioned on the ground! It's very impressive to watch them leap in unison from pole to pole, or balance together, one on the other, on the same poles. All the while dancing like a lion! Essentially the dance tells the story of a lion who must jump over a rugged mountain landslide to return home.

After the Lion Dance we walked to nearby Chinatown for lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Of course, the whole area was PACKED with people, and almost every restaurant was full. The place we did eat at was just your basic Chinese food, and I wasn't very impressed. However, we had a GREAT view for the Lion Dancers that kept coming down the street. There were about 5 Lion Dancers going around Chinatown, participating in a ceremonial new-year ritual. The Chinese believe that the sacred lion brings good luck. Therefore, Lion Dancers wear the costumes and go from door to door. Shop owners place a head of cabbage out before the "lion" who then "eats" it (showering the area with lettuce leaves) to show he accepts the offering. It is then thought that the Lion will bring good luck to the shop for the rest of the year.

From our lunch table we could see the lion visit many shops, always surrounded by tourists taking pictures. We were lucky not to be out in the crowds, and still got to see the "offerings" take place!

Here are the pictures from the day. Just click on the photo below to see them all!


Other than that things are just blazing by. I can't believe the term is almost over! Just two weeks left before Spring Break... and we dont' have any settled plans yet. I better get started, but right now I'm super-busy with homework. Oh well, the end is in sight!

Updates from Stan's Visit!

Hello friends and family, I know it seems that I have neglected you for so long. But you see, my boyfriend Stan has been in town this week and I've been having epic adventures with him! I'll try to cover briefly all the things we did while he was in town (minus the things he did on his own - like visiting Greenwich, the British Museum, and Natural History Museum) while I was in class or at work. [Side Note: Stan did come to class with me one day when we had a field trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The professor didn't notice at all!] You can also click on the pictures to see more from our fun trips.

Stonehenge - Our first Friday we visited Stonehenge. While the stones are impressively large, and there's an eerie mysterious feel about the place (it's so old!) it was also very touristy. You had to take a tour bus to get there... and it didn't help that the freeway went RIGHT NEXT TO the stones! Nevertheless, Stonehenge is one of those historical things that you simply must see to appreciate.

We actually had more fun walking out into the downs (= fields) around Stonehenge and climbing on ancient burial mounds. I have some pictures of us exploring a series of family mounds out in the middle of a sheep field. It reminds me a lot of Dad and my trip to Ireland - these ancient ceremonial sites just sitting out in the middle of sheep fields!

After Stonehenge, before getting on the train back to London, we stopped for lunch in Salisbury - a nice, quaint little English town which acts as the "gateway" to Stonehenge.



Cliffs of Dover - The day after Stonehenge, Stan and I got on yet another train and went hiking out along the Cliffs of Dover. The cliffs are amazing natural wonders, and the hike was probably my favorite part of Stan's visit. We spent the whole day on a 5 mile hike up through town and along the top of the cliffs. There was snow on the ground, but the weather was perfect (no rain, not too cold, not too muddy, etc.) We had some breathtaking views of the Dover Castle, British Channel, fields, and even France! We also took a small side path that hugs the cliff down to a black, stony beach. There's an old WWII bunker down there facing the ocean. We explored inside, though carefully because it was dark and creepy in places.

The one downside with the Cliffs of Dover was the fact that the city, outside of the natural landscape, is a busy Ferry town - having the closest connection to France. Therefore there's a lot of traffic (boats, cars, trucks, busses, etc.) polluting the area.



Valentine's Day - On Valentine's day we took it easy. We walked around Regent's Park, went to see the Tower Bridge, Tate Modern museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, and then rented movies to watch when we got home. Stan took me out for a delicious Indian food dinner though!


Speaking of food, while Stan was here we took turns cooking for each other in my apartment kicthen. We had simple but yummy meals like pasta, curried turkey, and even Fajitas with home-made guacamole. All the time Stan was here, we only went out for dinner once!

London Eye - Because the rest of my week was filled with classes and internships, our last big adventure together was to see the London Eye on Stan's last night in town. We started off by visiting Hyde Park (London's largest park) and walking about three miles just wandering and exploring. When darkness started to fall, we walked down the Thames to the London Eye (the big Ferris wheel). Now, in the summer months the wait for the Eye can be hours long, and the cabins themselves packed with people so it's hard to get a good picture. Fortunately for us the rain and winter season kept the lines very short and we were on the wheel in no time, with plenty of room in the cabin to take fantastic shots of the city at night! Thought the rain did limit visibility, there was still plenty to see.



And now Stan has gone back home, and it's back to homework for me. It was great to see him out here, though, and an excellent chance to have fun adventures around England!

One Month!

Yesterday was officially my one-month-iversary for being in London! It feels strange, though - part of me feels like I've been here much much longer, while the other part of me thinks that one month has gone by incredibly fast! Will say that things ARE moving faster now that I've settled into a daily and weekly rhythm.

That being said, there's not much new to report tonight. I still have a lot of homework, and still keep myself busy by walking to and from school and work (only about 2 miles one-way each), and cooking in the dorm. I suppose a good conclusion would be that I am "living" in London - not just studying abroad. And that's a good thing!

The only almost-exciting thing to write about is the "Jack the Ripper" walking tour I took last night with AIU. It was a 2 hour guided walking tour around the east side of London, visiting spots where Jack's victims frequented, or near where the murders took place. However, it was cold, the "sites" we visited weren't that interesting (for example - we stood under a bridge near a lot of closed up shops while the guide asked us to "imagine a similar place where Jack the Ripper could have met one of his victims". Hence most of the places we visited had no historical value whatsoever. But I suppose it's hard when so much construction/deconstruction has taken place in London since the 1800s. But ultimately the tour was a disappointment, and I'd have rather saved my money for going out to the pub or touring some other location.

I will finish off on the bright side, though. If this is my first "lame" experience in London, it means my first month has overall been a great success! Here's to the next 5 months...

A Gorgeous Dose of Nature

Hello again! I had a fantastic Friday going hiking in the English Countryside. Our trip-organizer Tony led us on a seven mile trek up and down gently rolling hills, where we got some spectacular views of the Surrey region, just 40 minutes outside of London.

The weather stayed interesting. It started out raining, turned beautiful and sunny, and even snowed for a little bit at lunch! It was great to watch the rain roll in and out over the hills. Of course, with all the rain it was VERY muddy. There were times I couldn't see my feet, they were so deep in the mud! However, I wore my hiking shoes and wooly socks and had no problem with wet feet.

Surrey, the area where we walked, is a very popular place for filming movies. Every time you see a movie set in the "English Countryside", chances are it was filmed at least partly in Surrey. There are forests, fields, and lakes for every setting! The most recent "big movie" to be filmed in Surrey was The Holiday (I know dad liked it, even if it was a chick flick). But sadly there was no Jude Law here when we were.

If you ever wondered how beautiful and green the English countryside can be - even in January - check out the pictures below!



Today, because the sun was out, I went for a quick run around Regent's Park. However, the best part was watching the Gray Herons build their nests! There's a large population of herons in the park, and they've established a large rookery in some trees just yards from the path. I (and a LOT of other bird watchers, most with their telephoto cameras and bird books out), all stood and watched the herons bring in sticks to make their large nests.

- There were two herons building together. One would go out and collect sticks to bring to the other one, who stayed in the nest and arranged the sticks.
- One bachelor heron was trying to decide between two nests. One looked new this year (it was rather small), and the other was at least two years old (and one of the biggest). He would go back and forth, trying to decide where to put his sticks. I think he chose the newer one, because last I saw he was collecting willow vines to line the inside of it.

I'll be interested to visit in the spring and see how many nests are being used, and how many chicks there are!

Jumbo Photo Bonanza!

Whoo, sorry for the long delay in posting these photos. Mid-terms are coming up and things are starting to get very busy. I have an average of five hours of homework a night! So that leaves me very little time to do fun things like upload photos or blog. But here they are at long last! Each photo is captioned, as usual, so you know what they are.

WINDSOR


OXFORD


BONUS PHOTOS!
Today my Architecture of London class went back to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is a massive and awe-inspiring building in the style of St. Peter's in Vatican City (but much brighter, lighter, and with more gold). I even had a chance to climb to the top of the dome! From there, I got some breathtaking photos of the city of London. The sun and weather even cooperated. Enjoy!



Isn't London so pretty when it's actually sunny out? =P

Second Video Update!

So many things, I had to put it in video form! Hopefully I'll get those pictures up tomorrow, but for now - time to go to bed!

More About Internships...

Today heralded the start of my second week of interning at Blanchard Design. It was another nice day, with only a little rain, so I walked the 20 minute trip up. I'm not doing a whole lot of important things at the internship, but it's enough to keep me busy, and I know it must help the designers. For example - most of the time I'm answering phones, calling to check prices or availability of fabric, finding sample options, or sorting through the mail. It's not ideally what I'd like to be doing, but at least I know it's things that the designers would otherwise be finishing themselves (so I AM doing designer-things). And today, even though I was just writing new price tags for the furniture in the show room, I was also getting to know the Blanchard line of products - so now I can help customers who come in to shop! And I can't complain about making earning 15 pounds a week. Hopefully they'll let me start to be more involved in projects, however... because the thought of organizing fabric samples doesn't sound too appealing... =/

With two months to go, however, I'm hopeful!

My Photos of London are Gray...

As promised, here are the photos from my tour of London around the Thames. I think they're much better at showing what I saw on Friday than my words do! I would strongly recommend reading the captions, not only because I spent a lot of time on them, but also because they are really informative and interesting! =P Also note how gray and dark everything is. London style (interior design and fashion design) is based on this unique lighting color. You'll find a lot of Blacks, Khakis, Grays, Whites, and neutral creamy colors because these hues look the best in "London light". I'm actually doing a research project on it! Aaanyways, click on the photos below for the pictures!




Yesterday we went shopping on Oxford Street, the high-end shopping district of London. I bought one shirt (it was on sale) at Topshop, a famous London clothing store. We also visited a number of other shops such as H&M, and large department stores in the style of Macy's. There are so many shops to see, though! The only other thing I need to buy are "wellies" - or Rain boots. I like calling them Wellies though. =P My friend Bekah and I are planning on going to a store tomorrow which says they have wellies on sale. Wish us luck!

The only things I have done today are: sleep in, work on homework, eat cereal, and go for a 4 mile jog around Regent's Park. Regent's Park is the Central Park of London, but bigger! There are soccer fields, running paths, a lake FULL of Waterfowl (no, seriously, there's a bird for every square foot of water, I'm sure), and lots of people out for a stroll. Today was such a lovely day, the sun was shining and it was almost 9 degrees! Celsius, of course. I really enjoyed the run, and think I will have to continue doing it on weekends - provided the weather is nice - as a way of both bird and people watching.

Another Long Sightseeing Update

Life has been going really well here in London. My favorite class has been Building Codes and Systems, because - though I initially had some trouble getting inspiration for our large project - I'm moving on with a (hopefully) great idea. Not to mention the professor is GREAT! He's funny, entertaining, smart, and very helpful. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from him and have fun doing it. My other classes are bearable, and each one has its advantages.

My Internship class meets only on Thursdays at 8:30 in the morning (eew early!). The purpose of the class is to mainly check in with the professor to see how our internships are going, whether or not we've been keeping up with our Internship Journal, and what our research ideas are. Unfortunately the professor likes to talk talk talk talk. So what should take about 20 minutes ends up taking an hour, and we don't get a whole lot of time to ask questions or discuss what we want to. The good thing is that the professor generally talks about interesting things, and is animated enough to keep us awake.

My other class is Historic Architecture of London. I was super excited to be taking this class in the beginning. However, I'm slowly growing more and more frustrated with it. On the plus side, we do get to visit great historic sites in London every week, and learn about the history of the City. But the major downside is that the professor was just assigned to the class for this term, and has never studied the history of London ARCHITECTURE before. In fact, most of the time she gets notes from the brochures or pamphlets at the site we're visiting. The whole class has been disappointed that the professor doesn't really know the material, or what she's doing with the class. It means that we don't get to truly appreciate the great architecture that's around us! (In fact, while visiting Westminster Abbey yesterday, we followed another London university class around on their tour, just because the professor knew lots of facts and interesting things. Meanwhile our professor was simply pointing out the ages or labels of things without any in-depth analysis). Oh well, at least I'm visiting cool places!

Like I said, I visited Westminster Abbey yesterday. It was BEAUTIFUL! Alas, I wasn't allowed to take any photographs. But I did get a few sketches that I might try to post here. It's a breathtaking structure that has had improvements over the years. So parts of the building from the 1200s are in a state of semi-decay, and look ancient. While the additions from the 1700s are much more pristine, delicate, and ornamented. Even the statues on family crypts and memorials span this period of time. It's so odd to see a medieval statue, gothic statue, victorian statue, and 'modern' statue all in the same room! Some areas seem more like "statue storage" than parts of a cathedral. And, of course, the breathtaking ceilings. It was fantastic! (And a little bit pricey for admission, but definitely worth it.) My friends and I are going to try and go back for an Evensong (evening choir performance) one of these days.

Interesting fact: Westminster was founded by Edward the Confessor in the 13th century, after a dream of Saint Peter told him to build a church on that spot. A "minster" is a large, central cathedral to a region. It served as the starting point for the large city of Westminster, which now spans most of the south and central parts of "London".

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Now onto today. I signed up for a walking tour of the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Borough Markets, and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre! Talk about knocking a whole lot of sights out in one day. We started off by touring the Tower of London, a HUGE complex originally built in the 1300s to keep the king's treasures safe. It was then converted into a palace for the royalty to live safely, and then finally turned into a prison for political traitors. So no, it's not a torture chamber or bloody prison for criminals. In fact - it's not even a single tower! It's more of a large complex of buildings from different time periods, used for housing nobility and their goods (and a few ravens!) Nowadays the Governor of London lives in the Tower, along with the Yeomen/Beefeaters (King's personal serving guards), and the Queen's Crown Jewels. Very sparkly. You'd be surprised at the crowns, scepters, rings, and other miscellaneous objects which are kept together. Each item has a very specific usage - for example, one crown is specifically for the Queen Mother, while another is for the Queen Consort (the woman married to the King, but not the ruling Queen in her own right), the travelling crown (when he visits other countries), and the Crown of State (used to open Parliament). Not to mention scepters, rings, and orbs for each function. All the crowns and scepters look very similar - except for the scepter with the Heart of Africa diamond on it. I've never seen a gem so breathtaking! Unfortunately no photography allowed.

We then walked across the Tower Bridge - NOT the London Bridge! I knew this already from my history classes, but the Tower Bridge is the famous Bridge in London. Meanwhile, the London bridge is a much simpler travel bridge that is only important because a) it was always falling down, and b)it has been around, in one form or another, since the Romans in 40 AD. So the London Bridge used to be the main artery of travel into the city. The Tower Bridge just looks pretty.

After that we stopped for lunch at Boroughs Market, a food market that was originally set up by the Romans. It's a great place to find food-to-go, such as pasties, fruit, veg, and roast sandwiches. Must go back there again!

Finally we had a private tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theater, where he premiered many of his plays, including Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, etc. While you kind of need to be a theatre nerd to truly appreciate the amazing work that has been put into this theater (the original has been destroyed, but they rebuilt this one to the exact historical copy of the first, right down to the thatched straw roof). To step into the space, sit in the seats, go up to the stage, and see everything as it would have been in Shakespeare's time... well, it really gives you some perspective. I think this is one of my favorite historical "interpretive centers". While not the original, it's much better than many places which either a) leave the original foundations/ruins and provide some sketches to help you visualize, or b) rebuild the theater but in a more modern, less historically acurate way (or only build part of it). The Globe was perfect for seeing things like Shakespeare saw them. The energy of the theater just made the place feel alive! It's also much more colorful and eye-catching than you might think, too.

Of course, all of these things are best described in pictures. So I'll be uploading those soon! Thanks for reading through this super-long update. I'm just getting so well-informed! =P

Camden Market Photos

As promised, here are the pictures from my trip to the Camden Markets. There are a couple of other random pictures I tossed in there from my first few days in London. Just click on the picture below to see them!

Snowing Again!

That's right, it's snowing again! The snow started a little after 2pm, and has really picked up as night fell. I wonder if it'll accumulate just as much as last time? If so, then we're in for a bunch more ice and traffic delays!

Since I last updated, I have managed to score and internship! Hooray!! Our internship coordinator was able to hook me up with a local very-high-end residential designer at the last minute. Which actually turned out to be good for them, as they were about ready to start looking for an intern when she called! The firm is called Blanchard, and is a smaller company with five designers.

The Pros:
- Close by in the quiet neighborhood of Primrose Hill. I can walk there on nice days, and take the bus or tube during the cold/rainy ones.
- They'll pay for food and transportation every day I work!
- They're a luxury home design firm, so they work with large homes and large budgets.
- They are very open to training me and letting me learn what I want from the job, not necessarily just filing.

The Cons:
- Not hotel design. Which means that I'm still not getting the relevant job experience I was looking for.
- May still be doing some filing and odd-jobs most of the time.

So, overall, it looks like a really good position! I am required to write a journal for class, so I'll definitely be posting updates here about how the jobs is going.

On Friday night we went to a nearby pub and hung out for a little bit with the local crowd. I didn't get much interaction in, but I hope to go back on days when everyone is a little less cold and tired and perhaps get to meet more Londoners our age. One popular drink out here is Hard Cider (Strongbow, Magnus, etc.) I've only had a half pint of the apple version so far, but I like it because it is a light, fizzy, and not-too-strong version of beer. More local beverage experimentation must be conducted. I think I might try the pear version next time, to see what the difference is.

Today was a busy day of walking. First we stopped in a local "catalog store". It's a very interesting shopping concept - instead of walking up and down aisles, buying what you want, you just walk up to a catalog station and flip through pages. When you see what you want, you write the number down and take your slip of paper to the front desk. You pay for your items, and then pick them up from the counter when they're ready. Meanwhile someone goes into the back of the shop and picks up your ordered items for you. Very interesting! They are the closest store to the dorm that sells cheap mattress pads, so that's why I was able to see what the "catalog store" was all about today.

Bekah - one of my flatmates - and I also visited the (very large and extensive) Camden Markets, just a few blocks north of our residence. The markets are three or four covered street markets which take advantage of the old railway bridges, storage warehouses, and stables around the Camden Locks. Most of the shops sold indie-style and vintage clothing, fast food, or jewelry. There were TONS of stalls though! And they wind like a narrow maze in and out of this great old architecture in the region. The best area was Stables Market, which is actually inside the old railway arches and horse stables near the locks. Shops are actually set up inside horse stalls! It's very historic, but colorful and unique at the same time. Such a bustling, busy, "indie" sort of place - worlds apart from Primrose Hill where I will be interning, which is only a few blocks up the hill!

I'll post pictures of the Camden Market area either later tonight or tomorrow. Hope everyone is staying warm and dry!

Not-So-Lazy Days

Hello again everybody. The past two days have been a mix of busy and not-so-busy. Wednesday, since I didn't have an Internship, I slept in super late (it felt really good though! And now I'm feeling much better). But I also got things done such as shopping for art supplies, picking up a new phone charger (the one they gave me was broken) and checking out the neighborhood shops to see where I can pick up supplies.

Not to mention it snowed all day Wednesday! It was very pretty, especially out by our housing in Camden. Unfortunately the snow melted and then froze on the sidewalks - no salt or sand here! - so it was treacherous even to walk one block. Today the ice was even worse... we were slipping and sliding our way to the bus stop. Even the side roads were covered in a thick sheet of black ice. However, the main roads were clear so we made it to class on time. So many people were slipping and falling today, though!

We have two new flat mates this week. One is Becca, a junior Apparel Design major from Wisconsin. The other is Frankie, a degree student who is filling her third term here. She's the only person who lived in the room before this term - but mostly hangs out with the boys across the hall because they all know each other from before. We took Becca out to dinner last night because she hadn't gone grocery shopping yet. There is a local and fairly good Greek restaurant close by that we went to, and they gave us a free bottle of wine!

Thursdays are my longest days of class. I have an internship class at 8:30am, a building codes class at 11:00, and a history of London architecture class at 2:00pm. Each class is over 2 hours long - making Thursday one loooong day. Especially since today both my Building Codes and London Architecture courses had walking field trips. I probably walked about seven miles today all around the lesser known areas of the city. I am cold and tired!

Good news: I have a new internship interview scheduled for tomorrow. Bad news: it's not hotel design. Unfortunately there are no hotel design internships available right now, so it looks like I'll be interning at a high end residential firm. Too bad that's not really the profession I want to get into after I graduate. The KCA internship that I wasn't able to do would have really looked good on my resume and given me much more vital professional experience. Oh well - any experience will be helpful I suppose!

I'll let you all know how the interview goes tomorrow. Jennas are going to bed early!

First Day of Classes and Pictures

Today was the first day of classes. I successfully took the double-decker bus from our flats to the AIU campus! (So proud) However, I don't have much to report about classes today because - it being the first day - we didn't cover anything much besides syllabi and the course outline. I'll try to give a better description of my classes when I've had all of them and for a longer period of time.

I DID however have an interview today for my internship. To get to the underground subway station I had to walk along Oxford Circus, London's biggest and busiest shopping street. There are giant department stores with glitter, glamour, fashion, and lights everywhere; not to mention plenty of traffic both pedestrian and vehicle!

The interview itself went very well, and I really hit it off with the people I'd be working for. I had plans to start tomorrow instead of next week! Unfortunately, as I was returning home on the subway, I got a call from them telling me that (because the only just now checked with their accountants, instead of earlier when this whole internship process began) they actually WOULDN'T be able to take me on for the term. BUMMER!! I was really excited about this internship because it was with a world-famous luxury, boutique hotel firm whose biggest project was the Burj Al Arab(expensive, huge sail hotel in Dubai). It was a huge disapointment to get my hopes up for this position, only to be told that they wouldn't be able to take me even as an unpaid intern. I wish someone had checked on that sooner! So now I'm kind of at a loss - they're working on getting me another interview, and are confident I'll have a position this term - but it won't be nearly as cool or as close to what I want to do with my career as this internship would have been. But it's just a minor setback, and I'll keep you informed with what happens next!

Finally, I've updated my photo album with pictures from our first day in London on the walking tour. You can see all of them by clicking on the picture below:



That's it for now. Oh, and it's SNOWING!! Snow update tomorrow!

Day 2, and First Video Post!

Here is my first video blog update from London! Sorry it's a day late (it was actually recorded on Sunday, but I had to find a way of getting it online!).



Today I had orientation and a tour of campus. AIU's academic buildings are a whopping 50 minute journey from the flats at Beaumont Court. However, this does put it smack in the middle of the ritzy and glamorous shopping district of West End, just minutes from Baker Street, Regent's Park, Hyde Park, etc. There are shops EVERYWHERE! And it's hard to believe that the shopping continues for blocks and blocks in either direction, especially considering everything is situated in such old and historic buildings.

So today was pretty much just a combination of meetings, presentations, and information sessions about AIU. Classes start tomorrow! (I also have an interview tomorrow for my internship, so I'll let you know how that goes.)

Cheers!

First Post!

This is Jenna, live from London! Obviously this blog will cover all of the fun, exciting, heart-pounding, funny, sad, scary, and otherwise interesting (I hope) things I do in London! This first post will outline all of the details of my trip, and will hereafter be followed by more detailed day-by-day action posts.

Who: Jenna Curtis (me!)
Where: London, England (and surrounding area)
When: January 2nd - May 28th
What: Study Abroad with American InterContinental University

This Study Abroad encompasses two "terms", which equates to one semester at GW. I will be taking two classes and an internship each term. While I don't have an internship set up YET, I will be likely placed in a London-based hotel design firm. In between each term I will have an opportunity to travel, just like an American spring break.

I am living in AIU's dorm and taking classes with AIU, NOT another London college. However, I am in the heart of the city's West End district, and just blocks from many great sites and stores!

Any questions?