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!