Today was the last day of this semesters classes...now I just have two more papers to go and two finals and I'm home free until Fall semester. Woo! It's kind of sad though because that also means my time here is dwindling.
After class I spent some more time on the homework. My history papers have been proving to be a tad more difficult and time consuming than I was originally planning and my hopes of having them done before my parents got here haven't been fulfilled. Oh well, what can you do.
The day didn't get very exciting until 5:30 as we were on our way to a cricket match. Now, I'm not going to lie. A cricket match sounded like the most boring thing ever. I did look up the rules of the game beforehand though, so at least I was prepared for this. I was not, however, prepared for the fact that apparently cricket is a male dominated spectator sport. Us four girls, Hannah, Amy, Tara and I looked like crazies walking amongst all these men, many of them in suits as I'm sure they just got off work. Though this was a whole group event, we were on our own to get there and find seats and what not. And another weird thing is that none of the seats are assigned, it's just first come, first served. We got pretty decent seats I thought. Plus because there were so many males, there were lots of people to look at. I mean...uhh...We did "by chance" sit near some of these said males. It was a good thing we did too because they were way nice and kept answering questions for us during the game. I'm happy to say that by the time we left, I knew how the game was played for the most part and I had picked a team to root for. They are called the Middlesex Panthers. They wear bright pink uniforms and they have a chant that goes something like this "Middle! Middle! Middle! Sex! Sex! Sex! Middlesex!" Basically it's the most hilarious chant. So although I went into it with a hesitant attitude, it was pretty fun, even though my team lost. Though it's definitely not a sport I would spend hours and hours watching. It's similar to baseball in that a lot of the time, players are kind of just standing around. Plus, we went to one of the short games. Some of the really big games go for 3 to 5 DAYS. That's ridiculous.
After the game, we went on our last walk for our London Walks class. It took us to the other side of the Thames and we got to walk past the London Eye (which is HUGE when your right up by it) so yeah it was a cool little walk. And then we came back to our neighborhood and ran down the street to this gelato place that other students had recommended and I will admit, it was pretty delicious.
My parents are going to be here tomorrow!!! Yay!!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
sexy apron lady
First thing yesterday morning, I got up and ran a few errands. They may sound like ridiculous errands to you, but whatever. I went over to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, which are next door to each other, and got a couple postcards I should have gotten when I was there the first time. There is this beautiful Monet painting at the National Gallery that I wanted a postcard of and there there is this smoking hot picture of William and Henry that I couldn't live without. After I had grabbed my postcards, I walked to the Cabinet War Rooms, to see about tickets. I'm not actually going until my parents get here, but I had nothing else to do and it's a nice little walk because it takes you past the Horse Guard place and Whitehall and stuff. Plus now I know where the Cabinet War Rooms are so we don't get lost when my parents are here.
After errands it was time for tea at Kensington Palace. I didn't think about this until we were walking over there as a big group, but I was basically fulfilling every little girls dream at that moment. Tea at a palace, just like a princess. Crazy stuff. Here's the thing though. I don't drink tea. I've never had tea. Any kind of tea. So we picked some herbal tea because apparently that's ok to drink. But it is also the most disgusting thing I have ever had to drink. I drank about 2 spoonfuls before setting it aside and deciding that I didn't care very much if I didn't fulfil my childhood dreams of a princess tea in a castle. It just wasn't worth the suffering. Later I discovered that I had chosen the worst flavor, but the others weren't all that delicious either. They also brought out little cucumber sandwiches (which were also not super yummy) and a fruit scone (which was yummy) and a little chocolate cake and orange/lemon tart (which were yummy as well). Overall it was a cool experience and I definitely feel like it's something I had to do while I was here in England, but I never care to experience another tea in my life.
After tea, Hannah, Amy and I ran to the Science Museum again to finish up some homework. We ran into some missionaries on the way there and one of them offered to give us a tour of the chapel that is right by the museum. I kindly informed him that we were already member, to which he replied that he could tell we were. Well buddy, if you could tell, why'd you ask in the first place. He then proceeded to ask us where we were fun and all that jazz. Then we found out he was basically almost done with his mission and would be a freshman at BYU in the fall. Someone seems to be getting a little desperate for the ladies... After the museum it was back to the Centre for more homework time and dinner duty. Fun stuff I know.
The group also had plans to see The Mousetrap after dinner. This is London's longest running play and it's a murder mystery so I was pretty excited about it. We had great seats and I enjoyed it, though I was kind of tried so I kept yawning and when I yawn my eyes water so I was basically crying throughout the whole thing which was pretty embarrassing. The best part though was during 'half-time' as my friends and I call intermission. I was sitting next to Kaylee and she had fallen asleep so I was explaining to her what was going on when Brother and Sister Crowe, two of our professors here, who were sitting on the other side of me, leaned over and asked me to recap for them too because they had fallen asleep. hahahaha Funniest thing ever. Good thing one of us was enjoying it so everyone else could find out what happened after they woke up from their nap.
Today we got up bright and early and went to the London temple. It was a great experience. I really do love the temple and I was excited to go because I hadn't gone since I left Provo. It was a little strange because I don't think they were use to getting such big groups in so the process was a little weird but its always great no matter how you go about getting it done. Baptisms were a little rough because the guy baptising at the time was kind of speeding and there wasn't a lot of time to breathe in between each one. You should be glad I'm still here to tell the tale.
After baptisms we had grand plans to go the Imperial War Museum but of course our time plans never actually work out and we didn't have time to go before dinner. So instead it was more homework time. At least I should be able to get all of my homework done before my parents get here...After dinner though, Tara introduced us to this pub that has the best chocolate cake ever so it ended up being a fab end to the night.
Also, you may be wondering about the title of this post. At dinner duty today, I was washing dishes and I was wearing an apron so I didn't get water all over me. I had multiple people come up to me and tell me how hot I looked in an apron. I wasn't aware 'hot' and 'apron' could even go together in the same sentence but I guess you learn something new every day. So in the future I would like to be referred to as the sexy apron lady. Ok, maybe not. But I do appreciate the compliments fellow study abroaders. =]
After errands it was time for tea at Kensington Palace. I didn't think about this until we were walking over there as a big group, but I was basically fulfilling every little girls dream at that moment. Tea at a palace, just like a princess. Crazy stuff. Here's the thing though. I don't drink tea. I've never had tea. Any kind of tea. So we picked some herbal tea because apparently that's ok to drink. But it is also the most disgusting thing I have ever had to drink. I drank about 2 spoonfuls before setting it aside and deciding that I didn't care very much if I didn't fulfil my childhood dreams of a princess tea in a castle. It just wasn't worth the suffering. Later I discovered that I had chosen the worst flavor, but the others weren't all that delicious either. They also brought out little cucumber sandwiches (which were also not super yummy) and a fruit scone (which was yummy) and a little chocolate cake and orange/lemon tart (which were yummy as well). Overall it was a cool experience and I definitely feel like it's something I had to do while I was here in England, but I never care to experience another tea in my life.
After tea, Hannah, Amy and I ran to the Science Museum again to finish up some homework. We ran into some missionaries on the way there and one of them offered to give us a tour of the chapel that is right by the museum. I kindly informed him that we were already member, to which he replied that he could tell we were. Well buddy, if you could tell, why'd you ask in the first place. He then proceeded to ask us where we were fun and all that jazz. Then we found out he was basically almost done with his mission and would be a freshman at BYU in the fall. Someone seems to be getting a little desperate for the ladies... After the museum it was back to the Centre for more homework time and dinner duty. Fun stuff I know.
The group also had plans to see The Mousetrap after dinner. This is London's longest running play and it's a murder mystery so I was pretty excited about it. We had great seats and I enjoyed it, though I was kind of tried so I kept yawning and when I yawn my eyes water so I was basically crying throughout the whole thing which was pretty embarrassing. The best part though was during 'half-time' as my friends and I call intermission. I was sitting next to Kaylee and she had fallen asleep so I was explaining to her what was going on when Brother and Sister Crowe, two of our professors here, who were sitting on the other side of me, leaned over and asked me to recap for them too because they had fallen asleep. hahahaha Funniest thing ever. Good thing one of us was enjoying it so everyone else could find out what happened after they woke up from their nap.
Today we got up bright and early and went to the London temple. It was a great experience. I really do love the temple and I was excited to go because I hadn't gone since I left Provo. It was a little strange because I don't think they were use to getting such big groups in so the process was a little weird but its always great no matter how you go about getting it done. Baptisms were a little rough because the guy baptising at the time was kind of speeding and there wasn't a lot of time to breathe in between each one. You should be glad I'm still here to tell the tale.
After baptisms we had grand plans to go the Imperial War Museum but of course our time plans never actually work out and we didn't have time to go before dinner. So instead it was more homework time. At least I should be able to get all of my homework done before my parents get here...After dinner though, Tara introduced us to this pub that has the best chocolate cake ever so it ended up being a fab end to the night.
Also, you may be wondering about the title of this post. At dinner duty today, I was washing dishes and I was wearing an apron so I didn't get water all over me. I had multiple people come up to me and tell me how hot I looked in an apron. I wasn't aware 'hot' and 'apron' could even go together in the same sentence but I guess you learn something new every day. So in the future I would like to be referred to as the sexy apron lady. Ok, maybe not. But I do appreciate the compliments fellow study abroaders. =]
Monday, June 6, 2011
artifacts, 5 a.m. phone calls, and lots of dead people.
After church yesterday (which was another adventure attempting to figure out how to get there because once again random tube lines are closed), I headed to the British Museum. I just went by myself because my friends and I all get home from church at different times. It was a pretty overwhelming place. There were about 50 gillion people there and its GIMONGOUS! But freaking awesome as well. It took me some time before I found a map because I didn't go through the main entrance. Once I found the central area, which is way cool looking, I grabbed a map and headed on my way. I didn't really closely examine everything because it's so big but I skimmed through most of the Greece exhibit. Some of my favorite things were the Parthenon room, which had big giant pieces of the Parthenon in this room that was supposed to look like a replica of the inside of the Parthenon. Ok I may have made up that last bit. Maybe it's just supposed to look like Greek architecture, but in my mind, it was the inside of the Parthenon. They also had this thing called the Nereid Monument which was this way sweet Greek monument. I saw the Rosetta Stone on my way out as well, which is bigger than I thought it was but pretty fascinating to look at. Also I learned where the word mausoleum came from. I know, your jealous, so I guess I'll share my knowledge with you. This guy named Mausolus had this tomb. And it was a pretty cool tomb because it was like really big and really decorative and so it was one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. So Mausolus eventually became mausoleum and the parts of the Tomb of Mausolus now lie in the British Museum. Cool factoid huh?
So yeah then it was dinner and lots of reading because it was raining and there's not a whole lot we're able to do on Sundays anyways.
Today after class, we went and took the Westminster Abbey tour. On our way to the tube, I stopped at the bank whose cash machine had stolen my card on Saturday. I stood in line for about a zillion hours. Or maybe like 30 minutes. And when I got to the desk, they were just like "Oh when the technician came, he didn't find any card, so someone must have stolen it." WHAT THE FREAK?!? I wasn't even sure how to respond to this. I was like "Umm are you sure?" and she was just like "Yep, I had him check three times." So then I walked away dumbfounded. Tara, Amy and Hannah were waiting for me so when I told them what happened, Tara was like "Oh heck no!" and marches over and glares down this other man who had talked to us on Saturday. Eventually he acknowledges her and gets someone else to help us out. That dude basically told me the same thing. He said that people will put little things in the machine to jam the card and then they come and steal it. I wanted to yell at him "Well maybe if you retards hadn't waiting until this morning to have the technician come it, they wouldn't have been able to come back and get my card" but I refrained. So instead I'm like "Well you need to let me use your phone then so that I can call my parents and have them figure things out with my bank in America." He was like "Oh of course" and took me back to some office. He asks me what part of America I'm from and then says he's moving to North Carolina soon. I said that was cool and that my friend was from North Carolina so he asks which one and while I'm freaking out trying to get a hold of my parents he goes and brings Hannah in to talk to her about North Carolina. How unprofessional. Also, side note. My parents didn't answer their phones, which I was pretty annoyed with at first. Until we left the bank and I realized I had called at like 5 in the morning. So then I have this whole scenario planned out in my head about how they're going to see these international missed called and then think that I died and then have crying fits. Want to know what really happened? The call came in as restricted so they just ignored it and cared none at all for the safety of my life. Sad, I know. Anyways, I left a message on my dads phone. Hannah finished up talking to bank man about whether or not North Carolina had capital punishment (who even asks that when their moving somewhere new? maybe he's the one that stole my card...) and we head of to Westminster.
By the time we got to Westminster, I only had time to do the "Highlight" audio tour, because I'm on dinner crew so I had to be back early to help set up. Although I wish I could have spent more time there, the highlight tour was pretty cool. There are so many awesome people buried there. I got to see where Queen Elizabeth I was buried and where Mary Queen of Scots was buried. Also Charles Dickens, John Dryden, Issac Newton, and everyone else cool that is buried in the Poet's Corner. The building is just beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
After dinner we had this guy come talk to us about World War II and the Blitz. He lived in London during it so it was really cool to hear him speak about it, especially since World War II is one of my favorite historical subjects. I'm not going to lie though, I did fall asleep for a couple of minutes...I feel bad about that, but it was dark and warm and I was tired.
I can't believe my time here is almost over...my parents will be here soon, finals are on Monday and then before you know it, I'm back in Provo. Where did all the time go?
So yeah then it was dinner and lots of reading because it was raining and there's not a whole lot we're able to do on Sundays anyways.
Today after class, we went and took the Westminster Abbey tour. On our way to the tube, I stopped at the bank whose cash machine had stolen my card on Saturday. I stood in line for about a zillion hours. Or maybe like 30 minutes. And when I got to the desk, they were just like "Oh when the technician came, he didn't find any card, so someone must have stolen it." WHAT THE FREAK?!? I wasn't even sure how to respond to this. I was like "Umm are you sure?" and she was just like "Yep, I had him check three times." So then I walked away dumbfounded. Tara, Amy and Hannah were waiting for me so when I told them what happened, Tara was like "Oh heck no!" and marches over and glares down this other man who had talked to us on Saturday. Eventually he acknowledges her and gets someone else to help us out. That dude basically told me the same thing. He said that people will put little things in the machine to jam the card and then they come and steal it. I wanted to yell at him "Well maybe if you retards hadn't waiting until this morning to have the technician come it, they wouldn't have been able to come back and get my card" but I refrained. So instead I'm like "Well you need to let me use your phone then so that I can call my parents and have them figure things out with my bank in America." He was like "Oh of course" and took me back to some office. He asks me what part of America I'm from and then says he's moving to North Carolina soon. I said that was cool and that my friend was from North Carolina so he asks which one and while I'm freaking out trying to get a hold of my parents he goes and brings Hannah in to talk to her about North Carolina. How unprofessional. Also, side note. My parents didn't answer their phones, which I was pretty annoyed with at first. Until we left the bank and I realized I had called at like 5 in the morning. So then I have this whole scenario planned out in my head about how they're going to see these international missed called and then think that I died and then have crying fits. Want to know what really happened? The call came in as restricted so they just ignored it and cared none at all for the safety of my life. Sad, I know. Anyways, I left a message on my dads phone. Hannah finished up talking to bank man about whether or not North Carolina had capital punishment (who even asks that when their moving somewhere new? maybe he's the one that stole my card...) and we head of to Westminster.
By the time we got to Westminster, I only had time to do the "Highlight" audio tour, because I'm on dinner crew so I had to be back early to help set up. Although I wish I could have spent more time there, the highlight tour was pretty cool. There are so many awesome people buried there. I got to see where Queen Elizabeth I was buried and where Mary Queen of Scots was buried. Also Charles Dickens, John Dryden, Issac Newton, and everyone else cool that is buried in the Poet's Corner. The building is just beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
After dinner we had this guy come talk to us about World War II and the Blitz. He lived in London during it so it was really cool to hear him speak about it, especially since World War II is one of my favorite historical subjects. I'm not going to lie though, I did fall asleep for a couple of minutes...I feel bad about that, but it was dark and warm and I was tired.
I can't believe my time here is almost over...my parents will be here soon, finals are on Monday and then before you know it, I'm back in Provo. Where did all the time go?
Saturday, June 4, 2011
short shorts and mini skirts...
...that's all you would have seen if you'd been in London the past couple of days. It has been so stinking hot here, it's unbelievable. It was like being in California in the middle of the summer, except that it's suppose to be cold and rainy here not super deathly hot. It's actually pretty tolerable until you get in the tube station and then you just want to die.
Anyways. I'm sure you would rather here about some cool adventures rather than the weather, so here you go. Yesterday started out...oh man I don't even remember what we did...ummmm...oh yeah. Ok so we got up and headed to Wimbledon. Tara's dad is the men's tennis coach at BYU and he played in Wimbledon and made it to the final four. So he's basically really cool. But anyways Tara wanted to go out there and she knew the cool places and I figured it would be something sweet to do with my life. So Amy, Hannah, Scott, Tara, Corey and I headed off to Wimbledon. It's actually not that far away, the tube will take you right there. We had to walk a little to get to the fields but whats new. Unfortunately, once we got there, we discovered that you had to pay to see the fields, which was disappointing. But seeing the field just wasn't worth 9 pounds. See it from the outside was cool enough though. And we got strawberries and cream, which Wimbledon is famous for, and they were pretty delicious. After we were finished up at the fields, we walked to the actual village. It was a pretty cute village and Tara took us to this pretty awesome Indian restaurant. So it was a good time overall.
After Wimbledon, oh wait. Actually before Wimbledon, we went to the British Library. This was also pretty cool but not something we felt we needed to spend an extensive amount of time at. Most of the library you can't get into unless you have a library card (which I'm seriously considering going back to get...). But there is a room that has all the really cool stuff like the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible and Codex Sinaiticus. They also have a bunch of authors journals/letters/writings which was freaking awesome, though maybe that's because I'm a nerdy English major (even though sometimes you can't tell from the crappy writing of this blog). They also had hand written lyrics from the Beatles which was sweet.
Ok so now after Wimbledon. Tara, Kaylee, Corey, Scott, Jessica and Emily S. and I all went to Wicked. It was so freaking awesome!!!! I know I've already seen it. Twice. But I didn't have to pay to see Le Mis, so I decided it was ok if I used that money to see Wicked and I'm so glad I did. Elpheba was the most amazing thing ever. I can't even explain how amazing. Everyone else was really good too but Elpheba blew me away. That musical seriously never will not be amazing to me. I loved it!
So today we had really good intentions but not really good success. We had plans to go to the British Museum this morning but as I was getting cash at the ATM, which I don't even do that often so of course this would happen to me, the stupid machine eats my card. And on top of that the stupid bank can't get it out, they have to call a mechanic and I don't want to wait around all day waiting for it, so I have to go back and get it on Monday. I'm kind of freaking out about this, but there really isn't anything I can do about it. They weren't even nice either. No apologies or anything. So annoying. By the time all of that went down, we weren't going to make it to the British Museum because we had made plans to go to Camden Market at noon. In hindsight, I'm not sure why we wouldn't allow ourselves to replan, because we weren't meeting up with anyone or anything, but whatever. So we headed to Camden.
Camden Market is kind of confusing at first. It looks like a crappy street market when you first get off the tube, which is why I didn't stay very long the first time we went there like the first week we were here. But if you keep on walking past all the crappy street people, you get to the real market which is legit. I might even say that it was as cool as Portobello Market. We didn't even make a dent in seeing all of it and we were there for 2 hours but it was great, I loved it. I wish we had markets like that in the States. Or actually, more specifically, where I live. That would make all of my wildest dreams come true. I'm sure somewhere in the US, there are cool markets and I've actually been to some pretty cool ones, but none of them compare to the markets out here. They are freaking awesome.
After Camden, we came home for all of like 20 minutes before Amy, Tara and I headed out to John Keats house. There was a little festival there and Tara is a giant Keats fan. Tara had put our name on the list for the free concert/poetry reading. Except that when we got there, which was three different tube lines away, we discovered she wasn't actually paying close enough attention the day of each event and the thing we were signed up for isn't until tomorrow. Great news right? Uh no. So tonight there's was a free poetry reading but we had to wait an hour and we didn't actually know if we would get in. Luckily (for Tara mostly because Amy and I might have killed her otherwise) we were able to get in. I've never been to a legit poetry reading but it was cool. I'm not actually the biggest poetry fan on planet Earth, but the poets were reading their own work and giving background on it and a lot of the poems had references to London so that was sweet. We were disappointed that no one actually read any Keats poetry but we did get to walk around the house for free during the little 10 minutes break between poets and normally you have to pay. That was pretty awesome. So yeah it was cool. Interesting experience for sure.
After Keats, we went for gelato in Trafalgar Square because that's the best way to end a night. =]
Anyways. I'm sure you would rather here about some cool adventures rather than the weather, so here you go. Yesterday started out...oh man I don't even remember what we did...ummmm...oh yeah. Ok so we got up and headed to Wimbledon. Tara's dad is the men's tennis coach at BYU and he played in Wimbledon and made it to the final four. So he's basically really cool. But anyways Tara wanted to go out there and she knew the cool places and I figured it would be something sweet to do with my life. So Amy, Hannah, Scott, Tara, Corey and I headed off to Wimbledon. It's actually not that far away, the tube will take you right there. We had to walk a little to get to the fields but whats new. Unfortunately, once we got there, we discovered that you had to pay to see the fields, which was disappointing. But seeing the field just wasn't worth 9 pounds. See it from the outside was cool enough though. And we got strawberries and cream, which Wimbledon is famous for, and they were pretty delicious. After we were finished up at the fields, we walked to the actual village. It was a pretty cute village and Tara took us to this pretty awesome Indian restaurant. So it was a good time overall.
After Wimbledon, oh wait. Actually before Wimbledon, we went to the British Library. This was also pretty cool but not something we felt we needed to spend an extensive amount of time at. Most of the library you can't get into unless you have a library card (which I'm seriously considering going back to get...). But there is a room that has all the really cool stuff like the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible and Codex Sinaiticus. They also have a bunch of authors journals/letters/writings which was freaking awesome, though maybe that's because I'm a nerdy English major (even though sometimes you can't tell from the crappy writing of this blog). They also had hand written lyrics from the Beatles which was sweet.
Ok so now after Wimbledon. Tara, Kaylee, Corey, Scott, Jessica and Emily S. and I all went to Wicked. It was so freaking awesome!!!! I know I've already seen it. Twice. But I didn't have to pay to see Le Mis, so I decided it was ok if I used that money to see Wicked and I'm so glad I did. Elpheba was the most amazing thing ever. I can't even explain how amazing. Everyone else was really good too but Elpheba blew me away. That musical seriously never will not be amazing to me. I loved it!
So today we had really good intentions but not really good success. We had plans to go to the British Museum this morning but as I was getting cash at the ATM, which I don't even do that often so of course this would happen to me, the stupid machine eats my card. And on top of that the stupid bank can't get it out, they have to call a mechanic and I don't want to wait around all day waiting for it, so I have to go back and get it on Monday. I'm kind of freaking out about this, but there really isn't anything I can do about it. They weren't even nice either. No apologies or anything. So annoying. By the time all of that went down, we weren't going to make it to the British Museum because we had made plans to go to Camden Market at noon. In hindsight, I'm not sure why we wouldn't allow ourselves to replan, because we weren't meeting up with anyone or anything, but whatever. So we headed to Camden.
Camden Market is kind of confusing at first. It looks like a crappy street market when you first get off the tube, which is why I didn't stay very long the first time we went there like the first week we were here. But if you keep on walking past all the crappy street people, you get to the real market which is legit. I might even say that it was as cool as Portobello Market. We didn't even make a dent in seeing all of it and we were there for 2 hours but it was great, I loved it. I wish we had markets like that in the States. Or actually, more specifically, where I live. That would make all of my wildest dreams come true. I'm sure somewhere in the US, there are cool markets and I've actually been to some pretty cool ones, but none of them compare to the markets out here. They are freaking awesome.
After Camden, we came home for all of like 20 minutes before Amy, Tara and I headed out to John Keats house. There was a little festival there and Tara is a giant Keats fan. Tara had put our name on the list for the free concert/poetry reading. Except that when we got there, which was three different tube lines away, we discovered she wasn't actually paying close enough attention the day of each event and the thing we were signed up for isn't until tomorrow. Great news right? Uh no. So tonight there's was a free poetry reading but we had to wait an hour and we didn't actually know if we would get in. Luckily (for Tara mostly because Amy and I might have killed her otherwise) we were able to get in. I've never been to a legit poetry reading but it was cool. I'm not actually the biggest poetry fan on planet Earth, but the poets were reading their own work and giving background on it and a lot of the poems had references to London so that was sweet. We were disappointed that no one actually read any Keats poetry but we did get to walk around the house for free during the little 10 minutes break between poets and normally you have to pay. That was pretty awesome. So yeah it was cool. Interesting experience for sure.
After Keats, we went for gelato in Trafalgar Square because that's the best way to end a night. =]
Thursday, June 2, 2011
independance day
Today was a day all alone. It was pretty nice, I'm not going to lie. I love my friends out here, but sometimes it's just nice to be away from people, especially when I've been with the same 50 people 24/7 for the past month and a half. I started out my day with a journey to Hever Castle. Hever Castle is the childhood home of the Boleyn's. Anne Boleyn was Henry VIII's second wife and the cause of his split from the Catholic Church. I am a huge Tudor era fan. I may have already explained that in a previous post, but literally, I love studying the time period when the Tudors ruled England. It's fascinating. So naturally I was pretty pumped to go to Hever. It started with a train ride, which at this point isn't all that exciting anymore. Once I got to the station, I had no idea where I was going. I knew the castle was about a mile walk from the station but I didn't know what direction and there were no maps at the station because it was such a small station. Luckily I ran into a lady that basically lives next door to the station and she directed me where to go, which actually turned out great because she knew a faster and prettier way to get there rather than just following the road. She told me how to get to the footpath that would cut across and take me right to the castle. It was a great little walk. I love all the footpaths here in London because they are so scenic. There were a bunch of rabbits and this cool tree arch. And there was a field of sheep so I got to see some more of my future pet!
When I got to the castle, the entrance is on the outskirts of the land, and there is a lot of land. So when you walk in there is a hill and once you get over the hill, the castle is right there and it's great. The castle wasn't open yet when I got there but the gardens were so I walked around those. The garden isn't just a little plot of land full of flowers, its like acres of trees and flowers. So beautiful. It's kind of split up into multiple areas. There's an Italian garden, a rose garden, a rhododendron garden, a Tudor garden etc. There is also a giant pond. Actually I don't know if you can even call it a pond, it's more of a lake. Unfortunately, they had the Tudor garden closed off and the lake was so big I didn't have time to walk all the way around it. It was so pretty and peaceful though, I loved it.
When the castle opened, I went over there and walked through. It's 3 or 4 stories high, I can't remember for sure how many flights we ended up going up. It was fabulous and I had a great time there. The only thing I was a little disappointed in was the fact that I was expecting it to be pretty similar to when Anne lived there except that quite a few people owned it after Anne, which I knew before I went, I was just silly and not thinking that the building and the furnishings would change with new ownership. So it was really cool but I was crazy and thought it would be a little different than what it ended up being like. There were all these crazy old ladies wandering around at the same time as me though. They were gossiping about other crazy old ladies the whole time and that was pretty entertaining.
So even though it was absolutely fabulous, there was one big thing I didn't like about Hever. Because it is under private ownership instead of the National Trust like a lot of the other historic places around here, it was super touristy. It just felt like a big giant tourist attraction instead of an historic place. Even though other places we've been to are super touristy, they don't necessarily have the touristy feel. Hever had tourist written on its non-exsistant forehead. The castle had a bunch of random items of furniture stuck in random places, just to show it off. The gift shop was not only overpriced but most of the stuff in there didn't even have items relating to Hever. And they had turned part of the garden into this water maze thing for little kids so there were a million little kids running around with their parents. But I guess things can't be perfect all the time.
After I was finished with Hever and back in London, I went to Harrods. Harrods is a ginormous, extremely expensive department store. Not only could I not afford to buy anything, I couldn't afford to look at anything. There was an umbrella for 40 pounds or roughly 70 dollars. And a purse for almost a thousand pounds. So freaking ridiculous. Also, its huge and super confusing to navigate your way around. Even with my map. After about 30 minutes I decided Harrods was one of my least favorite places and I was out of there. Maybe I'm just not a real girl, but wandering around a store where I can buy absolutely nothing just isn't that much fun to me. But hey, now I can say I've been there.
Now I'm just hanging out back in the Centre. No one else is back from their trip to Brighton so we'll see what the night has in store for me...
When I got to the castle, the entrance is on the outskirts of the land, and there is a lot of land. So when you walk in there is a hill and once you get over the hill, the castle is right there and it's great. The castle wasn't open yet when I got there but the gardens were so I walked around those. The garden isn't just a little plot of land full of flowers, its like acres of trees and flowers. So beautiful. It's kind of split up into multiple areas. There's an Italian garden, a rose garden, a rhododendron garden, a Tudor garden etc. There is also a giant pond. Actually I don't know if you can even call it a pond, it's more of a lake. Unfortunately, they had the Tudor garden closed off and the lake was so big I didn't have time to walk all the way around it. It was so pretty and peaceful though, I loved it.
When the castle opened, I went over there and walked through. It's 3 or 4 stories high, I can't remember for sure how many flights we ended up going up. It was fabulous and I had a great time there. The only thing I was a little disappointed in was the fact that I was expecting it to be pretty similar to when Anne lived there except that quite a few people owned it after Anne, which I knew before I went, I was just silly and not thinking that the building and the furnishings would change with new ownership. So it was really cool but I was crazy and thought it would be a little different than what it ended up being like. There were all these crazy old ladies wandering around at the same time as me though. They were gossiping about other crazy old ladies the whole time and that was pretty entertaining.
So even though it was absolutely fabulous, there was one big thing I didn't like about Hever. Because it is under private ownership instead of the National Trust like a lot of the other historic places around here, it was super touristy. It just felt like a big giant tourist attraction instead of an historic place. Even though other places we've been to are super touristy, they don't necessarily have the touristy feel. Hever had tourist written on its non-exsistant forehead. The castle had a bunch of random items of furniture stuck in random places, just to show it off. The gift shop was not only overpriced but most of the stuff in there didn't even have items relating to Hever. And they had turned part of the garden into this water maze thing for little kids so there were a million little kids running around with their parents. But I guess things can't be perfect all the time.
After I was finished with Hever and back in London, I went to Harrods. Harrods is a ginormous, extremely expensive department store. Not only could I not afford to buy anything, I couldn't afford to look at anything. There was an umbrella for 40 pounds or roughly 70 dollars. And a purse for almost a thousand pounds. So freaking ridiculous. Also, its huge and super confusing to navigate your way around. Even with my map. After about 30 minutes I decided Harrods was one of my least favorite places and I was out of there. Maybe I'm just not a real girl, but wandering around a store where I can buy absolutely nothing just isn't that much fun to me. But hey, now I can say I've been there.
Now I'm just hanging out back in the Centre. No one else is back from their trip to Brighton so we'll see what the night has in store for me...
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
a new love for shakespeare
After class today, Amy, Tara, Hannah and I went to see "Much Ado About Nothing" at the Globe Theatre. Yes, this is the third play I've seen there. But here the thing, the other two times, I didn't have to pay for the tickets and we had seats. I wanted to experience the real deal being a groundling and it only cost me 5 pounds. And it was well worth the 5 pounds. It was probably my favorite Shakespeare play. So dang good. It is one of Shakespeare's comedies and funny it was. The actors were amazing as well. One of the main characters played Geoffrey in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and another one of the main characters played Wallis in The King's Speech. So basically there were some amazing people in it. And it they made it even better because they interacted with the audience. This is another one of those things where I really can't explain how great it is but it was great.
Then we came back to the Centre for dinner and just kind of hung out here the rest of the night. There isn't a lot to do in London at night because everything closes. Unless you want to get food or go to a play or something. But that's ok because I was able to plan my days while we have the travel weekend. And it's going to be a great three days. You should anticipate the blog posts about them...
Then we came back to the Centre for dinner and just kind of hung out here the rest of the night. There isn't a lot to do in London at night because everything closes. Unless you want to get food or go to a play or something. But that's ok because I was able to plan my days while we have the travel weekend. And it's going to be a great three days. You should anticipate the blog posts about them...
an ultimate london experince
Yesterday was fabulous. That's all you really need to know.
Ok fine, I'll give you more than that. First of all, I got to sleep in, if you can really count 8 as sleeping in. We had plans to go to Windsor Castle at 11 and there wasn't a whole lot I could do before then, so I just let myself relax a little bit that morning, which was great. So then at 11ish, like half our group left for Windsor Castle. I didn't know a lot about Windsor, but I didn't have any other plans and the program was willing to reimburse us traveling fees and entrance fees so I figured why not go. One of the best decisions I'd say. We had to take the train there, but it wasn't a very long ride, about 30 min. When we walked out of the train station, the castle was literally right there in front of us. And it was giant. And beautiful. I fell in love immediately. First of all, this is a legit castle. Remember that post a while ago about castles here not really being castles? This was a real castle. In case you weren't already aware, the Queen still takes residence in Windsor. I believe it is actually one of her favorite places, which is easy to see why. Hopefully you'll be able to see how amazing it is from my little blog post. So the castle is giant sized. I think it's bigger than Buckingham. And it's spread out on a vast amount of land. So basically I was in awe the moment I saw it. To add to the greatness of this experience, it was a beautiful day outside and the whole town is super cute and the land is super pretty.
Ok, so I suppose I'll actually explain to you what the inside is like to. As I said earlier, the castle is spread out, it's not just one building. So we walked into the square type thing and the first building we visited was St. George's Chapel. I really liked this chapel but I think that was partially due to the face that the audio guide was pretty spectacular. It gave cool information and it also reminded us that the chapel is an actual place of worship, which I don't feel like many of the other chapels have emphasized. They've all just been more of tourist attractions, which is kind of sad. It was a really pretty chapel, but I also felt like it was a little less ornate than some of the others we've seen and I prefer the simplicity. Once we got to the choir area of the chapel, we were looking around and then BAM. There's King Henry VIII's grave. In my head I was screaming "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!" all excitedly. How freaking cool is that? And Jane Seymour, his 3rd wife was buried in the same place, along with one of Anne Boleyn's babies. It was amazing and I was so mad we couldn't take pictures. So we keep on walking along and there are a bunch of royal people graves there. It was so cool. But I was most excited about King Henry VIII. Even though he was one bad dude, he is so fascinating. It was pretty funny though because we were in the gift shop later and there was this English lady talking about the grave and she was like "I was so happy to walk over Henry VIII's grave!" But us American freaks walked around is as though it was some sort of sacred ground or something.
After checking out the chapel, we went to the State Apartments. First we walked through this room that had Queen Mary's Dolls' House in it. This is an actual doll house, except its more of a doll Buckingham Palace rather than a house. It was a present and it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. First of all it has plumbing and toilet paper. Second the plates are made of real silver. And third the paintings are identical replicas by real artists. I wish my Barbie's had a house like that...After we went through the room with the Dolls' House we entered the State Apartments. It was amazing but I'm just going to go through some highlights. They had the bullet that killed Lord Admiral Nelson, who is one of Britain's great hero's. Pretty sweet. You know what. I just can't even really explain much more than that. I walked the rooms where the Queen lives. That's about all the description you need because basically that is freaking cool. One of my favorite places for sure.
Once we got back from the castle, we hurried and ate some dinner and ran to Her Majesty's Theater where we lucked out and got cheap tickets to Phantom of the Opera. IT WAS SO AMAZING!! Literally, all of my wildest dreams came true watching it. I loved it more than I can express. Except the chandelier dropping was kind of a disappointment. It wasn't spectacular at all and that was one of the parts I was most excited about. Very sad but the rest of it was amazing so I'll just pretend they had a spectacular chandelier dropping.
Basically it was one of the best days of my life. As is almost every other day I've been here in London...
Ok fine, I'll give you more than that. First of all, I got to sleep in, if you can really count 8 as sleeping in. We had plans to go to Windsor Castle at 11 and there wasn't a whole lot I could do before then, so I just let myself relax a little bit that morning, which was great. So then at 11ish, like half our group left for Windsor Castle. I didn't know a lot about Windsor, but I didn't have any other plans and the program was willing to reimburse us traveling fees and entrance fees so I figured why not go. One of the best decisions I'd say. We had to take the train there, but it wasn't a very long ride, about 30 min. When we walked out of the train station, the castle was literally right there in front of us. And it was giant. And beautiful. I fell in love immediately. First of all, this is a legit castle. Remember that post a while ago about castles here not really being castles? This was a real castle. In case you weren't already aware, the Queen still takes residence in Windsor. I believe it is actually one of her favorite places, which is easy to see why. Hopefully you'll be able to see how amazing it is from my little blog post. So the castle is giant sized. I think it's bigger than Buckingham. And it's spread out on a vast amount of land. So basically I was in awe the moment I saw it. To add to the greatness of this experience, it was a beautiful day outside and the whole town is super cute and the land is super pretty.
Ok, so I suppose I'll actually explain to you what the inside is like to. As I said earlier, the castle is spread out, it's not just one building. So we walked into the square type thing and the first building we visited was St. George's Chapel. I really liked this chapel but I think that was partially due to the face that the audio guide was pretty spectacular. It gave cool information and it also reminded us that the chapel is an actual place of worship, which I don't feel like many of the other chapels have emphasized. They've all just been more of tourist attractions, which is kind of sad. It was a really pretty chapel, but I also felt like it was a little less ornate than some of the others we've seen and I prefer the simplicity. Once we got to the choir area of the chapel, we were looking around and then BAM. There's King Henry VIII's grave. In my head I was screaming "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!" all excitedly. How freaking cool is that? And Jane Seymour, his 3rd wife was buried in the same place, along with one of Anne Boleyn's babies. It was amazing and I was so mad we couldn't take pictures. So we keep on walking along and there are a bunch of royal people graves there. It was so cool. But I was most excited about King Henry VIII. Even though he was one bad dude, he is so fascinating. It was pretty funny though because we were in the gift shop later and there was this English lady talking about the grave and she was like "I was so happy to walk over Henry VIII's grave!" But us American freaks walked around is as though it was some sort of sacred ground or something.
After checking out the chapel, we went to the State Apartments. First we walked through this room that had Queen Mary's Dolls' House in it. This is an actual doll house, except its more of a doll Buckingham Palace rather than a house. It was a present and it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. First of all it has plumbing and toilet paper. Second the plates are made of real silver. And third the paintings are identical replicas by real artists. I wish my Barbie's had a house like that...After we went through the room with the Dolls' House we entered the State Apartments. It was amazing but I'm just going to go through some highlights. They had the bullet that killed Lord Admiral Nelson, who is one of Britain's great hero's. Pretty sweet. You know what. I just can't even really explain much more than that. I walked the rooms where the Queen lives. That's about all the description you need because basically that is freaking cool. One of my favorite places for sure.
Once we got back from the castle, we hurried and ate some dinner and ran to Her Majesty's Theater where we lucked out and got cheap tickets to Phantom of the Opera. IT WAS SO AMAZING!! Literally, all of my wildest dreams came true watching it. I loved it more than I can express. Except the chandelier dropping was kind of a disappointment. It wasn't spectacular at all and that was one of the parts I was most excited about. Very sad but the rest of it was amazing so I'll just pretend they had a spectacular chandelier dropping.
Basically it was one of the best days of my life. As is almost every other day I've been here in London...
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