An update overdue...

Scotland!!
Last weekend we (Lacey, Melinda, Me) went up to Edinburgh, Scotland and I think that it might be the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Everything is old, made of stones, and looks like a palace or some other historically important building, even if it's just a restaurant or hostel, etc. (That's the old part; the new part of the city looks like London pretty much). The city is also right up against these mountains (small mountains, more like foothills, perhaps)...it's really beautiful. It's also REALLY cold. I was, however, very excited to be able to wear my Scotland jacket IN Scotland, as you can see:

We stayed on the Royal Mile, the street between Edinburgh castle and Holly Rood House, where everything is but also where everything that is is pretty touristy. But then again, there were bagpipes:
Being so high up on the cliff, there were lots of views of the castle from down below:

The castle was really neat. We took a guided tour (such a thick Scottish accent) and got to see the Crown Jewels (the crown, the scepter, and the sword) of Scotland, and also the stone that some king of Scotland sat on a very, very long time ago to be crowned, and it now sits under the coronation throne each time a new king or queen is coronated--including Queen Elizabeth II.

Saturday we took a bus trip around the highlands, saw Loch Ness and Castle Urquhart, saw the west and east coasts, saw a glimpse of the castle at which they filmed Monty Python, and, above all else, saw Hamish, the Heilan Coo:
I love him.
Otherwise, the highlands are extraordinarily beautiful--mountains ("bens"), lakes ("lochs"), valleys ("glens"), etc. I tried to take a few pictures, but unfortunately, a camera really can't capture it. Here, though, are some attempts; the first is with Melinda and Lacey, the girls I went to Scotland with:


On Sunday, we went to service at St. Giles Cathedral, which was actually fairly small as far as cathedrals go, but was extremely pretty. The choir sang and then walked around the room (the acoustics were INCREDIBLE). The stewards at the church were the only men in kilts we saw that were not just being touristy--that was sort of cool. They really do wear them. And it really is awesome. I didn't take pictures of the inside of the church--felt a bit weird about that, particularly because this is just a regular church for most people there. The stained glass was really incredible as well (better than that inside of Canterbury Cathedral).




(also, not of importance, but this is in fact a turtle pen:)
I bet Tippy would have gotten out of that one, too, right Mom and Dad? :)



I took a lot of pictures of Edinburgh trying to capture how beautiful it is and its buildings are, but again, fail. The next picture merely shows how light it is at 10:30 pm in Edinburgh, being so North. I think the sun rose before 4am, but I am not sure:
Sunday we walked around a while and failed at all attempts at inexpensive vegetarian haggis. we also got laughed at at a pub near the bus station for asking for it (I do understand there is "no such thing" as veggie haggis, but there's also not really such a thing as vegetarian chicken nuggets...so...), so we got fish and chips and waited for our overnight bus (blech) back to London. Where we sat behind three quite smelly European guys. In front of two quite loud British girls. Overnight. Great fun. Obviously we didn't sleep much, which made the next day a bit hard to get through, as you can see:



Otherwise, in London I have been seeing EVERYTHING. Museums, museums, walking around, museums. (They are all FREEEE!!) We went to the Museum of London, which had all these exhibits about London's history--prehistoric to present (though the recent portion is being rennovated, so anything post-Renaissance was closed).

We saw the remnants of a Roman wall:


Roman wall ruins can be found somewhat randomly around London. It's kind of strange; you look at a wall, and think to yourself, hm, that's out of place and a bit old-looking. And then the tour guide (who is always, inevitably with you, when you are on this program) tells you to "turn 'round" and see the Roman wall. Just sitting there, all 2000 years old and such.

We also saw ancient Roman coffins:

And (for you, Grandpa) an ancient Roman builder's yard:
With all the tools (which were quite impressive for 1st century AD, I think):



Other than seeing museums and falling asleep atop my lit book in Hyde park, I have been trying to explore London on foot now and then. Nicole and I took a little walk to the park in our neighborhood, which was quite beautiful. And there were peacocks!

And....
I thought that was amusing. And perhaps ineffective, since we saw a few dogs, um, not heeding the sign.

This past weekend we stayed in London. Our uni had a festival to celebrate everyone being done with their exams (except us, obviously, though I think a three-week course on Victorian literature doesn't call for quite the release that does a semester of physics, chemistry, aeronautics, string theory, etc....). They had DJs, cheap drinks, and fun abounding. We all danced in a very fun, 1990s kind of way, and it was bliss. We met three very nice, nerdy French guys (one less nerdy, but still nice). They were dancing near us and asked if we were English; we said no; they asked, so we wouldn't mind if they spoke bad English then? And of course we didn't, so we became friends with Sebastien, Battiste, and Alex. We also met a British guy who knew one of them. The night was much dancing and almost no drinks but with everyone just dancing around, looking ridiculous, not seeming to mind much. Quite a concept, this having space between people dancing. In Europe, of all places :)

Saturday was Nicole's birthday; we went to the Tate Modern; it was alright. I think there was less early modern stuff than I expected (some Picasso, but not THAT much, not much expressionist stuff, etc), though I did see that statue of a man running that is in my art book in Humanities Class.

Sunday to Camden Market, a place much recommended by Brits. It was fun (I didn't experience the full market; I don't think I walked long enough); I bargained for the first time on a few crappily made dresses (here the exchange rate worked for me, being a good excuse to say, no, 13 pounds is good for those two dresses; that's a lot of dollars, you know). I'd like to go back and see the rest of it, since I only saw the part with clothes, jewelry, bags, etc. And pashminas--oh, the pashminas. And how they abound in this city. Cheap; multitudes of colors; ubiquitous.
I also went to Regent's Park to read Mrs. Dalloway (and eat an overpriced egg mayonnaise sandwich--sucks to their ubiquitous veg option--and take a nap, and talk to a quite pleasant and quite talkative older Englishman).
Sunday evening was the football (the good kind) game between Germany and Spain. Sadly, Germany lost, but it was still fun to watch. Actually I was a little disappointed in how they played. But all the same. I appreciate the passion and politics that goes into the sport of very, very few that I can actually get into. Sunday evening we saw one of our French friends and talked to him a bit, and (hope of hopes!) made a local friend. It's not that we are so lonely, but that the program, for all its beneficial qualities, does have the tendency to isolate us very completely from any and all Britons. We take classes in their union building (where no one really is except downstairs or outside, never up in the building this time of year) with only ourselves, live in one building together, etc. Many have really taken to, um, secluding themselves in large, loud groups of Americans; this is (shockingly) not the best way to learn about the local culture. But anyway! A British guy asked what was up with all the Americans (perhaps for this I am grateful, then, that they were so loud and obvious?) around; there seemed to be a sudden influx at this time of year.

Today I went to the British Museum after class, and, I still kind of can't believe it myself...I saw what remains (in London, a portion of it is in Greece) of the pediment of the Parthenon. I saw a lot of the rest of the reliefs from the Parthenon, but its obvious triangular shape, Aphrodite leaning, Helios rising, Dionysus sitting...I couldn't believe I was actually looking at it. Incredible. I didn't have a ton of time there (and many of the Greek and Roman rooms were closed! :( I think Diskobolos is there, but was in a room that was closed! Ridiculous!), so I saw the Greek stuff and a lot of Egyptian stuff, which was really neat but I don't know anything about ancient Egypt, nor ancient Assyria, which I also saw. Their stuff was really, really well preserved, and much of it was older than the stuff from the Acropolis (thanks, probably, to the Parthenon being used for gun powder storage more than anything else).
I saw the Rosetta Stone, as well, which still (sorry) was not as incredible as the pediment, but probably because hieroglyphics mean a bit less to me than does the Parthenon. It is pretty cool though. I actually missed it the first time I walked around the Egypt portion, and then, oh, there it is: dark, not that large, three languages of the same text, this gray rock key.

As a notice, posting pictures takes just short of FOREVER and is keeping me from posting very often, so I might not be including many, but I will try to get some other way that either doesn't take as long, or post them on flickr or something, hopefully to make it as complicated as possible. Sound good?

no time!

no time for a real post...
but, fyi, I will be in Edinburgh tomorrow morning until Sunday, then Glasgow until Sunday afternoon, then back to London.

Hooray!!!

Happy Birthday, Liz

It's beginning to feel real that I'm here, but only a little bit, and only in short moments every now and then. We walked down the Thames today and saw a few sites, took a few pictures, etc. We walked by Parliament and Big Ben--we (flatmate Nicole, neighbor Lauren, me) walked down towards Westminster Abbey, passed it; I was looking around at all the buildings and all of the sudden, there looms Big Ben, and behind him, Parliament. It's so weird to be right next to it, to look at the elaborate spires slicing up into the sky, looming. I think one moment in which being here felt real was walking away from Trafalgar Square, I could see only the tops of Westminster Abbey, Parliament (the tallest part) and Big Ben. Westminster and Parliament both had flags flying and if you just ignore all the modernity of everything else, you feel very medieval, seeing tiny flags atop enormous, intricate towers imposing almost angrily. The spires look severe and serious, not to be messed with by intruders...or something. As many replicas of old architecture that we have in the states, it's hard to think to oneself, no, this is not built in Gothic Style; it was built when Gothic architecture took hold; no, this is not made to mimic an old church, nor has it merely aged badly; it IS that many hundreds of years old.

On a lighter note, there I am in front of Parliament, on the south bank of the Thames:
This picture misses the dark and strong of the spires.
Also on our river walk, we saw living statues:
Two of which, for particular reasons, I just couldn't pass up:
(I wonder why?) Apparently, they are quite nice to you if you put change in their dishes.

This is a random picture of the north bank from the south bank; I just thought the architecture was sort of neat. In London, buildings that are hundreds of years old are juxtaposed inches away from modern buildings, and I don't think anyone thinks of it much.

That same thing is sad about the next picture, even if the sight of its only visible portion did bring me quite near to tears:
There it is, Shakespeare's Globe (albeit, rebuilt twice since the original, but still), and it's all surrounded by new, ugly, brick buildings that almost completely cover it from sight.
Still though...it is The Globe. And we are seeing Lear there tomorrow afternoon!!!

All this was after our morning activity, which was wishing Queen Elizabeth II a happy birthday. We stood outside on the street behind people that were much taller than us, and watched as all the soldiers came out, some played in a marching band, others lined the streets to protect the queen. We were surrounded by a group of Germans, a French couple, two Chinese girls, and a couple that spoke a language I didn't recognize. The cool and/or strange part was the Germans waving British flags during the celebration:

First came Princess Camilla with Prince William and Prince Harry, I think:

Then my camera chose to focus on the absurdly tall man in front of us instead of Queen Elizabeth (in the blue):
Here she is again, slightly more in focus. Find the bright blue dot:
It's pretty far away, but still--it's the queen! (I believe the fanciest one on horseback is Prince Charles) Also in the next picture you can see her in front of the Palace if you look really hard, her carriage drove around a few circles in front of all her soldiers.

It was pretty cool, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime chance that I would be here during her birthday, and I honestly was not that far from the queen. So we're like best mates, now, I think. Really though it was pretty cool.

Last night we made friends with the Student Travel Agency guys on our campus when we ran into them at the pub. We were watching the football game (Netherlands v. France, I believe) and saw them right next to us, a day after they had come and talked about the STA information to the students. Their names are Tom and Dai (Welsh for David) and they were really nice. They sat down with us and answered many of our still-unanswered questions about Britain, and told us some places to go around Scotland and Wales. We'll have British friends yet. But not sitting in our flats on our computers, we won't.
Cheers!

Stopping in

Pizza's in the oven, so I'll make this quick. Yesterday we took a speedy but thorough bus tour with Trudy, our Blue Badge Guide, stopping at Westminster Abbey:
which is where all the kings & queens have been crowned since 1066 and many of them and other famous people are buried, including Queen Elizabeth I.
We were also quite lucky to come across a once-in-a-lifetime sighting of the Queen's carriages (not with the queen in it, but still) on their way to Buckingham Palace for Her Majesty's birthday tomorrow (which I believe we are attending).
They are apparently the only ones allowed to go through this arch in anything with wheels.

(Here is another photo of Westminster Abbey, including, I think, the school where the princes are educated...though I'm not for sure on that one.):


We also got to see London Bridge, Parliament & Big Ben (which, if you look at the picture above, would be over to the left if the picture kept going), and St. Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt in 1660's after the Fire of London (1666):

The statue out front is Queen Anne.
Also, this cafe is next to it (this is for you, Dad):

They named it after you! We didn't really get to stop long at any of these places, so I will be going back for sure.

Speaking of Pauls, one of the professors on the program is originally from Yorkshire, England, and I found out the other day that he now lives in Springfield, probably not far from where my house is. It was fun to talk about his impression as an outsider of Springfield. Very interesting indeed.

After the tour we went to the portrait gallery, and I got to see some original portraits of Queen Elizabeth I (including the one of her standing on the map with the clear sky and the stormy sky behind her...it's amazing...AND the one of her coronation in which she is so young and still has her own hair), Sir Philip Sydney, Robert Dudley (Leicester), supposedly the only portrait of Shakespeare that was done with him present, John Donne (what a hunk), Ben Jonson, etc, etc. It was amazing to see these, half because the men were important enough then to have a portrait done, part because these paintings are so old and you know...Shakespeare was THERE when the painter painted the thing, you know? Amazing. Plus, Donne's was really great; he looked very melancholy and it wasn't very straightforward like the rest. Very characteristic. Very hunky. :)

After that we took care of our Oyster cards (to use the tube station) and rode the tube (for the first time!) back to our borough. Quite grand.

Then in the evening, our RAs and our resident copper, Paul, took us out to several pubs in the borough, including the one (of three) at our University. It was probably the best; the students were very nice and easy to talk to, though several of us did talk for a while to a very nice young British soldier with a New Jersey girlfriend and a sort of (English) country accent at one of the pubs. I think he's part of the ceremonial portion of the military, so he told us all to look for him on his horse at the Queen's birthday.

Today we had orientation at Imperial (the university we're at) and had our first BLC (British Life & Culture) lecture; it was really interesting. He told us to pay attention to different accents, as they denote not only region but in some ways class; he sort of talked a bit about the differences between American and British humor (British humor sounds like the kind I like, anyway); and he gave us a nice, succinct history of Britain's beginning, some basic info about Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and the sort of relationship between them all.

Well, pizza's done and eaten, time to look for a cheap sweater--as it turns out, they don't really have summer over here....
Cheers!

I have arrived.

I am settling in, nearly delirious from jet lag, at the end of my first day in London. The flight was long, uncomfortable (terribly hard to sleep), but overall not too bad. The food was actually pretty good--a vegetarian dish with tofu and yogurt:












When we arrived we lugged our baggage through all the necessary steps of customs, etc, then on a bus, then off a bus, then up many flights of narrow stairs to our flat. It's small, but, as the Brits say, "cozy". I'll take some pictures and post them soon. After a few minutes of unloading, we were taken to fish and chips at a pub down the street.
(With vinegar!)

After that we shopped at Sainsbury's....oh, the grocery store. Oh, my...the grocery store. They have flavors of hummus you've never heard of, jams of every fruit imaginable, and milk that isn't refrigerated until opened. It's a fantastical place. And, everything is so cheap that it costs about the same as it would going to the grocery store in the states, figuring in the exchange rate...as in, groceries cost me 12 pounds, but in the states they'd have cost me somewhere around $25. so since $24=12pounds, I come out quite alright.

After traipsing dreamy-eyed through Sainsbury's, we put the food away and went on a walk about our borough, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, then to the Kensington Palace Gardens (where Princess Diana used to live) and walked around the park a bit.

Here are a few pictures:




Well, I haven't really slept in...a while...so, cheers for now.