[Day 40 continued]

Today was a really good day. I woke up early to do homework, 9:15. I finished my Lit essay and then I made breakfast for myself and for Kate. I made scrambled eggs and toast and even served her breakfast in bed. Lucky girl, I wouldn't do that for many people. I do have to say I make amazing scrambled eggs though. After breakfast I finished my Poetry essay. Can I just say that it's really annoying that they don't use MLA style to cite things...I basically have MLA memorized and they use some weird citing system that I'm not even sure what it is. I'm sure I cited everything wrong, but I tried.

Something else that's annoying is the way that we have to submit essays. We have to submit them online through the Queen Mary blackboard system, then we have to print out a receipt that shows what time we submitted the essay, then we have to print out a cover sheet off of the website, then we have to take all of those items to the English office, including the essay and turn them in. This is in addition to submitting it online. The really fun thing today was when I went to turn the essay in at 2 to the English office, no one was there. I put it in the assignment box, hopefully got it. I don't understand why no one was there...all 300 some poetry students had essays due today and no one was there to collect them.

After I turned in my essay I went to Sammie's flat to cook her some scrambled eggs (I'm a chef now) and toast. I stole some of Vijay's hot sauce and finally had my favorite scrambled eggs and hot sauce <3 Following that, Erin, Sammie, Kate and I went to Oxford St to find Halloween costumes.

We had this detailed plan of what we were going to buy and where, and none of it worked out. We went to Primark first, and if you remember, Primark is basically Black Friday everyday. It was a mad house in there. We searched for leotards so we could all be bunnies, but the only ones we found were gross and weird looking. Then we were going to be pumpkins, but that didn't work either. We spent a good hour in there looking and decided on a few different costumes. Tomorrow night I'm going to dress up in a Risky Business costume, Friday night I'm being a nerd, and Saturday night I'm being JWow from Jersey Shore. If you don't watch Jersey Shore, google JWow and Snookie and you'll get me and Kate, exactly. I have to say though, the nerd costume is the best. I tried it on when I got back to the flat and all of my flat mates were cracking up. I also bought Erin (the one visiting) some stuff too so she could dress up too. Her plane is landing at 10pm and then I'm picking her up at Mile End station at 11:45. I can't wait to see her!

After Primark we stopped at Claire's to get suspenders for our nerd costumes. We were all set to go home when I saw a sign for milkshakes at KFC. I love milkshakes and the ice cream here is soooo expensive so I had to get one. We all ended up getting milkshakes and popcorn chicken. The KFCs here aren't sketchy and gross like the ones in the States.

The tube ride home was interesting...the cover of the Evening Standard was about how the head of British airport security is angry at the US because he thinks the US has tighter standards when it comes to British flights. I kind of skimmed the article so I can't say for sure what the rest said, but for some reason we started talking about 9/11 on the tube. I'm not sure if that was the best idea, because a man sitting next to me was getting really angry. Or maybe he was just having a bad day. I'm not sure. We weren't even stating our opinions, only facts about how the plane came into Maine before going to Boston. Whatever, he got off like four stops later so it was fine.

I only have 4 pounds left on my oyster card, it's awful. At the end of September I had 80 pounds. The tube is so expensive. Anyway I have to work on my History paper before Erin comes. Oh and here is my beautiful 20 year old face at Stonehenge. My life will change on Saturday when I turn 21, right? Ha or not. I think I've changed 100% just from moving to London, 21 can't be that different.

M

[Day 40] Senate House Library

I should have written earlier but I didn't have time so I guess it's technically day 40. I can't believe that, it kind of blows my mind. My friend Sammie and I have recently been discussing how much has happened in the five and a half weeks we've been here. It's going so fast, I want it to slow down. I basically have every weekend from now until the end of the semester planned out. It's exciting because I'm doing so many awesome things, but I also wish I had more time and more weekends. I love it here.

Last night I went to bed fairly early, around 11:45. That ended up being a very smart idea because at 7:30 am I woke up to a piercing noise in my flat. Fire drill. We all had to go outside and wait outside in the freezing cold for everyone to get out of the building and then for the fire people to explain to us that we needed to get outside faster and they weren't going to take role this time, but next time they would. Also we had to be especially careful with fire and smoke because the London fire brigade is on strike or something. It seems like there are a lot of strikes in England/Europe. I read in the Evening Standard that the tube is supposed to go on strike again next Tuesday.

I was planning on getting up at 8 to do work, so I just stayed awake. I made myself a fantastic breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, it was so good. After that I worked on my Lit essay that's not due til November 30 but we can start handing in drafts on Thursday. At 10 I went to my Lit class and seminar at 11. The class is okay, it's kind of interesting because they tie in history and literature, but if it weren't for the seminar and my seminar leader I would probably despise the class all together.

After class Sammie and I went to the World Marche, an on campus cafe, for lunch. We reminisced about the fun things we've done so far and figured out what we're going to do for Halloween and Halloween costumes. At 2 I went to Poetry, which actually turned out to be a meaningful lecture. After class Matt and I tried to figure out our essays that are due tomorrow and then we went to seminar at 4.

I had dinner after seminar, it was spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread. Sammie and I both have history papers to write and since QM has a very limited library, we went into central to the Senate House Library to find books. We later found, after walking around in the rain for twenty minutes, that Senate House is basically on UCL's campus in Bloomsbury. Lucky. The library was actually really confusing and stuffy though. It had a big foyer and reception area, I guess that wasn't the library part though, and the actual library started on the fourth floor. We had to register and get ID cards, which we got for free since QM is part of the University of London. First we walked to the 7th floor to find books about the Renaissance for Sammie. After that it was a wild goose chase to figure out where the US history books were. The guy at the reception told us we had to walk to the other half of the library, the north block, and to the 7th floor. So we trekked back through the main foyer and this hallway that connected the north and south block, and asked someone how to get to the 7th floor. The guy told us that the history section was moved to the 7th floor in the south block and we had to go back. We told him we were just there, but we walked back anyway and asked the guy in the south block reception again. He was confused why we couldn't find the 3rd floor north block...Then we realized that he was confused and told us the 7th when he meant 3rd. So again we walked back to the south block and up to the third floor.

They really hide their US history in that library, but once we got there that was what I was expecting the library to be like. The shelves were probably 15 feet high and there were a ton of them. I was really excited because I had to walk up a ladder in order to reach my Thomas Jefferson books. I picked out four of them, we checked out, and took the tube back.

When we got back I meant to do work but I ended up playing spit for almost two hours in her flat with Vijay and Talhah. Caitlin will be proud to know that I dominated them for the most part. I'll be getting up bright and early tomorrow to finish and hand in my Poetry essay and work on my Lit essay.

I found out what happened to the person that was under the train yesterday. It was on the cover of the Evening Standard, which is a free newspaper that comes out everyday around 4 or 5. People are always standing outside of the tube stations handing them out. I haven't been able to tell its bias yet, but it has the basic news which is all I want. Apparently yesterday during rush hour, there were two women standing near the edge of the platform playing around and pushing each other. The one woman then fell onto the tracks, dragging some other person's stuff wit him, and got hit by the train. This all happened on the Piccadilly Line. Trains were stopped for 1.5-2 hours after that happened and some people even had to be led to emergency exits from the train because they needed to get off (they gave the example of a woman with diabetes). I guess the body was on the track for a good 30 minutes or so and the whole platform was a crime scene. The police are investigating the other woman that the person was with and possibly charging her with murder. Strange twist though, the woman that fell onto the tracks was actually a man dressed as a woman...

I also read that the District Line, which is what I usually take from Mile End to anywhere, transports about 600,000 people a day. That's a large number of people to inconvenience if they go on strike again on Tuesday.

M

[Day 38] Food

So apparently today someone was underneath the train on the Piccadilly Line. This is the second time since I've been here that I've heard that. I'm guessing that means that someone fell/was on the train tracks, but I don't actually know. It's kind of frightening. I'm going to google it tomorrow and see if there are any articles written about it.

I had history today and I gave a presentation in my history seminar. There is a girl that I sit next to in class sometimes from Norway and she's studying to be a teacher. I think she already graduated from college in Norway and this is like her fifth year or something so she can get her teaching degree. She's taking four history classes, including Building the American Nation. Today she asked me if i already knew all of the stuff that we were learning and I told her I did, but not really in this specific detail that we're learning it. She said that she knows the major, basic things but that this class, and her other history classes, are a lot of new information for her. It probably sucks for her too because I feel like we go pretty quickly in this class and if I didn't have a background in it I might be struggling a little bit.

My presentation was fine, it was just about Thomas Jefferson and Notes on Virginia. I have a paper due next Wednesday for that class. I'm going to the Senate House Library tomorrow to get some books for it because QM has kind of a small library.

Today for lunch I made chicken tikka samosas and they were soo good. I actually didn't make them, just cooked them in the oven. They were delicious. For dinner I had vegetable curry and chips (fries) with chocolate cake. I swear all I eat here is chicken, potatoes and chocolate. It's a pretty good mix, except it'll be a miracle if I don't turn into a potato before I leave this country.

I went to South Kensington for my Villanova class today. It was a really informative class tonight, but boring. It was a lot about the British government and economics and I'm just really not interested in that stuff, which is why I switched out of poli sci I guess. I also talked to someone about my volunteer hours and I think they understand that we're really pressed for time to get these 30 hours in, so that's good.

It's getting really cold out. It's partly cloudy most days, so at least the sun is out, but I think it was only 44 degrees or so today. It's also pretty windy, which doesn't help. I wore my pretty pink, gold and green scarf that I bought in Camden Town. On Wednesday I'm going to Oxford St with my friends to look for cheap Halloween costumes. Kate and I are definitely being Snookie and J Wow from Jersey Shore one night, but we also might be nerds or bunnies another night. Erin is getting here Wednesday night so I'm getting her a Halloween costume too. I have to plan something for my birthday too :)

M

[Day 37] Birthday Week!

Sunday, my day to relax and not doing anything...besides homework of course. I have a lot of homework to do, but I'm taking a break right now. I need to catch up with what I've been doing the past couple of days.

Thursday afternoon I went to Salusbury World, the place I'm volunteering at this semester. It wasn't as far away as I'd expected and the neighborhood was nice than I was expecting. Salusbury World is an after school program for children who come from refugee families. All of the preparation talks and explanations that we've had of the program made it seem like these children were basically going to be aliens. I'm not sure what everyone else thinks, but kids are kids. Basically every job I've had in my life has been working with kids: teaching skiing, tutoring, teaching swim lessons, babysitting. Some are more well behaved than others, but I don't see what was so crazy about these ones. Actually, these children reminded me a lot of the kids that I tutor in NE Philly. Their parents don't necessarily speak English and they don't live in the best neighborhoods. The kids in Philly are usually Hispanic, black or Asian, and the kids in Salusbury World are black or Middle Eastern. It's pretty cool. When the program director introduced me and the other volunteer, a guy from Nova, the kids were so excited to hear that we were from America. Immediately they asked us a bunch of questions, like if we've ever been to Disney Land or if we're from California.

I played football (soccer) with this one 10 year old boy for like 45 minutes. He told me his name and I had no idea what he said, I guess I gave him a weird look because he said, "Most people call me Zack." I had fun playing with him. I also learned that my soccer abilities are that of a 10 year old boy, maybe a little better. That's kind of sad, but at least he didn't beat me.

I also spent sometime teaching two kids how to play PIG in basketball. It was really fun playing sports with them, especially the girl because she really had no idea how to shoot the ball and I kind of taught her. After that she and I did jump rope (skipping as she called it) for a while. Unfortunately, volunteering with the kids isn't going to get me the 30 hours that I need, so I think I'm going to be doing some other projects for Salusbury World also. I might do some paperwork and I suggested to them that I can decorate and/or paint things if they need that, so hopefully I can do that.

Thursday night I went to the New Globe for a little bit with Peter, Kate, Sammie, Talhah and Anna. It was college night, so it was unbelievably crowded and hot. We left after an hour or so and came back to my flat. Kate, Anna, Erin and I spent like two hours taking pictures on Kate's photobooth on her Mac.

Friday was partly a homework day, but mostly a shopping day. We went back to Camden, which was absolutely amazing. Last time we were in Camden we thought we'd seen everything, but boy were we wrong.

Kate, Erin and I walked to Camden High Street and found the Camden Lock Markets. I can't even begin to describe how many stands were in that market. Seriously you walked into it from street level, got to the middle and there were a million different directions and levels you could go to. Some were inside, some were outside, some were upstairs, some were downstairs, some were in a horse stable, some were behind the horse stable...they  never ended. They had the cutest things, tons of clothes and jewelery, and lots of food. I got four chicken samosas and they were delicious! I bought a beaded necklace, soap, a scarf, two hats and some other things. Before we left I got the most amazing churro that I've ever had in my life. It was from a Brazilian stand and she made it on the spot and put caramel and chocolate in it, with cinnamon sugar on top of course. I would go back to Camden just for that churro it was so good. We spent a good 4 hours just walking around and looking at everything. Eventually Anna, Sammie, Sammie's friend Swati, Vijay and Talhah joined us as well. The place was insane, there was so much stuff there.

Friday night I went to a night club called Madame Jojo's in SoHo. It was Sammie's friend's 21st birthday and she'd invited Sammie to this club, but Sammie just brought all of us with her. So Sammie, Swati, Anna, Kate, Erin, Vijay, Talhah, Kirit and I all went. Everyone that we talked to there was so amused and excited that we (well me, Kate, Erin and Sammie) were American. The bouncer was excited that I was from Pennsylvania, I don't know why. (That also happened when I got my nose pierced. I had to show them my license for the paperwork and the girl was thrilled that I'm from Pa.) A lot of the people inside were foreigners, I met people from Amsterdam, Dublin and other European countries and they were also excited that we were American. It was weird because that was basically the first time anyone's been excited we're American, aside from the children as Salusbury World.


Yesterday I did some homework before I decided to go to Chipotle with Sammie, Swati, Erin and Kate. The Chipotle was around Trafalgar Square and it was so busy! Erin said she thought it was the only one in the UK. The only bad thing about it was that it was so expensive. I got my normal steak salad with tons of random stuff and hot sauce on it and it was almost seven pounds. It was definitely worth it though. Erin, Kate an d I wandered around Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus for a while and eventually made our way to Hyde Park. It was getting dark, but we wanted to see the Peter Pan statue. Of course it started raining as soon as we got to Hyde Park. And of course we were on the opposite side of the park from the statue. Since we were already there we walked to the statue anyway. It was creepy...it was raining and the sky was orange, the water was calm but there were crazy quacking ducks everywhere. It was really secluded too. I had to share an umbrella because I'm trying to make it the whole time here without an umbrella, so I ended up getting mostly drenched anyway. I wish we would've been there during the day, I'm sure it's beautiful.

We finally got to the statue about a half hour later and it was kind of disappointing in my opinion. It wasn't as big as I'd hoped, only like 10 feet tall. I also really couldn't see it, it was so dark, so maybe I should just wait to form an opinion until I go back.

We walked to the tube in the rain and came back to campus. After dinner we hung out and looked up places to go for my birthday. I haven't decided on one yet, but I still have a few days. Also I'm celebrating my birthday the entire week so I'm sure we'll do lots of fun things.

I have to register for classes Wednesday night. It's a lot easier to pick classes when you can talk to other people to see what they took. So far I think I'm going to take Junior English Research Seminar, Contemporary British Novel, Logic and Critical Thinking, and Advanced Spanish Grammar. I have to find one more class, probably either Ethics or English. My registration time is 10pm est, which means 3am for me. Greatttt. Anyway I have to go write a Poetry paper!

M

[Day 34 continued]

I love this picture, it's so beautiful. I took it in Wales at Tintern Abbey.

Today I had one class, Representing London in the 18th Century. That class is really boring. Maybe it'll get more interesting after we do our walking assignment in two weeks, where we have to pick one of three routes to do a walking tour of and write about it.

Something I meant to write about last night but forgot was about the tax cuts that were announced yesterday. For my Villanova class on Monday we each had to bring in an article from the various tabloids and newspapers in London and my article was from the Daily Mirror about the tax cuts. One of the things that the Coalition's doing is changing the way that students have to pay for university. I guess that university is largely paid for by tax payer money, so students usually pay about 3,000 pounds a year for university. The plan is to eliminate that and have students pay for their own education. I think that would raise it to about 8-10,000 pounds. There are protests and stuff going on all over the place. Yesterday there was a mini protest on campus, not a lot of people but there were people with megaphones yelling about it and a lot of kids handing out flyers. Also there was an organized protest in Westminster across the street from Parliament last night around 5, but obviously I wasn't there.

Just thought that was interesting and wanted to mention it. I'm going to my volunteering meeting in a half hour so I'll get to see a different part of the city. I'm not sure what town it's in but I know it's in northwest London and I'm in east London, so that'll be cool. It's just kind of far away. Also Erin is coming to visit in less than a week! I'm excited :)

M

[Day 34] Agua

It's nighttime so I'm just going to write this as if it were still Wednesday. I didn't have class today but I had a lot of work to do. Kate made scrambled eggs for the two of us and I made us toast. I went to the library in the morning to proof read and submit my Poetry essay that was due at 4:30. I was trying to figure out how to submit it and I got really dizzy and sick and couldn't feel my fingers...I like almost fainted, seriously. I've never felt like that before. I was so confused what to do because I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to walk back to my room. Anyway I signed off the computer and walked back to my room. It was absolutely freezing outside today, so that was really annoying.

When I got back I like collapsed onto my bed and napped for an hour and a half. Later I discovered that I was probably dehydrated or something. I don't drink enough water here I already knew that, but I didn't think that would happen. I feel like at home I'm always drinking water but here it's just so inconvenient to find water. After I woke up and felt better I went back to the library and submitted my essay. It was really hard to figure out how to do that. We have to submit a copy online and then have to fill out this weird cover sheet and submit it to the English office. Our name can't be anywhere on the paper, which is good I guess.

After that I went to the coffee shop down the street, Roaster's, to try to do homework. I got a yummy white chocolate mocha but the music in the place was really really loud so me, Anna, Kate and Sammie left to go to the coffee shop on campus, The Ground. I got all of my history outline done there. I'm writing my essay on the Jeffersonian Revolution of 1800. I love Thomas Jefferson, he's one of my favorite presidents. Therefore I love writing this essay.


Around 6 Kate and I went to Budgens to buy some chicken and then Sammie, Kate and I made dinner! We cooked chicken tikka masala. I peeled and cut the potatoes and Kate boiled them. I also cut my finger :( Kate and Sammie made rice and cooked the chicken. We kind of burned the naan but it still ended up being ok. Erin came over and ate with us too. It was such a good dinner. I'm so proud of us for making dinner all by ourselves. I'm trying to learn to cook so that I can make dinner for myself in the spring and next summer. Depending on where I live in the summer I might have to cook for myself all the time!

We sat around watching youtube videos for a while and we found this one, it's Will Smith's 9 year old daughter...crazy.



Anyway I have to go to bed. One more interesting thing, there are always ambulances and police cars buzzing around the East End. They drive soooo fast, its insane, and always in the wrong lane. I can't even describe how fast they drive and how piercing their sirens are. There must be at least four a day too. I don't know where there going or if it's just the East End that's like this, but there are so many speeding emergency vehicles all the time.

M

[Day 32] Stressed for no reason

Yesterday was overall pretty boring, so that's why I didn't write anything. I had class, Building the American Nation, where we just talked about the Revolution and if it was the elite's war or a war for the people. I had seminar after that, I really like my seminar leader. He's American and he seems super intelligent. I feel like seminar leaders can make or break the class...I like three of my seminar leaders but I don't like one of them, and that's my least favorite class. After history I ate dinner (they had Indian food in the Curve!) and took the tube to South Kensington for my Villanova class.

I'm glad I'm taking that class because I'm learning a lot about current events in England and about English history. I'm not sure how I feel about the professor, he doesn't seem to like America much, but no one does I guess. He was trying to get us to debate the death penalty and abortion and stuff yesterday, but I just wasn't in the mood. We talked about the death penalty for a while and I agreed with a boy in the class,  few of the girls disagreed and they talked about it for like 15 minutes. I just wasn't into arguing yesterday though. I feel like my friends at QM debate things a lot. We're from all different places and pretty opinionated so sometimes when we're just hanging out we'll start talking about something and it turns into a big ordeal. I'm kind of tired of that. I mean it's good because we're having intelligent conversations, but sometimes in those situations people don't actually listen to each other, they just fight. That gets annoying.
After class I worked on my essay for history. I'm writing about the Jeffersonian Revolution of 1800. I love Thomas Jefferson, he's my favorite President. I think he had some pretty good ideas.

This morning I woke up late again. I don't know what my problem is but I need to set two alarms I guess. Luckily I wasn't late for class though. I wanted to wake up at 8:50 and got up at 9:20 so I still had plenty of time before class. I was a little worried though because I thought my Poetry essay was due today and I wanted to proofread it this morning. I went to Literature in Time at 10 and then the seminar right after. The class was so boring, the professor talked about King Arthur and if he was real or not...boring. I love that seminar too though. The seminar leader is pretty cool and she's funny. I have an essay due for that class next week.

At 12 I went to lunch at Hayfield with Sammie. She and I talked about Indian culture (she's Indian) and how she's going to India after London for her uncle's wedding. I got a chicken tikka roll again (so good) and then went to the library to print out my Poetry essay. I got Starbucks because I was tired and went to class. When I got to class my friend Matt and I realized that they essay isn't due until tomorrow, which is fantastic. The lecture was confusing, but I understood the poems for this week so I actually knew what I was talking about in the seminar. The seminar leader, who is like very artsy and so obviously into poetry (you can tell by looking at him), asked me if I was an engineer in the beginning of class. I was a little insulted/shocked and said no. So I was determined to talk a lot in class so he wouldn't think that. After class I asked him why he asked and he just said that most of the Americans that take Poetry are engineers. (Exhibit A, Matt's an engineer.) I'm assuming that's because they think it's a joke. It's definitely not a joke, it's hard. 

Anyway, that was an extremely long day, probably because I was stressed out about my Poetry essay. Or maybe because I haven't been in school long and I haven't had any actual assignments til this week. This was the first essay I've written in months. I'm glad it's over. I can just go back to reading about TJ.

Oh and I submitted an Opinion article to the school magazine. I'm not sure how they're going to take it. It has a very American point of view...I'll see if it gets published. If it does I'll add it to the blog. Make sure you look at the right hand column of this blog, underneath my link to my pictures I'm posting all of the articles that I've had published while I'm here. So far there's only one, but it's a start!


Today it rained for the first time in almost a week. It only rained a little though, and it was really awkward because it was really sunny out with only like two clouds. It doesn't rain as much as I thought it would here. I've been here more than a month and I've gotten along just fine without an umbrella. I've only worn my rain boots a few times. It's colder here than I thought it would be though.

Okay random pictures....

This is a picture of The Camden Market in Camden Town (where I got my nose pierced on Friday). This market had a lot of clothes and jewelery and stuff that you could bargain for. It was where I had my first solo bargaining experience. Sadly the guy wouldn't sell me the jacket for 15 pounds, but that's ok it wasn't that great anyway. 

This is a view of the beautiful courtyard at Salisbury Cathedral, where the Magna Carta is...

And that's all for today.

M

[Day 30] One Month

In a few hours I'll have officially been in London for one month!

Today has been a pretty low key day. I slept in til 11:30 and when I woke up I ate breakfast with Kate. Kate made us scrambled eggs and toast, it was very sweet of her. I wrote my Poetry paper, although I still have to proofread it, and my article for The Valley Mirror. I also read some stuff for my Lit class and did the homework for my Nova class. I guess I could have done more for today, but oh well.

After all of the homework was over I went to Budgens and bought milk, orange juice, eggs, chocolate and potatoes. I made myself dinner! I had salami and made a baked potato all by myself. It was a big step for me, everyone that knows me will agree.

me and Kate at the New Globe!


Last night after Stonehenge we were planning on laying low, but of course that didn't happen. I went to SoHo with Sammie, Kate, Anna, Vijay, Matt and Talhah. It was Vijay's idea but we didn't really have a plan of where to go so we wandered around for a while until we found a club to get into. That was a little difficult because it was like 11:30 when we got there and pubs usually close by then and most of the clubs had long lines to get into.


We ended up at this club (I think it was called Secrets) and it was mad expensive inside, even though it was only five pounds to get in. They had good music and the dance floor was pretty sick. Within ten minutes of dancing we realized that it was a gay club. It was pretty crazy, guys were dancing on the poles and they were really good. I had a good time until we left and it was freezing outside. We had to walk quite a bit to get a bus back to Mile End. We ended up making food in our flat when we got back and staying up way too late.


This week is going to be homework week for me, I barely have any plans. It's probably best to get a start on all of my work because Erin is coming to visit next week. Oh also some exciting news is I'm pretty sure I'm all set on where I'm going to live senior year, finally. That was so stressful as soon as Meaghan talks to the landlord and signs the lease we should be golden.


M

[Day 29] Stonehenge & Camden Town!

It's only been two days since I last wrote, but so much has happened!

Today I went to to Avebury, Stonehenge and Salisbury for a school trip. The bus came at 8:15am and took about an hour and a half to get to Avebury. Avebury wasn't that special...it was a henge with a line of giant rocks dating from about 4500B C spread from Avebury to Stonehenge, each about 10 meters apart and also stone circles. They weren't all there because throughout history people have taken them down for various reasons; some because the Church claimed it was devil worship, some to build other things, some because they were in the way, etc. In any case, we had to walk through a big field that had a lot of sheep in it (I hate sheep) so I wasn't that happy. The part that really annoyed me is that no one knows how or why people built the henge and put up the rocks. Archaeologists call it "ceremonial and ritualistic," meaning that they have absolutely no explanation for it. There are theories, but none of them are concrete enough to divulge into.

Additionally, we learned that Stonehenge isn't a henge. A henge is circular earthwork that has a ditch in the middle and a mound of ground on the outside. Avebury was a henge, but Stonehenge is a proto henge, there is a ditch on the outside and a mound of ground on the inside.


After that we drove to Stonehenge, which is about 45 minutes away. Some of the stones from Stonehenge came from Avebury, once again they don't know how that happened. The rest of the stones came from Wales. Also a mystery how that happened. While we were driving we saw this huge mound of ground, Silbury Hill. It's the largest man made hill in Europe, made around 2400 BC. I think the guide said it's about 100 feet high and is basically a 60 degree angle slope. No one knows why or how it was built. In the 90s they tried cutting into it to see if there was anything valuable inside or if it was a burial mound, but they didn't find anything. They ended up just screwing the mound up and had to put thousands of pounds into fixing it about 10 years later so that it didn't collapse.

We got to Stonehenge around 12:45 and we had an hour and a half to look around. Stonehenge was much smaller than I thought it would be, the circle part of it I guess. The rocks were huge, at least 15 feet high and I think they said weighed 7-12 tons. It was so cool to be there and see it for real. It started to be built around 3000 BC, but once again no one knows how or why. They had a lot of paintings on the walls in the visitor center depicting people building Stonehenge, but all of the men were wearing loincloths. I have no idea how anyone would have survived there wearing just a loincloth because I was absolutely freezing. It was a beautiful sunny day but Stonehenge is basically in an open field and the wind was biting cold. Maybe the temperature was extremely different thousands of years ago, but I wouldn't have even been able to take my coat off today. Also what about their feet!? Weren't they freezing!?


Anyway we walked around Stonehenge in a complete circle, you're not allowed to touch anything. Of course I took tons of pictures, once I upload them I'll share them. There is also a stone on the outside, not part of the circle, that has some fancy name but if you stand there for the Summer or Winter Equinox the sun rises perfectly over Stonehenge...even though I know nothing about Stonehenge really, the way it's built and shaped it has to be some way of predicting the weather or the seasons or the harvest or something. Either that or it's some religious/spiritual worshiping ground. I've also heard that it was used for human sacrifice. 

Our next stop was Salisbury. It was established as an official city in 1220, but both the Romans and the Saxons lived there at one time. It definitely looked like an ancient city, the roads were tiny and the buildings were small. We didn't have much time there, only an hour and a half, so we went to the Salisbury Cathedral. Guess what I saw at the Salisbury Cathedral?? The Magna Carta! There are four original Magna Cartas in the world and I saw one of them today :) This one is supposedly the most well preserved. They had it under a glass case and you obviously couldn't take pictures. It was only one page long and the writing was so tiny! It was in this fancy calligraphy so I couldn't make out any of the words, though it was written in Latin. It looked remarkably well preserved for being written in 1215, the page was only a little brownish-yellow and the script was jet black. It was so neat that I got to see that.


After that we wandered around the Cathedral some more and took some pictures, then went to look for somewhere to eat. We stopped at a cafe and they ran out of Italian paninis so I didn't get anything to eat, I just shared Kate's fries. Then we got back on the bus and it took us three and a half hours to get back because of traffic, even though it should've only taken two.

Yesterday was just as exciting as today! Around 1, Kate, Sammie, Erin and I went to Camden Town. Camden is different than any place in London I've been to yet. It has a big outdoor market with tons of clothes, purses, food, scarves and basically everything else that you want to buy. I bargained all by myself for the first time. I got a shirt that and I almost bought a coat but I wasn't paying 20 pounds for it, so I didn't get it. I don't know how to describe the area though. It wasn't trashy or low class, but it definitely wasn't posh and upscale like Oxford St was. There was a wide variety of people there too.


I had quite an exciting experience because I got my nose pierced! There were a lot of tattoo parlors everywhere so Kate and I explored a few of them before we picked one called 'Chrome.' I've wanted to get my nose pierced since senior year of high school but was always afraid to. Earlier in the semester I told my friends here that I wanted to do it and Kate said she would do it with me because she's had it done before and liked it but knocked it out by accident.

We filled out our forms and picked out our jewelery (a titanium stud that has a clear crystal in it) and paid 20 pounds each. It was so cheap! We had to go one at a time, Kate went first because I was nervous. I didn't think I would be that nervous but I was kind of freaking out before. Once I did it it wasn't that bad. The girl who did it was super nice and picked out the perfect spot on my nose. I was expecting it to be a gun for some reason, but she pierced it with the actual nose stud. It felt like it took forever compared to when I got my ears pierced and it hurt for a longer time than my ears did. My eyes watered really bad and it did hurt, but not enough for me to actually cry. I'm so happy though it looks sick. It hurt for a while after but now it's fine. We bought some salt to put on it to clean it.

We did some shopping after that and then came back to Mile End. We went to the Greedy Cow for dinner and I got a delicious banana milkshake. Afterwards I hung out with some people outside by the canal. Yesterday was really fun :)

Thursday night after dinner we had some people over to our flat for a flat party. Our flat is the perfect size because it's pretty big and our kitchen is perfect for everyone to hang out in. After that a couple of us walked toward Whitechapel to get some chicken and chips.


That's about it, I think I might watch a movie tonight but we'll see.

M

[Day 27] Artsy

Last night after my fantastic dinner, I skyped with some people and then worked on my history essay. I also listened to the Penguins game on the radio for a little while before I fell asleep around 12:30.  This morning I guess I slept through my alarm because I woke up late for class. Luckily I still made it, it only took me eight minutes to get to class from the time I woke up. In class we talked about the culture of coffee shops (they're a pretty big deal here) and our professor explained to us about coffee shop and pub culture in the 18th century. Basically all everyone drank in the 18th century was either coffee or beer because neither milk or water was sanitary.

After class I got lunch with Sammie (I got pizza and chocolate cake) and then I came back to my room to do my laundry. I hate doing laundry. Right now I'm just waiting for my meeting at 4 with the school magazine. I'm trying to get an Opinion column on the website... :)

I've been uploading some pictures to my shutterfly site, check it out http://www.farleyseyes.shutterfly.com

I feel so artsy today.

M

[Day 26] Breakfast for Dinner

Last night I went out with Kate, Anna and Kate's friend that's visiting for the week, Ellie. We ended up at Sammie's flat because we were originally going to go to a Tube-themed party in a flat upstairs from Sammie, but we walked in and everyone was out of control and people were smoking in the kitchen so we left. The housing people are really strict here, if you smoke inside you get kicked out of housing. So we had a pretty chill night hanging out there with Sammie and her flatmates.

Today I went grocery shopping with Sammie and Anna. Instead of going to Sainsbury's (really far away) or Budgens (kind of expensive), we walked east on Mile End Rd opposite of the way we usually go. We went to Tesco Express and I bought cereal, milk, butter, bagels, cream cheese, chicken, salami, orange juice and quesadillas. I came back to my room to do some homework for a while and then I went for a run along the canal.

It was pretty cold out today actually, I had to wear a long sleeve shirt when I ran. I'm not sure how far I ran but it was farther than the other day. There were also so many bikes along the canal. Everyone here rides bikes, it's crazy. After my run I ate dinner with Sammie and Laura (Sammie's flatmate). It was some kind of British chicken pie or whatever but it was good.

I came back to my room and Ellie and Kate had decided to make breakfast for dinner. Of course I had to join, I love breakfast. Ellie basically made everything for us so I just helped do the dishes after. She made me scrambled eggs, home fries and toast. It was so yummy! I should eat two dinners more often.


I was supposed to have an interview today with my volunteering program to schedule when I'm going to volunteer, but they canceled it again. I think I'm going to try to get them to lower the required amount of hours but we'll see.

Today my mom showed me my article that I wrote for my local paper, The Valley Mirror. There was a big picture of me in front of Big Ben and a two and a half column article. It was cool to see my work in a different paper besides the usual Villanovan.

I was reading The London Student, which is the University of London's newspaper, and there was an article called "Student start late as visas are delayed." The author, Yihan Goh, basically explained that bigger countries like the US and China are sending countless Tier 4 visa applications and there are like too many for the British Consulate to deal with so a lot of students got to university late and some people even got denied. Good thing I got mine on time, that's insane.


I have an essay outline and a poetry response due next week so I think I'm going to go work on that.

M

[Day 25] Busy

Today has been such a long day, I don't know why. Yesterday I had my first Villanova service-learning class. The District line has serious issues because it messed me up again and I ended up being a half hour late. I had to be in South Kensington at 6:30 and didn't get there til 7:05 because my train stopped at White Chapel and I had to get off and figure out another way to get there.

The class was alright. I'm not sure how I feel about the professor...he seemed to be similar to the other British people I've met in that you can tell the States aren't his favorite place in the world. It was interesting though because he explained to us about how Parliament works (the House of Commons, members of Parliament, political parties and Prime Minister) and talked to us about the political views of different newspapers and tabloids in London. I think I'll get a good sense of England and its political issues from this class. For next week we each have to find an article in one of the major newspapers that we strongly agree with, as well as writing down our feelings about different subjects like immigration and health care.

It got quite cold last night, I was hot during the day and freezing when I walked back to Queen Mary from the Mile End tube stop. You know how everyone says London is expensive? London isn't that terribly expensive, transportation is expensive. I've spent so much money on the tube. I'm not even joking it's absolutely insane. Peak hours are 7-9:30 am and 4-7pm and the tube costs like 2.10 pounds during those times. During off peak hours it costs one pound eighty. I guess that doesn't sound that bad, but it really is because usually you have to transfer and everything...also I live in zone 2 and all of the touristy things and central London are in zone 1, so that's more expensive. The good thing is is that I got a student discount card because of my Villanova service, which gives me 30% off of travel. None of my friends have the card because you have to be in England for at least six months to get the student card. The bad thing is living in Mile End I have to travel a lot farther and more often than the other kids from Villanova (mainly because they live a lot closer to everything, they're all in zone 1) so it's still expensive.

The Curve, where I have my dinner meal plan, didn't have anything appetizing for dinner last night so all I ate was two pieces of toast, a banana and yogurt. After dinner/class I tried to figure out my plans to go to Italy and then I went to Draper's to hang out with Anna and Kate. I also said bye to Erin's friend, Tara, that was visiting for the weekend and left to go home today.

I had two classes today, Literatures in Time and Poetry. Today was our last class on Beowulf for Lit and I'm happy about that. Beowulf isn't that bad, but I've read it before and it's kind of boring in my opinion. They did show us some clips of the movie though and now I want to see it. I really like the seminar for that class but it's also kind of weird because sometimes I feel like I'm in a freshman English class. I think that's because Lit is a level 4 class, which is first year for the UK, so comparable to freshman in the US. That's the only class I feel like that for though, and it counts toward my English major so I'm not really complaining.

Poetry is an interesting class. I'm a little lost in the lecture, I'm not sure how you can effectively lecture about poetry. I'm happy I'm taking the class though because the seminar leader is really interesting and he tells us random stuff that's really interesting. For example we're writing an essay for next week on the poem "The Idea of Order at Key West" by Wallace Stevens, which by the way is really confusing to me right now, and our seminar leader told us that one time Wallace Stevens punched Ernest Hemingway in the face and Stevens broke his hand. There are some authors you just don't mess with, Hemingway is one of them.

In any case, I'm glad I'm in that class because I have trouble analyzing poems and such and if I want to write poetry I should be able to understand it. Hopefully this class helps me do that.

I had a fantastic lunch today. Sammie and I walked down the street to the Indian place that we ate dinner at the other night. They had three pound lunches! I got a chicken tikka roll with chips and it was so good. I ordered it extra spicy so that made it even better. I don't know what I've been eating my whole life, but in my book Indian food is almost as good as Italian food. I'm so happy that my friends here made me eat it last week. Did I mention it was only three pounds? Also that they gave us complimentary drinks? Because it 
was awesome and so good.

Today I booked my flights to Rome and Venice! I'm going during reading week, November 9 :) We're going to Rome for two and a half days and to Venice for a day. It wasn't too too expensive, about $160. I guess that's expensive but I mean come on, I'm going to Italy...how awesome is that.




Okay these are random things that I forgot to mention in other posts so they don't make sense chronologically or anything, sorry if you're confused reading this but I just want to remember what I did last week.


Sunday when I got back from Wales all of my friends and I decided to go to Fabric. Fabric is a pretty famous club in London, actually off the Farringdon tube stop so pretty close. The area was really pretty, I would totally go back there again. Fabric was alright, maybe because it was a Sunday that it wasn't that great. It was pretty crowded, the dance floor was full. We got there around 11:30 and stayed til about 2am. I didn't like the music at all though, I think it's a European thing. It was 100% techno music and there were zero words. I personally love to dance, normally to music I know, so Tara and I were looking for some rap music or something, but our hopes were in vain. All we got was mad techno beats the whole night.


That was just like when we were at the club in Wales Saturday night and they played a little bit of music with words (Lady Gaga and some Jason Derulo) but the song that everyone went nuts over was this: (Please just listen til you get to the one minute mark, it's ridiculous)

Anyway, who knows what the obsession with that kind of music is. Fabric was alright though, I expected better but I had fun.

Thursday night (October 7) I went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see Henry IV part 2. I researched the play and read the spark notes to Henry IV parts 1 and 2 so that I would know what was going on. We walked across the Millennium Bridge to get to the Globe Theatre and that was absolutely beautiful because we got to see the city from the bridge. Canary Wharf was on the skyline and it looked a lot like Pittsburgh. We got to the Globe about 5 minutes late but it was fine because we had standing room tickets (we were 'groundlings,' people in the seats were 'Elizabeathans'). The standing room area was right in front of the stage so we were almost eye to eye with the actors.

Unfortunately, even though I researched the play I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Neither did Kate, Anna or Sammie, the girls I went with. It's hard enough to figure out what's going on in a Shakespeare play let alone trying to decipher what the actors were saying in thick British accents. Even though I was confused, there were funny parts and I'm glad I got to experience it. The theatre was a lot smaller than I imagined and very circular. The roof was totally open, which is why the plays only run until early October. All in all it was really neat, but we left early because we were confused, our feet hurt and we'd only paid five pounds each for our tickets.

Anyway, time for me to go and do homework or something, maybe skype Caitlin if she's on.

M

[Day 24] Wales Weekend

This weekend I went to Wales. I got up Saturday morning around 6:15 so I could be at Gloucester Road at 7:35. That didn't happen because I had to wait for the District line train for almost 25 minutes, so I ended up getting to the station at 7:55. I went with my Villanova group but we went in a big tour group of kids that go to Westminster. We took a big coach bus, it was actually a really nice bus, with a tour guide, and left for Wales around 8:15.

I slept most of the way there. The first place we stopped was Tintern Abbey. Tintern Abbey was a Cistercian church/monastery that was hidden in a valley. It was really beautiful. It didn't have a roof and a lot of it was falling down, but it was crazy to see how big it was. It was built in the early 1100s I'm pretty sure. Here is a picture of it:

 It was pretty chilly outside, definitely windy. I think the valley would have been beautiful if we could have seen more of it, it was pretty foggy out. Everything around there was really pretty though and our guide said that when it was operating the inside walls were painted different colors and there were stained glass windows. Here's one more picture:

We went to some small town for lunch, I don't remember what it was called...probably because Kerri, Mary and I spent the entire hour that we had waiting for paninis at a restaurant. The town reminded me of Dingle, Ireland. Overall Wales really reminded me of Ireland a lot.

After that we got back on the bus and drove to a coal mining town. It was so crazy, we got to into the coal mine. The mine was called the Big Pit. The mine shut down in the 1980s and is now just a museum that people can take tours of. I learned so much going in the mine and it was crazy that we were 400-300 feet underground. It was really cold down there are we had to wear hard hats and some sort of carbon monoxide mask around our waist that weighed 12lbs. We walked through the tunnels and different parts of the mine, probably only just a small section, and our guide told us a lot of cool things. They had ponies in there that used to drag stuff around and would be taken out of the mine for holiday and would go wild with seeing the sunlight. He also told us about how they use canaries to detect carbon monoxide. If there is a fire or explosion that usually means there's carbon monoxide and they take canaries in cages down into the mine and as soon as the canaries show signs of distress they turn around and take the canaries back to the surface. The canaries aren't harmed and even if they are there's a vet at the site. They use canaries because they breathe something like 12x faster than we do so they can detect the gas and also they're a bright color and easier to see in the dark shaft. It was literally pitch black in there without a light.  I'm glad we did that, it was neat.

That night we stayed in a hotel in Cardiff, a port town in southern Wales. I went to an Italian place for dinner with Kerri, Chris, Courtney and Mary. The town was pretty cool, it was much more modern and geared towards young people. I think our guide said it has a population of 300,000 and 25% of them are university students. After we went to dinner we went to a very crowded pub and then to a club. Walking down the street was so strange because they street was only open for pedestrians and I think that town is a popular place for hen parties and bachelorette parties, it was like Halloween everyone was dressed up in weird costumes and stuff. There were a lot of Christmasy white twinkles lights decorating everything. It was a cute town.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to go to a Museum of Welsh Life. I'm not really sure what the point of that was because I don't think I would go to a museum of any nationality's life, let alone a Welsh one. Anyway, there were little huts all over this farm replicating what life was like for Welsh farmers. I think the most exciting part was the pig that I saw:

After that we drove to the Caerphilly Castle. That was so awesome. Caerphilly was an adorable town because it was down in a valley and the whole town was centered around this castle that had a mote and everything, like straight out of a movie (I'm thinking Shrek). We had to walk over a bridge to get inside the walls of the castle and our guide explained to us about the different lines of defense that castles like that have. They can pour boiling water or sand on people if they get through the main door. They also shoot long bows and cross bows, each with different ranges, as enemies. It's pretty self sufficient so they had no worries of being poisoned. It was built during Henry III's time, in the mid 1200s. Apparently it only took about 5 years to build. One of the walls is leaning over, probably because of architecture errors. That was definitely neat to see a castle like that.

 

 I ate lunch in the town with Kerri and Mary and got back on the bus for our final stop. Our last stop on the tour was the Caerleon Roman Ampitheater. The Romans came to Wales in the 1100s (I'm pretty sure) and they conquered the people and set up towns and stuff. We went to a Roman ampitheatre that could 6,000 people. That's so many! It was pretty cool to see. We learned a lot about the Romans v the Welsh people and how the Romans were so organized and had armor, etc and that was basically how they were able to defeat the Kelts.

After that we drove back to London, which took about three hours. It was a great tour and really educational. Our guide knew so much history and I learned so many things about the Kings and Queens and history of the UK that I didn't know before.


Right now I'm going to go make lunch. I still have to write about my experience at the Globe Theatre and maybe I think of some other things to write about Wales.


M

[Day 22] Curry

It's technically Saturday, but I'm going to write as if it's Friday. I didn't have class today so I slept in really late. Of course right when I decided to get in the shower the cleaners knocked on my door to clean my room (finally). Kate and I were about to write a complaint letter about the cleaners because they're so lazy, sit in our kitchen and eat all day and scream in our flat at like 9:30am everyday, but today we heard them getting yelled at by their boss. 

I booked a trip to Paris for December 2! I'm going to Paris with Kate, Sammie and Erin. We're going Thursday night til Saturday night. It'll be so fun! It was fairly cheap, 58 pounds. I'm excited.

After we did that, we went to Oxford St to go shopping. We went to Primark again, the store that I went to last week. It was still crazy; it was like a Christmas rush and so insane. Today was also a really nice day so it was so so so hot when we were in the store. It had to be in the 60s today and I was absolutely dying of heat. I looked around for a while and found a lot of crazy British clothing that I was tempted to buy, but in the end I decided I wouldn't actually wear it. I ended up buying a lot of clothes (including a pair of red leather gloves and black flats). I basically ran out of the store because I was so hot and annoyed with the million people in there.


Kate, Sammie and I went to a waffle place and I got a chocolate waffle. It was pretty expensive, which was stupid. Then we went to H&M and I bought two skirts and two shirts. I'm really excited to wear them. The guy overcharged me twice, you gotta watch these people they like don't pay attention to things.


That took up most of the day and then we came back to QM for a little bit. Then Sammie, Kate and I went to an Indian-ish restaurant for dinner because Sammie thought I would like the food since it's spicy. (I love spicy things.) I actually ended up loving it. Sammie is Indian, she was born in India (she lives in California now) and so she's an expert on all things Indian. She said the food and people in Mile End are a combination of Bangledeshi and Pakistani, not exactly Indian, but the food tonight was close enough. I got some sort of curry and I loved it! It was spicy, I could probably deal with spicier and the naan was delicious. I'm so excited, I'm really branching out. Our waiter liked us a lot too, I think he's like part manager/owner or something, and told us he'd give us 20% off every time we came back.


Peter and Anna came to hang out with us after dinner and the five of us walked around Brick Lane. Brick Lane is such a strange place, I still can't figure out how to describe it. It's a brick road, there's graffiti everywhere and tons of middle eastern food all over the place with guys trying to get you to eat in their restaurants. There are all different types of people dressed all different ways walking around going places. Some of the people are creepy...but not most. It's just a very unique place.


Tomorrow morning I have to get up around 6 to go to Gloucester Rd tube station to meet my Villanova group to go to Wales. We're going to Wales tomorrow morning until Sunday night. Hopefully this will be fun, I don't think I would choose to go to Wales on my own. I packed a small little bag and I'm all ready to go, as long as I can get myself out of bed.


Alright well it's bed time. Here's me at the 2012 Summer Olympic site with the stadium in the background:

 

Don't forget to check out my shutterfly, http://www.farleyseyes.shutterfly.com

M

[Day 20] At the Market

On Thursdays and Fridays on campus there is usually a market set up right in the middle where local bakeries and farmers come to sell their products. Last week I was really tempted to buy something, but I didn't have any money with me when I walked by. This week I was sure to bring money.

You can buy loads of different kinds of foods: there's bread, muffins, cakes, sandwiches, vegetables, fruits, meats...everything. Today I took a risk and bought eggs, non refrigerated ones. I bought a half dozen eggs for 1.25. All I've the eggs I've seen here are orangish brownish and these ones were no different. I thought that was everything for me when I saw the most delicious looking bread ever. I stopped and bought a half ring of an Italian loaf of bread. It is so good! I can't stop eating it.

It's nice how everything in this area isn't as commercialized and regulated as I'm used to at home and probably in other parts of London. I like that I don't always have to go to a big supermarket in order to find cheap stuff, sometimes I can just buy it off of the street! The bread is so delicious.

This morning I had a lecture and a seminar, Representing London. My professor has such a funny accent, he's from New Zealand. It's almost more formal than British, but I can't quite put my finger on it. As of now, this is my least favorite class. That's strange to me because it's a combination of English and history, both of which I like, but it's just a little boring. We're studying what life in London was like in the 18th century and reading what people wrote about it then. It's just not very interesting to me right now, but that could always change.

I still can't get over how beautiful Greenwich was yesterday. I also had no idea it was so close to London, it's was about 30 minutes away. When we were standing on a hill at the observatory in Greenwich you could even see the London skyline in the background.I'm so happy I went there, I don't think  I would have chosen to go there myself. It's so pretty and green though, and yesterday was an awesome day to go.

It's crazy but I'm finally starting to feel like a real Londoner! I find myself looking right first when I'm going to cross the street. I know where the expensive parts of town are and want to stay away from them when buying things. I know that "cheers" means "thank you," it's not a toast. I'm still working on the accent...I'm usually really good at accents but it's hard to get this one perfect because they have such different phrases than we do.

For the past couple of days the weather has been beautiful. It definitely does rain here a lot, but I was actually expecting it to be rainy and foggy all the time. Usually it's sunny out when it's not raining, like today. Today is really warm too, I'd say in the high 50s maybe. I'm going to go for a run in a little bit along the canal. The thing I don't like about the weather here is that it changes so quickly. In the morning it'll be cloudy, the day sunny, and at night it'll get really cold.

Here are more pictures of Greenwich!

Speaking of pictures, I've started my own Shutterfly website. I'm uploading all of my pictures from London to the website so that everyone can see it. It's a public site so if you're not friends with me on Facebook (I have pictures on there) you can look at them on Shutterfly. Just a warning, I'm not done messing around with it yet so I only have about 100 pictures uploaded and none of them have captions yet. Hopefully soon I'll upload all of my pictures and get to label all of them. For now if you want to see what I have done, A Day in the Life. Click there!

M

[Day 19 continued] Olympic Site and Greenwich

Hello hello. Let me add a little more to my previous post.

UCL (University College London) is in Bloomsbury. We took the bus from Mile End to get there around 6 15 last night and it took about 45 minutes. They just started classes last week, so Kate's friend Peter didn't seem to know his way around the campus too well...he kept getting us lost. UCL doesn't have a campus like QM does, not many schools in London do. All of the academic buildings at UCL seem to be in the same area and they're really beautiful, but he lives in college housing off campus. He lived about 5 blocks from where I saw academic buildings, which is kind of a long walk. I would have to be highly motivated to walk five blocks or more to class everyday...it's much easier to walk three minutes across campus at QM to go to class.

The area around his flat and the campus was under a lot of construction and it seemed very touristy. It was much more city-like than Mile End and QM are. It's a more famous school than QM and I'm sure it's great, but visiting there made me appreciate QM a lot and for various reasons. For one thing, I absolutely love the campus aspect of QM. I also like that we're a little bit farther from central London, even though it's annoying to have to take the tube or bus everywhere, we have our own place to be out of the way of the constant craziness of the city. The fact that Mile End is so diverse has definitely opened up my eyes a lot and has made me more accepting of other people. I'm happy to be at Queen Mary :) Also even though UCL has its own reputation, QM is part of the University of London schools, so we have that reputation.

Today Kate and I searched for books that we needed for class. I found mine in the tiny on campus bookstore we have, but she had to look around online for somewhere to find her's. At 2, we met Erin and Sammie and the four of us went with the QM group to the site of the 2012 summer Olympics in Stratford, only a stop away from us on the tube. It's east of here in an area that had big industrial plants and was pretty run down before it became the Olympic site. Our tour guide said that the area needed something large like the Olympics to revitalize it. Much of the materials that are being used to build the different stadiums and buildings were recycled from the buildings and pipes that were already there. We got to see the stadium and the aquatic center. They're still building the Olympic village, but we saw the construction for that as well as the construction for the athletes' warm up area. We saw the basketball arena, which is only temporary, because England doesn't have any basketball teams. The stadium is going to remain there and hopefully become West Ham's futbol field (only with less seats) and the aquatic center is going to stay there too. Apparently London only had one 50 meter pool in the city before the aquatic center was built. That's so crazy!

Some of the Olympics are going to take place in different areas of London. The O2 is a giant theater/stadium in central that's going to be renamed (I can't remember what the new name will be) and the gymnastics and basketball finals will be there. The marathons are going to be run around central, past all the famous sights like Big Ben. There are going to be beach volleyball courts put by the Prime Minister's house, but I can't remember where he lives. Lastly the equestrian events are going to take place in Greenwich. Speaking of Greenwich...

We took the DLR (another version of the tube, but above ground) to Greenwich this afternoon after we were done at the Olympic site. Greenwich was absolutely amazing. I think it's one of the prettiest places I've ever visited. The buildings are all old and white and beautiful (think White House-esq) and the town was gorgeous. It was busy, but not as crowded as London. There were a lot of pretty things to see and lots of fields. 

On top of that, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 was filming in Greenwich! We saw the set and a lot of extras standing around dressed up and some horses and guys dressed up as redcoats, but that's about it. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Johnny Depp :(

I still had a fabulous time. We walked through the Royal Naval Academy and to the Queen's House. The Naval Academy used to be a hospital for sailors, but now it's an academy. The Queen's House was built in the early 1600's by James I for his wife, Anne. I'm pretty sure she died before it was finished being built. Our tour guide said the king and queen always went hunting together and apparently one time she shot his favorite hunting dog, then he made a huge fuss out of it (typical of a man) and flipped out at her blah blah. Then he felt bad and tried to make it up to her by building her a house, but she died first. The house is really pretty, it's not as big as I'd expected it to be though.

Haha when we were walking to the house we had to cross the street and I was taking pictures of something beautiful by the Naval Academy so I was a little removed from the group and they ended up crossing the street before me...I got up to the street and the two nice police officers stopped traffic so that I could cross. What can I say? I stop traffic in every country.

Anyway, up the hill from the Queen's House is the Prime Meridian! We took tons of pictures and saw the line where the Prime Meridian actually is. There were loads of clocks around there too. It was so cool!

After that we were hungry and got McDonald's (they don't have snack wraps) and ice cream and took the tube back home to Mile End. I've just been reading my English book and relaxing since then because it was a long day, even though it was fun. Tomorrow night we're going to see Henry IV at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.  We have standing room tickets so that should be quite an experience. I'll upload some pictures tomorrow or something.

M