A Few Random Bloggy Notes

Hi-ho...(kermit de frog here...j/k)...

Well, not much to report right now. We're back in class after a lovely bank holiday weekend. I've already blogged about my enjoyable Saturday night, and as for Sunday...well, after walking home at 4:30am and watching the sunrise (yes, the sun DOES rise at 4:30 over here), I took Sunday to chill out and do my school work. I finished the project portion I had due while I was here, which is due today, so no worries really.

Monday, which was bank holiday here, I stayed close to where I lived. I went to lunch with my friend Greg, then he retreated to do his project and I wandered into an area called Wood Green to do some shopping. I wound in and out of little boutiques and came out with two cute tops and the worlds most comfortable pair of linen cargo pants. It was rather fun.

After spending entirely too much money, I headed home for a bit. Then I headed out to the pub with my friends where we drank, chilled, and chatted. It was quite fun -- I love these guys, we have lots of laughs and just generally enjoy each others company.

In other news...I've learned so much about English and European culture while I've been here. I really like it. English people are pretty cool. However, their image and the image of this country is presented quite askew in the US. Thus, I present to you...

MYTHBUSTERS: LONDON EDITION
So, here are a few myths I'd like to dispel about the English and English culture.

1. Everyone dresses much more formally for everyday things -- MYTH -- think New York...everyone wears jeans and such just like we do, the style is slightly different, but the dress code is the same.

2. Beer is served room temperature -- CRAP -- I cannot for the life of me figure out where they do that. In every pub I've been to, the beer is cold. As a matter of fact, in most pubs, you can get your Guinness cold, or Extra cold. How about that?

3. The "stuffy brit" -- BS -- I might call these guys "hurried" but hurried in the same way people are in any major city. They've got places to go and things to do and have to fight their way through mass transit to do it -- of course they're a bit curt. But man, these guys know how to party -- the clubs and bars here are hoppin!

4. They English don't like being called "British" -- TOTAL CRAP -- I've read that in so many books...but its total crap! They call themselves British. It's a common term that is used all the time.

5. Tea and crumpets -- MYTH -- they drink plenty of tea, but I don't think most of the younger generation even has a clue what a crumpet is. I haven't seen one yet.

6. HORRIFIC dental hygiene -- PRETTY MUCH MYTH -- in some of the older folks, you can tell that dental care was not readily available when they were younger in that they're missing a few teeth, or that their teeth are crooked, but in the younger people, they look just like us. I've even seen a few with braces.

And there you have it! Some prominent English myths dispelled. That's really all I have for now. Included above is a picture of the entrance to the British Museum, which my roomies and I wandered through last week. I don't really have much else for pictures right now, but we have the Tower of London, Tate Modern Gallery, and a trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury coming up this week, so there will certainly be more to come.

Cheers!

UK words/phrases of the day:

Till = cash register
Bloke = guy
Bird = slang for girl (like chick)
Quid = slang for money (like bucks)

Rockin' Into the Night

Howdy! Well, I'm part way through the Bank Holiday weekend here in London. The spring bank holiday is on Monday, and we had Friday off, so we basically got a four day weekend. I've done a little basic wandering (which is so terribly easy to do in London), shopped, eaten and been to the theater.

Yesterday, my friend Greg and I went out to Leister square and got theater tickets to see "The Producers." Oh my God it was freakin hilarious. For those of you who don't know, "The Producers" is a play written by Mel Brooks about two Broadway producers who cook up a scheme that enables them to make money by producing the worst play ever. Well, combine that crazy plot with Mel Brooks and you get almost three hours of non stop laughter. It was fabulous.

Before we actually went to the play, we wandered through the famous Covent Garden market, since the theater we were going to was right near it. There were street vendors, mimes, clowns, shops, food, and all sorts of wonderful things. We ate the most interesting thing...in this country, waffles and pancakes are made into desserts. So, we got these (please don't kill me mom ;-) ) Caremel dipped waffles -- with chocolate sauce and ice cream on top. Mmmm...yummy sugar rush...I was wired for the rest of the day.

Then we went home for a bit, and then I joined some of my study abroad cohorts at our local watering hole for a drink. I ran into, yet again, my British "mates" from the first evening we went out. So our two groups hung out, drank, and listened to an AWESOME band (the played Eric f-ing Clapton!). That was really fun. Then, out of character for me, we went out to an after-hours club and danced till we dropped. That rocked. I got to drink and dance with my friends and it was simply fab. Admittedly, it was a really late night, but it was so worth it.

So, the pictures you'll find here are a few I took from the bar of me and my friends and a few other random ones. Hope you enjoy them and I'll have great stories for you all when I come home.

Cheers!

Oooh...Bananaaa....

Ok, so just a quickie post here. I'm having a good time and just chilling out right now. I had a free afternoon yesterday, which I used to do laundry. Then, I was supposed to go to a TV taping, but it ended up being sold out. Thus, my friend Greg and I were stuck with nothing to do, since we'd planned on being in this taping. We ended up wandering down to Leister Square, where we ate dinner in China town (I think we were the only non-Chinese people there) then wandered trying to find a bar that our friends were in. We never did find it, and ended up deciding to have some dessert. We ordered a banana split to share and here, you see the before and after pics of the GIGANTIC thing we ended up with. =-) Well, that's all for now, but today begins our long weekend, so I'm sure I will have more to tell later.

Cheers!

Oh What a Night

Hey yawl.

So, last night was just freaking delightful. After another long day, we were supposed to go to a performance at the rebuilt Globe Theater. Well, the lovely foreign study people had decided that they needed us to FULLY experience Shakespearian theater, so they got us standing tickets. Woo. Standing, outside, at night, in the rain, for three hours. Um....no. Since it was pouring and not a real appealing option, we decided to just go elsewhere for a bit and then go home. That worked for a bit as we wandered around Green Park looking for shops and stuff. After a bit of that, my two roomies that I was with decided to go back. I wanted to look in a bookstore for a while, so I said I'd see them at home. I was no more than 20 mins behind them and I knew exactly where I was going.

So, I bought a couple books and then headed back to the tube station for the usual ride home. Except that this ride was not usual. I noticed a whiteboard that said that Finsbury Park station (my tube station) was closed due to a "customer incident." Ok. Fine. So, I rode my usual line to the station before that one and decided to get off there and see what I could do. I got off, found directions on walking to the Finsbury Park station area and did that. The problem came when I got there.

I got to Finsbury Park and then got hopelessly lost trying to find my way to where I could pick up my bus. I must have walked at least a mile in the wrong direction. Once I concluded that I was really in the wrong place, I decided to start over back at Finsbury. So, I took a bus back to that station and stood there trying to figure things out.

While I'm standing there freezing in the soaking rain, I get a call from one of my roomates. Turns out there was a shooting at my tube stop and that's why it was closed. A shooting!! There were cops everywhere and they had blocked off where the buses usually come, so I was totally confused. Finally, I followed a pack of other confused looking people and somehow managed to get back to my homestay. Needless to say, it was quite a night.

So, I'm a bit tired today, but I'll still post a few pics for you all to look at and enjoy. And don't worry about me, the police here had everything under control this morning and everyone is ok.

Cheers!

Rain Rain, Go Away

Ugh. London is wonderful but this weather just sucks. It rains all the time! There hasn't been a single day when we've been here and it hasn't rained for at least part of the day. And its so F"@& ing cold! It feels like winter...and people here wear shorts! Are they nuts? So what have we been up to since my last bloggy bits? Well, yesterday was a trip to the houses of Parliament and a BBC radio show taping in the evening.

Parliament was ok, but it was a tad boring. The English Parliamentary system is reeeally complicated. Some of the words used are the same, but they don't mean the same thing here. Like "government." Here, Parliament is not the government, the government stems from Parliament. Yeah I know, sounds like splitting hairs, but its actually a big difference. We got lectured by an MP, or member of Parliament, who spent most of his time bashing Tony Blair and the majority Labor party (this MP was a conservative from the Manchester area). Nice enough guy...but this was like an hour and half lecture on a governmental system that we didn't understand at like 9:00 am...needless to say that the vast majority of us spaced out and/or fell asleep...not intentionally, but this trip has been exhausting.

Parliament itself is a really neat building architecturally and contains a lot of history. There are paintings and busts everywhere (just like every other large building in England) and before proceeding to the lecture with the MP we had to go through (again) a laundry list of every single monarch England has ever had, look at their portraits, marvel and the ridiculous tudor costumes, and then talk about all their children, who was beheaded and who the 4th earl of whatsit was during the battle of thingamabob. Yeah. The Brits really like their oil painted monarchs.

After that, we had class, then went to a radio show taping in the evening. We didn't really know what the show was going to be and we were prepared for it to be a boring news type show. Turned out, it was a hilarious game show. It was set up much like NPR's news quiz show called "Wait, wait Don't Tell Me!" in that it was a fast paced show played by a panel of celebrities. It was freakin hilarious. The show was called "Just a Minute" and the panel was given a random topic by the host and had to talk about it for a full minute without deviating from the subject, hesitating, or repeating themselves. If they did any of those, one of the other panel members would interrupt them and the topic would switch people like that till time ran out. The topics included such gems as "what I have on my IPOD," "baboons," "puddings," and "American slang." All of these were talked about using that fabulous dry British wit and it was so funny I think my abs hurt when we left. All in all, we had a great time and chatted about the show on the late night tube ride back to Crouch End.

Today, we've had class all day and have just gotten done. We had an interesting lecture by a guy named Bob who has been our tour guide for several of the tours we've been on thus far. He is incredibly knowledgeable and fun to talk to and the lecture was fascinating. We got an excellent summary of nearly two thousand years of British history in an hour and a half. We then went and had some lunch, then headed back for a bit more class. We have a close knit group of six of us who are taking classes, and its been really fun getting to know all of them. Being in a big foreign city that you have to navigate by yourself has a funny way of bringing you closer to people.

Alright, well, I think that's all the excitement for now, but do check out the above photos of Big Ben and some of my buddies at our local pub from the other night.

Cheers!

UK Words of the Day:

Row = block of houses
MP = Member of Parliament
Laundrette = Laundromat
jacket potato = baked potato
Telly = television
Newsagent = usually a convenience store, sells newspapers

More Oxford!

'ello all! Thought you might just be dying for a few more pics from lovely Oxford. So, here they are.

Griffindor!

Whew! So, as you can tell, its been a few days since I've been able to update my blog. Well, thanks to one of my lovely roommates and the generosity of our homestay fam, I am now able to check e-mail and such from our homestay.

Well..lets see..so much has been going on! The other day we took a day trip to Oxford -- both the town and the college. The college was amazing. The whole place looked like Hogwarts! Which, incidentally, it should since they filmed portions of the Harry Potter movies there, but I'll get to that later. We went all over Oxford with our insanely knowledgeable tour guide and learned all about the history of the quaint little town and prestigious University. Oxford U was in the middle of its final exams, so it seemed a tense time for the students. We toured all over and even went into a place called the Sheldonian Theater, which is where Oxford students gather to be addressed as a body. There, we climed all the way to the top of this building and were able to take some wonderful pictures of Oxford city. We had lunch in a wonderful open air market and toured a musem containing a special exhibit on the Marconi brothers and even Einstein's blackboard! I've included pictures for you to see -- on is of me on the steps leading to the dining hall at Oxford, which if it looks familiar is because those steps are the ones that professor McGonnagal greeted her new pupils on at the beginning of the first Harry Potter. The dining hall was also used as the Great Hall in HP, except at one and a half times its actual size.

We've also done some shopping, gotten lost, gotten rained on a lot, and toured the BBC studios in recent days. Did you know that the BBC is the worlds largest news network? CNN is its closest rival -- and is one third smaller. We saw the studios where many popular British TV shows are filmed and learned where the worldservice programs that we get in the US come from. That tour was fun, but there was no photography allowed unfortunately. I think one of my favorite things so far (or should I say favourite ;-) ) has been absorbing a bit of local culture at a pub called O'Neils.

O'Neils is just down the road from our homes and we've basically deemed it our collective meeting place and watering hole. It's unique in that its actually a converted church -- rock! I went out with one of my roomies and some of our other study abroad crew on Friday night for drinks, and it was quite fun. My roomie and I were going to leave at about 11:30, when we were asked to sit down by a very pleasent group of young British men. It was so much fun! We chatted with these five guys for the next couple of hours, trading British and American slang and admiring each others accents. Now, the thing you have to understand about British pub culture is that this is all a friendly thing. These guys were chatting us up and buying us drinks because that's how you conduct yourself socially in a pub -- they weren't trying to take us home with them. These places are not like the usual American bar, where there's always some slimball or slutty girl looking to score. I mean, I'm sure there are a few, but they are largely full of people just looking for some fun conversation. We talked about the NFL, the US president, and then my roomie and I were asked (this is after 3 drinks mind you) for the words to the American national anthem. Oh lord. I was by no means trashed, but I was a little happy and trying to remember your country's national anthem in such a state is an adventure. I think between the two of us we got it. Our company however, couldn't get past the first two lines of theirs, so we did pretty well.

Well, I don't want to kill you with words, so I'll post some pics and give another update as soon as I can.

Cheers!

British phrases/words of the day:
a cuddle = a hug
bubble = mashed potatoes
white/black = when ordering tea or coffee, with or without milk
fag = cigarette
mates = friends
blokes = group of guys
"zed" = pronounciation of the letter "z"
mind = look out for, as in mind the gap, mind your head, mind the slippery floor
queue = a line

Pictures!!

So, I thought I'd forgotten my USB cable for my camera, which meant that I wouldn't be able to post any pictures...but I have it! Yay! We took a bus tour yesterday and I tried to take a few, but they aren't the greatest, so I'll post what few look good and wait for more adventures before I post the rest. I'll start though, with a picture of a friend of mine in my homestay. His name is Jarivs the cat, and he bears a striking resemblence to my cat, Spooky. He's black and white, has green eyes...and is quite fat. Sound familiar mom? Viv has even said that they haven't taken him to the vet in a while, as they know that the vet will tell them that he is overweight. Again, sound familiar?

Football...with your feet!!

So its the end of a long, but fun day here in lovely London. It's raining, yet again, and here I sit sipping an Americano in a tiny net cafe in Muswell Hill (bout 5 mins. North of Crouch End where I live).

As I wrote earlier, today began with my first navigation of the London Underground. Thanfully, one of my wonderful roomies lives in DC and her expertise with the Metro translated easily to navigating the Tube.

After an hour or so of being oriented with the AIFS staff, we were off on a guided siteseeing tour of London by coach (bus). We went everywhere -- Buckinham Palace, Old London, Soho, Covent Garden...all over the place! We learned the history of everything thanks to our very competent tour guide, Bob. We then visited the incredible Westminster Abbey.

Westminster was even more beautiful and fantastic than I'd ever imagined. The superb gothic architecture made for an incredible picture. One thing I didn't know, the abbey is still a working church! In addition seeing all sorts of graves and effigies, we occasionally saw a robed priest appear to light candles and at three o'clock, we were privileged to be present for a prayer. We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the tomb of Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, and the famed "Poets Corner."

After that breathtaking experience, we got back on the coach and toured a few more parts of London. When that was over, my roomies and I got back on the tube to head home. After getting off at our stop, we had our first troubles navigating the transit system. We weren't lost really, but we did walk around in circles a few times before we figured out where our bus stop was -- after that, we were good.

When we got to street level, we saw the full effect of what football (soccer) has on the English. The air was electric. Arsenal, our home team, is playing Barcelona in a championship match. Hours before the game began, people were everywhere -- drinking, yelling, and selling Arsenal merchandise. Part of the reason I'm here writing right now is that my friends and I waited too long before we headed out to the Pub, and it was full due to the game. There's a pub in Muswell hill called O'Neils that's actually a converted church (now that's MY kind of religion) that we tried to get into, but despite its ENORMOUS size, it was full beyond capacity and the landlord was turning people away at the door. So now, we decided to get out of the rain in this little cafe and may end up heading back home if we can't find anywhere else to go.

Tomorrow begins our actual classes at the University, and since they start at 9 am, we'll get our first experience with riding the tube during rush hour. We've been warned that its a very crowded place and that we'll likely be packed in like sardines -- so that will be fun. Well, I think I'll head off now, but as always...more to come!

=-)
Cheers!

Tubular!!

So, this morning began with a rousing ride on London's famed transit system, The Tube. Thankfully, one of my roomies attended a concert with our host mom last night, so she'd already had a sort of "Tube Tutorial." We puzzled a bit before we figured out how to redeem our travel cards for the bus we had to take to the tube station, but eventually we got that. Oh, and incidentally, it was one of those cool double decker red buses! Rock!

Unfortunately some of my friends in the program were not quite so lucky and got quite and extensive tour of London's transit system (2 hours) by misdirection and confusion. Thankfully, in the end, they found their way to our meeting site and there were no emergency phone calls issued.

Its early, so we haven't done much today, but later we'll be getting a guided site seeing tour and a trip to Westminster Abbey.

Yesterday, Amanda (one of my roomies) and I took a walk around Crouch End, where we live, and checked out the local shops and such. There are neat shops everywhere! Food, clothes...everything! The food here is amazing...its so healthy! Everything has no preservatives, artificial coloring, or other weird crap. I've been eating vegetarian while I've been here and boy has it been easy so far. I could totally deal with being a vegetarian in Europe. All the food is labled as "suitable for vegetarians" and is quite easily obtainable. My lunch was a unique...a cream cheese and cucumber sandwich, cheese rice cakes, and an orange mango juice thing. All nice healthy stuff. Yum!

Not to mention all the nifty english words I've been learning.

cheers = goodbye (particularly on the phone)
loo/bath/toilet = bathroom
get on = to get along with
football = soccer
grand = really good

Well, I need to make a quick trip to the ladies loo before we depart for a sightseeing tour, but there will be more to come...promise!

Cheers!

I Woke Up Today in London...

So I'm finally here!! After an absurdly long, cramped flight, I have arrived in London, England. I have decided that hensforth...I will never travel coach internationally...its just not worth the pain.

Anyway, we arrived grumpy and sleepy at the University of London student center at about 10:30 am local time (meaning that my body feels like its 5 am...woo). It took us a good hour and a half of winding through metro London to get here and when I was spacing out and falling asleep, I was able to get a decent cross-section of the landscape. It looks just like the Harry Potter movies! Everything is very old and quaint. It resembles American cities in some ways, but in others, it has an air about a city that I've never seen before. That, or it could be that everything looks different when you're driving on the left hand side of the road and the traffic signs are totally strange.

As we pulled through Kensington and then the traffic-packed Picadilly Circus, I took note of the many names I knew...stores, auctioneers, restaurants -- I'd seen them all on television or in movies, but never in real life. Talk about surreal...but cool! Southeby's, Harrod's, you name it!

I can't wait till I'm no longer grungy and tired and can explore this amazing city. Everyone I've met so far is delightful...or maybe the accent just makes them seem so, I'm too tired to tell. Either way, I think this excursion in London is going to be a fun one!

More to come...

=-)

London Calling

Hello all! This is my new blog dedicated to my upcoming trip to London, England. I will be in that lovely European city for three weeks beginning on May 15th 2006. Hopefully I'll have access to a computer while I'm there and will be able to post pictures and accounts of my activities. Please visit frequently to find out what I'm up to and where I've been. I'll probably also post photos and such after I return on June 6th. So, make sure you come on back here after May 15th for details of my European adventure!