Back to school today. I’m running a bit low on food because I don’t really want to buy anymore sense I’ll be leaving in less than a week. It just means I’ll be eating a lot more yogurt and bananas each morning. Anyway, class today was on extra sensory perception, ESP, where people are aware of things they technically shouldn’t. However, I learned that many of the cases of ESP are simply the effect of conformation bias, which means you remember the things that support your ideas and you disregard or forget the things that don’t. So when people foretell the future, we often remember the famous predictions “seers” make that come true, and we forget the ones that don’t.
I also learned about that sensation you have when you feel like someone’s watching you, so you turn your head around only to find that someone is staring right at you! Don’t be alarmed, there’s a very simple explanation. When you turn your head around suddenly, other people’s eyes are drawn to the movement. So really, they weren’t staring at you. They’re just looking at you now because their sight is drawn to your movement. Glad to clear that up for all the paranoid readers out there.
After class there wasn’t much to do until we went to Wicked tonight. Let me say this right now, we did see the show tonight. I piddled around on my paper for class, which turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. I’ve never written a research paper before, and what makes it different from normal papers is, well, the research. Pretty much, you can’t make any claims without something to back it up. Which means you have to read a lot of chapters and journals. Then you have to take the bit you want, but it in your own words, site it in the paper, then write up the reference for the reference page. For every claim you make. This is going to be really hard.
I didn’t want to leave anything to chance tonight, so my group left the dorms an hour and a half before the show started. The tube was crazy busy as it was about 6:00 and rush hour was at its worse, but we made it to the theater, if perhaps a little squished. I forgot to bring my camera to the theater, so I don’t have any pictures there, but it was really beautiful. The Apollo Victoria Theater has two tiers and a lot of seats in each one. The place is huge. It also has these really cool, really big pieces on the ceilings that make you feel like you’re in a clamshell. Our seats were fantastic, three rows back in the second section of seats. We could see the stage perfectly.
And what a stage. The whole thing was decked out in black and grey with ropes and wheels and staircases. There was the huge Clockwork Dragon puppet up above the stage that moved whenever the Witch’s magic was going on on stage. The curtain was a huge map of Oz with the glittering Emerald City in the center. It was just like it was supposed to be.
It all felt almost like a dream. I had dreamed of seeing this show for over three years, and now that I was actually here, if was almost like it wasn’t real. But the curtain finally came up and the show started. As I was already well acquainted with the music I could focus on everything else. I’ve wanted to know the story of the show for a very long time because I’ve heard that it was very different from the book, for which I am grateful because I hated the book both times I read it. I’m just glad to know how the story of the musical goes now, and I like it much better.
Everyone played their part very well. You didn’t really even think they were British until they said things like “can’t” or “dance” because they always used the long “aaaah” sound instead of the American “aaay” sound. So instead of hearing “Dancing through life” I heard “Daaancing through life”. It was fun to hear the difference. Elphaba (the Wicked Witch), was played beautifully. You don’t really get a sense of her character by just listening to the soundtrack, but she’s a very powerful, strong, hardheaded woman. Glinda was simply hilarious and was full of hair flips and ridiculous lines. Madam Morrible was fabulous and nasty. The Wizard had a very Vaudevillian sense to him that made him more entertaining when he was being nice, and all the more despicable when he was being deceptive, which was pretty much the whole time. Boq was Irish, which I loved because he’s such an impish character anyway I thought his Irish accent made it all the more impish (not that I think Irish people are impish, it just fit to this character). The rest of cast was wonderful as well. And the costumes were simply fabulous. The Emerald City costumes were my favorite by far. All the costumes of the different choruses were so different yet they all fit into one set. And even from a distance I could see how detailed they were. I would love to take a walk through that wardrobe department and look at them all up close.
Don’t even bother asking what my favorite song was. There is no competition. Defying Gravity was the most spectacular part of the show. I’ve seen pictures of Elphaba up at the top of the stage with that huge black cape billowing behind her, but it did nothing to prepare me for the moment when it actually happened in real life. It was like all the anticipation and excitement that’s been building for three years culminated into a big ball of happiness and exploded when the big black cape came out. It was simply spectacular.
After the show there was pretty much nothing to do but race back to the dorm and talk the show over with Hayley. After that, I went to sleep, perfectly happy and content.
British word of the day: handcart = stroller, like what you put a baby in.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
day 17
Today was the 4th of July, as well as mom's birthday. It feels ironic to spend the celebration of the day your county was liberated from the tyrannous rule of the country you're currently in, but there you are. I pretty much didn't do anything today. I know it sounds ridiculous, not being able to think of anything to in London, but I really couldn't, so I decided to have a day to relax and hopefully work on my final paper.
There was a little bit of paper writing, but a great deal more relaxing. I shared my time between eating meals, talking on skype, watching things online, and pretty much being lazy. I think everyone deserves a day like that every once in a while.
Anyway, I finally got together with my friends and went to Giraffe for dinner. This is the place I had the really good waffle and ice cream from before. We all sat and talked and said "Amurica" a lot, because it was the 4th and this was the only thing we could really do about it. I had these amazing BBQ chicken quesadillas, which was exactly what I was in the mood for. Something I will not miss about London is the food. It's pretty much sandwiches for every lunch, heavy meat and starch for dinner, and rarely any vegetables. Sure you're in London, so you would think there are tons and tons of options for different foreign food, but the foreign food is all wrong. There's are loads of Indian restaurants, but they are way too spicy for me. And the Chinese food isn't American-Chinese food, it's British-Chinese food. They have "American Fried Chicken" places, but once you've lived in the South no tea drinking Brit is going to know anything about how to make good fried chicken.
People are also very pushy in restaurants. You have to call the waiters over to do everything. They leave you alone until you catch their eye, which means meals take forever. You can hardly ever separate checks for some strange reason, so you always have to hope you have the cash to pay for your portion and contribute to the pot for the whole bill. Tip is also included in the bill, and if you want to leave less you have to ask, which means the waiter hates you forever and won't even come back to your table. Free refills and ice don't exist over here either. You get one ice cube because people over here think if you fill it up with ice the ice melts and you're paying for water. And if you want to eat at cafes you had better hope you only have one other person with you because they only have about 4 tables outside with two chairs each.
Now that I've ranted, I think I feel much better. London really is lovely and I hope you'll all come here one day, if you haven't already, but three weeks is a long time to be without a tall glass of endless, cold sweet tea.
Anyway, after dinner we walked along the South Bank for a bit, then made our way back to the dorms. Class starts tomorrow yet again, but I only have three days of class, then the test on Thursday. We'll see how that goes. Shower and then to bed.
British word of the day: digestive biscuits = Graham crackers, don't ask me why.
There was a little bit of paper writing, but a great deal more relaxing. I shared my time between eating meals, talking on skype, watching things online, and pretty much being lazy. I think everyone deserves a day like that every once in a while.
Anyway, I finally got together with my friends and went to Giraffe for dinner. This is the place I had the really good waffle and ice cream from before. We all sat and talked and said "Amurica" a lot, because it was the 4th and this was the only thing we could really do about it. I had these amazing BBQ chicken quesadillas, which was exactly what I was in the mood for. Something I will not miss about London is the food. It's pretty much sandwiches for every lunch, heavy meat and starch for dinner, and rarely any vegetables. Sure you're in London, so you would think there are tons and tons of options for different foreign food, but the foreign food is all wrong. There's are loads of Indian restaurants, but they are way too spicy for me. And the Chinese food isn't American-Chinese food, it's British-Chinese food. They have "American Fried Chicken" places, but once you've lived in the South no tea drinking Brit is going to know anything about how to make good fried chicken.
People are also very pushy in restaurants. You have to call the waiters over to do everything. They leave you alone until you catch their eye, which means meals take forever. You can hardly ever separate checks for some strange reason, so you always have to hope you have the cash to pay for your portion and contribute to the pot for the whole bill. Tip is also included in the bill, and if you want to leave less you have to ask, which means the waiter hates you forever and won't even come back to your table. Free refills and ice don't exist over here either. You get one ice cube because people over here think if you fill it up with ice the ice melts and you're paying for water. And if you want to eat at cafes you had better hope you only have one other person with you because they only have about 4 tables outside with two chairs each.
Now that I've ranted, I think I feel much better. London really is lovely and I hope you'll all come here one day, if you haven't already, but three weeks is a long time to be without a tall glass of endless, cold sweet tea.
Anyway, after dinner we walked along the South Bank for a bit, then made our way back to the dorms. Class starts tomorrow yet again, but I only have three days of class, then the test on Thursday. We'll see how that goes. Shower and then to bed.
British word of the day: digestive biscuits = Graham crackers, don't ask me why.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
day 16
Today is our trip to Stonehenge and Bath. As I’ve already been to Stonehenge, I was much more excited about going to Bath, which I have heard very nice things about. I had to get up quite early today to get on the tube and find out meeting place on Backer Street. For this trip my API friends were nowhere to be seen. Not one of them. I have no idea where they were, but they totally missed out on a very fun trip. Allison and Bryan we there, so I hung out with them for this excursion. We all got on the bus and we were off out of London to Stonehenge. I had a new guide Adrienne this time, and she was much less chatty on the microphone.
We made the drive to Stonehenge and when we got there I was surprised that I remembered them being much smaller. But those rocks are really huge. We walked around the stones while listening to the audio tour. It was pretty much the same as I remember it otherwise. All the crazy theories that everyone from Merlin to the Devil to aliens are the reason it’s there. The biggest mystery still is why is it there? No one knows, and our guide said we would never know, but as an anthropology major I have to think that someday we’ll find the answer.
I also learned while at Stonehenge that the druids have absolutely nothing to do with it. Druids are a Celtic-like religion that focuses on the powers of nature. From what we know about druids, we know that they never has a house of worship, they always did their ceremonies in woodland areas. We also know that the stones of Stonehenge predate the religion all together, so there is no way the druids built the circle or should have any claim to it. They may have used it along the way, but they certainly didn’t build it. I’m a follower of the idea that Stonehenge is a calendar. The fact that the “heel stone” lines up exactly with one of the arches on the summer solstice can’t be just a coincidence. Why they felt the need to drag those huge stones to that particular place is still a mystery to me, but I am confident one day we will know.
Once we got back on the bus Adrienne found me and gave me an envelope with 4 physical, hold in your hand tickets for Wicked. It was such a relief to finally have them. This means that we can walk right in without standing in line or dealing with the ticket office. Thank goodness!!
Then we made our way to Bath. Now that I’ve been there, I love the city of Bath and if I had to live anywhere in England, I think it would be there. All of the buildings are made out of the same golden yellow stone that comes from the Bath area, which makes it all look very charming and peaceful. Though they’re made from the same material, the buildings don’t all look the same. They all have different designs and special things that make each area look different, but they all work together as a whole. There is also a lot of history here. There are many periods where it is the most fashionable place to holiday, then it becomes a cesspit of dirt and vice. Then someone comes along and pretties it up again, and then it’s fashionable.
We walked around the town a bit and saw some of the more popular sights. We saw several house complexes that a famous man designed that were for the most fashionable people in Bath. I say fashionable a lot because it was said a lot on our tour. Most every house we saw has a charming back garden that has a secret back door that leads into the walkway we were taking to get down the hill. The nicer houses are very, very expensive, some as much as 23 million pounds each, but they have fantastic views of the city and they have the most room.
We went to the Assembly Rooms where Jane Austen was known to dance. This is where all the best people came to dance and to find a spouse. They said the chandeliers in this place are worth 10 million pounds if you added them up together. You can still get married in these very beautiful rooms, but you have to book it a year in advance and the smallest room is 500 pounds for half the day. You also have to use their caterers, but apparently they’re “brilliant”, according to the receptionist who is getting married there in the fall.
After that we had some time to eat, and it’s a good thing we had 2 hours this time, because lunch took forever! A word to anyone traveling in the UK: meals out will take 4 times longer than they should, so plan ahead. We really wanted burgers or at least something other than sandwiches, so we found a place that had burgers and went in. They didn’t have room for us, but we had already looked at the menu and gotten our mouths ready, so we decided to wait. When we finally got a table, they said the kitchen was delayed, but again we decided to wait because we really wanted those burgers. We waited 40 minutes for our food to come. I got the Americano, which was pepper jack cheese, bacon (which is more like ham here) and avocado with fries (they actually called them fries at his place). The burger tasted pretty good, so I guess it was worth the wait. We walked around a bit after lunch and saw that Bath has a lot of really good shopping. There’s another reason why I could live there.
After lunch we walked further down the hill and came to where to baths are. The Romans came here a really long time ago and saw that the Celts already there were using the natural hot springs to worship their goddess of healing and water. When the Romans conquered someplace, they didn’t just come storming in and demand the locals change their ways. They try to amalgamate the locals into Romans culture. So they saw that this goddess the Celts were worshiping there, Sulis, was similar to their goddess Minerva, the Roman version of the Greek goddess Athena (my favorite Greek goddess). So they built a temple and a bathhouse over the springs and unified the two goddesses under one name, Sulis Minerva, to try to win over the local Celts. It worked pretty well and things were going fine until the Romans pulled out, then the city was pretty much forgotten.
The baths were fascinating and beautiful. The water in the main bath has turned green because there’s no longer a ceiling and algae has grown in it. The other baths no longer hold any water, but they are still very interesting to look at. There were all kinds of different rooms that did different things. One of the processes people would go through is to exercise and get all sweaty, then dip into progressively hotter baths and get really hot and really sweaty, then get covered in oil, then have the oil scraped off, then jump in a cold pool to cool off. It sounds pretty gross, but apparently it felt really good. I walked all though the different areas that showed the artifacts they found around the baths and the different rooms and areas where things happened. It was very interesting and filled with Roman and Georgian history (The Georgian era is when England had 4 King Georges in a row, the third of which was the last king of America.) At the end of the tour you could taste some of the treated water from the springs. I was told it tasted pretty gross, but I tried it anyway. It tasted like warm, unfiltered well water, with a bunch of minerals and sulfur in it. I thought it was nasty, but it's supposed to have healing powers, so I guess I'm healed of anything that might have been wrong with me.
After the baths we got back on the bus and made the 2 and a half hour ride back to London.
The day was pretty much over after that.
British word of the day: bin bag = trash bag. One time the housekeeping people came in and asked if I wanted my bin bag changed. I thought she said did I want my beanbag changed. It took me a while to figure out what she was talking about.
We made the drive to Stonehenge and when we got there I was surprised that I remembered them being much smaller. But those rocks are really huge. We walked around the stones while listening to the audio tour. It was pretty much the same as I remember it otherwise. All the crazy theories that everyone from Merlin to the Devil to aliens are the reason it’s there. The biggest mystery still is why is it there? No one knows, and our guide said we would never know, but as an anthropology major I have to think that someday we’ll find the answer.
I also learned while at Stonehenge that the druids have absolutely nothing to do with it. Druids are a Celtic-like religion that focuses on the powers of nature. From what we know about druids, we know that they never has a house of worship, they always did their ceremonies in woodland areas. We also know that the stones of Stonehenge predate the religion all together, so there is no way the druids built the circle or should have any claim to it. They may have used it along the way, but they certainly didn’t build it. I’m a follower of the idea that Stonehenge is a calendar. The fact that the “heel stone” lines up exactly with one of the arches on the summer solstice can’t be just a coincidence. Why they felt the need to drag those huge stones to that particular place is still a mystery to me, but I am confident one day we will know.
Once we got back on the bus Adrienne found me and gave me an envelope with 4 physical, hold in your hand tickets for Wicked. It was such a relief to finally have them. This means that we can walk right in without standing in line or dealing with the ticket office. Thank goodness!!
Then we made our way to Bath. Now that I’ve been there, I love the city of Bath and if I had to live anywhere in England, I think it would be there. All of the buildings are made out of the same golden yellow stone that comes from the Bath area, which makes it all look very charming and peaceful. Though they’re made from the same material, the buildings don’t all look the same. They all have different designs and special things that make each area look different, but they all work together as a whole. There is also a lot of history here. There are many periods where it is the most fashionable place to holiday, then it becomes a cesspit of dirt and vice. Then someone comes along and pretties it up again, and then it’s fashionable.
We walked around the town a bit and saw some of the more popular sights. We saw several house complexes that a famous man designed that were for the most fashionable people in Bath. I say fashionable a lot because it was said a lot on our tour. Most every house we saw has a charming back garden that has a secret back door that leads into the walkway we were taking to get down the hill. The nicer houses are very, very expensive, some as much as 23 million pounds each, but they have fantastic views of the city and they have the most room.
We went to the Assembly Rooms where Jane Austen was known to dance. This is where all the best people came to dance and to find a spouse. They said the chandeliers in this place are worth 10 million pounds if you added them up together. You can still get married in these very beautiful rooms, but you have to book it a year in advance and the smallest room is 500 pounds for half the day. You also have to use their caterers, but apparently they’re “brilliant”, according to the receptionist who is getting married there in the fall.
After that we had some time to eat, and it’s a good thing we had 2 hours this time, because lunch took forever! A word to anyone traveling in the UK: meals out will take 4 times longer than they should, so plan ahead. We really wanted burgers or at least something other than sandwiches, so we found a place that had burgers and went in. They didn’t have room for us, but we had already looked at the menu and gotten our mouths ready, so we decided to wait. When we finally got a table, they said the kitchen was delayed, but again we decided to wait because we really wanted those burgers. We waited 40 minutes for our food to come. I got the Americano, which was pepper jack cheese, bacon (which is more like ham here) and avocado with fries (they actually called them fries at his place). The burger tasted pretty good, so I guess it was worth the wait. We walked around a bit after lunch and saw that Bath has a lot of really good shopping. There’s another reason why I could live there.
After lunch we walked further down the hill and came to where to baths are. The Romans came here a really long time ago and saw that the Celts already there were using the natural hot springs to worship their goddess of healing and water. When the Romans conquered someplace, they didn’t just come storming in and demand the locals change their ways. They try to amalgamate the locals into Romans culture. So they saw that this goddess the Celts were worshiping there, Sulis, was similar to their goddess Minerva, the Roman version of the Greek goddess Athena (my favorite Greek goddess). So they built a temple and a bathhouse over the springs and unified the two goddesses under one name, Sulis Minerva, to try to win over the local Celts. It worked pretty well and things were going fine until the Romans pulled out, then the city was pretty much forgotten.
The baths were fascinating and beautiful. The water in the main bath has turned green because there’s no longer a ceiling and algae has grown in it. The other baths no longer hold any water, but they are still very interesting to look at. There were all kinds of different rooms that did different things. One of the processes people would go through is to exercise and get all sweaty, then dip into progressively hotter baths and get really hot and really sweaty, then get covered in oil, then have the oil scraped off, then jump in a cold pool to cool off. It sounds pretty gross, but apparently it felt really good. I walked all though the different areas that showed the artifacts they found around the baths and the different rooms and areas where things happened. It was very interesting and filled with Roman and Georgian history (The Georgian era is when England had 4 King Georges in a row, the third of which was the last king of America.) At the end of the tour you could taste some of the treated water from the springs. I was told it tasted pretty gross, but I tried it anyway. It tasted like warm, unfiltered well water, with a bunch of minerals and sulfur in it. I thought it was nasty, but it's supposed to have healing powers, so I guess I'm healed of anything that might have been wrong with me.
After the baths we got back on the bus and made the 2 and a half hour ride back to London.
The day was pretty much over after that.
British word of the day: bin bag = trash bag. One time the housekeeping people came in and asked if I wanted my bin bag changed. I thought she said did I want my beanbag changed. It took me a while to figure out what she was talking about.
day 15
Today was a very lazy Friday. I woke up and had corn flakes and with cut up bananas in them. I waited around in the morning until Alison woke up and we went to King’s Cross to find Platform 9 ¾. We got on the tube and got off at King’s Cross Station, which, by the way, is not where they filmed that part of the movie. They filmed that at platform 4. But anyway, Alison and I had to look around a lot to find the sign and half a cart in the way they put up in honor of Harry Potter. It’s not actually between platforms 9 and 10, but in a hallway that connects 9 and 8. But there’s a gate that doesn’t let anyone go through, so you have to go around to platform 8 to get to it.
But then we finally got there and took pictures. It was really fun. It was sort of like a pilgrimage, a quest to find this special location that honors Harry Potter. It was also fun to see that there were people there before and after us, just as excited as we were that they had found this special site.
Alison and I had sandwiches for lunch. Something here about British food: they pretty much always have sandwiches for lunch, and the only vegetables you can find are lettuce, tomato, and peas. Forget about broccoli or green beans or squash or any other vegetable. Restaurants just don’t serve them.
I got back to the dorm and spent the rest of the day being lazy. I read and watched things online and skyped and did whatever I felt like. I decided I would work on my paper Sunday (the day I’m writing this) and worry about it later.
I bought some pasta and chicken thing at the convince store and went to bed not too long after that.
British word of the day: artifact is spelled “artefact” here. At first it doesn’t even look like a word.
day 14
This morning I had toffee yogurt for breakfast, which tastes something like caramel and butterscotch mixed together. I’m also nearly out of jam, which means I need to go to the store and get some. Something I’ve been meaning to add on here but keep forgetting it that in a lot of grocery stores and stores like them, the cashiers sit in chairs to do your check out. They work in small areas where two lanes are up against each other and they sit in chairs almost back to back. I don’t know which would be worse, having to stand all day or having to sit all day. I guess sitting. At least when you’re standing you can move around. You also bag your own groceries in many of the stores I’ve been to. There isn’t enough room for the big counters we have in America, so you have to bag your own and make room.
I had to go back to class today, where we talked about hypnotism, which is what my paper focuses on. There wasn’t too much valuable material in this lecture, at least as far as using it in my paper. We learned about the two theories of hypnotism, the state and trait theories. State means that you are put in a place where the executive ego and the things that keep you from doing things are separated, so repressed memories can resurface and you can be influenced to do something you wouldn’t usually. The trait theory says that only certain kinds of people can be hypnotized, and that they must have certain beliefs, expectations, and a level of suggestibility in order for it to work. We also learned a lot about the people who developed hypnotism, and most of them were nuts.
After class I waited in the Regent Street campus’s lobby for a while waiting for my friends to get out of class. We were going to the National Gallery today, so there wasn’t a lot of time to go all the way back to the dorms and then out again. I was feeling very blah about now because I had slept well because of really weird dreams where my API went to Africa to live with a tribe, and some missionaries were there that had been there for 20 years because the tribe wouldn’t let them go. It wasn’t a very nice dream and it made me wake up really early.
My friends finally got out of class and we made our way to Trafalgar Square, which is where the National Gallery is. On our way we wanted lunch, so we stopped at a Pizza Express to eat. I got the same pizza I got on my first day in London, and it was wonderful again.
We walked by St. James’s Park and saw the hoard of people that were around the read carpet for the Eclipse premier. I didn’t get close enough to see a red carpet or anything, but I did take a picture of the poster on the building. I’ve seen these posters all over tube stations and on buses all over the city. But it won’t even come out over here until July 9th in cinemas.
We got to Trafalgar Square and saw there was a huge event going on that took up the whole square. Turns out July 1st is Canada day in the UK, and a bunch of Canadians and Canadian business were celebrating with street hockey, bison burgers, and Canada-themed trivia. We hung around there for a while, looking at all the crazy Canadians, until we met Alex, our assistant director, to go into the gallery.
Again, most museums in London are free to get into, so I highly suggest you check out this art museum. It has art from 13th up to 20th century paintings and features artists like Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Pousin, Vermeer, Hogarth, Monet, and Van Gough. Unfortunately, my friends were all tired from going out the previous night (something that happens very frequently) and they wanted to go home. They told me this by calling me, and I was in the middle of a gallery when my phone went off, so I was shooed out of the gallery by a museum staff person. I was very annoyed and not feeling to well so I went with them even though I wanted to stay. At least it’s free so I can go back.
When I got to my dorm I talked to Hayley on skype and she reminded me that I’m probably never going to be in London in this situation ever again and I shouldn’t spend a valuable evening sitting in my room. So, I bought a ticket to go see Les Miserables. That was my solution to not wanting a lame evening. I bought the ticket online and went to the theater super early, all by myself. I didn’t tell anyone I was going because I was a little irritated but also because I thought I should be spontaneous and do something fun by myself. I got to the theater, was handed my ticket by the very nice box office woman (Wicked could learn a thing or two from her) and went inside. It all went very smoothly and I didn’t have to wait on anyone or deal with any issues. I must admit I was feeling very nervous about seeing the show because I was all paranoid that something would go wrong, like they didn’t have the record of my ticket and I couldn’t print out the conformation so they would tell me to go away. But everything worked out as it should.
I was on the top tier of the 3-tired theater. It was very tall and skinny. I was in seat C3, so I was on the fourth row and had a pretty good view of the stage. But bad seats for buying the ticket 4 hours before the show. The theater slowly filled in as we got closer to the curtain coming up and, of course, a really tall guy sits in front of me. That wasn’t fun. If he had leaned back the whole time I would have seen just fine, but he kept leaning forward to see the entire stage, which was unnecessary. Lucky for me that tall guy and his family didn't come back for the second half, so I had a perfect view for the best part of the show. They are very strict about starting on time, so I wouldn't be surprised if they missed the door closing to let people in for the second half. I was very surprised to see that Nick Jonas, the youngest Jonas brother, would be playing the part of Marius. I didn’t know anything about the show before I saw it, other than it’s about the French Revolution and that there’s a guy named Jean Valjean in it.
Now I love the show! It is beautiful and moving and sad and very impressive. It’s more of an opera than a musical, where they sing every line, which I didn’t mind. Everyone played their part extremely well. Nick Jonas was surprisingly good and didn’t sound pop-y when he sang, but fit into his role very well. Eponine was very talented and I think she had the best female voice in the show. I think Susan Boyle has Rebecca Seale beat when it comes to singing “I Dreamed a Dream”, but Seale’s was much more vulnerable than Boyle’s huge operatic version, but maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be anyway. I think that “Do You Hear the People Sing?” was my favorite song of the show, but they were all wonderful songs, even though I didn’t recognize any of them.
The stage was also very impressive. It had a huge spinning floor that enabled the actors to look like they were walking down a street with people moving around them when really they were just walking in place. The floor moved silently and allowed for them to prepare one set in the dark, turn the floor to show the set, then clean up the last on in the dark again. There was also a huge shanty town set that was made up of boxes and crates and other things that moved in on moving platforms. When the rebels build the barricade, the shanty town comes back, but as it moves on it’s turned 90 degrees by some very impressive engineering, so that where there were once walls there are now floors and vise versa. It all worked very well and the effects and creativeness of the whole show was very impressive. SPOLIER ALERT There is a scene where Javert jumps from a bridge to kill himself. The bridge set is all the way on the ground, and Javert is just standing on the ground leaning against the bridge, but you really think he’s hanging off the side of a very high bridge. When he jumps, again he’s just standing there, but the way the lights, the moving floor, and the rising set appear, it really looks like he’s falling to his death.
Overall I thought the show was wonderful and I highly recommend it.
I made my way back to the tube then to my dorm, talked the show over with Hayley, then took a shower and went to bed.
British word of the day: aluminium foil = aluminum foil. They put an extra "i" in there. You can't just change the Periodic Table England!
I had to go back to class today, where we talked about hypnotism, which is what my paper focuses on. There wasn’t too much valuable material in this lecture, at least as far as using it in my paper. We learned about the two theories of hypnotism, the state and trait theories. State means that you are put in a place where the executive ego and the things that keep you from doing things are separated, so repressed memories can resurface and you can be influenced to do something you wouldn’t usually. The trait theory says that only certain kinds of people can be hypnotized, and that they must have certain beliefs, expectations, and a level of suggestibility in order for it to work. We also learned a lot about the people who developed hypnotism, and most of them were nuts.
After class I waited in the Regent Street campus’s lobby for a while waiting for my friends to get out of class. We were going to the National Gallery today, so there wasn’t a lot of time to go all the way back to the dorms and then out again. I was feeling very blah about now because I had slept well because of really weird dreams where my API went to Africa to live with a tribe, and some missionaries were there that had been there for 20 years because the tribe wouldn’t let them go. It wasn’t a very nice dream and it made me wake up really early.
My friends finally got out of class and we made our way to Trafalgar Square, which is where the National Gallery is. On our way we wanted lunch, so we stopped at a Pizza Express to eat. I got the same pizza I got on my first day in London, and it was wonderful again.
We walked by St. James’s Park and saw the hoard of people that were around the read carpet for the Eclipse premier. I didn’t get close enough to see a red carpet or anything, but I did take a picture of the poster on the building. I’ve seen these posters all over tube stations and on buses all over the city. But it won’t even come out over here until July 9th in cinemas.
We got to Trafalgar Square and saw there was a huge event going on that took up the whole square. Turns out July 1st is Canada day in the UK, and a bunch of Canadians and Canadian business were celebrating with street hockey, bison burgers, and Canada-themed trivia. We hung around there for a while, looking at all the crazy Canadians, until we met Alex, our assistant director, to go into the gallery.
Again, most museums in London are free to get into, so I highly suggest you check out this art museum. It has art from 13th up to 20th century paintings and features artists like Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Pousin, Vermeer, Hogarth, Monet, and Van Gough. Unfortunately, my friends were all tired from going out the previous night (something that happens very frequently) and they wanted to go home. They told me this by calling me, and I was in the middle of a gallery when my phone went off, so I was shooed out of the gallery by a museum staff person. I was very annoyed and not feeling to well so I went with them even though I wanted to stay. At least it’s free so I can go back.
When I got to my dorm I talked to Hayley on skype and she reminded me that I’m probably never going to be in London in this situation ever again and I shouldn’t spend a valuable evening sitting in my room. So, I bought a ticket to go see Les Miserables. That was my solution to not wanting a lame evening. I bought the ticket online and went to the theater super early, all by myself. I didn’t tell anyone I was going because I was a little irritated but also because I thought I should be spontaneous and do something fun by myself. I got to the theater, was handed my ticket by the very nice box office woman (Wicked could learn a thing or two from her) and went inside. It all went very smoothly and I didn’t have to wait on anyone or deal with any issues. I must admit I was feeling very nervous about seeing the show because I was all paranoid that something would go wrong, like they didn’t have the record of my ticket and I couldn’t print out the conformation so they would tell me to go away. But everything worked out as it should.
I was on the top tier of the 3-tired theater. It was very tall and skinny. I was in seat C3, so I was on the fourth row and had a pretty good view of the stage. But bad seats for buying the ticket 4 hours before the show. The theater slowly filled in as we got closer to the curtain coming up and, of course, a really tall guy sits in front of me. That wasn’t fun. If he had leaned back the whole time I would have seen just fine, but he kept leaning forward to see the entire stage, which was unnecessary. Lucky for me that tall guy and his family didn't come back for the second half, so I had a perfect view for the best part of the show. They are very strict about starting on time, so I wouldn't be surprised if they missed the door closing to let people in for the second half. I was very surprised to see that Nick Jonas, the youngest Jonas brother, would be playing the part of Marius. I didn’t know anything about the show before I saw it, other than it’s about the French Revolution and that there’s a guy named Jean Valjean in it.
Now I love the show! It is beautiful and moving and sad and very impressive. It’s more of an opera than a musical, where they sing every line, which I didn’t mind. Everyone played their part extremely well. Nick Jonas was surprisingly good and didn’t sound pop-y when he sang, but fit into his role very well. Eponine was very talented and I think she had the best female voice in the show. I think Susan Boyle has Rebecca Seale beat when it comes to singing “I Dreamed a Dream”, but Seale’s was much more vulnerable than Boyle’s huge operatic version, but maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be anyway. I think that “Do You Hear the People Sing?” was my favorite song of the show, but they were all wonderful songs, even though I didn’t recognize any of them.
The stage was also very impressive. It had a huge spinning floor that enabled the actors to look like they were walking down a street with people moving around them when really they were just walking in place. The floor moved silently and allowed for them to prepare one set in the dark, turn the floor to show the set, then clean up the last on in the dark again. There was also a huge shanty town set that was made up of boxes and crates and other things that moved in on moving platforms. When the rebels build the barricade, the shanty town comes back, but as it moves on it’s turned 90 degrees by some very impressive engineering, so that where there were once walls there are now floors and vise versa. It all worked very well and the effects and creativeness of the whole show was very impressive. SPOLIER ALERT There is a scene where Javert jumps from a bridge to kill himself. The bridge set is all the way on the ground, and Javert is just standing on the ground leaning against the bridge, but you really think he’s hanging off the side of a very high bridge. When he jumps, again he’s just standing there, but the way the lights, the moving floor, and the rising set appear, it really looks like he’s falling to his death.
Overall I thought the show was wonderful and I highly recommend it.
I made my way back to the tube then to my dorm, talked the show over with Hayley, then took a shower and went to bed.
British word of the day: aluminium foil = aluminum foil. They put an extra "i" in there. You can't just change the Periodic Table England!
Friday, July 2, 2010
day 13
I didn’t have any class today, which meant I had a leisurely morning do what I wanted, which meant I needed to work on my paper due at the end of all this. I made an outline for what I want to go over and here is my thesis statement: There is not enough evidence to support that hypnosis has any real effect on smoking cessation. Impressive, I know. I read through my books from the library and found some interesting articles online, so hopefully writing this paper won’t be too hard.
Allie wanted to return to Primark today, so I went with her to return my pants. We got there much easier this time because there’s a tube stop right beside the store that none of us saw the first time we went there. We had to wait in line for 30 minutes to return our stuff. Basically, Primark is cheep and has great clothes, but you better be ready to stand in line and fight your way through a hundred people to get what you want. It’s pretty stressful in there. After we finally got through all the craziness I went a bought new shirt, Allie got a very cute purple dress, and we were out of there. We walked around Oxford Street for a bit, going into bookstores and just looking around.
Later that night we went to see “The 39 Steps”, a show you may not have heard of but you definitely need to check out. It’s a hilarious show where only 4 people play a couple dozen roles. Spoiler Alert: The protagonist, Richard Hannay, is accused of killing a Annabella Schmidt in his apartment, a woman who was a double agent before her tragic demise with a knife in her back. Before she dies, she tells Richard that a terrible secret is about to leave the country and he alone must stop this from happening. Dodging the ever persistent police, Hannay meets the Professor, who turns out to be the very man who is smuggling the information of the 39 steps out of the country. Richard meets Margaret in his journeys and is handcuffed to her by the police to prevent him from escaping. But escape he does, with Margaret along for the journey. Through a series of zany and hilarious events, Hannay and Margaret end up in London to see Mr. Memory, who is the only person who has the information the Professor is looking for. The Professor is shot, along with Mr. Memory, and both die a very long, very dramatic, very funny death. Mr. Memory is able to reveal the secret he has been hiding: the formula to make a fighter jet completely silent. Hannay and Margaret are married and live happily ever after.
The whole play was ridiculous and hilarious. The woman who played the three female parts used dramatic, exaggerated accents that made every character different and funny. The two men who played every role but Hannay’s changed into a couple dozen different hats and costumes to play different parts. At one point one of the men was playing two roles at once, one of the assistant to Mr. Memory and the other of the police. He had his trench coat half on and would turn to one side and talk as the assistant to the police, then turn and talk as the police to the assistant. The show also made very good use of very cheep props. They would take three chests and made them be the furniture of a room then the carts on a train then the seats in a car. There were also very entertaining sound and light effects that went perfectly with the crazy queues on stage. The show was amazing and a very good choice for my first West End show (seeing as the whole Wicked thing didn’t work out, but enough about that).
After the show we walked around Piccadilly Circus and Charring Cross road. We saw a group of people that were camping out for the Eclipse premier on Thursday. All the London premiers happen in St. James Square at the Odeon Theater. The girls wanted to go clubbing, so I went back to my room and happily went to sleep.
British word of the day: cinema = theater. Going to see movies is at the cinema. Going to see shows is at the theater.
Allie wanted to return to Primark today, so I went with her to return my pants. We got there much easier this time because there’s a tube stop right beside the store that none of us saw the first time we went there. We had to wait in line for 30 minutes to return our stuff. Basically, Primark is cheep and has great clothes, but you better be ready to stand in line and fight your way through a hundred people to get what you want. It’s pretty stressful in there. After we finally got through all the craziness I went a bought new shirt, Allie got a very cute purple dress, and we were out of there. We walked around Oxford Street for a bit, going into bookstores and just looking around.
Later that night we went to see “The 39 Steps”, a show you may not have heard of but you definitely need to check out. It’s a hilarious show where only 4 people play a couple dozen roles. Spoiler Alert: The protagonist, Richard Hannay, is accused of killing a Annabella Schmidt in his apartment, a woman who was a double agent before her tragic demise with a knife in her back. Before she dies, she tells Richard that a terrible secret is about to leave the country and he alone must stop this from happening. Dodging the ever persistent police, Hannay meets the Professor, who turns out to be the very man who is smuggling the information of the 39 steps out of the country. Richard meets Margaret in his journeys and is handcuffed to her by the police to prevent him from escaping. But escape he does, with Margaret along for the journey. Through a series of zany and hilarious events, Hannay and Margaret end up in London to see Mr. Memory, who is the only person who has the information the Professor is looking for. The Professor is shot, along with Mr. Memory, and both die a very long, very dramatic, very funny death. Mr. Memory is able to reveal the secret he has been hiding: the formula to make a fighter jet completely silent. Hannay and Margaret are married and live happily ever after.
The whole play was ridiculous and hilarious. The woman who played the three female parts used dramatic, exaggerated accents that made every character different and funny. The two men who played every role but Hannay’s changed into a couple dozen different hats and costumes to play different parts. At one point one of the men was playing two roles at once, one of the assistant to Mr. Memory and the other of the police. He had his trench coat half on and would turn to one side and talk as the assistant to the police, then turn and talk as the police to the assistant. The show also made very good use of very cheep props. They would take three chests and made them be the furniture of a room then the carts on a train then the seats in a car. There were also very entertaining sound and light effects that went perfectly with the crazy queues on stage. The show was amazing and a very good choice for my first West End show (seeing as the whole Wicked thing didn’t work out, but enough about that).
After the show we walked around Piccadilly Circus and Charring Cross road. We saw a group of people that were camping out for the Eclipse premier on Thursday. All the London premiers happen in St. James Square at the Odeon Theater. The girls wanted to go clubbing, so I went back to my room and happily went to sleep.
British word of the day: cinema = theater. Going to see movies is at the cinema. Going to see shows is at the theater.
day 12
Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, I’ve been super busy. Thanks to everyone for your kind words on Monday. Everything is hopefully going to work out with Wicked. It turns out the tickets were actually there at the box office, but because they didn’t take two seconds to look under the right name, the tickets were left unused. It’s that a kick in the head? But everyone at Proscenium worked very had to resolve the problem and now I am told I will be given our four tickets, real, honest to God, hold in your hand tickets, this weekend when we go to Bath and Stonehenge with Proscenium for next Monday night. So keep your fingers crossed that everything works out as it should.
Tuesday morning means waking up and going to class. Today was a very nice lecture because we were told that our Wednesday lecture was canceled because our lecturer was sick (wishing a speedy recovery to her). So that meant that today we were going to do Wednesday and Tuesday’s lecture in one day. This didn’t sound good, until she told us she’d just be going over the gist of both lectures and then going over the test questions from both sections with us so we wouldn’t be at a disadvantage. So that was great. We did the lecture on Dreams, where we pretty much learned we still don’t know why we dream, but it’s important that we do. We learned that symbolic interpretation of dreams isn’t really all that accurate because people try to put blanket meanings to things in dream when everyone has had a different experience and things have different meanings for different individuals. Then we went through the lecture on the placebo effect, which is a neutral treatment that doesn’t really do anything and how if people think they are getting medicine, they will see actual results. It’s sort of like it’s all in your head, but it can actually make you better if you think you’re being cured of something. Then we went over the actually test questions from those two sections and, of course, I wrote them all down. So I’ll at least get 10% on this test.
After class I went with Lindsey and Bryan to Camden Street market, a really crazy and cool place. There are tons of tattoo parlors and people selling things. We walked up and down the rows of tiny shops, mostly selling tourist stuff, but there were a lot of people that sold tee shirts the designed or art they painted. It was a very eclectic and fun place.
After spending a lot of time there we waited at the dorm to go to our Jack the Ripper walk. This is a walk through the locations (or near the locations) of the murders of 5 prostitutes that Jack the Ripper did really horrible things to. This was done by Proscenium, as are all of the Westminster cultural events. It was a very interesting tour. There were a bunch of other groups there with different companies, so we had to complete for space sometimes. Jack the Ripper was, of course, never caught, and there are a lot of theories as to who he was. But who ever he was, he was a sick old freak. Each time he killed, the scene was more brutal and violent. He would cut the throat of the woman then go to town cutting her up and removing all sorts of things that are meant to be kept inside. It’s amazing what someone could get away with in Victorian London. At night it was practically pitch black in the tiny alleys, and there were drunk prostitutes all over the place because that’s the only job a woman could really do, so they were pretty easy targets. After the 5th woman he killed, Jack the Ripper disappeared off the face of the map, and no one really knows who did it today.
After the walk my friends and I decided we wanted to get something to eat, so we walked around for a while. We were on the South bank, so we went to a place called the Giraffe and got desserts. Allie and I again shared a waffle with ice cream, bananas, and chocolate sauce. It was very nice to sit outside and talk over dessert.
Then we walked along the south bank of looked at the Thames at night. You couldn’t se how brown it is, so it looked quite nice. Parliament and Big Ben were all lit up, so we took some pictures, then walked back to our dorm, which is actually pretty close to Parliament.
British word of the day: peckish = hungry
Tuesday morning means waking up and going to class. Today was a very nice lecture because we were told that our Wednesday lecture was canceled because our lecturer was sick (wishing a speedy recovery to her). So that meant that today we were going to do Wednesday and Tuesday’s lecture in one day. This didn’t sound good, until she told us she’d just be going over the gist of both lectures and then going over the test questions from both sections with us so we wouldn’t be at a disadvantage. So that was great. We did the lecture on Dreams, where we pretty much learned we still don’t know why we dream, but it’s important that we do. We learned that symbolic interpretation of dreams isn’t really all that accurate because people try to put blanket meanings to things in dream when everyone has had a different experience and things have different meanings for different individuals. Then we went through the lecture on the placebo effect, which is a neutral treatment that doesn’t really do anything and how if people think they are getting medicine, they will see actual results. It’s sort of like it’s all in your head, but it can actually make you better if you think you’re being cured of something. Then we went over the actually test questions from those two sections and, of course, I wrote them all down. So I’ll at least get 10% on this test.
After class I went with Lindsey and Bryan to Camden Street market, a really crazy and cool place. There are tons of tattoo parlors and people selling things. We walked up and down the rows of tiny shops, mostly selling tourist stuff, but there were a lot of people that sold tee shirts the designed or art they painted. It was a very eclectic and fun place.
After spending a lot of time there we waited at the dorm to go to our Jack the Ripper walk. This is a walk through the locations (or near the locations) of the murders of 5 prostitutes that Jack the Ripper did really horrible things to. This was done by Proscenium, as are all of the Westminster cultural events. It was a very interesting tour. There were a bunch of other groups there with different companies, so we had to complete for space sometimes. Jack the Ripper was, of course, never caught, and there are a lot of theories as to who he was. But who ever he was, he was a sick old freak. Each time he killed, the scene was more brutal and violent. He would cut the throat of the woman then go to town cutting her up and removing all sorts of things that are meant to be kept inside. It’s amazing what someone could get away with in Victorian London. At night it was practically pitch black in the tiny alleys, and there were drunk prostitutes all over the place because that’s the only job a woman could really do, so they were pretty easy targets. After the 5th woman he killed, Jack the Ripper disappeared off the face of the map, and no one really knows who did it today.
After the walk my friends and I decided we wanted to get something to eat, so we walked around for a while. We were on the South bank, so we went to a place called the Giraffe and got desserts. Allie and I again shared a waffle with ice cream, bananas, and chocolate sauce. It was very nice to sit outside and talk over dessert.
Then we walked along the south bank of looked at the Thames at night. You couldn’t se how brown it is, so it looked quite nice. Parliament and Big Ben were all lit up, so we took some pictures, then walked back to our dorm, which is actually pretty close to Parliament.
British word of the day: peckish = hungry
Monday, June 28, 2010
day 11
Today started out like most other school days, with me not wanting to get up. But up I got and after a quick breakfast I was off to class with a few of my friends. It is just crazy hot over here. I brought all sorts of things to be comfortable in the dreary English weather, but it's just been a week of hot, and it's going to be another week of hot. I guess it's a good excuse to buy some new clothes.
Again we had a new lecturer in class today. I guess it's normal to do that over here. Anyway, today we talked about probability and chance, which was actually pretty interesting. We talked about how people are really bad at rationally looking at the probability of something happening and we should take a step back sometimes and really weigh the probability of something happening. Like in gambling. Every spin of the roulette wheel is independent, meaning they have no bearing on each other. Just because the ball lands on red three times in a row there is no reason at all to expect that it will land on black next. It's a 50 50 chance either way, no matter what. We also learned that if you play the game show where there are three doors and you have to choose one, and then the host shows a door with no prize, then asks if you want to switch or stay, it is statistically better to switch every time to another door. Don't ask me how it's determined, because it will fill up more than this blog can hold, but it's always statistically better to switch. Remember that next time you're on a game show.
I didn't have anything to do for the afternoon until Wicked that night, so I bought lunch at that lovely French place near campus, and I got a tart this time.I do love tarts. My sandwich was a baguette with poppy seeds with chicken, lettuce, tomato, and English mustard. I was going to just eat it in my room, but then I remembered that I said I would always do something cool every day, so I took my lunch to the park near my building and ate it there while reading my school book. I needed to waste a lot of time anyway because we weren't leaving for Wicked until 6:30.
I spent some lovely time in the park, the pigeons getting dangerously close again, then went back to my dorm. I read and wasted time until 6:00 and started to get ready for the show. I was so super excited. My stomach hurt a little I was so excited. I made a sandwich (I do eat a lot of sandwiches here) with crisps then found my group for Wicked. We got on the tube a little later than I had wanted and were delayed a bit because we weren't familiar with that part of the tube. It was a new section for us, but we made our transfer and got to Victoria station, the nearest stop to Apollo Victoria Theater, where Wicked plays in London.
After a little more confusion we got in the queue to get our tickets. I had been told by Eric on Sunday, who is with the company that does our social events and got us our tickets, that I was to go up and say "I'm Michael with Proscenium" and they would give us the four tickets. Well, I did that, and they said they didn't have the tickets. I said "Could you check under Michael Burson?" and again there were no tickets. At this point I was panicking and irate. I called the number on our piece of paper for Proscenium and of course they were closed. So I left a half confused half very irritated message with them. Then we called our director and asked her what to do (API and Westminster and Proscenium are all separate things, probably why this is such a difficult process). Rachel was very much on our side and told us we should get back in the line and try looking under Westminter as well, and that she would call some people tomorrow morning. So I got back in the queue and waited to get to the ticket office again. Half way through the girls came and told me that that curtain had been called and even if we got the tickets now we would have to wait until intermission. And again, when I got to the ticket office and talked to a new person and asked for any name I could connect to us, they had no tickets.
At this point I was pretty much crushed. I have been wanting to see Wicked for years. I've been in love with it sense I first heard a few of the songs on the show's website and fell madly in love when I bought the soundtrack. It seems that just about everyone I've talked to has seen it and never once have I heard anything against it. It's always "I loved it! Wish I could see it again!" I was very much hoping to become one of those people tonight. But nope, not this time.
As we walked from the theater, the girls cheered me up by badmouthing everyone we could possibly think of to be responsible for this serious mix up and promising that no matter what, they would get me to this show. They really made me feel good at a moment I wanted to sit down and cry then get up and scream then punch some people. The girls decided they needed a drink so we found a pub and got an appetizer plate of food I was used to in America: potato wedges, chips and salsa, garlic bread, and sausages. We talked about other things for a while as I drank my Pepsi that was all soda water and very little Pepsi. They wanted another round but I wanted to go back, so I walked back to the tube and made my way back to the dorm.
It's very true that I still have 2 weeks here, and I'm sure that somehow this mess will be resolved and we'll get new tickets and everything will be rainbows in our tea. Mark my words, as God as my witness, I will see Wicked before I leave the banks of this country!! But it was still an incredibly disappointing end to a day that promised so much.
British word of the day: wicked = cool or awesome.
Again we had a new lecturer in class today. I guess it's normal to do that over here. Anyway, today we talked about probability and chance, which was actually pretty interesting. We talked about how people are really bad at rationally looking at the probability of something happening and we should take a step back sometimes and really weigh the probability of something happening. Like in gambling. Every spin of the roulette wheel is independent, meaning they have no bearing on each other. Just because the ball lands on red three times in a row there is no reason at all to expect that it will land on black next. It's a 50 50 chance either way, no matter what. We also learned that if you play the game show where there are three doors and you have to choose one, and then the host shows a door with no prize, then asks if you want to switch or stay, it is statistically better to switch every time to another door. Don't ask me how it's determined, because it will fill up more than this blog can hold, but it's always statistically better to switch. Remember that next time you're on a game show.
I didn't have anything to do for the afternoon until Wicked that night, so I bought lunch at that lovely French place near campus, and I got a tart this time.I do love tarts. My sandwich was a baguette with poppy seeds with chicken, lettuce, tomato, and English mustard. I was going to just eat it in my room, but then I remembered that I said I would always do something cool every day, so I took my lunch to the park near my building and ate it there while reading my school book. I needed to waste a lot of time anyway because we weren't leaving for Wicked until 6:30.
I spent some lovely time in the park, the pigeons getting dangerously close again, then went back to my dorm. I read and wasted time until 6:00 and started to get ready for the show. I was so super excited. My stomach hurt a little I was so excited. I made a sandwich (I do eat a lot of sandwiches here) with crisps then found my group for Wicked. We got on the tube a little later than I had wanted and were delayed a bit because we weren't familiar with that part of the tube. It was a new section for us, but we made our transfer and got to Victoria station, the nearest stop to Apollo Victoria Theater, where Wicked plays in London.
After a little more confusion we got in the queue to get our tickets. I had been told by Eric on Sunday, who is with the company that does our social events and got us our tickets, that I was to go up and say "I'm Michael with Proscenium" and they would give us the four tickets. Well, I did that, and they said they didn't have the tickets. I said "Could you check under Michael Burson?" and again there were no tickets. At this point I was panicking and irate. I called the number on our piece of paper for Proscenium and of course they were closed. So I left a half confused half very irritated message with them. Then we called our director and asked her what to do (API and Westminster and Proscenium are all separate things, probably why this is such a difficult process). Rachel was very much on our side and told us we should get back in the line and try looking under Westminter as well, and that she would call some people tomorrow morning. So I got back in the queue and waited to get to the ticket office again. Half way through the girls came and told me that that curtain had been called and even if we got the tickets now we would have to wait until intermission. And again, when I got to the ticket office and talked to a new person and asked for any name I could connect to us, they had no tickets.
At this point I was pretty much crushed. I have been wanting to see Wicked for years. I've been in love with it sense I first heard a few of the songs on the show's website and fell madly in love when I bought the soundtrack. It seems that just about everyone I've talked to has seen it and never once have I heard anything against it. It's always "I loved it! Wish I could see it again!" I was very much hoping to become one of those people tonight. But nope, not this time.
As we walked from the theater, the girls cheered me up by badmouthing everyone we could possibly think of to be responsible for this serious mix up and promising that no matter what, they would get me to this show. They really made me feel good at a moment I wanted to sit down and cry then get up and scream then punch some people. The girls decided they needed a drink so we found a pub and got an appetizer plate of food I was used to in America: potato wedges, chips and salsa, garlic bread, and sausages. We talked about other things for a while as I drank my Pepsi that was all soda water and very little Pepsi. They wanted another round but I wanted to go back, so I walked back to the tube and made my way back to the dorm.
It's very true that I still have 2 weeks here, and I'm sure that somehow this mess will be resolved and we'll get new tickets and everything will be rainbows in our tea. Mark my words, as God as my witness, I will see Wicked before I leave the banks of this country!! But it was still an incredibly disappointing end to a day that promised so much.
British word of the day: wicked = cool or awesome.
day 10
Had to wake up quite early this morning to get breakfast and get on the bus. I got double seats again, so I was able to nap on the bus throughout the day, so the early wake up wasn’t that big a deal.
W got on the bus and made our way to the Brecon Beacons National Park and got to the Bit Pit mining museum. The national park was really lovely. Everything was green and there were hills and trees all over the place. Today was the hottest day on record or something like that at a scorching 82 degrees Fahrenheit (that was sarcasm, it wasn’t that hot unless you stood out in it. I’d like to see some Londoners at band camp, then we’ll see what they think is hot. Then again, I wouldn’t want to be here in the winter, so I guess it balances out.)
Bit Pit was once a very thriving coalmine, but today it is a museum to the miners and the mine itself. We got about half way up a hill and there were a bunch of big wheels and machines that used to be used in the mining. We all got out and got in line to go into the mine. They said we would be going 300 hundred feet down, which wasn’t so horrible. I’ve been in caves before and I was sure it wouldn’t be that different. I was with a lot of my friends, but I also had the misfortune of being with a lot of very screamy, whiny, complaining girls who freaked out about everything and said things like “This is NOT cool” and “Is it going to be dark down there?” They were also all wearing flip-flops, tank tops, and shorts, and for anyone who has ever been underground, you know how cold it is. They all complained that we should have been told that it would be wet and muddy down there. I was thinking “We’re going into a COAL MINE. What did you think it was going to be like? Rainbows in your tea?”
Anyway, we got equipped with our hard hats and flashlights and descended into the mine. Our guide was a nice old man who had been a miner when he was younger, before the mine was shut down. All of the guides were one-time miners, so they were filled with stories that, to be honest, were very depressing. They all pretty much went “No air, no light, no happiness.”
Once we were down, we started walking through the different tunnels inside the mine. Most of the walls were held up by timbers, and they were a little moldy, so there was a constant sour smell about the place. We learned how miserable and hard a miners life was from our guide. They actually kept horses down there. There was a stable and everything. The horses pulled the carks that were filled with coal to the lift and back again, for 12 hour shifts. Everyone was one 12 hour shifts. Our guide said the horses could live for 10 years if nothing happened to them, which I thought was a really long time. But there were so many dangers in the mine that many horses didn’t last long anyway.
There were also children employed by the mines. They would be the ones to sit at the doors and open and close them throughout the mine. There was a very complicated system of doors throughout the mine that had to be closed and opened in certain ways or else the air in the mine would woosh out, the methane gas would build up, and everything would explode. Not a very happy place.
But it was cool to see the coal still in the walls of the mine. It was right there in front of me and it put some insight as to just where coal comes from. In general, it’s not very happy and it’s a lot of terribly hard work. And if you didn’t die in the mine, you lived the rest of your life on oxygen and with a cane because of all the diseases you get.
We finally got out, and seeing the sun again was very nice. I wasn’t able to take any pictures because there are still traces of methane gas in the mine, so they don’t let anyone bring cameras, watches, or cell phones in to the mine. We got back on the bus and made our way to where we would have lunch. This time we did a lot better at eating, and ate at the first place we came to, the Robin Hood Restaurant, and ordered right away. I got a chicken sandwich that was very good.
Back on the bus again. Erik talked A LOT about English history, and I phased in and out in my double seat. Our final stop was Tintern Abbey, an abbey where monks of the White Order lived. These monks were supposed to live a life of discomfort and obtaining from anything that makes you happy, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at this place. It was really huge. I wasn’t expecting it to be so large. I was imagining a big church, but this place was more like a cathedral. It was in ruins, but was still amazing to look at.
We walked around for about an hour and got back on the bus for the final time to come back to London. Being out the country was nice, but being in London is so much better. You can do anything here and there’s always something cool to do. I was glad to be back.
British word of the day: fancy dress = costume. So if anyone invites you to a fancy dress party, don't wear a ball gown, wear a costume.
W got on the bus and made our way to the Brecon Beacons National Park and got to the Bit Pit mining museum. The national park was really lovely. Everything was green and there were hills and trees all over the place. Today was the hottest day on record or something like that at a scorching 82 degrees Fahrenheit (that was sarcasm, it wasn’t that hot unless you stood out in it. I’d like to see some Londoners at band camp, then we’ll see what they think is hot. Then again, I wouldn’t want to be here in the winter, so I guess it balances out.)
Bit Pit was once a very thriving coalmine, but today it is a museum to the miners and the mine itself. We got about half way up a hill and there were a bunch of big wheels and machines that used to be used in the mining. We all got out and got in line to go into the mine. They said we would be going 300 hundred feet down, which wasn’t so horrible. I’ve been in caves before and I was sure it wouldn’t be that different. I was with a lot of my friends, but I also had the misfortune of being with a lot of very screamy, whiny, complaining girls who freaked out about everything and said things like “This is NOT cool” and “Is it going to be dark down there?” They were also all wearing flip-flops, tank tops, and shorts, and for anyone who has ever been underground, you know how cold it is. They all complained that we should have been told that it would be wet and muddy down there. I was thinking “We’re going into a COAL MINE. What did you think it was going to be like? Rainbows in your tea?”
Anyway, we got equipped with our hard hats and flashlights and descended into the mine. Our guide was a nice old man who had been a miner when he was younger, before the mine was shut down. All of the guides were one-time miners, so they were filled with stories that, to be honest, were very depressing. They all pretty much went “No air, no light, no happiness.”
Once we were down, we started walking through the different tunnels inside the mine. Most of the walls were held up by timbers, and they were a little moldy, so there was a constant sour smell about the place. We learned how miserable and hard a miners life was from our guide. They actually kept horses down there. There was a stable and everything. The horses pulled the carks that were filled with coal to the lift and back again, for 12 hour shifts. Everyone was one 12 hour shifts. Our guide said the horses could live for 10 years if nothing happened to them, which I thought was a really long time. But there were so many dangers in the mine that many horses didn’t last long anyway.
There were also children employed by the mines. They would be the ones to sit at the doors and open and close them throughout the mine. There was a very complicated system of doors throughout the mine that had to be closed and opened in certain ways or else the air in the mine would woosh out, the methane gas would build up, and everything would explode. Not a very happy place.
But it was cool to see the coal still in the walls of the mine. It was right there in front of me and it put some insight as to just where coal comes from. In general, it’s not very happy and it’s a lot of terribly hard work. And if you didn’t die in the mine, you lived the rest of your life on oxygen and with a cane because of all the diseases you get.
We finally got out, and seeing the sun again was very nice. I wasn’t able to take any pictures because there are still traces of methane gas in the mine, so they don’t let anyone bring cameras, watches, or cell phones in to the mine. We got back on the bus and made our way to where we would have lunch. This time we did a lot better at eating, and ate at the first place we came to, the Robin Hood Restaurant, and ordered right away. I got a chicken sandwich that was very good.
Back on the bus again. Erik talked A LOT about English history, and I phased in and out in my double seat. Our final stop was Tintern Abbey, an abbey where monks of the White Order lived. These monks were supposed to live a life of discomfort and obtaining from anything that makes you happy, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at this place. It was really huge. I wasn’t expecting it to be so large. I was imagining a big church, but this place was more like a cathedral. It was in ruins, but was still amazing to look at.
We walked around for about an hour and got back on the bus for the final time to come back to London. Being out the country was nice, but being in London is so much better. You can do anything here and there’s always something cool to do. I was glad to be back.
British word of the day: fancy dress = costume. So if anyone invites you to a fancy dress party, don't wear a ball gown, wear a costume.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
day 9
I spent this weekend in Wales with the Westminster group. Wales is a lovely country, all green and alive. And it actually has hills, which were very welcome after all this flatness. I feel like I should explain some things before I get started. Great Britain is made up of four separate parts: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. You can think of these places as states, but more fancy. They are each slightly independent, but mostly under control of the British Parliament. Scotland has its own Parliament and Wales has a Council, where they can make their own laws for their own country, but they all answer to London.
Wales used to be where pretty much all the coal for the British Empire was mined. It had huge mines where tons and tons of coal were mined to fuel ships and trains and factories. 1 in 10 Welsh citizens worked in coalmines, men, women, and children at times. But in the 1980s after a lot of labor strikes and unions, Margaret Thatcher’s government shut down all of the coalmines, making unemployment skyrocket. Wales is only now beginning to get over the huge unemployment slump.
Anyway, enough of that. I had to get up super early this morning to meet the buses at Madame Tussauds (something else I need to visit) to get on the coaches (buses). I was able to get a double seat near my friends, so the ride was looking good. Our coach’s guide was Eric, and if you ever want to know anything about the UK, he’s the one to go to. Over our long bus rides I learned more history from him than I dare to even try to put on here. I learned where the term “Keep you eyes peeled” came from (it was from Bobbies (policemen) when they were under a guy, I think named Peeler, who wanted them to be very vigilant about their duties) and “sleep tight” (when people slept on straw mattresses in wooded frames they would tighten ropes around the bed to keep the mattress from sagging). He also told us very long stories about the succession of kings throughout the history of England, which is a very, very long tale.
So we drove and drove all the way to Wales and we went to the Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre and Soldier barracks, which were very interesting. Though there was little left but the foundations of where the Roman soldiers stayed, Erik told us, again, a lot of information about Roman life in Britain. They had a very good sewer system that kept everything moving, unlike the moats around most castles were everything just sits and festers. It was all very planned out and effective.
The Amphitheatre was even better. It still had many of the stone walls that surrounded the main pit and had a lot of alcoves that we all enjoyed taking pictures in. I learned a few things about amphitheatres as well. In rural areas like where we were there were not the big gladiator battles and lion and bear death matches. It was probably fighting until first blood, as they didn’t want to be killing all their soldiers off and all the professional gladiators were off in cities where they could get money for their work. The men here probably would have fought wolves or wild bores instead of the big flashy animals.
We left the Roman stuff behind and moved into the medieval era. We drove onto Caerphilly Castle, a huge ancient castle, also mostly in ruins, but still beautiful and fascinating. But there was a lot of problems that came with this. We had to get lunch in the village next to the castle. Seeing as we’ve never been there before, we decided to eat at the supermarket, because they had a café and that would be a quick bite to eat then off to the castle. Just one problem: everyone had he exact same idea. And we were the last in line. So we stood in line at this supermarket for about 50 minutes, and we only had an hour until we met at the castle for our tour. So we finally got to order (I got sausage and mash) and sat down. Then we had to wait forever for the food to get there. Then the food was boiling hot, so I was trying to eat it as fast as I could and it was burning my mouth. My group was totally stressed and just wanted to leave and see the castle.
So we finally finished all our stupid food and we were 10 minutes late for the tour, so they said we should wait and Erik would come back and get us. I didn’t want to do that because that meant more standing around and less seeing the amazing ancient castle. So I went ahead inside and my group followed and we got on the tail end of Erik telling everyone about the castle. I was really disappointed because even though he talked a lot, he really knew his stuff and made it really relatable. Then we moved into the great hall and Erik talked some more about the history of the castle, which was very interesting, even though I can’t really remember it.
Then we only had 40 minutes to see the amazing castle. So I raced around and tried to see as many rooms as I could an took lots of pictures. And of course there were other students from the group all over the place, making the spiral staircases that I usually love nearly impossible to go up or down them. I had to use some ninja moves to get down some of them because there always seemed to be people coming up or down the other side.
But it was a really cool place despite all these things. I could have spent half a day there, walking around the rooms and staircases, finding all the little nooks and secret places. Something I’ve realized when you go to castles is that you start pretending you own them. You go into the great hall and can’t help but pretend you’re a king at a feast and all these people are here to see you. And don’t think it’s just me who does this! Everyone in my group said the same thing, so don’t think I’m on some ego trip.
Anyway, once our very short time at the castle was up we got back on the bus and made our way to St Fagan’s Museum of Welsh Life. For all of you who plan on traveling to Wales in you life, this is something you don’t need to feel bad about leaving out of the itinerary. It’s a big area they’ve used to recreate the buildings the Welsh used in the old days for farming and such. And guess what. Peasants in Wales live like peasants in England live like pilgrims in America: in tiny little houses with tiny fields and tiny barns. It was super boring. It really didn’t look any different from the recreation of the settler’s farm in Cherokee, except that it had a lot more trees and sheep. And we had some much time there! We should have spent that time at the awesome castle! The only cool think about it was there was a fancy manor house on a hill behind the farm area that had a beautiful garden. We walked around in there until it was time to leave. That’s when Erik found me and told me our Wicked tickets had been confirmed for Monday night! Huzzah!!
We then drove to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, to get to our hotel. Cardiff is a pretty small city, as in there are few very tall buildings, but it was fine just the same. We stayed at an Etap, which meant bunk beds. Fortunately, my roommate said he would take the top, which made sense because I was taller anyway. What was weird about our room was the shower. It had no handle, but a hole in the door to open it. I’m glad I wasn’t planning on taking a shower in there, because anyone passing by could totally see into it. I’m not saying my room was part of a parade route of people who wanted to looking into my shower door hole, but it was still there.
My friends and I decided we wanted to go to a pub for dinner because most of the people in my group wanted to watch the USA vs. Ghana football (soccer) game. I could care less, but pubs mean good food, so we went to the Prince of Wales. This was different from the Prince of Wales we went to in London, and was much, much bigger and much nicer. They also had a very cheap menu. I wanted a steak, but they were all out of steak, so I got a kind of pork streak that had pineapple on top that was very good with chips (fries). I split a fantastic and easy dessert with Allie for 2 pounds. It was a Belgium waffle with chocolate sauce on top, and three scopes of ice cream. It was amazing!
USA lost the football match, but I didn’t care to begin with. Then because it was still light out we went to what I thought was a bar but turned out to be a club. I mostly sat there while everyone else drank. What was interesting about this place was that there were about a dozen different “stag” and “hen” parties, which were bachelor and bachelorette parties. And all the different parties had people dressed up in really strange costumes, like nurses or princesses, all completely gaudy. The guys were even worse. One group was all dressed up like women in spandex leotards and big fake knockers. It was all really crazy.
My friends wanted to go downstairs and dance, so I went with them and bounced to the music I didn’t recognize. But then they played Bad Romance (Lady Gaga of course) and then I had a great time because I actually knew what was going on. But for the rest of the night it was just ok to me. I’ve really come to understand that fun for me does not mean going out to the club and getting drunk (which I of course have never done). Fun to me is going out to have a fancy or interesting dinner, or seeing a show (like Wicked!!!) or seeing a really funny movie. Those are the things I really get excited about doing and have the most fun at, and I’m fine with that. It’s not better or worse than other forms of fun, but there are a lot less creepy old men at my places.
After a while at that place Allie and I decided we were done and walked back to the hotel. I went right to sleep before my roommate even came back.
British word of the day: subway = a walkway that goes under the road for pedestrians, not a train. That's the underground or tube.
Wales used to be where pretty much all the coal for the British Empire was mined. It had huge mines where tons and tons of coal were mined to fuel ships and trains and factories. 1 in 10 Welsh citizens worked in coalmines, men, women, and children at times. But in the 1980s after a lot of labor strikes and unions, Margaret Thatcher’s government shut down all of the coalmines, making unemployment skyrocket. Wales is only now beginning to get over the huge unemployment slump.
Anyway, enough of that. I had to get up super early this morning to meet the buses at Madame Tussauds (something else I need to visit) to get on the coaches (buses). I was able to get a double seat near my friends, so the ride was looking good. Our coach’s guide was Eric, and if you ever want to know anything about the UK, he’s the one to go to. Over our long bus rides I learned more history from him than I dare to even try to put on here. I learned where the term “Keep you eyes peeled” came from (it was from Bobbies (policemen) when they were under a guy, I think named Peeler, who wanted them to be very vigilant about their duties) and “sleep tight” (when people slept on straw mattresses in wooded frames they would tighten ropes around the bed to keep the mattress from sagging). He also told us very long stories about the succession of kings throughout the history of England, which is a very, very long tale.
So we drove and drove all the way to Wales and we went to the Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre and Soldier barracks, which were very interesting. Though there was little left but the foundations of where the Roman soldiers stayed, Erik told us, again, a lot of information about Roman life in Britain. They had a very good sewer system that kept everything moving, unlike the moats around most castles were everything just sits and festers. It was all very planned out and effective.
The Amphitheatre was even better. It still had many of the stone walls that surrounded the main pit and had a lot of alcoves that we all enjoyed taking pictures in. I learned a few things about amphitheatres as well. In rural areas like where we were there were not the big gladiator battles and lion and bear death matches. It was probably fighting until first blood, as they didn’t want to be killing all their soldiers off and all the professional gladiators were off in cities where they could get money for their work. The men here probably would have fought wolves or wild bores instead of the big flashy animals.
We left the Roman stuff behind and moved into the medieval era. We drove onto Caerphilly Castle, a huge ancient castle, also mostly in ruins, but still beautiful and fascinating. But there was a lot of problems that came with this. We had to get lunch in the village next to the castle. Seeing as we’ve never been there before, we decided to eat at the supermarket, because they had a café and that would be a quick bite to eat then off to the castle. Just one problem: everyone had he exact same idea. And we were the last in line. So we stood in line at this supermarket for about 50 minutes, and we only had an hour until we met at the castle for our tour. So we finally got to order (I got sausage and mash) and sat down. Then we had to wait forever for the food to get there. Then the food was boiling hot, so I was trying to eat it as fast as I could and it was burning my mouth. My group was totally stressed and just wanted to leave and see the castle.
So we finally finished all our stupid food and we were 10 minutes late for the tour, so they said we should wait and Erik would come back and get us. I didn’t want to do that because that meant more standing around and less seeing the amazing ancient castle. So I went ahead inside and my group followed and we got on the tail end of Erik telling everyone about the castle. I was really disappointed because even though he talked a lot, he really knew his stuff and made it really relatable. Then we moved into the great hall and Erik talked some more about the history of the castle, which was very interesting, even though I can’t really remember it.
Then we only had 40 minutes to see the amazing castle. So I raced around and tried to see as many rooms as I could an took lots of pictures. And of course there were other students from the group all over the place, making the spiral staircases that I usually love nearly impossible to go up or down them. I had to use some ninja moves to get down some of them because there always seemed to be people coming up or down the other side.
But it was a really cool place despite all these things. I could have spent half a day there, walking around the rooms and staircases, finding all the little nooks and secret places. Something I’ve realized when you go to castles is that you start pretending you own them. You go into the great hall and can’t help but pretend you’re a king at a feast and all these people are here to see you. And don’t think it’s just me who does this! Everyone in my group said the same thing, so don’t think I’m on some ego trip.
Anyway, once our very short time at the castle was up we got back on the bus and made our way to St Fagan’s Museum of Welsh Life. For all of you who plan on traveling to Wales in you life, this is something you don’t need to feel bad about leaving out of the itinerary. It’s a big area they’ve used to recreate the buildings the Welsh used in the old days for farming and such. And guess what. Peasants in Wales live like peasants in England live like pilgrims in America: in tiny little houses with tiny fields and tiny barns. It was super boring. It really didn’t look any different from the recreation of the settler’s farm in Cherokee, except that it had a lot more trees and sheep. And we had some much time there! We should have spent that time at the awesome castle! The only cool think about it was there was a fancy manor house on a hill behind the farm area that had a beautiful garden. We walked around in there until it was time to leave. That’s when Erik found me and told me our Wicked tickets had been confirmed for Monday night! Huzzah!!
We then drove to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, to get to our hotel. Cardiff is a pretty small city, as in there are few very tall buildings, but it was fine just the same. We stayed at an Etap, which meant bunk beds. Fortunately, my roommate said he would take the top, which made sense because I was taller anyway. What was weird about our room was the shower. It had no handle, but a hole in the door to open it. I’m glad I wasn’t planning on taking a shower in there, because anyone passing by could totally see into it. I’m not saying my room was part of a parade route of people who wanted to looking into my shower door hole, but it was still there.
My friends and I decided we wanted to go to a pub for dinner because most of the people in my group wanted to watch the USA vs. Ghana football (soccer) game. I could care less, but pubs mean good food, so we went to the Prince of Wales. This was different from the Prince of Wales we went to in London, and was much, much bigger and much nicer. They also had a very cheap menu. I wanted a steak, but they were all out of steak, so I got a kind of pork streak that had pineapple on top that was very good with chips (fries). I split a fantastic and easy dessert with Allie for 2 pounds. It was a Belgium waffle with chocolate sauce on top, and three scopes of ice cream. It was amazing!
USA lost the football match, but I didn’t care to begin with. Then because it was still light out we went to what I thought was a bar but turned out to be a club. I mostly sat there while everyone else drank. What was interesting about this place was that there were about a dozen different “stag” and “hen” parties, which were bachelor and bachelorette parties. And all the different parties had people dressed up in really strange costumes, like nurses or princesses, all completely gaudy. The guys were even worse. One group was all dressed up like women in spandex leotards and big fake knockers. It was all really crazy.
My friends wanted to go downstairs and dance, so I went with them and bounced to the music I didn’t recognize. But then they played Bad Romance (Lady Gaga of course) and then I had a great time because I actually knew what was going on. But for the rest of the night it was just ok to me. I’ve really come to understand that fun for me does not mean going out to the club and getting drunk (which I of course have never done). Fun to me is going out to have a fancy or interesting dinner, or seeing a show (like Wicked!!!) or seeing a really funny movie. Those are the things I really get excited about doing and have the most fun at, and I’m fine with that. It’s not better or worse than other forms of fun, but there are a lot less creepy old men at my places.
After a while at that place Allie and I decided we were done and walked back to the hotel. I went right to sleep before my roommate even came back.
British word of the day: subway = a walkway that goes under the road for pedestrians, not a train. That's the underground or tube.
day 8
Today was pretty much filled up with one event: going to Hampton Court palace, home of King Henry VIII. I actually got to sleep in this morning, which was fabulous. This was just an API trip, so I met my group downstairs and we were off to the train station. We met Rachel, our director, her son, her mother this time as a helper for the baby, and Alex, our assistant director.
The train ride was very nice, and I listened to Mugglecast, my favorite Harry Potter podcast from mugglenet.com the whole way over. For those of you who don’t know, a podcast is something Apple does where people record shows about particular topics and put them on iTunes for people to download for free. I highly recommend them as they come is just about any subject you could be interested in, and they’re free. This week’s Mugglecast was all about the new Harry Potter theme park in Orlando and it made me very excited to go next fall with Potter Watch.
We got to the little village where the palace was and made the short walk to the palace itself. Though Hampton Court is not terribly tall, it does cover a lot of area, and it really quite huge. It’s all made out of red brick on the outside and it filled with all kinds of apartments and living spaces that have been restored to the way they looked by in Henry VIII’s time.
The first thing we wanted to do was get lunch, so we walked through the beautiful gardens to the café. I wanted to get something that looked very British for lunch, so I got what I though was a kind of meat pie with potatoes and a pistachio cake. But the meat pie was not a meat pie, though it looked like it. I can’t even begin to guess what it might have been. It tasted familiar, but I could not place what it was. Shannon got the same thing and she said she couldn’t tell what it was either. It was uniform all the way through and it sort of had the texture of a not-all-the-way-baked potato. It tasted all right, but I may never know what it was I was eating.
After the mystery lunch we were all feeling better so we started our tour of the palace. We saw all the huge kitchens where all the huge meals were prepared. They ate a lot of meat pies back then, but the pie part wasn’t eaten. It was sort of like a disposable cooking pot. They would put the boiled meat in the crust and cook it all together, then they would eat the meet and through away the crust. Henry’s court went through crazy amounts of meat. The audio guide said that his court moved around the country, eating and eating until there was nothing left in that area, then moved on to a new palace where they bankrupted the people. I’m really glad I wasn’t a peasant in that time.
We walked all through the great halls and great bedrooms and great hallways and listen to the audio tour tell us things. The audio tour was informative but it talked about each room for too long. I was done looking at a room and it was still going on about some painting that the Duke of Something or Other gave to Prince Whosit when he went someplace. But it was still fun.
After we were done at the palace we got back on the train and came to London. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and chatting on skype. It was a lovely day.
British word of the day: kip = a nap
The train ride was very nice, and I listened to Mugglecast, my favorite Harry Potter podcast from mugglenet.com the whole way over. For those of you who don’t know, a podcast is something Apple does where people record shows about particular topics and put them on iTunes for people to download for free. I highly recommend them as they come is just about any subject you could be interested in, and they’re free. This week’s Mugglecast was all about the new Harry Potter theme park in Orlando and it made me very excited to go next fall with Potter Watch.
We got to the little village where the palace was and made the short walk to the palace itself. Though Hampton Court is not terribly tall, it does cover a lot of area, and it really quite huge. It’s all made out of red brick on the outside and it filled with all kinds of apartments and living spaces that have been restored to the way they looked by in Henry VIII’s time.
The first thing we wanted to do was get lunch, so we walked through the beautiful gardens to the café. I wanted to get something that looked very British for lunch, so I got what I though was a kind of meat pie with potatoes and a pistachio cake. But the meat pie was not a meat pie, though it looked like it. I can’t even begin to guess what it might have been. It tasted familiar, but I could not place what it was. Shannon got the same thing and she said she couldn’t tell what it was either. It was uniform all the way through and it sort of had the texture of a not-all-the-way-baked potato. It tasted all right, but I may never know what it was I was eating.
After the mystery lunch we were all feeling better so we started our tour of the palace. We saw all the huge kitchens where all the huge meals were prepared. They ate a lot of meat pies back then, but the pie part wasn’t eaten. It was sort of like a disposable cooking pot. They would put the boiled meat in the crust and cook it all together, then they would eat the meet and through away the crust. Henry’s court went through crazy amounts of meat. The audio guide said that his court moved around the country, eating and eating until there was nothing left in that area, then moved on to a new palace where they bankrupted the people. I’m really glad I wasn’t a peasant in that time.
We walked all through the great halls and great bedrooms and great hallways and listen to the audio tour tell us things. The audio tour was informative but it talked about each room for too long. I was done looking at a room and it was still going on about some painting that the Duke of Something or Other gave to Prince Whosit when he went someplace. But it was still fun.
After we were done at the palace we got back on the train and came to London. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and chatting on skype. It was a lovely day.
British word of the day: kip = a nap
Friday, June 25, 2010
day 7
Today started out with a breakfast of toast and strawberry yogurt. Toast is a very easy breakfast thing to prepare, so I have it pretty much every morning and as a snack. I have also learned that the little convenience stores have most of the things I prepare in the kitchen, so hopefully I won’t have to go all the way to Elephant and Castle again to do my shopping.
Class today was just going over our research paper topics. Yet again, we had a new lecturer, and she went over the basics of writing a research paper, many of which I already new. They really focus here on critical thinking, which involved looking at both sides of an argument and giving research to support or deny a claim. Lots of reading involved. I have decided to do my paper on the effects of hypnosis and if it is effective in helping people get over habits like smoking and excessive drinking. Hopefully there will be a lot research out there already to help me make some kind of claim. I’ll need to start looking things up soon.
After our very short class my psyc friends and I went shopping, as usual. It’s pretty much the only thing you can do when class gets out so early, because all our other friends are still in class. I had my Primark trousers in my bag to return them, but it would turn out that I carried them for naught. I would not be going to Primark today.
My psyc friends yet again had something they wanted to do, so I was lucky to run into my API friends very soon after. They wanted to go to the Roman street market, so we figured out where it was and made for the tube. On our way we stopped by a wonderful French bakery and got sandwiches for lunch. Mine was a salami baguette with a bottled water. They also had berry tarts there, my all-time favorite dessert, but because we were going on the tube, it didn’t want to carry one with me. But one day I shall return!!
We got on the tube and made our quite long journey to the Roman street market. The market is on the far end of Roman street, so we had to walk from the tube a very long way to get there. On the way we stopped at a park to eat our lunches, which was wonderful. I know salami sandwiches are Mary’s favorite, but I think I need something with more substance and vegetables for my sandwiches. It was still very good though.
We finally made it to the market and walked along it. It was mostly stalls selling very cheep women’s clothes. Alas, I am male, and found very little of interest there. I was looking at one dress while the girls were looking at other dresses when the owner of the stall came up to me and asked “Are you looking for a particular occasion?” and I said “Oh no, I’m here with them.” pointing to the girls. He followed by “Oh, no worries, but you never know who you’ll get around here.” It was all pretty funny, and Allie would end up buying a very fun dress there.
After the market, Lindsey decided to go back to the dorm because she didn’t want to come to our next destination, the British Museum. Our assistant director schedules a museum for us to go to every week. Something strange about London is that the museums are free, but you have to pay to get into the churches.
We took a double-decker bus back to the museum. It was a very long bus ride, so I can’t even imagine the walk. I measured my walk from Tuesday and it turned out to me 2 and a half miles! But enough about that. We rode the top of the bus for a really long time, back into the center of London. And all along the way I looked a business men’s shoes. I am telling you, 95% of them were wearing black, long toed, pointy leather shoes. It was insane! All of them! I saw them everywhere! I’ve never seen a trend like this in America. It is just a sign that I have to buy some before I go home. Every well dressed man here is wearing them. Even the old guys. Sorry to keep going on about this but it is kind of mad (crazy).
Anyway, we took a quick stop to a Starbucks before we went to the museum, as we were still early. Mango is a very popular flavor over here, and I got a frozen mango drink that was very refreshing. We sat in front of a big glass window and people watched. Something I haven’t talked about yet are British schools. Pretty much all the children go to schools where they have to wear uniforms, and if you take the Harry Potter uniforms and remove the robes, you have what most of them wear day-to-day for school: sweater with school crest, tie, button up, slacks. The girls will sometimes wear some kind of dress, or it will be like the boys but with a skirt. British school is also a lot harder than American school, but I’m sure you’re not surprised. In Britain they can drop out of school at 16, because that’s pretty much senior high school level for them. After 16 they select 5 areas to study other than math and English, which prepares them for college. So by the time they get to college, many students are already well acquainted with their subject matter. Masters programs here are only a year long, but they are much more intensive and scary.
So we got to the museum, which is huge, and free to get into. We met with our assistant director, who told us some of the interesting things look at, then set us loose. She told us that this was basically a museum of all the things the British Empire stole from across the world, but let’s not think of it that way. I was amazed when I started walking through the galleries to find myself standing in front of the Rosetta Stone, the huge black stone that it written in two forms of ancient Egyptian writing and classical Greek, which taught archeologists a ton about Ancient Egyptian writing. I have been looking at this stone in pictures for years, as I have been obsessed with ancient cultures, particularly Egyptian and Greek, sense I was little. And there it was, right in front of me. It was a very exciting moment. I also saw actual mummies and their sarcophaguses, as well as a bunch of very famous Egyptian wall paintings that I have seen in dozens of books. And it was all there for me to see, and for free.
There was an entire wing dedicated to Greek and Egyptian artifacts. Many of the Greek items were from the Parthenon in Athens. There were a lot of wall sculptures that lined the Parthenon and many statues of the gods. Again I was amazed at what people can do with stone. I have no idea how they had the patience to carve all of those figures, but I’m certainly glad it wasn’t me who did them.
There were items from Rome and China and Japan that were all fascinating. I could have spent days in there. There was also a huge reconstructed library of George III “the last king of America”, which was filled with rare books and a whole assortment of priceless artifacts. And did I mention that the whole thing was free? I highly suggest it to anyone visiting London.
In the gift shop I saw a CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!! for my Harry Potter club. In the shop they were selling the chess set Harry and Ron play with in the first movie at Christmas, which was based off of a set kept in the museum.
After the museum we went to dinner at a noodle place with very spicy chicken, but it still tasted good. We got back to the dorm and yet again I was completely exhausted. I talked on skype for a bit and went to bed. Thank goodness I don’t have to be anywhere until 12:00 tomorrow!
British word of the day: off-license = a liquor store. Not that I’ve been to one, it’s just really different.
Class today was just going over our research paper topics. Yet again, we had a new lecturer, and she went over the basics of writing a research paper, many of which I already new. They really focus here on critical thinking, which involved looking at both sides of an argument and giving research to support or deny a claim. Lots of reading involved. I have decided to do my paper on the effects of hypnosis and if it is effective in helping people get over habits like smoking and excessive drinking. Hopefully there will be a lot research out there already to help me make some kind of claim. I’ll need to start looking things up soon.
After our very short class my psyc friends and I went shopping, as usual. It’s pretty much the only thing you can do when class gets out so early, because all our other friends are still in class. I had my Primark trousers in my bag to return them, but it would turn out that I carried them for naught. I would not be going to Primark today.
My psyc friends yet again had something they wanted to do, so I was lucky to run into my API friends very soon after. They wanted to go to the Roman street market, so we figured out where it was and made for the tube. On our way we stopped by a wonderful French bakery and got sandwiches for lunch. Mine was a salami baguette with a bottled water. They also had berry tarts there, my all-time favorite dessert, but because we were going on the tube, it didn’t want to carry one with me. But one day I shall return!!
We got on the tube and made our quite long journey to the Roman street market. The market is on the far end of Roman street, so we had to walk from the tube a very long way to get there. On the way we stopped at a park to eat our lunches, which was wonderful. I know salami sandwiches are Mary’s favorite, but I think I need something with more substance and vegetables for my sandwiches. It was still very good though.
We finally made it to the market and walked along it. It was mostly stalls selling very cheep women’s clothes. Alas, I am male, and found very little of interest there. I was looking at one dress while the girls were looking at other dresses when the owner of the stall came up to me and asked “Are you looking for a particular occasion?” and I said “Oh no, I’m here with them.” pointing to the girls. He followed by “Oh, no worries, but you never know who you’ll get around here.” It was all pretty funny, and Allie would end up buying a very fun dress there.
After the market, Lindsey decided to go back to the dorm because she didn’t want to come to our next destination, the British Museum. Our assistant director schedules a museum for us to go to every week. Something strange about London is that the museums are free, but you have to pay to get into the churches.
We took a double-decker bus back to the museum. It was a very long bus ride, so I can’t even imagine the walk. I measured my walk from Tuesday and it turned out to me 2 and a half miles! But enough about that. We rode the top of the bus for a really long time, back into the center of London. And all along the way I looked a business men’s shoes. I am telling you, 95% of them were wearing black, long toed, pointy leather shoes. It was insane! All of them! I saw them everywhere! I’ve never seen a trend like this in America. It is just a sign that I have to buy some before I go home. Every well dressed man here is wearing them. Even the old guys. Sorry to keep going on about this but it is kind of mad (crazy).
Anyway, we took a quick stop to a Starbucks before we went to the museum, as we were still early. Mango is a very popular flavor over here, and I got a frozen mango drink that was very refreshing. We sat in front of a big glass window and people watched. Something I haven’t talked about yet are British schools. Pretty much all the children go to schools where they have to wear uniforms, and if you take the Harry Potter uniforms and remove the robes, you have what most of them wear day-to-day for school: sweater with school crest, tie, button up, slacks. The girls will sometimes wear some kind of dress, or it will be like the boys but with a skirt. British school is also a lot harder than American school, but I’m sure you’re not surprised. In Britain they can drop out of school at 16, because that’s pretty much senior high school level for them. After 16 they select 5 areas to study other than math and English, which prepares them for college. So by the time they get to college, many students are already well acquainted with their subject matter. Masters programs here are only a year long, but they are much more intensive and scary.
So we got to the museum, which is huge, and free to get into. We met with our assistant director, who told us some of the interesting things look at, then set us loose. She told us that this was basically a museum of all the things the British Empire stole from across the world, but let’s not think of it that way. I was amazed when I started walking through the galleries to find myself standing in front of the Rosetta Stone, the huge black stone that it written in two forms of ancient Egyptian writing and classical Greek, which taught archeologists a ton about Ancient Egyptian writing. I have been looking at this stone in pictures for years, as I have been obsessed with ancient cultures, particularly Egyptian and Greek, sense I was little. And there it was, right in front of me. It was a very exciting moment. I also saw actual mummies and their sarcophaguses, as well as a bunch of very famous Egyptian wall paintings that I have seen in dozens of books. And it was all there for me to see, and for free.
There was an entire wing dedicated to Greek and Egyptian artifacts. Many of the Greek items were from the Parthenon in Athens. There were a lot of wall sculptures that lined the Parthenon and many statues of the gods. Again I was amazed at what people can do with stone. I have no idea how they had the patience to carve all of those figures, but I’m certainly glad it wasn’t me who did them.
There were items from Rome and China and Japan that were all fascinating. I could have spent days in there. There was also a huge reconstructed library of George III “the last king of America”, which was filled with rare books and a whole assortment of priceless artifacts. And did I mention that the whole thing was free? I highly suggest it to anyone visiting London.
In the gift shop I saw a CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!! for my Harry Potter club. In the shop they were selling the chess set Harry and Ron play with in the first movie at Christmas, which was based off of a set kept in the museum.
After the museum we went to dinner at a noodle place with very spicy chicken, but it still tasted good. We got back to the dorm and yet again I was completely exhausted. I talked on skype for a bit and went to bed. Thank goodness I don’t have to be anywhere until 12:00 tomorrow!
British word of the day: off-license = a liquor store. Not that I’ve been to one, it’s just really different.
day 6
It’s getting harder and harder to get up every morning. We’re so bust during the day that by the time I get back to the dorm I’m completely pooped. After a breakfast of toast and cereal I was on my way to class. I was actually able to meet up with my friends to go to class this morning because we had made the plan to meet yesterday. We got on the tube got to Oxford Street without any problems.
Class today was on Astrology and how things like horoscopes use devices that contain information about everyone, like “You’re putting a lot of energy into work now” or “You may be thinking about a special someone” to draw people in and cause you to think it pertains to you. If you care about things like horoscopes, try reading all of them next time, not just your own. You may see that all of them hold very general advice and very vague jargon like “house” and “solar chart” to make them sound convincing. I’m not saying you shouldn’t follow horoscopes, but maybe people should think about them a little more and not put blind trust into them.
The class today was taught by a different lecturer, which apparently isn’t that strange here. They just trade off days with other people, but they all know what they’re doing and what we’re talking about, it’s just a little strange to me. I don’t know which lecturer I like better, but they both have similar teaching styles. And I’m really glad I got the book from the library because all of the lecturers lean on it very heavily.
After our short class I met up with my psychology friends again and we had a short lunch at a soup and sandwich place. After that we shopped. I am holding out on buying anything until I get to the mystical Primark, that land of cheep and fabulous clothes.
My psyc friends had to go off and do something again, but fortunately my API friends got out of class right after that. They wanted to go to Soho, the alternative district of London, so we got on the tube and went there. Soho is a lot like Asheville: it has some really cool spots, and it has some really scary spots. Allie, one of my API friends, is in a photography class here, and her project is Londoners and their tattoos, so she wanted to go into this tattoo shop and look around. Red signs went off in my head saying that that was not something I wanted to do, and the tiny, tiny staircase leading up to the place did not instill confidence at all. But we left very quickly because the place was too small to be of much interest.
We walked around Soho for about an hour, looking at strange and interesting and scary shops. The World Cup was on in many of the pubs. I haven’t mentioned the World Cup yet. Pretty much, it’s crazy over here. Americans like the Super Bowl for the commercials, food, and game time. Europeans are like that times 100, and take out the part out commercials, they hate those. All they want is the game. The Brits all hang out in pubs all over the city because cable is very expensive to get here and they can drink lots of beer with fellow Cup lovers. There are English flags all over the place, in windows, on cars, and in banners outside of just about every store. The English flag is not the British flag, the red, white, and blue flag we are used to. The English flag is white with a red X on it, like the red part of the Union Jack, the British flag. So that’s where that comes from. Everyone here loves football (soccer) to near the point of madness.
As we were walking through Soho, a game with England in is was on, so the pubs were more packed than usual. What was very fun was when we walked by an intersection that had two pubs, and England scored a goal. One pub erupted into cheers, and three seconds later, the other did. It looked like they were on a slight delay, but it was crazy having the eruptions happen at different times.
While we were in Soho we went to Carnaby Street, a major center for mod fashion in the 60s and 70s. Now it’s pretty mainstream, but it was still cool to stumble upon.
After we were done with Soho we decided we were going to find Primark. We got to Oxford street and asked a security guard where it was. And it’s a good thing h told us to take the bus, because it would have been a 20 minute walk to get there. We arrived by bus and I discovered how wonderful Primark is. It was almost 5:00, so there were about a hundred people in there. It’s about as large as a normal Wal-Mart, but two stories tall. The Upper floor has one half dedicated to guys clothes, and I dove in. When I emerged from the press of humanity about the racks, I had a 2 pound polo, a 2 pound shirt, a 4 pound cardigan, a 5 pound button up, and 9 pound trousers (pants). And they’re all really nice clothes! It was so cool!! It would probably cost $60 for that kind of score in the states, but at Primark it’s all super cheep. It was amazing!
The only thing is, the lines for the dressing rooms are really, really long, so it was too bad that I learned the trousers were too small, but that means I have a great excuse to go back. I checked out after standing in the queue (line) for a really long time, found my friends, and left.
By now we were thoroughly exhausted, and we got on the tube back to the dorm. I made spaghetti for dinner and went to bed.
Haha!! I got a picture up!! I'll see if I can go back and add to my others.
British word of the day: top off = to fill up. You have to go to Top Off machines to fill your Oyster card or library card accounts.
Class today was on Astrology and how things like horoscopes use devices that contain information about everyone, like “You’re putting a lot of energy into work now” or “You may be thinking about a special someone” to draw people in and cause you to think it pertains to you. If you care about things like horoscopes, try reading all of them next time, not just your own. You may see that all of them hold very general advice and very vague jargon like “house” and “solar chart” to make them sound convincing. I’m not saying you shouldn’t follow horoscopes, but maybe people should think about them a little more and not put blind trust into them.
The class today was taught by a different lecturer, which apparently isn’t that strange here. They just trade off days with other people, but they all know what they’re doing and what we’re talking about, it’s just a little strange to me. I don’t know which lecturer I like better, but they both have similar teaching styles. And I’m really glad I got the book from the library because all of the lecturers lean on it very heavily.
After our short class I met up with my psychology friends again and we had a short lunch at a soup and sandwich place. After that we shopped. I am holding out on buying anything until I get to the mystical Primark, that land of cheep and fabulous clothes.
My psyc friends had to go off and do something again, but fortunately my API friends got out of class right after that. They wanted to go to Soho, the alternative district of London, so we got on the tube and went there. Soho is a lot like Asheville: it has some really cool spots, and it has some really scary spots. Allie, one of my API friends, is in a photography class here, and her project is Londoners and their tattoos, so she wanted to go into this tattoo shop and look around. Red signs went off in my head saying that that was not something I wanted to do, and the tiny, tiny staircase leading up to the place did not instill confidence at all. But we left very quickly because the place was too small to be of much interest.
We walked around Soho for about an hour, looking at strange and interesting and scary shops. The World Cup was on in many of the pubs. I haven’t mentioned the World Cup yet. Pretty much, it’s crazy over here. Americans like the Super Bowl for the commercials, food, and game time. Europeans are like that times 100, and take out the part out commercials, they hate those. All they want is the game. The Brits all hang out in pubs all over the city because cable is very expensive to get here and they can drink lots of beer with fellow Cup lovers. There are English flags all over the place, in windows, on cars, and in banners outside of just about every store. The English flag is not the British flag, the red, white, and blue flag we are used to. The English flag is white with a red X on it, like the red part of the Union Jack, the British flag. So that’s where that comes from. Everyone here loves football (soccer) to near the point of madness.
As we were walking through Soho, a game with England in is was on, so the pubs were more packed than usual. What was very fun was when we walked by an intersection that had two pubs, and England scored a goal. One pub erupted into cheers, and three seconds later, the other did. It looked like they were on a slight delay, but it was crazy having the eruptions happen at different times.
While we were in Soho we went to Carnaby Street, a major center for mod fashion in the 60s and 70s. Now it’s pretty mainstream, but it was still cool to stumble upon.
After we were done with Soho we decided we were going to find Primark. We got to Oxford street and asked a security guard where it was. And it’s a good thing h told us to take the bus, because it would have been a 20 minute walk to get there. We arrived by bus and I discovered how wonderful Primark is. It was almost 5:00, so there were about a hundred people in there. It’s about as large as a normal Wal-Mart, but two stories tall. The Upper floor has one half dedicated to guys clothes, and I dove in. When I emerged from the press of humanity about the racks, I had a 2 pound polo, a 2 pound shirt, a 4 pound cardigan, a 5 pound button up, and 9 pound trousers (pants). And they’re all really nice clothes! It was so cool!! It would probably cost $60 for that kind of score in the states, but at Primark it’s all super cheep. It was amazing!
The only thing is, the lines for the dressing rooms are really, really long, so it was too bad that I learned the trousers were too small, but that means I have a great excuse to go back. I checked out after standing in the queue (line) for a really long time, found my friends, and left.
By now we were thoroughly exhausted, and we got on the tube back to the dorm. I made spaghetti for dinner and went to bed.
Haha!! I got a picture up!! I'll see if I can go back and add to my others.
British word of the day: top off = to fill up. You have to go to Top Off machines to fill your Oyster card or library card accounts.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
day 5
Please see *edit to last post.
Today began with a lovely breakfast of pastries I got from the market yesterday. It’s so good now to wake up warm and eat good food. I got on the tube alone this morning because I hadn’t made any plans with my friends. But it was nothing terrible because once you learn the how to do the underground it’s not really that scary, even when there are a bunch of people on it. The bus system isn’t that scary either because there are very clear signs all over the place telling you where to go. And riding in the double-deckers is fun!
Anyway, I went to the library really fast this morning and got the book I need to read for class. In class today we talked about unconscious awareness, which covers things like deaf people’s brains still perceiving sound, even if they don’t. It was half interesting half way over my head. I can’t imagine what the few people in my class who haven’t ever taken a psychology course think about all this totally new psychological information. At least I have the small advantage of knowing what things like PTSD mean (posttraumatic stress disorder) and what cognitive-behavioral therapy involves (changing a person’s behavior by changing their views).
After the lecture part of the class we had the seminar, which was a recorded tv show about a guy who used all the tricks mediums use in séances to convince people they’re telling the truth. We had to look objectively at what we was doing and see if there was anything to what he was saying, which was interesting. He had me going for a bit, but then we stopped to dissect the tricks and it turned out he was just very clever.
After that I went up to some of the people in my class and asked them what they were doing after class. It turned out that all of them are in the same program and they all live in the second dorm they have the international students stay at, which is further from campus but has nicer rooms. They said they wanted to get lunch so I went with them and we ate at this sandwich place where I had a roast beef melt. Super good.
Then I was on Oxford street, the biggest shopping street in London, with four girls (of course they were all girls, it’s me after all), so we went into a bunch of stores that had no guy clothes at all. There was Top Shop (which I have never heard of but is super popular with those who have), but I’m used to shopping with girls, so it was no bad thing.
My psyc friends are all in the same program, which isn’t mine, and they were going to the tower of London that afternoon, and I wasn’t going to the London Eye (the giant ferris-wheel on the Thames [pronounced the Tems]) so I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I had the bright idea to walk the distance from the Tower to the Eye. It turned out to be one of the longest walks of my life. And I was wearing my leather shoes (not the boots thank goodness!) so that didn’t make things much better, even though I have new Dr. Shoals in them. I walked and walked and walked for a little over two hours. With my school bag. In the very uncharacteristically warm London summer we’re having. I did cross the Millennium Bridge, the one destroyed in the Half-Blood Prince movie, which was a lot of fun. I want to go back there and have someone take a picture of me holding on for dear life.
I did see lots of interesting things on the South bank though. There were a lot of street performers and vendors selling random things. I passed by the Globe where I will be seeing Henry VIII later this trip, and all sorts of people. I think I heard Americans more than anyone else, but maybe that’s because Americans are louder than everyone else.
So I got to the Eye and it was around 4:00. That meant I still had two hours to kill before I met the Westminster group at 6:00. So I went back across the river towards Parliament and found some steps to sit on, as I didn’t feel like walking anymore to find a park. I read my school book for an hour and a half, but don’t think I got that much done, because I was too busy looking at all the people around me. I was sitting near the entrance to a boat tour queue (line), which had all kinds of tourist loading onto it. There were also some very interesting Brits running little stands across from me, yelling out deals in cheep theater tickets, river boat tours, and ice cream. There was also an occasional pigeon that would come close to me, and I didn’t want to move because I wanted to see just how close they would come to me, which turned out to be quite close. The rats with wings have no fear, but you have nothing to worry about unless there is bread in your immediate area, which fortunately in my case, there wasn’t.
I read and listened to Big Ben chime every 15 minutes. Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: The clock tower we all know as Big Ben is not actually called Big Ben. That’s the name of the biggest bell inside the tower, so people say Big Ben is chiming, but they mean the bell. It is actually called the Clock Tower of Westminster, but who has time to say all that?
Finally it was time to meet my group. I walked back across the bridge, met up with my friends, worked through some confusion where I was not on the list of people who were participating but it turned out I was on another list that was more accurate, and got in line for the London Eye. The Eye is over 400 ft tall and when you get to the top you can see over all of London. It’s like going up in the Eiffel Tower (which I have done), but it’s still not as tall. We got into our compartment with, I think, too many other people, and proceeded to take a million pictures of London. It was really cool being able to look out all over everything. I kind of unnerves me that there were no mountains to be seen. Growing up in the mountains, I like to see at least a little grey hill in the distance, but it was all just flat city. But no matter.
We got off the Eye and started our pub walk along the south bank. I thought this was going to be a short little walk, but no it turned out to be the EXACT same walk I just took!! Another million and a half miles, just in the opposite direction. We went to several pubs along the south bank of the river and ended at one that was very close to London Bridge, which is very close to where I started my walk that afternoon. For those of you, like me, who were confused about this, let me put you straight so you, unlike me, won’t have to be embarrassed when you make the mistake: London Bridge is not the pretty bridge with the two blue towers and all the gold. That’s Tower Bridge. It’s right next to the Tower of London. London Bridge is a very boring concrete bridge a little further down from there. Glad I could clear this up for you.
But choosing to stop at this pub turned out to be a bit of a mistake. It was super busy in there and we’re just poor Americans who don’t know how pubs work. Apparently if you want to order food, you have to have a table first, else the servers will be confused, even though they give you a number to put on your table. Also, this, and several other pubs, aren’t used to patrons coming in and paying separately. They all just have one bill and they through in the pounds to cover it. So we all come into this very busy pub and start to try to order some food. But we didn’t have a table, so the waitress started getting all angry at us. So we found a table, and I ordered a coke. While the waitress was getting my coke, another one came up and asked me what I wanted. I said I was getting a coke, so she went off and started making me one. The first came back with the coke and asked me what I wanted to eat. I told her and she started ringing me up on her register. The second came back with a coke and started ringing me up on her register. I told her the first one had me already, then she really got angry because she had wasted all this time when she could have been getting money from someone else.
So that was all terrible and frustrating. I don’t even remember what I ordered, but it was some kind of fish nuggets with chips. Didn’t sound like that on the menu. So don’t go to the Anchor Pub in London. They’re mean there.
We had to wait so long on some of our friend’s food that the kitchen in the pub closed before they could cook it. At least the chef came out and apologized and gave her her money back, but that didn’t fix the problem that she was hungry. But she’s really nice anyway, so she didn’t complain about it. We got on the tube at 10:30, when most of the transport in London is shut down, and finally got back to the dorm. My feet and legs were just killing me, but it had still been a good day despite the bad parts.
British word of the day: Jumper = a sweater
Today began with a lovely breakfast of pastries I got from the market yesterday. It’s so good now to wake up warm and eat good food. I got on the tube alone this morning because I hadn’t made any plans with my friends. But it was nothing terrible because once you learn the how to do the underground it’s not really that scary, even when there are a bunch of people on it. The bus system isn’t that scary either because there are very clear signs all over the place telling you where to go. And riding in the double-deckers is fun!
Anyway, I went to the library really fast this morning and got the book I need to read for class. In class today we talked about unconscious awareness, which covers things like deaf people’s brains still perceiving sound, even if they don’t. It was half interesting half way over my head. I can’t imagine what the few people in my class who haven’t ever taken a psychology course think about all this totally new psychological information. At least I have the small advantage of knowing what things like PTSD mean (posttraumatic stress disorder) and what cognitive-behavioral therapy involves (changing a person’s behavior by changing their views).
After the lecture part of the class we had the seminar, which was a recorded tv show about a guy who used all the tricks mediums use in séances to convince people they’re telling the truth. We had to look objectively at what we was doing and see if there was anything to what he was saying, which was interesting. He had me going for a bit, but then we stopped to dissect the tricks and it turned out he was just very clever.
After that I went up to some of the people in my class and asked them what they were doing after class. It turned out that all of them are in the same program and they all live in the second dorm they have the international students stay at, which is further from campus but has nicer rooms. They said they wanted to get lunch so I went with them and we ate at this sandwich place where I had a roast beef melt. Super good.
Then I was on Oxford street, the biggest shopping street in London, with four girls (of course they were all girls, it’s me after all), so we went into a bunch of stores that had no guy clothes at all. There was Top Shop (which I have never heard of but is super popular with those who have), but I’m used to shopping with girls, so it was no bad thing.
My psyc friends are all in the same program, which isn’t mine, and they were going to the tower of London that afternoon, and I wasn’t going to the London Eye (the giant ferris-wheel on the Thames [pronounced the Tems]) so I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I had the bright idea to walk the distance from the Tower to the Eye. It turned out to be one of the longest walks of my life. And I was wearing my leather shoes (not the boots thank goodness!) so that didn’t make things much better, even though I have new Dr. Shoals in them. I walked and walked and walked for a little over two hours. With my school bag. In the very uncharacteristically warm London summer we’re having. I did cross the Millennium Bridge, the one destroyed in the Half-Blood Prince movie, which was a lot of fun. I want to go back there and have someone take a picture of me holding on for dear life.
I did see lots of interesting things on the South bank though. There were a lot of street performers and vendors selling random things. I passed by the Globe where I will be seeing Henry VIII later this trip, and all sorts of people. I think I heard Americans more than anyone else, but maybe that’s because Americans are louder than everyone else.
So I got to the Eye and it was around 4:00. That meant I still had two hours to kill before I met the Westminster group at 6:00. So I went back across the river towards Parliament and found some steps to sit on, as I didn’t feel like walking anymore to find a park. I read my school book for an hour and a half, but don’t think I got that much done, because I was too busy looking at all the people around me. I was sitting near the entrance to a boat tour queue (line), which had all kinds of tourist loading onto it. There were also some very interesting Brits running little stands across from me, yelling out deals in cheep theater tickets, river boat tours, and ice cream. There was also an occasional pigeon that would come close to me, and I didn’t want to move because I wanted to see just how close they would come to me, which turned out to be quite close. The rats with wings have no fear, but you have nothing to worry about unless there is bread in your immediate area, which fortunately in my case, there wasn’t.
I read and listened to Big Ben chime every 15 minutes. Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: The clock tower we all know as Big Ben is not actually called Big Ben. That’s the name of the biggest bell inside the tower, so people say Big Ben is chiming, but they mean the bell. It is actually called the Clock Tower of Westminster, but who has time to say all that?
Finally it was time to meet my group. I walked back across the bridge, met up with my friends, worked through some confusion where I was not on the list of people who were participating but it turned out I was on another list that was more accurate, and got in line for the London Eye. The Eye is over 400 ft tall and when you get to the top you can see over all of London. It’s like going up in the Eiffel Tower (which I have done), but it’s still not as tall. We got into our compartment with, I think, too many other people, and proceeded to take a million pictures of London. It was really cool being able to look out all over everything. I kind of unnerves me that there were no mountains to be seen. Growing up in the mountains, I like to see at least a little grey hill in the distance, but it was all just flat city. But no matter.
We got off the Eye and started our pub walk along the south bank. I thought this was going to be a short little walk, but no it turned out to be the EXACT same walk I just took!! Another million and a half miles, just in the opposite direction. We went to several pubs along the south bank of the river and ended at one that was very close to London Bridge, which is very close to where I started my walk that afternoon. For those of you, like me, who were confused about this, let me put you straight so you, unlike me, won’t have to be embarrassed when you make the mistake: London Bridge is not the pretty bridge with the two blue towers and all the gold. That’s Tower Bridge. It’s right next to the Tower of London. London Bridge is a very boring concrete bridge a little further down from there. Glad I could clear this up for you.
But choosing to stop at this pub turned out to be a bit of a mistake. It was super busy in there and we’re just poor Americans who don’t know how pubs work. Apparently if you want to order food, you have to have a table first, else the servers will be confused, even though they give you a number to put on your table. Also, this, and several other pubs, aren’t used to patrons coming in and paying separately. They all just have one bill and they through in the pounds to cover it. So we all come into this very busy pub and start to try to order some food. But we didn’t have a table, so the waitress started getting all angry at us. So we found a table, and I ordered a coke. While the waitress was getting my coke, another one came up and asked me what I wanted. I said I was getting a coke, so she went off and started making me one. The first came back with the coke and asked me what I wanted to eat. I told her and she started ringing me up on her register. The second came back with a coke and started ringing me up on her register. I told her the first one had me already, then she really got angry because she had wasted all this time when she could have been getting money from someone else.
So that was all terrible and frustrating. I don’t even remember what I ordered, but it was some kind of fish nuggets with chips. Didn’t sound like that on the menu. So don’t go to the Anchor Pub in London. They’re mean there.
We had to wait so long on some of our friend’s food that the kitchen in the pub closed before they could cook it. At least the chef came out and apologized and gave her her money back, but that didn’t fix the problem that she was hungry. But she’s really nice anyway, so she didn’t complain about it. We got on the tube at 10:30, when most of the transport in London is shut down, and finally got back to the dorm. My feet and legs were just killing me, but it had still been a good day despite the bad parts.
British word of the day: Jumper = a sweater
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