London and Week 10

Hi ya!

This past week was horrible, but let's start with the good part, London!

As mentioned in my last update, I headed down to London for five days the other week. I loved it! It reminded me of New York a lot, but I think I liked it better. I think the accents helped, haha. Anyways, I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and was there through Sunday night. I was hoping to meet up with my friend from home Katie who's in Paris for the semester, but it didn't work out for her, so I ended up going by myself. It was an interesting experience traveling by myself for the first time. It got a little lonely at night time when the museums and attractions closed, but I found things to do and overall, really enjoyed myself! It was a good learning experience and I'm very proud of myself for navigating one of the biggest cities in the world all on my own. I ended up flying because airfare was actually cheaper than taking the train, and the flight itself was faster but when you add in transportation costs and time to and from airports it probably ended up equaling the train in time and money. I stayed in a hostel in South Kensington which ended up being a great location. I was right near Hyde Park and only a block from the Gloucester Tube stop. Once on the Tube, I was only a few stops from most everything I went to see. The Tube was really easy to figure out and I had a pass with unlimited rides so I rode it everywhere. The hostel was OK. I stayed in a five bed mixed dorm room with a shared bathroom. The hostel really wasn't anything special, but I really liked the location. Here's a run down of everything I did and saw.

Wednesday:

Westminster Abbey - beautiful! The Poet's Corner with monuments to some of the world's best writers was really cool.

By the time I got done at the Abbey, other things had closed so I walked around and explored different areas including Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Chinatown, and took a walk along the River Thames

Thursday:

Tourist Center (Piccadilly Circus)

The Mounted Guard Changing Ceremony - nothing really happened, not too exciting.

Churchill Museum and War Cabinet Rooms - pretty cool. They had the underground war rooms all set up like they would have been during the war.

Leicester Square

Shopping on Oxford Street

British Library - had classic manuscripts by people like Charlotte Bronte, Galileo, Da Vinci, Mozart, Beethoven, the Beatles, the Gutenberg Bible. It was really cool to see original Beatles songs written on cocktail napkins, or 'Michelle' was written on the back of an envelope.

9 and 3/4 platform at Kings Cross Train Station - a Harry Potter fan must see. The girl who took my picture was wearing a Hogwarts Tshirt and a Gryffindor scarf.

I saw a performance of the play 'The 39 Steps'- a slapstick comedy based on a novel and a conglomeration of Alfred Hitchcock movies. I sat in the third row. It was pretty entertaining!

Friday:

I met up with some of my friends from camp who live around London. It was nice to see some familiar faces after spending the past couple days by myself. It was also a nice taste of home (even though they're all English). They all came in for the day and went around with me and it was a great time!

The Changing of the Guard - so many people, couldn't really see much.

I caved on my trying not to eat American food and we had the all you can eat Pizza Hut buffet for lunch. I'm not going to lie, it was delicious!!! I love the UK, but it's food is not the best.

Camden - the punk part of town, lots of markets and interesting shops. It was cool, definitely a different feel than the parts of London I had been going around in.

London Bridge

We spent the night at a pub just catching up.

Saturday:

London Eye - in all honesty, probably not worth the money. It was sunny until right when I got there and a bunch of clouds rolled in, but I decided to do it any way since I wasn't sure that the weather on Sunday would be much better. I didn't think the view was that impressive. I am glad I did it though, just considering it's a major London landmark.

Tower of London - I wish I had thought ahead and done this before the weekend, considering I had to wait in line for half an hour just to buy a ticket. But, it was really interesting. I went on a tour with a Beefeater tour guide. It was pretty entertaining. He had a lot of jokes and stories. After that, I walked around the grounds a bit on my own. There was a lot to see and a lot of people to navigate around to see it which proved to be a little overwhelming.

Tower Bridge

St. Paul's Cathedral- one of my favorite things I saw. The inside was definitely one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I climbed some 300 steps to the Whispering Gallery which you could look down on the rest of the cathedral, then some more stairs up to the top of the dome. I thought the views of London from the dome were much more impressive than the Eye. It was worth the climb!

Covent Garden - markets, shops, restaurants, street performances. I got some falafel and people watched on the street. It was a neat area!

Tate Modern - open late Fridays and Saturdays. They had a lot of really cool pieces. This was another one of my favorite things I saw.

Sunday:

Shakespeare's Globe - as an English major interested in theater, it was very cool. I got there right when it opened (you should be proud mom and dad) and got on one of the first tours. The tour guide was a little strange, but the theater was definitely cool to see. They also had an interesting museum with costumes and props from different performances as well as history on the rebuilding of the theater.

The British Museum - very big and very overwhelming. I made sure I saw the big things: the Rosetta Stone, the Greek statues and parts of the Parthenon, the Egyptian and Assyrian sections and the mummies.

Harrods - very ritzy. I rode the Egyptian escalator and bought some overpriced gelato.

Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens - it was a beautiful day so I decided to walk around the park some before I left for the airport. I saw the Serpentine, the Albert Memorial, and some pretty amusing rollerblading lessons.

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Overall, the trip was expensive and pretty tiring, but I loved it! I still have so many things I didn't get to see, or places I would have liked to spend more time. I hope I'll get a chance to go back. If not this trip, some time in the future.

Unfortunately, when I got back late Sunday night I was faced with the reality of all the work I had to get done this week. I had a 1500 word source analysis for my Scottish History class due Thursday, a 3000 word essay for my Scottish Ethnology class due Friday, and it was my week to present for my group in my English class on top of my normal workload for the week. To make everything better, I woke up on Monday morning with a cold. I some how managed to get everything done and it was a big relief! I'm also still feeling a little congested but overall, a lot better! The past few days have been beautiful in Edinburgh with sun and temperatures in the 50s! It's been great! It definitely makes the walk to campus a lot more enjoyable!

This is my last week of classes. Next Saturday, I'll be jetting off to Prague where I'll meet up with Claire and start my 3 weeks of backpacking through Europe! I'm so excited! Plans didn't work out to meet in Amsterdam, but I think I'll be able to fit that into the last week when I meet up with my friend Katie. When I get back from break, my parents will be here to greet me and celebrate my twenty first birthday traveling around Scotland, which will also be pretty cool since I haven't seen much of Scotland besides Glasgow and Edinburgh. Then exams, and I'm done! It's so crazy!

Here's a link to my to my London pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/NedPix/London?authkey=Gv1sRgCOK_ua2y7JaAhwE#

Hope all is well with everyone!

Week 7 & 8

Hi ya!

Sorry, it's been so long since my last blog, but school has really been catching up with me! Here, we finish classes before spring break and then once we come back all we have is exams. Spring break, or Easter holiday as many refer to it here, begins at the end of March so as classes are coming to a close, essays are due and it seems like things are getting more frantic school wise. I got my History paper back last week and I got a B, which is considered really good here since A's are passed out pretty sparingly. I was very excited to see my grade since I really didn't know what to expect. We have another short assignment due next Thursday so I'm hoping the outcome of that will be just as good! This past week I spent a lot of time working on my English essay which was due today. I was writing about the relationship between genre and gender in the early period of the novel. I spent a lot of time reading different criticism and then finally got it written this past weekend and turned in today. Already I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Therefore, since school has been kind of hectic, I don't have any exciting sight seeing to report for these past couple weeks, but between homework I have managed some time to plan some exciting things for the near future!

First, on Wednesday morning I'll be jetting down to London for 5 days through Sunday night! I was going back and forth between whether or not to go since I have assignments due the next week but I decided to just go for it. I figured if I didn't go now, I wouldn't have the chance till May and I didn't really want to put it off. Besides I haven't left Edinburgh since I went to Glasgow and that was a month ago already! Time is flying by so quickly! But anyways, I'm really looking forward to going! I've been to lots of other major European cities but this will be my first time in London and I've heard so many great things about it. I'll be staying in a hostel in South Kensington near Hyde Park and Imperial College and within walking distance of a Tube station which should make it easy to get to other parts of the city. I'll be traveling by myself but with so much to see I don't think it will be an issue. If anything, it should be nice because that way, I can make sure I see everything I want to see. Also, I have some friends I used to work at camp with who live around London so I'm hoping to meet up with them at some point. It should be a lot of fun to get out and explore new territory.

Second, I've begun making plans for my 3 week spring break which starts March 27. Claire will be coming for part of the trip. I'm looking forward to traveling with her because I know we have similar tastes in what we like to see so it should be easy to compromise. Where exactly we're going to meet is still up in the air but if our original plan works out, we'll be meeting in Amsterdam and spending 2 days there. From there, we'll head to Prague, Krakow, and Budapest for 3 days each and then head over to Paris. We'll spend some time there before Claire fliesback to the States. There, I'll meet up with my friend Katie who is studying at the Sorbonne this semester. We haven't really decided where we'll go the last week, but we've talked about Belgium or Germany. The trip will involve a lot of long overnight train rides but I think if everything works out, we'll get to see a lot of really cool stuff! Plans aren't set in stone yet, but with luck this is what will be happening.

Third, the University finally announced final exam times. Mine will be on May 13,15, & 22. I was hoping to get done earlier, but I think I'll still have some time to travel in between studying. And it will be nice not to have to hit the books right when I get back from spring break.

So yeah, even though nothing too exciting has been happening lately here in Edinburgh, I've got a lot of exciting plans lined up which I'm really looking forward to! Expect another blog (with loads of pictures I'm sure) some time next week when I get back from London.

Hope all is well with everyone!