Travel Plans and Strawberries

There is a bit of an official travel schedule to be shared. As of today, many many plans were made for lots of traveling - !!!!!

• My birthday weekend, 2-3 February, I am off to see Dover Castle and the White Cliffs with Paddy. (The rest of the flatmates will be gallavanting about Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford for a school-sponsored trip with Bill.) On Sunday evening, after everyone's safely home and relaxed, we're off to an OK Go concert at KoKo London!! Depending on whether or not my Sport Marketing professor secures tickets, I may also be going to the NFL Super Bowl party around 11pm.
• Two weekends later, 16-17 February : Stonehenge, Bath, et cetera with ICLC.
• Not that I'm traveling anywhere, but on 22 February Katie is coming to London!!! And is staying with us until...
• Italy!!! for Mid-term Break from 2 March until 11 March. (Katie goes home on the 5th.)
• St. Patrick's Day weekend, mostly because Ireland is ridiculously expensive, Meg and I (and possibly Paddy) are making our way down South to Barcelona, Spain, for a lovely 3 day and 3 night stay.
• 24 March : another ICLC-sponsored trip, this time to Edinburgh. I heard it looks just like Harry Potter and I'm excited for that.
  
• 13 April : Meg's parents are coming and taking Meg and I to Paris for the weekend - Paris in the Spring!!

Anddd on the 8th of May, I am coming back to New York, of course. Hopefully before then we can fit in a trip to Ireland (probably Cork or Shannon), which we're still looking into. I love travel plans!! :)

Also, today we went to the Tate Modern and rode on the 3rd and 5th floor slides! I spent a little extra to buy some strawberries when Paddy and I went to Sainsbury's a little later, which turned out to be a great idea because they are extremely yummy.

Just a Quick Note

I've changed the settings so that anyone can comment and you don't have to be a registered user. I thought that was the case before, but I guess it must've changed on me. So, feel free to comment as it's open to anyone now! Thanks! :)

Also, I posted some new pictures online yesterday evening to include some of the Walks I took last weekend as well as the snow and more of my flat. I am looking to get a new place to post pictures as Flickr is being finicky about limits to how much I can post per month. I'll keep you updated.

News Edition

One of the things I love about London is the fact that, every time you leave the tube station, you are handed a free newspaper. Usually it's the London Lite (generally more amusing and also has information about all of the plays, music, performances, etc coming up) or The London Paper (has better Sudokus and looks prettier, I think). Anyways, from now on, I am thinking of writing about some of the stories you could only read being in London. These will come occasionally, if not weekly, depending on how many I find.

Here are two that amused me this morning (from the London Lite):

For Sale: the £170k Chelsea 'prison cell'
Housing prices in London are a bit ridiculous, to say the least. According to the article, prices in Chelsea (near the London Center) are rising 62%. This is the most extreme story I've heard, though. A 72 square feet flat, not big enough to swing a cat in according to the diagram, is selling for £170,000 (almost double in dollars) and it doesn't even have electricity! It was shown to prospectives using torches because it is so dark inside. There is room for a single bed, a chair and ottoman as well as a TV (but only if it is attached to the wall). Besides the "main" room, there is a wash room with a sink and toilet. And that is the extent of the flat. 3, three!, offers were made on the flat after it was shown. If it were to be rented, it would cost £150 per week, which is more than I pay for my flat. It also requires £30,000 worth of repairs if that makes it any more appealing.
(Here is a similar article with a picture from Yahoo: teeny tiny flat )

Shop Bans Jay the Two-Year-Old 'Hoodie'
In London there is this great dislike, and almost fear, of what they call "anti-social behavior." When we met with the policemen at the beginning of our trip, they described it as pretty much anything people don't like. Hoodies, or people who wear hoodies, are seen as anti-social. (Good thing I limited the amount I brought with me...) This little boy, wearing a hood of course because it was so cold, was in a corner shop with his grandfather when the shopkeeper asked that the grandpa remove the hood. He refused to remove his grandchild's hood saying, "He's only two and a half, I don't think he's going to rob you." Oh hoodies.

Snow in Hyde Park

I'm all done with another round of classes, and all I can say at the moment is that London classes take a lot of getting used to. I think 3 hour classes are hard enough after being used to classes that are an hour and 15 minutes - tops - and then the level of independence required in the classes is also rather difficult being that we are in London and not snow-covered Ithaca. Needless to say, I'm still adjusting to them. All I know is that I love British Pop.

Speaking of snow, we actually had some when I woke up this morning!! It was really pretty and unexpected. All I've been hearing is that London very rarely gets snow, and when they do, it's kind of like being in the South - they don't really know how to handle it. Well, the snow I got excited about wasn't more than a dusting, and it certainly did cause some problems: Most of the tubes had severe or minor delays. I actually don't think a single one was in "Good Service" mode when I left for classes this morning. The sidewalks and roads were covered with salt, and there was probably more salt than there was snow. It was sort of gross. The snow's gone now, though.

This upcoming Saturday there is another walk to Greenwich and the Docklands, though I won't be able to go. Instead I shall be working here in the ICLC with Paddy for about four hours, making just about £3.50 an hour (converted from NY's new, higher minimum wage). Sunday I'm very excited to go see Penny, my mom's friend who lives in Essex, to spend the day. By tube and train, it's about an hour East of where I'm living in London. I've never met her, but from talking to her on the phone, she's great. It should be a fun day.

London Walk

We went on another walk with Bill today; this time it was the City of London. We visited St. Paul's Cathedral to start, and to end, visited more churches and beautiful buildings on the way. It was very historic but not as much walking or as long as the one last weekend. There is another walk tomorrow to the markets of London. I think there are four we're going to see in total. I'm pretty excited for it, though I'm not so keen on waking up early again. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow (just like it was today!) which should be nice.

In other news, I have a horrible sore throat. I also can't talk very well. I went to the store today and bought better tea, lemon juice, and honey in an effort to ease the pain. If it doesn't get better by Monday, I think I'm going to try to make an appointment with the doctor the London Center recommended, but I really hope it doesn't come to that. Being sick is not cheap, especially not here.

Wednesday Classes

British Pop:
This is my favorite class so far. We spent about half of the class listening to various songs and will apparently keep that up for the remainder of the semester. Yay! We are required to go to three or four perfomances of bands over the course of the class as well, which should be exciting. I love the professor, as pretty much everyone taking the class does. She's fabulous and so enthusiastic about the material - it's quite contagious.

British Youth Cultures:
Unfortunately, the professor is currently in San Diego and won't be back until next week. Fortunately, we got to have Bill cover the class today! Bill actually only talked for about 45 minutes, going over the bones of the course, before we watched a two-hour movie about the Mods and Rockers in the 50s and 60s. I didn't understand most of the movie and thought it was really weird. Oh, and Sting made a guest appearance in it. Yup.

Hoping this doesn't jinx it: The toilet is working again! I am finally getting internet in the flat!! Yay!!

Tuesday Classes

My first class this morning, Sport Marketing, technically began at 9:30 though most of the students didn't show up until almost 10 because of problems on the tube and the professor didn't even arrive until 10:15. Genevieve, one half of my professor tag-team, is completely insane and, at this point, I think she's amazing. She's a young rugby player that does legal and marketing things for different sport teams here (I'm not quite clear on her exact job). The syllabus is currently very confusing and because Clive, the other professor, made it differently than he and Gen discussed, no one is sure of what the assignments are. I do know, however, that the entire class is required to go to the NFL Super Bowl Party on Sunday, 4 February if Clive's able to get tickets for all of us. It doesn't start until 11pm, and a case study and critique are both due on Tuesday, 6 February, which is nuts. When Clive is teaching us, which is close to half of the class periods, we'll be meeting at the MLB in Central London and listening to guest lecturers of various kinds rather than hanging at the London Center.

My second class, Modern British History, actually has books. I was able to get them from the library at the London Center, so with any luck, I don't have to buy them at all. Some of the people in the class make me crazy, but I enjoy the professor. Another cool aspect of the class: We get to go on field trips! Mostly we'll be frequenting museums and galleries, but we also get to see the war rooms and go on a walking tour of East London.

For my British Pop class, which doesn't start until tomorrow, I had to go to a documentary showing at 7pm today. It was about 1967, The Beatles, and the rest of the music scene during that year. The director and producer of the doc is coming to speak to our class on next Wednesday's class, which should be interesting. On first impression, the professor seems really cool, and people in the other section have only said good things about her. We shall see tomorrow.

Our toilet is broken for the second time in 3 days, which is almost as frustrating as it is inconvenient. We're going to have to get it fixed again tomorrow, so hopefully that will stick. In the mean time, we're lucky that we're not here much and that there are McDonalds and Burger King just down the street.

Stillllll Pre-classes

I suppose I best update now before I go and forget everything from the past few days. With classes starting and whatnot, my mind's going to be quite full.

I spent the majority of Sunday afternoon in the London Center, uploading pictures online for the world to see. It was the most tedious work of my life and I cannot wait until I'm able to use my computer for such things. (I've just heard of a relatively-close neighbor who may be getting wireless that we can borrow when needed, so that seems promising...) When the Center closed at 4, I walked with Jessie to Sainsbury's, a grocery store just two or three blocks from the Gloucester tube and ICLC as well. It was lot larger than the one I went to with Paddy and Megan earlier in the week, though surprisingly, there still wasn't much of a selection. (When we'd met another American in one of the smaller stores down the street from our flat, she commented to Meg and I on the lack of selection, so I'm assuming now that it must be quite prominent.) It's a lot to get used to, grocery shopping in London. I was constantly converting in my head and doubling all of the prices, but doing that, I wouldn't have left with anything. Prices aren't too bad, and they're definitely better at the bigger stores. I spent £6 in total for food just for me, and in total so far, our flat has spent just a little over £75 in groceries to stock the kitchen. It definitely pays to get used to British brands quickly as well because, for the most part, they tend to run cheaper than American brands. Excellent example: Boots (a British pharmacy-type store - called chemists here) brand toothpaste only cost £0.29 - that's only 60 cents!!

Sunday night my flatmates and I, Paddy excluded, went to the International Students House (ISH) a few tube stops away for their weekly free movie with some other IC students living on the 3rd floor of our building. It happened to be You, Me, and Dupree which probably would have deterred me had I known ahead of time, but it was somewhat entertaining and a new London experience, if nothing else.

Monday I had my first day of Work Study, from 12:30 to 4:30 with my first half served as a Front Office Assistant and the second part as Library Assistant. In the Front Office, I let people into the building with the buzzer, answer phones and direct calls, and just do general tasks around the Center. It's quite busy, unlike the Library in the basement - at least for now. I had a few visitors during my time there (actually, where I am now covering a quick hour for someone), but they mostly just walked in, had a look around and moved on. I can't say, though, that it's an unpleasant way to spend my Work Study time. Hey, at least the heater's on now!

I didn't make it back to the flat until around 5:15 or so because both the Circle and District lines were down (again!), and I had to do some finagling. Once everyone returned we made a group effort to get dinner on the table, serving penne with chicken, mushrooms, and a garlic and oil sauce as well as some wine. We watched some classic American television, The Simpsons, which we've discovered is on for two hours on SkyOne (one of the 5 channels we get) on Monday evenings at least. We took a break to wash the dishes and then walked just a few buildings down to a waffle house that serves the most amazing ice cream ever for dessert. There isn't much to do at night until assignments start rolling in, without internet and with phone calls being so expensive, so we caught Britain's version of Project Runway, called Project Catwalk and hosted by Kelly Osbourne. I can see myself getting addicted to it.

I just had my first British class and am about to go to a lunch break before my next class for the day, but I think I'll wait until I've at least had all of today's classes until I update about them. Hope you're all well! More soon...

Walking, Walking, Walking

On Friday, my roommates in the flat, Paddy and Jessie, and I wandered around Hyde Park (just down the street from us) for lack of anything better to do. Sightseeing seems to be how I keep from boredom lately in a flat without internet and television, not that I'm complaining. It was during the walk that I discovered just how close we were to Kensington Palace - literally, 6 or 7 minutes from the flat!! We got in just before the gates were closed and wandered about there for a bit, stopping in the gift shop and by The Orangery, where it's been decided we will go for tea on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday morning, Bill had the Two City Walk from the City of Westminster to the City of London, which I went on with Meg, Paddy and Jessie. Most of Westminster I had already seen the day before, but it was different from his perspective. Bill is brilliant. He knows so much about everything, so it was amazing to listen to the history of it all as we walked by. On the way to the City of London, we walked along the Thames on the southern bank, which is the art-related area, and saw the National Film Theatre, the Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe, and the Millennium Bridge. Bill also took us to the site of the original Globe as well as The Rose theatre and the Southwark Cathedral. At the Burrough Market, which is only open on weekends and is for the most-part open air, I sampled some Boston sausage and two pieces of fried goat cheese, making that my first "meal" for the day. We ended the day's walk by crossing the Tower Bridge to the Tower of London, and Bill was sure to point out the lesser London Bridge as well. Though there is something to be said for random exploring and wandering, I learned a lot on his walk and really enjoyed myself.

After the four-hour long walk, my flatmates and I headed back to Trafalgar Square where the Russian Winter Festival was carrying on. It was basically music and bar tents, but the one act that we caught (Russian pop singers) was completely entertaining. A lot of the audience was screaming the lyrics right along with the guy and were waving Russian flags in the air. Somehow the pictures got lost, but perhaps I shall find them to put up.

The day left us all exhausted, so Meg and I took naps as Paddy unpacked and whatnot while Jessie and Erin went back to the hotel and to do other things. For dinner, still without food in the flat, Meg, Paddy and I wandered about our neighborhood looking for a fish and chips place, but found none that could serve us starving girls immediately. We ended up eating at a restaurant in a shopping center near us called Ma Potters, which I probably won't be going back to again just because of the money. Eating out is ridiculously expensive. Afterwards, the three of us took the tube to Sainsbury's to buy some groceries, came out with a good amount of food, and took the tube back to the flat.

I posted the majority of my pictures, and I'll probably post more once I can do it directly from my laptop. Currently, I have some pictures of the flat, our day exploring Westminster, and the Two City Walk from Saturday. Enjoy!

Internet-less

So, it doesn't look like we're getting the internet here in the flat. It's turning out to be a lot more money than we all planned on spending what with the wireless router and connection fees and everything. Luckily, Paddy's Mac picks up wireless from one of the many internet cafes surrounding our flat and is graciously letting us all use it when necessary. Otherwise, we'll all just be bringing our laptops to the London Center and using the internet there. Once classes start Monday, that won't be as inconvenient as it is at the moment.

Meg, Paddy and I are about to have a quiet evening in and watch Pride and Prejudice, so I'll wait until tomorrow at the ICLC to update about the most recent happenings in these parts. Pictures, too, will finally be posted (not including the one I test-posted today of my love, Big Ben). Check him out over at the "Camera Happy" link on the left.

See you tomorrow!

Benny-Boo!

I love Big Ben!!

Paddy, her friend Kate, and I went on a random sightseeing adventure around London today. We visited Westminster Abbey, Trafalger Square (and fed the pigeons!), the London Aquarium, my favorite Big Ben, Leicester Square, Chinatown and Soho. We saw the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye as well, though it was too windy to ride the Eye and no one was allowed in Parliament as far as we could tell. Everything was gorgeous. On the long road to Buckingham Palace, it began to downpour, and of course there are no tubes near the Palace, so we got completely drenched. By the time we actually reached it, we could barely see, our clothes were soaked through, the umbrella was blown inside-out, and the Palace wasn't much of a reward for all the trouble. I suppose we'll go back on a sunnier day and see it all again.

Pictures to follow soon hopefully, depending on how speedily we can find internet for our flat.

Cheers!

Landed and Living in London

So I'm officially in London. Our plane was delayed for two and half hours due to one bag the crew was unable to find for a person no longer on the flight, but other than that it was quite enjoyable. I liked being able to watch the flight path on our personal television sets. The movies we were able to watch were ones that I wanted to see anyway (Last Kiss, The Queen) so that was quite nice as well.

To be completely honest, the first day and half were exhausting and depressing. Meg and I had over an hour walk to our hostel from the Paddington station (where the Heathrow Express from our airport let off), mostly because we got lost several times and the owners didn't know much about giving directions. We had too much luggage for that sort of trip, and we arrived extremely grumpy. We woke up bright and early around eight, grabbed the free breakfast (yay toast!), and made our way to the London Center with most of our luggage - making for another completely unenjoyable journey on the tube. (Not to make it sound as though I hate the tube; I actually like it quite a bit without all the luggage.)

We spent the entire first full day looking for flats, all of which were dead-ends, except for one at the very end that we all loved but needed one more person for it to be affordable. We spent the rest of the evening desperately looking for a sixth person, but to no avail. My flatmates, by the way, are: Paddy, Erin, and Jessica from U of M. In the morning, with a fresh attitude (though Meg and I were a bit late due to both the District and Circle lines - our main tube lines to get to school - being severely delayed and/or down completely), we contacted someone else that Jessie had found online the night before to set up an appointment. He showed us three flats, all of which we liked, leaving us to just choose the one we liked best.

A Flat!!! We chose one with an excellent location - right between two tube stops, Queensway and Bayswater and down the street from Hyde Park. Signing the lease was very exciting for all of us, we couldn't stop gushing, and I think if you weren't within our group, you probably would have found us obnoxious. Meg and I moved in right away as we had checked out of our hostel in the morning and were currently facing sleeping on the street (not entirely true, but we weren't going back there...). It's lovely and I really liked waking up in my own flat. :)

Also, yesterday, due to the tube problem, we explored London a bit on the buses, including some double-decker ones. The buses are definitely nicer than the T-CAT at school, thank God.

Today, with no more flat-hunting (again, thank God) and my one meeting for the day over, we may do some sight-seeing and just spend the rest of the week exploring everything. Our orientation packets had a "26 Quick Facts" sheet in it and #17 was very right - It WILL get better.

Tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow!!!! I am so excited and so nervous and I cannot believe it's tomorrow. Wow.

I have all of my packing left, but I have lots of packing lists and packing piles (my attempt to be a productive procrastinator) to make it go easier when I actually decide to pack. I'm finding it very difficult to pack everything I'm going to need for the next four months without any reservations. I will pack soon. Today actually, and hopefully sooner rather than later. Packing must be my least favorite part of travel. But then there's London and YAY! So I guess I better get packing because it would certainly help if I was packed when Meg arrives to leave for the airport (bright and early) at 4:30 tomorrow morning. Okay I'm going to pack.

LONDON TOMORROW!!! :)

London Calling

Happy New Year to all!!

My dad called me at 7pm New Year's Eve here, midnight in London. It got me excited for London all over again, as most of my day-to-day prepping does everytime I actually think about it. I'm getting really good at the time change. I'm pretty much all prepared now - just a huge load of packing and laundry and phone calls ahead of me.

I've started reading the book, and though I haven't gotten too much read yet, I am enjoying it so far and I do hope to have most of it done by the time I arrive at Heathrow.

Wow, in less than 4 days, I'll be on British soil!!