more lessons

when you upload photos to a blog, apparently you have to do them each individually. it. is. a. slow. process.
when you live in one of the most polluted cities in the world, you blow black tar out your nose.

P.S. I saw St. Paul's Cathedral today, and it's getting it's 300-year facelift right now so wasn't the best time for pictures but I will probably go back. So yes, I have stood on the same steps where Diana stood as a new bride!

London bridge isn't falling down!

Life lessons from England:
brolly = umbrella
lift = elevator
Cars will run over you, regardless if you are in the road.
Who needs casinos when you can gamble with your life everyday in the streets of London.
British History is way cooler than American History.

So update from the last couple days.....

Yesterday, February 27, 2008, Wednesday
Since we don't have classes on Wednesday, Josh, Brad, Allison, Erica and I spent the better part of the day visiting the Tower of London. visit www.toweroflondontour.com to get the background info on it. But this place dates back to early as 11th century, and most towers were added in the 13th century. Not only did I visit the Spanish Armouries and the Chapel and several other towers, but I got to see The Crown Jewels (aka the Queen's Bling). Clearly, my favorite part of the Crown Jewels exhibit was getting to see A 530 CARAT DIAMOND in person in a sceptre now belonging to the Queen, even though it wasn't created for her (monarchical inheritance is a fabulous thing!)

Later that evening, and as will be the case of all Wednesday evenings, we went to a theatre production as part of our Drama class. We hopped on the tube down to Waterloo station to head toward the Old Vic, one of the oldest and grandest theatres in London. Our professor must have real connections because we were in the third row for the fantastic performance of Speed The Plow. Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey were no more than 25 ft from us!! Literally, I could see the sweat beads on Kevin Spacey's forehead. Jeff Goldblum is incredibly tall!!! Both gave a fantastic performance and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see it!! I'm having such a great time knowing that I can see so many shows without restricitons of what just one theatre has to offer!

Be looking for pictures!! Love you all!!

First day of classes

Classes started here today with temperatures in the low 50s with a nice English wind. First was History of London with the engaging Dr. Tubb (a Centre professor) as we learned some of the basic roots of the beginning of English existence with the Celts and then the Roman Empire. After that was another riveting session with Dr. Tubb in History 110 in which we covered 10,000 b.c to August 1513 in 45 minutes. Information overload! After a quick lunch in the apartment, we headed out to Euston Station, one of the nearest and larger tube stations to get our Oyster cards so that we can get on and off the tube for a month with unlimited travel in zones 1 and 2. Needless to say, I plan to start putting that to good use this week. After a short computer session at Birkbeck college, we were introduced to Steven Dykes, a Brit who happens to be our drama professor. We laughed a lot and laid out some details and expectations of the class. This Wednesday, I will be going to the Old Vic theatre in the evening to see Speed the Plow. the Old Vic is one of the most historically rich theatres in London, and is run by Kevin Spacey who also stars in Speed the Plow along with Jeff Goldblum. And I'm sure I will have more details on that later. After a long day, some friends and I, after some wandering around our neighborhood, decided to go to an Indian Restaurant for dinner called Motijeel. For my first time experiencing indian food I found it delightfully yummy with a little bit of a kick!! My advice: go for the chicken tandoori, the lamb ragon, and the chicken tikka mussallam!! Now it's time to do some homework and settle in for the evening! Talk to you all soon! (And found out today that it makes mail easier to deliver if it has the flat number on it, and just for reference, my flat number is 210)

Finally here!

After a year of waiting, I have finally arrived and settled in London, England! After an 8 hour flight (that left one hour late due to deicing procedures and a flipped circuit breaker) we still made it to England on time thanks to a 200 mph tailwind! My first adventure with British traffic was from the airport to my apartment via taxi. Shew! I'm still getting used to this driving on the opposite side of the road thing! The roads are very curvy and bendy downtown, and when you add that to all the extremely tiny cars and police sirens I feel like I have stepped into the Bourne Identity! My apartment at Endsleight Court falls under the "efficiency flat" style and is located in the very urban region of London.  we have two beds, one closet, one dresser, a table, a chair, and  a teeny kitchen that has no oven!! gah!! however, other students do  have an oven so we can bake there if we need to. But we do have one big burner and then a smaller burner. Shopping here is different too. No driving to the grocery store, and most locals go every day due to the fact that you must carry what you buy. Just to give you an idea of pricing differences and currency differences, a sponge loofa that you could buy for .99 cents at walmart is 1.99 pounds here, which equals nearly $4! But at long as you think of it in pounds and not dollars, you can get through the grocery stores and not want to noose yourself. Today, our group ventured through the greater London area (all on foot) and walked around 9 miles in 5 hours. We strolled through some parks (Regents and St. James), walked through Oxford Street (lots of high-end shopping), saw the Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Eye of London (the big ferris-wheel apparatus that had a cameo in Fantastic Four II), and Buckingham Palace (and yes the queen was home). The buildings and architecture are absolutely beautiful, except in the spots where London has been bombed so many times in past wars and new buildings have been erected. Classes start tomorrow and my day will be filled with the History of London, History 110, and the first meeting for my British Theatre class. Look later this week for updates from London!

Preparations

Ahh! I leave the country in approximately 29 hours! Since all the hard stuff like packing is out of the way, I can focus on being excited for my trip!!!