Being a Londoner

I don’t think I could ever get used to how loud the sirens are here. The fire alarm in my building is quite startling, and I jump when the driver of an ambulance or cop car turns it’s sirens on while I am walking past on the sidewalk. All alarms just seem so much louder than they are in the states. Another traffic topic to note is how quickly I got used to the cars coming from the other direction. Within a few days looking right became habit. My dad was a bit worried. “When you first get there, be careful crossing the street. You hear all these stories about Americans visiting Europe who get hit by a car coming from an unfamiliar direction.” To his credit, when I was little, I used to give my parents quite a fright by running out into the street without looking. However, that’s not the whole reason one would get hit by a car here. A big part of the reason is that cars don’t stop for pedestrians here like they do in the states. They just barrel on through the crosswalks, occasionally slowing down but rarely stopping for people to walk across. I have had people kindly stop for me, but more often they won’t.

It’s also a good thing I don’t bike around here because although my parents taught my sister and I bike etiquette, they signal with the right hand instead of the left! This of course makes complete sense given the origin of the hand signals. Before cars had blinkers and lights people stuck their hands out the window to alert other drivers of turning or stopping. Given that drivers here sit on the right side of the vehicle, they would have used their right hand. Thus, as I have witnessed cyclists to do, they signal with their right hands.

Despite all of this I finally feel a bit more like a Londoner, which probably has a lot to do with my most recent purchase of a black quilted jacket, complete with corduroy elbow patches! Black is the new black around here, and elbow patches are all the rage. On my way to and from Sainsbury’s to find some things I need for my upcoming trip, I felt like I fit in much better not wearing my red North Face coat. I do love that red coat but the past couple of months I’ve been that American wearing brightly coloured outerwear. So now that it’s been two and a half months and we are going to be travelling, I have finally found myself a black jacket.

Yes, we are off to Dublin soon! Followed by Barcelona, Paris, Prague, Vienna, and Lucern, all before coming back here for part of third term to finish papers (of which I have two) and take final exams (of which I have none!) before Europe Trip Part II (as we are calling it). It seems that the backpack my cousin Christine lent me for this trip is going to see lots of places and be very useful, thanks Christine! I also get to see a friend, Liz, who is arriving here tomorrow and she is joining us for our adventure! I can’t wait to see Liz and show her around London, a city which I have grown to feel quite at home in. Although not as lovingly as my own home, don’t worry Grandma Betty!

Have a wonderfully marvellous day, cheers! ~Laura 

Stonehenge and Bath

Saturday I got to go to Stonehenge and Bath with the programme I am studying abroad with. It was nice to get away after being extremely stressed by school the past week. The bus ride was a bit long, and I got a little travel sick, but the trip was a lot of fun! When you first look at Stonehenge, it seems like a bunch of big rocks in a field with sheep. The rocks actually have quite the history and predate the Egyptian pyramids. No one is quite sure why they were brought here from Wales or how they were transported all this way. The heaviest rock weighs 45 tons, which is the weight of seven large elephants! And a third of the rocks are actually buried underground. So how did people get such heavy rocks to stick in the ground like this so long ago before we had the machinery to do so? No one knows.

There are many myths and stories told about how the rocks got to their resting place. One is that the devil flew them there, and to explain the few rocks scattered around the area, he dropped some along the way. There were other myths described in our audio guide, but it was so cold and windy, and I stupidly forgot my gloves, so I couldn’t stand around and listen any longer. But I am glad I got to see Stonehenge.

The next stop was Bath and even though it was grey out, the English countryside was beautiful. It looks as if there is a green quilt blanketing the earth for miles. I hadn’t seen sheep in a very long time, there were so many of them! We didn’t stay in Bath too long, but we got to see some of the main attractions. We went to the Jane Austen Centre, which is located in a house she used to stay in for long periods of time. I am embarrassed to say I have not read any Jane Austen, but I love the movie Pride and Prejudice (the newest version) so I bought it while we were there and I plan to read it before leaving London.

 


                

First building we saw

We also saw the Circus, which is a perfect circle of Georgian style houses, and the Royal Crescent, which is semi-circle shaped and looks out over Victoria Park. Both places are rare because of the curved architecture not seen many other places. 

The Circus 

The Royal Crescent 

We couldn’t go to Bath and miss seeing the Roman Baths. They were discovered a long time ago and many aspects of Roman Britain culture were built up around the baths. Much of the original architecture of the building and statues surrounding the baths still stands and a museum was created to teach the public about the time period. I found bits of it pretty cheesy, e.g. the videos of people dressed as Romans acting out silent scenes as they think the Romans would have acted projected on the wall. However, the audio guide was well done, even politely letting us know that we didn’t need to listen to all of it.

The hot spring from above 

Oldest stones from the Roman Period 

Bronze head of the Goddess Minerva 

The Hot Spring (we were jealous of a bird swimming by!)

Located adjacent to the Roman Baths is The Pump Room. This room is mentioned in Jane Austen’s books and many important functions happen in this room (in her books as well as now). It will be cool to read about The Pump Room now that I have been there. We wanted to get afternoon tea but didn’t have time. We were however able to get a peek inside during lunch and it was smaller than we expected but rather stunning.

The Pump Room 

Bath is a beautiful, historical city and the pictures don’t do it justice. Partly because it was so cloudy and cold when we visited. 

Most of the city resembles this street

I would recommend it to anyone visiting England! 

Have a wonderfully marvellous day, cheers! ~Laura 

The Churchill War Room

The universe does not want us to see Macbeth. It’s just that simple. We have now been to the box office to get day tickets 4 times, and the one time it worked, although it ended very fortunately, we had quite the series of unfortunate events. We also tried to get tickets through Arcadia, (the program we are all studying abroad through) so that’s 5 times we have tried to get tickets. Yesterday was definitely the most painful. After getting to sleep at 1:30 because I was skyping my mom, (which was lovely to talk to her!) I woke up at 6 to shower before we left at 7. We got to the box office at 7:15 and there were already 14 people in line. It was raining and cold so we decided to go back to bed.

However, the rest of that day was lovely! I took an audio tour of the Churchill War Room with Megan. I was impressed with the presentation of the museum. The War Room has been left the way it looked when WWII ended.

The War Room

 I personally am extremely against any war or fighting of any kind. It was the way I was raised. But I decided to go into this museum with an open mind. It takes a lot of military planning and brains to be involved in a war. (A waste of these resources if you ask me). The people working and sleeping in the War Room lived in stuffy dark conditions. Most of them smoked making the air quality that much worse. It was amazing to see the rooms they lived in. Their small size caused extreme moments of claustrophobia to most people sleeping there. The furniture denoted social status. I would have gone crazy down there, and probably would have become severely depressed. 

One of the rooms in the bunker

It is scary how the individuals living there felt so safe and secure, while in reality a bomb that hit the area at the correct angle would have demolished the bunker. I learned so much about WWII as well as living situations and conditions during war time; Not something I would be pleased living through. It seems ridiculous to me to be fighting with another country, especially after learning that Winston Churchill was able to create alliances with past enemies to help Britain fight.

A map used by Churchill to plot the routes of enemy soldiers

 We did learn a lot about Churchill. He was a wartime hero, putting so much time into military planning and keeping the country safe. He was a bit lazy and liked to live like a rich aristocrat, but he accomplished so much. Did you know he painted in his free time? I did not until Saturday. He painted when he was young and then took it up again upon becoming depressed after retirement. He was described as an amateur painter, but I like his paintings quite a bit.

Churchill's smock, paints, and a couple of his works.

We also celebrated St. Patricks Day Saturday by hitting up a pub in Camden Town. Alcohol around here is so expensive. £4 for a pint at the pub we were at and it can be more expensive than that! So after getting one Carlsberg we decided to head to the UCL pub, The Huntley, for £1.70 drinks. Things close quite early around here so at 12 we either had to move downstairs to another UCL pub, Mully’s or head back to our flat. We decided to call it a night and head back. I know, early, right?

Happy St. Patricks Day everyone! I hope you had more fun than me yesterday; I did schoolwork all day and will be doing it all week. It’s my last week of classes, but I have three assignments due. However, I have just those hurtles to get over before three exciting weeks of travel!

Have a wonderfully marvellous day, cheers! ~Laura 

Have a Red Nose!

Happy Red Nose Day everyone! Today, 15 March 2013, is Red Nose Day here in England, and it seems to be a big deal. Every time I make a trip to Sainsbury’s for groceries and have to hear the automate voice of the self checkout ask me if I’ve swiped my Nectar card, I am reminded by the large posters and noses for sale that it is almost Red Nose Day. What is Red Nose Day you might ask? I wondered the same thing for quite some time before watching an interview of some of the actors in Downton Abbey, who mentioned this day. What I have found out from the interview as well as some research that it is a day, which occurs biannually, dedicated to fundraising for charity. Not just any fundraising, it in fact usually incorporates comedy. Comic Relief always performs spoofs of the most popular shows or movies. Many celebrities get involved, raising money or doing other things, like white water rafting and other challenges to raise money. Many schools and kids get involved with the opportunity to send in jokes and funny stories that will be broadcasted on TV. Noses and t-shirts, as well as other paraphernalia, are also sold to raise money for charity.

It is really just a wonderful way to have a laugh for a cause. So try and picture all the posters I have seen of celebrities with large red clown noses and laugh a little!

Have a wonderfully marvellous day, cheers! ~Laura 

Term Coming to an End

I can’t quite believe that I am almost at the end of this term. Yep, I only have one week of classes left, and it has flown by! The way that the schooling works here is much different than in the states. We only have 10 weeks of classes, with a reading week in the middle. Then we will have a one-month break and then a month and a half for exams and final projects. This month is technically the third term and students take all of their exams for the entire year during that term. I, however, don’t have any exams! My last paper is due April 24^th and then I will be free to travel until June 20^th when I meet my family in Rome. Although, this next week is going to be hectic and stressful as I finish a paper that’s due on Tuesday and two assignments that are due Friday, but I am going to try and find something enjoyable to do because it’s not everyday I will be living in London!

I recently found that a place called The Refectory is great for getting work done. I am here now and am about to start working on a paper. Lunch hour is from 1 to 2 instead of what I would consider the usual 12 to 1 so it is a bit crowded and noisy right now, but in about half an hour the place will clear out.

A wonderful thing I discovered (well Megan actually discovered it and told us) about The Refectory is that there is a Starbucks, which has subsidized prices! I can get a Frappuccino for £2.10! Normally this drink would cost £4.10, which is around 6 dollars, a price I refuse to pay for coffee. I did miss Starbucks. I am happy to have it back in my life.

Have a wonderfully marvellous day, cheers! ~Laura 

Splashed

The sound of thunder and flashing lights to suggest lightening told us that a storm was brewing. And then it was as if the skies opened up above the stage and it poured on the actors as the melody of the song Singing in the Rain flowed from the orchestra pit. “Let the stormy clouds chase everyone from this place. Come on with the rain, I’ve a smile on my face!” And Don Lockwood did have a smile on his face, a menacing smile, as he looked right at those of us in the front row. We knew he secretly, thoroughly enjoys soaking the first few rows of the audience during the title number. It's a good thing I didn’t mind getting splashed, because we got pretty wet. You have to admit, you can’t possibly have Singin’ in the Rain without rain!

Singin’ in the Rain was honestly one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time. The actors were amazing, their dancing and voices phenomenal. Every one of them seemed to be enjoying every minute of the show just as much as I did. It was cool to see a movie I love so much performed live on stage!

I was extremely impressed by the actress playing Lina Lamont. She had an amazingly obnoxious character voice, which she even sang in. Also, side note, she does everything! You may know her from Phantom of the Opera. The actress, Jennifer Ellison, played Meg. She also has won Hell’s Kitchen, and toured the UK with Dancing on Ice. She has an impressive résumé to say the least. Even more, I loved the performance by Stephane Anelli. He had the most animated facial expressions. The actor really fit the role, clearly having control of his dancing, while he seemed to have none, during Make ‘em Laugh. He’s also quite the hoofer, something I envy. Kathy, Don, and Cosmo had a lot of fun tapping through the number Good Morning, another one of my favourites. 

It was really an amazing show for a great price! We've bought day tickets before and they are definitely the way to go. Only £25 and our tickets for this show were originally £65! If you haven't seen Singin' in the Rain, I highly recommend it, especially if you liked the movie. 

Have a wonderfully marvelous day, cheers! ~Laura 

Tea at Harrods

It has been warm, and sunny, and the sky has been a beautiful blue the past couple days! Today it is raining, but I have some homework to do so I am not upset about it. Also, it hasn't rained here as much as I thought it would, so I can't complain.

For those of you who don't know what Harrods is, it's a very large, extremely expensive department store in London. In fact we looked up the address and it stretches from house number 87-135! When we went a couple weeks ago I got these pictures of it lit up at night. 

As well as a picture of one of the stores inside. I just loved the architecture and the ceiling! 

When I say extremely expensive, I mean out of price range expensive. I was hesitant to look at any of the price tags, but curious as well. We walked around for a bit before I cold bring myself to do it. I found a generic, sleeveless, tan, top with a bit of detailing around the neckline, thinking it wouldn't be too outrageous. The price for this piece was around £2,500! This I thought was absolutely ridiculous for a shirt of its quality. On that first visit, we also found out that cream tea at The Tea Room in Harrods isn't as expensive as we thought. It costs about £12. So ever since our first visit we had been wanting to have the quintessential London experience of tea at Harrods.

For those of you who don’t know what the difference between cream tea and afternoon tea is, I will explain. Cream tea is what we have been ordering, because it is so much less expensive. At Harrods, afternoon tea is £29, which is a much higher price than the £12 cream tea. Both options come with your choice of tea or coffee. Each person gets his or her own teapot with loose-leaf tea. You must remember to use the small strainer provided to catch the tealeaves that would otherwise end up at the bottom of your cup. Cream tea is served with one or two scones, jam, and clotted cream. If you haven’t heard of clotted cream, don’t worry, neither had I until arriving to the UK. Clotted cream has the consistency of butter, but melts like frosting when warmed by a hot scone. Its taste is somewhere between butter and cool whip, but not too sweet. It can be hard or impossible to find in the US but is fairly easy to make, the recipe can be found here. Afternoon tea is a much more substantial snack. It usually comes with sandwiches, pastries, cakes, scones, or some combination of those things. There is also high tea, which is more of a blue-collar meal usually served with a meat dish eaten by workers who would come home and be too hungry to wait until the dinner hour of 8 o’clock for a substantial meal.

On Wednesday we finally got to Harrods for cream tea. Our tea came with the following: our own tea-pot with our choice of tea, I ordered Earl Grey, two delicious scones, clotted cream, and strawberry and raspberry jam which came in little jars which we kept. I now drink my tea like the English, first pouring in the milk, then the tea, then adding a bit of sugar. The metal thing to the right is the strainer for the tea.

It was the perfect snack to tide us over until Singin' in the Rain! 

Have a wonderfully marvelous day, cheers! ~Laura