First Day Trip and Westminster Abby

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Hello All!

I am waiting for my laundry so I thought that I would sit down and write more about what I have been up to!

Last Thursday I just posted some pictures, but that was also my enrollment day. So, I finally got my schedule and have sort of figured out what I will be doing this semester...
Monday: I will have nothing, luckily - unless one of my classes has a meeting, but that sounds unlikely.
Tuesday: I am going to have two Visual and Cultural Theory classes on this day - I have no idea what the classes are or what the time frame is - but I did get to apply for certain ones, so hopefully I will get good ones (and will find out soon).
Wednesday: I am having a cross-college elective (which I had NO idea about before I came) on Islamic Art and Architecture - it sounds interesting (and not homework heavy) and I am hoping it will count for an art history credit at the U, which will be really nice! I wanted to take one on the local museums and curating, but it was full.
Thursday: This is when I will be in my actual studio class. I thought I was taking a typography class, which will hopefully bump up my schooling at the U, but it's called "Typo/Graphy" and apparently the "/" actually means something - that it's not just about type... But that's fine, I think it will work out.
Friday: Every other week there is going to be a lecture for Personal/Professional Development. I wish I could just tell them I go to Carlson and will be spewing this out my eyeballs by the end up my time at the U, but apparently I will have to take it. The lectures don't sound that bad, and they are only 1.5 hours long, but I think I have to do an informational interview (which I hate) and will just be a lot of bother to get done before I leave here... Maybe I can find an alternative assignment...

So, that is my class schedule - it all kicks off on Thursday with my first studio class. Apparently we are going on a trip. My prof wouldn't tell us where we are going, but she said to be prepared for walking and any sort of weather. She even mentioned swimming - but I hope she was joking! It should be interesting. I have only met the international students in my class, so I am looking forward to meeting the whole group then (it should be about 45 people).

On Thursday night I wandered around Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus with Maggi the girl from my flat. We have been hanging out a lot - seeing the sights and just relaxing in the flat, and I am very happy that I have made a friend. The other people in the flat are nice, but they are not really my kind of people. It is also nice to have a travel partner. Anyway, walking around at night was really fun. We started at Trafalgar Square which was really crowded, so it was hard to take good pictures (I posted a link to these on the last entry, but I will post it again at the end of this one). But, I will be going back to visit the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, so never fear. I want to save the museums for when it gets too cold to just wander around.
Leicester Square was very hip and fun, it was kind of like what I imagine Hollywood to be like, only condensed. There were a ton of theaters, and a ton of booths selling "half-priced" tickets. There are a ton of shows that I want to see (Mamma Mia, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and 6 Characters in Search of an Author to name a few) but even the half-priced tickets are expensive, so I will have to pick and chose carefully, and find someone to go with. I really want to see the Phantom and Les Mis, but I will have to see!) Leicester Square is also where they do the big movie premieres in London - so if there is a good one, Maggi and I have decided to camp out and go to it - I think that would be really neat. So far, we haven't heard of anything except High School Musical 3... Maggi said that the next Harry Potter movie was supposed to be released while we were here, but they changed the date! That would have been pretty awesome (I know, I'm a nerd).
We just briefly stopped in Piccadilly because it was the best tube route home, but we did stop on the statue and eat some ice cream from a street vendor. The ice cream was amazing - but the cone was stale, which was a little disappointing.

On Friday we were going to go shopping with another girl from Maggi's program, but she sorted ended up being busy, so we just walked around Oxford Circus for a while and looked at the shops. I had just been on Wednesday, but I hadn't bought anything. I did some some really cute stuff at a designer store, that was fairly priced, but I just couldn't decide - so I didn't get it. We did find an amazingly cheap store with lots of cute stuff called Primark. It was a zoo in there, but they did have a lot of bargains, and it seems to be decent quality. I bought a few things. I really don't want to spend money on clothes! But I know that I am going to get really sick of the stuff that I have here, because I only brought about 2.5 weeks worth of clothes! So I will just have to avoid Oxford St... Although I haven't been to Harrods yet, so I will have to go back at least once. (I really want to go to High Tea there, but I haven't had the time yet!)
When we got back I made fajitas for dinner (my first home cooked meal) and we watched The Office together. Very exciting.

On Saturday we were going to take a trip with some other girls from her program to Brighton, but they didn't want to go because of the weather, so it was just us. It was a pretty rainy day, and slightly cold, but Brighton was lovely, so it didn't really matter. Brighton is a seaside town directly south of London, a popular holiday spot for the British, I believe. It's a little bit like Duluth only warmer and beachy-er (in the summer at least). Either way, it was a really nice place. We walked along the beach for a while (while it was momentarily sunny) and picked up a few rocks. Then it started to rain so we ate at a pub called "The Fish Bowl." It was a pretty nice place and we both had really good hamburgers (with real ketchup!). Then we walked to the Royal Pavilion, which was the holiday home of King George IV before he became king and while he was king. It was beautiful - it was hard to believe it had once been a farm house... Again, we couldn't take pictures of the inside, so look online, you'll see! There was an AMAZING dining room that had huge dragons on a chandelier and the chandelier itself was hanging from a dragon, very wild. It was also very small (for a royal palace) and must have been amazing when it was first built. A lot of the wall paper and paintings were original from the time, so it was really interesting to see how well it had held up over the years (almost 200). We walked through the gardens, which must be amazing in the summer (and when it's not pouring) and over to the Brighton Gallery, which had a lot of neat funky stuff. There was a collection of modern chairs (one was made of blown glass) and couch shaped like lips! There was also a collection of items from exotic areas that had once had British explorers/armies in them like Egypt and India.

We wanted to go market hopping on Sunday, but apparently they are not all open on Sundays, and it was really rainy so we just hung around and watched movies - nothing too exciting. We did go out for a bit in the morning and find the Walmart of the United Kingdom, it's called ASDA and it is actually part of the Walmart Chain. I am ashamed to say that I bought a few things, but it was a different country - can we pretend it didn't happen?

Today I made it to Westminster Abby, which was really cool! I was really bummed that I couldn't take pictures inside (the British are so secretive!) but I did buy myself a guidebook, so everyone can see the stuff (and I can remember everything!). It was crammed with tombs, effigies, and memorials. You know how I love cemeteries and such, so this was pretty exciting for me. It was kind of funny though because a lot of the memorial statues were movable (not easily, but movable nonetheless) and some of them looked like they had just been set down - they were in front of each other, or just randomly placed in the entrance way. I thought that was a little silly. I also felt bad because a lot of the memorials were carved stones set into the ground and a lot of them were wearing away and some barely had any lettering on at all. I wish they would go back and re-carve the information - it made me feel bad just walking on them. It was so interesting to read everything though, it was so old! The tombs of the kings were, of course, amazing, and elaborate and beautiful. There was poet's corner where some famous people are actually buried and there are memorials to others. And I got to see the Isaac Newton Memorial (from the da Vinci Code) which was kind of neat (in a nerdy way). All and all, it was amazing and beautiful, and anyone going to London should see it! (And if you're not going, you can see my guidebook!)

I walked around the River also, before and after the Abby, on the Victoria Embankment (across from the Albert Embankment - those two are everywhere around London!). It was a beautiful day outside, and I took some more pictures of stuff along the river (basically the same stuff as before, just different views). I'm so glad it was nice out - I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow!

And that brings me to now. My laundry is finally done (thank goodness, otherwise I was going to have to wear my swimsuit as underwear tomorrow...) so I think I am going to go to bed. I have no idea what I will be up to tomorrow, but I will try to write if something fun happens. I think Maggi and I are going to Greenwich on Wednesday to see the Markets and the Royal Observatory (she's already been, but I want a picture on the Prime Meridian, so we will have to go there too), so I will update you on that as it happens!

And thank you to everyone who has sent me emails/facebook notes, I love hearing from everyone, and I'm sorry if I don't get back in a timely manner! I promise I will!

Pictures:
Walks with Maggi
Random Stuff-I will probably be updating this album with other random photos - I will let you know if I do that and repost the link.
Brighton Trip
Walking to/from Westminster Abby

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