London

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So I have officially been away from the United States for a week now. For all I know it could have been three! :-) I have done so much more in this past week than I can remember doing in a LONG time. Anyhow, I suppose I will start off my telling you how good my flights were (because that is the part I was most nervous about anyways. At least getting around the airports was). On my flight to DC I stayed quiet and didn't really talk to the people around me. I just did some sudoku and they played different NBC shows on the TV, like The Office and such. That was nice. By the time we were getting close to landing I was getting excited and asked the guy next to me where he was from (I could tell he was foreign). He was from Denmark!! Getting off the plane I was really nervous because we were changing aircrafts, but it was actually really easy to find where I needed to be. I was getting SO anxious waiting to board the plane. I just wanted to be in London already. So I finally boarded the 757, which seemed huge, it was a really nice plane with tvs in front of each seat and soft cushions on the seats. It was pretty comfortable as far as planes go. There wasn't anything good on the tv's, but they man next to me was pretty interesting. He was originally from Mexico and did a masters program in Germany and decided to live there ever since. It is just amazing how many different kinds of people there are. I love meeting them all!!! Anyways, after I arrive at Heathrow airport I am just following the signs to get to customs and finally BE IN LONDON! But, I got held up at customs for some reason. It wasn't for very long, but now I have this nice piece of paper telling me that I was being detained. :-) So I finally get through customs and I arrive at the terminal and I had no idea what to do from there. I didn't know who I was meeting there or anything. Then, I see a group of three students with a handbook that I recognized from Leicester. I went up and introduced myself and then we all realized we were in the wrong terminal so we all scurried around to find terminal 3. We found it and then found Paul (the study abroad coordinator from Leicester) and proceeded to wait in the airport for another three hours until all the other students arrived. There was about 38 of us doing the London orientation.

Once we were all together it was time to take the coach to our hotel, Hotel Ibis at Earl's Court. It was pretty cool driving on the other side of the road for the first time and thinking how strange it was. I kept thinking that at some point we were going to just move over to the other side. :-) Oh and I loved all the cute little houses and buildings. The architecture here is one of my favorite parts about England. Everything kind of has a little bit of moss on it and all the grass is this green that I have never seen in grass before. It does NOT feel like winter. Anyhow,our hotel was pretty nice. They are a little different from American hotels though. They had two single beds and everything was quite a bit smaller. This was the first time I experience their faucets. They have a separate one for hot and cold so their is no warm water when washing your hands or face. It was weird at first but now I am getting used to it. It was also really funny waking up in the morning and getting ready listening to BBC. I found it very entertaining, especially when they talked about America. Okay, so back to my story...after grabbing lunch at a local grocery store and riding the Underground (the tube) for the first time we arrived at Big Ben. This is where I learned that Big Ben is actually the bell inside the clock not the actual clock tower itself. Apparently the guy who designed it (or something like that) was a rather large man and his name was Ben. The bell is said to look like him. We didn't get to stay long at Big Ben because we were on our way to the boat trip that led us down the Thames River. However, on our way there I noticed that Big Ben has a lot more to it that just the clock. There was all these beautiful buildings all around it as we were talking to the boat. Unfortunately it was rainy out that day and the boat had a glass covering so I couldn't get any decent pictures on the boat. It was really nice though. The river is really wide and the water just looks brown and muddy. On this tour we saw the London Bridge, Tower Bridge (where they used to put the heads of traitors on a stake to warn people coming into the city of London) and many other really pretty bridges. We got off the boat right before Tower Bridge and this is where the journey of the Tower of London started.

The Tower of London was one of my favorite places. This is where the actual city of London is apparently. It is where the Romans established their city. This might not all be very accurate, it's just what I remember. So, there are these great walls surrounding the tower and different gates to enter for different reasons. For example, there is the a gate near where we came in called Traitor's gate. This is where they brought the traitors in and took them down to the dungeon to torture them. I saw the torture room in one of the towers called Bloody tower. It gave me the creeps. They had a couple of the torture devices and the little spaces where each person was tortured. Some of that stuff is just sick! I also got to see where the "beefeaters" live. These are the people that guard the tower of London and now they also give tours there. There are some pictures of their cute little houses. I stood on the ground where many queens, such as Ann Boelyn, and others were beheaded. It still makes me a little freaked out that I was standing where all of this history has taken place. I feel so lucky to have been there! I can't believe it. I had the great honor of being able to view the crown jewels!! They were so beautiful and MASSIVE. Some of them are super old too. It is just amazing how much tradition England has kept. I am impressed. There was one diamond that was literally as big as my fist. I think something like 317 karats. WOW! Along with the crown jewels were a lot of ceremonial robes and dinnerware and things like that. There is so much detail, very impressive. There was detail in everything. I saw a lot of the weapons and things they used over the years and even those had so much thought and care put into them. Oh and the suits of armor were awesome. I can't imagine wearing them. That was pretty much everything I saw at the Tower of London or at least all I can remember at this moment. We stayed there until about 5 pm on that first day and I was getting really tired and hungry. All I wanted to do was go to sleep but I knew I needed to eat something. So, a few of us decided to go to a little pub in Earl's Court called the Tournament. To be honest, I didn't have a good time there because it took a long time for the food and I was about to fall asleep. I felt like I was in a dream that whole time. But, the food was really good. I got a chicken club sandwich with a salad and fries. :-) I just could hardly eat I was so tired. So finally after everyone finished I went up to my room and tried to charge my cell phone but I was so out of it from the jet lag I couldn't even figure it out. So I literally plopped on my little bed and fell right asleep, at 8 pm. I got a good 11 hours of sleep!!

Tuesday was my favorite day! By far the best day I have had here. We started off the day with a ride on the tube down to center of town near where we were the day before. We walked through a royal park called Green Park, I think. It has no flowers in it at all. Legend has it that the reason for this is that a King ( I can't remember names) was walking in the park with his wife when he bent down to pick some flowers for a milk maid in that park. The queen was disgusted with this act of flirtation and had all the flowers removed from the park. To this day there are still no flowers there. In all royal parks, there is a different set of rules than for ordinary parks. Anyways, Green Park is right next to Buckingham Palace so we walked through the park and at the end you see the entrance to Buckingham Palace. It was so cool. Unfortunately the queen was not in, but it was still amazing. After taking pictures and learning neat little tid bits we started walking to Westminster (my FAVORITE PART) and on the way there we saw where the princes live and where the queen goes to church and all that fun stuff. Westminster is such a pretty part of London, I would totally live there. The best part of Westminster is, of course, Westminster Abbey. The most beautiful church I have ever seen. It is huge!!! It is very tall but it also has so many different chapels and rooms inside! I wish I could have taken pictures inside but it is not allowed. I wish everyone could go to England, just to see that! I mean I got to see the graves of so many kings and queens, authors and poets, not to mention scientists like Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton. I walked over Charles Darwin's remains!! How cool is that? I was in the room where the coronation of the kings and queens occurs. I prayed in a church that is something like 1000-2000 years old! I just can't believe it. I wish I knew more about English history, then I might remember all the names and I could tell you all more stories, but I can't. I am so sorry about that too because it was the best part of England. Oh yes, and right outside Westminster abbey is the oldest residential building in all of London. If I remember anything more I will be sure to post a blog about it.

After Westminster abbey we traveled through London on a RED DOUBLE DECKER BUS to a little corner where we were free for lunch. I made a friend Lindsey here and her and I went to a little pub for lunch. It was so good, I had a sausage and mustard sandwich. The mustard was whole grain so it was a bit weird, but I liked it. I also ordered my first alcoholic beverage there. It was called strongbow, apparently it is a cidery beer or something. It was alright, but a pint is pretty big! But I had fun at that pub, it was cute. After the pub we went to the British museum!!! I love museums, I could totally work at one. We saw old Roman and Greek statues, the Rosetta stone and Egyptian mummies! Oh my goodness I could have stayed there all day! But, alas the coffee shops were calling me! :-) Lindsey and I went to a little coffee shop and I had the best americano I have ever had and talked until we had to meet up for the Jack the Ripper tour. Our tour guide was so cool. He was creepy at the right times and very interesting. We walked around to some important sites of the Jack the Ripper case. Some of them we were these women were killed. When we walked up to one part the tour guide asked my name and then said "Congratulations, Madison. You are standing where Catherine's feet were when the cops found her." and there was another girl standing where her head was. That was so creepy! After the tour ended we walked to a little Indian restaurant called Shiraz, I didn't really like it and they definitely don't drink enough water here. Their glasses are so small I could finish them in like two drinks!! Anyways, our tour guide (from the whole London trip, not the Jack the Ripper one) took those of us that wanted to go, to a pub called O'Neill's and I tried another kind of cider. Lindsey and I got tired early though and went back to the hotel.

Wednesday was not very fun for me. I was really REALLY tired that day for some reason and I was ready to go to school. But, I still saw some cool stuff! We went to the Tate Modern art museum. A lot of that stuff I don't understand, but it was still awesome to see so many originals of Picasso and Dahli's work. After that we went to the Globe theater. The theater where Shakespeare and all of his actors performed their plays. Again, it was so amazing to be where so many people had made history so long ago!! It would be fun to see a play there, but they only run in the summertime. That makes sense though because it has an open roof. Theater must have been so different back then though. They didn't have scenery and they actors learned a new play every other day. I can't imagine learning Shakespeare in one day, That would take some talent! That was pretty much the extent of my London trip. It was great fun and I hope to go back there often during my stay here in England! Enjoy the pictures and e-mail me if you have any questions!

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Photos

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This is me in front of the great Buckingham Palace

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Buckingham Palace all by itself

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A cool gate at the entrance to one of the parks we walked through on the way to Westminster

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Me in front of a little river thing running through that same park

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The streets of Westminster. Isn't it pretty?

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More streets of Westminster

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Outside Westminster Abbey

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Some buildings leading to Westminster Abbey

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Westminster Abbey

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More of my favorite abbey

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Cool amp post outside Westminster abbey

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Important figures of the 20th century on the outside of Westminster abbey. There were people like Martin Luther King up there!!

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Yup, the abbey again

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Cool buildings again

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Close up of Martin Luther King and others

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Oldest residential building in London

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In one of the corridors looking at the main part of Westminster abbey