Back in London

Well, I guess my semester here is almost coming to a close. It seems weird, but I've passed all the mini-milestones that I had between me and the end of the semester, and now all I can do is get down to work and get everything done, hopefully seeing more of this city (and maybe outside it!) before I leave December 15th. It just seems really strange.

This past week (from Wednesday on), my dad was here, living on my dorm room floor and walking all over the city with (and without) me. We saw all of the regular tourist things (Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, etc.) that I have already seen but also went to Greenwich, the Tower of London, and a couple of markets around the city that I haven't seen yet. Greenwich was interesting, as it has the Royal Observatory and therefore the marker of the Prime Meridian. We got some interesting pictures of straddling the line, and being in two hemispheres at the same time. Cool, right? We also saw the Old Royal Naval College, and the hall where Lord Nelson laid in state after he was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar. Another cool bit is that we took a boat down the River Thames to get there, so we saw a lot of the city that I haven't seen before and from the river at that. There's even a whole different chunk of the city that is separate from the historical parts because it was built over the old docklands as a huge business and banking center. It's called Canary Wharf and looks like any other city's downtown, except that there are a huge number of marinas and canals and bridges and things, because of the water there.

We also saw the Tower of London, which was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. Honestly, I thought that it was just going to be another castle-fortress with some goofy story of the people who lived there and what they did and all that. But, the Tower of London was built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century (crazy old!), and while it was originally designed as a Royal residence and fortress, it became an infamous prison. So there are all sorts of stories surrounding all the "traitors" who were beheaded there. Gruesome, yes, but the tour we went on with the Beefeaters (former British military who are trained to be tour guides and "technically" protect the crown jewels) was really great. The man doing ours was really funny and sarcastic and altogether really interesting. He made the kind of lame history stuff a really entertaining time to listen to. Oh, and then we saw the Royal Crown jewels, which were ridiculous but again, I'm glad that I saw them.

On Saturday, we went to Borough Market (huge food market) and Camden Market (random crazy stuff market). Food markets are always fun to walk through, but this one is amazing and there are so many great things to see and smell. We even ate breakfast/lunch there. I got a grilled cheese and Dad got some raclette (potatoes, onions, pickles and melted cheese). My sandwich was delicious! Then we took the tube back up to Camden, where Dad bought a scarf for Mom and a T-shirt for Carter.

Sunday we went to the Victoria & Albert Museum (design and material art) and took a tour, which was interesting but I was really tired and had schoolwork to get done, so I left and came back. Dad walked by Buckingham Palace and went to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park before coming back to my dorm.

Alright, well that's all I have to say about that. Hopefully I'll get a break in my work to do something else worthy of posting about, but who knows?

Saturday in Oxford

First, I just want to say that I'm not being anti-Oxford just for the sake of being anti-Oxford. But I will say that I didn't really like it. When you have an idea of a place in your head, and then it's not like that, it throws you a little. I showed up in Oxford thinking that it would be this cozy place with little literary pubs and great courtyards and fancy libraries and all that. It turned out to be very similar to many other kinda medium-size UK cities. There was a main shopping street, and two more running across that one. Of course, there were really old towers and buildings and things, but there were stores just like anywhere else. The streets were busy and the sidewalks narrow. We wandered into a few colleges, but the difference between the "poorer" ones and the famous, expensive ones was really noticeable, and disorienting. We went into Christchurch, which is the most famous and where they filmed some of the Hogwarts shots for Harry Potter (like the dining hall, etc.). They charged admission for visitors, and while it was pretty and cool and all, I don't think I would've wanted to go there. On the brighter side, there was a street farmers market, which was fun, and there was another Christmas market inside a school, which was a lot like the ones that happen in schools back home. I bought a wooden puzzle of the British counties, like the kind you can buy of the 50 states. And I bought some Christmas cards that are made of welsh sheep poo. Kinda weird, eh? Anyway, overall, I'm glad that I went, and I think that I would have liked it better if I'd spent more time in the other colleges there, and I think I'll want to go back to explore it more. But as for now, I'm glad I didn't end up in a university like that.

Belgium and Ireland

Well, I decided to do a crazy trip during my reading week to visit Catherine in Ireland and then travel with both her and her friend Veronica to Bruges and Brussels in Belgium. So I flew from London to Shannon, and then took a bus from Shannon to Galway (where Catherine is living) and then left the next morning to go back to Shannon to fly to Brussels. Then we took a bus to Bruges, stayed there two nights, took a train to Brussels, stayed one night, then a bus to the airport. Then from Shannon to Galway, hung out for the night, then back to Shannon to fly back to London today. Crazy travels! I'm glad that the transportation bit is all over, even though I got a bunch of reading done on buses and things.

Bruges was my favorite, of the two cities. It was much smaller, and more my size and speed. The whole place is like a step back in time, because all of the architecture is from the middle ages. The Markt square is really pretty, and all of the canals are great. There is a church with a relic of Jesus's blood, which was random and interesting. I guess I can just say that I had a great time hanging around and the whole vibe of the place was just calming. Not to mention that there were chocolate shops on every block (very literally), and I had so many waffles. They were delicious.

Now, I'm back at school in London, so I've got to get some more work done, so I'll write more when I can. There are a lot of pictures of this trip in my Picasa albums (link to the right).

love,
kelsey

OBAMA!

OBAMA WON! I AM SO SO SO EXCITED! This is a ridiculously exciting day for everyone supporting Obama, and really it is a huge milestone in American history. We just sat and watched at it crossed 4am here in London and the polls closed on the West Coast and the 55 Electoral Votes from California pushed Obama over the edge. When the results from Pennsylvania and Ohio came in, you could just see that everyone in the room was doing the math in their heads, and then it dawned on everyone that Obama and Biden had won the election, because California was going to go to Obama. It was insane, and again, so so exciting. It's 4:25 am here, and I'm watching John McCain's gracious concession speech and I can't even believe that this has happened. I am actually talking to my dad on Skype right now, and he mentioned how John McCain is such an honorable man, and I totally agree with that. But this is Obama's time, and the Democrats have taken back the White House and have control of the Senate and the House of Representatives. I have so much hope for the next four years and I can't believe that this is the first presidential election that I actually got to participate in. I have never believed more in democracy. Goodnight everyone.

p.s. check out my pictures in my Picasa albums! The link is down in the column on the right.

Our election

Not that I wouldn't be watching anyway, but I think 4 of my friends on my floor are Political Science majors back home in the US, so we are setting up a big, election-watching party in the TV room in the basement of the dorm. A lot of the British students seem to be really interested in what's going on with our election, for reasons ranging from watching the US election process (different than Britain's) to seeing all of our reactions to whoever is elected. There are headlines all over town about Obama being in front in the polls as Americans go to vote, but I am ridiculously nervous about the whole thing. I'm really hoping that it happens without any voting glitches like have unfortunately occurred in the past, which would make this election last even longer than the 2 years it's already taken. I think a lot of people just want it to be over. Anyway, I have no news on British reactions to the results, since they haven't happened yet, but I will tomorrow. I also want everyone to know (because so many people have asked me) that I have voted absentee and that yes, I will be awake from midnight to 5 am as the results are coming in in the US. The time difference makes it extra interesting.

Quantum of Solace

Not to make everyone not in the UK jealous, but I just saw the new James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace." I didn't think it was as cohesive as "Casino Royale," but it did have all the action sequences, foreign locations and international intrigue that you go see a James Bond movie for, and I would recommend it, when it does come out in the US on 14 Nov.

To go see it, we decided to go to the Chelsea Cinema in Chelsea, which was very cool. It was sort of stadium-seating set-up, but not as vertical, and it had a stage on the front and you entered through a tunnel in the middle like some sports stadiums. The chairs were blue velvet (snazzy!) and you could order cocktails to watch James Bond. My friend Alex told me that you can do that in LA and some places, but I didn't know that. And the seats were assigned, like in the real theatre. It was a little strange, but you didn't get any of the weird 1-seat gaps like in a full show in the US. The area around was nice too, but it was raining, so we didn't see much of it. I did have a really tasty lasagna for lunch/dinner at an italian diner (the only way I can think of to describe it) across the street. It was really raining when we were trying to come back here, so I'm a little cold and wet right now.

Saturday Morning

I've begun to realize why people say that London weather is miserable. After about a month of mostly sunny and nice weather, we've seemed to cross over into the cloudy, misty, pretty chilly weather. It's a little bit depressing and doesn't exactly motivate you to go anywhere. So that's what I ran into when I woke up this morning. There's a "Festival of Geology" at my school, so I'm going to go check that out in a bit, after I figure out what to get for breakfast.

I think that I'll share some more pictures, just to keep this interesting. The top two are Big Ben, and a picture of the Downing St sign. The Prime Minister lives at 10 Downing St. The bottom photo is of Lord Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square.

The "reflective" post (sorry)

I've been here for a month and a half now, just about at least, and I'm still not really sure what I'm doing. I guess that's what comes with having a huge city and an incredibly rich country and all that to try to absorb while still going to school. It's starting to turn into me making plans for when I come back, instead of thinking that I'm going to be able to get to all the places I want to go in the weekends I have left here. It's kind of strange to think of it like that, but I was looking at a calendar and I really don't have that many weekends left to play with. Seemed like forever.

London is really a trip for me. Not to reiterate what I've told everyone before, but I'm not really a "city person" per se, which makes it extra weird that I chose to study abroad in London. But that's really the point, a change of speed, almost a test run before I commit to something like a job or an apartment or a grad school or something in a big city. Thus far though, even though I do have my "THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE" moments, I've really liked living here. There are a ton of parks and greenspaces and squares and there are really not many skyscrapers or tall buildings of any sort. They make me feel closed in sometimes. So, that's actually been a big plus for me, and a huge bonus London is having over a lot of American or Canadian cities I've been to, but maybe that's just me.

I'm starting to figure out all the areas of the city fairly well, and the tube system (underground) well enough, but really only a couple of lines. I am enjoying the buses though. The view from the front of the second floor is awesome and you really think that the bus is going to run over the car in front of it all the time. So far, some of my favorite areas of the city have to be Camden Town, Marylebone High Street, Green Park and the Bloomsbury area kind of by default because of how much time I spend here. My dorm and my uni are both in Bloomsbury, so it does take a bit of effort to get out of there on a daily basis, but it's a nice area, so I'm happy.

Outside of London, I have been to Dover, Brighton, and Bath, as cities go, and then Hampton Court, Windsor Palace and Stonehenge, in terms of "sights." Trying to figure out where else I should try to get to, either for a weekend or for a day. Next Thursday, I'm headed to Galway, Ireland and then on to Brussells and Bruges, Belgium with Catherine, my roommate from Brown last year. I'm really excited for that, but it's going to be a lot of flying, and I am thinking that now that there's so much here in Britain I'm going to miss out on seeing that maybe I should've stayed here, but it's going to be fun.

FIRST POST

Ha, so this is my first post, even though I've been in London since 17 Sept, and out of the US since 4 Sept...forgive me, please. I was sort of told that it would be a good idea to let people know how I am, and what I'm up to. I'm not sure what to do with a blog, but I'm going to give it a shot.

The picture is of a bunch of people who live on my floor here, and my cousin Melina, in the London Eye. I thought it would be a good introduction to all this.