Top 15 Moments

For my last post about London (*tear*) I thought I would do a countdown of the top 10 moments I had during my semester here. 10 turned into 21 but I've narrowed it down to 15.

I'll be very sad to leave London but also excited to return to a land where ketchup is free, 'pants' means 'pants' and where one of the largest coins isn't only worth 2 pents (close to as bad as I hate the nickel but almost worse.) It'll also be nice to have American customer service again. Of course there will be so much I will miss. So here is the countdown of the top 15 things I loved in London (or during my time in London).


15. Being stranded on Lake Windermere.


14. Horseback riding in the Lake District.

13. Walking across Tower Bridge.


12. Seeing A Mid-Summer Night's Dream at the Globe Theatre.


11. Meeting up with Elizabeth in Barcelona!


10. "Climbing" a lion in Trafalgar Square.


9. Guy Fawkes Day.


8. Walking around Paris in the snow.


7. The many markets in London
Borough Market, Portobello Market, Sunday Up Market - these were my favorites


6. Silly walking in front of the Houses of Parliament.


5. The view on my walk to and from my internship!



4. Translating English/American words

These are some of my favorites.

ta- thanks
cheers- thanks
pants- underwear (you can imagine the possible confusion)
quid- one pound
biscuit- cookie
crisps- chips
chips- fries (or to piss off my coworkers I called them Freedom Fries)
diary- planner/calendar
mate- friend
queue- line
uni- college/university

3. The People
They don't run into you on the sidewalk and pick their side of the sidewalk well before meeting you! And they're polite and proper sounding but make really funny/scathing remarks. They're polite/proper but also extremely irreverent and drink and curse like sailors. And they stand on the right and walk on the left on escalators!!!!!!!

2. Convincing my co-workers of America's superiority.


1. The food
(in no particular order) English breakfast, square pie, mushy peas, fish and chips, banoffee, bagel bake



Here are some of the other things that almost made the list:

• boat tour on the Thames
  
• St. Pauls
• walking in Greenwich
• Stratford
• Ieper
• Lord Mayor Show
• Stonehendge
• Bath

London is officially my favorite place in the world! Everything about it is bigger and better than anywhere else. Their markets, entertainment, the architecture, the underground. Everything is so clean (compared to other cities). And the British flag is cooler than all of the other flags.

Afternoon Tea (and finally seeing someone famous...)

On the last day our program hosted an afternoon tea at a nice hotel. Champagne, finger sandwiches, scones, clotted cream and jam, and really pretty desserts, and of course, tea. It was so relaxing. They just kept bringing out food and there was a harpist. It was a good way to end the semester.






So the day that we all packed up and were leaving, three of us shared a cab to Paddington Station to get the train that takes you to Heathrow, and we were talking about how we were upset that we hadn't seen anyone famous the entire time we were in London. (except for a possible sighting of Hugh Grant...) When we got to Paddington Station, we saw that there was a film crew and a bunch of extras standing inside the front. Kalen asked what movie it was/who was in it. They were filming something called "The Boys are Back" and Clive Owen was there! Not going to lie, I didn't really know who that was, but after doing a little bit of research I've seen some of the movies he's been in. And he's famous so it counts and I left London happy. (He's been in the Bourne Identity, Sin City, Children of Men... click here )

Two more...

If I get any more English I'm going to start peeing tea. All packed into my last two/three days is Fish and chips, full English breakfast and Afternoon tea!

Last night (after our LAST EXAM!!!) we went out for FISH AND CHIPS. I don't even like fish but I was obsessed with this place. It's called Golden Hind (W1U 2PN) (not to be confused with the Golden Hinde which is a ship that is also a museum.) Delicious. I got cod, chips and mushy peas. For those of you who don't know what W1U 2PN meant in all that, it's the postcode. Whoever thought of the postcode system in London is a genius. W means west, I live at SW3 6NA. The SW means South West. If you type that into the transport for london website it tells you exactly how to get anywhere - no mistakes about same named streets etc. If you tell a cab driver, they know exactly where to go. Apparently it's pretty hard training to be a London cab driver.

So anyway, last night we went out for fish and chips (yum again). This morning we went out for a full English breakfast (sausage, hashbrowns, beans, bacon, toast, fried egg, tea... sometimes they have chips too which is fantastic.) Then I went to the National English Ballet to see Sleeping Beauty. One of my professors works there and got us tickets! It was so good!

Then I went to an Annie Leibovich exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. It was awesome. Then I walked around Trafalagar square once more, said goodbye to the lions, saw the Christmas tree from Norway (a thank you for being in WWI I believe). Then I walked to Parliament, Big Ben, walked across Westminster Bridge one last time, went to a Christmas Market, then came home and walked down Kings Road instead of taking the bus. Now I'm home and finishing up my packing!

Tomorrow IES is hosting a Farewall Afternoon Tea at a fancy hotel. I can't believe tomorrow is my last day in LONDON!

Bonjour Paris!

On Tuesday of this week (exam week.. ha) three of us went to Paris for the day! We got to Paris around 10:30am and left around 9pm. We saw so much for only being there for one day! We started the day walking up the giant hill to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. We ate lunch (crepes with ham, cheese and egg) and shopped. While we were there it started snowing! It was so pretty.






We then walked down the hill and got on the metro to Notre Dame. It was really awesome to be in Paris around Christmas time. Notre Dame had a huge Christmas tree in front of it and Champs Elysees's trees had pretty blue lights.





After Notre Dame, we basically walked west along most of the Seine. We did SO much walking and by this point the snow had turned back into rain so it was very cold and wet. We passed the Louvre, which was closed that day. We went to le Musee D'Orsay to see some art and to dry off a little bit.


After that we went to a nearby cafe and got creme brule and chocolate mousse. We continued our walk along the river and ended up at Place de la Concorde with the ferris wheel, obelisk, fountains etc.



We walked down Champs Elysees, there was some sort of Christmas market and then the big fancy stores until we got to l'Arc de Triumphe.


From there we walked to the Eiffel Tower. It was dark by that time and it was lit up blue with gold stars! It was so pretty! I got a crepe. yum.




By this time we were getting tired from all the walking so we took the metro back to the area of the train station, found a cafe and ordered a bottle of wine and a cheese plate, putting us into a perfect state of comatose for the train ride home.

It was a perfect day in Paris! We saw so much! All the big sites, really. Because we followed the river, it was almost impossible to get lost (and that says a lot bc Paris is so easy to get lost in because their streets are so windy and they have like 8 street intersections etc.) I ate almost everything French that I love, except for a Croque Madame or French Onion soup. It was a really good itinerary if you only have one day in Paris.

It was weird to be back, after studying there two summers ago. It was weird the small things that I recognized like directions places and which way to walk to get to such and such. And going back to one of the museums was weird because it was exactly how I remembered it and felt like I was there just yesterday.

Click here for the full album!

Last Few Days...

:( It's very sad. I only have five (!) more days here! I'm very excited to come home and see you all at home! Well I've been super busy with final papers/ exam studying/ seeing sights on my list of things to see before I leave so I've neglected the blog. So here's another list of things that I've not written about but will write about soon.

• Thanksgiving in London
  
• Harrods
  
• Design Museum
• St. Paul's
• Boat tour/ Greenwich
• Candlelight Christmas Concert at St. Martin's in the Field
• Sunday Up Market (Brick Lane and Spitalfields)
• Internship
  

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, me and my roommate and three other of our friends (and one of our friend's mom and brother who were in London visiting) made Thanksgiving dinner! I was in charge of mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. I accidently made enough mashed potatoes to feed at least 15 people. See below: the picture makes the bowl look smaller for some reason, but just for some perspective, that's a ladel I'm holding. For dessert was BANOFFI PIE. yum.




St. Paul's Cathedral

One evening I went to Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral. It's an evening service they do every night and it's just a choir singing psalms and things. It was very pretty and St. Paul's is gorgeous inside! I've seen my share of the inside of churches/cathedrals (17 years of Catholic school?) and this one is by far the prettiest inside. I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the inside unfortunately, so you're going to have to come to London to see it for yourself (and you can take me with you.)


Not on the list, but this is a picture I had taken of Square Pie, per my dad's request. Delicious. That is the wonderful gravy on the top of everything, the thing on the left is the pie. On the right are mushy peas and mashed potatoes.


The Design Museum

This museum was really cool. They had an exhibit about Design Cities (London, Milan, Tokyo I think, LA, etc) and a really cool exhibit about Alan Aldridge who was a designer for the lyric books for the Beatles (and lots of other Beatles things too), covers for The Who and Elton John, Art Director for Penguin and illustrated children's books and most famous for The Butterfly Ball. One room was filled with hanging cut outs of his illustrations from that book, it was really cool.

Harrods

Harrods is a very famous department store in London. Everything is way overpriced and it's a big tourist attraction just to walk through it. There is a whole room that is literally just a gift shop with Harrod's name on things. There is also a food section where I got the most wonderful thing called a "potato and onion tortilla" but there wasn't anything 'tortilla' about it, it was more of a quiche. Delicious. I didn't get a picture of Harrods unfortunately. This same day I also went to Primark which is another department store. This one is different however because everything is RIDICULOUSLY cheap (both in cost and quality) but it's awesome. It's very very crowded (credit crunch?) and the staff walk around with a broom literally sweeping fallen items around the floor. Pure class.

Boat Tour and Greenwich

Yesterday I got up and went on a boat tour down the River Thames to Greenwich, then I met my friends at St. Martin's in the Field for a Candlelight Christmas Concert and then went to a bar or two with an co-worker and some of his friends. But first Greenwich and the boat tour...

Greenwich is an area in the east of London south of the river. It's the location of Greenwich mean time line thing (they had a green laser light down the Prime Meridian Line), the Queen's House, Greenwich Park and a market and a town center. First I took a boat tour down the Thames to get there. (it's kind of hard to get to by train or bus b/c it takes so long, and I've been meaning to take a boat tour so it was perfect!) The boat tour was nice, it's always warmer here in the mornings than it is in the afternoon so when I got on the boat I went straight to the top deck (uncovered) thinking I would be fine. And I was fine but as it got later and later it got colder and colder and I had to go in the inside part. I don't think I warmed up for the rest of the day! In Greenwich I went to the market and walked around the town center. Then I walked to Greenwich park and up to the Royal Observatory (where the prime meridan line is). I liked Greenwich a lot. It feels so different than the rest of London.


Christmas Concert in St. Martin's in the Field

St. Martin's in the Field is a church right by Trafalgar Square (lions). Last evening they had a candelight Christmas concert with a small orchestra and a choir. There were also a few sing along songs which I wasn't aware of until I got there. It was sooo pretty inside and the music was really pretty too. So Christmassy! We were up on the top level and they were the cheap seats so we couldn't actually see the choir or the orchestra. The buildling is so pretty though so there was still a lot to look at.




Sunday Up Market

This (click here) is where I've gone for a lot of the Sundays I've been here. The food stalls are so incredible. If you're ever in London on a Sunday I very much recommend it. It's so cheap and so good. There is also a clothes/jewelry/art market right in the same warehouse/market area and it's right on Brick Lane so if you want some Indian food right after you eat Ethiopian/French/Viatnamese/ and Thai, you're right there. It's also really close to Spitalfield's Market which is a really good market for clothes and jewelry. More expensive than some other markets, but it's really nice.


These are the people that work at where I had my internship! The two guys are from England and work there and the girl is from Canada and is another intern.

"Some sherry-crazed old dowager" and Silly Walks

British politics. Maybe it's just a Boris Johnson thing (Mayor of London), or maybe this is a broad cultural difference, but could you picture, a month ago, McCain calling Obama "some sherry-crazed old dowager who has lost the family silver at roullette?" Because that's what Boris Johnson said about Gordon Brown.

The London Paper - November 25th
"In a stinging personal assault, the London Mayor said the Prime Minister was:

"like a drunk who has woken to the most appalling hangover, and who reaches for the whisky bottle to help him dull the pain.

"He is like some sherry-crazed old dowager who has lost the family silver at roulette, and who decides to double up by betting the house as well."


It sounds like a fake quote, like something out of the Onion! (or the English version of the Onion - The Daily Mash http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/).

Another reason to love London.

People here are under the impression that American political campaigns are just big celebrity shows (which they are, so fair enough). The question is, would you rather your politics be more like American Idol or Monty Python?

I think I pick Monty Python because that Boris Johnson quote was hilarious. Comparing him to a drunk wasn't enough. He also had to throw in the hangover. And then another whole paragraph full of more name calling and a drunken hypothetical situation.

Anyway... Today I went to Westminster Abbey! Very pretty inside (and outside). Also, speaking of Monty Python, I FINALLY got a few Ministry of Silly Walks pictures. I really wanted it in front of Parliament, and I walk past it on the way to my internship but it's awkward enough to ask a stranger to take your picture, let alone asking a stranger to take your picture doing a silly walk. (And also I've developed an I'm-Not-One-Of-"Those"-Tourists-On-Westminster-Bridge-I'm-Actually-Here-For-Real-Reasons superiority complex so I've refrained from taking pictures on my walks to and from work.) But today I was around Parliament with people I knew, making it slightly less awkward having them take pictures of me doing a silly walk. Still awkward, because neither of them had seen that particular Monty Python, but less awkward none the less.