So, below is a map of my main locations in London: where I live, work, and attend classes. It's all become extremely familiar to me, so it feels odd to think that other people can't picture them. Hopefully this helps put things into perspective a little!
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Down Time? I don't know the meaning of that...
It's Friday afternoon and I'm back at the London Centre, since we're still not getting Internet in the flat for another 10 days. Nobody has classes today (long weekends are a British thing), but there are still several people here who also don't have Internet in their flats. After I post this I'll be working on classwork and practicing the clarinet in one of the practice rooms before a group of us head off to tour the International Student House (ISH).
Sunday morning my flatmates and I decided to do a whirlwind walk around Westminster. As soon as we exited the Westminster station we saw Big Ben. We've been hearing Big Ben toll in the morning (when the city is quieter) but we had yet to see it in person. Like the Americans we are, we had to take many pictures in front of it.
And of course when you see Big Ben, you have to see the Palace of Westminster (aka House of Parliament), because, well, they're attached.
(that picture only shows one of the many sides of the PoW)
The Palace of Westminster hasn't been a royal residence for many centuries, but it's more ornate than any other building I've seen thus far. There are individual lifelike statues of people on the walls and gold on many facades and edges. Although the Palace of Westminster originated in 1100, most of the current palace was built in the 1800s due to a fire. Still, I'm sure the original palace was very grand, and even though I see Guy Fawkes's political reasoning ("remember, remember the fifth of November..."), I can't imagine blowing up such a beautiful building.
Right next to the Palace of Westminster is Westminster Abbey.
Its architecture is very similar to the PoW, with complex stained glass windows and cravings of animals and religious figures everywhere. I guess this isn't so surprising since most of what is seen on the outside was built between the 1500s and 1800s as well. We didn't get to go in because of Sunday services, but we took tons of pictures outside. We acted completely like tourists, but it was OK since we were in the midst of tourists. We'll be more collected the next time we go back to actually take a tour of the abbey.
We also took a look across the River Thames. We saw the London Eye, which we will go in on another beautiful day and some older buildings.
Due to an extraordinarily exasperating mix-up on Tuesday I ended up interviewing with Blurb PR on Wednesday instead. I met the company's manager, Mike, and it turned out that an artist they've been publicizing was having a concert in Kilburn that night at a bar called Luminaire. Amazingly, the artist was from Montepelier, Vermont! Her name is Anais Mitchell and she's a folksy indie singer. If you know Ani DeFranco (who actually signed on Anais), then you get a sense of Anais' musical style. If you don't know Ani, then their music is like a more modern Peter, Paul, and Mary. Anais was really, really amazing, and her opening act, the Bowmann Sisters, was not bad either. Check them out on YouTube or MySpace.
I started my classes yesterday (Thursday). I'm not sure how I'll like International Business Operations, but I think I'll like British Pop and Contemporary Music. Next week I have to present any song (British or not) that I like and talk about it. My online class, Principles of Marketing, appears straightforward enough, but I hope we get Internet in the flat soon so that I can keep up with it more easily.
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED WHILE IN LONDON:
Sunday morning my flatmates and I decided to do a whirlwind walk around Westminster. As soon as we exited the Westminster station we saw Big Ben. We've been hearing Big Ben toll in the morning (when the city is quieter) but we had yet to see it in person. Like the Americans we are, we had to take many pictures in front of it.
And of course when you see Big Ben, you have to see the Palace of Westminster (aka House of Parliament), because, well, they're attached.
(that picture only shows one of the many sides of the PoW)
The Palace of Westminster hasn't been a royal residence for many centuries, but it's more ornate than any other building I've seen thus far. There are individual lifelike statues of people on the walls and gold on many facades and edges. Although the Palace of Westminster originated in 1100, most of the current palace was built in the 1800s due to a fire. Still, I'm sure the original palace was very grand, and even though I see Guy Fawkes's political reasoning ("remember, remember the fifth of November..."), I can't imagine blowing up such a beautiful building.
Right next to the Palace of Westminster is Westminster Abbey.
Its architecture is very similar to the PoW, with complex stained glass windows and cravings of animals and religious figures everywhere. I guess this isn't so surprising since most of what is seen on the outside was built between the 1500s and 1800s as well. We didn't get to go in because of Sunday services, but we took tons of pictures outside. We acted completely like tourists, but it was OK since we were in the midst of tourists. We'll be more collected the next time we go back to actually take a tour of the abbey.
We also took a look across the River Thames. We saw the London Eye, which we will go in on another beautiful day and some older buildings.
Due to an extraordinarily exasperating mix-up on Tuesday I ended up interviewing with Blurb PR on Wednesday instead. I met the company's manager, Mike, and it turned out that an artist they've been publicizing was having a concert in Kilburn that night at a bar called Luminaire. Amazingly, the artist was from Montepelier, Vermont! Her name is Anais Mitchell and she's a folksy indie singer. If you know Ani DeFranco (who actually signed on Anais), then you get a sense of Anais' musical style. If you don't know Ani, then their music is like a more modern Peter, Paul, and Mary. Anais was really, really amazing, and her opening act, the Bowmann Sisters, was not bad either. Check them out on YouTube or MySpace.
I started my classes yesterday (Thursday). I'm not sure how I'll like International Business Operations, but I think I'll like British Pop and Contemporary Music. Next week I have to present any song (British or not) that I like and talk about it. My online class, Principles of Marketing, appears straightforward enough, but I hope we get Internet in the flat soon so that I can keep up with it more easily.
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED WHILE IN LONDON:
- Pain au chocolat is extremely addicting and too readily available.
- Short/half flush is useless.
- Never EVER say wet pants. Just don't.
- You pour the hot water on the teabag, not the other way around.
- Even celebrities ride the tube and royals can drive VWs.
- Only Americans react to news that someone got stuck underneath a subway train...and died...WHILE YOU'RE ON THE SUBWAY!
- 100% juice doesn't exist here, unless it's from an orange or an apple.
- Somehow you always end up in Leicester Square. ALWAYS.
- There apparently is a need for a coin worth two pence that's bigger than every other coin.
- You may be in London, but you don't believe it until you've seen Big Ben.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The End of a Long Week, the Beginning of a New One
It's Monday morning, 11:45am (6:45am EST), and I'm collapsed on a couch in the lobby of the Ithaca College London Centre, since our flat doesn't have Internet yet. I've been in London for almost a week but it seems like I've been here so much longer. If I were to say that this week has been long and hectic, it would be an understatement. Thankfully, it's also been an exciting week, and most likely the craziness will die down a little once we've moved into our flats and classes and internships begin. I'm also hoping the lengths of my blog entries will diminish since I have a hunch that this will be a long one (sorry!)
Later that evening a few of us went to check out the Buckingham Palace area. By the time we got off the tube, though, it was dark but the palace looked very...majestic in the dark. We plan to revisit Buckingham Palace sometime in the near future to see it during the day and also watch the Changing of the Guard.
The trip started off with a six-hour delay at JFK airport Monday afternoon, though that was nothing compared to the cancellation of the Boston flight. Some of those people had to take a flight from Dublin to connect to a flight to London Heathrow.
Once we all got there later on Tuesday morning, we took a bus from Heathrow to the Umi Hotel on Leincester Square in Bayswater. After putting our luggage away we then walked from the hotel to the Ithaca College London Centre in Kensington. On the way we passed through Kensington Gardens in Hyde Park, home to Kensington Palace.
Kensington Palace has been home to minor royalties for the past couple of centuries, including Diana, Princess of Wales. A statue of Queen Victoria is out front, because Kensington Palace is where Princess Victoria learned that she was to be Queen of England.
We toured the London Centre at 35 Harrington Gardens.
That night my flatmates (Randi, Kara, and Sarah) and I ate dinner and walked around Kensington some. I was told that London was home to several American chains but I did NOT expect to see a TJ Maxx (or rather, the UK version TK Maxx). We've also seen Pizza Hut, Cinnabon, Starbucks, McDonald's, American Apparel, Gap, Burger King, KFC, and Baskin-Robbins. I think our favorite would have to be a place we saw in Camden called Mississippi Chicken n' Ribs.
That night my flatmates (Randi, Kara, and Sarah) and I ate dinner and walked around Kensington some. I was told that London was home to several American chains but I did NOT expect to see a TJ Maxx (or rather, the UK version TK Maxx). We've also seen Pizza Hut, Cinnabon, Starbucks, McDonald's, American Apparel, Gap, Burger King, KFC, and Baskin-Robbins. I think our favorite would have to be a place we saw in Camden called Mississippi Chicken n' Ribs.
On Wednesday we began our flat hunt. Let me just say that my flatmates and I seemed to attracted the worst of what was available. For further elaboration, you can ask me. Horrific stories are just waiting to be told! Thankfully, we finally got a flat near our hotel on Queensway in Bayswater.
Sometime during the flathunt Randi, Sarah, Kara, Chris M, and I went to a pub near the hotel and ate our first fish and chips! Way better than shepherd's pie (the real stuff).
Sometime during the flathunt Randi, Sarah, Kara, Chris M, and I went to a pub near the hotel and ate our first fish and chips! Way better than shepherd's pie (the real stuff).
Thursday night the IC students walked to the student union at the Imperial College for a brief orientation. We stopped many times along the way to listen to Bill Sheasgreen, director of the IC London Centre, talk about the various sights. For instance, the building connected to the London Centre was built for Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame and part of a Gilbert family member's ship is on the roof.
On Friday the internships students met and I learned where I may be interning for the semester. I will be at Blurb PR, an independent music PR agency a little northwest of our flat. The only name I knew on their list of clients was Weezer, so I've been looking up the other artists, trying to find clips of their music to listen to. Check out Blurb's Web site: www.blurbpr.co.uk.
After the internship meeting I journeyed to London's West End and Trafalgar Square. My purpose was to visit the National Portrait Gallery.
The NPG was so amazing. It's filled with portraits by or of famous Britons from the Tudor era up through present times. My favorite gallery was of course the Tudor gallery, filled with portraits like the one I have of Anne Boleyn on the upper-right side of this blog, as well as portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and King Henry VIII.
I knew that the NPG was connected to the National Gallery, a more generalized art museum, so I went around the corner a little bit and came upon Trafalgar Square...
...as well as the National Gallery, though I didn't go inside.
Later that evening a few of us went to check out the Buckingham Palace area. By the time we got off the tube, though, it was dark but the palace looked very...majestic in the dark. We plan to revisit Buckingham Palace sometime in the near future to see it during the day and also watch the Changing of the Guard.
Saturday was spent catching up on sleep and beginning to move into our flat. On Sunday my flatmates and I did a whirlwind tour of Westminster but I'll include that in my next entry since this one has already gotten way too long! :-D
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