A Farewell to London, Europe and This Blog

I thought it would be cool to write my final blog entry from the point of view of being at home in SB, VT. That and I was waiting for some friends' pictures to borrow for this last entry. :-D But I'll save the I'm-home-now-what? reflection for the end of the entry.

The Wednesday of my last week in London everybody at the Ithaca College London Centre (or those who hadn't left, anyways) got together to take a group photo in front of the school. We DID take a serious photo, but I only have an electronic copy of our comic pose. Find me if you can!


That night Kara and I went to the West End production of "Wicked," which was just around the block from "Billy Elliot." It was AMAZING! The production had the most complex set and elaborate costuming of any show I've ever seen. Not to mention that the performances of the actors were all quite fantastic! It did make me sad, however, to reflect that it would be my last West End performance (at least for this trip). I had gotten very used to thinking, "Hmm, what show can I see for cheap now?"

Thursday marked my final day in Brit Pop and Contemporary Music. Very sad, as that was definitely one of my most enjoyable classes of all time.

That night most of us IC London Centre students went to Cruse 9, owned by ICLC director Bill's son, up in Islington. We all had a delicious (and very fancy!) meal, watched a slide show of everybody's pictures from the semester and all in all just had one last hurrah. I won an awesome lottery prize of a tartan beanie with fake ginger hair attached (I had seen them in Edinburgh and secretly wanted to buy one).


On Friday Kara and I trekked down to the Greenwich peninsula. We first stopped in North Greenwich at the O2 arena, which is HUGE.


It used to be called the Millennium Dome but has since become permanent. It is now a major shopping/exhibition/club/concert venue. Our interest lay in the British Music Experience exhibition that had recently opened.

The exhibition was awesome; it was basically our entire semester in British Pop and Contemporary Music. We walked through interactive exhibits detailing everything from the British Invasion to Beatlemania to glam rock to punk rock to Live Aid to Spice Girls and beyond. There were outfits and instruments used by legendary British acts. There were articles and audio/video clips of important events in British music. There was a Dance Through the Decades booth, where you can learn different popular dances from different decades (as evidenced by the previous blog entry). There was a "jam session" room where you could either learn to play the guitar, drum set or keyboard or record your own music on said instruments. At the end there was the Soundstage, where a 360-degree screen put you in the middle of some of Britain's most important concerts (for my part, I was overjoyed that the Soundstage ended with a Queen concert). All in all, a not-to-be-missed experience for the British music enthusiast!

Kara and I then had our first experience riding the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) over to Greenwich town center. We then had a fun time navigating our way to the Old Royal Greenwich Observatory in Greenwich Park. The park was GORGEOUS through.


We found the observatory and were too late to go inside, but we were at least able to stand on the Greenwich/Prime Meridian!


On Saturday I said my final farewells to the Portobello Road Market and Covent Garden before finally paying a visit to the British Museum.

I had thought that the Victoria & Albert Museum had the most confusing setup of any museum I'd seen. The British Museum quickly proved me wrong. It's HUGE! I was particularly excited to visit the exhibits on the ancient Greek and Roman empires. It was almost like being back in Rome and Athens again, especially when I went to the Parthenon Marbles exhibit.


The Parthenon Marbles is just one of many controversial exhibits at the British Museum. Also known as the "Elgin Marbles," they were basically given away by the Greeks to the British explorer Elgin. The Greeks were just letting the Parthenon and all its treasures crumble away, and the British restored them. Now Greece has built a brand new Parthenon Museum (opened a week after my trip there), and they have spaces for the Parthenon Marbles. Judging by the elaborateness of the exhibit they were in at the British Museum, I doubt the Parthenon Marbles are going to be returned to Greece anytime soon!

I was also excited to see the ancient Egyptian exhibit, since "The Egypt Game" was one of my favorite books as a kid (I even used to pretend with a friend that my brother's Disney playhouse was a temple like the one they made in the book!). It was extraordinary to see sarcophagi, bits of the Sphinx, busts of pharaohs, etc.


I'm particularly fascinated by the Rosetta Stone, which is how archaeologists learned to decipher hieroglyphics.


Even cooler were the mummies. I never realized, for one, that they had Cleopatra's mummy.


There were also some mummies that weren't in their wrappings. This one, in particular, seemed to be screaming, "Don't take pictures of me!" But you could so I did.


Sunday, my final full day in London, was mostly spent packing. But I had one final thing left to do: pay a visit to Abbey Road.

Kathy, Katie W., and I all went over to Abbey Road, amazed since it was quite close to our flats (and very very close to where I had interned all semester). When we got there, there were some other American students posing at the zebra crosswalk, costumes and all. When they were finished, we asked if one of them would take our picture and if another would pose with us, since we were one short. The result is below.


We have some spacing issues and we are clearly holding up traffic, but otherwise, I think it's a pretty good Abbey Road shot! My Beatle is George Harrison and I was at least in the right spot.

And then, after an eight-hour flight to JFK and a one-hour flight to VT, I'm home. I've now been home for a week...

Honestly, I didn't miss London immediately. I was too relieved to collapse into my own bed in my own bedroom (as opposed to my top-bunk bed with Primark/Argos sheets in my closet-room). I got to meet our new puppy, Ringo (obvious who thought up the name haha). I also got to attend my uncle's wedding in Maine.

Then yesterday I made the mistake of watching the London episodes of "Friends." For the first time (and I've watched these episodes many many times) I knew EXACTLY what I was looking at. And I missed London. A lot. I think until my summer activities pick up, I will continue to miss it a lot. But I know that I will find a way to get back there and visit London (and the rest of Europe that I missed) again...someday! :-)

Born to Hand Jive

Yesterday Kara and I went to the British Music Experience exhibit at the O2 Arena in Greenwich. It was a LOT of fun, but I'll include more details in my next entry!

While there we went to a Dancing the Decades booth, where you could (very quickly) learn the different popular dances from the past 100 years (including the Macarena, the Twist, etc). We decided to learn the hand jive, since we thought we already knew it. However, we were quite taken by surprise; the British hand jive is different from the American hand jive. Hence, if you are to click this link to watch the video, you can clearly see that we have no idea what we're doing!

Museums, Yes?

I must apologize for the relative lack of photography in this blog entry. Many of the places I visited this past week were museums and photography was not allowed.

I'm almost done with all my work. All I have left is a test for my online marketing class, and I'm free to enjoy London, clean our flat and pack everything for my trip home next Monday!

Last Wednesday was my last day at my internship. It was quite saddening; going to the office up in West Hampstead had become such a regular part of my life here. And also, because that ended, I know that everything else is going to end here, too.

On Friday Chris M. and I planned to go to the British Museum. However, the weather was just too amazing for a museum, so we did a nice long walk around Regent's Park.


Regent's Park is in a very nice area in northern London. The grounds are a little more open to the air than Hyde Park. It's bordered by Regent's Canal, which is supposed to resemble Venice in a way.


Regent's Park is also home to the London Zoo, although we didn't go in; we just walked along its perimeter.

On Saturday the weather wasn't quite so nice, so I decided to hit up the South Kensington museum trio. They're only a few blocks away from the IC London Centre, and yet in these past four months I'd only cut through the Natural History Museum and spent all of 20 minutes in the Science Museum.

I first stopped at the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is a museum for the "decorative arts." It's quite huge; it not only houses British decors, it also is home to many European and Asian arts as well. There was everything from fashion to sculptures to tomb monuments to pottery to jewelry and everything in between.

My favorite exhibit definitely had to be the Theatre and Peformance section. It had everything from concert memorabilia to costumes worn by musicians (such as Mick Jagger and Elton John) and actors. It also had scenery, puppetry, a replica of Kylie Minogue's 2002 tour dressing room and clips of some of Britain's most memorable stage productions in the last decade.

I next visited the Natural History Museum.


I'd passed through once when the London Fashion Weekend was located on its grounds. For those of you who have been to the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, thte Natural History Museum here kicks its butt! There's a HUGE dinosaur exhibit, complete with a life-size animatronic T-Rex.


The entrance to the Earth exhibit is quite impressive as well.


There are many other exhibits as well, including ones about the environment, human biology and the animal kingdom, just to name a few.

Afterwards I stopped at the Science Museum. It's really great; it really covers all aspects of science. I particularly like the air and space, mathematics and marine vessels exhibits. The special exhibit in the museum at the moment is a Wallace & Grommit-themed exhibit about inventions. Quite cool.

This morning (Tuesday) I finally made it to Westminster Abbey! It was an especially great time to go, since they were decorating all the tombs and altars with garlands of flowers for this annual celebration they have there every May. I loved seeing the tombs of the likes of Queen Elizabeth I, St. Edward the Confessor, Henry VII and the Unknown British Soldier. I also loved Poets' Corner, which is filled with monuments to tribute many of Britain's finest artistes, such as Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare and G. F. Handel (although Handel was German; he just spent quite a bit of his life in England). All of the tombs and monuments are very beautifully carved and crafted.

The rest of my week appears to be quite filled so expect a nice long entry next time (which will also sadly be my last blog post...).

A Bit of the Changing of the Guard Procession

A week to the day before I leave London, and I have found myself in the midst of all the work that needs to be done before I can enjoy the rest of my time here. A real blog entry shall go up either tomorrow or Wednesday but until then, here's a video from the Changing of the Guard parade. Notice just how many people are there and check out the London Eye in the background!