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!

As the End Draws Near, I Feel More and More Like a Tourist...

My days here are numbered. In exactly two weeks I'll be on a flight from Heathrow to JFK. It feels as if days and weeks are passing by at two or three times the speed they were earlier in the semester. I also can't decide whether this semester has seemed long or short; the weeks are passing by so quickly now, yet so much has happened this term that even the almost four months I've been here seems too short.

Monday night I went to go see "Mamma Mia!" at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End. It was pretty good, though I didn't expect even more ABBA songs than they had in the movie! My audience experience was also interesting, because I sat next to a pair of mothers who were either singing along with the songs or crying at tunes such as "Slipping Through My Fingers" and "The Winner Takes It All." And all the while, their daughters had their heads in their hands, muttering, "Oh my god, Mom, quit embarrassing me..." My favorite part definitely had to be the end, though, when everybody got up and danced along with the three encore songs ("Mamma Mia," "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo").

On Tuesday night I went out to dinner with my mom's cousin and her family, who were in town on vacation and were heading out to Paris the next day. It was great to see non-classmate familiar faces!

On Friday Kara and I were the epitome of London tourists. We first attempted to check out the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace. We did get to see the processions, which included dozens of bagpipe players and a marching guard band.


We didn't get to see the actual changing of the guards, though, so we'll probably have to go back to check out that part.

After some touristy photographing we boarded a "flight" on the London Eye.


The London Eye was a "Ferris wheel" built for the millennium celebration in London. At the time it was the largest wheel of its kind; now it's the third-largest. We were told it was only worth it if we went on a nice day. Thankfully, we went on a GORGEOUS day! It was also awesome, because we knew what everything was and where to look to see what we wanted to see. Honestly, I never imagined I'd get to look down on Big Ben!

On Saturday Katie W. and I took a train from Paddington over to Windsor to see...you guessed it! Windsor Castle!


It was definitely the biggest and best-kept of all the castles I've seen this semester. The gardens were extraordinarily beautiful as well.


We went through St. George's Chapel, where some royalty is buried (including Henry VIII).


We then went up to see Queen Mary's Dollhouse, which was VERY intricate. There was also a Henry VIII exhibit in the drawing room, so there were many famous sketches by Hans Holbein the Younger, a famous court painter who lived during Henry VIII's reign. There were also lots of sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. We then went through the richly furnished State Apartments, where we found the one piece of Henry VIII armor not at the Tower of London and plenty more famous paintings.

After Windsor Castle Katie and I wandered around the town of Windsor for a bit before we headed down to the Thames to ride the Ferris wheel in town. As we suspected, the wheel offered awesome views of the Windsor Castle and surrounding landscapes.


After the ride we walked along the Thames and encountered the largest group of (incredibly aggressive!) swans either of us had ever seen.


(That's not even all of them! There had to be at least 50 swans in that section of the river.)

We crossed the bridge and found ourselves in the neighboring community of Eton. We browsed an antique shop and walked along the outside of Eton College before returning to the train station to head back to London.

As our time here draws to a close I suspect we'll be trying to fit everything in these next two weeks. A fun task, since this is also the last week of classes and we are now heading into finals week!

TEN THINGS I'LL MISS ABOUT LONDON:

1) The rich history in everything
2) Hyde Park
3) West End shows
4) Free newspapers in the morning and evening
5) Brit Pop and Contemporary Music class
6) Weekend markets
7) Chilling in the local pubs
8) Double-decker buses
9) Proximity to the rest of Europe
10) The simple thrill of living in a large city

In the "Country" of Scotland

So here's the ACTUAL blog entry for my weekend in Scotland!

On Friday morning we all arrived early at King’s Cross Station and took a National Rail train up to Edinburgh. Although I slept most of the way, the northern England and southern Scotland landscapes were beautiful. We even saw a little bit of the North Sea .

Upon arrival in Edinburgh we checked into the Castle Rock Hostel, located on the Royal Mile within a few steps of Edinburgh Castle .

Naturally, our first stop was Edinburgh Castle . The castle dominates the skyline of Edinburgh (or at least the Old Town ). It’s sort of like the Acropolis of Edinburgh (the irony of which I’ll explain later). The castle has been there since the 12^th century and was a royal residence until the Union of the Crowns and formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1603. It was also used as a military site for a long time. It now hosts many exhibits and museums, including the National War Museum of Scotland. My favourite exhibit was definitely the one featuring the crown jewels of Scotland , which are much older than those of England . The most unique part of the castle had to be this little pet cemetery for soldiers’ dogs.

And of course, the castle offered marvellous views of Edinburgh.

That night a big group of us went on a “ghost hunting” tour. A tour guide dressed in a dark cloak took us around the Royal Mile and told us various ghost/horror stories of Edinburgh ’s past, including the cannibalistic son of the Duke of Queensberry. We were then taken into the underground vaults of the old South Bridge to encounter ghosts. Although we encountered nothing scarier than the sound of shuffling in one of the corridors, it was definitely very creepy, especially considering it was midnight at the time!

The next day everybody trekked over to Palace of Holyroodhouse , the principal royal residence in Scotland.

It has been a royal residence since the 15^th century and was home to many famous royals, including Mary, Queen of Scots. It was very beautiful on the inside and the gardens, where an annual summer garden party is held, were gorgeous. There were also the ruins of an old abbey attached to the palace (built in the 12 century).

After the palace we took a tour of the Scottish Parliament building across from the palace, which was actually built very recently. The new Scottish Parliament was formed in 1999 and the building that houses it is very modern in architecture, with the exception of the old (haunted) Queensberry house attached that houses some offices.

A few of us then chose to hike Arthur’s Seat (for a video of the adventure, see previous blog post).

It wasn’t a hard hike and the views at the top were amazing, especially when the sun and blue sky made an appearance for the first time that weekend. We spent some time relaxing at the top before venturing back down.

From Arthur's Seat we could also see what they like to call "Edinburgh's Folly." Since Edinburgh is called the "Athens of the North," they set about building a replica of the Parthenon/Acropolis on this one giant rock in the city. But they ran out of money so it sits unfinished, hovering over the town.

That night several of us went to the student union on the University of Edinburgh campus for a ceilidh, a night of traditional Scottish/Gaelic/Celtic dancing. It was loads of fun; I learned quite a few Scottish dances and we all enjoyed jigging, twirling and swinging to the best of our abilities.

Sunday morning a few of us went for tea at the Elephant House, the café where JK Rowling did many of her early writings for “Harry Potter” as she looked out the back window at Edinburgh Castle .

Afterwards we went for lunch at the Cannon’s Gait pub, where Hannah and I split a “wee taste of haggis.” It was VERY gross. It was basically grey cat food. Scots don’t eat it anymore; it was originally made back in the day from whatever cheap ingredients the Scots could afford.

You know it's bad when you start to miss London food! :-D

Sneak Peek of Last Weekend

THREE WEEKS LEFT IN LONDON! It's so hectic at the moment that I probably won't get along to blogging about this past weekend until tomorrow or Wednesday. Until then, enjoy my new "Scot-umentary" about our hike up Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh! (it actually is quicker to make a video than a blog entry, believe or not!)

Bunny-Hopping All Over the City

Happy (belated) Easter or Passover!

I can't believe I've been here for over three months. I can't believe I have less than four weeks left! I'm definitely having mixed feelings about it all...

Monday night a week ago I went to go see "Three Days of Rain" in the West End. I'd gotten rave reviews from friends and I'd heard it was starring James McAvoy (of "Band of Brothers," "Chronicles of Narnia" and "Atonement"), so I decided to go see it. It wasn't a musical, but it was very entertaining. James McAvoy was the best of the three actors, but the other male actor was very comical as well. It was definitely worth seeing, although I do overall prefer musicals! :-D

On Good Friday it rained and most of the tube system was down for the weekend, but I made it over to central Westminster in time to realize that it WAS Good Friday and of course Westminster Abbey wouldn't be open. I did see Westminster Cathedral (the difference being that the Cathedral is Catholic, not Anglican).


Then I walked up to Covent Garden and browsed the stands there before heading back to the flat.

On Saturday I trekked over to Harrod’s. I knew it was an upscale department store, so I dressed a little nicer than usual. However, “upscale” turned out to be an understatement, at least to a Vermont bumpkin such as myself! There was a doorman who greeted every person who walked in the door. Since it was the Saturday before Easter there were massive chocolate carvings of rabbits, chicks, ducks and eggs everywhere. Anything and everything you could ever want was sold: books, electronics, designer clothes, shoes, jewellery, animals, toys, furniture, pianos, food, glasses and even original prints of old maps. Since the Al-Fayed family who owns the store is Egyptian, much of the store is Egyptian-themed and there are a lot of giant Sphinxes all over the place. The main Egyptian staircase is overlooked by balconies from each floor, and there was an opera singer performing from one of them. I didn’t take any pictures, because I definitely didn’t want to be that girl who took pictures in Harrod’s.

On Easter Kara, Sarah, Kathy, Katie, Chris M and I all bought or prepared food for a “family-style Easter dinner” at our flat. It was really nice to do something homey for Easter…and eat a lot of good food!

Easter Monday is a bank holiday here in the UK so I didn't have to go to my internship (however, those who have Monday classes at the IC London Centre still had to go haha). I decided to have a little adventure and get over to the Tower of London on the east side. I say it was an adventure because all tube lines to the Tower of London were closed, so I had to find my way from the Bank station.


Although the Tower of London is generally associated with imprisonment, torture and executions, it was originally a royal palace. The place is quite grand, but it does have an air of creepiness to it.

As soon as I entered the gate the Royal Guards marched from the entrance over to the building where they keep the Crown Jewels.


I saw Traitor's Gate, through which prisoners were brought by boat.


I then hopped on a tour given by a Yeoman Warder (commonly known as a Beefeater) so that I could go inside the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vinicula. It looks like an ordinary chapel; its draw is that it's the burial place of those executed on the Tower Green. Two of Henry VIII's wives are buried there (including Anne Boleyn, whose portrait is on the right hand side of this blog) as well as Jane Grey, who reigned for about a week before she was overthrown (quite rightly, actually) by Queen "Bloody" Mary. There's also a monument on the Tower Green marking where the scaffold that they were all executed at was.


I next went into the Bloody Tower, so named because two princes were supposedly murdered there. Well, in actuality, one of them was the true King of England. He and his brother were sent to the Tower for "safekeeping" by his uncle, soon-to-be Richard III, until the boy's coronation. Within two months, Richard III had them (falsely) declared illegitimate and the princes were never seen again. Centuries later, the skeletons of two boys their ages were found buried elsewhere in the Tower of London. They were determined to be those of the princes, but no one knows for sure who's behind their deaths.

At one point I got a really pretty view of the Tower Bridge...


I also paid a few of the ravens a visit. There are always six ravens at the Tower of London, because legend has it that if the ravens were to leave the Tower, the Tower, the monarchy and the kingdom would fall.



Then I went into the White Tower, which is in the middle of the Tower of London. It's home to a temporary exhibit of all of Henry VIII's armour (save one, which is at Windsor or Westminster Abbey). I then proceeded to Beauchamp Tower, where many prisoners were held. It was extraordinary; the curators have preserved many of the graffiti carved into the walls by the prisoners held there. Some of the graffiti is plain; others are quite elaborate. Possibly the most famous graffiti is one that simply reads "Jane."


Many believe that it was carved by Jane Grey's husband, Guildford Dudley, as he, too, awaited his beheading. It also could have been carved by one of her supporters or it could have been carved by someone else with a different Jane in mind.

Finally, I went to go see the Crown Jewels.


The queue was ridiculously long, but I was told it was worth the wait. And really, it was. No pictures were allowed, but they're quite unforgettable. I definitely think my favorite was the Sceptre with the Cross, which has the Great Star of Africa, the second-largest faceted diamond in the world.

After I left I decided to take a nice, looonnng walk from the Tower of London back to my flat in Bayswater. It was a beautiful day, so it was great to see the city at a leisurely pace. The prettiest part of the trip definitely had to be Hyde Park, though. I'd been through it before but not when the flowers were in bloom. Kensington Gardens was beautiful as well.


I took a different path than I had before, because I realized that I hadn't seen the Italian Garden Fountains or Peter Pan statue before.



Tomorrow night I'll be at Wembley Arena (capacity 18000 people) for a Prodigy concert. They're a huge electronic-punk-dance music group over here, very popular. However, we've been told that this will be wilder than The Rifles concert. One thing's for sure: I'm staying out of the mosh pit this time!

A FEW MORE THINGS I'VE LEARNED WHILE IN LONDON:

41) When the tube gate doors close on you, it really REALLY hurts.
42) Blackcurrant berries are the grapes of the UK. Blackcurrant jelly, blackcurrant jelly beans, blackcurrant lollipops, blackcurrant Starburst...
43) Queen is definitely one of the most awesome bands ever. And they are quite addicting and very often lead to long streaks of listening only to them.
44) On that note, "Video Killed the Radio Star" is possibly the most addicting single ever.
45) London during the springtime is a sight not to be missed.