I am never to spend another night in Regent's College.... HALLELUJAH! Unfortunately, we timed our Eurostar to Paris wrong, so we've got another night in London in a nearby hostel. I have a feeling that today is going to be a little bit of a throw-away day. I'm not sure what we'll do. Last night and this morning we said all of our goodbyes at the Hobgoblin pub with Thai food and cider and drinking games. The good thing about this group though is that we will have reunions once we're back at school in the fall. There's also a good chance that I will run into some of them in Paris, since half the group seems to be travelling there immediately after the program.
I will not be able to keep up with my blog regularly from now on, nor will I be able to send a lot of emails or post many pictures since I will be travelling from hostel to hostel. I will do the best that I can. Other than that I will plan on catching up once I get back to the states! Cheers!
Friday, July 6, 2007
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Tying up all the loose ends
The last few days in London have consisted of me trying to check off the items on my list that I have not yet done in London. Really, at this point I feel pretty much satisfied. I've seen all the art galleries that I really wanted to see, I done all the tourist attractions that I was interested in, and I've tried all the British food that I've cared to try. Unfortunately, because there is simply so much to do in London, this month has just flown by. It feels like maybe a week ago that I arrived at Regent's college. It's so incredibly different from my study abroad experience in Spain. Granted, that program was a full 3 weeks longer than this one, but I also feel like it went by more slowly because I had down time. Salamanca is a small city that just doesn't have as much to do as London. I also had the siesta very day which afforded me a built-in chill time. I never take it easy here, because there has always been too much left to see and do. Tomorrow I might have to force myself to take it easy for the sake of getting my laundry done and packing for the rest of my travelling around Europe.
Today, though, a bunch of the girls went out for high tea at Kensington Palace's Orangery. This is the royal palace that Princess Diana used to live in. The tea-time meal was delicious. It included champagne, salmon sandwiches, a scone with clotted cream and jam with fresh berries, chocolate cake, and (of course) tea. The English always put milk in their tea. I tried it, but I prefer my tea sans the milk - I feel like it ruins the flavor.
After tea we did a quick run of Harrod's. I wanted to stay longer, but I was out voted; I'll just have to see if I can go back on my own in the next couple of days or when we get back to London after our travels. Chances are that I won't actually buy anthing there, but the place is absolutely enourmous and I only saw about 3 rooms of it.
At night we saw our final musical of the trip, Spamelot. It is basically the musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so it had quite a few good laughs in there. It wasn't the best musical that I've seen (and the tickets were a bit more expensive than I would have liked), but it was enjoyable.
Today, though, a bunch of the girls went out for high tea at Kensington Palace's Orangery. This is the royal palace that Princess Diana used to live in. The tea-time meal was delicious. It included champagne, salmon sandwiches, a scone with clotted cream and jam with fresh berries, chocolate cake, and (of course) tea. The English always put milk in their tea. I tried it, but I prefer my tea sans the milk - I feel like it ruins the flavor.
After tea we did a quick run of Harrod's. I wanted to stay longer, but I was out voted; I'll just have to see if I can go back on my own in the next couple of days or when we get back to London after our travels. Chances are that I won't actually buy anthing there, but the place is absolutely enourmous and I only saw about 3 rooms of it.
At night we saw our final musical of the trip, Spamelot. It is basically the musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so it had quite a few good laughs in there. It wasn't the best musical that I've seen (and the tickets were a bit more expensive than I would have liked), but it was enjoyable.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
I am an official literary geek
...and it served me well today, because it got a me a free mini-tour at Westminster Abbey. The Abbey entombs more than 3,000 individuals, some of whom have very illustrious histories. Almost all of the past monarchs of England are buried there, my favorite being the double tomb of Elizabeth I and Mary I. It's also crazy though, that some of the most important historical figures could easily be passed over if you're not keeping your eyes peeled. William and Mary, for example - tiny littly plaques on the ground... no pomp, no ceremony. I had to do a double take before I realized what I was walking on. The real excitement was at the poet's corner though. We found ourselves overcome with the need to touch the graves of Chaucer (while reciting the "General Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English), Dickens, Johnson, and Tennyson. The Abbey is tricksy though, as it also has many many memorials to illustrious historical figures who are actually buried elsewhere. Spying a bust of John Milton but unsure of the whereabouts of his remains, we asked a woman who worked at the Abbey if she could tell us if John Milton was actually buried there. She whipped out her handy-dandy index and informed us that, no, John Milton was not buried in Westminster Abbey. We did however have a nice discussion about the merits of Paradise Lost and various other literary works. Rosemary (that was the nice old lady's name) told us that she was "so glad that young people still read these things - and that you are so excited about it!"..... and we were in. Rosemary was so glad to have a group of people who were interested in the Abbey and the people buried there (as well as, I suspect, to have some people who were a little informed) that she gave us a little personal tour. The tour is made even better when one considers that most people who take a tour at Westminster Abbey pay a nice little fee to do so. It was great to have her there to answer questions and to point out places of interest that others might pass over. She even showed us the tombs of some of her own ancestors. By the end of the tour we had made our way around to the tomb of Sir Issac Newton, where we bade farewell to Rosemary and thanked her profusely.
In the afternoon we went to another modern art exhibit with Sarah Kent. Although it kept me more interested than some of the others, I feel that I've already expressed my feelings about modern art. This collections was pornographic (literally), so it succeeded in making me not only unappreciative of any talent in it, but also inclined to call the artist a pervert. I really don't think it's fair that all of our class-planned outings to art galleries have been centered around modern art. One visit to a modern art gallery would have been ok, but because of the way the program is set up, I've been obliged to go to at least 5 different modern art galleries, and I have not enjoyed any of them.
Once I was free to escape from the walls plastered with 1970's porn, I high-tailed it over to the National Portrait Gallery for a much more agreeable art viewing. I absolutely love portraiture. I feel like it's a window into history, or in the case of more modern portraits, a window into the subject's life. It fascinates me to look at the clothing, the hair, even the dogs that people kept as pets in the past. My favorite portrait was one that was set alone, because it is a newly aquired piece for the gallery. It is a portrait of (what is supposed to be) Jane Grey, one of Henry VIII's six wives. It is significant because there are no other known portraits of her. Experts have guessed that this is a portrait of the queen by comparing it to physical descriptions of her in historical documents, an inscription labelling her as "Lady Jayne," and based on the context of what she is wearing and how she is presented in the painting.
At night, we went to see a fringe play on the outskirts of central London. It was an extremely intimate theater - our group took up the entire thing. We were close enough to touch the actors. Musicals aside (you can't compare apples to oranges, right?), it was by far the best play we've seen. The acting was superb and the story-line real and moving. It was focused on the issue of racism in the UK among blacks from Africa and those from the West Indies. I think it's really interesting to get a non-American perspective on racism, since in the US it is impossible to escape the black/white divide. I thought the play brought up some really nuanced and powerful issues for thought and discussion.
In the afternoon we went to another modern art exhibit with Sarah Kent. Although it kept me more interested than some of the others, I feel that I've already expressed my feelings about modern art. This collections was pornographic (literally), so it succeeded in making me not only unappreciative of any talent in it, but also inclined to call the artist a pervert. I really don't think it's fair that all of our class-planned outings to art galleries have been centered around modern art. One visit to a modern art gallery would have been ok, but because of the way the program is set up, I've been obliged to go to at least 5 different modern art galleries, and I have not enjoyed any of them.
Once I was free to escape from the walls plastered with 1970's porn, I high-tailed it over to the National Portrait Gallery for a much more agreeable art viewing. I absolutely love portraiture. I feel like it's a window into history, or in the case of more modern portraits, a window into the subject's life. It fascinates me to look at the clothing, the hair, even the dogs that people kept as pets in the past. My favorite portrait was one that was set alone, because it is a newly aquired piece for the gallery. It is a portrait of (what is supposed to be) Jane Grey, one of Henry VIII's six wives. It is significant because there are no other known portraits of her. Experts have guessed that this is a portrait of the queen by comparing it to physical descriptions of her in historical documents, an inscription labelling her as "Lady Jayne," and based on the context of what she is wearing and how she is presented in the painting.
At night, we went to see a fringe play on the outskirts of central London. It was an extremely intimate theater - our group took up the entire thing. We were close enough to touch the actors. Musicals aside (you can't compare apples to oranges, right?), it was by far the best play we've seen. The acting was superb and the story-line real and moving. It was focused on the issue of racism in the UK among blacks from Africa and those from the West Indies. I think it's really interesting to get a non-American perspective on racism, since in the US it is impossible to escape the black/white divide. I thought the play brought up some really nuanced and powerful issues for thought and discussion.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Wicked!
It was back to class this morning for an enthralling discussion of solipsism in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. After which, we went to the British library to participate in a scavenger hunt! After a short while though, I think most of us realized that the scavenger hunt was creating a sort of mania that had us missing out on the things we really wanted to see in the library. These included original holy manuscripts from all over the world, Shakespeare's First Folio, illuminated copies of the Canterbury Tales, but my personal favorites were the original hand-written lyrics to Beatles songs, including "Yesterday" and "Ticket to Ride."
The afternoon was spent with a bit of shopping at Lilywhites, which is this ginormous sports clothing store. I didn't purchase anything, but a few of my friends were determined to get themsleves a couple of England football jersies.
Finally, we saw Wicked!!!!! I had seriously been looking forward to seeing this musical since before I even arrived in London! It was fantastic! I had actually read the book right after school let out in May, so I had a readily available comparison between the two in my mind. Towards the beginning of the play I was a little irritated by the deviance from the book, but by the end, the plot of the musical was so far off from the plot of the book that I didn't even care anymore. In this way, it became an entirely new story and experience, rather than just an irritatingly erroneous telling of the book. Honestly, though, it was soooo good. I would see it again in a heartbeat.
The afternoon was spent with a bit of shopping at Lilywhites, which is this ginormous sports clothing store. I didn't purchase anything, but a few of my friends were determined to get themsleves a couple of England football jersies.
Finally, we saw Wicked!!!!! I had seriously been looking forward to seeing this musical since before I even arrived in London! It was fantastic! I had actually read the book right after school let out in May, so I had a readily available comparison between the two in my mind. Towards the beginning of the play I was a little irritated by the deviance from the book, but by the end, the plot of the musical was so far off from the plot of the book that I didn't even care anymore. In this way, it became an entirely new story and experience, rather than just an irritatingly erroneous telling of the book. Honestly, though, it was soooo good. I would see it again in a heartbeat.
Weekend in Edinburgh
I spent the past weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland - just in time to avoid the terrorist threats in London. Edinburgh is a beautiful city with ancient buildings all over the place surrounded by the ocean on one side (or, more precisely, and inlet from the ocean) and highland crags on the other. If it's possible, the Scottish accent is even more fun than the English accent. Honestly, I would be perfectly content to just sit and listen to people talk. I also noticed that the people of Edinburgh seem more friendly towards Americans than Londoners, and that cars will actually stop to let pedestrians cross the street. In London you will get run over trying to do that.
Our hostel was right on the Royal Mile the in the center of Old Town Edinburgh; I couldn't have asked for a better location. Hostels, in and of themselves are always fun because you meet so many people from all over the world. I love talking to all of the people that I meet, asking them where they're from and what has brought them to here. It's also always fascination to hear their perspectives on where I come from. I met this one Korean guy who will be starting PhD work at Princeton in the fall, and when I mentioned that I was from Virginia, his immediate association was with the Virginia Tech shootings. I suppose that because it was an experience that hit so close to home for me, I often forget that it also made international news. I also got to practice my Spanish with a few Spaniards who were staying in the same hostel, which turned out to be extremely useful when we had a few communication break-downs in English. I never fail to be amazed by how many Australians I meet everywhere I go.
On our first afternoon in Edinburgh, we went to climb the Crags on the outskirts of the city. On our way there, we passed Holyroodhouse, which is the royal palace in Scotland, and there just happened to be a small crowd gathered outside the gates. We found that the Queen had just arrived and was being given the keys to the city and that she was scheduled to open Parliament the following morning. So, it was my second time seeing the Queen since being in the UK - clearly, she is following me. After that excitement though, we climbed a steep mountainside to get a beautiful vista of the city from above. At that moment, I felt like I was really in Scotland. I even picked some heather - it was the first time that I've ever actually seen my namesake flower. Friday night we took a haunted tour of the city. Edinburgh has a slight obsession with death and hauntings which is closely related to its history with the Plague and witch huntings. We first had an above-ground tour of some of the "haunted" spots in the city. Then we were brought into a room set-up with torture instruments, in which we were given the gruesome details of how they were used. The tour then moved underground, into the vaults below the city. It was pitch-black except for the torch (aka, flashlight) of our tour guide. We were told of the people who used to live underground and of the people who continue to use the vaults for Wiccan worship.
On Saturday we went to see Edinburgh castle, which was great. I'm always in awe when I try to think about the people who once worked and lived in that castle. We got to see them shoot off the gun too, which they do every day at 1pm on the dot. After the castle we got lunch at a really expensive restaurant called The Witchery and bought the cheapest meal on the menu. So, I tried lamb for the first time - it was ok. The dessert was heavenly though and made the entire expensive meal worth while: dark chocolate torte with lavender ice cream. It was delicious.
After lunch we went to a writer's museum which had some artifacts from Robert Luis Stevenson, Robert Burns, and Sir Walter Scott. It wasn't anything terribly exciting, but the admission was free, so why not? Immediately afterwards we did the "Scotch Whiskey Experience." It was a super-corny little attraction, but it actually turned out to be tons of fun. When you first go in, they give you a glass with a shot of whiskey in it (you get to keep the glass as a souvenier). Then, the guide teaches you how to test and appreciate the spirit properly. The one we tested was supposed to smell fruity and and like vanilla all at once - I just smelled scotch. We then learned about the distillery process and how scotch whiskey is made. The final part of the "experience" was an actual ride in a barrel cart through "the history of scotch," which was essentially a series of dioramas with nice lighting and an audio narrative.
Sunday, we went to the National Museum of Scotland and the Royal Museum of Scotland, which are attached so that they are essentially one giant museum. I really enjoyed it because it had so many different types of displays, from paintings, to artifacts, to manuscripts, to costumes, to stuffed animals. The star of the show was Dolly the sheep in her rotating glass disply case. I also chanced to be lucky enough to be at the museum on the day when they were having performances of traditional Scottish highland dancing. At that moment, watching people in kilts dance and play the bagpipes, my Scotland experience was complete. To kill off the last few hours before our train departed, Amy and I walked up to New Town Edinburgh, which is far from new, but is also far more commercial and big business than Old Town. We went to see the Georgian House, which turned out to be a bit of a rip-off. As the name might suggest, it was a historical house from the Georgian era, decorated with era appropriate furnishings. Had the upper floors of the house been open, it might have been worth it, but since they were not, I was pretty disappointed. Finally, on the way to the train station (apart from getting drenched in a downpour) we found an outdoor market where I got my self a savoury honey crepe before waving goodbye to Edinburgh.
Our hostel was right on the Royal Mile the in the center of Old Town Edinburgh; I couldn't have asked for a better location. Hostels, in and of themselves are always fun because you meet so many people from all over the world. I love talking to all of the people that I meet, asking them where they're from and what has brought them to here. It's also always fascination to hear their perspectives on where I come from. I met this one Korean guy who will be starting PhD work at Princeton in the fall, and when I mentioned that I was from Virginia, his immediate association was with the Virginia Tech shootings. I suppose that because it was an experience that hit so close to home for me, I often forget that it also made international news. I also got to practice my Spanish with a few Spaniards who were staying in the same hostel, which turned out to be extremely useful when we had a few communication break-downs in English. I never fail to be amazed by how many Australians I meet everywhere I go.
On our first afternoon in Edinburgh, we went to climb the Crags on the outskirts of the city. On our way there, we passed Holyroodhouse, which is the royal palace in Scotland, and there just happened to be a small crowd gathered outside the gates. We found that the Queen had just arrived and was being given the keys to the city and that she was scheduled to open Parliament the following morning. So, it was my second time seeing the Queen since being in the UK - clearly, she is following me. After that excitement though, we climbed a steep mountainside to get a beautiful vista of the city from above. At that moment, I felt like I was really in Scotland. I even picked some heather - it was the first time that I've ever actually seen my namesake flower. Friday night we took a haunted tour of the city. Edinburgh has a slight obsession with death and hauntings which is closely related to its history with the Plague and witch huntings. We first had an above-ground tour of some of the "haunted" spots in the city. Then we were brought into a room set-up with torture instruments, in which we were given the gruesome details of how they were used. The tour then moved underground, into the vaults below the city. It was pitch-black except for the torch (aka, flashlight) of our tour guide. We were told of the people who used to live underground and of the people who continue to use the vaults for Wiccan worship.
On Saturday we went to see Edinburgh castle, which was great. I'm always in awe when I try to think about the people who once worked and lived in that castle. We got to see them shoot off the gun too, which they do every day at 1pm on the dot. After the castle we got lunch at a really expensive restaurant called The Witchery and bought the cheapest meal on the menu. So, I tried lamb for the first time - it was ok. The dessert was heavenly though and made the entire expensive meal worth while: dark chocolate torte with lavender ice cream. It was delicious.
After lunch we went to a writer's museum which had some artifacts from Robert Luis Stevenson, Robert Burns, and Sir Walter Scott. It wasn't anything terribly exciting, but the admission was free, so why not? Immediately afterwards we did the "Scotch Whiskey Experience." It was a super-corny little attraction, but it actually turned out to be tons of fun. When you first go in, they give you a glass with a shot of whiskey in it (you get to keep the glass as a souvenier). Then, the guide teaches you how to test and appreciate the spirit properly. The one we tested was supposed to smell fruity and and like vanilla all at once - I just smelled scotch. We then learned about the distillery process and how scotch whiskey is made. The final part of the "experience" was an actual ride in a barrel cart through "the history of scotch," which was essentially a series of dioramas with nice lighting and an audio narrative.
Sunday, we went to the National Museum of Scotland and the Royal Museum of Scotland, which are attached so that they are essentially one giant museum. I really enjoyed it because it had so many different types of displays, from paintings, to artifacts, to manuscripts, to costumes, to stuffed animals. The star of the show was Dolly the sheep in her rotating glass disply case. I also chanced to be lucky enough to be at the museum on the day when they were having performances of traditional Scottish highland dancing. At that moment, watching people in kilts dance and play the bagpipes, my Scotland experience was complete. To kill off the last few hours before our train departed, Amy and I walked up to New Town Edinburgh, which is far from new, but is also far more commercial and big business than Old Town. We went to see the Georgian House, which turned out to be a bit of a rip-off. As the name might suggest, it was a historical house from the Georgian era, decorated with era appropriate furnishings. Had the upper floors of the house been open, it might have been worth it, but since they were not, I was pretty disappointed. Finally, on the way to the train station (apart from getting drenched in a downpour) we found an outdoor market where I got my self a savoury honey crepe before waving goodbye to Edinburgh.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
