Salisbury and the Infamous Stonehenge.

Yesterday was a nice little day trip to see Stonehenge and the nearby town of Salisbury. Stonehenge was very neat, but there is really very little to see. You just do a lap around it, take a bunch of pictures, and then you're done. It takes like ten minutes. I'm glad I saw it and can now check it off my list of things to see, but I have no desire to go see it again.

Salisbury is a rather boring town, really. We went mainly to go see the Salisbury Cathedral, which was amazing. And to get lunch.
We had lunch at an awesome pub called Haunch of Venison. The whole place felt like a funhouse because it was so old and everything was tilted just a little. The food there was excellent. I finally got some traditional British bangers and mash, as per uncle David's request. :)

Salisbury Cathedral is old and beautiful and awesome. It was built in like the 13th century and has the tallest spire in Britain or something. I don't know exactly. But it was really tall. And it was leaning one way quite a bit, which made it terrifying to stand under. It was just gorgeous inside and had lots of incredible stained glass, of course. We also saw in the cathedral the nicest of four existing original copies of the Magna Carta. That was neat. 

The only thing I hated about the cathedral was that it has random pieces of modern art throughout it, which just didn't seem right to me. There were a whole bunch of sculptures by a guy named Sean Henry. They were just sculptures of people chillin' in random places around the cathedral. Sorry, brother, but your sculptures sucked. 

We've been struck by the Plague. But at least we got to see Emperor Palpatine.

Sunday: Jen sick.
Monday: Sean, Abby, and Lauren sick.
Tuesday: Ariana and Mary sick. Also, Jen still sick.
Wednesday: Colleen (not my roommate) and Jason sick.
Thursday: Tim and Katie sick.

This sucks. We really thought it was food poisoning from the mussels, but not everyone who's sick had them. It's a mystery...

But hey! Last night we went to see a play called The Faith Machine. It was really disappointing BUT it had a couple super great actors, including Ian McDiarmid and Bronagh Gallagher. And other grand people, of course, but those two were the most recognizable to me.

Ian McDiarmid

Bronagh Gallagher

She was in Sherlock Holmes!! So cool!!

But yeah. The play was not my favorite.

And now I'm off to learn things! Toodle pip.

Oh dear, I've got too much to blog about.

I suppose I'm going to have to divide this into multiple posts. Perhaps. We shall see.

I think the first thing I have to catch y'all up on was seeing a performance of Doctor Faustus at the Globe Theatre. It was one of the best nights of my life. We had to see the play for our theatre class, but little did I know that one of the main characters was being played by one of my favorite actors from the TV show Doctor Who.
The actor's name is Arthur Darvill. Here is a picture of him as I saw him at the Globe. (He's the one in red/orange). At times he was probably no more than a foot away from me, and I swear we made eye contact multiple times. It was sooooo incredibly awesome. I may have also stolen a fake grape from off the stage that he possibly threw during the play.
So that was an awesome night. Despite staring in awe at Arthur for most of the play, I really enjoyed every aspect of the production. I especially liked being a "groundling", which is having a spot right up against the stage instead of having a real seat. Paul Hilton, who played Faustus, literally leaped directly over my head at one point. It was terrifying and awesome.

Wednesday we left for the infamous Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam
It was a really neat city, with the canals and bikes and bridges everywhere, but just a couple days there was enough. I got tired of nearly getting run over by bicyclists numerous times and getting a huge whiff of marijuana every time I walked past a "coffee shop" (of which there were many). That smell makes me nauseous.

We did get to see some really incredible things, mainly the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Anne Frank house. We also saw Rembrandt's house, but it was pretty dull.
Those first three things were all equally awe-inspiring in their own way.
Some of the food I had in Amsterdam was just delightful. Haagen-Dazs was especially wonderful. I had it twice. Shhhh....
The other food I had that deserves mentioning was when we ate at The Pancake Bakery, which supposedly has the best pancakes in Amsterdam. They were pretty darn good. I had a bacon and pineapple pancake that was bigger than my head. Choosing what kind of pancake to get was one of the most difficult decisions I've had to make. There were ridiculously many options. But I have no regrets.

After Amsterdam was a day trip to Rotterdam and then a night in Brussels.

Rotterdam
I didn't particularly care for the city of Rotterdam. We only went there to see an exhibit on the Dutch/Chinese trade relations, which relate to my Tea class, at the Maritime Museum which is located in Rotterdam. We learned some junk and got to walk around a boat. Then I found an H&M and bought a grey bowler hat and then we were off to Brussels, Belgium.

Brussels
I like Belgium better than Holland (the Netherlands). Mostly because French is one of their major languages, therefore I understood more, but also because it's just much more purdy. We really only went to Belgium to spend the night there, eat some waffles, and then take a train from there back to London. Via the chunnel, of course.
Our first mission was to get a Belgian waffle. Our director knew of supposedly the best waffle place in Brussels, so we went there and weren't disappointed. It was right next to the famous fountain called the Manniken Pis, which is a statue of a little boy who is peeing. It has a bunch of legends about it, but I still haven't quite figured out why it's so special. I enjoy the fact that they dress him up in different costumes for holidays and such. 
So our waffles were deeelicious (mine had whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate sauce on it). We then just started exploring Brussels and found a huge square with incredibly ornate buildings and some sort of festival-y thing going on. I tried escargot for the first time (and enjoyed it), got some fresh mussels (which are a Brussels specialty), and saw some dudes dancing in huge feather hats and clogs.
I really enjoyed my mussels at the time, but today myself and at least two other people are really sick, and we think the mussels were the cause. It's the WORST. I had to miss my Shakespeare class. We were watching the first half of the wonderful movie Shakespeare in Love today. :'(


Bruges
Bruges was THE BEST. I haven't even seen the movie In Bruges, which is the city's biggest claim to fame, but now I definitely want to. It is an amazing medieval town that is just the cutest place you ever did see. And there were SOOO many chocolate shops. Belgian chocolate is heavenly.
One of the most random things that happened in Bruges was finding a square with a big stage set up and some sort of fitness/aerobics/dance thing going on. It was great fun. The best part was not actually dancing myself, but rather seeing my 60-year old professor do it. Hilarious.
Some of us girls did a bit of shopping. I limited myself to chocolate and an incredible silk scarf. Belgians are also apparently known for their tapestries and such. I got my scarf from a shop primarily selling tapestries. It cost too much, but it's worth it. It's so sooooooft and niiiiiiiiiice....
I would totally live in Bruges. It rocked my socks.

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We returned from Belgium last night. I spent pretty much all of the night posting my many pictures to facebook and starting to write this. So that's that.

Flat 20.

I have made several attempts to try to make and upload a video tour of my flat, but it's just not working. So here is the best I could do.

Welcome to Flat 20.

It is a lovely little flat. It is being inhabited, though, by five college students, so don't expect it to be tidy or anything. Because it's not (most of the time).

Our hall. My room's the second door on the left.

The room Colleen and I share.

The other side of our room.

Our minuscule kitchen. And the door to my room again.

 The living room. I was not watching golf, by the way. I just put it on that

channel because Doctor Who is starting in a few hours and I didn't want to miss it.

The other side of the living room.

Our bathroom. I couldn't get a good picture of it. Not like there's anything to see, really.

The view from our bedroom window.

Ta-da!! I think that's all there really is to see. Our flat is most satisfactory. And cute.

Going to Brighton to find the officers. Or a husband. Or both.

Sorry, blog. I've been neglecting you a wee bit.

Let's see, what's happened since Tuesday....

I've had all of my classes at least once now. I'm really looking forward to all of them.
I don't know if I've said it before, but they are the Bloody History of Afternoon Tea, the Concept of Kingship, Shakespeare and Others in London Theatre, and History of Art.

Wednesday night we had our first family dinner. The beautiful Mary made us mac'n'cheese with cauliflower, green beans, and baguette. Katie made us an incredible dessert called Eton Mess. Afterwards we went to a student bar in the University of London Union (where we have classes) and watched the England v. Wales "football" match. England won. I decided I want to buy the English goalkeeper's jersey. Mostly because it's an awesome color. But I still want a football jersey anyway. It was at this bar that I officially decided I hate beer.  However, I did have a pint of Gaymer's hard cider which is GREAT.

Thursday I had two classes. Professor Lutze took us after his class to the British Library, where we are now registered as readers. I have an awesome ID card with my picture and everything. We're going to have to do a lot of research there. Particularly in the India Office Records, or something like that.
We had our first art class that day as well. Our teacher, Linda Bolton, talked to us for just a few minutes before immediately taking us to the National Gallery, which was incredible. And we hardly even saw anything. She just wanted to introduce us to some Dutch painting before going to Amsterdam next week.

Now we're all caught up and I can tell you about Brighton.

Well. Brighton is awesome. It's a very chill town. I'm pretty sure it's more of a city, but it has the feel of a town. It's on the coast so we got to see the sea! Haha...that rhymed...
The beach was so cool because it's not sandy, but rather is a bunch of pretty good sized rocks. Yet there are still some small enough to sneak into your shoes and be quite annoying...

We also explored Brighton Pier. It's the only remaining pier in Brighton today. I got some fish and chips on the pier. I ate a couple bites before realizing that it was waaaaaaaayyy too greasy for me. So I gave it to the boys. Problem solved.
After exploring the beach, the girls and I went shopping, which pretty much took up the rest of the day. There were insane amounts of adorable little boutiques with the most unique and amazing clothes ever. I told Mary to help me refrain from buying everything I saw that was cute, but she was no help. All she does is stand there and say, "Go for it!"
No help at all.
I did limit myself to one pair of boots and one dress....and one pair of gloves, one pair of sunglasses, and one giant block of dark chocolate with hazelnuts from a store called Choccywoccydoodah. How could I resist?!?

Oh, I also feel like I should mention that the title of this blog post is a reference to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In the book, the recently married Lydia tells her mother to send her sisters to Brighton, for "That is the place to get husbands." Therefore, Mary and I were hunting for husbands all day. No luck. :(

I would go back to Brighton in a heartbeat. Before we did all the beachy/shopping things, our guide took us to this incredible Pavilion that was built by George (IV), son of the crazy King George III. You know, the one that spurred us to run away to America and revolt against the crown. (George III, that is, not George IV. Just to clarify).
The Pavilion was the in a sort of "Oriental Gothic" style, I believe. It was GREATLY influenced by Indian and Chinese culture/architecture. It was so ridiculously ornate and extravagant. The whole palace was built as a show of George's wealth. Man, he was indeed very wealthy, and you could tell.

So that was really cool. I think I'm all caught up now. Today is my first real day to relax (and do homework, unfortunately). A lot of our group traveled to Dover for the day today to see the Castle and the cliffs and everything. I decided not to. I don't regret it. I got to sleep in. It was great.

I hope to update soon. Hopefully before I leave for Amsterdam and Bruges next Wednesday, but perhaps not.

We shall see!

My pictures of Brighton.

First day of school, shopping, Spotted Dick, tea at Kensington Palace, and Regent's Park. Busy as a bee.

Yesterday was my first class, which went well and the teacher is lovely, but there really isn't terribly much to report about it. I can't wait to get into the plays we're studying and everything. We're going to be discussing/seeing Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe at the Globe Theatre next Tuesday, which is positively thrilling. The best part is we don't even have to read the play first. She let us off the hook and decided to just give us the gist of it. Huzzah! "She" being Patricia Doyle, our lovely teacher who isn't even a proper professor. She studied theatre and was an actress for many years and now she directs plays and such. I'm really looking forward to her class.

After class yesterday a few of the girls and myself went on our first (small) shopping expedition to Oxford Street. We only stopped in Topshop and H&M. They were both quite overwhelming, but I bought a few essentials that make me look decidedly more British and fabulous. :)

Last night we had a welcome dinner at Porter's, a pub that serves traditional English food including the famous fish and chips, of course. I decided to pass on that option, however, and chose instead tomato and basil soup, steak/Guinness/mushroom pie, and Spotted Dick for dessert. It was all scrumptious. I got Spotted Dick mostly out of curiosity, but it turned out to be quite good! It is very much like bread pudding with raisins and a little less sweet. But still delicious. I feel like I should mention that I also passed on the alcohol. Unless you count the Guinness in my pie.

Today was supposed to be my first class with the director of our course, Professor Lutze, who came over with us from Wesleyan to teach the course "The Bloody History of Afternoon Tea". Instead of having a proper course, we had afternoon tea in the Orangery at Kensington Palace. It was most definitely the best tea I've ever had in my life. We each got our own little three-tiered plate thing with four finger sandwiches (cucumber, salmon/cheese, cheese, and roast beef or something), a scone with raisins (or sultanas?), and clotted cream/jam, an orange tart, and a little chocolate cake. It. Was. Epic. Unfortunately, much of the palace was under construction so we only really got to see a little bit of the gardens. I think they're making it look nicer in preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London next summer.

Before returning to our flat some of us walked around a small area of Regent's Park. It is just a few blocks north of our flat, but I had yet to take the time to explore any of it. We walked through the Avenue Gardens and Queen Mary's Gardens (aka the most beautiful garden in the world according to me). Queen Mary's Gardens had pretty much every color/shape/size of rose EVER. There were SO many roses. I wanted to take pictures of all of them. Mom, you would have gone insane taking pictures of all the flowers. It was ridiculous. There were also little waterfalls and fountains and whatnot.

Now I'm back at the flat and Mary's making all of us dinner. Yaaaaaaaaay. I posted my pictures from today on Picasa. I think I'll do that from here on out as well as putting many of them on facebook. My Hampton Court Palace pictures are already on facebook.

Pictures from Kensington Palace and Regent's Park.
Disclaimer: Many of my rose pictures were blurry because it was quite windy today, not because I'm a horrible photographer. Because I'm not. I promise. Also I know now to go slower on my panoramas so they're less blurry.

God Save the King!!

Hampton Court Palace is incredible. To be perfectly honest, though, it would have been much less thrilling if it didn't have a few of its old residents roaming the grounds. The idea that King Henry VIII had walked through the hallways that you are currently walking through is grand, but to see an extremely convincing Henry walking down those halls in front of you truly helps you see the palace as it was during his time. Plus it was fun to bow to him and the Queen and yell, "God Save the King!" as they passed.

Throughout the day we got to be witnesses to a scandal involving Henry and his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr. We began our day watching the queen put on her more formal court attire with the assistance of her cousin, a Lady Lane or something like that, and a few young audience members. It was actually incredibly fascinating to see. Towards the end there was a bit of drama, however. She discovered a warrant for her arrest had been drawn up and was only waiting for the King's signature to make it official. She fainted. It was very exciting. I believe she was charged with heresy, or something similar. The rest of the day we got to follow her and the King all over the palace. The Queen sent some of my friends to go spy on the King and his council and report back, among other things. It was like a medieval soap opera in real life and it was incredibly fun. We also wore cloaks around the palace for no apparent reason.

The whole thing was an awesome experience, plus the palace itself was just beyond gorgeous. It was our course director's birthday today, and we got to surprise him and celebrate with his family in a nice restaurant on the palace grounds. We even had an amazing cake and everything. With candles that we didn't have a lighter for. Thank goodness for the lovely man at the table next to us that heard our dilemma and lent us his lighter. Thank you, random British man.

Let's see, what else happened...

Oh. It rained, but it was no big deal. It wasn't even enough to whip out my umbrella.

A few of my friends and I got lost in the hedge maze, but eventually realised that the exit was actually the entrance. We were just supposed to leave the same way we came in, which is incredibly lame. It's okay, though, because we used the opportunity to take pictures of ourselves acting like Harry Potter in the maze at the Triwizard Tournament in the fourth book/movie.

Used the tube (Underground) for the first time today! It's easy-peasy once you get the hang of it. We went to the Baker Street station which is AWESOME because it has tiles on the walls of Sherlock Holmes' profile. With the pipe and hat, of course. There is also a great statue of him just outside of the entrance that I need to go back and take a picture of.

Our first class (Shakespeare and Others in London Theatre) is tomorrow, so I should probably go to bed now. Yikes. I wasn't planning on writing this much tonight. Oh well.

Nighty night.

Fail.

I made a video tour of my flat but am having difficulties in uploading it. I believe my silly internet is at fault. I will try to post it asap, I promise.

A brief update on my doings:

We went on a very tourist-y bus tour of London today. Our guide Mike was by far my favorite Londoner I've met so far. He was hilarious and informative and just all around awesome.

Tomorrow is our excursion to Hampton Court Palace, the main residence of King Henry VIII. I am very much looking forward to it, but not so much the rain that has been predicted. I suppose I will have to get used to it. This is London, after all.

Arrived safe and sound!

I have to write this quickly before my WiFi flakes out. The WiFi in my flat is having difficulties but I'm told is in the process of being fixed. Hallelujah. I'm currently stealing my internet from the boys in the flat above us. I'm sure this is all very fascinating.

We departed and arrived on time with no difficulties whatsoever. No turbulence, no crying babies, and only a few grumpy old folks glaring at us. Well, we are a bunch of semi-obnoxious American college students. We can't help ourselves.

Made it through customs and everything just fine and got our baggage right away with no wait or difficulties. We had a nice private double decker bus ride to our accommodations here in Weymouth Street. Hampden House is incredible, and my flat in particular is super duper lucky because our flat (flat 20) was the only flat recently renovated. According to our lovely property manager Mark, it was only finished last night. It is absolutely fabulous, despite still smelling of paint. It could be worse. I am planning on posting a video tour of my flat as soon as possible. Or as soon as we get our own WiFi.

I'm currently sitting on the window seat that my roomie Colleen and I made (by putting a pillow on the ledge by our window) which happens to be the only place I can get good WiFi. Good being only two bars out of five. I'm watching the scooters and cute little taxis go by from our open window on the second/third-ish floor. We just got back a few minutes ago from Sainsbury's, the wonderful grocery store right around the corner. My flatmate Chase is making us pasta for dinner. I hear Friends on in the other room. I want to go watch it. Yes, I think I shall.

I haven't taken a shower since I've been in London, so I feel completely nasty, and I think I probably got a maximum of one and a half hours of sleep on the plane, so I'm completely exhausted.

But I am content.

Leaving the USA!

Getting ready to leave for the airport. Let's hope my suitcase isn't too heavy and my carry-on isn't too fat. Fingers crossed.

Next time I'll be posting from across the pond!

Toodle pip.