Friday, January 25, 2013

Catching Up

It's been over a week since my last post and so much has happened; I'm not sure where to begin (or if I can remember everything in details) but I will start off with last weekend when we went to a play Friday night called The 39 Steps, based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie.

The plot itself is really complicated but it's a mix of mystery and comedy where a guy must find out what the 39 steps are and clear his name of murder. The cast consisted of only four actors who played over 100 characters (which is really impressive) and it was really funny, even though the corniness of some parts made me uncomfortable. Anyway, afterwards my group decided to find some place to go for a drink and found a guy handing out vouchers for half priced drinks at a nearby bar. We thought, why not? The place had a bar on the first floor that was pretty chill and then a set stairs leading to a large but cramped room that was filled with fully fledged adults that were sloppy drunk, a DJ playing decent music, and some pretty tasty drinks. The key moment of the night that you need to know about though, was when Brandon jumped into a nearby group that was dancing off to the side and I followed right behind. It was an impulse of the moment kind of thing but I regret nothing!

The next day we had a trip to Bath. The day was supposed to consist of a trip to Stonehenge and then onto the town of Bath. Unfortunately we had two days of consistent snow fall, so Stonehenge was cancelled due to road conditions but Bath was still on. I will admit I was pretty disappointed because it would have been cool to have a picture in front of the infamous groups of rocks and rub it in peoples faces. Still, Bath was a very pretty town but it almost felt like I wasn't in England; it had more of a continental Europe vibe. However that was probably because of the Roman Baths we visited. Hence, my next point of interest.

To start off, the legend of the Roman Baths is pretty cool (a lot cooler than how it was actually found). It was believed that those who bathed in the hot spring were cured of whatever illness they had. Although I can't remember the King who was in power at the time of the legend but his son, Bladud, had lepresy and was forced into exile with pigs that also suffered from the disease. The pigs ended up wallowing in the mud where the spring was and he saw that they were cured. Therefore he decided to do the same and soon he was cured as well and returned to claim his throne. Like I said, pretty cool right?

Now let me say one thing first before I continue: the Roman Baths only had one big bath that is full of water so I think the plural is unneccesary but that's not the point. It also had some really interesting artifacts including this giant Celtic head of a Gorgon and the Head of Minerva, who was the God for which the temple was dedicated to (for those of you who do not know your Roman gods, her Greek name is Athena). Our tour was also one that we kind of had to do on our own because so many people were visiting. So they have these audio cassettes that look and act like one way phones. Signs in each exhibit had a number that you press into the contraption and you were told the history of whatever you were seeing or interesting tidbits.

After we left the Roman Baths, we were given free reign to look around the town until we had to meet back up with the bus. The gist of what my friends and I did was we got pizza at a pretty good Italian place and I had gelato for the first time at the next door ice cream parlor. I know it's crazy to get gelato when there is snow on the ground and you're freezing but it was so good and so worth it.

We got back later on and we were all so tired. All I wanted to do was go to sleep. However, Brandon told us that we were invited to go out with a few people he knew from his sports class. As tired as I was, I'm pretty sure if I didn't go, I never would have heard the end of it from my mother, my sister, or anyone else I know. So I went and the girls were from Marist College (not too far from my hometown in New York). They were all really nice and we had a great time but I swear the craziest part was finding out one of the girls in the group was dating a guy I knew in high school. Still it was an awesome night (although I feel so bad for one of the girls who lost her camera and gloves) and hopefully we get the chance to repeat it, but minus the whole pick pocket situation.

On Monday I had a tour of the Houses of Parliment, which was fantastic! It was absolutely gorgeous, even if the main foyer was completely freezing. We got to see the House of Commons and the House of Lords and we even got to see the path the Queen goes on when she comes to Parliament. Also there is a copy of the Magna Carta in the first hallway you walk through and I stood there for two seconds with my jaw dropped. The architecture was amazing because of all the mosaics, the gothic and classic themes, and painting of famous monarchs or events on the walls. You couldn't take pictures on the tour unfortunately (but my camera was dead anyway so I didn't really have to worry about that so much).

The last thing I will say about my week was I joined the running club at Imperial College. It's hard to motivate yourself when your teammates and coach are over 1000 miles away from you so I figure this would be easier for me to do especially since the club does a lot of workouts and even long runs on Sundays, which I'm supposed to be doing anyway.

I couldn't make Monday due to class and Tuesday was cancelled due to weather. However I went to the run they have in Hyde Park and that was definitely a change for me. It was honestly a legit run. When I think of a run, I think of an easy run, conversational pace and whatnot. That was not the case here. I might as well have been doing a tempo run, they were freaking fast! One of the girls explained that a lot of them are training for the London Marathon or other races and therefore have a different regiment than me, who just needs to stay in shape to make sure I don't die when cross country season rolls around. I haven't met that many people yet but the club captain, Sophie, is super nice and has helped me a lot. Today we had intervals and it was just me and her but we didn't mind and she was cheering me on which was nice (it also made me miss my Mama Cash, the loudest cheerleader I know). Also believe it or not, I actually enjoyed the work out. That hardly ever happens for me but I felt really good afterwards and was so glad I turned up.

I'm going to try and make it to the long run on Sunday but it depends on how much homework I can get done, not to mention the pile of laundry that is collecting in the corner of my room. Hopefully I will have the chance to meet more people on the team and who knows, I may get faster through this experience and will end up making the Guilford guys have to chase after me.

I wish I could put up pictures I took from my Bath trip but like I said, my camera died and for some unknown reason the ones I took on my iPhone will not upload here. So if you would like to see pictures they are up on Facebook plus a few from my day at the Natural History Museum. However I have bought batteries and my camera now lives once again so I'll try to use that as much as possible. A few things to look forward to in the next post are my trip to BBC Studios on Tuesday and my first football match on Wednesday. As for right now, I hope this has assuaged you on how I've been doing. As much as I would like to be back in the States with everyone I love and the brands of food products that I miss, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world.

Cheers!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Adventures and Cooking and Laundry...Oh My!

I decided to be completely and totally honest in this blog about what has been going on since I've been here for close to three weeks. A lot of it is just ridiculousness while the rest is relatively cool. I mostly didn't want to post it because I didn't want my mum (and now that I think about it, my dad too) to worry about me because I'm surviving.

There have been numerous complaints about the program so far from the people I've traveled with and I agree with them most of the time. However, I decided to adopt a more optimistic view about the troubles I encounter because I knew there would be numerous ones. So my philosophy is you take the good with the bad. While our accomodations might not be what we thought they would be and money is a big issue here when we go out, I'm in one of the greatest cities in the world and I'm going to make the most of it.

So I will start off with how we feed ourselves around here. Cooking! I was told last summer by my Grandmother to start learning how to cook and of course my mother agreed with her. By then I knew how to make scrambled eggs and grilled cheese (which I made out of a wok instead of a pan but that is a different story). In school I didn't have to worry much about meals because I had the dining hall and the grill to fall back on, not to mention you don't have much in the way of appliances in dormitories. However, here we are given a stipend of 100 pounds and, believe it or not, it does go a long way. The second week into the semester, my roommate and I decided to buy groceries together and cook together that way it would be easier to spend money. So far we've cooked pasta (by yours truly) plus one failure of garlic bread (again by yours truly), and London style enchiladas (courtesy of Leticia)


Leticia cooking her first meal!
 
Due to being on a budget, it's hard to get everything we need to be healthy but we are doing pretty well. We have vegetables, pasta, water, cereal, milk, and a couple of snacks. However we are running low on supplies so, thankfully, we get our stipends tomorrow (they are handed out every two weeks) and we are heading for some shops that have cheap deals tomorrow, so fingers crossed at finding some goodies!

Another big issue here is: laundry! Unlike Guilford who charges us $30 for free laundry, we have to actually use coins here. Since I've lived in an apartment building for most of my life, I was used to coin operated washing machines and dryers. The difference though is my washer at home is $1.25 to wash and about the same to dry depending on how long you need the dryer to go. Here it's twice that much. The machines in Metrogate where I live, are around four pounds to wash and a pound fifty to dry. Not too bad, but it's hard to make sure you have enough change for the machines and the coins here are a whole different story which I will get to another time. The gist though, is everything below five pounds is dealt out in coins. It's a bit ridiculous and I've heard people have a bad experience with the laundry service here. Therefore it took two weeks for me to finally do my laundry but I instead went to a local place that had really good reviews and the people there were very sweet.

It was four pounds to wash and two pounds to dry which seems pointless compared to what I just mentioned about Metrogate. The catch is they give you coins if you have none, they provide soap if you need it, and they even offer to do your wash for you! I only had to pay eight pounds for two washers and got two pounds back in change to pay for the dryer. Furthermore students get a 10 percent discount so, score! It's nice to have clean clothes and I know where I'll be doing my laundry for the rest of my trip. Not to mention it is pretty cool to get to interact with a few locals so it's a win-win scenario in my eyes. Also I hope I didn't just give my mum a heart attack with this story (sorry!).

Finally I will tell you about what else has been going on aside from my small domestic life at Metrogate. I went back to Camden and had some delicious Chinese food for three pounds and even saw a live beatboxer in front of the tube station (I took a video and it should be up within the next day or two). Also I decided that is where I'm going souvenir shopping for people when my program comes to end.

I mentioned in the last post that I've seen all the tourist attractions but this past weekend I finally got the chance to get up close and personal with a few of them such as Big Ben, which greeted me and my friends when we exited Westminster tube station. By the way, Big Ben is not the clock tower, it's the bell that signals the hour. See I'm learning things!

 

Big Ben is connected to the Houses of Parliament and Parliament is very close to Westminster Abbey, the church where Will and Cate were married. Of course, that had to be my next stop for the day. Just a side note, they hold mass there and three of my Guilford companions attended the service last Sunday. I wanted to go but I couldn't get up early enough for it. C'est la vie.
 
 
 
 
It was a very cold day that day and we walked around Trafalgar Square which was a bit of a trek from Westminster and since we had gotten there around 2:30 in the afternoon, we had an hour and a half of daylight, or at least overcast, before it got dark. Still it didn't stop us from heading over to charming Buckingham Palace.
 
It was bloody freezing by then!
 
Unfortunately we were very late and didn't get to see the changing of the guard, but perhaps on a (hopefully) warmer day we get the chance because that just seems too freaking awesome to miss. For dinner we stopped at a pretty good pub near Covant Garden which is right off of Trafalgar and it was so warm! It was nice to defrost after being cold for nearly two hours.
 
One more thing I have done so far, and pictures will go up on Facebook soon for it, was my Shakespeare class took an excursion to see the Globe Theater. Seriously, I was geeking out when I saw it but I kept it all to myself because Brits tend to be reserved with everything and I would have just felt silly for doing a happy dance (even though I really wanted to). The Globe is on the River Thames, though it wasn't orginially, and you get a good view of the Millenium Bridge to the left which was lit up with blue lights and filled with runners and walkers. You also had St. Paul's Cathedral lit up across the way which was absolutely gorgeous.
 
I will conclude here for now but I will tell you what I have coming up. This weekend I get to go to Stonehenge and Bath (unfortunately it's forecasted to snow but oh well), as well as a play called The 39 Steps the night before, and a tour of Parliament on Monday where you can actually sit in on a meeting (definitely taking advantage of that!). So keep looking out for more pictures, news, and shenanigans that are sure to pop up.
 
Cheers!



Thursday, January 10, 2013

'Ello!

So I promised family members and a few friends that I would blog about my adventures while I spend my spring semester in London and here it is!

I've been here for over a week now and it has been an adventure in itself. First off, I nearly missed my connection flight to London from Montreal due to an hour plane delay and was yelled at by a woman at the ticket counter because I started crying (and didn't even realize it). Everyone else was super nice and I did end up making the flight. However this meant my luggage didn't and I had to wait until the next evening for Air Canada to deliver my bag. It was not the best experience to have when you are on your first international trip but, c'est la vie.

It definitely hasn't been what I have expected so far. The place I'm living in isn't as nice as it looked in the pictures (however I think that is the deal with most places) but I have an awesome roommate who I get along with and the neighborhood is amazing! We are only a block away from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, and there are numerous trails to explore when I run (and yes I am running because I am not coming back out of shape and facing the wrath of the Cashes). Furthermore, I have been to a couple of pubs. The food is actually pretty good and the pints are delicious as well. I'm not the biggest drinker around but the fact that it's more of a social thing, I'm more comfortable drinking around people. Pubs around here are decently cheap but most of us mainly go to the student bar at Imperial College. Drinks there range from a pound to two pound fifty. The campus is right across the street and the school is the eighth ranked college in the world and has a partnership with the program I am on. I've met a few interesting people over there already so we'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

Classes have already started this week and mine are only Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednedays. It sounds nice (and it is) but the classes are three hours long and I have back-to-back classes on Tuesday. I don't think I will ever complain about an hour and fifteen minute classes ever again when I'm back at Guilford. Also when my internship starts in March, I kind of lose my Thrusday and Friday free days since we have the internship Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so I have to make the most of out it while I still can.

As for places to explore, I've been on tours where I've seen the main tourist attractions, like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, etc. but I did get the chance on my third day here to get out and go see Abbey Road, which I crossed and have photographic evidence of on Facebook. Another place that is great to go is Camden Markets. Everything there is super cheap and has a wide variety of foods such as Moraccan, Indian, Chinese, etc. I am psyched to go back there. Whenever we go out to far away places such as the ones I mentioned we take the Tube, which is so much better than the subway in New York. I freaking love it and would use it all the time if I lived here. Walking around that neighborhood, or in any non Kensington neighborhood, astonishes me how amazing this experience is already and how much more amazing it will be once the weeks start to roll on.

This is what has happened so far and I will try to update this at least once a week with a couple of pictures and a long post about what I have done so far.

Cheers!