Calm Down Joey!

April 3^rd started pretty normal GST class and then Theater. After our little lunch outside, four of us headed to Aldgate East to do an audio guided walking tour for our Art in London class. This was actually really cool! In 1999, an artist recorded herself walking through the streets of Spittalfield, in the East End. She recorded all of the noises that she heard as well as dialogue and narration of a murder mystery. All of this was put together as well as her giving us directions as to where to walk. 50 minutes later, we had followed these guided directions all around the streets while hearing about a murder mystery while we were getting confused as to what sounds were live and what were recorded. It sounds a bit strange, but it was actually a really cool experience!

The rest of the evening was just spent in Café Nerro trying to get work done with the benefits of unlimited internet. 

April 4^th started with a rough workout circuit led by Katie Gonino. Then my art class went to the Saatchi Gallery. Saatchi is a well known curator and collector of contemporary artwork, so we went to his Gallery which currently has a New German art exhibition. It was cool to study the art this way, and it’s all in preparation for our “fantasy exhibition,” aka our final exam.

The Johnsons arrived the night before so after the Gallery, Katie J, her parents, & I all went to Chinatown for dinner! Then we went and saw BILLY ELLIOT!! This musical was absolutely phenomenal!! Seriously incredible!! The talent of this 12 year old dancing boy honestly brought me to tears more than once. It’s an incredible plot even without all of the remarkable dancing! Probably one of the best musicals I have ever seen!!

Thursday, April 5^th, was our weekly GST Tour. This week’s tour was entitled “London 2012.” It started in Hackney Wick, the town around the Olympics, and ended with us looking at the Olympic Park! So that’s pretty cool! They still have some aesthetic work to be done, but as a whole the facilities are basically up! It’s going to be really cool to see it on TV in a couple of months and know that I’ve been there.

Thursday night my Theater class went and saw WAR HORSE. I was a bit skeptical of seeing this on stage because it’s a puppet horse. Any worries I had were quickly erased because it was so well done! Even the mechanics of the powerful horse were so realistic you could imagine really watching a live horse! This week was a great week for theater!!

April 6^th, Friday, was pretty low key. The day started off with a workout outside because it was nice out! We went to a little park by the canals that give Little Venice its name. After that, Neenz and I went to the grocery store to do some shopping for our Easter brunch! The rest of the day was a chill day, but Neenz, Michael, Connor & I all went to go see “This Means War” at a cheaper movie theater. So that was funny. Amusing movie (though I’m not so sure how I feel about the ending). Anyways…

Today, April 7^th…one month left of the program! I cannot believe the time is flying by that quickly!

Today we went to the annual Oxford v. Cambridge boat race! These are crew teams from the two universities, and it’s a pretty big deal. We took the bus all the way down to Putney Bridge to watch the start of the race! After that, Bishops Gate park right next door had a screen up to watch the rest of the race! However…all of a sudden there is a random person in the water! Seriously, in between the front of both of the boats a person is in the water!! So the race had to stop! They had to stop to get this random person out, and then they had to reset. The race was so close!! But it took them at least 45 minutes to reset. And it was so cold out. So we ended up bailing early. As we were walking out though they restarted the race, oars collided, and Oxford lost a blade. So Cambridge ended up winning the race…bummer (not that we really cared, but we were cheering for Oxford!).

Since we were cold we stopped by Ben’s Cookies on the way home for delicious cookies and hot chocolate to warm up :)

The rest of today has been spent doing homework, uploading pictures, cleaning, blogging…just the usual.

Happy Triduum! This is a different triduum then I’ve ever had before, but at least it helps me think about what it is really all about!

April Showers bring May Flowers

April 1:

Palm Sunday Mass was a bit…interesting…The actual Mass was nice, but the Priest had the congregation start outside for the blessing of the palms. This was after everyone was already waiting in the pews so moving outside, listening, and then moving back inside was a bit…chaotic honestly. Still a nice Mass though.

After that Sunday was basically a buckle down and work day. I spent a few hours in Café Nerro with unlimited internet to work on some homework. That’s about it.

April 2:

Because our schools just finished a term, they are on a 2 week end of term/Easter break. In other words, we have 2 Mondays off from our practicum! I wanted to do more than sit around the flat today, but a lot of people still had work to do. So I had a little London adventure of my own.

I started by checking out Daunt Books. It’s kind of known I guess around here, and everyone walks around with the cotton canvas bags. I wanted a bag. : ) It’s very English Teacher nerdy of me. I need to come back with my camera because it’s so cool! The front seems pretty normal, but when you walk to the back there’s the floor you’re on, the basement, and the gallery above. I need to take pictures! This back section is organized by countries and is so quiet. I could have spent so much time in there, but I made myself buy what I came for and leave. 

Daunt Books

After that I walked from Marylebone High Street to Oxford Street. Oxford Street is THE shopping street. There are lots of places to shop, but this is the long street that is always crowded with pedestrians no matter what day or what time. Because it was nice out I just decided to walk along the street, so I ended up walking the whole length of the street! Okay well I missed part of it because of where I started, but then I walked part of it twice, so for all intents and purposes, I walked the whole street.

To give you a feel for how long the street is….There are at least 4 full H&Ms, at least 8-maybe more- McDonald’s… Basically all of the chains along that street are repeated 3 or 4 times, maybe even more, plus of course huge department stores and local chain shopping stores.

The End of March!

So my final blog in the month of March…I don’t know where this time is going, but we only have about 5 weeks left in the program. I’m so glad my parents (and Liz) are coming at the end, so I get to extend my time here in London.

I also can’t believe that one week ago we were getting back from Dublin, but it’s time to blog about this week back in London. It was a very British week in my opinion:

Sunday, March 25^th:

Okay Sunday wasn’t particularly British. Mass, homework, unpacking, reorganizing…that basically took up the whole day, especially since we were all reuniting and talking about our breaks. However Sunday was also the beginning of some gorgeous weather! Sunny, warm, say goodbye to the jacket (if only for a week).

Monday, March 26^th:

Okay the exciting week hasn’t started yet…I spent Monday at my school, St. Marylebone, observing English class after English class. Even though these days are very long, it’s a good experience (not to mention resume booster).

Tuesday, March 27^th:

Today began pretty low key with my GST class, but then for my theater class we went to the Imperial War Museum to study WWI in preparation for seeing War Horse next week. This museum is really impressive! It’s huge, and we were quickly worn out. After looking at trenches and propaganda for class, I spent some time in the Holocaust exhibition. The IWM has a really impressive Holocaust area that’s heart wrenching and educational all at once. I only spent 45-50 minutes in there, but it’d be easy to spend over an hour there. The IWM covers everything from the 1^st and 2^nd World War, the Cold War, Conflict since 1945, and everything else too. My favorite part of the museum was probably “The Secret War.” This exhibition was all about M16, M15 aka spy warfare. It was something really unique to look at in a museum. The rest of the day was just spent working back in the flat.

Wednesday, March 28^th:

Today was a very very British day. We had a picnic lunch, because it was almost 70 degrees!, in Green Park. This park is gorgeous, green, and near Buckingham Palace. We had lunch there before we headed to meet Lisa for our Art class. For our class today we toured West End Galleries!! This was so cool because I would never feel educated or sophisticated enough to just wander into a gallery. The 7 (or maybe 8) we went were all in Mayfair, which if you remember from an earlier blog, is a very posh area of town. So we went into these galleries to look at more art, some that we studied, some local, and start generating ideas for our “Fantasy Gallery” which is our final project. We start street art, paintings made with blow torches, glass art, and other contemporary art.

We ended our class in Selfridges (the #1 or #2 largest department stores, it’s up there with Harrods) where we ate Pinkberry! Pinkberry is a froyo place that actually originated in the states (I have yet to try Snog-the UK froyo). 

Thursday, March 29^th:

Today GST was dedicated to a museum independent visit project, so my roommates and I headed to the Science Museum. This museum is not exactly user friendly because the stairs and lifts are in weird corners and don’t access every floor. There’s also so much to see that it’s a bit overwhelming to a non-science person like myself. But I spent a good amount of time studying the story of steam, for my GST assignment.

After the museum, we stopped by the V&A (Victoria & Albert) museum that apparently has some really great stuff in it (sorry Mom, I say stuff because I’m not sure what exactly there is, I know there’s a lot of artwork, but that may not be it). However, it was a bit too overwhelming to do right after another museum, so we’ll come back to it.

Then on the way home we stopped by High Street Kensington, that’s known for its shopping. I didn’t buy anything, but I’ve now been in a T.K. Maxx! And yes that’s exactly what it sounds like-T.J. Maxx, but the UK version. I’m not sure what the K, or the J, stands for though…

Friday, March 30^th:

Today the weather was gorgeous!! So I spent a sold 3 ½ hours with a few other girls out in Hyde Park! We brought our lunch, picnicked, and then just basked in the sun! I wasn’t wearing a jacket, tights, or boots! Crazy right? Sadly, Friday was the last of the warm weather. We took advantage of it though and got in our Vitamin D. Hyde Park is huge!! Lots of green space and really gorgeous flowers too! Friday night we just spent in the flat, watching TV, since the sun took it out of us :)

 Saturday, March 31^st:

Despite the 50 degree weather, a few of us girls went out to watch Tim and his rugby team. Sadly, they lost, however we still made it a fun outing. We cheered for the Serpents and just got to spend time watching Rugby outside. After the game, Tim and his friend Ollie convinced us to stop by the pub if only briefly to hang out with the team. So eventually we gave in. How often do you get to hang out with a rugby team in a pub in London? Not very often, so that was another very British day. The rest of this four day weekend however is going to have to be productive on school work…things are beginning to pick up!

Sláinte!

SPRING BREAK PART 2: Dublin, Ireland

Bright and early on March 21^st, KJ, Connor, & I flew to DUBLIN!! After we found our apartments, we got lunch, and basically just crashed after an early morning. However our 1 touristy thing of the day was the Jameson Whiskey Distillery. Now I have never had straight whiskey before (I had only had whiskey at all when I tried a mixed drink of in Scotland), but this was fascinating! I learned more about whiskey then I ever knew! Tried a few sips of Connor’s straight and then enjoyed my Jameson Ginger ale drink. It’s surprising I’m old enough for this…  

March 22^nd:

Dublin clearly likes to showcase its alcohol, because today we did the Guinness Storehouse tour! Once again, I had never had Guinness before, but I was really impressed by everything I learned here too. Now I won’t be as ignorant back in the states. After touring the whole building, we enjoyed our free pint up in the Galaxy Bar with a 360 degree aerial view of Dublin. Very cool and very Irish. 

Afterwards we ate at Arthur’s pub where we made friends with 2 other American students. They are studying abroad in Rome and were also on “holiday.” It’s really fun to travel places, make friends in a restaurant or pub, and then go your own ways after just nice friendly conversations! I think I’m going to miss that atmosphere back home and definitely back in the “Elon bubble.”

That night we went to Whelan’s which is known for their up and coming artists, and we got to sit and listen to a country/rock musician. That was a pretty American feel for being in Ireland.

March 23^rd:

Today it was gorgeous out, and we managed to walk around Dublin even more.

First stop: Trinity College- This uni is fenced off but placed right in the city. When you’re behind the walls though it feels like you’re in a whole different world, not in the middle of a big city! 

We also went into the Old Library and saw the Book of Kells! Not only was the book cool to see, but the display did an excellent job of explaining it all.

After that we walked around Grafton Street, Dublin’s shopping street, and just took in the tourist, shopping, populated atmosphere. I really enjoyed just being out and about in Ireland! For some reason, I find it hardest to grasp that I was in Ireland! Scotland, I accepted, Paris, I accepted, but Ireland just blows my mind…Strange, I know.

In Dublin my mission was to buy myself a new cross, and that I did. It’s not overly Celtic because I want to wear it every day, but it’s still very pretty in my mind.

After shopping, we walked through St. Stephen’s Greens Park which is a gorgeous park with green grass and flowers. It finally looked, and smelt, like spring! Especially with the sun out…We saw newlyweds too! They lucked out with the weather, that's for sure.

That’s basically everything for Dublin! We spent quite a few hours on March 24^th in the airport so that we didn’t have to deal with making the right bus, not cutting it close, etc etc. So we just got to the airport early and killed time there.

Cool Dublin tidbits:

-horses (like for carriage rides) everywhere

-travelers (or gypsies) have these cool 1 person carriage horses

-lots of advertisements for First Communion suits

-Guinness advertisements everywhere…

-colorful doors & cool bridges! 

Now I’m back “home” in London and getting back in the swing of things! Some people already have count downs to the end of the program; I have a feeling this second half is going to fly by!